“Cecelia?”

  There was a moment of silence, and then a very deliberate sigh. Cecelia was an artificial intelligence, so every noise emitted from her speakers was intentional. In this case, she was telling me once again how displeased she was about being used as a personal assistant. She was intimately connected to my phone, and so any messages, texts, or phone calls went through her. She had even set up AI nodes that could send out basic responses so it didn’t seem like I was missing when I was in another world. It was all to hide the idea that I was taking these long sabbaticals.

  “Your sister wants to speak to you. You’ve also got a message from Caleb as well.” She finally spoke.

  “What does Caleb have to say?” I asked first.

  I didn’t want to be callous to my sister, but I needed to take care of business. My life had proven to be dangerous, and I had almost cost my sister her life. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was avoiding her, but I didn’t want a repeat on what had happened the st time. Until I had things squared away with Marsh and his raiders, I didn’t want to take any more risks.

  There was a click, and then a message pyed. “Boss, we need to talk. We’re having some issues we need Boss for. I’ll text you a good time.”

  His voice didn’t sound aggressive or challenging. Rather, he sounded apprehensive, like he didn’t want to make that phone call.

  “Cecelia?” I asked.

  “He wants to meet tonight. I have updated your schedule.” She responded with a ft voice.

  I checked the schedule to see that he wanted to meet ter tonight. I pnned to stay in this world for the night and head back the following day. That meant I needed to meet up with Kiera as well. It was time that I took her back to the wastend. That would be a difficult conversation with Gabriel. I also had to get the trading supplies prepped outside of Twin Elms. It seemed like the list of things to do never ended.

  “Alright, schedule me a ride share to my pce,” I stated as I left the factory.

  “Master, may I make a recommendation?” Cecelia spoke, her voice sounding a bit uncertain.

  “Hmm?” I was a bit surprised, she had rarely spoken up for more than just the bare minimum to hold a conversation.

  “You should go speak to your sister.” She stated.

  “My sister?” I couldn’t help but sound a bit confused.

  Although I loved and cared about my family, I wanted them apart from this life as much as possible. That meant I had to distance myself from them for a time, but when I could finally provide them with everything they needed, it’d be all worth it. That said, Hazel had seemingly been dragged into my world forcefully for a time. I had to decide to increase the distance between us. Cecelia understood this, so I was surprised she made such a recommendation.

  “Based on her messages, it seems like she has… some questions,” Cecelia spoke.

  “She’s sent me some questionable messages?”

  “No, not at all. Other than the standard weeping and sobbing, her messages are normal.”

  “Then…”

  “I’m more concerned about some of her internet presence. Some of the searches she’s done on your ptop and phone.”

  “Her ptop and phone? Why do you know those?”

  “Hmm? When you wanted me to do surveilnce, isn’t that what you meant? Other than Mizuki, whose personal information is hidden by spoof accounts and high security, I have been monitoring everyone in your life. For example, I know all of Lily’s assets and income. If you’d like, I can send you all of the information.”

  “That…” For a brief second, I was tempted, but then I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to obtain any information illegally like that. Unless it’s something that endangers me or people I care about, I don’t want to know.”

  “Are you sure? I can tell you your sister’s top search term. It’s “What should I do if I’m sexually attracted to my bro-“

  “Ahem. No! No… I’m good. I will take your advice though. If you think I should speak with her, I will.”

  “Hmph… suit yourself.”

  I let out a sigh of relief as she ended it with that. Knowledge was power, but it could also be a curse if you knew too much. There were some things I preferred that were left secret, and I didn’t like the idea of snooping on my family. Of course, I wasn’t a complete fool. I didn’t ask Cecelia to stop. She’d probably find some way around it either way, and I’d prefer I had a heads up if something bad was going on.

  I pulled out my phone and started messaging my sister. Normally, I’d let Cecelia handle it, but when it came to family, I felt I should put in at least some effort. Plus, Cecelia already seemed pretty annoyed with me using her as an assistant, so I felt it better to give her a break, especially after she went out of her way to help me. As I opened my messenger, I ignored all of Hazel’s previous texts, as I figured they’d just give me a headache.

  Me: Hey.

  Hazel: Where have you been!!!?

  Her response was almost immediate. I could almost hear my sister’s voice filled with pouty anger within her comment. She was already typing more so I decided to quickly type in a response.

  Me: I had to go out of town for a bit.

  It was the best excuse I could come up with. It wasn’t like such a thing should be unbelievable. That kind of excuse might not work on a significant other, but this was just my sister.

  Hazel: No one can get a hold of you.

  Hazel: What?

  Hazel: Out of town?

  Hazel: ???

  I took a deep breath and then continued typing. I wasn’t going to expin. I’d just say it was business reted or had something to do with Mizuki’s apprenticeship. I’d continue to lean on that for as long as I had to.

  Me: What did you need?

  Hazel: Can you meet? Lunch?

  My stomach seemed to growl as soon as I read the words. I was pretty hungry. Since I had been in the apocalyptic world, I had been eating less and less. Seeing some of the disgusting foods that the people of that world lived off of was enough to ruin anyone’s diet. When I did eat, it was usually something I hastily pulled from a can or a box. I hadn’t had a fresh clean meal in what felt like forever.

  Me: Yeah. I’d like that. Meet me here…

  I gave my sister the information on where to meet. It was a pce that I was familiar with, and was roughly halfway between my mother’s apartment and the warehouse downtown. I also schedule my car share and ended up riding in retive silence.

  I had a little bit of time, so I went to my house first to change and shower. I still couldn’t get over the size of the pce. Every time I realized it was my pce, I couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement. I noticed a package sitting on the floor when I got out of the elevator. I picked it up and opened it. There was a card from Lily.

  I’m sorry about what happened before. Since you’re pnning on being successful, it’s time you start dressing the part. -Lily

  My lips couldn’t help but twitch into a smile as I opened the package. Lily must have felt bad about coming at me with the Allco representatives’ proposal. She didn’t feel satisfied just buying me the seaweed, so she sent me some clothing too.

  She had gifted me several sets of clothing. It wasn’t a suit, but I imagined they were probably something that fit Lily’s taste. They were high quality and gave off a feeling of wealth. It was certainly richer clothing than I was used to wearing. At the least, I could tell it was really expensive. I looked at the tags and realized they were fit for me too. I wasn’t even sure where she got my sizes.

  I took an outfit and headed for the bathroom. The bathroom was enormous, and the shower was walk-in. There were water heads above and from three different sides, meaning I could get sprayed down and cleaned quite well in a short period.

  “Huh… Lily thought of everything.”

  Soap, shampoo, and towels were all avaible in a gift basket on the counter. This was something I had already noticed before and it had come with the apartment, but it still amazed me how move-in ready this pce was since I hadn'0 Being rich really was nice, or maybe it was Lily who was trying to spoil me. Wasn’t it usually the other way around?

  I finished cleaning up and getting dressed, feeling like a new man after removing all of the grime and dust from the other world. I took off to meet my sister. The pce I chose to meet her was a pce I was familiar with. It was the café where Lily and I had first met. At first, it had seemed far too expensive, but as my tastes changed, I found myself rather liking the café.

  When my car share pulled up to the front though, I could help but frown. Hazel was standing at the entrance, but a man was standing over her. Her back was to the wall and she was uncomfortable, but he had a hand on the wall and was leering down at her. In the past, I had always found this to be irritating. I usually got upset, but in the end, that was all I could do. Things were different now though.

  I used the digitizer to materialize Anweil’s bde into my hand. I made my approach.

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