A heart-to-heart talk with a semi-sociopath

Youngwoo moved a little as he woke up. Feeling Hilda laid next to him, he opened his eyes, and noticed how her hair were in the way. She herself was sprawled across the bed, and had **** him to the very edge. In fact, had he just wanted to turn around, he would most definitely fall.

Feeling his mind get clearer by the minute, he slowly moved about, and soon found himself sitting on the edge of the bed. Hell, he felt good. To be honest, waking up next to Hilda had happened in the past before, but... it never felt so special. Was it because they were dating now? Well, probably the issue.

He looked at her, and chuckled inwardly at the sight of her almost forming an X-shape on the bed. Her bag shirt covered her chest nicely, and the long pajama pants that she wore were hiding her entire legs, socks on her feet. Truly, he was certain that she could be going to hunt without needing to change her clothes. In that regard, it seemed that them two were similar. Or maybe she didn't want to undress in front of him yet? Who knew?

Still, he needed to get up. The time was nearing 8 in the morning. Well, not like he had a job to get to or anything, as he intended on waiting until Giordi finished creating Pagma's Sword Dance as a skill, but he still wanted to have a walk. And train. Training was also important, and he wanted to practice all the original moves. After all, he needed to return to the base form of the sword dances if he hoped to use them in the future.

He stood upright, and fixed his shirt and pants. Surprisingly for him, they were actually somewhat comfortable, even though they were too short to cover his ankles. No movement was restricted, and as he did a light stretch to test fabric's elasticity, he found out they would be really nice to practice in. But, those weren't his. He needed to get his pair from the dryer in the bathroom.

Quietly, so as not to wake Hilda up, he walked to the door and pressed the handle. Thankfully, all the hinges seemed to be in top-notch shape, as the door opened without making a sound. Youngwoo quickly slid forward and closed the door. After that, he turned his steps towards the bathroom.

No more than 5 minutes later, having taken care of his basic physiological needs, he went out of the room, now dressed in his own pants. Slowly, he took his steps towards the kitchen. Well, he kind of wanted to check on Ieva, but decided against it. In the end of the day, he was sure him and Iris would be able to talk with her. That being said, where was Pionstrife?

"Che." He heard her voice from up ahead as she flew through a wall from Hilda's room. "Looks like he decided to show up."

"Finally." Said Ieva, moving from the couch.

'She's awake?' He thought as he slowly stepped into the room. Immediately, he was greeted by sight of of the small woman getting up and stretching a little. As she did, her shoulders made audible noises of her joints snapping. Youngwoo shivered momentarily while Ieva took out her phone.

"I'll get to the point. Listen. I really am sorry for shooting you before, okay?"

"...alright?" He said, although it came out more like a question.

"Now with that out of the way, we need to talk about Shadow Cult." One thing was to sure - Ieva sure did like to get to the point, just as she said she would.

Slowly, he took out his phone. However, he saw Ieva's hand waving in a dismissing manner.

"Can we have a talk and then regress? It'd be much easier if we do it that way."

"...what kind of deranged question is that?"

"A 'yes or no' kind."

"You... do you even realize what you're asking of me?"

"Of course I know. Hence I'm asking."

"Che." They both heard Iris' voice. "Just accept and be done with it. Don't worry about Giordi or your quest. You said yourself, he's regressing with us anyway. And I'm sure this damnable place keeps all the data he got from me." She put on a little pout, turned sideways towards the two standing.

"Okay, fine, I'll step down a bit. What do you want?"

"...what?"

"What do I have to give you for you to accept?!" Ieva's lips were constricted, but it was obvious she wanted to ask the question loudly.

"...it's not something we can just 'do', Ieva." He stole a glance behind himself, towards Hilda's room. No, not in a thousand years would he regress right now. Well, not that he would mind his actions with her or hugging her to sleep, but... well, that was the same issue as before. It would only be first time for Hilda anymore, and he? He would only feel... would 'left out' make sense here? He wasn't sure. "If you understand how this works, you should know why I don't want it."

"I get it. I really do. You had a nice time with Hilda, and would feel awkward if you had to retry it. That's why I have a proposition. We have a long talk, learn a few things, maybe even go to 13th floor, and only regress when we'll know we'll come back to around this time. Sounds good enough?"

