Chapter 262

Return of the Seven(?) Greedy Ones (I)

Ethan and Cain spent roughly four days walking about, managing to explore roughly one tenth of the citadels bottom ‘floor’. Throughout, they’ve encountered a few more groups but none walked up to intercept them, everyone too busy conducting their own investigation.

As Cain suspected, he’d come to learn that Ethan was just seventeen years old and that he had just recently became a Conqueror. Despite that, he had skyrocketed through the ranks and was considered as one of the best Assassins in the world at the moment.

By the fifth day, the duo had turned around and began walking toward the exit. The only reason Cain came in was to confirm that nothing was different and, from the surface-level shallow inspection... it didn’t appear so. There were no cleared trials yet, which wasn’t surprising. In Cain’s previous timeline, it took almost three months for a first trial to be cleared. Even with the accelerated progress in this one, it should still be at least a month.

“Do you have a place on the second floor?” Cain asked Ethan as the two walked through the portal, returning to the eight floor.

“Na,” the boy shook his head. “I was too late. Even the available places were just... insane.”

“We’ll outfit you with one, then,” Cain said. “Or we can stuff you into a house with others if you’d prefer that.”

“Eh? You guys have houses on the second floor?”

“Houses, kennels, villas, pools, training rooms... you name it, I’ve got it,” Cain chuckled lightly. “You may not believe this, but I’m a fairly rich guy. Well, my friends are fairly rich. I mostly just mooch.”

“You do look like a moocher.”

“I do, don’t I?”

It took the a while to return to the second floor and to the City of Mirrors. As per usual, it was drowning in people, seemingly growing more and more populous by the day. That wasn’t an illusion; the city was growing larger, it was even physically expanding to accommodate the newcomers... but nobody noticed it. It was the subtle illusion that even Cain wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t chosen ‘Mind’ as one of the elements he could bend.

If someone took a snapshot of the city today and one five years from now, it would seem as though the place ballooned... yet everyone would deny the picture as a mere photoshoped prank. Though people had a good grasp on just how malleable a human mind was, how easy to cheat and break it was, it wasn’t until the advent of Towers and the ‘Mind’ element that the true understanding was reached.

In truth, it wasn’t the fact that the mind was malleable-- it was fairly resistive to the strange influences. It was that whatever reality it could not accept, it would curb and bend and deform and disfigure until it did fit. Lost memories and broken-up memories would be retrofitted with new, entirely made-up ones. Fragments would be taken, just snapshots of distant childhoods that everyone forgot, and entire stories would be written around them. That time when a dog licked or kissed you because you helped them, only to learn that you actually saw it happen on TV and it never happened to you.

Minds were full of such memories; in a way, all of them were true... but were bent to such a degree that they distorted the reality. The more unstable a life one leads, the more unstable the memories become.

Sighing, Cain shook his head and moved on. He was barely outfitted to be a father, and he certainly didn’t have the qualification to outfit the entire humanity with an evolutionary concept of extra-dimensional illusions that they will encounter in the Tower. Eventually, they’ll figure it out. At least some would, anyway.

“We’re here,” he spoke to Ethan as they came in front of a massive compound containing over a dozen houses. It was like a massive ranch in the countryside, yet nobody found it strange that it was a part of a city.

“W-wait... you... you’re telling me you... own this place?!” Ethan gaped, his heart pounding. This was, by far, the largest plot of land he had ever seen in the city, over ten times the size of the second one. In fact, this place seemed like a city within a city.

“No, not me, a friend,” Cain said. “I’m merely a beneficiary. Though, I was the one who got him a sweet deal on it. Come on, let’s go surprise ‘em.”

Entering the massive compound, Ethan held his breath. He couldn’t even imagine the price of this place, even if they got a ‘sweet deal on it’. Billions? No... trillions? He couldn’t say. By now, it was obvious that, eventually, most of humanity would move into the Towers, specifically their second floors. This City and the surrounding one would become the once-upon-time dreamed metropolis accommodating... everyone.

Shortly after entering, the two stopped a group of men and women laying about lazily on hammocks and benches near a pool, sunbathing. Looking at the sight, Ethan couldn’t help but feel something... strange. While everyone was struggling for even the tiniest chance to get ahead of the competition, this group... looked like they were vacationing while the whole ‘Tower business’ had nothing to do with them.

“I am back!” Cain exclaimed suddenly as he struck a pose, causing Ethan to nearly facepalm. However, others merely glanced at him and continued to ignore him. “Guys? Guys? Come on! It’s T2! Hasta-la-vista, I’ll be back, thumbs-up! It’s a classic! See? See this, Ethan? This is the kind of horseshit that I deal with on a daily. Can you believe it?”

“Yes.” Ethan replied without hesitation.

“What?!”

“Who’s the boy, C’?” a golden-haired woman walked up to the two, drinking something from a glass through a straw. She wore sunglasses, inspecting Ethan casually. “Wait, lemme guess-- you adopted another one?”

“Can we keep him? Please? Pretty please?”

“... seriously?”

“Hey, I’ve been dying to do that,” Cain shrugged. “Missed my opportunity with the others.”

“Shoulda kept missing it. Where’d you find him?”

“On the ninth floor,” Cain said. “He was stalking me. But when I saw this pair of eyes, I just knew... I had to adopt him.”

“... you’re becoming a real creep,” the woman sighed, turning toward Ethan and gently smiling .”C’mon, let me introduce you to everyone.”

