Rei sniffled, holding onto a lukewarm water-bottle like it was a teddy-bear. Kotone had taken on a therapist role tonight, sitting next to him as they quietly chatted in Japanese. I couldn’t hear their entire conversation, only bits and pieces. Not like I could understand Japanese anyway.


    All the scary people were huddled in a tight circle. Blackviper, who couldn’t stop glancing at the poor kid; Chunhua, who was having a horrible day after threatening to disembowel said poor kid; and myself, the only person who could vouch for him.


    BV rubbed her eyes. “Okay, run the story again, Conq.”


    I sighed and impatiently tapped my foot. “As I told you, I hardly know him. We ran into each other on the first day at Primordial Plaza.” (“Right.”) “He snuck in, got caught, and was taken away. That’s it. I thought he had an inflated sense of justice from watching too many animes, but a psychopath who mauled two rens? Look at him.”


    We looked at Rei again, who decided to chug the rest of his water. Halfway through, he choked and violently spewed water all over the sand and gravel.


    “He made my point.”


    Blackviper rubbed her face, as even she was perplexed by the situation. “He is a Slayer, I can tell you that much. He’s smart enough to block [Basic Information], so y''know what, I’m gonna hand the questioning to you, Conq. You’re best friends with the kid.”


    As if she needed a reason to pawn off her work to someone else. “Alright, and Chunhua?”


    “Huh? What?” Chunhua, frazzled as hell from the emotional whiplash, blinked several times.


    “Stay here.” (“Alex—”) “You’re a mess right now.”


    She didn''t argue further and watched from afar.


    With Blackviper tagging along, I introduced myself into the conversation. Rei shakily climbed to his feet, his eyes red from all the crying he did. Kotone stayed sitting, and I couldn''t decipher her expression.


    “Conqueror, I uhm…” Rei restlessly pressed his hands together. “I apologize for the sudden intrusion. And erm…”


    I raised my hand to stop him. “It’s alright. Do you have any emergency contacts? Any family, friends?”


    He shook his head.


    “I—” I stopped myself because it took a whole second for me to process his answer. “Wait, you don’t have anyone to contact? Where’s your phone, surely you have someone—” (“I lost it.”) “—what?”


    Rei shamefully stared at the ground. “I, uh, I traveled to Ordo by boat. I wanted to take a video of an airship flying overhead, but then waves struck and my phone sort of, erm…” He made a tumbling gesture with his hands.


    Okay, let’s move onto the next question because I didn’t know how to respond: “What about your wallet? Where’s your ID—?” (“I lost that too.”) “—what.”


    “When I snuck into Primordial Plaza, my wallet must’ve slipped out at some point… It had all my money…” On that note, this kid had been wearing a Demonic Cult t-shirt. He was wearing the same clothes since I last saw him.


    I was rubbing a temple, because holy shit, what was I supposed to do with this information? I summarized, “Rei, let me understand this correctly: you have no contacts and no ID for the majority of your stay in Ordo. How did you even survive?”


    “...I’ve been by myself for my entire life,” he quietly said, still staring at the ground. “The city isn’t as scary as the mountains.”


    Kotone spoke up, “He’s from Tsugaru. He grew up in the mountain-range there, but…” She shrugged, being just as clueless as the rest of us.


    Blackviper patted my shoulder and stepped forward, taking the metaphorical microphone from me. “I have a question for you, Tsugaru. How the hell did you get past the barrier? You should’ve been electrocuted—” (“Huh?”) “—roasted to a crisp—” (“Eek!”) “—and—!”


    “How did you get through?” I reiterated the question while glaring at the not-so-kind assassin. She cackled under her face-mask.


    Rei gulped and showed us his shaking palms. “I-I didn’t know there was a barrier. I just hopped over the walls—!”


    “You hopped over the fucking—? Ah, fuck this, I’m takin’ a smoke. He’s all yours.” Blackviper slapped my back, joined Chunhua, and took her smoke break.


    “Is… Is she okay?” Rei asked, completely oblivious.


    “Yeah,” I lied. “You’re a Slayer, right? What’s your [Rank]? Do you have any, uh, equipment on you?”


