My eyelids were partially closed when suddenly I was jolted awake by a bright light that penetrated the spaces between them.

My thoughts were all over the place, and all of a sudden, memories from the previous night began to flood back into my consciousness.

My eyes opened as I was gently embraced by a warm sensation coming from the right side of my body. It was extremely soft, and for a moment, I was almost tempted to close my eyes and go back to sleep.

A familiar ceiling appeared within my immediate vision, and I knew that I was inside my room.

Laying on my bedAmanda was beside me.

Her eyes were closed, and the covers were pulled up to her chin. Her arm was positioned so that it was leaning over me, and she had a firm grip on my waist.

She was sound asleep.

'So it really happened'

I turned my body so that it faced Amanda and looked directly at her face. Glossy cherry lips, smooth skin that was completely free of any blemishes, and glossy black hair that fell in a sleek manner and covered her face.

"How cute."

As her hair continued to fall in her face, I couldn't help but laugh when I noticed that it would occasionally cause her nose to twitch and her mouth to pout.

My hand moved forward unconsciously and smoothed her hair behind her ear as I admired her beauty at that very moment.

My heartfelt oddly at peace while I faced her, and if possible, I wanted to stay like this for as long as possible.

It was so nice.

"Hm."

Amanda gradually opened her eyes, clearly startled awake by my actions.

She appeared to be somewhat groggy and had to blink a couple of times to get a better understanding of what was going on. Her eyes quickly regained their clarity, and a faint blush began to spread across her cheeks.

"Morning."

She muttered shyly, with a small smile on her face.

I answered her back with a smile.

"Morning."

The light filtered through the window, slowly illuminating the room; enveloping our bodies with warmth.

How nice was it to wake up like this?

This felt so peaceful.

"What time is it?"

Amanda lifted her body slowly as she raised her arm to support the bedsheets that were covering her body.

I leaned back on the bed and yawned.

"Huaaam..too early. I barely slept last night."

Amanda glared at me, and I shrugged my shoulders.

"Whose fault do you think it is?"

Amanda rolled her eyes and got out of bed. Our clothes were scattered all over the floor in a messy fashion, giving a perfect represenation of the events of last night.

Getting out of bed, she dragged the bedsheets with her and my body shivered.

"Oy, the bedsheets!"

"Don't complain."

Amanda merely spared me a glance before taking the bedsheets with her.

My teeth chattered, and I hugged my body.

"Why are you taking the bedsheets with you?! I've already seen everything that is there to see. What are you being shy about?!"

"The less you see something, the more you desire it."

Amanda's rebuttal instantly made me shut up, and I sighed.

"Alright, fine, whatever."

To be honest, I doubted the validity of those words. There was simply no way I would ever get bored of what I had seen last night.

Never...

"Get changed. We're going to be late."

"Alright, alright"

I let out another sigh, and then I sat up straight, picked up the clothes that were lying on the ground, and started putting them on in a slow manner.

Due to the events that transpired in the Assembly, I was unable to speak with Octavious, and as a result, we came to the conclusion that the best time for us to meet would be today.

Thinking about Octavious, my thoughts were rather complicated.

I was still confused about how a man with such a fixed mindset could have undergone such a dramatic transformation so quickly. What in the world did Kevin do to cause him to transform into this different person?

I was genuinely curious.

"I'm done."

"Already?"

The second time Amanda entered the room, she was dressed differently than the first time. This time, she was wearing a sleek white one-piece suit that accentuated the natural curves of her body.

Her long hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, and she exuded an enticing fragrance from head to toe.

She looked more mature.

In the midst of me admiring her beauty, she walked up to the drawer beside my bed and took out the pair of glasses that were resting there.

It took a moment for me to register what was going on, and I complained.

"Wait, aren't those my glasses?"

"They are."

Amanda teased, putting on her glasses and heading to the living room, more specifically the kitchen.

"Hold on, wait up."

Hastily putting on my clothes, I rushed to her. Panic engulfed every part of my body.

Flashes of memories resurfaced inside my mind, and my complexion paled.

"Wait, don't tell me that you're planning on making breakfast?"

"How did you know?"

As expected, Amanda's expression changed to one of bewilderment when she realized that I was aware of her intention to prepare breakfast.

Amanda's brows furrowed, and she examined my clothing for a moment before shaking her head and cutting me off before I could say anything else.

"This won't do. You should go and change your clothes. You can't go like this. I'll make breakfast while you change."

The tone of her voice was stern, and so was her face.

When I saw her expression, I realized that complaining about it would be a pointless use of my time. As a result, I went to the bathroom, took a shower, and then changed into more appropriate attire before going back to the living room.

To tell you the truth, ever since Amanda had baked her cookies for me the last time, I had not eaten any of her food, and I wasn't looking forward to it at all.

If the previous experience with the cookies hadn't made it abundantly clear, then I didn't know what could.

'This morning is going to start off rough for sure, that much is certain.'

With a Pepto Bismol at hand, I headed for breakfast, where I saw perfectly cooked sunny side eggs with some bacon.

I was immediately on guard, and I approached the chair as if it were the most formidable foe I had ever faced or would ever face.

Jezebeth who?

Not even Jezebeth placed me under such pressure.

As expected, this was no normal egg, was it?

The more perfect it looked on the outside, the warier of it I became.

"What are you doing? Eat quickly so the food doesn't become cold. We still have to leave in fifteen minutes."

"Ah..yeah."

I responded, and as I did so, sweat began to form on either side of my hands. At the same time, I began praying to whichever god was out there.

