บท 52: A Meal with Two Sister
WRIK WAITED AS Tanya left to bring food. With nothing to do, he started inspecting the house. There's a sweet smell in the air, though feminine. The light was milder, easy to the eye, while there's nothing but the glass dining table, sink, and a large mirror on the wall.
After a couple of minutes, Tanya returned with her a couple of boxes of food. She should have brought it from outside now. He still couldn't comprehend why she brought him here if she still had to bring food from outside.
"I brought chicken and rice with salads," Tanya said as she went to bring plates for them.
Wrik kept his eye on her. The gentle figure brought the plates and small dishes to the table with water before unpacking it. She actually brought three plates. 'What was the extra one for?' He thought.
"Should I help?" He asked.
"No, just wait a moment." she opened the boxes and started to serve the food on the plates.
The smell and colours of the chicken indicated that it would be a pleasant treat. But Wrik was still contemplating the issue.
Tanya served him the plate and dish with half of the rice and chicken, while she continued onto the other two plates—with the leftover.
Wrik didn't start outright, but looked at her. He was about to say something when his stomach protested it with a growl again.
"Why are you not eating it?"
"You know, you haven't said why I'm here?" He answered.
"Didn't I say someone wants to meet you?" Tanya became a bit lost. "Did I forget?"
"Who is it?" He asked.
"Wait a moment, I'll bring her." She left again, but this time to the upper floor.
'Her?' Wrik thought, he could guess who she was talking about, but he needed to wait a minute to confirm his guess. 'But more importantly, why would she want to meet him? I guess I'll find out soon.'
"Wrik Everknight," a feminine voice came from the stairs as two figures came to the table. Behind Tanya was a blonde lady in her pique age of charm. Sophia had a sweet smile on her lips as she came down the stairs. She faced him, scrutinising his features before opening her lips. "I'm hoping you're doing well."
"Nice to meet you again, Madame Sophia." he stood up and greeted her before giving Tanga a tight look. But Tanya only gave a playful smile.
"You don't have to call me Madame now." Sophia took a seat across from him while Tanya the other one beside her. "I called you here to thank you for taking care of my sister. Let's eat first. I heard you're hungry. We'll talk further later."
Finding nothing to say, Wrik nodded and sat down. He glanced at the two of them again to notice how contrasting the two siblings were. Sophia was a blonde lady in her mid-twenties or more while Tanya barely turned adult, still in her teenage years. They had almost nothing in common, be it the shape, behaviours, or countenance. Well, they were not polar opposite, but they didn't look siblings to Wrik. Could be a distant cousin or something.
"Are you inspecting who was more beautiful between us two sisters?" Sophia smiled, noting his scrutinising gaze.
Her behaviour differed totally from when he first met her. Well, then she was on official duty so it's expected that she was rather frigid then.
Sophia asked again, still with the alluring smile. "Who do you think is better looking?"
'Crap!' Cursed Wrik inwardly. He didn't know what to say and found a safe thing on the table: a glass of water. He coughed out immediately and gulped the water down. But his bad luck was not over as he found a pair of emerald eyes and another pair of sapphire eyes gazing at him straight. He coughed again.
"Well, that means I'm not the winner." Sophia smiled again. "You don't need to worry. I know my little sister outmatched me in beauty and charm by a long margin. Besides, I'm getting old. Tanya, look; he's blushing . . . ouch.
"Why did you hit me?"
Sophia pouted at her little sister, who said nothing but glared at her sister.
"Are you alright?" Tanya asked Wrik.
"Yeah," Wrik said, finding he finished the glass of water before continuing.
"Here." Tanya poured him another glass of water.
"Look at the two of you," Sophia sighed. "I'm really getting old."
Wrik didn't know what to say to this teasing big sister. Ton should be able to harmonize the situation with his crappy jokes, but he didn't have Ton's humour or the personality to joke at the moment. "Well, I was thinking you two sisters were too contrasting to each other."