    “Oh, right! I’m just a D-Rank Slayer. And uhm…” Rei held out his hand and summoned his [Loadout]. It was a single measly item: a worn, beaten katana. A sorry excuse for one. The sheath was chipped and peeling off in thin strands, abused like it’d been whacked against a tree, and scratched up. The hilt''s wrapping was coming undone. I did not want to know what the actual sword looked like.


    I wasn’t Japanese, but even I was hurt looking at this. “Rei…”


    Rei quickly stashed his “katana." “This is the only sword I have left, but even with this sword, I have to accomplish my mission here. Surely, you know what I’m talking about, Conqueror! Something is here, had been here, I don’t know, but it shouldn’t belong in this world! It was the same in Primordial Plaza!”


    What? How did he…? Who is he? He shouldn’t know about the Alternates. Was there a leak—? No, impossible. Remember what Leo said: Morgan and Sophos couldn’t confirm an Alternate sighting using their tracker. It was because the Manor was outside the city, plus the security barrier likely played a part in blocking the tracking signals.


    How did Rei know an Alternate had visited the Manor when our current technology didn’t?


    This was too intentional to be considered a coincidence. I needed to know more.


    “Rei,” I began, thinking through every word, “did you get a weird feeling around a few months ago?”


    His eyes lit up. “Yes! You do know what I’m talking about! It began two months prior. I had this strange, otherworldly sensation and it happened repeatedly before suddenly disappearing a month ago. I thought that was the end, until when I was overwhelmed by a sense of dread over a week ago. It was horrifying, Conqueror-san! Somehow, I knew it originated from Ordo, so I ventured here as soon as possible but..." Until he lost his phone and wallet and got kicked out of First Wave.


    The details matched. I gulped. “Another question: did you have multiple of these…feelings at once?”


    Rei tilted his head slightly. “I… I don’t know, I’m sorry. I only snuck into the Manor because the ‘feeling’ here was overwhelmingly strong.”


    “What about yesterday? Anywhere else?”


    “Only here, Conqueror-san. I-I think. I''m not sure."


    “And Primordial Plaza? Why did you visit First Wave when the breakthrough happened days after you showed up?”


    Rei nervously laughed and said, “Please don’t look down on me, but I-I thought to plead my case to the Guild Masters. On the night of, I didn’t expect to wake up with pins and needles, but when I arrived to the Plaza, the breakthrough was already taken care of."


    "What about our breakthrough at tryouts?"


    "I-I don''t know, Conqueror-san. It came to a surprise to me!"


    Christ, okay, let’s think about this. The timeline matched up perfectly: he described the experiment''s failure and the sudden drop of appearances. That meant Rei was telling the truth much to his ignorance. Somehow, he could sense the Alternates. It was flawed, imperfect, and seemingly random: he couldn’t determine the location of the disturbance (Ordo) right away; in fact, it was only when he anticipated the Mother''s dramatic return; and he didn''t predict the Seraph Alternate (because she’d appeared in an expedition).If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    It didn’t mean Silverhonor wasn’t snatched by an Alt. The Alternate''s presence could be strong enough to mask other signals.


    Strong enough to...


    The Alternate should appear at midnight, but if Rei was here because he felt something...


    “Conqueror!” I heard Blackviper’s distant voice behind me. “It sounds like this kid is yours—”


    “Rei.” I ignored her. My throat dried up. Panic pummeled my stomach and brought aches across my muscles whining about yesterday''s trauma. I asked, “Is it here? Do you have that ‘feeling’ right now?”


    The kid gasped and hung his mouth. He nodded, nodded again, and gulped. “Y-Yes. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like… It’s like something is stirring inside my chest and pulling me apart, but not by my arms and legs. It goes deeper than that. Conqueror-san, I think—”


    <? The moon is bright, the wind is quiet. ?>


    I had never heard such a beautiful and soothing voice in my life. I blinked. All my hurt and worry vanished and a warm blanket was curled over my shoulders. It was my armor from the scary outside world. A rough, calloused hand held my own, yet her nourishing touch was the softest thing I had ever felt. I laid my head on her lap and watched her cracked lips subdue my restlessness with a lullaby. I never felt more safe.


    What wouldn’t I give to hear my mother sing to me one last time.