"...you won't give it up, will you?"

"Of course not. I've been tapping for last 2 hours when I talked with Iris. I want my fingers to rest, I still need them, you know?" She blew a bit of air at her hair, forcing them out of her face. "Now, will you finally decide? Because if you don't accept, I'm not talking with you. I value my hands."

"...fine." He let out a prolonged sigh. Truly, he couldn't understand on what basis was this woman Hilda's sister. He knew that if she had known about 'I want to do better!', she would still oppose him using it like this. Hell, he was sure 99% of humanity would oppose using it like that. Then why was Ieva different?

"Haaaah..." She let out a huff of air, and stretched her fingers. After she did that, she formed a bag with her hands and stretched them, multiple joints clicking audibly. "You're really saving my hands here. IOU."

"...'IOU'?"

"I owe you." She explained shortly. "Just treat this as a free pass to get something from me later. Kind of like a priority list."

"...thanks?"

"Okay, formalities out of the way. How about we go out?" She asked. Seeing as his gaze turned once again towards Hilda's location, she frowned and let out a somewhat frustrated sigh. "Come on, don't worry about her. We'll regress anyway. Nobody will know a thing."

"...where did you want to go?"

"I dunno." She shrugged. "Maybe to some different floors or something? I hadn't left Safe Zone for past 2 years almost."

Youngwoo shrugged a little, agreeing with her. To be honest, he felt a little... disconnected. For some reason, he felt almost like he was dreaming. Of course, he knew this was reality, but he couldn't help but feel something... off. Was it something about him? Or was it something about Ieva? Probably both.

"How long does your skill regress us both?" Asked Ieva as the two of them left the apartment.

"...24 hours exactly."

"Ah, so we got a shitload of time." She said, throwing the key in the distance after she locked the door. "What?" She looked at Youngwoo. "I don't have to give a shit. We'll regress anyway. It's nice to just let go of worries for once." Ieva explained calmly as she relaxed somewhat.

Just what was up with her?! How could she act so calm and careless just like that? Youngwoo shook his head a little and asked:

"So, how much DO you know?"

"Everything you told Iris." She replied. "You're from 3 years in the future, got your skill in a failed raid, you get a skill from people that kill you, yada yada yada." Ieva made a snapping gesture with her hand. "But before you tell me more, let's focus on the issue at hand. Shadow Cult."

The 'ominous' name of the organisation hung in the air for a few long seconds. They both stepped outside of the apartment building, and took their steps towards the Gate. Soon enough, Ieva continued:

"All I know is a few things. The Cult has roughly 1200 people, give or take a few dozen. The number fluctuates a little, as some people die and some live. Clairvoyant has strong ties with them, and it's pretty possible that she's the one behind the organisation altogether."

Youngwoo nodded, still listening carefully. They both had transferred to 12th floor, and took their steps outside of Issar. Iris was floating above them both, listening but deciding not to meddle.

"There are currently three people worth anything in there. Clairvoyant herself, the backstage runner, Mobius, second-in-command whom you've met, and a woman named Shadow."

"Shadow? The one from Reaper Guild?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You know her? How?"

"She was guildmaster 3 years in the future."

"...hmm... yeah, makes sense." Ieva replied as they slowly walked into the forest where bandit's camp had been just 2 days before. "They've been trying to expand their influence over the major 4 guilds. Actually, I'm pretty sure they have a mole in Magician Guild as well."

"What about the other two?"

"Merchant's Guild has Michel Collen. His SS-rank talent is enough to ward Shadow Cult off for the time being. As for Knight's Guild, they aren't really important to them anyway, so they won't bother for now. Actually, if they could take over just Reaper and Magician guilds, they would be basically untouchable anymore. They could probably swallow the other two whole without a worry. But that's a different story. Now, back to the topic. Honestly, I have no idea where do they have their headquarters, how Shadow looks, where is Clairvoyant, none of the important stuff. With your skill, finding that out would be possible, but well, I get it that you don't want to do it that way, so we'll have to improvise."

"'We'?"

