His answer t the robot's question in a heartbeat:
"The Hidden Light."
Ting!
The door whispered their acceptance and slid open, welcoming him inside.
What t his eyes next was a very thick fog, most likely artificial and only present to set the mood.
Emir found that slightly childish, and as he entered, his hope for finding anything useful decreased even further.
From what he could see, a long, oval table bathed in black stood in the middle of the room.
On both sides of that table were a group of seven people, each wearing a dark cloak and masks that hid their identities.
They were already sitting there, staring at him as if wanting to intimidate him.
But he was at the opposite end of experiencing such a thing.
The only thing their staring had done was make him struggle to stop himself from laughing. 'These guys want to sche against the Order? These? Guess I should've expected as much for a throwaway club that disbanded in the second week of the novel.'
After coughing twice, Emir sat on one of the free chairs, opposite a girl and a boy.
Just as he made himself comfortable, a boy at the end of the table greeted him.
"Welco, eighth sin, to our humble gathering... Don't mind the theatrics, our mbers said that a little flair was always needed."
Emir chuckled quietly.
"Thanks, and I don't mind, don't worry."
His voice turned robotic, almost static, as it passed through his mask and echoed through the room, startling the boy right beside him.
"...D-Damn. Too much auto-tune, my friend."
The one who seemingly led this gathering nodded his head.
"We see no issue with your precautions, eighth. No matter who you are, you're welco here, as we all wish to seek the light."
Emir eyed him for a while, then scanned the rest as he asked:
"Do the rest agree?"
"Yeah, we do."
"Of course!"
"Sure."
"No problems."
" neither."
Emir's head subtly flinched as he heard the boy opposite him speak.
"Let's get this over with!"
Then, as the girl spoke, his head snapped in their direction, and he stared at them with wide eyes.
'Holy hell... those dumbasses.'
Aria and Elijah.
They wanted to create a club.
Why?
It was for this.
The two wanted to join this dumb club where they would play pretend, so they needed sothing to act as a cover, hide their paper trail, their tracks.
That cover was going to be the new club Emir was supposed to accept the application for tonight.
'It's good that he's trying to help, but...'
'Wow.'
Emir thanked the invisible stars for the fog as he couldn't stop himself from face-palming.
'I gotta talk to that kid later.'
With that decided, he said:
"...Thanks for the warm welco, guys. I'm happy to be here among kin that see through the propaganda."
"I am as well. Now, let introduce you.
The leader stood up, pushing so of the fog near him away.
"We call ourselves the seven deadly sins..."
'More like the seven slightly lethal wrongdoings, but alright.'
"But we'll call ourselves eight deadly sins from now on..."
'Thanks for including , bud.'
"While our mbers are way higher than just seven..."
'Don't lie, we all know they aren't.'
"We still use this na as we rotate the mantle every sester..."
'Don't tell it's to keep spies out or sothing.'
"It's to make sure that our objective is completed, as our mbers are prone to corruption."
'Haa... man...'
To mask his sigh, Emir interrupted by asking a question:
"But why not use a contract?"
"That would leave traces... It's also why we use paper."
'...At least he's not that incompetent.'
"I see, great job."
The kid proudly pumped his chest.
"Of course! I'm from the Order..."
Ti slowed.
"after..."
Emir's eyes darkened as Temporal Perception activated without a thought.
"..all."
The mask covered it all though, hiding his narrowed eyes, and intense face.
'This kid...'
His right hand tightened into a fist as he heard those words co out of the kid's mouth, his
nails threatening to pierce his skin.
[Lyra... You heard that?]
His breaths had hastened quickly...
[... Yes, but his face doesn't show up in the database.]
[That's fine, I know he's lying... I'm just asking you what to do with him.]
And then they were back under control.
[Are you mad?]
[You think? So kid thinks he can impersonate them to play pretend?!]
Maybe not.
[Calm down... call Amon. Let him deal with it.]
[...Sure.]
Emir let out a sigh and stood up, approaching the two opposite him with quick steps.
"Where you going?"
He ignored their leader and pulled the 'nad' up by the neck.
"The fuck are you..."
"What the hell..." They resisted at first, but they quickly picked up on the fact that it was Emir who had them
trapped in his grip.
It wasn't a difficult realization, not because of his rare tall height or large body, but because
of his un-mistakingly dangerous presence.
"We've got a code red boys and gals, lock the place up."
The six wrongdoings babbled about sothing or another behind them as they prepared to
fight, but he ignored them and walked through the supposedly 'locked' door, which slid open
for him without any issues.
