14 A Moonless Night Sky

In a residential area far away from the Spaceport. The night still had a lot of time before the morning star began its rise from the East. The ever-luminous lampposts shone brightly under the night sky. The advancement of technology had made massive amounts of efforts in filling in the flaws left by previous researchers which harmed the environment. Anything which harmed the environment or wasted energy was placed on the table to be modified. These lampposts were an example. They were street lights, alarm signals, security cameras, artificial traffic police and tour guides along with being lampposts. And all this was run by a solar plate fixed on top of the poles which opened up to form a huge umbrella in times of rains. The battery inside to store energy could hold massive amounts of electricity at one time. A day worth of charging from the solar plate could last for more than three weeks, so a minimum of two-thirds of the energy produced would be transferred to the various electricity suppliers.

The streets were bare. The whole residential area was as still as it was yesterday during this hour. This was not the marketplace which would be alive twenty four/seven.

Dagger lead Blake to one of the many similar houses in the area. It was Dagger's own home. Despite his identity as the Headmaster of the Formation School, he lived in a rather humble place. Humble according to his status. The interior was miles ahead from the normal homes.

Automatic defense mechanisms, thousands of defensive formations, an inscription to maintain the temprature, one to maintain the weather and a thousand more for various other functions.

Is this a secret military base?

Blake was very satisfied when he saw so many layers of defenses. It gave his paranoid heart some sort of reassurance.

Going to the kitchen, Dagger heated a glass of milk for Blake before taking out a drink for himself. Wine after a crushing defeat was his method of healing his mental state.

"It's getting late. The extra bedroom is the second door at the left, upstairs", Dagger sluggishly pointed towards the stairs as he chucked down half the bottle in one gulp. Blake finished his glass of milk and proceeded as Dagger had told him. The cleaning formation had kept the unused bedroom clean. The mattress on the bed was too soft to his liking so he switched it with his before going to sleep.

He had a good night's sleep and woke up quite early. Going downstairs, he was welcomed by the sweet aroma of breakfast. Eggs.

Dagger was out cold, his mouth open as he lied on the poor wooden chair. The bottle of wine was still held tightly in his hand, his arm hanging low, a few millimeters above the floor. A number of empty bottles were spread around him on the floor and the table.

The one cooking breakfast was a cute little girl around his age. She appeared surprised when she saw Blake. She had not known guests were in the house.

"You are?" She asked politely as she broke another egg.

"Blake", he replied simply. Taking a seat besides Dagger, he silently took out a pen and began to draw on Dagger's face.

"Oh, I'm Ivory- Ah!" She was introducing herself but stopped when she threw a glance back and saw what Blake was doing. "What are you doing?!" Contrary to her words, she found two permanent markers and handed one to Blake. She started coloring the whole of Dagger's face black. "This is how you do it!"

Blake: "..."

Her hands were very skillful. She did not had to trace any previous strokes to fill in left out gaps because there were none left. It seemed she had practiced this millions of times.

Blake took Dagger's hand to start coloring it too but Ivory hastily stopped him.

"No! Don't! He'll notice it! You go and overturn each and every mirror in the house. Don't forget the water closet. He won't notice anything odd!", she giggled as she formulated some sort of mischievous plan in her mind. Dagger did not budge at all even after the whole of his face was covered with permanent black ink.

When Blake came back after finishing the job assigned to him, he saw Ivory attach several tiny spy cameras on Dagger's clothes. Very professional.

This was his first time meeting this girl but she had already earned quite a lot of points from Blake. Blake was holding back because it was not his place but being his daughter, Ivory did not hold back in any way while messing with her father. She even tied both of his shoelaces together. She was using old and tested tricks to their fullest.

Ivory let out a satisfied grunt after finishing her work. She was appreciating her own work when she felt Blake tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Blake point towards the kitchen. Black smoke could be seen rising from over there...

"Ahh!" She ran towards the kitchen while screaming. Blake silently took his seat across from Dagger. He did not intend to help her deal with whatever mess which caused so much black smoke. It was not his problem, he was a guest.

Staring at Dagger's face for a while, he took out a glittery powder from his bracelet and threw it at Dagger's face. The glitter on the already black face gave his face the appearance of the moonless night sky. Perfect.

It took Ivory a while before she came back with a few dishes in her hands. Her lips were curved into an embarrassed smile. The edge of her fair blonde hair was covered in soot.

'How did she manage to produce soot? Didn't the stoves nowadays only work on electricity? The supply of natural gas and coal had long since been stopped, wasn't it?'

Blake was curious but did not dare voice out anything as a guest. It is the guest's job to accept everything the host provides without question. To his surprise, the breakfast was good enough to swallow.

With Dagger showing no signs of waking up, the both of them left him alone, going to another room to play SBz. Ivory had one of those limited premium consoles which allowed her to access every part of the SBz game, including the MBZs.