Chapter 393: Return To Earth [I]

So, they gave me a quick rundown.

And by quick, I mean it included a lot of screaming, a fair amount of crying, and an alarming degree of physical violence for what was supposed to be an explanation.

I’m not at all kidding, by the way.

I had to forcefully tear Kang away from Vince.

The teen wolf kept shouting, "Admit it! Admit you cheated, you damn rat-eater!" while our resident scammer just kept on smirking, even as he was being actively strangled.

Honestly, Vince had an impressive lung capacity. Anyone else would’ve just passed out.

Somehow, I managed to pry Kang’s fingers off his throat one by one. The blue-haired boy dropped to the floor the moment he was free, coughing as if he’d just returned from the afterlife.

"I’ll have you know," he wheezed, raising a shaky finger, "that was a perfectly legal maneuver."

"You rolled the dice twice!" Kang barked. "I know you did! I just can’t prove it yet!"

"You sneeze, you lose. Am I right?"

"You cheater! It’s called fraud!"

"It’s called adaptation. Please keep up."

Kang growled and lunged again. Without looking, I stepped between them, planting my palm on the angry young man’s forehead and holding him in place like an overgrown, very irritable dog. "Sit."

He didn’t sit. If anything, I seemed to have made him angrier.

In the end, Alexia had to reluctantly step out of the hot tub to hold him back... which didn’t actually take much effort. She was in a bikini, and the mere sight of her in that scandalous attire folded Kang almost

immediately

.

That gave me the chance to help Juliana out of the jacuzzi.

She emerged from the water dripping wet, damp hair plastered to her face and cold eyes half-lidded, looking like she was profoundly done with life. After catching her breath, she turned her gaze toward me.

"...We were seeing who could stay underwater the longest. That shorty cheated," she explained flatly. "She body-slammed me. But don’t worry, I was still winning."

I... wasn’t worried about

that

.

"I think you were actually drowning," I said, squinting.

"A minor setback. My comeback was imminent."

...No, it really wasn’t.

I stared at her, and she stared back. Then, she turned around to head toward the partition.

Now, just because I promised to tell this story as honestly as possible, I’ll admit I checked her out a little as she walked away so sinuously.

I’ll also admit I enjoyed the show.

...And that was probably one of the times I

should’ve

realized something was off.

•••

After everyone somewhat calmed down, I sat there listening to Ray rant about how my family had

’committed crimes against all of mankind’

by illegally taking away his drone.

His words, not mine.

Now, obviously, I wasn’t going to argue with someone who looked like he was one stray word away from breaking into tears again.

So, I just comforted him by gently patting his head as he continued sniffing into my newly attached right shoulder.

In his grief, I suppose, he didn’t notice how different the limb felt to the touch compared to normal human flesh.

"I swear, Sam! I swear, if they delete even a single frame of that footage without my consent—"

"Yes, yes. I know. You’ll cry. Now shush, I’ll get it back."

To be fair, my family

wasn’t

in the wrong here. The

Noctveil Wilds

were a region in the Spirit Realm that functioned as a prison for not one, but

two

apocalyptic monsters — the Moon Eater Vaeghar and the Reflection Beast.

On top of that, it was where secrets related to gods and angels were buried. Hell, there had even been an actual fallen god rotting away there before I killed him.

In short, it was only natural that my family wanted to review the vlogs to ensure they didn’t expose any sensitive information.

Though, I think we had already done a good job on that front.

I had always asked Ray to stop recording whenever I was about to tell them something meant only for our ears.

I had also asked him, on multiple occasions, to delete anything that even

hinted

we knew more than what random Cadets our age should.

As such, it wasn’t a problem that my family had confiscated

’Ray’s life work, his masterpiece, and his legacy.’

Again... his words.

Still, I was serious about getting it back for him — half because I couldn’t ignore how pathetically he was crying and half because I knew he wasn’t going to stop pestering me until I did.

The only problem was... Michael.

At some point, he had stopped sobbing.

But now he was lying flat on his belly, face completely buried in the marble floor. I could have sworn I saw depressing, cartoonish blue lines hovering over his prone form.

"Is he dead?" I pointed to him with my chin. "What happened to him?"

Alexia, who had just returned from somewhere outside the room, came to sit on the other side of the couch. She had changed into a loose robe, the soft fabric hugging her frame rustled faintly as she settled in.

An uncomfortable expression crossed her face before she joined the conversation. "Ahh... Lily... well, she essentially broke up with him."

