Top. Top. Top.
"Just a little more left."
Kai thought, beginning to imagine Orario, and in his thoughts it looked perfect. When they had already reached the first floor, his anticipation reached its peak, so he could no longer hold himself back.
– Are you excited, Kai?
– Well, maybe a little.
– A little?
He looked skeptically at Kai, on whose face everything was written.
– The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment, Kai.
– Yeah.
But Kai wasn't listening to him at all, continuing to drift in his own clouds. He could only sigh at such behavior from Kai, and Hermes understood one thing: during all the time of their ascent, even if their journey wasn't long, in his eyes Kai was no different from a child. He was a blank slate, and because of that it was troubling—dangerous, because he could be used for someone else's interests.
But, in truth, Hermes wouldn't have cared about Kai. During their first meeting, he didn't interest him at all, but that was until one moment that made him look at Kai from a new perspective, completely changing his attitude toward him.
He saw Kai's speed, or more precisely, that he simply disappeared and then suddenly appeared a hundred meters away from that place. But he wasn't surprised by it at all, because he was no different from an ordinary person, so it was simply because he couldn't perceive his movement.
But what surprised him was that the captain of his Familia, Asfi, who was at the fourth level, also couldn't perceive his movements. For her, he also simply vanished. At that moment, his interest in Kai appeared, and because of that he offered him to join them, to get to know him better.
Hermes expected that Kai's level was fifth, he was completely sure of it, because he knew every adventurer who had reached the sixth level, and he definitely didn't remember him. Especially with such a memorable appearance as his. He wasn't that handsome, but he wasn't ugly either—his appearance was something between attractive and average.
His skin was pale, as if he were a walking corpse; his black hair, reaching his shoulders, seemed to absorb all the light around him. But that wasn't what distinguished him so much from others. What truly set him apart were his eyes.
His eyes had no pupil, it was completely absent. His iris was black, with white spots that covered a smaller part of it, but even so they immediately caught attention—his gaze was like a small cosmos.
And overall, his appearance was simply above average, that's all, and his eyes gave a considerable bonus to his looks.
– Hermes, I wanted to ask from the very beginning, but I forgot. Why was Bell attacked? Isn't that forbidden by the law of adventurers? For such an action, they should have become traitors?
– The law of adventurers? What is that?
– Well… you don't know?
Kai was surprised, because he thought Hermes should definitely know about it, after all, he's the captain of his Familia at the fourth level. Catching Hermes's gaze, which clearly said "explain it to me," he, without thinking long, told him everything he knew about the law of adventurers.
– Ah, Kai, the law of adventurers doesn't exist.
– I…
– They deceived you, Kai.
Kai didn't have time to speak before Hermes interrupted him.
– They deceived me?
Disbelief was clearly heard in his voice.
Looking at Kai's confused face, Hermes could only sigh about what he had just thought. Long ago, from the very beginning, they decided to take advantage of his memory loss.
But the more Hermes thought about it, the more he relaxed, because they didn't come up with anything serious—they only made up the law of adventurers, that's all. They were either too stupid or too kind.
But Hermes knew one thing: if they had known what level he was, they wouldn't have left it like that so easily. They would have fully taken advantage of the situation.
– Get ready, Kai, we're going up.
Saying this, Hermes immediately noticed how Kai's expression changed. The expression of betrayal completely disappeared from his face, replaced by a face filled with happiness, and impatience could clearly be read in his eyes.
"Just like a child."
Hermes couldn't help but think, seeing Kai's behavior, which was no different from a child's.
He so quickly forgot that he had been deceived, all thanks to just a couple of words.
"Finally!"
He mentally exclaimed, and with each step his anticipation only grew, until he finally saw the light, which clearly differed from the dungeon's illumination. With each step, the noise of the crowd reached him, which he still couldn't make out, but with every step upward everything became clearer.
Unconsciously, he sped up, and it didn't take long—he finally ascended, and the first thing that caught his eye was a lively crowd. And the more he looked, the more differences he noticed between adventurers: some were large, muscular, and half-naked, others, on the contrary, were fully covered in armor, some—partially.
Some had long spears, others used greatswords, and some had no weapons at all.
His gaze didn't wander for long before it stopped at the exit. Seeing the exit, he immediately headed toward it, ignoring the entire crowd in his path.
