Chapter 15: Lunch with Kaku

A clean, sweet slightly yeasty air filled the air as they walked into Odetta. It somehow smelled warm, like you were inhaling a blanket on a cold, winter day.

Odetta was a whimsical tearoom. Natural light flooded in through the windows and exposed bulbs hung from the ceilings, which combined, provided an ethereal light dancing off the pastries making them even more tempting. The pastel blues and marble tables only added to the interior-décor perfection.

Zane asked Lexi to order some pastries before going to the restroom. He entered a stall and quickly shut the door. His whole elegant and bright bearing collapsed at once.

He clenched his hands and gritted his tongue. He wanted to growl or scream but he didn't. Someone might be in another stall or the pastry shop might have a monitoring device in the restroom.

[Are you alright now?] The system asked. It was fixed on the level of Zane's mental health that was stealthily rising higher.

"Are you so worried about me?" Zane asked.

[It is my duty to monitor your mental health] The system carefully reminded him. He was still at the probation level. Their relationship was still in the monitoring-tutoring stage.

"But if I could not control myself back then, you would help me, right?"

The system could only respond with a yes but before it could mention the reasons and the conditions necessary for that help, Zane had already started chuckling.

"I knew it. You are a tsundere"

The system was filled with a bunch of question marks around his head. He looked at the mental health that had dropped three numbers and stopped itself from speaking. Tsundere or whatever, it is fine as long as his mental health stabilizes

"I did not know what I felt about him till everything happened today and I realized. I have changed. I want to hate him but I cannot. I know the reason behind his horrible actions so I cannot hate him. He ruined my life before and he wants to ruin it again yet I cannot hate him. It is funny, isn't it?"

[No, it is not. People have always had two sides to them. Sometimes, even the most horrendous murderer has a reason for their actions. The villains are always despised by the nations but a saying from your star is that the road to hell is paved by good intentions. So we, the members of the Gnosis society have refrained from judging or picking sides]

Zane took every single word into his heart as he closed his eyes. The memory of the diary also flashed in his mind. The diary had not specially mentioned his grandfather; however, it was no big deal for Zane to trace it.

His grandfather had a hand in everything. A man that could be so ruthless to his family, that man was someone you cannot have as an enemy.

"How was my performance at Opal Courtyard?"

[It was good. A perfect 80%.] If he was not in Zane's mind and could see his mental health, he would not have known what Zane was truly feeling towards his grandfather. It was a wonderful use of self-hypnosis. [However, hypnotizing yourself in this manner has its dangers]

Zane smiled, "I know, I would not use it often. Besides, system when you use perfect in scoring someone, you should pair it with 100%. I don't have anything to do now, should I give you a lesson on grammatical structures and semantics."

[I am equipped with the latest laws on grammatical structures and semantics.]

In an overly concerned tone, he asked, "Are you sure? Perhaps something malfunctioned. You should check."

Feeling that his mood was better, Zane got up and left the stall. He checked the time, 15 minutes had gone, it was not too bad.

He entered back into the tearoom, his eyes catching the abnormality in the room. In a room filled with elegant looking people eating pastries and drinking tea.

A scruffy, bearded man was sitting at a table glaring at the young lady that stood beside the seat opposite him. He looked so out of place that Zane almost laughed recalling the day he met him in the principal's office.

"Mr Kaku! Sorry to keep you waiting," He said sitting opposite him. "Does Mr Kaku remember he said I should contact him if I need anything?"

Kaku rubbed his head. He had caught a large fish, whether it was a shark or a dolphin was still unknown.

"What does Young master Valois need from me?" Mortem guild was one of the guilds affiliated with the Valois family, he had heard the news.

One could imagine his shock when his Captain called him to cross-check whether he had done anything to annoy the now eldest young master of the Valois family. He hopes this young boy does not want to pull him into any faction or camp, he hated such things.

"Zane." Zane corrected. "I am not yet used to the young master thing. Mr Kaku, Can I call you Brother Kaku? Brother Kaku, I…I am not used to Beva. I have never been to the Capital before so I did not know who else to call plus you promised to help so I called you. Do you know any fun places in the Capital?"

The Information download was just too much for Kaku, he was now Zane's brother? He promised to help him out. Why does he just remember giving him his contact details?

He watched the slightly lost look on the boy's face and understood. Before he was recruited by the guild, he had been a member of the Soloton tribe in the outskirts of Lenice. He had come to the Capital with naivety and ignorance. Those lonely days, he sighed.

He looked around him, no wonder he would invite someone to this little shop for a meeting, he probably does not know any better place.

His head full of pity and excitement, he laughed. "Don't worry, leave it to me. I know all the best places."

Zane nodded, picked a soft croissant and bit into it. "Then I will leave it to you."

"First thing, you don't need to eat these little snacks, even if you eat everything on this table, you will still feel hungry. Let me take you to a good place, later I will show you the best sports centre in the Capital"

A weird look appeared on Zane, he looked at his lean form then at Kaku's muscular form.

We don't have the same body, okay. Just five or six of these pastries and I will be full.

He did not know why he suddenly had a bad feeling. It did not take him long to find out.

After eating at a noodle shop and watching Kaku clean off about three bowls of ramen, they headed to a fight house called 'The Wild Hut'. It was a special type of fight house.

It was practically made for the barbarian class. Barehanded, hammer, knuckles, you could see many varieties of fighting skills with the common factor being how bloody and savage it was.

Everything and anything was allowed as long as your opponent remained alive at the end of it. Of course, there are a few cases of accidental deaths. The charged atmosphere brought out the baseness of man as many screamed and gambled their fortunes away.

Seeing the atmosphere, Lexi frowned. Young master Zane had just recognized his ancestors and was added to the family register recently. Although he had no faction or supporters yet, he was now the eldest young master of the Valois family. It would not do well for his reputation to be involved with such.

She bent slightly to whisper into Zane's ears leaving a whiff of floral perfume.

"Young master, It would not be good for us to be seen here," Lexi said, she wanted to say more but decided to keep shut. Today was her first day working as Zane's butler after all? She did not want to leave a bad impression on him.

Zane smiled at her, he looked touched by her concern, "I know but I have always loved watching battles. It inspires me to work even harder."

He turned to the arena that had suddenly lit up. A tall dark man came in first, he had the tattoo of a scorpion on his face, He was extremely built up and his whole body was filled with muscles.

Zane's eyes widened even further into crescents, his momentum was really strong, and he looked like his combat details would be worth a good number of Intel points.

Kaku, who was so comfortable back on his home turf, introduced the man, "His name is Adam. A level 20 barbarian. His physical strength is not bad. He fights with his fists, he is a real man."

Zane nodded seriously making sure to remember to include the information that Kaku looks down on barbarians that fight with weapons or is it looks down on all other classes?

"That is the only way to test a warrior mantles. He is a real man indeed." Zane said, blinking his inquiring eyes on Kaku who looked so pleased to find a listener. He soon launched into his tribe's criteria for choosing warriors and leaders.