Kassie explained to that after she tore down the Manhattan Trade Center, Tristan and Levi were waiting there to deal with the damages, almost as if they had predicted that she would do sothing like that.
And now that she had put it like that, I thought deeply about it. The Scavenging team had survived. So had every single person in the cohort.
There was a high chance that in this entire mission, I had been played. They got almost all the resources of the gate and would most likely boost their financial bucket for a while, and they even spent less dealing with the Manhattan Trade Center.
After Kassie told how much they were affected both positively and negatively, I stomped down to the reception where Levi and Tristan were lounging. Levi was slouched over a chair, drinking straight from a bottle of booze, while Tristan sat comparing cards together as though nothing in the world concerned him.
Gran Gran was there too, smoke pipe in her mouth. She was the first person to look in my direction the mont I ca down from the stairs.
"If it isn’t our newest ace."
I ignored her. My jaw was tight and my hands were clenched at my sides as I walked past and stopped in front of the two-seater sofa where Levi and Tristan were seated. Whatever playfulness I usually carried was gone.
"Did you know? You knew and you played ?"
Both of them looked at each other with confusion and turned their eyes back to .
"Knew what?" Tristan asked, his tone calm.
My gaze was dark and serious with no iota of my usual self in it. There was nothing I hated more than being taken advantage of.
"You’re asking ’knew what?’ You knew my summon was going to tear down Manhattan, and you took the opportunity to misdirect us into the gate while also using us to gather resources for your pocket. As if that was not enough, you asked the others not to fight and instead let do the fighting?!"
Tristan looked at , confusion still etched on his face.
"What are you talking about?"
It was Levi who spoke next. He sat up, setting the bottle down.
"How could we have possibly known what your summon would or would not do? The plan was for the two of us to tear Manhattan apart ourselves."
He sighed.
"Preferably, I alone... but this guy won’t let go alone."
He jerked his chin toward Tristan.
"We were quite surprised to see what was going down."
He grinned.
"And since it was already going down, we just waited for the conclusion and took care of the rest."
Levi gave a pleasant look.
"Your summon really is powerful. I underestimated her truly. Even after hearing who she was, I still didn’t think she’d be this powerful. She single-handedly destroyed over thirty summoners and their summons, many of which are Manhattan’s top brass. I’m talking B ranks. It’s a good thing that The Blood Mage was not around, though. Haaa!"
He exhaled powerfully, then leaned back and raised the bottle.
"Anyways, this has worked positively, and our image has soared back. And about Milo and the others’ behavior in the gate, that was not . We have a tradition..."
I raised a brow.
"A tradition?"
Levi nodded, smiling.
"Yes. We did it to Cressida, did it to Odelia and Ophelia too. Basically it’s a test of whether you’re willing to abandon your comrades or not. And judging the scale of your selfishness."
I furrowed my brows, and Levi, seeing that, quickly continued.
"Hey now, don’t take it too hard. The point of traditions is to irritate the hell out of you. But they also are our way of bringing you into our family."
He grabbed a cup and stood, walking over to . He handed the cup and poured booze into it, the amber liquid catching the light.
After he was done, he gave a warm smile. One that didn’t match the slouching, bottle-drinking man from a minute ago.
"Welco to the Black Snow Company, Cade. You are a part of our family now."
At the sa mont, the room erupted.
Starlight and sparkles exploded from every direction, bursting across the ceiling, raining down in glittering trails.
"Welco To The Black Snow Company, Cade!!"
Everyone poured into the reception from every door possible.
Ophelia. Odelia. Cressida. Nisha. Milo. Even Kassie and Maggie were here, and Kassie was grinning like she hadn’t just been the one to send down here angry.
I stared around.
It took a mont for it to settle. Then a mont more.
’Oh... it’s a surprise party?’
I had never had a surprise party, but I had seen them in movies. This was sort of how they usually played out.
I just stood there with the cup in my hands, utterly confused, looking from face to face like I was waiting for soone to explain a joke I’d missed.
Everyone had bright and beautiful expressions. And all their wounds were gone, as though they had not been injured at all.
"Welco to the family, Cade! You were absolutely aweso! I can’t believe you carried us all. I abandoned Milo!" Cressida threw her arms out as she spoke, almost hitting Milo in the process.
Milo gave her a chop of his hand on her head. He adjusted his glasses and smiled warmly at .
"You are amazing..."
I continued to give him a dark, deadpan stare.
He cleared his throat and tried to look away.
"Ahem, I’m sorry we said nothing about all of this... it was our little way to welco you."
I turned to Nisha, who was standing next to him, smiling too.
"You had almost died! All of this was a prank?"
She covered her face in embarrassnt.
Milo answered on her behalf.
"Oh no, I don’t think that was part of the plan. Nisha was in a rougher state than any of us needed to be. I think she really almost died."
Ophelia entered the conversation, tapping her look-alike on the shoulder.
"But there was no need to worry. Odelia here has a wonderful summon that is capable of healing almost anything."
The door slamd open at that instant and the last two missing faces stumbled inside.
Derry and Po. Both of them looked ragged, out of breath, but they were holding sothing in their hands.
Derry carried a bunch of flowers. Strange, purple flowers that were oddly beautiful, even though their sll imdiately made my nose itch. He looked at them like they might bite him.
"I heard this is how Otherworlders celebrate themselves."
Po was carrying a cake that looked like... .
It was built on a round platter: a man with dark hair and alabaster skin wearing a cloak, with a wanted sign reading 30,000 silvers propped beside it.
I stared at the cake.
Then at Po, who was carrying it with a grin so wide I could see every single tooth, his tail wagging behind him like he couldn’t contain himself.
Then at Derry. And at everyone else, including my summons.
The room was loud and bright and full of people who, by all reasonable logic, should not have cared this much. These people didn’t even know . Not really. We had barely been through one mission together.
’Why?’
They were so much better than my own real family. The people whom I thought I wanted to go ho for...
Sothing tightened in my chest, and I raised my eyes to the ceiling before anyone could notice. The lights from the sparklers blurred slightly.
’Oh goodness, what’s wrong with my eyes...’
User Comments
0 comments from readers