"Leaving just like that?" Dox muttered, "An apology without compensation?"
"Why care about compensation?" Angel said softly. "Sometimes, I actually prefer an apology without compensation."
Dox shot Angel a glance and said irritably, "Because I care about compensation, I care about why they aren't compensating us!"
"I know what you're thinking. Nothing more than the idea that sometimes, not receiving compensation gets you more instead... that sort of psychological game theory."
"But from my perspective, on a practical level, only immediate compensation brings satisfaction. Who cares about that little sense of psychological indebtedness?"
Dox was no fool. Naturally, he understood that Angel cared more about "owing" than "settling even."
It was not that this was wrong; it was simply better suited to people whose pockets had surplus grain—and plenty of it. For someone like Dox, who was often stretched thin, immediate benefits mattered more.
Angel also understood that different circumstances naturally led to different perspectives, with no real right or wrong between them. So he did not argue with Dox. Instead, he leisurely gathered up the array discs from the ground while recounting what everyone cared about most—
How had he encountered the Childlike Heart Nether Servant, and what exactly had happened during that brief time?
The entire course of events had roughly been: a sudden encounter, followed by threats, then the discovery that the other party was an idiot.
After Angel finished, he shrugged. "At the time, I didn't know it was the Nether Servant's Childlike Heart. I only thought there was something wrong with its brain. Why would it mutilate itself, then use its own blood to write a bloody message that had no sense of threat at all and was full of grammatical errors?"
"If Second One-Eye hadn't suddenly mentioned it, I would've nearly forgotten that scene."