I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 237

“What are you doing?” Tiffany asked.

“I’m… building a shelter,” I told her as I began to pile rocks.

I didn’t expect I’d be able to find the material needed to build a shelter down here, so I was using Calcification to rapidly create rocks. I went behind a large mushroom and then returned with a large batch of rocks. I was starting to slowly build a structure around Tiffany. Her eyes were focused on me from where she lay, the bioluminescence bouncing off her iris and making her eyes shine in the darkness.

Her eyes weren’t the only pair I had seen gleaming within this underground chamber, but everything else that was down here had remained at a distance. Our presence was too new and unexpected for anything predatory to risk approaching us, although I could sense several unique sage beasts’ movements that were definitely circling.

As Tiffany watched me work, her eyes dropped down to her hands, which she could barely move. With a bit of concentration, she managed to clench and unclench them, but this seemed to be the limit for her ability, and she leaned back with an irritated sigh.

“There is no point to this. You should just leave me,” she finally said, her voice tinged with acceptance. “The antecedent realms are notorious for their danger. There is a reason our family hasn’t tried to enter the realm again. My father was planning to go once he reached 9th-level prestiged. For a flawless like you or me, getting out alive will be a challenge.”

“I’ll make it out,” I responded, still piling up rocks. “And you’ll survive too.”

“How? By burying me in rocks? You’ll protect me just long enough that I’ll identify what is coming to eat me before it tears down the hut. My body is already damaged beyond repair. I’m… I’m no longer a paragon.” Her voice broke slightly at that. “My body is too fragile. I’ll likely be a cripple the rest of my life.”

“We don’t know that.” I paused for a moment, my hand resting on a calcite stone I created. “You never know what the future holds.”

“I’m just a liability. You’d be a fool to protect me,” she declared.

“Actually, since you’re feeling so talkative, why don’t you explain that to me?” I asked as I started to build more quickly. “Why did you jump in the way of that attack? You haven’t even seen my face. You have no clue who I am.”

“Maybe…” she responded, looking distinctly away from me. “It’s because I don’t know your face that I was able to save you so willfully.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, still working quickly and efficiently.

She stared at me for a long moment before finally responding. “It’s just how things are… my life as the young lady of a paragon family was always destined to be a life of sacrifice.”

“Are you looking for sympathy?”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re the one who asked! If you don’t want to listen-”

“No.” I coughed. “Sorry. I do. I just tend to avoid… getting close to people. If I can help it.”

“Is that what we are? Close?” She looked slightly amused by those words. “Does that make us friends?”

“Maybe…” I slowed my movements for a moment and then shook my head. “You were saying? Keep talking. At least then I know you’re still alive.”

Tiffany snorted. “Fine, you can hear the woes of a beautiful and rich paragon, the envy of countless mortal women. They don’t understand what it’s like being in a paragon family. They all want to be paragons, but they never understand the cost. From the moment I was born, my entire life was decided for me. I was a tool, an asset to be used or traded for my family’s benefit. From my birth, I was reminded daily that every action, every word, and every thought I had would be in the name of advancing the Stride family’s interests.”

“At least, you’re useful.”

“As a commodity!” she snapped. “My father would trade my life in a heartbeat if it benefited him and the Stride family. It’s the same for all of them. Other than my mother, every person there only saw me for what they could get out of me. I was taught from birth. How to talk, to smile, to curtsy, how to act like the perfect daughter.”

“They probably just want you to live up to their name.”

“It was all a calculation. Every gesture I made, I was always thinking about how I could best serve my family. How can I ally? How can I exploit a weakness? Do you know how that affects a person’s relationships?”

“They’re all a lie.” I looked over at her.

“They are… huh? Y-yeah…” She glanced at me, a bit surprised, then continued. “I’m not able to have emotional connections with others. How can you have a friend when every waking moment you’re deciding how to use them? If my family needed it, I’d need to betray anyone in a heartbeat… so I didn’t make friends. Instead, I used people. I assessed the person, determined their value, and then figured out the best way to use them to my advantage.”

“Is that why you’re connected to local bandit groups?” I asked.

“Criminals… there is no emotional attachment. I use them, and they use me. I give them money and resources, and they do what I say. It’s clean. It’s easy. At least, I’d never feel bad if I ever had to betray them.”

“How did saving me become a part of your plans?” I asked.

She looked over at me, her eyes a strange mix of sorrow and something else I couldn’t quite determine. “I don’t know you, so I can’t plot against you. You’re a stranger to me. I can’t plot against an element I don’t know. How can I manipulate someone when I have no clue what they want? In some weird way, you’re becoming the closest thing I have to a friend.”

“Even if you say that, you still protected me. How did risking your life benefit the Stride family?”

She felt silent, and I was worried for a bit that I pushed too hard and offended her. I continued to work in silence. I had most of the hut built. It wouldn’t hold up to a strong attack, just as Tiffany had pointed out before, but it was to obscure eyes. No one could see what we were doing unless they specifically came walking up from the shore. In that case, we’d see them coming from a good distance away and could react in time.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Hmm?”

“I’ve lived a life following everything my parents asked of me. I even got engaged to the man they asked me to marry, despite barely knowing him. Perhaps, when I learned about the plot to aid the Blanche family, something broke in me. Even after everything I have done to aid my family, I’m not trusted with anything important. I see other women… women like Lady Capala or Lady Lou. They are respected members of their families, given the respect of their elders and even a chance to make their own decisions, and it makes me feel cold.”

“If you respect Lady Capala, why are you trying to help her fail?” I asked.

“Respect? She’s trying to fly free of the restraints her family put on her.” An angry expression appeared on Tiffany’s face. “She’s trying to defy her fate. I don’t respect her. I hate her. Why should she be allowed to fly free while I have to live in my gilded cage? If she succeeds… then why did I sacrifice so much?”

It was moments like that where I was glad I had my mask on. My mouth had fallen open. Women really did have the capacity to commit great evil to each other. She was really going to crush Abigail just because she was envious of her life?

“That’s why you’re destroying her fields?” I asked.

“Her what?” Tiffany blinked.

“Her fields,” I responded. “You’ve been poisoning the medicinal fields, keeping her from running a successful business.”

She stared at me for a long moment. “I have had nothing to do with her fields. What are you talking about?”

“Grandmaster Bai?” I frowned. “He’s manufacturing a poison, and your bandits have been smuggling it over to the Capala farm. The Capala business is on the verge of collapsing. Don’t tell me you have nothing to do with this. Grandmaster Bai is with your family. Those bandits work under you!”

“This…” She looked away like she was lost in thought, and then she glanced back at me suspiciously. “Just who are you?”

I chuckled. “Do you really want to know? What about all that talk about being friends?”

“Consider it a dying woman’s last request,” she replied, her voice laced with a hint of anger.

“Suit yourself.” I pulled off the mask, revealing my face.

As a stranger, I supposed I had already gotten everything I could get out of her.

***

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