Chương 98: Surprise Visitor III

Diana stared at him for a while, a light smile still on her face from the laughter that had died out.

"Finally realize you can't keep up?" Evel didn't look up.

"Yeah." The smile faded.

"You're not joking around?"

"I haven't decided yet, but…"

"What, you had to kill someone again?" Diana awkwardly chuckled.

"The only other time you were like this was when we killed that backstabbing traitor bitch Allen."

"A Core Redigo soldier." Evel hesitated. Diana's eyes widened.

"You fought a Reaper soldier?" He nodded and continued to eat. She leaned back on the chair facing the ceiling.

"I thought I had it busy, but the only people I've killed were criminals who refused to be arrested. What sort of tasks is that neon shirt muscle freak giving you?

"Managing a circus." Upon seeing her confused face, he clarified, "A place where magicians like myself perform for big crowds. Sort of like a play." Diana frowned, "Performing for Laymen? Aren't you wasting your time?"

"It's for information." Evel shrugged.

"And I do enjoy it."

"Hm," Diana nodded.

"No wonder you got into trouble with Redigo. I can't imagine they want the world to know all the messed-up shit they do."

"The Mayor, actually." Diana's tensed.

"You pissed off an Anvil? How are you alive?" With a sigh, Evel began explaining what he'd been up to since he'd arrived in Ichoris. Initially, he planned to only tell her the key points, but the details kept flowing. Occasionally, she'd chime in with a comment, like when he told her about his first meeting with the Mayor.

"Eth? That's… wow. Did you consider just calling yourself Ethan or something after?" He stared at her for a while, then pretended she hadn't said anything as he continued his story. He told her how he chose to start the circus in the slums, and the failures of the first performance. How Redigo sent two soldiers, Graham and Blake, to get information on him and how he used them to solidify his image. He stayed vague on the next parts, only mentioning he got a windfall of credits from key information.

He told her about their following performances and how they continued to grow, then about their performances in Upper-Ichoris.

"Two separate locations in one city?"

"A river cuts the city in two, and most of the miners and poor people live down there." Finally, he got to how the Mayor trapped him. She remained silent for the duration, but the expressiveness of her face betrayed her interest.

"The room was far away, so I think the command got weakened, so I made a run for it. I made it to my room, sent out a message and basically counted down the seconds till I got a message back."

"Shit."

"I began running to my teacher, and the Mayor found me." She leaned in.

"The Mayor uses a voice-based ability, so I figured if I shut out my hearing, then I'll be able to make it further. Unfortunately, he just knocked them away with some ranged ability I didn't even see. The strongest person in the city was hovering over me with a glaive, and I didn't really have anything I could do." This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Diana swallowed quietly.

"Just as he was about to get me, my teacher came in as a representative of Agent. He… had some sort of leverage, so the Mayor settled for commanding two Redigo soldiers to fight me as some wicked punishment. The problem was that they clearly weren't interested in a fight anyway and had nothing to do with the conflict at all."

"I thought you said you only killed one?"

"I fought two. One bled out; the other went back to Redigo." Diana scrunched her brows and gave Evel a funny look.

"He won't reveal my information. Probably." He clarified. He wasn't really sure if that was even the case, but Albert said so, and he found it hard to push back.

"That's not why I'm confused. You wanna quit because you won in a two-on-one?" Evel sighed.

"It wasn't two talented individuals. The Mayor described them as grunt workers; it wasn't anything special. And the bigger reason is–""You're scared that even if you get stronger, you'll be forced to do things you don't wanna." She paused.

"Evel, you do realize you're in the military, right?"

"There's a difference between fighting to protect the country and killing fellow countrymen who don't even want to fight." Something changed in Diana's expression.

"You think Ultor only sends willing fighters? You think some of them aren't just fighting for their own families back home?" Evel didn't reply.

"I can respect how you're able to remain so firm to your principles," She began. Respect? He'd never felt an ounce of respect from her. But if you're on the Path, you're gonna have to fight. If you're fighting, you're gonna kill, and not every single person will be a fully willing combatant."

"Can I even become strong enough to get what I want anyway? What if it's all in vain?"

"What if it isn't?" She shot back, "Are you gonna just run away?"

"I… I don't know." Diana finished up her meal and put down her spoon.

"Well, the food's nice at least. Makes the trip a bit more worth it."

"I still don't know why you're here," he sighed.

"Was it far?"

"Not sure if you've heard of it. Just a little place known as Temporis City." Evel froze.

"The capital?" There weren't any citizens of Tempor who hadn't heard of Temporis. The city was the heart of the country, housing the Emperor himself. It was said that the city was even older than the entire empire.

"Bingo."

"I thought the city was towards the north?" Ichoris was a fairly central city, but was still considered to be in the south. She travelled half the country to give him cards?

"There was a task nearby. Although it paid a little poorly for my capabilities, when I saw the card request, I had a feeling it was you, so I helped out with it and even added a little bonus. I felt a little bad about the trial, so I thought I'd visit."

"That far… for a task?"

"Acies provides teleportation options, of course." Diana puffed out her chest.

"A rising young star such as myself gets some privileges."

"And you felt bad? For what?" As far as he recalled, things ended on pretty regular terms. They both helped each other out, and they both got a lot out of it.

"Y'know, I said a few mean-spirited things, but it was during some stressful moments." Mean-spirited? He couldn't really think of anything she'd said. If anything, he was making fun of her more than she was, at least near the start. She did tell him to fuck off that one time… but that was when he was trying to apologize. In the end, nothing came to mind. Diana grabbed all their empty dishes and brought them to the sink. Silently, she began washing them. I guess she's leaving soon…

He joined her, helping wash off the mess he'd created. The two scrubbed away without exchanging any further words. As they finished up, Diana broke the silence.

"It'd be pretty lame if you quit."

"What?" Diana shrugged, "I've always seen you in the same vein as Bremin and me." Evel scoffed as his face turned grim. It was easy to say something like that when they were so freakishly strong. They already knew how to fight, and had high affinities to boot.

"You don't know how much I struggled to even be somewhat useful."

"Would your current self be more useful now?" My current self? Compared to before, he was significantly stronger, even though his stage had remained unchanged. Although he still wasn't strong enough to match Bremin, Diana, or Lucien, what about the rest of them? At the very least, he'd be able to hold his own. Diana shook her head, "Half the recruits had some training, and the other half didn't.

None of it's fair; you can't expect a 14-year-old farmboy to match with a 25-year-old noble who's been training their whole life. It's all rigged by the wealthy and powerful to keep the status quo." Wiping off her hands, she placed the towel back on the counter. Then, with a polite, distant smile, she turned to leave. Have I been too harsh on myself? Looking back, Evel really had made a lot of progress. Most of it was due to how hard he was willing to work. Maybe…

maybe if he continued working as hard—or even harder— he could finally get the freedom he desired. There would always be someone stronger than him, but if he got stronger, at least he'd have more choices. The question was and always has been whether he was even capable of going that far. Eth was… strange, but was it a bad ability? Maybe in someone else's hands, it would be useless, but he was finally starting to make use of its potential.

His body used to be frail, but after months of eating well and training hard, he'd developed some muscle. His affinity was his biggest limiting factor, but Monique had offered him a lifeline. Although 73 was by no means impressive, it fell into the 'average' range. But if he were to truly continue, he'd need to give it his all. Even more than he was currently giving. It would be the only way for him to hope to keep him. His heart began to quicken.

"Wait." For the second time this evening, he stopped Diana from leaving.

"Let's spar."