After what felt like hours of talking —with Mars, then with Michael— and finally approaching what he wanted, Luca slithered through the road. The faint breeze ruffled the red leaves of the trees, carrying the faint scene of a storm and the distant murmur of people.

  He found himself on the park, not far from the Delta’s building. It was quieter there, and as he sat on a bench, he let the silence settle over him. His thoughts drifted away. He had two days of rest, but he liked to consider them as two days to prepare himself.

  The Training Room was a big advantage —and despite the strange format which Michael had used to give him the necessary permits, he knew it would be thrilling. Learning to use 'Acid' would be his priority before his next mission. But… there were other things he needed to do. The Inner Market, for example. And he needed to allocate the still pending points.

  He was deep in thought when the sound of footsteps broke the silence. Glancing at its direction, he saw someone familiar. Liona stood a few feet away, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She was –well, she looked quite down. Metaphoric shadows covered her eyes.

  “Hey,” Luca said, patting the space next to him. “You okay?”

  She hesitated before sitting beside him, her gaze fixed on the ground. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “No really.”

  “I supposed so. The mission… was quite hard.”

  Liona only murmured her accord, grasping her hands together.

  Luca felt a pang of sympathy for her. Of all the characters, Samantha could be said to belong to the 'good girl' type, someone who struggled against the darkness of those around and clung bravely to her own humanity even through each loss of a piece of it. It could be said that her designation was well chosen.

  The silence hung down between them both while in the sky the clouds swirled, becoming darker, more threatening.

  It looks like it will rain soon, Luca thought, and wondered what to do. He didn’t want to get wet but leaving her alone like that felt a bit wrong.

  Liona took the decision for him.

  “I –” Liona opened her mouth, hesitating as if searching for the right words. It took her several moments before she finally spoke. “I can’t stop thinking… about Ladon.” Her voice was soft, almost fragile. “I didn’t lie—he really did save my life in the forest. After –after climbing the fence, the forest became stranger. We tried to reach the mountains as soon as possible —but then —then I heard the noises—” Her voice cracked.

  “The mimic,” Luca supplied gently, already having hunch about where this was headed.

  “Yes. I guess that’s a good name for it,” Liona murmured, a smile withering on her lips as soon as it appeared. “I heard my— someone screaming —and they sounded like they in pain. I wanted to turn back —to help them. But Ladon stopped me, saying it was a trap —that he’d seen similar things before, that I’ll die if I fell for something like that.” She paused, her cheeks flushing slightly with embarrassment. “I didn’t believe him at first. I couldn’t. The urge —it felt impossible to resist—”

  She glanced at Luca, her voice quieter now. “And then… he shocked me.”

  “…What?”

  With a snort, she explained. “It was his item from the Junky Box. Some kind of joke toy—it delivered a small jolt of electricity. It snapped me out of it. If he hadn’t used it…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “I probably would’ve died there like an idiot.” Her hands clenched tightly together. “But—but how could he do what he did later? Try –try to trip Nagato like that, in such a situation? And then —he even wanted to leave us there before. I didn’t even want to think about that. It’s makes me feel so disappointed. On him or on myself. I don’t know.” The feeling of frustration was clear on his voice.

  Luca leaned back against the bench, his gaze drifting upward to the red leaves swirling above them. “Well, I didn’t know him for more than a moment, so I cannot say I understood his thoughts. But there’s something I’ve learned so far. People aren’t black and white, Liona. They can be good to some, and then a complete asshole to others. It’s simply as people is.”

  “I suppose…” Liona murmured, though her expression suggested she wasn’t entirely convinced.

  He hummed, thoughtful. “I’m not saying it’s alright. Although, I’m sure that if we could speak to Ladon, he’d say he did what he thought was correct for himself. No one wants to die. And this job puts everyone at the edge of the knife, doesn’t?”

  “… I don’t want to life if the price is the lives of others.”

  It was a beautiful statement. Such a righteous thing.

  Luca smiled softly, repressing the sudden sadness. “We can only try to follow our words at the last end.”

  Trying… something it was the best what you could do.

  Liona sighed heavily, her shoulders sagging. “Even so… I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about all this. Part of me feels like I shouldn’t mourn him. Like I shouldn’t care.” She played with her jacket as she murmured, “but I’m sad anyway.”

  “Good news is, you don’t owe anyone your feelings,” Luca replied honestly, meeting her gaze with steady eyes. “If you want to cry for him, cry. If you want to curse him, curse him. Hell, do both. You don’t have to pick sides.”

