Chapter 50: Birthday

After some time, Charles woke up from the Dream World and soon frowned as he noticed some memories about the last dream appeared hazy. Shaking his head, he took the golden quill, notebook, and an ink bottle from the cabinet while placing the 'Nightmare Stone' in it and placed them on the wooden table. Charles then opened the cupboard and took out the silver pocket watch in a hurry. He flipped open the outer case and checked the time.

'11.30 P.M. I slept for more than 7 hours.' He put the pocket watch back into the cupboard and started writing all the incidents that happened in the Dreamworld. Once he rechecked everything, he safely put the book into the cabinet and went to the bathroom to freshen up.

Thirty minutes later, Charles walked out of the bathroom, changed his cloth into a casual one, and went downstairs to have something. To his surprise, Eve and Saron sat in the reception hall and seemed to be waiting for his arrival. Charles's gaze swept past them as he walked on the tiled floor and soon landed on the wooden table placed in front of the dining hall.

Meanwhile, Eve curled her lips upward as she glanced at the pocket watch for a moment and then spoke while opening her arms wide.

"Wish you many more happy returns of the day, Charles."

Upon hearing her words, Charles wore a surprised look, took a step forward, and thanked her.

"Thank you, mom."

When Charles returned from the Wisdom Library earlier, he did notice them making a cake and already learned that today was the real Charles's birthday.

Nodding her head, Eve gave him a tight, reassuring hug worth millions of words and brought him to the wooden table.

A cake was placed at the center of the wooden table.

The cake was a perfect size, a sort of cupcake set upon a cookie, and all of its chocolate on chocolate. The arrival of this cake meant more than words could say. In his previous life, Charles, aka John, hadn't celebrated any birthday parties and always envied others.

It was a lonely life for him.

John lost his parents when he was four and became an orphan kid. After getting his basic education from the government school, a particular criminal organization picked him up and started nurturing him as an assassin. From that day onwards, John never felt happiness or sadness.

To him, there was only one thing that always on his mind. That was to kill a specific individual! Most specifically, he became an assassin to kill the guy who murdered his parents. As for why did the killer murdered John's parents? John later found out that the killer killed his parents simply because he wanted to erase the witnesses!

After years of training in the assassin organization and completing many dangerous missions, John managed to find the culprit and murdered him ruthlessly. But when he vents all his anger on the murderer, he felt an emptiness in his heart. For the first time, John felt no desire to kill others. He felt that he finally finished his life mission and thought of moving on.

After making some plans, John left the underworld criminal organization and started living an ordinary life. When it comes to hiding trails, John was an expert. Even the underworld boss would feel helpless to track his location. So, he hid from the other organization members for years and spent his normal life working at a tea shop. During his free time, he would read books, comics and also played all types of games. It was a peaceful life for him. But somehow, the underworld criminal organization members found him by bribing his best friend, Angele, and even killed him brutally.

But now, this simple cake brought him real happiness, even though it was not meant for him but for the real Charles. Although he didn't cry emotionally, his happiness was showed clearly on his face.

"It took three full months for you to smile normally, Charles," Eve commented from his right side and gave him a silver knife.

A wry smile crept on his face as he took the knife and bent his waist down to cut the cake. He then precisely cut a square shape piece, took it with his right hand, and gave it to Eve. After that, he took another piece and gave it to Saron White. Meanwhile, Eve took out a small gift box wrapped in Kraft paper from the nearby chair and gave it to him with a smile.

Charles took the box from her hands and raised his eyebrows.

"Open it," Eve said while curving her mouth into a smile and then added.

"It's a bracelet."

'Why did you even place it in the gift box if you are going to reveal it to me before I could open it?' He went speechless for a moment.

Shaking his head, he tore the outer cover and then opened the black wooden box, which looked more like a gift than the real one.

Inside the luxurious black box, a silver bracelet rested on the red velvet-like cushion and soon glared at the visitors with its single emerald gem-like eye. Without minding the bracelet's sudden reflection ray that entered his eyes, Charles picked the silver bracelet and placed it on his palm.

Out of curiosity, Charles zeroed his gaze on the emerald gem embedded bracelet and cast [Inspect] skill on it.

[Name: Mother's Wish Bracelet

Rank: ???

