6 - 6

It was dark when Vyrin walked through the front door of his house. Not a drop of rain entered the space when he did so and the feeling of being home encouraged a sigh to escape his lips.

Though it wasn't particularly "tiring", his day was full of surprises. Breathing out a built-in release of air was only natural.

Beside the door was a black terminal on the wall. After placing his thumb on it, lights across the ceilings lit up.

His house that he entered, proceeding by closing the door behind him, was of abnormal size; the square meter average was about 2,438 for a mansion in the United States. In comparison, his house took up an astounding 4,000 square meters.

This of course was extreme, being almost double the size of the average MANSION.

All for a single person.

When put up against the Antilia Mumbai in India, the second most valuable residential property on the planet, it was about one-quarter of the size of the private residence. Even though it was a coincidence, it was still odd for the 14,868 square meter space in India, which was occupied by four people, to be around four times the size as the young man's residential space.

Of course this meant that he had—on average—the same amount of living space as each residential member currently residing in the Antilia Mumbai.

Costing at over $500M, there was no way the freshman was an ordinary rich kid. Due to economical circumstances, money flowed only towards the exceptional individuals that could give the country results in terms of technologies and Puppeteering. Such money wasn't easy to come by.

And it was quite obvious according to his entrance exam score that he didn't have the most promising results in terms of the latter.

In other words, this money had to be earned, not just given. Nobody would waste have a billion dollars on a house for a failure like him. The thought wouldn't even cross a lunatic's mind.

Nonetheless, no exceptional gratitude was displayed on his face upon taking his shoes off at the door. The expression of a proud individual entering the half-billion dollar home he had worked for was not present on his face.

Disgrace, on the other hand, did not appear either.

Total, absolute neutrality.

Upon the entrance, a massive living room occupied the first space. A set of black couches with luxurious red cushions was arranged in a "U" shape, with them facing a huge flat screen monitor on the wall, easily measuring more than three meters in length and two meters in height. Normally such a monitor would only be given to executives and government officials, however the enigmatic freshman seemed to have complete ownership of the property.

The living room was easily big enough to hold an entire party and still have *PLENTY* of room to do other activities. A spotless glass table sat inside the crease of the "U" shaped couches, numerous paintings of prime quality were hung up on the walls, and the floor was made of incredibly shiny tile that consisted of white and many shades of gray. The living room's space was located on the right side of the front door, with a kitchen the size of average middle class living rooms to the left of the front door, and a beautifully decorated elevator directly ahead of the front door, accompanied by stairs on the left of the elevator's space.

These dimensions were above the normal standards for mere residential quarters, however they alone weren't enough to classify the structure as a mansion.

This was only the first floor.

In total, the construct consisted of three titanic floors. Since the building had the infrastructure of a composition just below the concept of a skyscraper, curtain walls and steel frames were utilized for stability, with a tubular structure in the center-interior that didn't extend up and out of the building itself like an oversized chimney.

The first floor occupied around 1,380 square meters of space. The "living room", "kitchen" (which included a dining table), and the bathroom that sat to the right of the elevator behind the wall separating the kitchen from the elevator space had enough floor space on their own to fit average-sized houses, so for only one person to be living this luxury was... absurd.

The second floor occupied around 1,325 square meters of space. The difference of square meter of space between the first and second floors were negligible at best, however since the second floor included a huge balcony taking up a good amount of the curtain wall's degree, the rest of the space was taken up by two simple rooms: a bedroom, and a bathroom. This floor had the same tile as downstairs, however the entire wall facing the street, overlooking much of the metropolis in which the structure resided in, was made of glass with steel frames. Another gigantic monitor was located across the bed, however considering its location, it was simply for entertainment or last-minute checks.

Oddly enough, the monitor took up almost the entire wall, extending way past the single king-sized bed in terms of length.

Finally, on the third floor more than half of it was occupied by the tubular structure going through the middle, so "only" 500 square meters were given to what seemed to be an observation room, littered with normal-sized computer monitors, the entire structure of the walls being glass and steel frames, while the floor converted to a jet black color unlike the other two floors.

