“I’ve never actually been in here,” Jaid stared around at the room made of panels, “But I guess it was built after I left.” They were in the Utility Room down in the tunnels, which let them display anything that suited their needs, and also built basic furniture on demand. Currently, however, the walls were blank, and only two simple chairs were present, facing each other.
“Honestly, I thought we’d just meet in your room,” the knight continued. “Or mine, or anywhere else vacant really. Y’know, I’ve never actually seen your room, so I’ll admit I was curious to go there, but this will do I suppose.”
『No one will bother us here. And we won’t bother anyone either.』 Drim informed her, explaining his reasoning for the location by holding up his tablet. 『Also, I can do this.』 This time, instead of his tablet, the words appeared on the wall behind him.
『Nathym made it so my thoughts will be scribed on the wall in here, making it faster for me to communicate. Only the thoughts I want, of course. He refused to do the same for my tablet, saying I’d become too reliant and lose my motivation.』
“Well I can’t say I disagree with that,” Jaid shrugged in approval.
『If you wanted to see my room, though.』 The panels flickered around them, all lighting up at the same time. What displayed was a rather plain looking room, though a bit larger and more refined than any normal person would have, clearly made with higher quality wood and materials.
But there really wasn’t much taking up the elegant space. Outside of the standard furnishings, the only thing that stood out was the wall completely lined with bookshelves. Other than that, a snoozing digital Pox was asleep on the bed that had just appeared.
『For whatever reason, my room has always had a copy stored in the Utility Room’s Database.』 Drim explained. 『It’s the only one. Never asked why since I doubt I want to know. It’s a bit outdated, though. There should be more books and plants.』
“Okay, it’s definitely not quite what I was expecting,” Jaid looked around. “It’s pretty… normal, maybe even a bit more barren than normal. Not that I can really talk. Haven’t exactly spent a lot of time decorating my new room yet. Don’t know what to do, honestly, since I’ve certainly never had that much space, except for the last time I was here. But that was… a different time. A different me. One who refused to let herself feel like it was her home.”
『And how are you adjusting now?』 Though his words were silent, Drim’s face sported a look of genuine concern.
“Uhh, pretty good, I’d have to say. Though it certainly has been a bit of an adjustment. It’s weird making my own schedule again. You get used to being told where to go and when to be there all the time. It does make getting out of bed in the morning now a bit harder, though.”
“And Dura and Woretta actually left a few days ago. They said they wanted to check out the West compound, and from there, who knows. Both of them were throwing around the idea of becoming wandering mercenaries or adventurers, and I think it’d suit them. Of course I can’t help but worry about Worry. If Dura’s with her, though, then everything will be fine.”
“So, it’s back to just being me… err, I mean, not that I’m alone or anything. Just that it was nice having some old friends here too. But everyone’s been kind. A few people gave me a glare for a few days, but it’s easing up. And I’ve already gone on a few missions with some of the other members like Rezin and Dice.”
“Other than that, I’ve been helping Roque with some of the reconstruction. He and Rishaki actually cornered me the other day, inquiring about my mother’s visor. Since I guess it’s an ancient relic, they wanted it to be appraised, and then began a bidding war of trying to buy it from me. But I refused of course.”
“Niloy also made me go shopping with her again, which was actually needed, since I kind of came here with no clothes, and my old ones that were left behind don’t really suit me and had been picked out for my fake persona. But then she also made me join for a girl’s-night sleepover.”
“It was the two of us along with Itsy and Kaizu. Kada also wanted to come when she heard about it, but since she can’t leave Ledmer, she forced Niloy to leave her on video call so she could feel like she was participating. Some of it was fun, but they definitely spent a lot of the time talking about their crushes.”
“It’s certainly weird seeing them like that, especially Kaizu who’s changed dramatically, and it’s definitely not an environment I’m used to. But it was nice. And… sorry, I’m rambling. You don’t care about that.”
『Sounds like you’ve been busy.』 Drim replied anyways.
“Yes, well, the clones help a lot in that regard,” Jaid insisted. “Ever since the ascension, now that I’ve gotten more used to them, it’s crazy how much I can do at once. I’ve gone on more missions, done more training, and it’s allowed me to do more errands. Things get a bit wonky in my head if they get too far apart, but it’s getting better the more I practice.”
“The only real downside is that for each clone, they’re still using up my energy, so I definitely need to eat even more and sleep more, but I can designate more clones for that. Unfortunately, uhh, Nachi caught wind of that, so she’s basically forced me to have a clone with her at the gym nonstop for the past few days, saying I have a few years of training to catch up on.”
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“So right now there’s a clone at the gym, and there’s two more back at my room. One is taking a nap while the other is reading up on speech therapy techniques. There’s also one more taste-testing recipes at the bakery that just opened back up. Cosmos I wish I was her…”
“Err, don’t get me wrong, though! This is my top priority, and it has my full attention. If anything else becomes a distraction, I’ll get rid of those clones immediately.”
『Which recipe is your favorite so far?』 Drim asked, clearly unbothered.
“Oh, it’d have to be the- wait, I know what you’re doing,” Jaid saw through the ploy. “You just want to delay our session.”
