How to Get Along with an Orca

Is it important?

"Very important."

Why ask this question?

"Because you have a strange smell on you."

A question, an answer, a quick conversation.

In the past, Miss Surtr would neither have concealed nor delayed the truth. But now, she felt a slight dissatisfaction.

It was both unhappy that Skadi had gotten so close to it so abruptly, and also unhappy that the orca had interrupted its journey through its Imperial Consciousness and delayed its playtime with the small animals.

"This time you're not saying I've been 'contaminated'?" She emphasized her tone slightly.

"You won't be corrupted. You and I are different from everyone else." However, Miss Orca's response was as calm and serene as ever. "You are special, Surtr. That's why I want to stay by your side."

Miss Surtr shut her mouth.

The situation was quite clear: the white-haired creature in front of her was physically lusting after her body—she coveted her power and special abilities. This was why she was capable of all sorts of outrageous actions and asking many seemingly unrelated but profound questions.

—How come I always run into people like this everywhere?

—But I don't want to tell her about my situation... Seriously, don't think you can do whatever you want just because I'm your fictional wife. Until today, our relationship was just one-sided beating and being beaten!

With a thought in mind, she made her decision. Miss Surtr's mind and aura instantly focused and subsided—she stood up, her physical strength easily pushing aside Skadi's oppressive movement. And when their eyes met, she gazed into those crimson eyes and spoke softly.

"My body is here, and where my spirit goes is none of your business—even if you say it is, I still think it's none of your business." She thought of Theresia, and thus the necessity of keeping the information about the Imperial Consciousness a secret was added to her list. Her gaze was cold and sharp, and she had no intention of leaving even the slightest room for negotiation.

"You're asking too many questions, Operator Skadi. I refuse to answer this one," she said, then turned to attend to other matters.

She thought Skadi would be persistent and relentless.

However, things didn't go as she expected— Skadi didn't show any impatience or aversion to her resistance. She simply remained beside her with that serene expression, watching her.

"I understand." The girl from the deep sea uttered only this brief sentence before taking a small step back from the sofa. She was no longer standing within Miss Surtr's psychological safety net as before.

—What did you learn?

--baffling.

Miss Surtr glanced at the man with a hint of confusion—but since he was sensible, she decided not to pursue the matter further.

She gestured to Skadi as if to say "please do as you please." In Terra, such a gesture was practically the same as telling someone to leave.

Skadi understood her gesture, but didn't respond as she expected—the Aegir simply nodded slightly. He then walked to another chair about five meters away in the room, sat down, and continued to watch her with his deep red eyes.

"I am your personal assistant," the Aegir said in a land-based language that she herself could not fully comprehend. And she emphasized, "My personal assistant."

"I will stay by your side, whenever and wherever."

Okay, I take back what I said earlier. It seems she does understand, but rather she understands in her own way.

Miss Surtr's fingers stiffened for a moment.

Well, this wasn't the first time she'd encountered something like this—in the past, there were always a few people she'd helped, people she'd crossed paths with, who would linger around her for all sorts of strange reasons. Their motives varied, and their excuses were all different. Some said they wanted to repay a debt of gratitude, some said they wanted to help, some even tried to pursue her, and some even dared to try and force themselves on her.

There are many people like this, and quite a few people like this.

But the end result was that they couldn't even stay by Miss Surtr's side for three days—the schedule and frequency of requests from professional tools were beyond the capacity of ordinary people. And even those who were slightly more extraordinary would find it difficult to keep up once she took a single step, easily traversing distances of hundreds or thousands of meters.

Just leave it alone.

—Let her be my personal assistant if she wants. She has nothing to do with me anyway. And if she wants to do anything, even when I'm deep in my dreams, Laevateinn won't allow any living or dead thing to touch my body.

Let her do as she pleases.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Miss Surtr devised a solution. Excellent, it seems Skadi won't be a problem, at least not for the time being. As for the long term... well, that's a matter for later.

After all, there are more important things to do now.

She shook her head slightly, reached out, and reconnected the PRTS terminal beside the sofa—though she didn't intend to reveal her journey through the Imperial Consciousness to Skadi, who knew little of its intricacies. But when problems arose, she had to find a way to deal with them.

Her solution was to summon Persephone for help.

—Hopefully, Persephone can glean some useful information from what I have said...

She thought to herself, then turned her attention to the light screen projected onto the side of her retina— Miss Surtr was slightly startled when she saw what was on the screen.

It wasn't a scary picture, nor was it a prank. What frightened her was the abnormally high number of emails in the corner of the screen. Before going to the Imperial Consciousness, it was zero. But now, the number in that corner had reached a thousand and was still rising rapidly!

--what happened?

She instinctively clicked on one of the emails, only to find it was entirely filled with question marks. Scrolling through, she saw even more question marks. And by the third one, she even saw asterisks and exclamation marks.

--what the hell?

Miss Surtr raised an eyebrow slightly. She continued scrolling down, looking at the text-heavy chat bubbles. However, her findings on those message carriers were no different from before.

There are thirty-three sentences and variations of the phrase "What happened?"

'You're not normal!' — This kind of response accounted for 15 percent of the responses.

There are a huge number of messages like, "Did I log in to the wrong account?"

Miss Surtr's forehead vein throbbed slightly. She wasn't quite sure how to handle this particular situation. But she had a vague feeling that many people were watching her make a fool of herself.

Perhaps it's just my imagination.

—What a load of nonsense.

Perhaps not.

—In short, let's get down to business first.

She casually scrolled past all the nonsensical email replies. Then she clicked on Persephone's profile picture, and within seconds, the remote communication was established, and a text message appeared on her retina.

[Persephone, I've encountered some unusual circumstances. Upon returning to my office, I inadvertently touched upon a strange place with my mind. It seems to correspond in some way to reality. And what I observed there is as follows...]

[...(N words of explanation omitted)...]

[...In short, that's the basic situation. Um, if you have some free time now, could you take a look and see what's going on? Is it dangerous?]

She waited a few seconds.

Then she received a response from Persephone.