"Well, I'm in here, am I not?" She looked at him momentarily as she leaned on a fallen tree. "Whether you like it or not, I'm a part of this shithole, so it's best if we try to figure this out together."

"..." He sat down next to her, but didn't respond with a word.

"Anyway, since you met Mobius, they're clearly aware of you. Hell, they probably have you on visor 24/7. Since you saved me from **** that Clairvoyant herself planned, you're an element of greatest surprise to them all. The question is, who and when will reach out to you?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Do you really think they'd have sent Mobius if they thought you were just a random? Hell no. That guy's a demon of efficiency. He never does things that are unnecessary. I heard he learnt that as a sniper. Anyway, it's like that. They obviously know something is off with you. I'm sure they don't know the nature of your skill. To be honest, regression is a reality-breaking skill, literally. I'm 100% sure that just like me, they believe you have a clairvoyance skill more powerful than Norma herself, which would mean they suspect it to be SS-rank."

"...I see." He nodded lightly. "So they think I'm dangerous?"

"Yup. I mean, with that skill, you're literally the biggest monster to ever enter the Tower. And I mean it. You could literally slaughter everyone, and if you used your skill properly, you would be able to leave basically no evidence behind."

"..."

"Don't tell me the thought never crossed your mind." She said. "Well, anyway. Since they will likely assume you to be a Clairvoyant, they won't want to make you their enemy. Hell, I'm pretty sure that you'll be receiving an envoy from them very soon. Considering you just met Mobius yesterday, it'll be give or take 3 days."

"...how do you know that?"

"What? Similar thing happened to me." She shrugged. "I met a few guys needing an enchantment, and after a few days I got a proposition to work for Shadow Cult."

"...wait... it doesn't make sense. Why would they want an enchantment from you one day, try to get you to join them the other day, and then try to kill you when you declined? With Clairvoyant, they could just jump to step 3, no?"

"That doesn't make sense to me, either, but well, Clairvoyant is standing behind that decision, so there clearly was some reasoning in play." Ieva shrugged as she started walking further into the forest, Youngwoo following suit.

Hearing as he was not commenting on her words, she continued:

"Seeing how it was Mobius who you met and he didn't propose you to join them, they won't want to send some grunts to you. Hell no, that'd be discourtesy on their part, a huge one, to send some F-ranks to meet SS-rank. No, if anyone would meet you in the future, it would be either of the three. Mobius, Clairvoyant herself, or Shadow." She stuck out three fingers. "But let's be real here. Meeting Mobius again is improbable. He's not a person to be going around making deals. He's a person to do a job, and only that. On the other hand, Clairvoyant hadn't stuck out her head for years. And since Michel isn't with Shadow Cult, she didn't do it back when he came around, and probably won't do it to meet you, either."

"So the only one left is Shadow?"

"Correct. There's always an off chance I'm wrong, but I doubt it."

"..."

Youngwoo started thinking as they took another break. Yes, there was something about what Ieva said that made sense. He knew he couldn't escape attention forever, but he didn't expect the sudden grab to be so large, sudden, or impacting. If what she said was 100% true, there was a good chance as much as 1200 people would be interested in him, including a future guildmaster of Reaper, Clairvoyant herself, and the 'demon sniper', as he would start calling Mobius from now on.

"So you're saying I have about 2 days now?"

"Yeah. Actually, it's probable that you'll meet Shadow tomorrow, even. I can't tell, but well, I wouldn't be expecting anyone else really. So, I wanted to ask a favor."

"A favor?"

"They will be wary of you. Afraid, even. So I need you to remain perfectly calm in talk with Shadow. And while you'll be talking with her, I want you to convince her to let her shadows down. Take in her details and relay them to me. The more we will know about Shadow's Cult head and tail, the better we can respond to them in the future."

"I see... but I don't know if I can."

"I'm not telling you to **** her and then regress. Just... you need to understand that they don't want to make you their enemy. If they did, you'd have been attacked by them already and regressed. No, if they ever wanted to attack you, they'd have done that with intent of checking out your skill set. Anyway. I'm not gonna **** you to do it, but I'm saying it'd be much appreciated on my end. Hell, if you want, I can commission an item for you from best blacksmiths."

