"Phew…finally, I can take a breath for a moment…" Rhulk sighed as he closed a door after he left Savathun to Immaru for now. "But it's still too early to let guard down. The Witness could be there at the same time…"
Standing in front of the remote teleporter, Rhulk skillfully controlled the device and put what he needed into the list. Now he only needed to teleport it here…
"Rhulk, what are you doing right now?" A big white face appeared at the monitor.
"Gaaghh!" Rhulk had a short scream with the sudden intrusion. "M-my Witness? What are y-you doing here…?"
"Today was a day-off and I did not order you anything, so I was wondering why you were taking that important stuff," The Witness calmly said, "is something going on down there?"
"N-nothing! Nothing really…haha!" Rhulk made a fake smile.
However, a loud thumping sound was heard several times somewhere from the house. Rhulk abruptly turned around. "Aaagh!"
"Rhulk, what was that sound?"
"Uh…i-it's the laundry machine again! I'm doing a laundry, yeah…"
"Oh okay, should I have a look instead?"
"N-no need to! It's all good, I can fix it again! Well actually, I was fixing it few minutes ago, but it looks like I will need additional materials…so I was ordering the kit, yeah."
"Hmm, is that so? Alright, I need to leave now for some other business."
"Okay~"
"Don't just read comics during the whole day-off, try practice glaive mastery instead."
"…Okay."
While Rhulk was having an unwanted conversation with the Witness, Immaru and the baby queen Savathun just waited endlessly for him in the study room. The study room was full of colourful books and mysterious bottles and models, but not much was playable for the baby, except the ghost Immaru.
"My queen, if we wait just a bit more, Rhulk will bring what we need. Of course, I don't fully trust him either, but…what other choice do we have at this moment?" Immaru spoke often not to make her bored. However, baby Savathun, laying around and sucking her thumb, listened to his words almost in an absent and started to cry. "W-waaaaaah-!"
"M-my queen!" Immaru was in panic not knowing how to calm her down. "W-what should I do?" While Immaru was still at a loss what to do, the baby's cry was getting louder and, books and bottles on the shelves started to fall apart one by one as if her cry wave had a magic power.
"Oh…not this!" Shocked, Immaru hurriedly went in front of her face and shortly sighed. "M-my queen?… H-hrrrrr, peekaboo!"
The baby queen stopped crying and just stared at the ghost. Immaru did not stop here and shook his body with more intensive moves to attract her interest. "Peekaboo!" Fortunately, the baby liked his movement and started to reach out her hand or follow it. "Dya-dya!"
"Damn it, I almost got caught by the Witness!" Moments later, Rhulk opened the door of a study room after ending contact with the Witness. "I told you not to mess…WHAAAAT!" Shocked, he immediately began to gather scattered books. And despite of him, Savathun just laughed and clapped looking at a dancing Immaru.
"Oh, you are here" Immaru said after he finally saw Rhulk. "My apology, my queen couldn't take boredom and busted into tears, so…I did my best for sure."
"You still say-wait…what are you doing right now?' Rhulk asked to Immaru who kept shaking his body. "Love to see that the great lightbearer is only capable of being a baby rattle."
"What about you then? Collecting comics and web novels only?" Immaru stopped moving and argued back. "No major books, not even a single of guy's fantasy non-fiction or action, but only filled with romance!"
"Hell, why do you even care about my personal taste?!" Rhulk shouted, "I'm actually quite emotional!"
"So, how do we even use this?" After cleaning the study room, Immaru asked as he saw clay-like materials that Rhulk brought. "Did you put poison or a spell to permanently live as a baby, something like that?"
"If you don't believe it, I'd love to tell you go for it for yourself, but sadly this can be only used by the disciple of Darkness." Rhulk retorted at Immaru with a sharp look. "And if it's really a dangerous stuff, then Savathun would already know it as the same disciple. But look, nothing happened." Just like what he said, baby Savathun approached to a unique material.
