After the initial shock, Adrian had enough. He was overwhelmed. He wasn't going to ask anything; he just wanted to go home and sleep. He was truly tired after so many events happening to him in just a few hours.
Adrian heaved a sigh and stayed quiet. He didn't ask anything. His head felt like it could explode like a watermelon if he took any more knowledge, and by how twisted the power system was, it might be true.
Max understood Adrian's feeling and warned him jokingly. "Hey, don't worry, Man. No need to think of anything right now. Just make sure not to take any more knowledge, because if you do, then your head will pop like a watermelon! Hahaha."
"…" Adrian was speechless. This shit was true. Oh damn…
After this little conversation, Adrian, Eric, and Max started to walk away and reached the heavily crowded market again. They still had a few more places to go. They took Adrian along with them to show him around the place so that even if he came here alone or got lost, he could find the places they took him to and get some help. They wanted him to know as much about the place at once as possible since they had time right now.
As they walked through the crowd, they didn't realize two hooded men staring at them. As they turned into an intersection, Eric side-eyed the hooded young adults who were still staring at them.
Out of the two hooded men, the one on the right—with a ragged gray hood hiding his entire body and face—turned and gazed at Eric before Eric disappeared after turning around the block. He also noticed Eric's glances at him at times.
The young man in the hood had white hair and heterochromatic eyes, with his left eye being black and the right being white. After his little stare with Eric, he turned to his left, where another young adult stood. He opened his mouth and spoke in a whisper. "It seems that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd one have come together. Are you going to go meet them, 4th one?"
The other hooded young adult looked at the gray-hooded boy and said in a nonchalant voice. He was not afraid of being heard by others like the gray-hooded boy. "No, I am not. Why would I? If you are so eager, Cief, why don't you go and meet them yourself?"
Cief chuckled at the blue-hooded boy's remark and replied, "You are still cold even while being with me. Are you still in your 'Living Corpse form' right now, Sasaki?"
Sasaki had blue hair which was a little on the darker side, shining when light shone on them. His eyes were pitch black right now, with a blank expression on his face. His face looked pale like he had seen a ghost, yet there were no emotions or fear in his expression or eyes.
He turned his gaze from a fruit-selling shop to Cief. "Yes, I am. Also, aren't you too calm for someone being a member of the Truth Seekers, roaming around the layer of the Meditation Realm under Lumenia's control?"
The end of Cief's lips curled up into a smile. "You are way too bored for someone to invite the most valuable talent and future leader of the Truth Seekers out here for no reason while being the most feared, strongest, respected, and influential Aura user of Lumenia. What would happen if news about you meeting me here comes out? We are not even using Meditation Aura to speak right now, you know. What have you even called me here for? It has got to be something important."
Sasaki didn't say anything as he roamed his blue bodysuit's pocket and took out a card and handed it to Cief.
Cief took the wedding card from Sasaki and opened it to read what was written inside.
The inside of the card was adorned by flowers, and the words were written by Sasaki by hand using ink that seemed to smell like roses. On the top was written, Sasaki weds Mona, with the date and place of where the marriage was going to take place and some lines with typical flattery words inviting Cief to grace the wedding with his presence.
After reading the card, Cief turned to look at Sasaki with an amused smile on his face. His eyes glinted with excitement and happiness, but there was some worry hidden on his face that was more noticeable in his voice. "Are you sure about inviting me? Inviting your rival to your wedding—what would you do if I take all the Supernovas of the Truth Seekers and attack Lumenia? Do you trust me this much?"
"Of course I trust you. I also know how careful you tend to be. You make every move only after being sure of it being successful no matter what happens. You know the leader of every family will be there. Counting me and Alia, there will be more than thirty Supernovas of at least all the pathways. How many Supernovas does your organization even have? Ten? Eleven? Twelve?"
His voice and expression may have seemed emotionless, but they were like sharp blades that hit at Cief's most vulnerable weaknesses, making him subconsciously feel threatened.
Cief chuckled again and replied while scratching the back of his head with his right hand. "Okay, okay, man. Don't get so threatening now. I was just joking." His brows suddenly furrowed as confusion showed on his face. "Oh yes, it also says here that you need me to be the best man of your wedding? What happened to Edward? I thought he would be playing this role?"
