The Rise Of The Consortium

"Yeah. This update is draining my energy, so thanks," he said disappointedly as he still couldn't believe he was going to sleep just because his system said so. Well, he has faced this silly tantrum before. But every time he is told to sleep, he feels as if he is avoiding some sort of responsibility.

"It's cause you wanted to have a room tour of your character in level five." he heard a calming feminine voice as a figure appeared on the glass window, turning off all the lights in the room.

"Hey Leira, you back?" Dane jeered at her. The image of her cast a gloomy look at him and continued looking outside of the window.

"You touched your console after dinner." she accused.

"Cause I was about to finish this level," said Dane, looking at the roof dreamily trying to concentrate on the sound of waves crashing. "Hey, you're looking at the ocean? It's amazing, right?"

"I can't see. I see what you see. I don't what you don't." she asserted.

He sometimes forgot that she's only the image and not a living being. He thought she deserves this nice view of the night ocean. The dance of waves with approaching thunderclap.

"Be back on your bed!" Leira fumed at him. He gasped and curled up facing the other side of the bed grumpily.

"Now rest and don't get up till I don't say." she nagged at him.

"What about the night walk?" he queried wondering if she was canceling that as well. He turned his neck towards her, waiting for an answer.

"The perfect time is a couple of hours before morning. Your player must rest as well," she assured. "It had a tiring day too." he soon began thinking about the comparative chart between two people he saw before he was about to play.

"Do you not think it's the girl I met ten years ago?" he inquired, still his facing opposite to her.

"It's difficult to say that. I didn't have a backup mode activated at that time." she reminded him of that time when he got to know his system. Out of every single bad headache, it was the only relief he didn't know he wanted.

"But you said I met 30 girls." he reminded her.

"35." she corrected. "Yes. But it's difficult to tell whether it's her or not. Also, didn't you heard what Ms. Sokestyn said?" she recalled the conversation he had with the secretary. "She has changed. I'm sure either she has deserted the city or she's not there anym…"

"Don't say that!" Dane snarled, turned himself to look at her image.

"Sorry, but no records match with the current behavior of your character. It's a completely different one!" she responded.

"But I met her a few days ago," he remembered. "She's not changed. Headstrong, focused, she didn't even care about the breakout," he explained thinking about the courage she showed in that dreadful day. "She even interacted with a stranger like me. If it were someone else, they would have charged me suddenly. But she didn't." he confessed.

"Not to forget that she's a Young Charger herself. She could have done so. Either she forgot her duties or---"

"Willingly didn't do that?" Dane finished her suspicion hanging in midair. "Anyways, show me the tour of the room, please. This will explain everything." he diverted the course of the conversation so that he doesn't have to be defeated by her logic.

"Projecting room map of the character RT6." Leira flashed like a light pulse across the wall, bringing the glass wall down for him to illuminate the room of his player.

"What is this?" he sputtered, getting up from his bed suddenly. "An absolute technology deprived area! Impossible!" he screamed. "Can you see this Leira? Who lives like this? Not even the cavemen!" he protested. The light pulse of the system kept illuminating the image of the room, listening to the incessant complaints as five-year-olds do.

"Won't you say something?" said Dane after exhausting his sanity over the puny.

"I'm sure things must be hidden somewhere," replied Leira, breaking out of her mechanical demeanor. She can't always give an exact answer. Sometimes the uncertainty drives one in the quest of truth.

"Where? I can't see it!" he yelled. "Search anyone's home and you'd find tech stuff being used every single second. And this!" he pointed out the character's room on the map. "I'm sure it's her," he announced. "Anyways, do you know who I am talking about right now?" inquired Dane.

"You have been discussing Rio Tarnilier since the last two days," she said. "Yes, if it's her, it's impossible."

"I know who did this." he speculated, getting back to his bed. "Why Mrs. Tarnilier, why?" he whispered.

"Should we target her mother now?" Leira questioned.

"Of course!" he admitted. "Sorry, not really." he apologized taking a short pause for a breath. "But she did this on purpose so that Rio doesn't remember a thing about what she did. I tell you, Zeppy and Mrs. Tarnilier together brainwashed and took away her memories. And then turned this place into…" he ranted everything in a single breath.

"Calm down Dane. There must be some reason they did this," she concluded. "We can't suddenly accuse them without any evidence," she emphasized the way one must approach before taking an action, research.

"But we shouldn't forget that Zeppy hates us. Zeppy wants our family to die!" he protested, clutching the edge of his bed.

"What does that have to do with this?" Leira questioned.

"She can't stand another charmer on the way," he affirmed. "She must have seen potentials in Rio and with Mrs. Tarnilier's support, it wouldn't have taken a second to take away everything," he explained.

"Shall I cancel the night walk?" Leira asked.

"Ah, what?" he asked looking at her, searching for some meaning in her question.

"Unless stamina steps up the danger level, I won't be able to wake you." she declared.

"But I'm not sleepy," he w.h.i.n.ed wondering why she's acting weird today.

"You can't, 'cause you're ignoring." she nagged.

"OK, good night. You're acting like a boring old lady," he said factually.

"I'm sure your mother would have done the same thing." she implied.

"Do you have to…" his nagging got lost halfway as his mind suddenly traveled back to the time which he liked to think of it as the beginning of the mistakes.

"It's the truth. Also, you're making it too easy for her," she commented.

"What?"

"Katokeins don't like things to be done for them." she declared. "They despise it."

"But what about the mess she's doing?"

"The truth will be out on its own. You don't have to stress," she assured him.

"She has to be here before brother picks someone else," he said falteringly as he can't afford it happening.

"Remember, this weather might not suit her well," she warned.

"I'll take care of that. I can't wait to bring her with me." he beamed as the series of events was waiting to be unfurled.

"We must wait for her. We must know what she thinks of it," she suggested.

"You can wait. I'll do it on my own." he scoffed jumping back to his bed.

"Whatever." she hummed, turning down the light.