  Liona stared at him for a moment, her brow furrowing slightly before her expression softened. Then she let out a short unexpected chuckle. “…This might sound random, but do you have siblings or something? You’re surprisingly good at this.”

  “… A younger brother.”

  “That explains it,” Liona said, managing a faint but genuine smile. The tension in her shoulders seemed to ease, just a little. “Thanks, Mithras. I needed to hear that.”

  He shrugged. “Anytime.”

  Sometimes he forgot how young they were. Young and na?ve.

  (How young when their ashes were lay underground.)

  The storm raged –thunder reverbed among the clouds, and lighting streamed through the window.

  Luca sat at the desk, a bunch of white paper and a pen in use. He was making some basic calculations about how long it would take him to pay off the debt if he kept bringing in 100–200 points from rewards. And, to his lack of surprise, it seemed like it would end in four, maximum six missions. Which meant less than a month.

  Of course, this was only valid if he survived long enough.

  Well, what better way to begin preparations to ensure that this would happen?

  “Profile.”

  The familiar panel emerged out of thin air, floating in front of him. He thought for a long moment about what he should do with the two pending points. Allocating one to Endurance and the other to Strength would make him a more well-rounded agent, which wasn’t bad. But on the other hand, it shouldn’t be a bad idea to continue specializing.

  Perhaps, he thought, looking at his stats with a careful eye, I should choose Intelligence and Perception. Improving his memory could help him retain his memories more easily — perhaps even ‘unlock’ some of them. And having an edge in awareness of his surroundings would never be considered a bad thing when it could mean the difference between living or not.

  Luca drummed his fingers on the surface of the table, thoughtful.

  A sudden message interrupted his concentration. The vibration came from his bracelet, which gave him some relief, and when he opened it, it turned out to be from Michael. There were some additional details that hadn’t appeared before –perhap there was benefices for being an Agent, huh?

  Wow. It was totally better than the excuse of manual from last mission.

  It didn’t look bad, right?

  Luca’s eyes stayed in the current return rate for a couple of seconds and then flickered again through the rest of the message. Agni’s Kitchen was familiar to him. A favorite, you could say. But that had been before, when it hadn’t been him who had to pass through the challenges, putting more than his skin in risk.

  However, this particular Mystery had a particular detail that could give shorter the time he needed to pay his debts. The bonus –yes. That would be incredible.

  “Yes,” he said.

  [TASK ACCEPTED | START: 38:39:48]

  That meant he would be diving in the day after tomorrow at 10 a.m. Not bad. Being able to wake up around 9 a.m. should be part of the benefits package presented by the company — to compensate a little for the thing about the ‘high probability of a horrible death.’

  A last message came.

  [Security Mechanism still broken. News coming soon.]

  Luca murmured a ‘thank you’ at the air, and opened his profile again. Already knowing his task, he put a point in Perception, and the second one in Endurance. ‘Hell’ looked like the kind of place that warranted that. If he could, he would allocate one in Strength –but he trusted that his Perk would be enough to cover that part.

  He would go to the Training Room tomorrow morning, after having breakfast. Perhaps it wouldn’t be bad idea to buy some ingredients and refresh his techniques, fruit of years jumping there and here in the food industry. But that would be tomorrow.

  Now, there was something more to do.

  “Inner Market.”

  Only five items. Well, according to the title in the corner, he was only Rank 2, so it was limited. But those things weren’t bad. His eyes caught the fourth product, and he immediately knew it should be his path to victory. But — that price. It hurt his heart seeing such a number, knowing it would be taken from his poor savings (fated to pay the debt but savings anyway).

  … However, a C-rank mission was around… 40, 45 points, if his memory was correct So, achieving a ‘good’ performance would be enough to surpass the 100-point mark. But if he really wanted to squeeze every possible ounce of value out of the task, he had to do exceptionally well. 200 points per mission, 400 points for two missions. These numbers — yes, Luca could take the risk of spending his last earnings on this item.

  Besides, there were more missions, so the final amount would be even greater.

  Already dreaming of becoming a millionaire —even for a moment— Luca pressed the item and confirmed his purchase.

  [You’ve obtained ‘Tears of Discernment.’ The item has been added to your inventory.]

  Now, two more. He had to make sure to get everything before starting the Mystery. Once inside, he wouldn’t be able to access the Market.

  150 points disappeared just like that. It felt as though part of his soul had been consumed.

  Oh, well. Dying because he got his meat overcooked or confused salt with sugar would be worse.