"Like?" Sophia asked with interest, while Tanya looked interested in it too.
'I guess there's more similarity than I assume,' he mused. "For example the hair, eye colour, even the posture . . . if I didn't know it earlier, I wouldn't even suspect that you two are siblings."
"Speaking of siblings, you and your brother don't look related as well." Sophia counterpointed.
"Ton? That's cause we were not blood-related. His parents were friends of our family, so when they died in an accident . . ." he didn't continue further, as his mood became a bit depressed.
Sophia nodded. She didn't go further on the topic. "You should have invited him too, Tanya." Sophia didn't let the silence go further. "As far as I remember he's a sweet guy."
'Ton might scream in euphoria if he heard that.' Wrik thought. He looked at the two sisters to hesitate. "So, you two . . ."
"No, we're blood-related, though it's a bit complicated." Sophia paused and pondered for a moment. "The easy way to explain this would be half-sisters."
That explained a lot.
It didn't take long for Wrik to finish up the food. Though Tanya served more than the usual he ate, he found that his hunger was deeper than he realised. After the dinner, Tanya brought him to the couch as the two sisters started to gossip about something that he could hear. Yet he knew the topic was him. For the first time in his life, he wished he had the ability to hear other people whispering.
'Wait, I do have it,' Wrik thought. With his ability enabled, he could pretty much figure out what they were talking about. But he cooled down the impulse to trigger the [Eye of Insights].
"Ahem!'' He coughed out to show that he was sitting right in front of the two of them.
"Well, we are just discussing how to thank you for taking care of my sister in the Trial." Sophia joined the conversation first.
"I should be the one thanking, it's not me that took care of her," Wrik said. "It's pretty much the other way around. I don't know where I would be if she was not there."
"You would've been fine," Tanya said, looking at him. "I didn't do much, to be honest."
"You still didn't recognise your involvement, do you?" Wrik said, "Then let me count from the beginning. First, you and Dalvin helped me when I was unconscious, even defended against those robbers. Second, I asked you so much stupid questions about Mahasayer and the Tower. Then you helped me rescue Ton from the goblins; not to mention taking care of my wounds. And there's more.
"I was at the receiving end most of the time."
Tanya gave a dissatisfied grunt. "But you saved me from falling in the crater without caring about your safety," she said.
Sophia could not help but smile at the two of them. It appeared her sister's relationship with Wrik was more than she had imagined.
"Let's not talk about that." Tanya changed the topic. She eyed her sister before continuing. "She has something more important to discuss."
Wrik eyed Sophia as well, as he was quite interested in what she was going to say.
"You know I'm glad that both of you and others were safe after what happened in Phase-II," Sophia said genuinely. " I was genuinely worried after hearing about the occurrence with the ghoul. I almost beat the crap out of Harakat."
"Harakatz?" Wrik asked as he found this name unfamiliar.
"The guide of the Trial, tall guy with broad shoulders and body." Sophia continued. "He was the one that brought you guys from the dungeon.
"Let's not talk about that anymore. I called you here to discuss a few important things before I left here. The thing is that I have to leave here after a few days, but before that, I wanted to train you and few others."
"So . . ." Wrik couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Yes, I'm volunteering to instruct a few things on Mahasaying and a few other things. If you don't want to, it's totally fine. You could hire another instructor after the third phase starts. The decision is yours." Sophia paused, noticing his silence. She continued. "Though you may not be able to find a better qualified for the job than me, here. It may sound arrogant, but it's the truth.
"Yes." Tanya joined in the conversation as well. "My sister could even compare to have the same amount of esteem as an Omega Exquisitors."
Wrik took a deep breath. He quickly grasped what Sophia was mentioning.
"I wasn't doubting that, it's just that I wasn't sure of what she was talking about. You know I'm new to all this," he finally said. How could he doubt someone who threatened to break the trial or even beat the Trial Guide? Moreover, he wasn't sure why someone like her would give so much effort to him, nobody.
'Maybe Tanya asked her for this,' he thought.
