“Uh, nice to meet you too Kitara, hello…”

Once I regained my senses I managed to utter out a response. Best friend? If I had a best friend like that...you know what, I don’t even want to think about it, too dangerous! Instead, I turned to Cornelius, saying, “Okay, I think we both know that an explanation is in order here.”

He looked like he was holding back a smile, whether from amusement or something else, I couldn’t tell. “Oh? What exactly is it that needs to be explained?”

He’s not going to make me say it out loud, is he...there is no need to create unnecessary tension, so I took his question another way. “I would love to know why someone this adorable-” I pointed at Kitara “-is best friends with an ugly bastard like yourself!” I smirked at them and relaxed my posture, hoping they would take it as the joke I intended.

Kitara burst out laughing, and even Cornelius broke out an actual smile. “We’ve known each other for a loooong time,” Kitara said once she got her laughter under control. “He’s pretty much the only person I regularly talk to now.”

“What has it been now, 35 years or something?” Cornelius asked her.

“You mean, that we’ve known each other? I think so, yeah. I lost track.”

“Me too, for some reason I could never get the years right, even though I can clearly remember how we met.”

Hold on, something isn’t right here. “How would you have known each other for 35 years when neither of you look older than 20?” I had to ask. Both of them looked rather young, in fact Cornelius looked like the youngest out of the three at the guardhouse. Now that makes me wonder exactly what kind of relationship he had with the guards to have been called in to deal with me…

Cornelius turned back to me with a knowing look, “You’re forgetting that we are all...special, here.” He looked around for a bit, and I realized that we have been speaking rather openly with any number of ears around us. We were already drawing attention, mostly because of Kitara, if the direction of their gazes gave any indication. It seems that non-humans are not exactly common around here. However, I did not detect much animosity, if anything. Instead, the crowd’s eyes held...pity? Strange. “Let’s go back to our place first, then we can discuss things properly,” Cornelius said while vigilantly scanning our surroundings. I suppose he is somewhat accustomed to this behavior, as he was only slightly tense, not at all agitated as I would have expected from any normal person in a similar situation. “Is that alright with you Kitkat?”

“I guess, it’s up to you Corny,” she said. Corny?! Oh boy, I am going to love this.

Corny- I mean, Cornelius, heh, noticed that Kitara was not exactly comfortable letting me, a total stranger, into what I presume is their shared home, but it seemed like he felt he had no choice. “Our place is the best for privacy, I don’t really want you there but this is important. Do I have your word that you will behave? I will not be happy if I have to discipline you in my own home.”

What am I, some unruly school kid? I didn’t appreciate the way he spoke to me, but I did have to admit that we didn’t quite get off on the right foot.

“You won’t have any trouble with me, I promise.”

In the end, I agreed to his suggestion, and together the three of us walked in silence to a different part of the city, eyes following us at every turn. Finally though, we stopped in a scarcely populated area, where a number of one story residences stood. While most of them were made of stone or wood, the house we entered had walls and ceilings made of packed earth, similar to the buildings I first woke up in. However, although the material was different from the neighbors, this house was no less elegant in design. Countless swirls and patterns decorated the walls, and the shape of the roof seemed to be carefully crafted to withstand any sort of rain. I could be mistaken about the effectiveness, but the appearance was there. There were square holes for windows that were evenly spaced out, but instead of wooden covers that I was expecting, there were actual panes of glass.

The inside shared a likeness to the outside, packed earth for the internal walls, but ‘modern’ furniture like wooden chairs, tables, and book shelves. I could see several doorways, each door also being made of wood, but since they were closed I couldn’t tell what lay behind them. My guess is, this entire house was made by an earth mage, but furnished separately. I wondered if it was more expensive to be done this way or if it actually saved money.

Then I realized, Cornelius might have actually done this himself. If so, then he would have saved a ton on construction costs because the only thing he would have spent was mana!

“This is quite an amazing home,” I remarked out loud. We were all sitting in what I would call the living room, where guests could be properly welcomed. “I have to ask, since I know you can manipulate earth to some degree, did you build this place yourself?”