I blinked at the blind girl, then realized she couldn’t see the look of questioning surprise on my face. So I said it aloud, "What?"

"Oh, yeah, she did," Kang added. He had calmed down as well and was now bringing us refreshments on a tray.

He set a glass of orange juice in front of Alexia, coffee before Ray and himself, and a cup of ice cream before me. Then he settled next to his mistress and crossed one leg over the other.

I stared at the ice cream, then back at him. "Wait, how do you know about my sweet tooth?"

Alexia gave me an

’are you serious’

look. "Everyone knows about your sweet tooth, Sam."

Kang picked up his coffee and steered us back to the gossip. "Anyway, it was brutal."

My eyebrow shot up. "Yeah? What did she say?"

"Don’t know. She just took him outside. We heard her say

’time apart,’

then there was a lot of mumbling, and he came back looking like that."

I scowled, glancing back at Michael. Those gloomy blue lines definitely increased in number right then.

"I think they’ll be fine," Vince said, joining us. He had also returned from outside, now dressed in a crisp shirt and trousers. "She just needs some time."

"Where even is she?" I asked, scanning the room and not finding Lily anywhere.

"In her own quarters. She’s been cooped up in there ever since waking up yesterday," Alexia replied.

So, everyone had been given a private room. Obviously.

And considering Juliana was somewhere fixing her makeup, this one was likely hers.

"More importantly, how are you? You woke up today?" Kang muttered. "I see the new arm."

It was only then that Ray realized something was off. He lifted his head from my shoulder, blinking through his tears as his gaze drifted downward.

Slowly, and

very

hesitantly, his eyes landed on my right arm.

There was a long and awkward pause. Then—

"...Sam," he said, his voice dropping to a suspicious, horrified whisper. "Why do you have six fingers?"

Kang froze whatever he was doing and Alexia tilted her head. Vince paused mid-sip and even Michael stirred a little on the floor.

The awkward pause returned until Juliana, from somewhere out of view, casually muttered, "You’re only noticing that now?"

•••

I told them.

About everything that had happened since I woke up this morning.

Okay, just to be clear, I didn’t mention my father sending me to

Iron Height

next month to aid my brother in a war.

In fact, I refrained from mentioning

that

looming war altogether.

I also kept the abilities of my grafted arm to myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, I just sort of wanted to keep it as an X-factor for me. An ace up my sleeve, you know? And an ace that everyone knew was up your selve would be useless.

"That still doesn’t explain why you have six fingers," Alexia pointed out.

"I liked the aesthetic," I replied.

"Show us."

"Nope."

"Please! Just let us see!"

"You can’t even see!"

Both Kang and Ray gasped in unison.

"Whoa! Why are you so heartless, Sam?"

"Wow. You’re really going to break the poor girl’s heart? Come here, Lady Alexia, I’ll help you!"

It took several minutes to steer the conversation toward something actually useful.

Which meant that we eventually began discussing the state of the world — politics and global affairs. It was always a fun topic to bring among friends, right?

...Well, not when your friend group was as diverse as ours.

Alexia was from the West, so she was fiercely supportive of my family’s move. There had always been deep-seated discord between the Southern and Western Safe-Zones, and she saw the Theosbane aggression as a necessary check.

Speaking of the Southern Safe-Zone, Vince, who was from there, naturally held opposing views.

He was genuinely surprised at how easily the Free Tribes had agreed to the Southern Prince’s offer, especially considering the bloody history between them.

Ray, the secret bastard son of an Eastern Duke (a fact that only I knew at this table), was against both the Southern Prince’s use of underhanded tactics to absorb the Coalition into his Safe-Zone and my family’s mindless response to the provocation.

Then there was Kang, who had some... very

questionable

ideologies.

"I’m just saying," he said, leaning back with a thoughtful look, "if everyone were a little more honest and stopped

cheating

, the world would be a much nicer place. Isn’t that right, Vince?"

Ray immediately snapped his head toward him, coming to the defense of his best friend. "Bro, you literally just tried to kill him over a dice game! You have zero moral high ground here!"

"That’s different."

"How?"

"It’s about principles."

"Principles? Your only principle is violence!"

"Actually," Kang lifted a finger, adjusting his imaginary glasses, "my principle is fairness."

Alexia tilted her head slightly. "Those two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive."

"They are if you’re losing," Kang muttered under his breath.

Ray pointed at him in an

aha

moment. "See? That’s exactly my point!"