“S-sure...”

“I know it’s hard not to look,” Cain suddenly said. “But this is my wife, dude.”

“...” Ethan hunkered down, his cheeks reddened.

“C’, seriously?” Emma sighed, taking the glass off and glaring at the snickering Cain. “Uncool, dude. Uncool. Ignore him, sweetie. Look all you want.”

“... oi.”

Following Cain’s weak protests, Emma dragged Ethan off toward the rest of the group while Cain settled on a nearby chair, inside a tree’s shade, cracking open a can of beer. He barely took a few sips before Senna suddenly joined him, opening a can of her own and sitting down next to him.

“Who’s the newbie?”

“Someone famous from my last life,” Cain replied. “Fate really tossed quite a few of you guys at me.”

“Oh? Was he as good as me?”

“Nobody was as good as you.”

“If you weren’t such a kiss-ass, I might even believe you,” Senna chuckled gently.

“Na, he was a tier below you,” Cain replied. “But I don’t think it was necessarily due to the lack of talent. He wound up super-specializing, unlike most of people.”

“Super-specializing?” Senna quizzed, arching her brows.

“Yeah,” Cain nodded. “His info got leaked publicly at one point and he went into hiding after. Apparently, he had three skills-- Stealth, Backstab, and Vanish. All three were and quasi-Divine quality. His class, apparently, didn’t allow him to wear items or gain bonuses from any titles. However, at the same time, it did make him the best Assassin in the world.”

“Jesus, isn’t that a bit... too extreme?”

“Yup. I suspect that’s why it got leaked,” Cain said, taking a sip. “I didn’t know much about his personality so I spent an extra few days to test him out.”

“What’s he like?”

“Proud,” Cain shrugged. “Like the rest of you lot. Dropping your name, though, tamed him.”

“My name?”

“Well, not a name. A nickname.”

“... no.”

“You really hate it, don’t you?” Cain chuckled.

“Imagine if you were called ‘Fire Prince’ or--you know what? Nevermind. You’d probably adore it.” Senna sighed, shaking her head. “Anyway, will he join us?”

“I think so,” Cain said. “He’s proud, but not in the arrogant, monolithic fashion. A gathering of people much stronger than him should stir him up.”

“... I keep forgetting that you actually do calculate your actions,” Senna sighed yet again. “Your facade of unmatched stupidity is really, really good. It’s scary.”

“So is yours,” Cain chuckled, glancing at her. “How are the preparations going?”

“On schedule.”

“Hm. I noticed quite a few groups on the ninth floor,” Cain said. “The world... has made a lot of progress.”

“Yet, why don’t you sound worried? At all?”

“’cause I’ve got my dearest Blade Princess by my side.”

“Ugh. I walked into that one, didn’t I?” Senna chuckled bitterly. “Dad.”

“Hm?”

“Are you sure you wanna come back?” she asked abruptly.

“What do you mean?” Cain asked back.

“... mom is one thing,” she said. “She’s been restless for a while now. We’ve all noticed. But you... you weren’t.”

“...”

“For all the six years, not once did any one of us think ‘yup, he’s got that itch’. I’m just... I’m worried you’re doing this for us. If it’s that... we can do it ourselves. Like you told me once, you’ll let us fly. And now... now we’re flying. You don’t need your wings anymore. We’ll carry you. Wherever you wanna go.”

“...” Cain looked deeply into the sky-blue eyes that stared back at him. His heart mellowed out at the proposition as he reached out and tenderly ruffled her hair. “You trying to get your old man to retire so you become the strongest?”

“No, dad! I--”

“I know, kiddo,” Cain interrupted. “But don’t worry. The fire in me hadn’t died just yet. I came back just in time.”

“Just in time?”

“It was beginning to wane,” he elaborated. “A year or two longer, and I might really have retired. While the urges that push you aren’t the ones pushing me, I’ve my own fuel and reasons.”

“Will we ever get to hear those reasons?”

“They were never a secret,” Cain said. “At least not with you and your mom.”

“...”

“It turned out,” he added, taking a deep breath. “Most of what I believed I knew about this place... was a lie. Even the single act I was actually proud of in my past life, stealing the Timecube, turned out to be a lie. I just wanna know... what’s the point of this place. And, even more importantly, I wanna be able to carry you guys as far as possible.”

“Dad--”

“Don’t take it away from me, princess,” Cain chuckled. “That’s all a dad could ever want. Yes, you’re your own woman now. And soon, Lana will be too. As will everyone in our little group. All of you will be your own people, living your own lives. But to me, you’ll forever be just a group of lost little misfits ill-equipped to deal with this place. You should go, now.”

“Huh?”

“Someone’s been desperately stealing glances at you for five minutes now,” Cain glanced at her, smiling wryly and nodding toward Sera in the distance. “Don’t keep ‘er waiting for your old man.”

“... I love you. You know that?” she said suddenly, standing up and kissing his forehead.

“I do, yea,” he nodded. “Hurry now. Give your old man some peace and quiet.” Senna looked at him deeply for a moment before smiling gently and shaking her head, getting up right after and walking way, leaving Cain alone in the shade, drinking. Looking at the unraveling sight in front of him, the joyous laughter and chatter, he breathed in. The journey was long still, but he felt he had gotten just a tiny bit closer. Closer to the answers he seeks.