Cornelius gave me a small smile, a genuine one, and said, “Yeah, this is all my work. It took a few weeks to get it exactly the way we wanted it, but the basic structure, the rooms and everything, all of that was done quite quickly.”

“How quickly are we talking here?”

Kitara spoke up before Cornelius could answer, “He set it up in a day! Isn’t that awesome?!”

I had to admit that I was pretty impressed. I had worked with earth manipulators in the past, I even dabbled in it myself once or twice, but building a home out of the earth by yourself using magic in just one day was not exactly a common ability. “That really is incredible, how long did it take you to get so skilled? And how was it allowed for you to build in the middle of the city like this? I have so many questions, we I’m still waiting for the ones I asked before to be answered-”

“Oh, do you want something to eat?” Kitara interjected.

“...Um, sure…” I said, slightly put off. That was a little abrupt, her sudden words threw me off slightly.

“What would you like to eat?”

“Uh, I don’t know what you have, anything would be good I guess. I’m not a picky eater,” I decided to say.

“He is definitely not like you Corny, haha!” She directly teased Cornelius. “I’m hungry, so I’ll make us all something. Do you want anything, Corny?”

Cornelius smiled at her and said, “How about we all have pancakes then Kitkat?”

“Yes! I was actually in the mood for that, I’ll be right back,” she said while happily moving towards one of the doorways. Apparently it lead into the kitchen, I was pretty curious about how that would all work in an earthen home. Then I realized that it would probably work just fine, since heating and refrigeration does not rely on electricity here, but core magic instead, it doesn’t matter what the house is made of. Most likely, any room could function as a kitchen if you bother to move the appliances around.

I still wanted to see an actual kitchen in this world though. Maybe they could give me a tour later.

Cornelius watched Kitara leave, I could feel a deep sea of love in his gaze. I wonder, does she know? “You’ll have to forgive her,” he finally said to me. “She does that quite a bit, but not intentionally. You’ll get used to it.” It seems he understood what I was experiencing, the not-quite-rude segway that left my thoughts derailed and unfocused.

“Let me answer some of the things you asked about first, and then I want to ask you a few questions myself,” he continued.

“Sure, go for it, I’m all ears.”

“Kitara and I knew each other from back on Earth. We were close friends back then, probably closer now with certain obstacles out of the way, but we were inseparable from the day we met. When the Reality Break happened we stuck together, facing even more dangerous trials than what we’ve been dealing with up to that point.”

He paused with a faraway look on his face. “Those were the worst times we have ever lived through, yet at the same time they were the best.”

I completely understood where he was coming from. I felt the same way when the Break happened. Being able to wield amazing powers but also having to watch as so many people got hurt...even after all my lifetimes, I never forgot that time when everything first changed.

Cornelius cleared his throat and went on. “Anyways, by that point we had already known each other for about 10 years. I was determined to keep her safe and happy, and so I did everything I could to protect her in the changed world. Unfortunately, it was not enough. There was...an attack. We both ended up dying at that time. I don’t know what her experience was after death, but when I died, I found myself in an expanse of ever-changing blue. It was there that I learned about the entity and its promise.”

“So you actually met the thing?” I interrupted.

Cornelius looked at me as if I was a simpleton. “Didn’t I say it earlier? The entity told us that we have to meet it in this world, so no, I didn’t actually interact with it.”

I frowned. “Hey, you did say something like that before, but you never went into explicit detail. I wasn’t going to make an assumption off of the one time you spoke about it.”

“Not my fault you flipped out the moment I mentioned it,” he countered. Okay, he does have a point, but that should also be a point in my favor since he should have realized I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly right then. But, to be the bigger man, I decided to move things along.

“Well, whatever, tell me what happened in that room so we can get to the other questions I had,” I insisted.

It was his turn to frown at me. “Patience, damn,” he said. “All I saw were these screens of text, just like the notifications we get here in this world. They explained that I would be re-iterated - and yes, that was the specific term used, we didn’t come up with it ourselves - into this world, and that this is the only time it would happen. I was allowed to keep the class I had in my previous life if I chose, but the price for doing so would be that I would start over as a baby. That wouldn’t have been much of a downside, except that I retained all my memories and cognitive functions...It is not fun having an adult mind in a toddler’s body, I don’t care what anyone else says.” Believe me, I understand you, brother. I, too, have had my unfortunate share of starting over ‘fresh from the womb’.