"So you don't have any issue with it?" Sophia asked.
He looked at the two sisters before nodding. "I'll be more than happy to accept the offer, it's just that I'm feeling like I owe more than I could return."
"Don't worry about that, you're my sister's friend, there's no need to," Sophia said and beside her, Tanya nodded as well. Sophia continued. "Well, you could do one thing."
Wrik raised an eyebrow, asking Sophia what he has to do.
"I'll tell you this later."
"So when do we start?" Tanya asked her sister.
"Tomorrow, dawn," Sophia said.
"Isn't it a bit early?" Tanya raised an eye on her sister. "You know Kevin was still unconscious and . . ."
"I know, sweetie, but I can't wait long." Sophia sighed. She shook her head mildly before continuing. "I actually have to leave in twelve days."
"But you said you took a leave of two months."
"I did, but you know our business, sweetie," Sophia stroked her little sister's hair gently. "I have to deal with all sorts of mess."
"You always say that," Tanya said, but didn't toss her sisters' arm away from her hair, but shuffled more towards her sister.
"If I could, I would like to stay for a month at least but time is short on my hand." Sophia sighed. Then she poked Tanya in the shoulder. "Now don't sulk anymore, especially in front of our guest."
Tanya blushed, noticing that Wrik was looking at her with a smug. She immediately threw her sister's arm away and sat upright.
Wrik's grin broadened. While Sophia couldn't help but smile too.
"Then tomorrow it is," Tanya changed the direction of the attention from her to the main topic. "I don't know if everyone could take part or not."
"Kevin should be fine by tomorrow, but it's a bit complicated for the little girl that came with you," Sophia said, looking at Wrik. She was talking about An Byul. "With her physical condition and the shook she had taken, even if she woke up by tomorrow she wouldn't be in any condition to train at all for a couple of weeks."
Wrik nodded. He couldn't do anything there, nor anyone could; it's the nature of things.
"Davin is fine, and I heard your brother is fine as well," Sophia calculated. "That leaves us with the others. I don't know if they wanted to be here or not, but you could ask them. Especially that redhead girl, from what I've heard from Tanya, she has some crazy level of potential."
"I'll surely ask them," Wrik nodded.
"Be prepared. I could be quite hard while training. I planned to make sure everyone was about ready for the Tower," the blonde lady laughed out. "But before that, you said you don't understand the tower well. I'm assuming you didn't go through any education in this business, right?"
Wrik shook his head. "I was thinking that I should ask Tanya about this later."
"I was thinking about asking Tanya about this later."
"Well, Tanya can inform you of something useful, but you wouldn't get much from her," Sophia said as she looked at Tanya. "She really doesn't care much about the tower at all."
Wrik frowned at the last comment. He eyed the little sister, who only shrugged in response.
"Well, don't worry. How about I answer some of your superstitions about the Tower?" Sophia said again. "Ask me anything you have doubts about."
Wrik caught the opportunity immediately. "Actually, I have a lot of questions. If I start it would be dawn before I get all the answers," he said. "I don't know what will be important or what will not be. How about I ask and you tell me if it's important or not."
Sophia nodded. "Go ahead, drop anything about Mahasaying or combat-related, I'll explain those stuff tomorrow in front of everyone."
That eliminated half of his questions. Apparently, he was mostly worried about mahasaying related stuff. As Wrik did not have much knowledge in this regard, he would face countless problems in his path.
"Alright," Wrik pondered, closing his eyes for a brief moment. He organised all the doubts and inquiries before eyeing the blonde lady in front. "Inquisitors. What is their role in the tower? Are they only the peacekeepers or something more?"
"A good question to start. Inquisitors are essentially the law enforcers of the Omega Council . . ."
"Omega Council?" Wrik raised an eyebrow at the term. This is the first time he was hearing about this. The name sounded quite important to him.
