Part Seven – Idle Moments

“IT’S OFFICIAL, YOU SUCK!”

“Ahhhhh! I hate this game! Why’s it so difficult!? Michael, how did you beat this? There has to be some cheat code!”

“While there certainly might be, I’m afraid I don’t know it. It’s a port of an old arcade game. It’s designed to have a spike in difficulty to make you pay more. If you want to win, you’ll have to persevere.”

“Eraaaagh!!!”

While I would’ve loved to, it was difficult to spend a large number of days without any break. So with our income secured, we were taking a few days off from fighting. Cameron had gone off somewhere, leaving the two of us alone. I’d happened to come across a handheld game system in an abandoned house the other day, and the game in it was the one Alicia was playing. It was a fairly nostalgic experience for me, as I could remember playing the arcade version. I wasn’t that good at it.

“GET OVER HERE!!”

Alicia had seen me playing it and asked if she could have a turn. Since it wasn’t my game, I didn’t mind all that much. But she’d quickly discovered just how difficult it was. She’d spent close to an hour fruitlessly trying to clear at least one ladder.

“Whyyyyy!? Why is this so difficult!? Why can’t I win?”

You’re starting to repeat yourself. If you actually want to win, you’ll have to take the game seriously. Also, try some different tactics. Doing the same thing over and over will only get you killed. Hey, that’s good advice for real life too.

It really was. If you always relied on the same maneuvers, eventually you’d come across something that would kill you. Learning new tricks and constantly adapting would increase my chances of survival.

“AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

“I did it! I won! Yes, in your face Michael!” Wait what?

“Uhhh, what’d I’d do?”

“You didn’t think I could do it. I saw that smirk on your face, thinking that I suck at this game. So there, I won.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I’d beaten that game multiple times already. She was so excited and I didn’t want to bring her down. Or do I? Nah.

“Fine. Yay, you’re the greatest video game player ever. Happy?”

“Not at all!”

Sometimes I want to smack her. Just once upside the head. I think it would calm her dow-. Oh my.

I’d checked my email for the first time in close to two months. Most was spam or other garbage I didn’t care about. But there was one, dated for about a week ago, that shocked me.

I don’t know if you’re going to read this or even if you’re still alive, but I needed to write it. I don’t know what to do. Mom and Dad are dead and I can’t find anyone else from our family except Uncle Chris. If you’re out there, please, contact me. I’m worried about you. I know about the fight you had with our parents and that you left the house and moved to Cavisburgh. And I know we haven’t been on the best of terms lately, but if you’re still alive and you read this message, don’t ignore it. Don’t do that thing you do, where you think you don’t need other people. Because I know that if you do, you’ll die. And I’d miss you. I miss you now. So please, come back.

Love, Rina

Well that makes me feel like a sack of shit. She’s been worried for me, while I’ve been doing whatever I want. It’s always been like this. She’s far too kind for her own good. And I already figured our parents were dead, but how did she find out? No never mind. I don’t think I want to know.

My good mood was completely gone. If only I’d never opened that email. Now all I could think about was her. I knew I should try to reach out to her, reassure her that I was still alive. But that was easier said than done.

Two years ago, when she was to first go on tour, she’d tried to invite me along. At the time, our parents had been trying to cut me out, on account of me not wanting to have anything to do with the music industry. I’d tried to be nice about it, but she could tell that I was upset about the whole thing.

I’ll say this only once. I wasn’t jealous. Not at all. I was just being sulky about my own circumstances and ended up saying some things that I regret. It got bad. Like, really bad. Bad enough that she smacked me. She, who couldn’t even squish a spider, had smacked me. It wasn’t my best moment.

Ever since, our relationship had been strained and we’d kept our distance from each other. I have no idea how to answer this. If I respond to her, she’ll expect me to meet up with her. I don’t want to do that. Anything that doesn’t help me grow right now can go on the back-burners. My sole objective is to get stronger, not patch things up with my sister!

“You okay? You look like someone kicked your puppy.” I must’ve been bothered enough that Alicia noticed, great.