"...I'll think about that." He replied shortly. To be honest, the moment she said the last part, he wanted to agree in a heartbeat. This could be a huge opportunity to him. A new weapon to celebrate birth of a new skill would be amazing, especially since by the time he could tell Ieva specifics he wanted, he'd already know the pros and cons of Tower's version of Pagma's Sword Dance. Still, there was a threat looming around that he'd need to regress to achieve that goal. No, he'd need to think about this fully once he finished his talk with Ieva.

"Sure, whatever." She shrugged again. "So, I think I told you everything. Now I want to know stuff. How was I in the future? How was Hilda? I mean, we are one of the best, I'd assume we would be high, right?"

"...right." He said. "You'll not gonna like what I'm about to tell you."

"Just drop it on me. Unlike before, I can take it."

"...you both died."

"...oh." She looked at her hands momentarily. "I see. I already expected to die a month ago, so I assume I'd have died back then, no? Do you know if she died peacefully, at least?"

"...I don't." He replied quietly, not wanting to tell her what he saw in Hilda's trauma. Truly, he knew well that memory was probably festering on her until the day she died. There was no need for Ieva to know that. Not now, and not at all if he could help it.

"...alright then. Go on with the story, then." She said, and although her hands shook a little, her voice was stern.

For next 2 hours, Youngwoo was telling Ieva the story of how things were in the future he had averted. Things one after another, from the scandal that erupted in 2042 to the more interesting articles that he still remembered. By the time he reached the banshee's raid, he suddenly went silent. There was a choice he had to make now. Did he want to really tell her about what happened to Hilda? Furthermore, seeing how Hilda's trauma from her life was displayed when she was a zombie, another thought erected in his mind. Did the undead created by the boss retain their memories? If so, it meant that she suffered even after ****. He shivered at the thought.

"...why'd you stop?" Ieva tilted her head a little. "What happened back there?"

"...nevermind. I got my skill during that raid, and decided to regress after I learned how this skill worked."

Ieva nodded weakly as she started staring in the distance. For a brief moment, it seemed that she wanted to leave the issue, until she asked:

"Hilda was there, wasn't she?"

"...yeah." He said with grim expression. Hell, even Calm Mind couldn't help him now. "She died to the banshee before, and I died to her. That's how I have 'Calm Mind'."

Then, he stopped talking. He felt the weight of what he said on him, and honestly, he couldn't imagine how Ieva was feeling right now.

"3 years..." She said slowly, tears flowing from her eyes. "I **** her to suffer for 3 years..." She sobbed. "Fuck... I hate myself..."

"...it wasn't your intention, Ieva."

"But that was the effect. I tried to protect her, and ended up hurting her." Tears flew from her cheeks as she replied a little sharply. "Fuck... That fucking Norma..." She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "I hope she'll pay."

To be honest, Youngwoo also wanted the Clairvoyant to pay a price for causing this to happen. It wasn't just because of Hilda and Ieva. From what he heard about that woman, many others suffered as well. There was blood of countless hundreds on her hands. If he ever met her, he'd be sure to give her a piece of his mind.

"So do I." He replied, slowly getting up from his position.

"So... Hilda killed you, and you got hit by trauma so hard that you came back to save us?"

"...yeah, pretty much. Along the way, I met Giordi, and after I saved you, he gave me a quest to find Iris' Wardstone so that he'd be able to create a new skill basing on the swordsmanship I use."

Ieva's tears kept on flowing for some long seconds as she slowly calmed down.

"...thanks, Youngwoo." She said slowly. "Really, thanks. For saving us, and for making Hilda happy. It's a rarity to see her smile, but she's smirked quite a few times when we talked about you. But just so you know, if you hurt her-"

"I'm dead, got it." He replied. "I wouldn't dream of hurting her."

Ieva nodded lightly.

"But don't think we're friends. And don't expect to be called 'Youngwoo' much, Lee." She frowned a little. "Though... now that I know your motifs and reality, I think I can understand. So, I guess I'll try to not be hostile to you as much."

"Hey, I get it. We'll work things out eventually, I'm sure. Take your time." He nodded in understanding.

