“So, Pherdy…” Grim said while sliding up to Pherdanta who had a stern, no-nonsense look to her as she stared straight ahead.

“Don’t call me that,” the female Unlimited declared tartly while twitching uncomfortably.

Grim’s face brightened. She finally came to full view.

“Come on. You’re always harsh when I try to make small talk or make us bond. We’re both Unlimited. The elite among the elite. Let’s share some moments,” Grim grinned and boldly tried to sling his arm around Pherdanta.

That, as expected, did not bear sweet fruit.

A quick blow landed on his face before he could register its approach, and he waddled back a step while holding his nose.

With a silent wince, Grim shook his head and pretended to be fine, flashing a smile at Pherdanta despite the blood leaking down his incisors.

Given that Pherdanta’s figure always seemed to disappear if she didn’t do or say something – or more aptly react to anything in general – Grim had had to guess exactly where she was. What had been a more or less obvious spot before had become obscure when the ship expanded, and the Unlimited had silently asked for Replicus’ help in determining where Pherdanta was.

After that was done, making her show herself wasn’t too difficult for someone like Grim, whose tongue was both sweet and incredibly sour when needed.

“Nice jab,” he said to Pherdanta who glared at him with a dark scowl, her pointed nose making sure to give the same accusing aura it always had.

“I get it. You’re no Yuyui. You’re no fun. All serious. I get it. Feeling detached because you weren’t originally with us. Such a shame, hmmm. I know you have trouble connecting with the others, but if you feel wiry, you can lean on me. You can even cry on my shoulder,” Grim said while maintaining his distance.

Seeing Pherdanta’s increasingly wrinkly, much like… actually exactly like a scrotum, Grim stifled a laugh.

While always intent on showing a tough exterior, Pherdanta was actually rather soft, and quick to buckle when she wasn’t defending Replicus. She couldn’t handle jokes… or mildly infuriating insults.

Grim could have sworn he was close to getting am Aggrante in the face by the time he decided to stop teasing Pherdanta.

“I’m joking. If you kill me, the boss will just bring me back anyway. Doesn’t he always say we’re a bit more useful dead than alive?” he said, but Pherdanta’s face did not soften one bit. “Anyway. I wanted to ask. Who is that fellow on Warding Pride’s ship? According to both her and you – yes I saw how you gave that longing look to that person when we first devoured by the Territory – he must be someone important, right?”

Pherdanta’s fury mellowed.

It helped that Grim was asking this with a more serious tone, and a less hilarious face.

Before the female Unlimited could say anything, Grim added:

“I’m not trying to invade your privacy, but if you’re likely to not be as efficient as you’ve been so far when facing that person, it is our right to know. Besides, you wouldn’t us to kill him as we would an enemy, right?”

Pherdanta’s face didn’t change.

She assumed a straight, unfazed visage, but Grim could still tell that she was burning inside.

Allora, even while far off towards what would have been the forecastle, had her ears twitch, eager to hear. She too had been curious since their first encounter with Warding Pride, but because she was a new Unlimited, with Pherdanta being her senior, she hadn’t found guts enough to allow her to ask.

Baddan and Araeyn couldn’t quite care less though.

Pherdanta sighed.

Grim was right.

At least for their sake…

“I suppose I never told anyone but the boss the reason why I escaped Warding Pride, and everything surrounding that,” she said.

“I’ll be kind enough not to make a joke about that,” Grim said in response to which Pherdanta gave him a quick look of loathing.

“Warding Pride is an abusive woman. I guess all the Faction leaders have a few screws loose, but she’s just a bit…” Pherdanta said. “Anyway, I had two brothers when I joined the Severed Union some years ago – both of them older than me. We were ‘recruited’ by Warding Pride. One of my brothers was a Stray Knight, and the other was a mercenary. They had some value and apparently they had potential in her eyes. I was dragged along because they pleaded with Warding Pride that I not be left behind.”

Grim nodded. Despite the reserved details, he was still happy Pherdanta was opening up to this degree.

