Chapter 71: Explosion is art
Catrina turned away.
She walked up to Lathel, and the coldness in her eyes behind the mask immediately softened.
"Are you hurt?"
Lathel shook his head.
Catrina still checked him once more. Only after confirming that he was truly fine did she relax.
Lathel frowned slightly and used sign language.
When did you start following me?
Catrina understood, but she remained silent for two seconds before answering, "Since Aldric called you over."
Lathel looked at her.
"I didn’t want to stop you." Catrina spoke very naturally. "But I don’t trust him either."
He paused slightly.
She continued, "So I only watched."
It was only one simple sentence, but Lathel understood.
In the past, Catrina would have immediately dragged him back. Now, she allowed him to make his own decision, and only when Aldric truly attacked did she intervene.
Lathel remained silent for a while before giving a slight nod.
Seeing his reaction, the corners of Catrina’s eyes curved slightly behind her mask.
On the other side, Aldric had completely lost the mood to care about what the two of them were discussing because his stomach had started cramping again.
Once.
Then again.
Aldric’s expression immediately changed. He turned toward Kiyome’s female subordinate.
"Toilet."
She pointed toward the back of the plaza. "Over there."
Aldric immediately left.
At first, he still tried to maintain a normal posture, but after about five steps, his legs had already started pressing closer together. His pace quickened while his back bent slightly.
Elias watched him leave, then lowered his head and examined his own fist.
"It seems my punch really is very powerful."
Lathel: "..."
Pandora immediately said, "Don’t correct him."
Elias looked at his hand with genuine concern. "I need to be more careful in the future."
Catrina looked at him, momentarily unsure what to say.
...
Aldric practically rushed into the public toilet building at the end of the plaza.
The building was not large and had been constructed from stone, with a shared waste pit connected beneath it.
Because there were so many people here today registering for the entrance examination, people were constantly entering and leaving. But the moment they saw Aldric rushing over with a vicious expression, everyone instinctively moved aside.
He chose the stall deepest inside.
BAM!
The door slammed shut.
Kiyome’s female subordinate had followed him over, but she did not enter. She simply stood in the corridor outside and opened her notebook.
Rustle.
Aldric’s voice immediately came from inside.
"Why are you still following me?"
"Carrying out my assignment."
"I’m in the toilet!"
"I know."
"Then get lost!"
"I can’t."
Aldric clenched the edge of the seat.
The woman outside continued writing, then calmly read aloud, "After being struck by Elias Halden and suffering involuntary defecation, Aldric entered the public toilet."
Aldric: "..."
"He has now been inside for two minutes."
"SHUT UP!"
She immediately stopped speaking.
Rustle.
But the pen continued moving.
Aldric could hear it.
"I told you to shut up, not keep writing!"
"You only told me to shut up."
"..."
Aldric felt as though he was truly about to go insane.
From yesterday until now, he had not experienced a single smooth moment. He had been stomped by a Dire Beast, tormented all night by Resentful Energy, fallen into a waste pit, swallowed something he absolutely should not have swallowed, and now he had been punched by two people right in front of Lathel before having to run into a toilet because he could no longer control his stomach.
Most importantly, that damned woman outside was still recording every single detail to take back to Kiyome.
The mana around Aldric’s body began to fluctuate.
The female subordinate immediately sensed it and raised her head toward the door.
"Aldric?"
"Give me the notebook."
"No."
"I’ll burn it."
"My Lady will not be pleased."
"I don’t care!"
A small fireball began to form in his left hand.
Aldric did not need to kill her. He only needed to destroy the door and burn the notebook. At least then, he could preserve the last bit of dignity he had left.
The female subordinate looked at the red glow shining through the gap beneath the door and frowned.
"You intend to use Fire Magic?"
"Why are you even asking?"
"In here?"
"Yes."
The woman remained silent for a moment and lightly sniffed the air.
The stench inside was stronger than usual. The waste pit below seemed to have gone a long time without being cleaned, and one of the ventilation passages had accidentally been blocked by garbage, causing the amount of gas accumulated underneath to be higher than normal.
She did not know exactly how much there was, but her instincts still told her something was wrong.
"Aldric."
"What?"
"I don’t think you should light a fire in here."
Aldric sneered. "Now you’re afraid?"
"No." She looked down at the floor. "I only feel that it might be somewhat dangerous."
"Then give me the notebook."
"I can’t."
"You..."
Aldric gritted his teeth.
"Fireball!"
Puff!
The flame appeared.
At that exact moment, a stream of gas rose from a crack beneath the seat, causing the edge of the red flame to immediately turn blue.
Aldric froze.
"...Hm?"
