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 co to learn that Ethan was just seventeen years old and that he had just recently beca a Conqueror. Despite that, he had skyrocketed through the ranks and was considered as one of the best Assassins in the world at the mont.
By the fifth day, the duo had turned around and began walking toward the exit. The only reason Cain ca 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 tiline, 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 na 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 newcors... 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 elents he could bend.
If soone 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 re 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' elent 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 mories and broken-up mories would be retrofitted with new, entirely made-up ones. Fragnts would be taken, just snapshots of distant childhoods that everyone forgot, and entire stories would be written around them. That ti 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 mories; 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 mories beco.
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-dinsional illusions that they will encounter in the Tower. Eventually, they'll figure it out. At least so would, anyway.
"We're here," he spoke to Ethan as they ca 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 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 tis the size of the second one. In fact, this place seed like a city within a city.
"No, not , a friend," Cain said. "I'm rely a beneficiary. Though, I was the one who got him a sweet deal on it. Co 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 beco the once-upon-ti dread tropolis accommodating... everyone.
Shortly after entering, the two stopped a group of n and won laying about lazily on hammocks and benches near a pool, sunbathing. Looking at the sight, Ethan couldn't help but feel sothing... 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 exclaid suddenly as he struck a pose, causing Ethan to nearly facepalm. However, others rely glanced at him and continued to ignore him. "Guys? Guys? Co 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 sothing from a glass through a straw. She wore sunglasses, inspecting Ethan casually. "Wait, lem 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 . 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 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?"
"Soone famous from my last life," Cain replied. "Fate really tossed quite a few of you guys at ."
"Oh? Was he as good as ?"
"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 sa ti, it did make him the best Assassin in the world."
"Jesus, isn't that a bit... too extre?"
"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 na, though, tad him."
"My na?"
"Well, not a na. A nickna."
"... 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 co back?" she asked abruptly.
"What do you an?" 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 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 llowed out at the proposition as he reached out and tenderly ruffled her hair. "You trying to get your old man to retire so you beco the strongest?"
"No, dad! I--"
"I know, kiddo," Cain interrupted. "But don't worry. The fire in hadn't died just yet. I ca back just in ti."
"Just in ti?"
"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 , 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 Ticube, 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 , 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 , you'll forever be just a group of lost little misfits ill-equipped to deal with this place. You should go, now."
"Huh?"
"Soone'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 so peace and quiet." Senna looked at him deeply for a mont 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.
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