"Hah." She let out a sigh with a glint of chuckle. "Finally a guy who isn't trying to hit on me the moment I tell him that I don't hate his guts."

"Donnie?"

"You have no idea." She nodded as she chuckled. "I mean, I really don't hate him, but he's been hitting on me for past year or so. Like he doesn't notice that he's not my type. God, that man can be so dense sometimes."

"Huh. So, uh, is it alright to ask you something?"

She looked at him momentarily.

"What is it?"

"Why did you two come to the Tower? You and Hilda, I mean." He asked a question, and immediately felt the atmosphere get denser. Or rather, the tension in the air rose to unbelievable levels in matter of seconds.

"..." She looked at her hands. It looked like she didn't want to answer. "...you heard of the European Wars of 2029 to 2031, right?"

"...yeah." 'I think I already know where this is going...'

"When Lithuania was attacked, I was 9. Our parents wanted to escape, but it wasn't possible for people from countrysides near Baltic at first. So we were **** to sit like ducks and pretend that the war wasn't happening. One day, when I was finishing my classes for the day, Hilda came to pick me up. We went away as soon as she came around. I didn't understand it then, but she explained it to me sometime later with an analogy of 'things must come to an end someday'."

"You mean..."

"Our house was bombarded, and both our parents died immediately." She clenched her fists. "And Hilda saw the remnants. I... I can't imagine how she felt. I don't want to imagine it. I... I-I... I only wished I could do something for her, but... I couldn't. She had to mature so quickly that I honestly stopped seeing my sister in her sometimes, and saw our mother instead. Honestly, I don't even remember my mother's face. Whenever I think of her, I only see Hilda's face..." She stopped for a moment. "We fled to Germany, and met Idan. He took us under wing of his family. Well, his family wasn't very warm towards us. They accepted us, but didn't really like us. Fate of refugees, I guess... After 3 years Hilda decided that coming to Tower would be better, and Idan came around as well. She got S-rank skill while I got B-rank, and honestly, ever since then the life has been so much better." She breathed a tiny sigh. "And what about you?"

"Also a refugee. I wanted to fight in war between Koreas in 2032, but wasn't mature yet, so I wasn't enlisted. They **** us to move to India, and from there I decided to come around to Tower. Won't lie, it's been a struggle, but I feel good now."

"Figures." She responded. She let out a sigh as she relaxed her muscles a bit. "Well, thanks for hearing me out, Lee."

"No problem."

"No, really. It's actually kind of cathartic to talk about my problems a bit. Seriously, thanks. And again, sorry for killing you before. God, that sounds weird."

"Yeah, it does." He formed a tiny smirk, but not because he found it funny. He simply didn't want her to feel awkward. "But hey, don't sweat it."

A long moment of silence was beset upon them both. They simply sat on a fallen tree deep in the forest, taking in the silence. Birds were chirping, sun was blazing, insects were buzzing. Scent of pine was in the air, but neither of them cared.

"...anything else you want to talk about?"

"..." He took a long moment to ponder. He received some information about Shadow Cult, cleared out misunderstandings between him and Ieva, and even learned something of her and Hilda's past, even though it wasn't pretty. Yeah, he got even more than he initially expected out of this talk. "No. You?"

"...nah. How about we just bide around some time?"

"Sure." He nodded.

Indeed, there was much more to Ieva than he initially thought. At first, he thought she didn't like him just because he could be with Shadow Cult, but the entire reason was because she was protecting Hilda to best of her capabilities. Honestly, he didn't even hold a grudge for her killing him. It might've been a little naive of him, but he was aware she wasn't lying.

'Don't worry, Ieva.' He thought. 'I'll do what I can to ease your burden.'

Indeed, it was a rarity for people to come around in the Tower with happy backstories. More often than not, people coming around were refugees from wars, people living in **** poverty, or those with extremely high adventurous spirit. It didn't help that the world was still recovering from the shock of Tower's appearance on Earth, even years after it happened.

Meanwhile Ieva was enjoying her day off the work. Honestly, laying her burdens out to Youngwoo seriously had a cleansing effect. In fact, she felt lightweight, and she smiled as they walked through the forest without a worry.