"But how?! Sloth, are you sure that code red was in effect?"
"Yes! I sent the command!"
"Pride, we better activate code black and bring in reinforcents..."
Their chatter faded as the door closed shut, locking them in while they were none the wiser.
[You should check their origins.]
He nodded at Lyra's reminder and hovered his bracelet over the door's scanner for a mont.
After a beep that confird his access, he asked it to show him the profiles of those who
entered earlier today.
'Hmm...'
Five of them were from sub-branches of Elite families, while their leader was so
commoner kid who had gotten in over his head after learning about the Order.
[Nothing useful here.]
[So we wasted ti?]
[I guess...]
Emir shrugged his shoulders, his gaze lowering to et the two little dumbasses.
"Explain yourselves."
Elijah's grip over his mask tightened as he looked down in embarrassnt.
"I'm sorry... I... I know this isn't an excuse, but... I wanted to tell you when we ca by but I
forgot about it after you got a-angry."
While her partner in cri stuttered over his words, Aria stared at her professor unblinkingly. Only when he looked back at her did she apologize, her ears blushing red:
"I-I'm sowwy."
She bit her lip.
|| ||
She ssed up her apology.
"........"
She fucked up!
And with every second that Emir stayed silent, her embarrassnt continued to grow.
Then, in the next mont, Aria couldn't take it anymore, so she snapped her head down and
joined Elijah in reddened sha.
They were both trying to hide away from his gaze.
[Should I be harsh?]
[Do whatever you want... I don't know how to deal with kids.]
[You know how to deal with everything, though?]
[Yes, but I know it isn't my answer that you want.]
[...Smartass.]
[Gigolo.]
[Oh~. Look at you fighting back.]
[Hehehe~.]
Their telepathic conversation ended in under a second as they shared a laugh and went back to
focus on their respective circumstances.
"To be honest with you two, I'm not angry, really... I'm just disappointed."
While scoffing, Emir turned around, showing them his back as he headed towards the
elevator.
"I didn't expect either of you to be this... naive."
The two didn't give chase, or even show a reaction to his words.
They simply kept their heads down as he walked away, almost tearing up, each heavy step of
This a punch in their guts. Minutes went by, and they stayed there, locked in place, not knowing what to do.
anwhile, their professor reached the tenth floor with a smile apparent on his face.
'I've always wanted to say that!'
It seed that he had fulfilled a little fantasy of his.
Anyhow, after he entered his office, he had a quick bite-so tasty protein bars-and tooka
shower that he didn't need.
His next destination was the training room, a room that he reached in two steps.
On the way there, he grabbed his augnted suit and placed it on the center of his broad
chest.
When a mont passed, he shed his nakedness as the hexagon expanded like sli all over his
body, forming his desired comfy plain black pajamas with its nanobots.
'Nice as always...'
Emir then sat down in a lotus position and cultivated, enjoying the SS-Density Aether only
found in training rooms of this caliber or on the edges of those higher.
He also practiced his strength Art at the sa ti, welcoming pain as it gave him its regular
visit.
They talked... him and 'pain.'
However, unlike usual, pain stayed for a while, wanting to talk about deeper things...
Things that hit hard and fast.
Things that hurt a lot.
But then, during one of their conversations... soone-no, sothing-tugged at his
clothes.
Emir opened his eyes, sensing danger.
His senses were blaring at him, forcing the activation of Temporal Perception.
Alas...
He was late.
The activation...
It only prolonged the mont.
It started with a small, soft pull. Sothing akin to a toddler asking for candy.
Then the toddler turned into a black hole, calling death its friend.
The pull was strong-strong enough to nearly snap Emir's neck in half.
'Ah...'
Emir began to float under the pull, finally understanding what had occurred. Yet even in his accelerated ti...
He was late. Once again.
'Fff---'
Late enough to the point that not even Flash Step would save him.
Then...
There was no then.
Everything occurred in an instant.
No, it was faster. Nothing of him could be found in the observable ti.
He just vanished without a trace.
There was no 'after,' no lingering presence, no remnants of his existence.
Ti ceased its aning for that mont, rendering his personal caras useless.
All that remained was an empty training room.
Fshshshshhhhhh...
No...
There was a new addition to the room.
A portal. A hazy, purplish portal; dominated the room.
Yet, even with its aura, it was undetectable to the naked eye.
Camouflaged, it silently rhythd to its creator's tune. Pulsating slowly, sotis
shivering.
Eventually however, the very thing that had caused Emir to disappear...
Whoosh!
Had disappeared as well.
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