Chapter 153: Past, Present, Future (2)
Caius knew exactly what he was doing when he told her that Yara had killed her, he was redirecting her suspicion and giving it somewhere useful to land.
And because Yara had been there–because her actions had helped create the battlefield where Misha eventually died–Caius could tell himself he was not lying completely, only arranging the truth.
That distinction would probably earn him a dagger if Misha ever discovered it.
He could live with that.
Yara already deserved her caution. By the upper Floors, she had become far more dangerous than the gentle-faced betrayer Misha currently knew. It was not merely because of her Borealis blood, or because of the strength she had accumulated through methods he still did not fully understand, but it was all because of the people she eventually surrounded herself with… The Whitewells.
Even years later, Caius had never been certain whether calling them a party was accurate. Technically, that was how they first presented themselves. They were a group of highly talented Raiders operating beneath Yara's command, taking contracts, appearing whenever ordinary guild parties needed escort through difficult Floors.
On paper, there was nothing unusual about them. Well, that was precisely the problem. The Whitewells were only one branch of something much larger, the Blessed Garden.
Caius had first heard that name long before becoming one of Misha's souls. Back then, he had still been Caius Solmere, heir to one of the Four Families, expected to attend formal dinners, political gatherings, trade negotiations, and painfully elegant functions where half the room smiled while privately calculating the value of everyone else's bloodline.
The Blessed Garden occasionally surfaced in those conversations, never directly.
An old family head mentioning that a promising Raider had "taken root somewhere unfortunate."
Caius had assumed it was another criminal organization.
The Blessed Garden had no registered guildhall, no headquarters stamped into a Settlement registry, no crest openly displayed, and no recruitment agents standing in public squares. Yet, its members were everywhere. That was what made the organization difficult to prove and even harder to eliminate.
A swordsman who had reached the limit of his Class somehow broke through and received a new ability. Sometimes their abilities improved, sometimes they changed, and sometimes the person changed with them.
That was where the rumors became uglier.
The Blessed Garden called what happened to its members as blessings, especially those who received artificial awakening, and forced evolution.
Caius had heard all of them, and none had ever been confirmed since the few people who supposedly knew the exact process were either members themselves or had disappeared before they could explain it.
Joining the Blessed Garden was not the same as joining a guild. People were not told everything at the entrance.
What he had learned was that the Garden possessed an almost religious obsession with growth. They never called their recruits members, they called them seeds. Advancement became cultivation, failure was rot, death could be called harvest, and transformation became blooming.
They were beautiful vocabulary wrapped around things nobody outside the organization wanted to examine too closely. And at the center of all of it was their god, or what they insisted was one.
That was all he gathered from his previous life and the current.
The Whitewells had been one of the Garden's more successful branches. Yara gathered monsters while looking gentle enough to make people forget she was one herself. That was always her talent. He knew because their families had once arranged for the two of them to be engaged.
The Ruler of the Night had belonged to the Whitewells, and he had become one of the worst members. Even remembering the title made Caius' fingers tighten faintly.
Caius had never learned whether all of that power came from Alaric himself or whether the Blessed Garden had altered something fundamental inside him. That uncertainty mattered because if Alaric had always possessed the capacity to become the Ruler of the Night, then they were currently sitting only a few rooms away from a disaster waiting for the correct trigger.
But if the Garden had made him into that–
Then this timeline had given Caius the opportunity.
Current Alaric had not joined the Whitewells yet, and that was the advantage. He had met him before Yara had, or at least, before she had turned him into the man Caius remembered.
Their strongest future enemy could become their strongest future ally.
The thought was dangerous, possibly stupid. Caius knew that. But… he also knew what Alaric could do. If they drove him away now, suspicious of crimes he had not yet committed, they might accomplish nothing except pushing him back toward the same road that led to Yara.
And if Alaric eventually joined the Blessed Garden because he had nowhere else to belong, then Caius would have helped create the very future he was trying to prevent.
