Chương 140: Chapter : 140

"I had personal family reasons, okay?!" Naomi snapped back, her voice raising just a little bit, echoing down the metal corridor. She looked incredibly vulnerable, her eyes shining with unshed frustration.

"I was forced to leave. It is none of your business. Just drop it." The heavy, emotional weight in the air was suffocating. Naomi looked like she wanted to disappear into the floor. Elma stood there, totally bewildered by the tragedy of a fallen star. Even Raja stopped hacking the door for a second, feeling terrible for the red-haired girl. It was a very deep, very serious, and incredibly dramatic moment. And Ken Eliot decided it was the absolute perfect time to completely ruin it.

Ken pushed himself off the metal wall. He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his tailored navy blue pants and strolled right into the middle of the tense conversation. He had a massive, goofy, totally oblivious smile plastered across his face.

"Wow, you went to a fancy knight school?" Ken asked loudly, his voice echoing cheerfully down the dark hallway.

"That is actually super crazy to me." Naomi wiped her eyes quickly and glared at him.

"Ken, please shut up. Not right now." But Ken completely ignored her warning. He looked at Elma, then back at Naomi, shaking his head in absolute amusement.

"I mean, it is just incredibly odd to think about," Ken continued, casually leaning against the heavy security door while Raja desperately tried to finish hacking the keypad.

"You hear 'elite academy student,' and you think of someone super strict and proper. But that doesn't sound like you at all, Naomi." Elma frowned, totally confused by the messy boy's interruption.

"What are you talking about, you idiot? She was a flawless warrior."

"Maybe she was!" Ken laughed loudly, waving his hand in the air.

"But you guys don't see what I see every day. She doesn't act like a legendary knight at the estate! She spends ninety percent of her day standing in our tiny kitchen, aggressively chopping carrots and yelling at me to wash my own cereal bowls! She acts like an angry house-mom!" Naomi's face, which had been pale and sad just a minute ago, suddenly flooded with bright, embarrassed color.

"Ken! I do not act like a house-mom!"

"Yes, you totally do!" Ken argued playfully, completely destroying the heavy emotional tension in the room. He pointed a finger at her.

"Just yesterday, you chased me around the living room with a wet towel because I left my shoes on the rug! You are obsessed with cleaning!" Raja tried to hold back a laugh, quickly covering his mouth with his hand and staring very hard at his wire cutters. Elma just stared at Naomi in total shock, trying to picture the greatest dagger prodigy of her generation running around a kitchen with a wet towel. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I do that because you are a messy, disgusting slob!" Naomi shrieked, her voice cracking with pure embarrassment. Ken didn't back down. He actually puffed his chest out and gave her a very proud, highly genuine thumbs-up.

"Honestly, though, I think it is a massive waste of your talents," Ken declared loudly, nodding his head.

"You are way too good for chores. You are a natural 'boss lady.' You absolutely belong out here in the field, kicking bad guys in the teeth and doing cool flips. You definitely do not belong in a kitchen baking cookies and stressing out over my untucked shirts. Leave the cooking to somebody else, and keep being the scary boss lady we all know and love." It was a compliment. It was a very genuine, supportive compliment wrapped in the most awkward, embarrassing, and totally ridiculous delivery possible.

Ken was trying to tell her that she was exactly where she belonged, but he was doing it by exposing all her domestic habits to her former schoolmate. Naomi's face turned from pink to an absolute, blazing tomato red. She was so incredibly flustered that her brain completely short-circuited. She didn't know whether to say thank you or scream. So, she chose violence. Naomi marched forward, raised her hand, and smacked Ken right on the back of his head with a loud, ringing slap. Smack!

"Ow!" Ken yelped loudly, stumbling forward and grabbing the back of his head with both hands.

"What was that for?! I was giving you a compliment! I called you a boss lady! That is a title of high respect in the slacker community!"

"You are an absolute menace to my sanity!" Naomi yelled, pointing her dagger at him, though the deep sadness in her eyes was completely gone, replaced entirely by highly energetic annoyance.

"Do not ever talk about my cooking in front of the enemy again!"

"She isn't the enemy right now, she is our coworker!" Ken whined, rubbing his bruised skull and pouting.

"My brain cells are very fragile! If you hit me too hard, I am going to forget how to tie my shoelaces, and then you are going to have to do it for me!"

"I would rather tie you to a ceiling fan!" Naomi shouted back. Elma stood on the side of the hallway, her jaw slightly open. She looked at the red-haired prodigy she used to idolize, who was currently bickering with a messy, lazy boy like they were starring in a ridiculous sitcom. The deeply dramatic, tragic backstory moment had been completely, thoroughly ruined by a guy complaining about his skull. Elma couldn't help it. A tiny, completely un-elegant snort escaped her lips.

She quickly covered her mouth, turning her head away to hide her smile.

"You two are entirely absurd," Elma muttered, shaking her head. Raja finally pulled his screwdriver away from the metal panel. The harsh red light on the keypad suddenly blinked, turning a bright, cheerful green. The heavy security door let out a loud hiss of pressurized air and slowly slid open.

"I got it!" Raja announced happily, quickly packing his tools back into his belt.

"The door is open, and I disabled the silent alarm. We are clear to proceed into the inner laboratory." Naomi let out a long, exhausted sigh, stepping away from Ken. She smoothed out her dark combat uniform and gripped her daggers tightly. The fierce, focused warrior was back, but the heavy guilt and shame she had felt just five minutes ago had totally evaporated.

"Alright, squad, let's move in," Naomi commanded, her voice steady and confident. She shot one last glare at Ken.

"And you, stay in the back. If you say one more word about my cookies, I am leaving you in this hallway."

"Your cookies are very dry anyway!" Ken mumbled under his breath, safely out of her reach. He shoved his hands back into his pockets and happily shuffled through the open security door, dragging his feet with his signature scuffing sound. He rubbed the back of his head one more time, but a lazy, satisfied smile touched the corners of his mouth.