?


    Unlike the usual when she wrapped up the show and everyone simply packed up and left, she received a staggering and surprising apuse from those in the kitchen. Mr. Rodney, the television employees, the maids and the guards all pped.


    "That was awesome governor, it was filled with humor and lots of fun. The Christmas music was a bonus." dmented first and quickly.


    "Yes, the dynamic between you and Justin is amazing, I think we got more viewers because of it. I have seen some live streamers trying to replicate the results but you and him are the best so far. You should invite him to join you more often." Mr. Rodney as always went in directly and told her what made their team special.


    "I will, as long as all he receives is love but the moment I see hatements or insults directed at him I will stop and I will sue. I don''t y when ites to my baby."


    Mr. Rodney heard her loud and clear but what he thought was, "What is wrong with this husband and wife? Do they have to sue every time for everything?"


    Scarlet poured out eggnog into sses for the television employees to taste.


    While they thanked Scarlet and reached for their sses, Mr. Rodney said sternly, "Take one sip, if I so much as detect a whiff of alcohol on anyone at work they will be fired."


    The poor employees squeezed their eyes closed and cried in their hearts. Why was their boss such a stickler for the rules?


    They gave Scarlet hopeful looks, ''Please talk to the tyrant.''


    "Don''t look at the governor, she doesn''t decide on the size of your Christmas bonus, I do. And if I feel like you have been cking off...." he stopped talking and finished all of the eggnog in his ss.


    The poor employees only took one sip, and d helped himself to the rest as they left, walking with their shoulders hunched forward.


    "At least you gave them cookies." He said. "Their boss is strict but he pays them well, I wouldin about unfairness but he works harder than them. He is a fair man, you cannot set the precedent of allowing workers report to the office or factory drunk. It can easily be habit."


    Scarlet did not intervene in Mr. Rodney''s treatment of his employees. If he was a harsh man, the star daily employees who followed him here would not have done it. d did not need to exin his actions to her.


    "Mr. d, I really have to go now." She said.


    "Right, right. " he looked embarrassed for dying her. "Sorry, I should go as well, thank you for everything governor." He carried away the cookies he had received and left her kitchen.


    She programmed a robot butler to replicate the ginger cookie recipe, instructed Anna and Coral to make the shapes and bake ten batches of cookies.


    Her quarters were big and she went upstairs to one of the areas she had not visited before, the in door patio. It was an entire floor and a beautiful space, with a soft green carpet, some potted nts a swing set andrgefortable sofas. The ss windows offered a vivid view of the outside and from them, she could see the tiny snow kes fighting against the wind before falling on the windows or the ground and slowly melting away.


    She sat down on the couch closet to one of the windows, took off her shoes and picked up a book.


    "I want to be alone Tion," she told her guard.


    He nodded and left her alone in there, since she was with Severus, he trusted that she would be safe.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    As soon as he left, she had Alex seal the door temporarily and travelled with Severus, to find the mysterious space crack.


    He blinked, and they appeared first outside of the shield, at the edge of the blue forest. Sephora and her hunters were preparing to return, with smiles on their faces since the mutated beasts were always easiest to hunt towards the end of winter when they weakened. They were talking about therge loot and how much they would make from it.


    Severus blinked again, and they appeared in the middle of a in white field, there was nothing but snow here, for miles.


    "Are we out of the forest?" she asked him.


    "No, this is a part of it you have never been to." he replied.


    Again, he blinked, and they came to a what should have been a frozen valley filled with snow but weirdly, it was not. The snow waspletely melted in this ce, and it felt warm.


    "Where are we?" she asked him.


    "A ravine." he answered. "You can feel the difference in the temperature between this ce and everywhere else, right?"


    "Mmm," she noticed. Theck of snow and uncharacteristic heat in the area made it stand out like a sore thumb. As if this was not unnatural enough, they were standing on yellow and green shrubs which seemed to be thriving, not affected by the winter or heat at all. This had to be the ce with the crack.


    Additionally, the mutated beasts heading this way were quite numerous, it had be their way back to wherever they hade from.


    "We must go all the way down there, that''s where the crack is." Severus was looking down, at what she judged to be a gorge. There was a narrow stream of water running along the bottom, at each side, were steep and rocky walls which were covered in green moss and likely to be slippery.


    It would take some masterful climbing to navigate this rocky gorge, or one could just fly in with a mecha. But only one or tworge mechas at a time, she thought.


    Severus blinked and suddenly, Scarlet was face to face with the crack she so much wanted to see. In between one of the rocks was an opening like that leading to a narrow cave. It was warmer than the other ces and emitted the color red. It was just there, a round red vortex and mutated beasts which could fly were swooping inside expertly.


    The ones which could climb were slowly making there way to it, for them, the strong ones were pushing the weak ones out of the way. As they fell down to the ground, most of themnded in the stream where another fight would ensue.


    She could only imagine how many bones or bodies of mutated beasts were down there.And more importantly, souls were falling out of the crack while wailing as if they were in great pain.


    "I told you," Severus said, "This ce is leaking souls. If the humans did not barricade themselves inside their houses and cities during the snow, they would have discovered this ce already and started investigating the cause of their plight. I am not sure but there must be one of these cracks on every of this world. All that matters to us are the souls, why are we taking on work that is not ours?"


    Scarlet pushed her face forward ever so slightly, simply curious, "Severus, what do you think is on the other side?"


    Severus blinked them away immediately, bac to the in door patio at the castle and red at her. "Don''t even think about."