2026-08-13 22:16:39
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CHAPTER 53
Holy shit.I swallowed hard.Bettis climbed out of the sarcophagus and walked toward the far-left corner of the room, leaving dusty footprints behind her. She pressed a hidden panel.A moment later, a secret cabinet opened in the wall. Inside were various items buried beneath decades of dust.Bettis pulled out a pair of briefs and put them on. Then she wrapped a long strip of gray fabric around the area where her breasts should have been. After that came leather trousers and a jacket. The outfit might have passed for biker gear if not for the distinctly medieval design.Too many straps. Too much elaborate stitching. Patterns that had absolutely nothing to do with motorcycles. And, naturally, no zippers.She finished the outfit by tying a leather bandana around her bald head and fastening it with a strap behind her neck. Until then, the only people I'd encountered in the Grey Lands were the dead—either naked or dressed in medieval cloth
CHAPTER 52
The Grey Lands, The Estate, June 3, 2021As usual, I failed to finish the mysterious contraption on schedule. There were several reasons for that.First, working with graphite wasn't nearly as easy as it sounded.Second, I was being cautious.The first problem resulted in a considerable amount of wasted material, which increased my theoretical debt to the Guardian.The second made that debt even worse.Instead of building the box with the two layers of graphite I'd originally planned, I ended up using five. Better safe than sorry.Now the finished box sat in the Estate's backyard. And Vopros and I were standing there, staring at it. Neither of us seemed particularly eager to start the experiment.“Worst-case scenario, we simply transfer some of the necromantic energy from my pendant into this artifact,” I said, mostly thinking aloud. “There'll be losses, obviously, but it should
CHAPTER 51
The Grey Lands, The Estate, June 1, 2021Vopros and I were sitting in the Master's workshop.I was busy building a device that might—if everything went according to plan—be capable of condensing necro-energy with impressive efficiency.Vopros, meanwhile, was doing what Vopros did best.Complaining.“...I still don't understand it,” he grumbled. “We're wasting our time building useless contraptions that nobody needs when we could've simply broken into the Master's vault and made a fortune.”“Please be quiet,” I said without looking up. “You're distracting me.”The cat immediately fell silent. That was one of the advantages of having a written agreement with him. We had officially entered into what the system called the Dushny-Vopros Pact.Yes, that was its actual name in our list of active agreements. While taking a break from the painstaking work, I opened the pact and read through it again.The Dushny-Vopros PactArticle 1. The High Contracting Parties undertake to inform each other
CHAPTER 50
That got me thinking.I began to suspect that the endless shitstorm that had been my life back home might have had something to do with that jet-black pendant. If I hadn’t been so sentimental about it… If I’d simply thrown the damned thing away…Maybe things would have turned out differently.Maybe someone from a decent family would have adopted me from the orphanage. Maybe I would have gone to another school. Maybe that school wouldn’t have put me on the path that eventually led me here.Who knew?Anything could have happened. That was the cruel irony of fate.You could never know how your life might have turned out if even one little event had gone differently. Then again, my life hadn’t actually been that terrible.Sure, I’d started out at rock bottom. But I’d realized that pretty damn quickly, and once I understood where I stood, I was at least prepared for fate to throw i
CHAPTER 49
Vopros was already there, calmly eating fish with the serene indifference of someone who had absolutely no reason to care about my suffering.He glanced at me.“Oh. So you didn't croak.”I didn't bother answering.I shuffled toward the serving hatch. On my second attempt, I managed to get upright. I grabbed the tray and, using every ounce of strength I had left, dragged it over to the nearest table.This time, the meat had at least been thoughtfully cut into bite-sized pieces. There was barely any wine, but I got two full glasses of water.“The water contains a solution of easily absorbed iron,” the mouth that had appeared on the tabletop announced. “And… thank you, Anatoly. You saved me.”“Yeah.” I nodded.I wasn’t particularly hungry, but in a situation like this, what I wanted and what I needed were two completely different things.Give me the meat. Give me the damn meat.I ate and drank until I couldn’t manage another bite. Unfortunately, I didn’t experience the miraculous surge
CHAPTER 48
I finished eating and drank roughly a liter and a half of water from the carafe. Fluids were important. The more I could drink, the easier I'd make things for my battered body.Once I was done in the mess hall, I headed back toward the main hall.And the vending machine.I shuffled along, conserving energy with every step, then opened the medical section of the inventory. There had to be a large first-aid kit in here somewhere.I scrolled.There! Found one.The kit was a canvas-like bag with a shoulder strap similar to the one on my backpack. Judging by its size, it should contain everything necessary for emergency medical treatment.The moment I confirmed the purchase, the first-aid kit dropped into the dispensing slot with a clatter of glass and metal. I grabbed it and dragged it out into the light.I should have thought of this sooner. Unfortunately, losing that much blood had done a number on my mental faculties. In fact, the system had helpfully documented the problem for me.My
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