A thin line of fire crawled down into the crack.
Puff.
The female subordinate’s eyes widened.
She did not wait another second and immediately turned around and ran.
Inside, Aldric lowered his head to look, and his face instantly turned deathly pale as an extremely basic piece of knowledge finally surfaced in his mind.
Methane.
"Huh?"
The flame disappeared below.
Aldric opened his mouth.
"Wait..."
BOOM!!!!!!!!!!
The entire building shook.
The stone roof was blasted upward, the wooden door flew straight outside, and a pillar of fire mixed with waste erupted into the air.
Screams immediately filled the plaza.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!"
"AN EXPLOSION!"
"THE TOILET EXPLODED!"
Kiyome’s female subordinate had only made it a little more than ten meters away before she immediately threw herself to the ground.
A piece of the charred door flew over her head, followed by a large amount of waste raining down behind her. She had to roll sideways twice before barely avoiding it.
In the distance, Lathel, Catrina, and Elias all turned their heads at the same time.
Elias looked at the pillar of smoke, then at his own hand.
"Don’t tell me..."
He turned toward Lathel.
"...that was him?"
Lathel did not answer.
Pandora had already started laughing.
Catrina remained silent for several seconds before rubbing her forehead.
She suddenly felt that her decision not to hit Aldric again had been extremely correct.
It seemed this man was perfectly capable of putting himself in bed for several days without anyone’s help.
...
The black smoke gradually dispersed.
A figure slowly stood up from the ruins.
Aldric was still alive, but his current condition made it difficult to tell whether that was something worth congratulating.
His hair was curled from the heat, one eyebrow was almost completely gone, his face was black like charcoal, his clothes were torn apart, and from his shoulders to his feet, his entire body was covered in a layer of brown-black waste that had been blasted upward by the explosion.
Smoke was still rising from his head.
Aldric stepped out.
Drip.
A drop of liquid fell from his hair.
Kiyome’s female subordinate had already gotten back to her feet.
She looked at him.
Aldric looked back.
The two remained silent for several seconds.
Then the woman slowly took out her notebook.
Aldric immediately raised one hand.
"No."
She stopped.
"Don’t."
The female subordinate thought for a moment.
Then she still lowered her head and began writing.
Aldric closed his eyes. "What did you just write?"
"After Aldric used Fireball inside the toilet, the gas accumulated in the waste pit exploded."
"..."
"You were fortunate enough to survive."
Aldric opened his eyes.
At least that part was acceptable.
The woman continued, "However, your entire body was scorched black and covered in waste."
"Enough."
She stopped reading, but still wrote down a few more words.
Aldric stared at her for a long time.
"Give me the notebook."
"No."
"I really will kill you."
"My Lady Kiyome will not allow it."
"I DON’T CARE ABOUT KIYOME!"
The female subordinate tilted her head slightly before putting the notebook away.
Aldric finally exhaled.
But immediately afterward, she took a transparent crystal from her pocket.
Aldric froze.
"What are you doing?"
"Recording an image."
"Put that away."
The woman infused mana into the crystal.
It immediately lit up.
Aldric’s eyes widened.
"DON’T..."
Click.
The image was recorded with perfect clarity.
Aldric stood in the middle of the destroyed toilet, his entire body scorched black, waste covering him from head to toe, one eyebrow almost completely gone, while his expression was utterly lifeless.
The female subordinate looked at the Recording Crystal and nodded.
Aldric began trembling.
"...Why?"
"Evidence."
"You already have the notebook!"
"Some conditions are difficult to describe accurately with words."
She looked at Aldric.
"For example, this."
Aldric: "..."
The woman carefully put away the Recording Crystal.
"My Lady will need to see it."
Aldric felt pain in his chest again, but even he did not know whether it came from Catrina’s punch, Elias’s punch, the explosion, or simply from being too angry.
In the distance, Elias was still staring at the scene before him.
He slowly raised his fist and called,
"Lathel."
Lathel turned toward him.
Elias said seriously, "I think there really is something wrong with my fist."
Lathel: "..."
"I only hit him once." Elias pointed toward the ruins. "Then he shit himself."
He pointed at the pillar of smoke.
"And then the toilet exploded."
Elias remained silent for several seconds, his expression becoming genuinely worried.
"Maybe I shouldn’t hit people anymore?"
Pandora immediately shouted inside Lathel’s soul:
"Don’t tell him!"
Lathel covered his face with one hand.
Catrina, standing beside him, looked at Elias, then at Aldric, who was still smoking in the distance, before finally saying calmly,
"I think..."
Elias immediately looked at her.
"...you can give your fist a rest for today."
He nodded vigorously.
"I think so too."