    <? The tree-leaves hang over the window. ?>


    “It’s coming from…” someone else spoke, Kotone, pointing toward the west, “…over there.”


    Mom disappeared, the warmth was gone, and all that was left was my cold and aching body.


    Our alertness, the battle-born instincts we’d cultivated throughout our lives, were pacified at the tenderness of her song. Her voice was simply too sweet for us to ignore, and we were too tired. Like thralls, we shambled toward the source. All we wanted to do was listen.


    <? My little baby, go to sleep quickly. ?>


    We passed through gates, between the many halls, as her voice grew louder. Lights around us flickered, brightened and dimmed, like it had during Primordial Plaza. Then, without warning, all went dark.


    <? Sleep, dreaming sweet dreams. ?>


    There, dancing on one of the dark roofs, was a breathtaking, dark-haired beauty frozen in time. Her bare, corpse-pale feet bounced across the dusty ridge. She twirled and spun, letting her red dress entrancingly spin like a wide net casted over water. Her arms were outstretched, covered in blood down to her elbows, concealing the hauntingly white skin underneath.


    Then, the blood was gone.


    That’s right. No matter her allure, she was fundamentally broken. Broken and twisted, like the other Alternates. During her dance, there were a few moments that betrayed her true nature. No, they were more like mirages—like they never happened. She reached toward the clouds, yet her fingers bent and twisted and her arms snapped in multiple places. Her lithe legs hopped forward. As soon as she landed, her legs twisted sideways and bone shot through the skin.


    She smiled. Then, her neck folded backwards and blood filled her mouth and turned her teeth a dark crimson.


    Yet she continued singing, uninterrupted, as if the omens never existed.


    <? The moon is bright, the wind is quiet. ?>


    “It’s her…” Rei muttered, eyes wide with fear.


    “Zhu Xinyue, we were right.” Chunhua, with what strength she could gather, stepped toward the singing mistress. “We… We have to do something.”


    Blackviper could barely move her arms. “I-I’m locked up. The bitch’s singing is doing something to us.”


    No wonder we walked here without a hint of aggression. It had to be a [Skill]. So much for fighting a weak cultivator. If she could tear the scalp of the average man, then she could do the same to us.


    <? The cradle moves softly. ?>


    Before she noticed our presence, I… What could we do? Like Blackviper, my muscles weren’t cooperating. More so than usual, I should add. I could barely twitch my fingers in the right direction. Maybe the paralysis would be broken once she made the first move, but…


    Knowing how Huang Chunxi and He Zhilan ended up, one of us might get incapped.


    <? Little one, close your eyes. ?>


    Think. Think about the research we had done. Zhu Xinyue was yet another tragic woman born in the wrong place. Her life was, as Chunhua said, amounted to nine months and nothing more.


    She hated Jin Junjie, her husband, and most likely hated her family too. But her son, Jin Tianyou… What about him? That “incident,” just what did she do? How did she endanger him, if that was even true?


    It was bad enough that the Zhu House had to pay reparations to Jin Junjie, so what?


    I…


    I don’t know.


    <? Sleep, sleep, dreaming sweet dreams. ?>


    Zhu Xinyue finished her performance. She stood coffin-like on the roof—an image flashed: covered in blood, shattered bones, and a screaming red mouth—and she returned to normal.


    <My boy…> she muttered loud enough for us to hear. <What did I do to my boy?>


    Did she actually do something to him?


    Her head craned in our direction. Blood poured down her cheeks, scratches tore her cheeks open, and the wounds disappeared. <Ah, tell me. What did I do to my son? What did I do to my boy? Tell me…>


    BV snarled, “Hey—!”


    <Tell me, tell me, tell me, TELL ME—!>


    <I can tell you,> said a calm man, whose serene voice matched Zhu Xinyue’s singing. Light footsteps glided over the pavement, and a flicker of familiar robes swooped by us.


    Jin Tianyou.


    Rei hid behind me as the prince of Martials Guild approached his late mother without so much of a change in his usual demeanor. He was looking at his own flesh-and-blood—the woman who’d brought him into this world—like she was a neighbor.