– Ah!
Covering his eyes from the bright sunlight.
– Too bright.
But even so, it took him a couple of seconds to get used to it, and, raising his gaze, he began to slowly move away from the tower, and he finally saw what he wanted so much—this was the Tower of Babel in all its glory. It was so enormous that he couldn't see it entirely: even when he moved quite far away from it, he still couldn't fully take it in.
"It really is beautiful."
Thinking this with admiration as he looked at the tower, not disappointed in the slightest by what he saw. On the contrary—this tower exceeded all his expectations, it was too majestic and beautiful at the same time. So Kai stared at the tower for a long time, memorizing every detail of it in his mind.
– Oh, sorry.
– It's nothing.
Kai was so focused on the tower that he didn't notice how he bumped into a man, for which he immediately apologized, but the man didn't even pay attention to him and simply walked past, disappearing into the crowd.
Kai involuntarily looked around, and before his eyes was the same crowd, only much larger and more diverse. And an entirely new place, which he, of course, didn't know. Looking through the crowd in search of familiar faces, he couldn't find anyone. But he didn't dwell on it much—he cast one last glance at the Tower of Babel and began his exploration of the city of heroes.
– He disappeared.
– He was just here. How?
Looking over the crowd, Hermes said, but no matter how much he looked, he couldn't find Kai.
When they ascended, no one had time to react before Kai just vanished so quickly that no one understood. Staring at the place where he had been just a couple of seconds ago.
– Bell, did you see where he went?
Casting a quick glance at the white-haired boy.
– I didn't see.
– And you, Lili?
– That pervert? No.
– Oh, Lili, not everyone can understand art.
Casting a disdainful glance at Hermes, she said nothing more.
Whoever he asked—no one had seen him, which couldn't help but disappoint Hermes. He had just found an interesting boy, and suddenly he disappeared. He could only hope that he wouldn't be deceived again. That was the only thing he worried about, and nothing else.
But, quickly suppressing his disappointment, he said goodbye to the Hestia Familia, and, left alone with Asfi, he spoke:
– Asfi, please find out about the boy named Kai. I want to know everything: his real name, his family, how old he is, what level he is. And find him, it will be bad if he falls into the wrong hands.
– Okay.
Hearing Asfi's affirmative answer, Hermes smiled and headed toward the red district. Guessing where Hermes was going, disgust appeared on Asfi's face before she turned around and quickly left.
Kai was so fascinated by the city that he didn't notice how the whole day passed and night fell. Only then did he think about lodging for the first time. But the fact that he had no money played a rather important role. And the worst thing about this situation was that he didn't know where he was.
As he understood, he was now in a park. Not knowing what to do, he continued to sit on a bench, looking at the starry sky—it was so beautiful. To be honest, it was the most beautiful thing he had seen today. The cosmos was so beautiful and boundless, and at the same time so distant, that it completely captivated Kai.
Kai didn't know how much time had passed, but the longer he looked at the stars, sitting in one place, the more the feeling of admiration filling him turned into boredom. He was getting bored and didn't know what to do.
"Maybe I should continue?"
Kai thought, looking around, thinking about where to go. Even though it was night, the street lamps shone brightly, illuminating the area like day.
Without thinking long, he stood up, brushed himself off, and headed in the direction that seemed most interesting to him, hoping to find something even more interesting and exciting.
Kai didn't know where he was going—he just walked, carefully examining every corner in search of something interesting. Of course, night Orario differed from what he saw during the day, but not as much as it might seem at first glance.
But the deeper he went, the fewer people and lights there were, yet Kai kept walking, not bothered at all by the external changes. After all, what difference is there—day or night? For him, there was no difference: he could navigate in the dark just as well as during the day.
Kai went deeper and deeper, until finally he noticed that the buildings here had changed. Not much, but there was a difference. Another fact confused him.
Kai stopped and began carefully studying the building in front of him. The more he studied it, the more he realized one thing: he had passed this building several times already, or they were all just the same here.
So he chose another direction, and it led him to a dead end.
Kai, looking at the wall in front of him, wondered whether he could climb over it or not.
Top. Top. Top.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded behind him, which he clearly heard. Turning around, three figures appeared before him. Looking at each of them, he could describe them with one word—terrible.