Effect: Unknown]

'That's new.' Charles stared at the bracelet for a second and then wore it before his mother could start complaining. Charles knew that if he didn't say anything, Eve would definitely misunderstand that he didn't like the gift and would add extra salt in the morning food. Without any delay, he raised his head while showing a joyous expression on his face and said with a nod.

"It's so beautiful, mom."

Her eyes twinkled as she heard his words, and she said with a nod.

"I'm glad you like it." After saying so, she took a piece of chocolate cake and gave it to him.

After eating the cake, Charles chatted with Eve for a whole hour and returned to his bedroom. He didn't let his emotion overwhelm his heart and lay on the bed silently. Within minutes, he closed his eyes and soon fell into a deep sleep.

Countless memories resurfaced in front of his mind. Some were filled with his nightmares, while the other memories were filled with sadness and loneliness.

After a long sleep, Charles woke up around 6 A.M and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He freshened himself up, took a short bath in the cold water using a bar of soap, and then walked out of the shower.

After that, he changed his clothes into a casual one before he went to the kitchen and took a loaf of soft bread stored on the kitchen shelf. He then took the peanut butter, a bottle of grape juice on the corner shelf and sat comfortably on the nearby chair.

Charles first sliced the bread loaf into five pieces and put some peanut butter on it before taking a bite. He silent ate in the kitchen, drank a glass of grape juice, and then went back to the bedroom.

Minutes passed as he immersed himself in doing exercises and soon noticed that the morning sun ascended from the east.

'It's already 7.' Charles looked at the outside street and then began to contemplate deeply.

'Should I use those experience points and rank-up my Main-Class now? But that would create many variations in 'Fate' and alert the enemy, right?' He frowned as he thought of the troublesome enemy, Watcher.

'If I Rank-up the main-class now, Life Church will also suspect that I already mastered a way to get the Class-Gem 'luckily' and might interrogate me. I already used the 'Luck' excuse last time, so if I use it again, the higher-ups will definitely find something odd about me. Would they put me in some experiment laboratory and search my soul aka Inner world?' An ominous thought appeared in his mind.

'But I have to rank up my main class before the escort mission. Unlike the sub-class, the system needs some time to construct Rank-2 spell models. If I Rank-up my main class at the last minute to surprise my enemy, it won't do any good at all. I will only improve my body strength and would feel helpless to create new corresponding spell models. Moreover, I don't even know how long it would take for me to create a Rank-2 spell model at all!

If so, I also need to think of a way to fool these fanatics first. Should I go to the Withering Shadows department and Rank-up in front of my team members? No, they will question me about why I can rank-up without using the Class-Gem... That's the last thing I want to hide from everyone.' He massaged his template in frustration and soon thought of a helper.

'Holem's Crown... Miracle... Wait a sec. What if I put the blame on the Holem's Crown to Rank-up? Will they believe me? Yes, they will believe my words. But they must have already known that creating a 'Miracle' needs the power of 'Luck' from others…

If so, they will feel fear of losing their luck. Last time, many Mystics, including Bishop Reynolds, lost their luck and became victims. I have to make another lie… Moreover, I also have to keep the information about my Rank-Up confidential. Hmm, it looks like I need Team Leader Emilia's help again.' Nodding his head, Charles changed his cloth into a formal black one and walked out of his house.

A frown crossed his face as he saw the dark clouds in the sky and then went back to the reception room. He then searched the umbrella for a whole minute and then went to the dining hall to ask Eve about it. Knocking lightly, he opened the wooden door a little and noticed Eve was in the middle of cutting vegetables.

"Mom, where did you put the umbrella?" He asked in puzzlement.

"Ask Lady Saron. She is the one who took it yesterday." Fixing her gaze on the carrot and the silver knife, Eve said in a silvery voice, causing him to nod his head subconsciously.

"Got it," Charles said as he walked out and then went near the room on the other end of the reception room.

Before he could knock on the wooden door, a clicking sound came from the other side, and soon a whirly blonde-haired woman in a black long gown dress opened the door and gave him a black-colored classic umbrella.

Curling his lips up, Charles caught the handle and nodded his head. He then turned around, walked out of 45 El Street, and went to 35 Ivy Street, where the Withering Shadow Branch office was located.

As he had expected, while he was walking on the dirt road, small raindrops fell from the sky and went fiercer in mere seconds. Letting out a heavy sigh, Charles gripped the handle, opened the umbrella, held it above his head, and started walking.