“We spent the next five years enduring harsh trials and exercises, all made to ‘bring us out of our comfort zone’, as Warding Pride said. My brothers had always been power hounds. The older among the two Ken, had been driven out of the Capital Service because of it, and the other, Poul, had always desired an environment where he would be able to earn strength without being expected to follow much morality.”

“So they were both at home, in a way. The younger brother more so,” Grim said.

“…Yeah,” Pherdanta said with a stiff tone. “Warding Pride’s Faction is exactly what Poul imagined. You can get what you want, whenever you want as long as you’re strong enough. Besides respecting ranks and not killing each other every other day in our camps, Warding Pride allows anything to go. She… even participates at times.”

Grim’s face turned grim.

Allora shook her head lightly.

“My brothers were promoted a little later, but I was just a slightly powerful, determined swordsman then. I could barely fend for myself against the creeps that tried to climb onto me every night, and my brothers were usually too preoccupied to help. Poul just told me to get stronger if I didn’t want to become ‘the unwilling whore’ whenever I told him what happened. Ken, on the other hand, had some sympathy, but couldn’t do much either.”

“I resolved to flee one day. I told Ken, and he decided to help me, but not before asking for Poul to cover for him. That was a big mistake. Warding Pride was very particular about the whereabouts of all her strongest combatants, and Ken needed Poul’s help with it, after all, he was going to bring me to the Severed Union on the pretense that he was bringing me along to help check on our contracts in the Bright Side.”

“Poul ratted you out?” Grim asked with a dark look.

“Yeah. It hadn’t even been a few minutes since we arrived in the Bright Side when a few of the Warding Pride’s elites surrounded us. Ken told me to escape while he held them off, and I ran as fast as I could and crossed the bridge into the Depraved Side. Moments after I was wrestling with the crowds, I felt myself getting followed. I realized then that things hadn’t ended well for Ken. Killing outside headquarters, and with good reason was passable to Warding Pride after all. I thought I was going to die too, but… I saw Master coming out of a small shop far away.”

“He was just beginning to gain the attention of the Severed Union as the new Faction leader, advertising personally that he needed members. Master’s robe at the time—”

“Made him easily recognisable. Yeah. I remember. Didn’t do much to hide the clouds and lightning.,” Grim chimed in.

“Yeah,” Pherdanta said with a straight face. “I asked for help, and he willingly gave it.”

Despite the look on Pherdanta’s face, however, she was feeling very light inside. She simplified the last part of the story, but she remembered begging the Penetrator to either save him or kill her right there.

Admittedly, while she had developed a prejudice against Faction leaders, Replicus’ behavior – going out of his way to interact with people in the Depraved Side and personally advertising that he was looking for members for his Faction – made Pherdanta feel intimidated by him.

And what she described as Replicus merely helping her was the Penetrator killing those that were after her – two men with high ranks in Warding Pride’s Faction – and taking her under his wing.

Pherdanta recalled Replicus defending himself on the matter when Eaniss demanded compensation for what Replicus had taken from her, by saying:

“Two idiots rushed me when I was in Depraved Side and defended myself and this pure soul whom they intended to kill,” he had said to Eaniss and then coolly addressed a fuming Warding Pride. “…and let’s not pretend to care for discarded goods now that they are glowing, held by someone capable of actually making them shine.”

The thought made Pherdanta smile a little.

Grim scratched his chin.

“Effective storytelling. You not only shared the habits of Warding Pride and her Faction – giving him more than enough reason to hate her – but I’m guessing you’re also making your stance clear, hmmm?”

Pherdanta nodded.

“I’ve been trying to contact Poul ever since, but he won’t reply. I wanted us to patch things up. I don’t think he intended for Ken to die. But I suppose he hates me for leaving,” she said. “Ken had a part of him changed by the Capital Service. He even played a hero to me in his last moments, something I never thought he would do. But I don’t see any redemption for Poul.”

“If you see him, you’re free to kill him. But if I engage first, let me finish what I started.”