Chapter 1162: Silence

The aura the unconscious Cassarae was giving off was making Sylas’ skin prickle, his hair standing on end. He knew that getting close to her now would be a problem, but he also didn’t just want to not do anything.

Sylas had gone through several Class advancements on his own, so he wasn’t exactly sure why this one was so exaggerated. He certainly couldn’t remember ever losing consciousness because of one—at least not when it was directly related to the Class itself.

Usually, if he was losing consciousness during an upgrade, it would be because he was heavily injured beforehand.

To be fair, he hadn’t really had the time to assess Cassarae’s injuries when he appeared. If she really had cleared the Gold Leg of her Quest, then it also meant that she had been embroiled in battle for quite a while.

But on the other hand… Sylas’ instinct was that this state of unconsciousness had nothing to do with her injuries at all, he was sure of it.

“Boy, she would make quite a good vessel for Wrath. Unfortunate, unfortunate.”

Sylas’ gaze sharpened. Usually, that voice would disappear after a while, but it was back.

“Are you here to stay, this time?”

“That annoying Legendary System is gone, and the impotent one has nothing on me. So maybe I am—if you weren’t so insufferable. I think I should take another long nap.”

“Are you the Gluttony Seed?”

“I thought that of all your redeeming qualities—of which there are very few—that intelligence was at least one. Seems I was wrong.”

“So you are the Madness Key.”

“God, I can’t stand you. How about some emotion? Some annoyance? Some hate for the little girl screaming in your head like she’s a know-it-all?”

“Are you an item spirit? Or a Familiar? I would assume the latter. But you are more limited than any Familiar should be, which makes you feel like an item spirit of some sort.”

“Hello? I’m right here. Can we cease with the speculation, please? I live, I breathe.”

“You are more restricted than any living or breathing being,” Sylas replied. “You didn’t appear in earnest until I became a Tier Three Madness Disciple, only popping up sporadically before. You seemed to want to entice me, knowing that I’d be smart enough to figure out the correlation between my Madness Disciple status and you.

“You mentioned something about True Seeds, so I assume that while you aren’t the Gluttony Seed, you are responsible for triggering its growth and root within me.”

“Again, still talking like I’m not here.”

“You want me to talk to you, but you don’t answer my questions. What is the point?”

The little girl seemed speechless for a moment.

“…Rae was right, I side with her. You really are a petty bastard, as petty as they come. Do you not know how to treat women—no, a little girl!—with the appropriate level of care and attention?!”

“I highly doubt that you are what anyone would equate to a little girl in anything other than potentially fictitious outer appearance.”

“Are you calling me fake?! Dammit! And after I saved your life too!”

“Thank you.”

The little spirit was speechless to the point of fury. This insufferable bastard was doing it on purpose—she knew it had to be on purpose. There was no way that anything could be so good at pissing people off and not have meticulously planned out every little detail.

How could he make a thank you insufferable too? He didn’t even ask for clarification on when she had saved him. That meant he was well aware and yet still acted like this.

If she could just wring his little neck…

“Humph.” She turned away.

“Can you tell me what is going on with Cassarae?”

“Don’t think that you can suddenly get questions answered for free.”

Sylas blinked. Was that not what this is for? Then what was the point of her gaining sentience like this?

“Don’t say what you’re thinking out loud or I really might never talk to you again. Tread lightly, bastard!” she snarled.

Taking a breath, she regained some of her composure.

“To answer your question—yes, I can answer this one without payment. Don’t even start with me. I can see that skeptical, annoying, bastard of a look forming on your face already—I am both a treasure spirit and a Familiar.

“I have many of the flexibilities of the latter while being restricted by the rules of the former. The Madness Key is just here to extend my life, for reasons your entire Sector couldn’t afford to buy the answer to.”

“So you can answer questions strictly relating to pertinent, Madness Disciple things for free?”

“To an extent.”

“True Seeds versus Seeds—what is the difference?”

“Can’t answer that.”

“What’s the cost?”

“More than you can afford.”

“What is the real reason you wanted me to choose Lust?”

“You can control your Lust and the Seed won’t consume you, but you are too aligned with Pride. Even if you feel like you understand the dividing line between Pride and arrogance, you wouldn’t be the first and are unlikely to be the last to suffer thinking they could ‘game’ their Seed.”

“If you weren’t a Gluttony Madness Key, would I still have to feed you Genes?”

“No. Every Madness Key requires different things to keep them happy. You are quite lucky with me. A Pride Madness Key would run you into the ground, especially after it realized your affinity for it.”

“Are you implying that not all Madness Keys have the best interests of the Madness Disciple at heart? Is that related to what you mentioned about extending your life?”

“Sometimes you’re too smart for your own good.”

“Does that mean that some of you Treasure Familiars are imprisoned in the Madness Keys rather than being there by choice? Or is it that you gain something out of being in the Madness Keys and hope to take advantage of the situation?”

A silence fell in response.