After slicing the bacon with the fork, which I had just grabbed, I brought it to my mouth. At this point, I had already reconciled my feelings about the situation, and I took a bite of the bacon, expecting it to be the last one I would take for a while.

"Hmm?"

After taking a few bites of the bacon, I was astonished to discover that it didn't actually have a taste that was all that unpleasant. In point of fact, I had already consumed the entire thing before I realized it, and I had already made my way to the eggs, which turned out to be surprisingly airy.

I looked at Amanda with a sceptical eye.

"What happened? Did you order breakfast before I was done changing?"

"Since when have deliveries become so fast?"

"You could've bought it yesterday and reheated it."

"Then how does that explain the dishes over there?"

"Hm"

My brows furrowed to their fullest capacity as I looked at the dishes, which were indisputable proof that she had actually prepared the meal.

It took me a while to process the information, and when I did, I looked at Amanda with an incredulous look.

"It's not spicy!"

"Ah?"

Amanda cocked her head, her eyes narrowing into slits.

She eventually shook her head.

"I didn't have to deal with cinnamon this time, so yeah."

"So you're saying that if you had cinnamon, you would've made it spic"

I was forcefully fed a mouthful of food by Amanda, who looked at me with a cold smile.

"Less talking and more eating."

"fine."

I retracted the fork from my mouth and carried on eating. After everything was said and done, the breakfast turned out to be quite delicious, and I felt very content after eating it.

By the time I was done eating, Amanda had already eaten her breakfast and had gone to put her shoes on.

I didn't waste any time cleaning the table before making my way to the front door, where Amanda was patiently waiting for me.

I got out of the apartment, took my jacket with me, and locked the door behind me as I went.

There was not a single flaw to be found with my current morning. I awoke with a smile, enjoyed a delicious breakfast, and felt more energized than I had in a very long time.

Only that... At the precise moment that I emerged from the room, another figure emerged from his apartment at the opposite end of the corridor, and our eyes met.

The surroundings froze, and neither one of us moved.

The last thing I remember hearing was Amanda's low murmur.

"The scream."

My head subconsciously nodded.

***

"Not a bad office."

I found a nice leather sofa, sat down, and adjusted the pillows until I was completely at ease. At that moment, I was located in Octavios's office, which was located on the top floor of the Union Tower.

I had to say, the view up here was amazing. I could see the entirety of Ashton City from where I sat.

There didn't need to be anything said about how nice the view was.

Currently, Octavious was sitting behind his desk with an expressionless look on his face. He was most probably waiting for me to finish looking around.

"Keum.."

I cleared my throat and leaned back on the chair. Without sparing a single second, I asked the one thing that had been bugging me from quite a while back.

"What did Kevin offer in order to have you become so ob"

"The chance to break through to <SSS-> rank."

Octavious cut me mid-sentence, and my mouth hung open.

"The what?"

I had to blink my eyes a couple of times in order to ensure that I wasn't hearing incorrectly.

He just said the chance to break through to <SSS-> rank, right?

"Are you serious?"

"Yes "

Octavious nodded, clearly not trying to hide anything from me. I became even more shocked when I heard Octavious's confirmation.

'No way, did Kevin really do that?'

Everything started making sense to me, and when it did, I couldn't help but be amazed by Kevin's capabilities.

It was necessary to take note of the fact that advancing past the SSS rank was extremely difficult, borderline impossible.

The closer one became to the powers of the records, the more restrictions were set on them. There was a reason why there were so few <SSS-> rankers in the world, and it was because the Akashic Records didn't want there to be that many in the first place.

No, it was more accurate to say that it never even wanted an existence of that level to exist within its realm to begin with.

...and it was precisely because of this reason that it was almost impossible for someone to break through to <SSS-> rank.

The fact that Kevin was somehow able to grant this ability to Octavious showed that his means were extremely deep.

'If I didn't already know how to breakthrough, I would have been in the same position as Octavious and would've most likely needed to ask for his assistance.'

"So in exchange for granting you the ability to break through to the next rank, you've decided to help him become the alliance leader?"

"That's correct."

"I see...huh?"

I stopped myself mid-sentence and looked up at Octavious.

"Hold on, why are you telling me this?"

It was very strange that he ultimately divulged all of the information without me threatening or coercing him to do so in order to get him to talk.

In fact, there was something extremely fishy about the situation...

'There's definitely a reason for why he's telling me this.'

...I didn't have to wait long to understand

"Kevin informed me that I was permitted to share this information with you. He also instructed me to tell you to vote for him in the upcoming elections for alliance leader. Oh, and he also inquired as to whether your mercenary group will join the alliance or not."

"Ehmm..."

I was honestly a little taken aback by the sudden request, but I eventually shook my head.

"I can vote for Kevin to become the leader of the alliance, but my mercenary guild will not join. I have other plans for them, and we don't really work well with others, so it may be for the best that they are separated."

"I understand."

Octavious nodded in a calm manner, seemingly having already expected such results.

My brows furrowed when I saw this.

'Did Kevin predict this far as well?'

My hands clenched for a moment before I relaxed them.

'I wonder what's going on with Kevin's head these days.'

The more time that goes by, the more unfamiliar he seems to me in my thoughts. Without a doubt, the Kevin that I knew was no more, with the current Kevin being the real version of himself.

...Almost like me.

I shifted my attention back toward Octavious and asked.

"Is there anything else that you would like to tell me?"

"No."

Octavious shook his head, his expression carrying the same indifference as in the past.

"Very well, then..."

I stood up from my seat and turned to head for the exit of the room. Now that everything was done, I could finally carry out everything that I had been planning for a long time.

'I guess I've got to go back to the headquarters.'