『A bit, perhaps.』 The man’s face showed more guilt than his words. 『But I’m also catching up with a friend.』
“So you do consider me a friend after- after everything I’ve done…” Jaid had to look away, weighed down by her own guilt. “That, I don’t know, something just doesn’t feel right about that. But I guess I don’t see why we can’t get along and be friends just like everyone else.”
“Well then, friend, why don’t you start this session off by telling me what you’ve been up to this past week.”
『Meetings』 The lazy king didn’t even attempt to say the solitary word that he let float unceremoniously above his head.
Jaid let her own head droop in annoyance. “You were supposed to- you’re going to be stubborn through this whole thing, aren’t you?”
『Sorry, I’ll try.』
“No, I’m sorry,” she apologized in turn. “I bet this is harder for you than people realize, something you just can’t jump into. It’s not a switch you can flip, or you would have done so already.”
“Why don’t we start at the very beginning then, as simple as we can go. Let’s try going through the alphabet. I’ll say it, and you say it along with me if you can. First is aaaaaa, aaaaaaa, aaaaaaa.”
The man didn’t make an attempt to copy her, his face entirely unamused. 『I know the alphabet…』
“You’re right, that probably is a bit too basic,” the knight agreed, not wanting to demean him. “Well, let’s try something more practical. As a politician, you’ll be introducing yourself a lot, so why don’t you tell me your name.”
Drim still didn’t look thrilled, but he couldn’t beat her logic. The man’s lips twisted as he sat in silence. Even though he remained motionless, it was obvious that he was struggling, desperately trying to make something happen. And then there were a few stunted grunts, almost like pained whispers. Then finally, there was something minolry coherent. “M-m-m-my n-m s D-im Dr-z-h.”
“Well done!” Jaid had to praise his efforts. “I’m sure that took a lot of willpower to force. But I’m not going to sugarcoat it. If I didn’t know what you were going to say, odds are I wouldn’t understand it. Currently, it’s not really passible. However, there’s definitely hope. It shows you’re still capable, so it’s only a matter of time until we get you speaking clearly again.”
“Tell me, though, how did it feel when you spoke?”
『Like my tongue was tripping over itself and my throat was trying to swallow it.』 He was back to using the room’s automated scribe, but the knight couldn’t blame him when giving such a descriptive answer.
“I see,” Jaid nodded. “And apparently that’s actually extremely common. “From what I’ve read, the problems you’re having can be broken down into two camps, mechanical and psychological. Obviously, the psychological stuff comes from what your mother did, using your voice to kill someone. Also, having a bomb collar around your neck for months that would kill you if you made any noise certainly didn’t help.”
“But, even if we’re able to work past that, if you’re still having trouble performing the actions, we won’t make any progress. So we should start with the mechanical side. Your throat and vocal chords underwent a lot of trauma. They likely atrophied and feel wrong in your throat since you regrew them, not to mention the pain you must have felt when you had that device embedded to keep them severed.”
“So let's forget words for now and focus on the literal roots. We need to get you to be able to activate your vocal cords consistently and on command. And to do that, we’re going to practice humming.”
“Just humming. It doesn’t need to sound good, doesn’t need to make sense. We’re just going to make the sound. And then from there, when you’re already performing the action, forming the word should come a lot more naturally. Let’s start.”
And for the next hour, as Jaid said, that’s all there was. Since Drim was hesitant at first, the knight led the charge, humming on her own, and she continued to do so the entire time, letting the man jump in when it suited him. She started with simple notes, changing her pitch every so often, and Drim would attempt to harmonize with her every now and then.
When that got old, she moved on to humming famous tunes that everyone knew, simple stuff that someone could hum unconsciously. And the practice showed results. Even though it wasn’t endless, by the end of the session, Drim could hum on command. It was just a few seconds at a time, but it was already so much more than he could do at the start.
The two met again the next day, and for the first half of the session, it was more of the same. But for the second, they focused on transitioning those hums into something vocal, just a single word at the time, until he could do so consistently. By the end, Drim was able to form fully coherent words, though still led into by a hum. They couldn’t be more than a few syllables long or he’d stammer, but it was immense progress.
“Alright, looking at our schedules,” Jaid tried to plan for their next session when the current one came to an end. “Seems Tize has me on an overnight mission tomorrow, and you have a lot of meetings coming up, so I don’t know when we can meet next, but we’ll find a way to squeeze it in.”
“And in the meantime, be sure to practice. You don’t need to try and push yourself, just keep working on what we’ve been doing, maybe try saying something to a few other people if you can. Then we’ll work on improvement next time. Does that sound alright?”
“Mmm-yes,” Drim responded with a nod. “Mmmm-see m-you.”
However, over the next week the two of them only met one more time, and that session was cut short due to something urgent. But even during their brief time, Drim’s heart hadn’t seemed as invested in it as during the past few sessions, almost as if he was regressing. And since, even when his schedule read as available, there was always some excuse or another to postpone their next meeting.
So to get him to stop brushing her off, Jaid had to resort to something more threatening.