But wait, you got to keep your class? So. Un. Fair.

Unaware of my internal grumblings, Cornelius continued his narrative. “At least keeping my class let me do a few things that would have been impossible otherwise, like finding Kitara. I won’t go into the details, but I had hoped that she would have been given the same choice that I had, and for once it turned out I was right. When I was old enough, I searched for her, and we were eventually reunited in this world. We have been together ever since.”

“So that’s how we can say that we’ve known each other for 35 years,” he concluded. “Combining the time we spent together on Earth with how long we’ve been here, it has been that long at the very least.”

I nodded and took the time to digest his words. “You know,” I said, “that whole ‘searching for the best friend you hoped was still alive’ thing could be pretty romantic when you look at it a certain way.”

With a brief pause, I then added, “Or it could be entirely creepy, you know. Just saying.”

Cornelius rolled his eyes at that and leaned back into his chair. “I don’t care how other people see it, what matters is that we have each other.”

At that moment Kitara walked back in with two plates of pancakes, one with twice the size stack than the other. I was given the smaller plate, while Kitara and Cornelius sat together and shared the bigger stack. There was a good deal of syrup and fruits piled on top of each. I watched as Kitara took the first bite off of their plate, only to use the same fork to feed Cornelius the second bite. It looked so natural that I almost thought nothing of it. Cornelius looked rather content at the treatment, despite having his own fork that he used as well.

I couldn’t help but blurt out, “Are you two really just best friends?”

““Yes”” They both responded at the same time, Cornelius still chewing. He took a moment to swallow, then added, “Yes, we are just friends. Very close friends, but strictly platonic.”

The pain in his voice was so slight that I might have never caught it if I hadn’t noticed some time ago how much he loved this woman. Just friends, huh...I feel sorry for you.

Trying to avoid us slipping into yet another awkward silence, I said, “It’s just rare to see a friendship so deep, I’m pretty envious of you two.” I definitely wasn’t going to say something as tactless as “you two would make such a good couple!” That was a surefire way to ruin the atmosphere. Instead, I forcibly changed the subject. “We still haven’t gotten to my other questions though, like why you think I could help you get through the Spire, whatever that is, and how you’re related to the City Guard.”

The moment I brought up the Spire things got awkward. Exactly what I did not want happening. “You want to bring him to the Spire?” Kitara asked with a stern tone. “When were you going to bring that up?”

“I only mentioned it to him as a reason for why I was willing to cooperate with him,” Cornelius calmly responded. “Don’t worry, I haven’t actually told him anything yet. We still have a lot of preparations to do before we can even think of leaving, so we can use this time to see if he really would be worth our trust.”

Hello, I’m sitting right here. Don’t pretend I’m not in the room. I stared at them both with a blank face, but neither one took notice of me.

“We only met him today, we know nothing about him.”

“That’s why I said we can use the time that we have Kitkat, we can get to know him and see if he can help. I already know that he has the motivation to get to the top, and I can trust its source. Even if he doesn’t go with us, I can guarantee that he will do it himself.”

“Then why not let him do it himself? We should be working with people that we actually know and trust, Corny…”

“Kitkat, I don’t trust any of the people we know because I know them. I don’t trust them to protect you when I can’t. Zareb here, I can at least trust to keep us moving forward while I focus on defense. It would be a good set up.”

“...Do you really think it would work?”

“I really think it would work.”

“Is either one of you going to tell me what’s going on?” I finally said, impatient and annoyed.

They both looked at me, a bit apologetic as if they forgot I was here. Then Cornelius spoke.

“Ah, sorry...you see, the Spire is the goal of pretty much everyone here, natives and Re-Iterated alike. It is this world’s only dungeon, filled with countless monsters, mazes, puzzles, and traps. It is the most dangerous place on the planet.”

He took a deep breath and released it in a sigh. “It is the place where the entity lives.”