A small portion of the tubular structure was the elevator shaft. The only way to enter the observation room was with the elevator, while the second floor was available with the staircase *and* the elevator. The reason for this was self explanatory when taking the elevator's fingerprint security into account.

Notwithstanding, the helipad that housed a helicopter on the roof (not on the portion of the roof above the observation floor) was no secret. Now, 550.4 square meters of unoccupied space remained in the monstrous structure; around 150 square meters were taken up by the internal tubular structure, which was rarely accessed, and the helipad occupied 90.6 square meters worth of space, suitable for the CH-35K Sultan Stallion helicopter resting on its surface.

Therefore, only the garage remained.

A couple super cars and hyper cars were parked inside of it, and because it was underground, it was debatable to consider it a "fourth floor".

Although, there was an entirely separate construct made, which housed way more vehicles.

Motorcycles were stationed closest to the exit, implying that Vyrin preferred the use of two-wheeled automobiles. The other construct was on the other side of the house (the garage was under the right wing/living room wing while the "second" garage was under the left wing/kitchen wing) and consisted of a massive pool, basketball court, and a turf soccer field.

This technically wasn't a part of the house since the entrance was entirely separate from the main building, but it was still a part of the property.

The specifications of the house were definitely to be admired and no doubt caught the mixed glances of people walking around the metropolis inevitably.

Fortunately, Vyrin did not care about others' opinions about his luxury.

Before he changed into more casual attire in his walk-in closet upstairs (without showering, yet), he served himself some coffee and let it steam off a little bit before coming back down, taking the cup, and relaxing on one of the couches with it, lifting it up to his lips and taking a sip.

The attire he wore resembled a mobile suit.

A sigh of contentment could be heard.

Making coffee was extremely easy now in the 28th century. Instant coffee had been improved to the point of obtaining identical quality to the most quintessential cups of coffee in the country, however judging by quality alone was foolish.

There was nothing like an original, authentic cup of coffee. No machine could mimic it. The indescribable characteristic was the simple feeling of not *making* the coffee taste authentic, but lying back knowing that is *WAS* authentic.

Authenticity was a philosophical "hobby" of sorts to Vyrin when it came down to coffee, which was quite unusual for somebody his age; a teenager.

Needless to say, he found joy in making it himself.

As liquid warmth tunneled down his throat, the sound of the front door opening echoed mildly throughout the building, then again when it was closed.

According to Vyrin's relaxed composure and collected structure when he stepped foot into the building, it was idiotically easy to assume that he lived by himself, considering nobody was in the same building with him. If anybody were to live with him, it would have been his parents, yet even they didn't seem to be around.

So... who could have possibly walked through that door?

The sound was abrupt and would have startled anyone, especially a teenager who was sipping on a cup of coffee on the couch in complete silence. On the contrary, he didn't move.

His eyes remained on the blank monitor screen.

His lips remained on his cup.

His shoulders did not tense up whatsoever.

"Yo, I'm home."

"How was it?"

"Kinda boring but whatcha gonna do. Tessa couldn't wait to get home but she got caught up in Student Council business."

"I see."

The initiator of the fluid, uninterrupted trade of words was a young man, taller than Vyrin, standing at six feet—one inch. His short navy blue hair and darker skin color would have easily gotten him a place in modeling, however his extremely muscular and robust figure painted the picture of him being a ruthless, rebellious teenager.

On the contrary, as if to contradict this illustration, his entire presence was stable and he did not radiate any negative or overwhelming auras. Vyrin's replies were not accompanied by his eyes, but he could feel the other person's pale blue eyes taking in his coffee-sipping appearance.

"This is the third semester she's been in Student Council attendance for. Make sure she doesn't stand out too much."

"You got it. D'you make me a cup?"

"I was too tired."

"Pfft, that's a load of BS."

"You're right. To be honest I didn't expect you home so early."