"The Maha Tower is run by an alliance of authority, Omega Council to be exact, I'll explain that later." Sophia wasn't any bit annoyed at his inquiry. "Now, Inquisitors. Though they were the Omega council's law force, they were relatively spread throughout the Tower, working under some overseer or big shot member of the council. So basically inquisitors were the police of the Tower and mercenaries, but most of the time they couldn't choose their employer. There are ranks in them, divided from E to A. The higher floor you go the higher their rank reaches."
"So the Omega Council deals with where to employ the force, and Inquisitors only follow the orders?" He came back to the Omega Council again.
"Yes, in theory, it's true but like anything in the world it's complicated." Sophia signed.
"Politics?" He asked.
"You're good at this at your age. Yes, it's politics."
'Is she thinking of me as a kid?' He mused, hearing her phrase but didn't sound out. "So how's this council works?"
"Like any other council, Omega Council has its seat holder as well. There are twelve high-seats in the council, though two of the seats are empty now. These twelve; no ten people regime the Maha Tower. Below them were Omega Guardians, Judge, Exquisitors, Inquisitors and various other posts." She pondered for a moment. "This won't be useful for you now, next question."
Wrik wanted to ask more about the Council, but seeing her posture, he didn't linger on the topic. "On the day the guide brought us here, he said that the tower was broken. What does it mean?"
Tanya frowned at his question as well. She similarly remembered what the guide said before bringing them out from the Infector Nest.
"I'm afraid whatever he said is true," Sophia said.
"What does that mean actually," Wrik's frown deepened. "Is it the system or literally the Tower?"
"Both."
A deep stillness followed by after Sophia confirmed his suspicion. Wrik's mind raced, The Maha tower was said to be built by the God, Maha, The Almighty himself. How could it be broken? There's more mystery to it than he assumed. His expression turned nervous as well, pondering more about why he came here in the first place, about his goal. His mother. And Lucas.
"Can you . . ." Wrik asked again, "Can you elaborate?"
"I don't know what Harakatz told you guys, but he was not irresponsible enough to lie about something so important . . . So remember never to be too much dependent on the Omeganet system. Though it works fine most of the time, there are still few problems with it, like it couldn't even be accessed on some floor of the tower.
"Actually, it's better than before. I heard a few decades ago it's almost impracticable. But something changed after that. The tower is more proactive than ever, even the number of Mahasayer is rising smoothly. Still, there's no harm being cautious."
"And the Tower? How was it broken?" Tanya asked for the first time in the conversation. She was sitting straight on the couch now, as her interest was piqued.
"I don't know." Sophia shook her head. "Nobody knows. It is said that it happened ten thousand years ago in the war between deities. There's no record of this."
Wrik exhaled a deep breath with Tanya. Now the question was how much of it was broken? Is it still fixable? Are they fixing it? And Gods, are they still at the Tower? He eyed the blonde lady again and Tanya was too waiting for her sister to continue.
Sophia sighed as she raised a glass of water before drinking it. "You guys don't need to worry about it now, you still have a long way to go."
Tanya pouted at her sister. She asked again to clarify more, but the blonde lady didn't linger on the topic of god.
"At Least tell us about where it was broken?" Tanya asked her sister. "What problem would it cause?"
"Well, seeing you two so interested, I'll open my lips a bit. But you have to promise never to divulge this information to someone else who was unaware of it, alright?" Both of them nodded immediately as Sophia continued in a low voice. "Actually, it's still unknown how much of the Tower is broken. It's almost unclimbable from the 60th floor, though there are people who climbed more than that, but the information was confidential. Who would want to publicise those pieces of information . . .
"Evan the Omega council don't know how many such individuals are there, nobody would diverge their own secrets in this."
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End Of Chapter: A Meal With Two Sisters.
Next chapter: Lavish Staying.
Throw away some Power stone to support the book.
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Support with Power stones to motivate me to write more. And comment, or leave a review about your thoughts. It helps a lot.
Please make sure to check out the other book, CHAOS REBORN. It is more light-hearted compared to BROKEN TOWER SAGA with a lot of comedy and references.
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