Endless Debt

Chapter 1283: Chapter 85: Reclaiming Lost Territory (2)

Aimou studied Bologue’s expression and, finding it a bit dull, said, "Bologue, sometimes you’re way too serious, you know that?"

"Why? Isn’t being serious a good thing?"

"It’s not that it’s bad," Aimou thought for a moment, then put it in terms Bologue could understand, "it’s like I’m a stand‑up comedian doing crowd work, but the audience just won’t pick up my jokes, so the whole atmosphere gets painfully awkward."

Bologue asked, "Huh? You were telling jokes just now?"

Aimou went silent for a beat, then stressed, "An example! I was giving an example!"

"Oh, oh, oh, got it."

Aimou sighed. "Sometimes I really can’t tell if you honestly don’t get it or you’re just playing dumb."

"Mm... I think it might have to do with the environment," Bologue said very seriously. "When things are tense, my mind gets really active, I’m great at spouting bad jokes and the like—you know that."

Aimou thought back and had to admit he was right. When she was overlapping with Bologue, this guy was always hacking people up while rambling all sorts of nonsense; his internal monologue was so long‑winded even Aimou couldn’t always keep up.

"But once I relax, my brain’s like it just flatlined. I don’t want to think about anything, everything goes blank, like I’m spacing out. So a lot of the time I come off a bit slow to react."

Bologue glanced at Aimou, then looked away, staring straight ahead. "Which means, when I’m with you, Aimou, I feel really at ease."

"Huh?"

"That’s really how it is," Bologue started muttering, "man, not long after I snuck into the Ruins District, I was already regretting not bringing you along. That hellhole is a mess, like a maze. Especially around the Forge Furnace Volcano—the environment’s awful enough, but I couldn’t even make sense of the experiment logs. It wasn’t until I ran into Furya and had her translate that I figured out what had happened."

"You sound illiterate," Aimou covered her mouth and laughed. "You really do, Bologue, a barbarian who only knows how to hack people up."

"A barbarian?" Bologue frowned slightly. "I’d prefer something a bit more dignified."

"Like what?"

"Like... I haven’t thought that far."

"Haha."

Bologue rolled his shoulders a little, then asked, "You ever been to the Outpost before?"

"Not yet. Why?" Aimou asked.

"No reason." Bologue looked like he was setting up some kind of prank; Aimou could see it, but didn’t call him out.

Bologue said, "The recovery work in the Ruins District is going to be long and complicated. Forget reintegrating that chaotic, out‑of‑order space—just dealing with all the damaged equipment, plus all those bizarre things that escaped from the containment zones, is going to take forever."

"I know about that. They say there’s still an Extraordinary Disaster lurking in the Ruins District," Aimou recalled. "It’s called the Inverted World, right? An Extraordinary Disaster that affects cognitive abilities."

"Yeah, but according to the Mamos, by their estimate that Extraordinary Disaster should’ve naturally run its course years ago," Bologue shifted the topic, "though we can’t let our guard down just because of that."

Bologue went on, "I’m really curious what you look like in Furya’s eyes."

"You mean, after the cognitive distortion? I’ve heard about that," Aimou got curious too. "They say everyone appears in a different twisted form to her, all sorts of bizarre shapes."

"Yeah. In her eyes I’m a terrifying Evil Spirit, and Mamo is a rotten tree. The weirdest one is Hart." Bologue thought of something funny and told Aimou about it.

"In Furya’s eyes, Hart is actually a person."

"Hart is a person to begin with? What are you even saying?"

Bologue said excitedly, "I mean his *image* in Furya’s eyes. He’s not some grotesque monster, he’s a real, proper human being—what Hart looked like before he turned into a beast."

"Oh..."

Aimou fell into a pensive look. After a moment’s thought, she too realized how absurd that was.

"So the Hart who looks like a beast to us is a living, breathing human in her eyes. That’s so weird!"

"Right? It’s so weird!"

"Then... then how’s Hart doing? He must’ve been really worked up, having someone who can recognize what he really looks like." Aimou asked curiously.

Hart usually seemed all cheerful, but everyone could tell how stifled he was inside. Just like those stories in books: he woke up one day to find he’d turned into a beast and could never again fit into normal society.

Bologue looked ahead; the towering gate now loomed close. He nudged Aimou’s shoulder. "Push open the door to the Outpost and you’ll see."

Brimming with curiosity, Aimou slowly pushed the gate open. Bologue, as if he’d foreseen what was coming, took a step back and clamped his hands over his ears.

The moment the door opened, a surge of clamor crashed over them like a wave.

"Over here, over here!"

"No, over there, over there!"

"Hurry up, hurry up, we’re gonna miss the deadline!"

The overlapping voices poured into Aimou’s ears, and for a second it was like her processor overloaded. She froze in place for a while, then turned her head in a daze, looking to Bologue for help.

"She spent too long shut in by herself in the Ruins District, now she’s a bit *too* enthusiastic," Bologue raised his voice, "plus the ’density’ of Furya here is kind of high. She can even chat away with herself nonstop."

"Oh? Bologue!"

One of the Furyas noticed Bologue and waved to him in greeting.

Bologue’s expression turned a touch awkward; he felt nothing but distressed about what was about to happen.