The car came to a halt in front of the Awakened Centre, and Ryan stepped out as he signed 'Thank You' to Yamada. She responded with a smile, pulling away from the sidewalk as she couldn't park here. Ryan would text her later to let her know he was done.

  As Ryan stepped inside the building, he almost immediately noticed the young man sitting in the corner of the room, waiting for someone. Since Ryan still had time before his appointment with Aurora, he figured he might as well say hello.

  "Yo, Michael," Ryan said with a slight wave, and the young mage almost immediately jumped up.

  "Ryan! How are you? What are you doing here?" Michael asked, a broad smile on his face. Almost like a puppy, he rushed over to Ryan.

  "Just getting my level updated," Ryan replied, and Michael's brows shot up.

  "Oh! Same as me, then! I just levelled up yesterday," he pointed out smugly, "What level did you reach?"

  "I'm level 10 now. I rushed a bit because I was trying to get the Bluesky guys off my back that wanted to buy my class from me. They've been getting super annoying."

  Michael's smile immediately dropped, "You're already level 10? I thought you said you were level 4 just a couple weeks ago!"

  "Uh... yeah. Again, I was rushing things a bit," Ryan explained, scratching his cheek a bit awkwardly, "Oh, and I awakened some new stats too, so I have to get those tested here as well."

  "... You... you already awakened new stats?"

  Ryan cleared his throat, seeing how dejected or jealous Michael seemed, "Uhm, yeah, anyway, so what's your level? It sounds like you're not level 10 yet, so why are you getting things updated?"

  Michael let out a long sigh, "I have to come here every time I level up. Because of the growth rate of my mana stat, it needs to be remeasured every single time to make sure that I don't mess anything up because of my low spirituality stat..."

  "Ah..." Ryan understood that pretty well. Michael's magic was ridiculously strong and he clearly struggled to control it properly. In cases like this, it was relatively normal for the Awakened Centre to keep track of an Awakened like this.

  "Well, how's that going, then? Is your control getting a bit better?"

  "Slightly? I do try and train my spirituality a ton, but apparently because my spirituality is so low, any sort of progress is counted as a lot of progress so I actually level up too fast and can't train my other stats before my mana increases again..."

  "Ah..." Ryan could imagine the struggle of that. For him, any increase was amazing, but in Michael's case, his massive amount of mana was a danger to himself and others, so having his mana increase at a pace that he can't keep up with was the opposite of what you would want, for obvious reasons, "Have you spoken to any other mages around you? Maybe they have a good way to help you out. Or maybe they can seal your mana away for a bit, that should be possible, right?"

  "... I don't really know any other mages. I just come here after school to use the training facilities and use the instructional videos."

  Ryan closed his eyes for a moment. Of course, Michael was still going to school, so he probably didn't even have that much time to worry about training all too much. Though, that must make it even tougher for him. Ryan knew what it was like to go to school and have an Awakener pop up. Everyone would swarm them and ask to see their skills. He was the same back when someone a couple of grades above him awakened.

  "Hm, what about Alicia? Have you tried reaching out to her? Maybe she could get you some help for that," Ryan pointed out, but Michael shook his head.

  "I tried, but I couldn't reach her. Her assistant told me that I need to raise my control a bit more before I can work with them..."

  Ryan frowned. That sounded about right, but it also showed Ryan the clear favouritism that Alicia was showing toward him and his friends. Modak was just hired out of nowhere and given his own research team to lead, even if that team was just made up of two people. Either way, seeing how other people were treated when they clearly needed help was a bit annoying to Ryan.

  With a slight sigh, he patted Michael on the shoulder, "I'll try to see what I can do and text you afterward, alright?"

  "Wh-What? You don't have to, it's totally-"

  "Sorry, I've got to go, Aurora is here," Ryan replied, turning around toward the elevators.

  Michael looked to where Ryan was looking, but was just confused as he didn't see anyone there at all. But a moment later, the elevator doors slid open and the owl-woman Aurora stepped out.

