"Enter."
The office door slid open automatically as Ulrich spoke the single word.
David stepped in. His steps were firm, but his eyes still carried remnants of the rage from training earlier.
Ulrich didn’t speak right away.
The old man with silver hair sat calmly behind a massive desk, idly spinning a pen between his fingers.
After a few seconds, he looked up.
"Sothing on your mind, David?"
David stood straight. "No, sir."
He’d said it so quickly—"No, sir"—as if pain could be outranked. As if loneliness could be filed under protocol. But silence clung to him like an old injury: invisible, but aching. Ulrich couldn’t see it. Everyone couldn’t, and for make it worse... David kept pretending the fracture wasn’t there.
Ulrich offered a thin smile. "You nearly broke that kid’s jaw."
David didn’t respond.
Ulrich leaned forward slightly, his voice lowering.
"What about that missing person report?"
David frowned. "...Sorry, I haven’t—"
Ulrich raised one eyebrow.
David imdiately corrected himself.
"Confird. The one pulled into the Vortex was a man nad Nathan. Corporate worker. No military background. Not listed as a Hunter."
Ulrich nodded slowly. "And do you know him?"
"No. But I know his family," David replied flatly.
"Find out more. Everything you can."
David gave a sharp nod.
Just then, another knock ca at the door.
"Co in," Ulrich called out.
In ca a middle-aged woman—followed by a child who imdiately ran in.
"Grandpaaaa!"
"Ahahaha! Prilly, co here!"
Ulrich laughed out loud, his entire deanor shifting.
No tension. Just genuine joy and big arms lifting his granddaughter high.
David simply stood there, unmoving.
Ulrich looked over while laughing, "We’ll continue this later, David. My granddaughter’s here—I have to save the world from her too-strong hugs, hahaha!"
David gave a faint smile, saluted, and stepped out. Ulrich preach his source of happiness, leaving David alone.
As he walked toward the lift,
David felt... empty.
His steps were heavy.
Not from exhaustion.
Seeing Ulrich with his granddaughter—
that mont of joy—felt like a knife in his chest.
"...What the hell..." he muttered under his breath.
His jaw tightened. His breathing grew heavy.
He clenched his fists.
"Fuck..."
He didn’t know what burned more—the emptiness in his chest or the fact that he still wanted to be held, by soone, anyone. But so n aren’t built to be held. So n are built to walk into Towers just to feel sothing bite back.
With nowhere else to go, he made a decision:
Enter the Tower.
---
Elsewhere in the city...
Sophia stood in front of a familiar door.
A soft knock, followed by the sound of approaching footsteps.
The door opened. Emily stood there—her face far brighter than the last ti they t.
"Sophia... co in," she said warmly.
Inside, Lily sat on the couch, watching TV while eating a jelly cup.
When she saw Sophia, her eyes sparkled.
"Sis Sophia!!" she shouted.
Sophia smiled and took off her jacket.
"I’ve... been summoned into the Tower. I’m officially a Hunter now," she declared.
The word "Hunter" sounded heroic. Brave. Daring. But in Sophia’s voice, it sounded like an apology wrapped in armor. Like soone who had already bled too much, now forcing herself to be steel—because no one else would. Because waiting didn’t bring Nathan ho. Only clawing forward might.
Lily sat up straight, her jelly cup slipping onto the carpet.
Her wide eyes glead. "You can... find him?"
Hope can be loud. It can crash through a child’s eyes like fireworks. But this hope—Lily’s—was quiet. Fragile. Like a balloon tied to a single breath. Sophia felt it land in her chest and stay there. Heavy. Alive. And impossibly bright.
Sophia looked into those eyes—
eyes filled with hope, too pure for a chaotic world.
She didn’t answer.
But her smile was enough to promise sothing unspoken.
---
anwhile, in the forest clearing inside the Tower...
"Final log," Nathan exhaled, lifting the massive piece of wood now full of love-holes.
He didn’t say it like a victory. He said it like a man finishing sothing no one would ever praise. There was no applause for this work. No celebration for building poop canals with monster girls. Just sawdust, sweat, and a weird peace that always vanished the second he looked away.
Velmora was already in position—tail spinning slowly like a drill just waking up from a nap.
Nathan pointed at a spot. "Here. One last hole. Then we’re done."
Velmora nodded with bright enthusiasm. "Roger~!"
DRRTTTTT—
The organic drill humd back to life.
Nathan, though tired, felt satisfied.
Sweat ran down his chest, but his mind was calr.
Until—
"...This one needs dusting too... ehe..."
Nathan turned.
Velmora was already leaning in again, ready to blow.
"Wait, Vel—"
But before another absurd scene could unfold—
THUMP!
Domina and Livia leapt out from behind the trees.
Their bodies glistened with morning dew, but their eyes...
looked different.
It wasn’t the ambush that scared Nathan. It was their silence. Their eyes—sharp, thinking. Like the girls he’d played with were gone, and in their place were strangers with mory. He suddenly felt like a liar in front of won who finally learned how to read truth.
Morvessa floated down from above—like an investigative angel.
Even Validia stirred awake, sitting up, yawning and rubbing her eyes.
Nathan panicked.
"W-What? What’s going on? Why are you all—" Nathan’s voice cracked. Not from physical fear, but from sothing deeper. It was the sound of a boy caught cheating in a dream—caught loving, lying, pretending, surviving. Domina’s eyes didn’t hold hate. They held history. And Nathan—he wasn’t sure if he was part of it anymore.
Domina stepped forward.
Her gaze was sharp—
not the usual gentle Caral Mommy look.
"Nathan," she said softly, yet firmly.
Nathan took a half-step back.
"What?" His heart pounded— not from horniness, but from fear.
For the first ti ever, the look in Caral Mommy’s eyes had changed. It was like the glare of an evil stepmother straight out of a tragic fairy tale.
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