Rhulk set her down and proudly shouted. "Behold, the astonishing technology of the Darkness!" As he simply raised his hand, those clay-like materials were formed into something similar to baby clothes and diapers. The other with a different colour in a bowl became a baby food.
"Phew- All done! Now we don't need to worry about how to feed her and change her diaper."
"Hold on…are you really feeding this yellow mush to my queen?" Immaru said right in front of Rhulk's face.
"No, it's still a baby food? It's the result of my recall of a baby food – at least it was in my old hometown. You should scan it if you don't believe me" Rhulk almost throw a bowl with yellow mush as he was pretty upset for Immaru not trusting his words.
Immaru was unsure but scanned the bowl anyway. Surely there was no harmful or toxic substance at all. "But you said it was for a massacre-"
"We don't have any other choice at this moment!" Rhulk shouted. "Then what kind of nutrition Hive children eating? You must know this one already."
"Hmh! Those elite infants who become my queen's Hive army only eat the highest-class honey and royal jelly specially cultivated from high-ranked flowers! How she could consume such ridiculous rubbish!" Immaru proudly said, approaching in front of Rhulk's nose once again. While the two were fighting a delicate war of nerves, a 'chooap-' sound was heard next to them. Both looked down and the baby Savathun was gobbling the yellow mush up from a bowl, held her head up and smiled as it was quite delicious than it looked.
"Ha! See that? It's edible! Looks like it's even delicious, or she was hungry" As Rhulk triumphantly gained a victory, he brought a towel and a spoon, wiped the baby's hands and feet and fed her. "Ugh, why do all babies dribble while eating?..."
"…" On the other side, Immaru, with a doubtful defeat and dejected, only stared at the baby queen eating her baby food. Were the baby's tastes so naive like this? "My queen, is it…good? S-should I also try…?"
While Immaru was hesitant looking at the bowl, Savathun the baby queen already emptied her meal. Anyway, both Rhulk and Immaru thought they finally can rest. But then, 'ding-dong-'
"N-no way…" Rhulk gasped as he heard a doorbell.
"What? This pyramid had a doorbell?" Immaru said, "but, who is it, by the way? Why are you so worried?"
"I-it's the Witness!" Rhulk shouted, urgently standing up. "Both of you, sorry but you gotta hide again for now. Nobody really knows iwhat would happen f the Witness finds about this!" Rhulk went to his room again with Immaru and Savathun in his arms. "You must stay quiet this time for real." Rhulk advised while hurriedly hiding them under the bed.
"…Alright." Immaru answered in a serious tone, too. Rhulk then left toward the front door, leaving the baby and the ghost under the bed.
'I wonder why he takes longer today…Something's going on?'
The Witness waited for Rhulk outside of pyramid's door. While he was patiently waiting, crossing his arms, after pressing the doorbell three times, Rhulk's voice was finally heard from the inside. "I'm coming! G-give me a sec…"
"At last, Rhulk opened the front door and greeted the Witness. "Oh! Greeting, my Witness!"
"Hello Rhulk, just wanted to check if everything's alright" The Witness greeted back. "May I come in?"
"Oh, you mean…the laundry machine?"
"Yes, also wanted to ask if you are doing good recently…" As the Witness stepped in to enter, Rhulk suddenly blocked him.
"So…I'm doing something urgently right now! Um…the house is quite messy with all those clean-up."
"Oh really? You must have been busy to catch up with your undone housework." The Witness was convinced. "By the way…do you know where could I find Savathun? It seems like she's gone for her day-off, but somehow, I cannot reach her contact. Nor I can find her trace in her palace"
"Savathun? Ugh…I don't know either…" Rhulk said, still blocking the door.
"Anyway, I must get inside now." The Witness suddenly toned down his voice in a serious manner.
"I mean…the house is still…"
"This is an order" Rhulk had no choice but to bow down and open the door with his strict words.
As the Witness came down to the basement with Rhulk, he carefully examined the laundry machine.
"Did you already finish your laundry before I came here?" The Witness asked.