Even though the alley was dark, he could still clearly see them: each of them had tattered clothes, messy greasy hair, faces devoid of even the slightest color, and thin figures—Kai could clearly see this even through their clothes. And the most unbearable thing for him was their smell.
Not knowing why, but his senses sharpened—all of them became much sharper than before. So he could easily smell them, because of which his brows narrowed, and unconsciously he covered his nose with his hand.
Without thinking long, Kai began to leave—he wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible, the smell was too disgusting, as if someone among them was rotting alive.
But before he could go around them, they stepped in front of him, surrounding him from all sides, not letting him leave so easily. Because of this action of the strangers, Kai's brows narrowed even more, and confusion could be read in his eyes.
Looking closely at the man in front of him, he realized that he was clearly the oldest among them. Kai's gaze lingered on his eyes. Their gaze was something he had never seen before since his awakening, so he couldn't understand from it what they wanted from him. It was as if there was nothing in their eyes at all.
– Excuse me. Do you need something from me?
Kai spoke first, he was curious what they wanted.
But hearing Kai's voice, they moved and pulled out knives from their worn clothes… well, that object was most similar to them.
Seeing this, Kai's body tensed unconsciously. Kai quickly began to understand that this was a robbery—he had recently read about it in a book.
He began to remember what the main character did in his place. It didn't take him long to remember what the hero did—he defeated them and then set them on the right path.
– Sorry, we just want to eat. Sorry.
"What? Shouldn't he say: "empty your pockets"?"
But before Kai could understand the meaning of these words, all three moved, extending their makeshift weapons toward him.
But Kai was ready, so he immediately aimed at the one closest to him, targeting his hand to disarm him. Due to the adrenaline filling every muscle in his body, he didn't hold back.
Bang.
Drip-drip-drip.
No one had time to understand what had happened, as everyone froze and, with wide-open eyes from shock and horror, stared at one spot.
– Huh!?
Everything happened so fast that Kai fell into a stupor. He just wanted to disarm him, but when his strike reached its target, the stranger's arms burst apart, splattering everyone with blood.
– AAAAAA! MY HANDS!!!
– FATHER!!!
– DAD!!!
– FUCK!!! SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!!!
But he was pulled out of his stupor by the man's scream, filled with pain and horror. His trembling eyes stared at the place where just a second ago his hands had been, and now there was a bloody mess in their place.
He could only scream from pain and horror, he didn't even notice how his sons ran up to him, completely ignoring the person standing in front of him. They immediately began trying to stop his bleeding by any means possible.
Kai watched this scene in shock. He saw that the man's face was growing paler with each second, and the attempts of the other men to stop his bleeding were becoming more and more hopeless, and they themselves understood it — it was written in their eyes, from which tears streamed down.
– I did this…
Lowering his gaze to his hands and staring in horror at his right hand, from which blood was still dripping. He couldn't understand what had just happened: he just wanted to knock out his weapon and jump back. But when his hand touched his, his arm was simply torn apart, completely splattering him with blood.
Soaking every centimeter of his clothes, but Kai didn't notice it — all his attention was focused on the memory of how it happened.
– Father…
– Let's go.
– Father…
He swallowed his tears and grabbed his brother by the hand, while the other was already dragging the dead body of their father. He quickly began to get out of there while the man's attention was not on them, so they couldn't delay any longer.
They just wanted to eat, they didn't know that it would turn into such horror for them.
And the only reason why he didn't abandon his father's dead body was exactly that. They were hungry, and his hunger completely clouded his mind, quickly suppressing his growing feeling of emptiness from the loss of his father.
Raising his head and looking around, Kai didn't notice anyone — not those men, and he was alone in this alley, and the pool of blood in the middle of the alley was a reminder that what had just happened was real.
And the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he felt nothing. No regret, no sympathy, no pity.
– Ugh.
Covering his nose with his hand because of the strong smell of blood. He quickly headed toward the exit of the alley, returning again into those tangled streets. But the smell of blood didn't leave him, and only then did he notice that all his clothes were soaked with blood.
– Ugh, how disgusting…
---
– Oh, my dear Asfi, I'm curious what you've learned.
Two days had passed since he assigned this task to his captain. And the fact that it took her two days was not surprising at all, since they only knew his appearance and his approximate level.
– Have a seat.
Patting the spot next to him, but Asfi paid no attention to it, licking her lips, she spoke.