So no, it was better to keep him close because maybe the man capable of standing against one of Misha's strongest Constellation Souls could instead stand beside them when the real war came.
And if Caius failed to recruit him–then proximity still had value. He could kill him before that happens.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
"Cai, how did Yara–"
A knock struck the door.
Knock. Knock.
Caius had never been particularly religious but at that moment, he almost reconsidered.
Misha stopped, her mouth remained slightly open around the unfinished question before her attention snapped toward the door.
Then, as if remembering they were no longer alone in a private conversation, she reached for her mask and hurriedly slipped it over her face.
Caius turned too, carefully keeping the relief reaching his face.
'Excellent timing.'
"Come in," he said before Misha could object.
The door opened, and Dorian stepped inside. His gaze moved first to Caius.
"You're awake."
How many times had he heard those words today? They all possessed functional eyes. Surely someone could eventually produce an observation less painfully obvious.
Caius answered him with a nod instead of saying that.
"Good." Dorian's mouth curved into a thin, tired smile before his attention shifted toward Misha. "That makes what I came to say slightly easier. We're leaving this afternoon."
Misha's reaction was immediate. "What?"
She was already sitting straighter. Whatever questions she had been preparing for Caius were temporarily pushed aside.
Dorian remained standing near the doorway. "We have decided to move. We cannot afford another full day here."
Every additional hour they remained in the Crematorium consumed food they could not replace. Injured people needed larger portions than Dorian could afford to give them.
Her posture changed, not defensive exactly, but more protective. "He just woke up."
Dorian nodded once. "I know."
"But–"
"He's right." Caius straightened himself. "We shouldn't prolong our stay here."
Misha's expression tightened. She knew they were right but Caius just woke and he hasn't even recovered completely.
Then Dorian added, "We start preparation after everyone eats. We will discuss the formation for the Floor Twelve once the others are ready."
===
Several hours later, the last preparations were nearly complete.
The Passage Seal had been retrieved from within the Crematorium, and the instant it was brought into the central chamber, the portal to the next floor appeared.
DING!
The chime did not belong to Exodus alone, it rang across the Tower.
Awakeners halfway through their meals stopped with utensils suspended in their hands, Raiders resting between Floors lifted their heads, and Veterans who had long since stopped paying attention to ordinary clear notices glanced up when the golden System window unfolded in front of them.
This one was not private, the Tower wanted everyone to see it.
「 〔TOWER-WIDE ANNOUNCEMENT〕
New qualifying clears have been recorded for Floor 11!
Floor 11 All-Time Rankings Update Complete.
—
1. Caius Solmere ↑ NEW
2. Mountain Walker ↓
3. Storm Herald ↓
4. Red Warden ↓
5. Chad Thundercock ↓
6. Send Help ↓
7. XxDeathLordxX ↓
8. Crtl Alt Defeat ↓
9. Noob Slayer 69 ↓
10. Black Meridian ↓
—
Tower-Wide Top Awakener Rankings remain UNCHANGED. 」
Names belonging to First Generation Raiders had remained lodged there for decades, some of those people were long dead, and others had disappeared into the upper Floors. The Settlement Floor Protocol had made those records hard to disturb especially when the Floor Quest had stabilized.
And now, the first belonged to someone most of the old Houses would recognize immediately. Caius Solmere, the heir of House Solmere. He was first place across every qualifying Floor Eleven clear the Tower had recorded. That alone was enough to set guild halls and noble estates talking.
But inside the Central Crematorium, nobody had the luxury of speculating from a comfortable distance.
Everyone still gathered near the central chamber, stopped. The first few survivors looked up at the System window, then, almost as one, heads turned toward two people standing beside each other near the edge of the chamber.
Caius stared at the ranking with the same controlled stillness he used whenever he was confronted with information he did not immediately like.
"...Well." Misha's mouth began curving as she folded her arms together. "Congratulations, you're number one."