Sasaki removed the hood off his head a little, allowing his face to be visible under the streetlight, and turned to Cief. "I actually originally intended to have Edward be the best man of my wedding, but he got extremely busy with the Paris operation. This operation is very important for the entire Aura region. Edward couldn't find any time off. Then, I went to Chris for the role, but he was too shy and felt undeserving, and strongly refused me. So, I only had you left, and now we are here. Will you be my best man?"
Cief froze for a second in shock. Him? The future leader of the Truth Seekers being the best man of the most famous Supernova of the Aura region? This was a bizarre statement no matter how you looked at it.
It wasn't like he didn't trust Sasaki, but him going to his competitor's territory alone without any safety, where he would be like a fish on the chopping board—his life could end, or even worse, be turned into a powerful dreadful relic. All of these possibilities flashed in his mind as he gulped the saliva that had formed in his mouth.
Sasaki understood his friend's emotions and reassured him. "You can refuse if you want to, but I swear on my mother's honour that I won't or let anyone cause you any harm. No one will even need to know who you are. It's not like anyone even knows who the talent the Truth Seekers have found even is."
Cief straightened his back and replied, "It's not like I don't trust you, but it's just that if some random person were to become your best man, there will definitely be people making theories and tracking me down, especially those of the Knowledge, Deceiver, and Beauty pathways. I will single-handedly be putting the entire organization in risk, but…" Cief chuckled again as his lips formed a big smile. The excitement to do something daring flared in his eyes. "I am not afraid of taking risks. I will be your best man. You don't need to worry—just make sure no one comes after my ass to kill me. I finally have the chance to use that Rank 0 relic of the organization."
Sasaki's gaze turned to the ground. He stared at the dirty, rough ground for a few seconds before looking back up, but this time, his eyes were not pitch black but light blue, like the light sky—beautiful and pretty. His lips had curled up into a difficult smile. It was obvious he didn't have much practice smiling. Only two words came out of his mouth, filled with gratitude: "Thank you."
Cief chuckled again and turned back to look at the intersection that the trio had turned to before taking a deep breath, turning back to Sasaki and speaking. "There is no need to thank me. However, are you really not going to interfere in the Paris operation?"
Sasaki turned away from him and looked straight. His blue eyes started to become pitch black again as his voice grew colder and his white skin turned pale as before. "No, I don't have any intentions to. I am not supposed to play any part in here, and also, I have my marriage upcoming. Do you think I have any reasons to interfere?"
Cief's eyes widened as he remembered something. "Oh yeah! I just got the info sometime ago that your father has come back to live in Paris. He has remarried and already has a son and another one in the making. Do you want to go and kill him?"
Sasaki's cold expression didn't change. He looked straight at a few little kids in ragged clothes playing happily with a ball, their smiles as bright as the sun. But looking at them, Sasaki felt nothing. He lowered his head and closed his eyes and spoke calmly. "No, I already have long left hatred for him or anyone in this world. Let him live or die—I do not care."
Cief looked at the sky—well, at the ceiling since there was no sky above. "So is this it? Anything else you wanna say?"
Sasaki shook his head. "No. But I do have something to say to you." Cief turned his head to look at him with cold eyes. "Say it then."
Sasaki matched his cold gaze with his own and said, "Lumenia is gonna win in this operation. This operation will decide who will have the biggest lead in the Cataclysmic Era and will be the starting of all the big events that will happen in this Era, like a small domino. So be ready and give it your all, because if I see you lacking or with your guard down, I won't hesitate to cut you down."
Cief showed him a smile. "Being too overconfident is not good, brother. Only time can tell who will win. Everything and everyone are like chess pieces, with a few players observing the game. Who knows—perhaps the chess pieces might win instead of the players? Anyway, congratulations on your wedding. I will be there at your wedding as your best man."
With that, Sasaki and Cief gave each other one last glance before taking out their Meditation Aura and disappearing from the crowd.
…
"Hmm… I just had another sense of familiarity, This one's supplementary feeling was kindliness. Is there another 'one' here? Which one then?" Eric who was walking with Adrian and Max felt very shocked and quickly thought in his mind, He looked at Max who also looked at him, Max understood what Eric was trying to ask without any communication, He nodded his head, He also somewhat felt what Eric felt.