“Just thinking too much. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Are you sure? You shouldn’t bottle-up whatever’s bothering you. It’s not good for your health.”

“I’m fine. I’m used to bottling things up.”

“Okay, but if you need to talk, me and Cameron are always ready to lend an ear.”

While I certainly appreciated that, it wasn’t necessary. Nothing was going to rattle me. I would remain focused on gathering as much strength as possible. There was no other way.

[???’s POV]

“Production has been steady for three days straight. At this rate, we’ll hit our projected quota within the month.”

“Excellent work, Corgan. After our arms are produced, I’d like the smithing corps to begin working on the next project.”

“Yes my lord.”

The large bearded man dipped into a bow that was at odds with his appearance, before retaking his seat. He, and three other individuals, were seated at a large table, with an elegantly dressed man at the head. It was clear to anyone who would’ve seen, that these four were subordinate to the other man.

“Now that that’s out of the way, I’d like a report on our overseas operations.”

It was the strangest of those seated who rose to answer this. Ten out of ten people would say that his outfit was out-of-place here. He wore a plain black suit along with a motorcycle helmet. Strangely, no one else even remarked on his getup. They were far too used to his eccentricities.

“The first and third operations went off without a hitch. The hired mercenaries killed off the monsters to the expected degree before retreating. Our retrieval teams then cleaned up the remaining monsters, before acquiring the materials requested.”

“Oh? And what about the second?”

“Successful as well, but with an unexpected twist.”

The helmeted man had purposely left the details out in order to draw more suspense. It wasn’t the first time he’d pulled a stunt like this, but one of the others had had enough.

“Enough with your silly games! Speak, or do you want me to pull it out of you?”

This outburst had come from the maid sitting beside the leader. She was markedly older than the others, being into her mid-30s, but she showed none of the composure expected of one in her position.

“Emilia, calm yourself. You know he’s doing this on purpose. The best way to deal with him is to ignore his shenanigans.”

“Oh how you wound me!! If you ignore my jokes, than I shall perish of loneliness, just like the poor rabbit.” His melodramatics were NOT well relieved.

“That’s an urban myth. Now have you gotten it out of your system yet?”

The helmeted man realized that further jests would be in bad taste and so finished his report.

“Very well. The second operation was successful as well, however there was an unexpected development. The mercenaries we hired actually cleared the nest of monsters.”

Sharp gasps were heard from all in the room, even the sharp-dressed man. That such an unexpected occurrence would happen was both a danger and a happy accident.

“Didn’t that nest have a C-Rank monster inside? I find it difficult that a small group was able to deal with one.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die, I swear I’m telling the truth. While they did have difficulties during the fight, they successfully slew the monster. Their leader in particular was impressive. He took on a C-Rank single-handedly and held it off. He did get caught off-guard by a Skill it used, but his companions quickly recovered and finished the fight.”

Since Corgan was not a combatant, the other four were probably the only ones who could fight a C-Rank single-handedly. And they would need ample preparation before attempting it.

“Do we have any way to contact them?”

“None whatsoever!” Everyone visibly recoiled at his blatant disregard of the situation.

“But I did give them one of the prototype weapons I had. That should leave a positive image.”

“I see. We’ll have to keep an eye out for that group. They could be a valuable asset. Or an obstacle. Now then, we should begin preparing for the nest phase.”

[???’s POV]

“So they actually did it?”

“Yes sir. A request was made on some secret forum and it’s already drawn in a number of applicants. They’ll be arriving soon.”

“Rrrrgh. So they don’t think we can handle it? Bullshit! If they had just given me the armaments I requested, we would’ve taken care of the issue ourselves.”

“It’s out of our hands now. We do have to take care that the Committee doesn’t catch wind of this. They don’t take too kindly to the mercenaries.”

“Haaah. Fine. When do they arrive?”

“Two weeks. Translators will be sent along to aid in promoting cooperation, but most of the applicants should speak English.”

“Damn. I can’t put together more than two sentences of English.”

“That’s what the translators are for.”