?"Suit yourself," Albert said as he drank a cup of coffee that he had made before Nick had arrived.
Nick just looked at one of the windows.
He felt horrible.
'But I have to do it.'
'I did the right thing.'
Nick turned to look at Albert.
'He must be sacrificed for the good of the city.'
Albert hadn't talked to Nick in years, but he could tell that something was up with him.
Albert noticed that Nick seemed absentminded almost all of the time and that he looked in seemingly random directions without any purpose.
There was also the fact that Nick said nearly nothing.
Lastly, Nick probably wasn't just here to casually chat. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com
Albert could see that Nick was deeply troubled by something.
"How are things going?" Albert asked, trying to get a conversation going. "I heard a couple of things, but I want to hear what happened after I left the last time. How's the job? How are you? Did anything interesting happen?"
Albert smirked. "Do you have a girlfriend?"
Nick took a deep breath and sighed.
He thought back to the last time they met.
"Working with the Dreamer wasn't difficult after you left," Nick narrated absentmindedly.
For the next hour, Nick talked about things that had happened to Dark Dream while Albert asked some questions here and there.
Overall, this could be seen as a pleasant and interesting conversation.
When Nick talked about the first yearly meeting of Manufacturers, Albert became very interested.
He asked several questions about the meeting.
That was when Nick remembered that Albert had never been to these meetings, which made him feel weird.
Albert was so much more powerful than Nick.
And yet, he didn't have the status to attend these meetings since he wasn't the owner of a Manufacturer or a Chief Zephyx Extractor.
"I just worked with them."
"And when I finally quit, I joined the city's forces."
"Ever since then, I was basically cooped up in my little lab on the upper layer with my colleagues, researching things."
"I know A LOT of theoretical things, but I don't have much practical experience with said things."
"I know perfectly how to use my weapons, but I've never truly used them."
"I know exactly what to do if a huge containment breach happens, but I've never been in one. Ironically, I wasn't on duty when the Crimson Sea broke out, which meant I wasn't even part of that one."
"Meanwhile, you captured several Specters, fought against them, had many fights with Extractors, and you also created ways how you can work with Specters."
"Do you know more about how Specters and Zephyx work? Definitely not, but do you have more experience with these things? Yes, most likely."
"That's shocking," Albert said as he leaned back in his chair. "In just five years, you went through so many things."
The next moment, Albert released a sigh.
"You also saw your home getting destroyed when the Crimson Sea broke out. That was probably also hard to witness for you."
The image of the melting people of the Dregs involuntarily shot through Nick's mind.
It was difficult to look at that image.
"Yes, maybe," Nick answered absentmindedly.
He couldn't muster up the motivation to actually think about his answer and just stated it.
Albert raised an eyebrow in a concerned expression.
"Nick, why are you really here?" he asked in a soft voice.
Nick's heart rate spiked at the question, and his mind became alert immediately.
"What?" Nick asked.
"Why are you here?" Albert asked with a sigh. "I can tell that something is bothering you."
"While it's nice to think that you are just here to chat with an old man, that's probably not the truth."
"It's not hard for me to see that something is bothering you. I've seen many people in my life, and I can see when someone needs help."
Nick grimaced as he avoided Albert's eyes.
"Help?" he asked with a tone representing pointlessness.
"Yes," Albert said. "While I don't know what happened, I can tell one thing."
"You might not realize it yourself, but your entire demeanor screams two words."
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