"I can't believe you actually came to see me!" he muttered.
His feet moved reflexively, stepping back as if wanting to flee from the person in front of him. He turned his back to escape, but suddenly the system reacted, and a warning notification appeared.
[!Danger!]
The system screen turned red.
Vale looked back at the person who had just spoken to him. His steps instantly halted; his body became immobile, only his head able to move freely.
He flinched.
Startled by a sound originating from his feet, Vale immediately looked down. But the man behind him raised his hand as if giving an instruction.
The man approached Vale, offering a casual greeting, acknowledging their long absence from each other. Vale's body regained mobility. He clasped his hands, opening and closing them to confirm it.
"Is this… magic?" he murmured in astonishment, staring at his palms, noticing something left behind.
The man was an acquaintance—or rather, the leader of a secret organization under the Naresca Church. His task was incredibly troublesome: preventing, eradicating, and destroying the group terrorizing Monity City at night.
That organization was called The Cimmeria. Since Vale's departure, they had desperately needed additional members to solve the ongoing mystery of the nocturnal attacks.
Numerous strange cases had been easily solved, and some involved attempts to summon underworld creatures into the human world. Vale's presence had easily resolved many of these incidents.
"Huh… what brings you to see me, Sir Kael Volant?" he whispered, his voice slightly strained.
Kael removed his hat; he had something important to discuss. He also dismissed the man standing before Vale, leaving them alone. His sole desire was a private conversation with Vale.
He flinched.
Vale suddenly noticed someone else appearing before him. Without hesitation, he asked Kael about the man. Hearing the question, Kael only smiled at Vale's unusual inquiry.
It seemed Vale wanted to investigate something; he then directly asked about the attack that had threatened his leg.
The attack originated from one of his admirers, a woman who constantly followed him. Hearing this, Kael simply smiled.
"Huh, so she's still around," he sighed, still disbelieving that the woman who always accompanied him had tried to attack his leg.
"So, did you call me back?" Vale asked, his eyes fixed on Kael without blinking.
Six months without speaking, the question was difficult to answer.
He could only smile at Vale's sudden transformation into a curious man.
"Oh… your sister is at a shop over there…" he said, pointing in the indicated direction.
The atmosphere was bustling; many Monity residents were going about their daily lives.
In truth, while Vale was transported by the system and was in the Tropical Forest fighting Celimity…
11:00 AM.
At that time, Viona searched everywhere for him, but her efforts were in vain. She gave up, and her desire to find her brother slowly faded.
She could only suppress her rumbling stomach.
However, a man suddenly approached and started talking to her.
That man was Kael, who was searching for Vale.
He realized the woman he was talking to was Vale's older sister, or rather, that there was something between them.
At that time, Viona was in a foul mood due to hunger and the sudden disappearance of her brother, and she hadn't eaten anything.
Instantly, she threatened Kael to feed her first.
However, the condition became strange—she instead invited Kael to go south of Monity City, to a shop she had long wanted to visit.
The three, including Kael, could only nod, following wherever Viona went.
Kael sighed.
Vale could only smile.
In his heart, he mocked Kael—because he knew that when Viona was angry, she didn't care who stood before her.
At that moment, Vale again considered the system that had led him south.
Was all this planned?
Or was it just a coincidence?
"So, do you want to meet her?"
But Vale knew Viona was there and safe. A system notification appeared, awarding him for a completed quest.
[Loading…]
[Bonus Coin received.]
[Bonus item: Reaper's Scythe]
[Unique ability: Death aura spreads when using the Reaper's scythe.]
[LV: +4]
A Reaper's Scythe? He could only mutter in his heart. Was there something wrong with the system's bonus item? He didn't see anything unusual with the system, though.
Vale fell into thought.
Kael, noticing this, began to ask him why he had suddenly become silent. He could only smile, turn around, and decide to go home to rest because his body was exhausted.
He took a step. He left Kael alone in the city's bustle. Kael's right hand stretched towards Vale, as if wanting to say something, but his mouth wouldn't open.
Finally, Kael could only remain silent, watching Vale's retreating figure from afar.
3:00 PM.
Vale was in the center of Monity City. Instead of going straight home to his apartment, he was on the roof of an old building.
He sat on the edge of the old building's roof, his eyes fixed downward, observing the people passing by below. The afternoon air suddenly turned colder; the wind whipped his hair, making it messy.
Reflexively, he touched his hair. At that moment, he remembered the cloak he always carried. However, Vale had discarded it in the Tropical Forest; the cloak was now scorched and slowly burning.
Vale sighed.
As he contemplated his future, he was suddenly fixated on something. He saw someone he knew, Yelena, walking among the crowd.
He called out to her. Yelena noticed Vale sitting on the roof and heard her name. For a moment, Yelena only glanced, and… suddenly, she was standing behind him.
Vale's eyes failed to catch her movement—fixated on Yelena's method of translocation. The question crossed his mind: what kind of power had she just used?
Vale turned and looked at her face, and without much thought, Yelena immediately asked why he called her and why he was there.
But Vale didn't answer her question. Instead, he posed the question he had been wanting to ask.
"What are you, exactly? And how did you follow me here?" he asked with sharp, suspicious eyes.
The system had never interfered with Yelena's arrival. Vale knew this after she told him directly. But he wondered, how could Yelena have followed him? And how did she get out of the forest? Did she possess the ability to answer all of Vale's questions?
Vale had considered the location of the Tropical Forest. He had received the answer from the system, stating that the forest was in a different world from his current one.
Suddenly, Yelena stepped closer and tore Vale's sleeve, precisely at the spot where she had scratched him. Now, the wound was gone, leaving no trace.
It was all thanks to the healing potion Vale had bought from the system shop. He flinched, surprised by the explanation.
"So… you can teleport anywhere as long as there's a scratch from you?" he asked, his eyes wide.
"More or less. But it's not just my scratches," Yelena replied, then sat beside Vale, watching the people passing by below.
"What do you mean?" he murmured, curious.