– If speaking briefly, we learned nothing.
– Nothing? Absolutely nothing?
Interest flared up in his eyes again. And, looking at Asfi with a new gaze, expectation could clearly be read in it. And Asfi decided not to keep him waiting long and spoke.
– We checked everyone above the fourth level and found no one with such a distinctive appearance as his. But we didn't lose composure and decided to check below the fourth, but we still didn't find him. Having found nothing, we decided to check the familias that could have adventurers above the third level, but even then we couldn't find any hint of his existence: in every familia we checked, no one had disappeared, all their members were in place or were in the dungeon.
– I see.
Hermes said, thinking deeply about it.
He had no doubt in Asfi's words, he was completely confident in the competence of his captain and the other members of his familia. He could even boast to everyone that his familia was the best at gathering information. And everyone, of course, knew that.
– And did you find him?
– Yes.
– That's very good. Did he have any problems?
– Yes, he got lost on Daedalus Street and spent the whole day there. When he once again reached a dead end, some scum attacked him, but he dealt with them without any problems, killing one.
– How did he react?
Before she could continue, Hermes interrupted her, asking the question that interested him. Asfi was not at all bothered by the rudeness of her god, so without delay she continued.
– At first he fell into shock, but after some time he came to his senses and simply left. All this time, nothing was reflected on his face except deep thought, but…
– Alright, that's enough, I understand. – Interrupting her again, settling more comfortably on the bench and adjusting his hat. – And where is he now?
As Hermes expected, Kai was like a child, a child who needed to be guided onto the right path. Even with so little information from Asfi's report, he understood that Kai did not fully understand himself, neither his strength as an adventurer nor his feelings.
He simply doesn't understand, that's all. But he expected this from the very beginning, and this information only confirmed it.
– …we don't know.
…
Raising his head and staring at Asfi.
From Hermes's gaze, she understood that he was waiting for an explanation. Adjusting her glasses, she spoke again in a more apologetic tone.
– When night came, he still couldn't get out of the street, constantly walking in circles. Unable to watch this, we decided to help him and take him to the base. But…
– But?
– We hadn't even managed to approach when he climbed onto a building in an instant, and before anyone could react, he disappeared into the night. If I personally…
– Alright. – Interrupting her again and standing up, throwing one last glance at Asfi, he turned and slowly walked away from her. Seeing this, she immediately followed him, but didn't even manage to take a step before he continued. – No need to deal with this anymore, I'll handle it personally. Ah? And by the way, be ready — Apollo invited us today.
– But how will you find him?
Looking skeptically at her god's back. But Hermes, without turning around and without slowing his pace, said:
– Fate will help. – He said confidently.
And with those words, he left.
Hermes no longer wanted to distract his familia with work, who already worked every day without rest. But there was another reason: he simply didn't want them to waste time on this. If they hadn't found anything in two days, then further effort would be useless. So he decided to take everything into his own hands.
But even so, he didn't know where to start, so he imagined himself in Kai's place — where would he go first? And he realized that perhaps he had taken on too much.
Beginning to think whether he should go back to Asfi.
---
He spent the whole day searching for a way out of this place.
He no longer knew how many times he had seen this house, he had already lost count. He wanted to ask for directions, but whenever he approached someone, they all ran away. He couldn't find the reason for this behavior, as if they saw a monster.
Kai couldn't guess that his appearance was quite frightening — all his clothes and face were covered in dried blood. But he didn't know the reason for their fear and unwillingness to talk to him.
So he kept walking in circles until he got tired of it. So he decided to think through his next actions in order to come up with a plan to get out of here. And while he sat in the middle of the road in thought, he unconsciously raised his gaze to the stars, admiring them, while slowly going over in his head the whole day he had spent in this place.
An idea came to his mind.
Remembering that he was not an ordinary person, but an adventurer, and what was stopping him from climbing to the top and simply jumping across buildings.
Without thinking long, he realized that this idea was very good. How had he not thought of it earlier? — he wondered, preparing to climb to the very top.
Bang.
Tensing all the strength in his legs, he jumped. He planned to reach it in several jumps, but who knew that he would almost make it in one jump. So in two jumps he was already there. And finally, he fully saw Orario. Kai didn't dwell on the view for long, and with quick jumps he began to move closer to the Tower.