    <Who—?! Wait.> Zhu Xinyue peered down. She’d passed when he was five or six, so she shouldn’t recognize the man before her. Yet there was a twinkle of recognition in her eyes. She vanished from the roof and reappeared before her boy. <You… You can’t be—!>


    Jin Tianyou smiled like he had with me. <Fine night, isn’t it, Mother?>


    <Tianyou? Is it…?> She carefully met her son and laid a hand over his cheek. Every muscle in her face twitched from grief, and this moment of lucidity had brought her form stability. <It is really you. My boy. My son. How? Why are you greeting your mother with a smile?>


    <What kind of son doesn’t?> he retorted.


    <No, no! This isn’t right. It isn’t right!> Zhu Xinyue stepped back and combed her hands through her hair. <Why do you not feel hatred for your mother?! Why don’t you seethe with rage upon seeing me, who…! Who…!>


    Her hands clenched his neck, and she squeezed. <Who had snuffed your life like this, my son? Why do you greet me with a smile? Why—ah.>


    Jin Tianyou wasn’t bothered by the touch. His smile narrowed.


    He wasn’t smiling as his mother''s son.


    Zhu Xinyue’s pupils shrunk to pinpoints. <Have you shed tears once for your mother? For anything at all?>


    <Tears aren’t needed for you.>


    A twisted smile came upon Zhu Xinyue and the grip on her son’s neck tightened. Nails dug into his flesh. Her eyes shone wet with tears. <You are a calamity on this earth, Jin Tianyou, but as my child, you are my responsibility. I must do this. I must protect our home.>


    <Oh, Mother,> Jin Tianyou calmly replied—his mother wasn’t doing a thing to him, <if that was your wish, then you should’ve followed through.>


    A coarse scream ripped throughout the courtyard.


    Jin Tianyou was on top of his mother, his cold hands wrapped around her neck. Zhu Xinyue clawed hopelessly at his arms, at his face, but he did not react. His expression didn’t change at all—no, he looked disappointed.


    <Hah—stop!> sobbed his mother. <Stop, Tianyou—stop! You’re hurting me—! Please—! Stop, please—!>


    <I remember when I was pinned against your weight. Those manic eyes of yours, their crazed gaze had engraved a place in my memories forever.> His grip tightened and Zhu Xinyue wailed. <You squeezed my life through your fingers like this. Slow, enough for me to see death grinning inside your pupils, Mother.>


    <I’m sorry—! I shouldn’t have—! I shouldn’t have—! Forgive me, please! I beg you—!>


    <You were seconds away, Mother, from taking revenge against your husband who regarded you as just a womb, from committing a heinous crime for the sake of the world. Yet, you let go. Your child was a demon, but that boy was nourished by your own breasts. How could you murder your own child?>


    Jin Tianyou slammed her head against the pavement.


    She gasped, and her eyes began to roll backwards as tears ran down.


    <All the pain you experienced was for naught. Those unfulfilled, disregarded seconds separating you from reclaiming your strength were created out of your weakness. And you returned to oblivion.>


    Her arms sank and went limp.


    <Because you were powerless and refused to seize your ambitions, you accomplished nothing. Nothing but taking your own life. You are pathetic, that is simply the truth.>


    Zhu Xinyue wasn’t struggling anymore.


    <I will not make the same mistake. I will not die like you. I will not be weak.>


    His conviction was granted, and his mother withered away into dust.


    Jin Tianyou stood, dusted his robes off and flattened the wrinkles to appear presentable. He peered down where his mother had been for a second, but no emotions stirred inside him.


    He turned to the five of us and innocently smiled. “Thank you for allowing me to see my mother again. I believe that’s everything—ah, who’s that boy over there? We haven’t met, have we?”


    Christ, help us.


    [Event Commission “Attack on the Manor” has been completed]


    [You have been paid 250,000ssp]


    Event Commission: Attack on the Manor


    Pay: 250,000ssp


    Description: All the skills I had learned, all the techniques I had accumulated, all the wisdom I had grasped, they were worthless compared to my womb. Yet, as I once hoped, I’d smile seeing your chubby face and innocent eyes. How wrong I was… There is nothing in your eyes, my son. There is only a gluttonous demon waiting to be fed. For the sake of our world, our Jianghu, I pray for your painful death so the land can remain virtuous and free.