Peko sat alone in the gazebo, slumped over the round table in the center with her chin resting on her fist as she stared blankly at the crystal-clear water visible through the gaps in the railing.
But she wasn't seeing the water.
She was seeing scenarios, hundreds of them. And in almost every single one, the ending was catastrophic.
Her index finger tapped against the table in a nervous staccato that echoed the racing of her heart.
-Tap. Tap. Tap.
[We revealed too much…] Peko thought, biting her lower lip. [The General… he isn't a fool. And now he has near-complete control over us…. And the Blood Pact barely protects us… There's nothing stopping them from sending Nom-Nom into a meat grinder under the guise of a 'mission necessary to fight the Red Moon'.]
A shiver that had nothing to do with the wind crawled up her spine as her mind spiralled.
[And if they look too closely at her… they will eventually look at me. If they figure out what I am…]
Her tapping grew faster, bordering on frantic as she went on.
[And we can't even talk freely. Young Master is right, this place… it has to be crawling with surveillance. We are walking blindfolded through a-]
-Press.
"Hya!"
The sudden, biting cold pressed against her cheek sent Peko jerking back in her chair with a high-pitched yelp while her hand conjured flames, ready to incinerate an assassin…
Only to find Nico standing behind her chair, holding a large pink plastic cup by her face with a cheeky grin plastered on his face.
"You must've been this close to deciphering the secrets of the universe if even I could sneak up on you…" Nico chuckled.
He walked around the table and placed the cup of strawberry milkshake right in front of her.
Watching the relaxed Nico despite the crushing pressure of their situation, a small, childish pout formed on Peko's lips.
She turned her head away, staring back at the pond and refusing to give him the satisfaction of a response.
With a chuckle, Nico pulled out the empty chair across from her and sat down, holding his own cup in his hand.
He leaned in, grabbed the straw with his lips, and-
-Slurp.
The sound was the most obnoxious, wet, rattling sound that could've echoed across the serenity of the pond.
Peko's eyebrow twitched at the sound and-
-Slurrrp-!
Finally, her patience snapped as she turned her head back with her violet eyes narrowing at him.
Finally securing her attention, Nico smiled before gesturing to the cup sitting untouched in front of her.
"Try it… It's good."
"Do you take me for a Nom-Nom?" she looked back at him with a deadpan expression.
"Of course not… there's no one like Nom out there…" Nico replied, leaning back in his chair with a grin. "And there's nothing like you, either."
A small 'hmph' escaped Peko's nose, though the very slight pink in her cheeks betrayed her attempted indifference.
She looked away again, crossing her arms over her pristine white robes, letting the silence stretch between her and Nico until -
"I've scanned the house… even this gazebo… There is no surveillance… except probably the maid General sent here."
Peko froze. She didn't ask how he knew. She just processed the information as her mind raced through the implications of what he just said.
And after a long moment of silence, she looked up, her violet eyes burning with the conviction of a mind made up.
"Young Master, make me your Familiar as well."
Nico blinked, surprised by the sudden request. But his answer was instant.
"That I cannot do…" Nico shook his head firmly.
Peko didn't flinch, nor did she back down. She just stared at him with that same intense, wavering conviction.
[She thinks it's a trust issue,] Nico realized.
Setting his cup down on the table, Nico met her gaze and said, "Let me start from the beginning… I'm what you'd call The Destined Hero."
Peko's eyes widened slightly, but she quickly recovered, as though she had expected this.
"That explains so many things about you… along with how you are able to produce such things…" she murmured, glancing at the milkshake. "You have the Chronos Protocol…"
Now it was Nico's turn to be surprised.
"How'd you know about the System?"
"It's in the Ancestral Knowledge in my bloodline…" Peko explained, tapping her temple lightly. "There is other knowledge buried there along with the spells… fragments of history, warnings, and the nature of the Cronos Protocol. After all, Pantheon's founder, Arlen Hale, was the previous Hero."
"So, how much do you know?" Nico asked, tilting his head.
"I know enough…." Peko replied quietly.
"Cool… that makes things easier…" Nico chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Then let me tell you something you don't know…"
Watching her tilt her head, a habit both she and Nico had subconsciously picked up from Nom-Nom, Nico took a breath.
"I'm from a different world…"
Peko stiffened. Nothing about this was in the archives embedded in her bloodline.
She stared at him in genuine shock, while Nico continued in a voice taking on a distant, somber quality.
"I spent most of my life inside the four walls of a white room, fighting a terrible disease… It would've claimed me long ago… but I somehow managed to hold on to life, hoping that I'd beat it one day and live… like actually live."
He looked down at his hands that were now strong, healthy, and very capable of magic.
"But I lost… and I died. And when I came to… I was in Nom's containment zone… and the latest host of the Chronos Protocol."
Peko stared at him, stunned into silence. She had seen him as a prodigy, a mystery, perhaps even a Chimera like them. But she hadn't seen this.
While Nico looked up, locking eyes with her in a gaze that held absolute conviction and a terrifying certainty.
"Look, the point is… I know what I've been through is nothing in the face of what you and Nom have endured… I can't imagine myself living through centuries of being Pantheon's experiments… and weapons… But I think I somewhat understand."
He leaned forward before speaking with a certain fierceness in his voice that-
"So know this… no matter how badly shit hits the fan, I'm never betraying or selling you two out. We WILL live the best life one can live under this sky… That I promise you."
The wind rustled the cherry blossoms around them, sending a few pink petals drifting into the gazebo.
Peko looked at Nico for a long moment, searching for even the faintest bit of hesitation or uncertainty.
But she found none.
"And I trust you…" Peko sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly. "But the world may not let us… We're Chimeras… weapons of Pantheon… And you… You're the Destined Hero who must defeat the Demon God…."
"And I will 'handle' it all… And yeah, I frankly don't really give a damn about the Hero stuff…" Nico chuckled, waving his hand dismissively.
"All I know is I got some cool time powers… and an even cooler system."
"Right…" Peko rolled her eyes at him, though there was a small, genuine smile tugging at her lips. But a second later, the smile vanished, and the worry returned, even sharper than before.
"But that still doesn't explain why you cannot accept me as your familiar…"
"It's because my innate affinity… Infinity."