Chapter 251

Settling Accounts (I)

By the time the group returned to the City of Mirrors, nearly two months later, they had found that the city was still poignantly ablaze. The two stelas were nowhere to be seen, with only the city itself remaining suspended over the mirrored lake. Furthermore, thirty-six teleportation arrays were arranged around the lake that led directly into the city and the entrance was free for everyone.

As Cain suspected, it essentially became a central hub, with numerous people moving into the city itself. Its streets were beyond populated and Cain’s group went easily unnoticed in the sea.

Cain frowned gently; due to the way he went about clearing the floor, nobody within his group actually naturally climbed through the City’s strata. As such, they were still stuck on the bottom floor, and while he could probably force the issue, it would draw too much attention. Since they’d be leaving the Tower anyway, he decided to let it be and eventually find some time to grind out and find a nicer place higher up the strata.

His group beelined toward the headquarters, chirping happily along the way about the lively slums. Cain inspected left and right, noting that dozens of new shops had opened along the winding paths, with the Tower natives having been nearly completely replaced by now.

When they reached their house, Cain frowned once again, noting countless souls eyeing both them and the house; it wasn’t difficult to understand why. After all, even if, by all means, a simple abode, it was extremely luxurious for this part of the city. There was no doubt in Cain’s mind that many tried barging in, but all collectively failed because the Tower itself safeguarded it.

As such, it must have been quite shocking when Cain’s group frolicked in without any issues. Reports would be sent and there’d be visitors, no doubt, but he didn’t care; after all, they’ll only stick around for a day or two to arrange everything before departing.

After all, as much as he wanted to, there was a good chunk of his group that he couldn’t take out-- the Tower natives. Anna, Izirdul, and Sera abdicated their positions of the royalty and followed him, not to mention Anna’s guard and the handmaiden and, obviously, Taima and Lek.

The moment the group entered, they all fell onto their bottoms and lied down after, tired. They’ve been journeying for so long that, even with relatively frequent stops, they were still exhausted. Not wanting to step on their rest time, Cain gave quick farewells and booked it, leaving the house. As he suspected, he was followed as he made his way toward the Den.

Despite being followed, nobody jumped him and he counted that as a victory already. The Den was still the Den, even if it’s social makeup had changed from exclusively being filled with Tower-natives to needing the latter to share it with the Conquerors. He looked around but didn’t recognize anyone, shrugging and leaving shortly after. On the outside, however, he was welcomed by a brigade of people staunchly blocking his way.

As for why he wasn’t recognized, it likely had to do with the fact that it’s been so long since he last shaved and had his hair cut, not to mention the tan he accrued while traveling through a massive desert. He calmly stepped in front of the group blocking his way, watching its supposed leader step forward. It was a man in his late thirties, clad in heavy, plate armor that shined like gold from top to bottom, meaning it was likely terrible all around, with a look in his eyes that had that classic ‘I want what’s yours’ coat of paint.

“...”

“...” neither side spoke, however, as awkwardness emerged. Cain suspected that they expected him to react to suddenly being ambushed, but he continued to casually stand in place, even beginning to whistle after a few moments and tap his feet gently against the dirt.

“You seem unafraid,” the gold-armored man eventually broke the silence, corners of his smiling lips twitching. “Good, I like people like you. As such, I’ll get to the point: transfer rights for your house here and I will give you a very high position in my group! You should know, we are one of the six leading factions in the City, Blue Devils, and my faction has over six thousand members! Joining us will immediately skyrocket you to success!”

“How successful can you be,” Cain replied casually. “When I, a lowly individual who does not belong to any of the, uh, what was it? Sex leading factions in the city? Right, those-- so, how come someone who doesn’t belong to them has a house you guys want? By the way, sex leading factions? That’s a bit crude, don’t you think? I bet initiation is for me to get butt-fucked by you. I’m sorry, really am, but even if I were swingin’ that way, I’d be swingin’ far away from you.”