  Michael was a bit taken aback, "How did you-"

  "I'll text you later, alright? Keep it up, man, I know you got this," Ryan smiled at Michael and turned around, heading over to Aurora. She was about to look around for Ryan, but he already stood in front of her.

  "Ah, Mister Aglecard, perfect timing! Are you ready for your re-measurement?" Aurora asked, and Ryan quickly nodded his head.

  "Yup, I'm so ready to finally get Bluesky off my back."

  Aurora seemed a bit confused, tilting her head to the side, "Excuse me?"

  "Ah, well... I told you before that I was having trouble with Bluesky, right? But now that I'm level 10, I won't have to deal with that anymore. The whole 'class trading' thing doesn't work on me anymore now."

  Aurora's eyes widened, similarly to how Michael's had just a few minutes before. She cleared her throat, "Did I hear you correctly? You have reached level 10? Already?"

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  "Mhm. I thought I mentioned that when I made the appointment..."

  "I don't recall that, no... I just assumed you would like to measure the growth trajectory of your stats," she pointed out, but Ryan just laughed somewhat awkwardly.

  "Uh, yeah, no that's not it. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. But there's no problem, right? The process is the same either way, isn't it?"

  "Yes, of course. My apologies, I was just a little surprised, that's all," Aurora pointed out, quickly guiding Ryan down the nearby hallway, "It is basically the same to the initial stat measurements you have already undertaken before, but since we already have your initial data, it should be finished a little faster."

  The two of them walked into a small room together. Ryan was in here before as well. There were different measurement instruments in here to test out some different stats. But there was part of this that might change the fact that it wouldn't take quite as long.

  "Ah, actually, I happened to have awakened two more stats as well. I guess those need to be measured too, right?"

  "Oh, you have? Two more? You must have been rather busy, Mister Aglecard."

  "You can say that again, it's been a rough couple of weeks," Ryan laughed quietly, waiting as Aurora set everything for the measurements up properly.

  "I can imagine," she laughed slightly, "Would you like to tell me which stats you have unlocked, and explain the details of your new skill to me? And if possible, please show me the skill"

  "Right, of course," Ryan replied, taking off his jacket in preparation for the stat measurements, as he asked Maximus to step out of his domain.

  Ryan poured the milk foam over the espresso. He had gotten pretty good at drawing pictures into the milk with the coffee, and that was the case even before he awakened. Now, with his dexterity as high as it was, Ryan was able to put whatever he wanted onto here. His dexterity applied to a lot of things that he did that related to his hand-eye coordination. He was never bad at drawing, but now, he could put basically whatever he wanted on paper. Ryan obviously wasn't as good as Silvia, but he was much better than he was just a month ago.

  He was also much, much better at playing games, typing things on his computer or phone, or, as he was doing just now, doing random things like drawing latte art. When he was done, Ryan placed the coffee onto the small carrying platter together with an ice cold caramel Frappuccino that already looked far too sweet, as well as two small slices of cake. Taking a deep breath, preparing to step into the thick air that was currently filling the corner of the café, Ryan walked around the counter and approached the table where Silvia and her birth mother were currently talking. Or rather, where they were supposed to be talking. Both of them were completely silent. But somehow, the silence itself was screaming out to anyone that wanted to pay attention. It wasn't comfortable in any sense of the word.

  "Here you go," Ryan said, placing everything onto the table, "Do you need anything else?"

  As he asked this, he was very much looking at Silvia, who has been staring at him like she needed his help this whole time.

  "No thanks, honey," Silvia's birth mother said with a light smile on her face, looking up at him, "You were one of my Silvia's friends, right?"

  Already feeling the awkwardness of the situation, Ryan glanced over at Silvia, who was staring at the elven woman with a deep glare, "Excuse me? 'Your' Silvia? Just to make it clear, we aren't meeting here to reconnect as mother and daughter. Silvia Redhorn is here to meet Lilianna Oaklin, because Lilianna Oaklin has been essentially stalking her for weeks."