"Huh? Oh yeah…"
"Rhulk, are you okay? You look anxious even during your day-off… Are you hiding something from me?"
"What? N-no, absolutely not!"
"Hmm, is that so?" The Witness said after he examined the laundry machine in more details. "The laundry machine seems all good for now. Perhaps you put overdue laundry too much again."
"Yeah I guess…"
"Oh I almost forgot. I have something to take back from you" The Witness said, "You know, the one suit I frequently wear, you borrowed it before from me to…dress smartly, I guess? Is it still in your closet?"
"Oh I almost forgot-!" Damn it, right at the room where he hid them!
"Why, is your room still messy? It's alright, young ones' rooms are pretty typical, anyway"
"Uh, yeah, I…completely forgot to clean it up! Haha…" Rhulk made a fake smile once again.
This time again, baby Savathun couldn't bare her boredom anymore and wandered around in Rhulk's room outside of the bed. His room was relatively normal for the disciple of the Darkness, but it was still full of wonders for the baby in which everything was still new to her.
"My queen! I told you we must stay hidden this time!" No matter how many Immaru gave her warnings, the baby was still busy flying and studying at mysterious objects without listening to him that much.
"Damn, what should I do…" Not sure if the Witness would really come here, but if Savathun keeps wondering around like this and drops another object it will definitely make a loud sound. He must find a way to hide his queen again.
Fortunately, Immaru just got a good idea – to treat a child, one must have the same perspective. "Oh! My queen, then how about we play hide-and-seek?" As easily expected, the baby queen immediately showed her interest with the word 'hide-and-seek'.
"I'll be an 'it', so you go hide. But do NOT go any further of this room!" The baby gave a short reply of "U-woong!" with three eyes staring at the ghost. Must be an agreement.
Facing the wall, Immaru started counting numbers. "One…two…three…" But it was when he almost counted them all, "Six…Seven-"
With an unexpected sound of opening a door, Immaru quickly turned around before finishing the count. Baby Savathun just opened a small window with her spell and flew to the back yard!
"M-my queen! I said do not go any further of this room!" Immaru hurriedly chased baby Savathun, but the baby thought the Tag has begun and flew faster with laugh beyond the back yard, toward Miasma. Immaru immediately began to follow her, too.
The Witness and the nervous Rhulk arrived in Rhulk's room.
"Still, it's much less messy than I expected." The Witness said, opening the closet and taking his suit out. "The suit looks fine, too"
"O-of course! Now you find what you want, so-"
"I also gave you a pair of shoes, remember?" The Witness said, "I need that, too. It's also in this room, right?"
"Oh- Um…it should be in the shoe rack at the front?"
"Yes, but let's just check under the bed before we do so. I thought you usually store boxes under the bed" The Witness said as he approached to the bed.
'Damn, why the hell did I make such habit…' Rhulk blamed himself with a pounding heart like crazy. It felt like a hundred of devilish human guardians were poking at his heart. There was no other way he could stop this – but to hope the baby and the ghost were to be hidden in the deep.
In the meantime, the Witness bent himself and started to pull the boxes out one by one. But…there were no baby and the ghost behind them?
"Oh here it is, I knew it." The Witness said holding a shoe box. "…Rhulk, are you alright? You look nervous as if something is gone that is supposed to be there."
"N-no! I'm fine. But your reading through my habit still amuses me."
"I've been teaching you for millenniums. Adults know everything already." The Witness spoke with a faint smile. "Anyway, I need to go now. I don't know which one is gone, but I hope you to find it pretty soon, Rhulk."
Right after the Witness left, Rhulk came back to his room and carefully searched for Savathun and Immaru. "Hey um…Ghost? Savathun? You guys are still here, right? You just moved to a different spot, right? If so, that was a brilliant idea." However, there was no reply, not even a baby's babble. Feeling nervous again, Rhulk thoroughly searched his room again. "Come on, where the hell did they go?"
But then his heart heavily dropped two times: first with a small window toward the backyard was widely opened; and second with a tiny baby's handprint with dirt was going toward the Miasma.