“...” a few men in the group stiffened their lips as to prevent laughter from reaping out, while the man’s face twisted darkly for a moment. “There’s no point in provoking us; we already know that if we kill you, ownership of the house won’t be transferred to us.” E-eh? It was Cain’s turn to barely maintain a poker face. What do you mean? Who else would get it?! Goblins and leprechauns?! Whoever’s givin’ you info is swindling you hard, my good man! “But that doesn’t mean we can toss you into a dungeon for all eternity. So, think carefully.”

“I--” just as Cain was about to speak, a hooded figure clad in priestly robes appeared from the side and walked up to him, bowing before speaking.

“Lord Accquatar requests your audience, Honorable One,” City’s Lord? Cain frowned for a moment, knowing the name all-too-well. After all, Lord Accquatar was one of the three bosses in the last gauntlet battle for the City and was notorious after the fact for being a dungeon boss that was essentially impossible to kill due to scaling. Since only people that were level 40 and below could enter his dungeon, he was only ever defeated once in over twenty years of holding the dungeon down.

“Pf--pfft, ha ha ha,” the group of men suddenly roared out in laughter. “Oh my God, I can’t believe he hired someone to call him Honorable One, ha ha ha ha...”

“Why does the Lord want to meet with me?” Cain quizzed with a furrowed expression, ignoring the background noise.

“To celebrate your victories, Honorable One,” the hooded man replied with a faint bow.

“To---to celebrate his victories, he says, ha ha ha ha,” the laughter roared out once again, even louder than before. “Jesus, I’ve met pathetic people but this--this... ha ha ha...” My victories? Cain was surprised. Though he naturally expected that the high-ranking members of the City would likely be aware of what had happened to the distant Kingdom, he didn’t think they’d be able to link him specifically to it. Hey, maybe I can fleece some nice rewards from it all... greed gently awoke in Cain’s heart as he smiled.

“Of course, of course; if the Lord wishes to meet me, I obviously must go.”

“Oi, oi, pfft, ha ha ha, just because-- just because you made us laugh,” the gold-gilded man said. “Doesn’t mean you get to walk away. Tsk, what a sleek attempt.”

“Are they bothering you, Honorable One?” the hooded man asked with an eerie voice.

“Na, it’s fine,” Cain said; whatever the case may be, they were still people from Earth. He didn’t want to push them to the wolves. “And as for you,” he himself decided to whip them up a bit, unleashing just a tiny trickle of his Mana pressure. However, that tiny trickle immediately doused out the laughter and made everyone begin to quake. “Don’t be so loud. People are sleeping.” the entire place quieted down so much one would be able to her mosquitoes buzzing about. “Alright, keep safe guys. Lead the way.” he added to the hooded man.

The latter nodded and began walking forward, with Cain following. He quickly realized they were moving toward the central plaza’s teleportation array, directly linked to the summit of the city and the Sun Gates that shielded the penultimate Palace of the 2nd floor. While the Kingdom may have been difficult to take down, and overall was massively harder to actually defeat, there was one distinction: the Sun Palace could not be destroyed or conquered. Not now, not ever. It was one of the few ineffable rules of the Tower and one that nobody ever cracked.

Following the hooded man, he explored most rest of the city in the process. It was lively, though it would only get livelier in the future. Due to Cain, Earth had gained access to the City of Mirrors years ahead of schedule, but that didn’t really offset the number of people present. The reason was simple: while Cain’s actions did prevent a lot of people from dying, there were just outright more Conquerors in his previous life at the point when they gained access to the City of Mirrors. As such, the numbers were actually quite similar all things considered.

“Would you like us to summon your companions?” the hooded man asked as they stopped in front of a teleportation array.

“No, don’t worry about it. Let’s go.”

“Very well. Please, step onto the runic platform. There will be some shaking, but don’t worry; you will be automatically coated by a shield of Mana, but it will not attempt to pry into you.” But will try to scan as much information as it can anyway... haah... everybody’s damned same...