  Lilianna looked at Silvia with a slight frown, "Now, don't be like that, I'm just trying to make up for the faults of my past."

  "Make up for- I'm sorry? You can't make up' for anything you did to me. I'm... how can you even...?" Silvia said, clearly absolutely baffled by what this woman was saying.

  "I-"

  "No, actually, you don't get to talk yet. What makes you think that you get to do this? That you somehow have the right to just barge into my life, after you had the galls to ruin everything? You never treated me as a daughter back when you had the chance, so why now? Why would you come to me now that I was finally able to start moving on?"

  Lilianna stared at Silvia, clearly not sure what to say.

  "You can talk now," Silvia said, grabbing her caramel Frappuccino and taking a sip. Lilianna averted her gaze slightly.

  "I know I made mistakes in the past. I did things that hurt you, and made choices that can never be taken back, but I atoned for those sins. I did my time. By now, I... I just want to be a family again."

  By now, Ryan realized that this situation was not something he should just be listening in on. He briefly patted Silvia on the back, and quickly made his way back behind the counter to help out other customers. But the young elf was just completely stunned right now. And then, she just started laughing.

  "Family? Seriously? You want to be a family again? You fucking lost that right more than a decade ago," Silvia said clearly, "I'm sorry for being so blunt about this, but how could you be stupid enough to believe that we could be a family again?"

  Lilianna slammed her hands on the table, standing up with a deep glare directed at Silvia, "How dare you talk to your mother that way?!"

  Other customers in the café started looking over toward them. Silvia noticed, but she didn't really care right now. She was getting quite riled up as well.

  "I would never talk to my mother like that! Good thing she's not here. My mother is at work right now," Silvia responded, but Lilianna just sighed loudly.

  "While I am grateful to her for taking care of you while I couldn't, that woman is not your mother. I am your mother. And now that I'm back and I paid for my crimes, we can just go back to the way things used to be," Lilianna explained, pushing her hands into her bag to look for something. A moment later, while Silvia was too overwhelmed to respond, Lilianna grabbed an old doll from the bag, holding it out to Silvia, "Please. Let's just leave the past where it belongs, so we can move forward together. Let's be mother and daughter again."

  Silvia slowly reached out to the doll. It was her favourite, and only, toy as a child.

  "Are you... are you serious?"

  "Of course. Come on, sweetheart, it can just be the two of us again. Alright?"

  Lilianna tried to grab Silvia's hand, but she swatted it away immediately, jumping off her chair, "How delusional can you be? I- I don't get it, what makes you think that you could just come here and expect things to go back to the way they were? In the first place, why would you even want things to go back to the way they were? Our life was absolutely horrible, and that was literally nobody's fault but your own."

  Looking around, finally realizing that there were other people in the café, Lilianna tried to grab Silvia's arm, "Let's just calm down. I know that life wasn't perfect, but-"

  "Life wasn't perfect? You made my life a living hell!"

  The disgust in Silvia's eyes and voice couldn't be hidden anymore. Ryan had come back around the counter, hoping to step in between Silvia and her birth mother should things go to far or get violent. Lilianna stood there, slowly looking down at the ground.

  "I-I don't... I don't know what else to do. I apologized, and I-"

  "You didn't even do that! You never apologized, not that it would even really change things anymore! But you just showed up, and suddenly thought that you could put on an act like you were ever a good parent? No, a good person?"

  "... What did I do to make you hate me so much?"

  Silvia's anger disappeared in an instant as she looked at the face of the woman in front of her. It was like a punch to the face that left her stunned and confused. Those genuine tears in Lilianna's eyes, the tone of her voice that showed that she genuinely didn't understand why Silvia was mad - it was completely and utterly disgusting.

  "What did you do? Do you want me to remind you?" Silvia asked, and Lilianna dared to respond with a nod, as tears started streaming down Silvia's cheeks. She knew that there were people watching, but she didn't even care anymore, "You fucking sold me to a cartel to in exchange for some drugs."

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