With Vyrin starting off the second portion of the conversation this time, he spoke so freely with the young man behind him in the kitchen that it was a far cry from his attitude towards his new friends at the academy. Judging from the gentlemen's attitudes, they were close, like pals... no, more like brothers.

At Vyrin's reasonable excuse, the young man sighed as he started brewing up coffee for himself. Taking Vyrin's attitude into account, it wasn't entirely complex to deduce that the young man to whom he shared casual words with also knew how to brew coffee.

"Kace, did you get anything off on your side?"

Vyrin's tone did not change at all upon inquiring the young man behind him, however the recipient of the question was definitely noticed the change in attitude and took on a more serious approach.

"Yeah. Apparently the Student Council Secretary is a direct descendent of the Tenth Order: Bahamut. I've never seen a more imposing female in my life."

"Did she show any potential traits?"

"Unfortunately, yeah, she did. I don't get a good vibe from her."

"If it came down to it, could you take her on?"

Answering Vyrin's question, Kace gave him short but factual responses that emphasized on efficiency, something that appeared to be habit for both of the young gentlemen. Both of their voices didn't budge in pitch during their conversation, despite the topic clearly being something crucial.

Following Vyrin's last inquiry, a small, wry grin appeared on Kace's face as he slipped his finger inside of the cup's handle. Normally the thought of taking on a single affiliate from the Prime Orders was unthinkable...

But that rule didn't really seem to affect the muscular teenager.

"As I said, she's strong, but I think you forgot who you're talking to."

An imperceptible distortion of Vyrin's lips was produced.

"Good... So what about the other four?"

During the question's response, Kace walked across the unnaturally large space from the kitchen to the couches where Vyrin sat, letting his weight sink into the cushions beside the questionnaire. As he spoke, he could feel the red-eyed young man gaze *through* him on his left. They both sat on the bottom of the "U" where the two other couches had a common connection; "vertex" if you will, although it wasn't exactly a point.

Weirdly enough, judging from his question, the massive structure he lived in was shared by five other people, so it wasn't exactly as unnecessarily spacious as it first seemed.

"Well, Eden's unnatural range is being tested by our homeroom instructor; Aleisha stopped by the Extracurricular Activities Association to find any compatible clubs she could possibly join, so she'll be home soon; Ceres is probably destroying some kids at chess; finally, I think Kent is just taking his sweet ass time getting in a tram."

Normally, prodigies attending these sorts of things was not a rare sight. Puppeteers enjoyed displaying themselves if only a little bit in order to set their status in their environment in stone.

On the other hand, having everybody come back home at different times disrupted the rhythm that Vyrin had hoped to create.

He didn't want to go as extreme as using his helicopter, but a jet would have certainly helped.

In any case, trams made up for their small space with speed and perfect coordination with the properties and variables of driving, so journey times were, in majority, sliced significantly.

He had no complaints with Kace's reply.

"Did you find anything, Vyrin?"

Next up, as he had expected, Kace mirrored his question. He never took Kace for the curious type, however he certainly didn't take him for a fool who didn't have the ambition of gathering necessary information.

At this point, he had finished his coffee and placed the cup on the glass table, leaving Kace with a small bit of his own coffee left.

"Yeah. The Student Council President is a direct descendent of the Kreel Family."

Immediately after the bringing-up of the Ninth Order, Kace quickly performed an intake of breath and his usually sharp eyes widened somewhat.

"What?"

"That's not all. The freshmen representative is the next head of the Lorenzo Family."

"... Aiden? Aiden Lorenzo?"

"That's right. With someone that powerful at our academy, I don't even know how students will be able to relax being aware of the situation."

Even the calm and collected blue haired young man showed signs of nervousness. Kace's eyes remained in their widened state as he relayed the information he gathered today to him.

Without even saying the freshmen representative's name, Kace knew who he was. This was normal for all direct descendants of the Prime Orders. Their influence was unconditional, thus they were inevitably infamous among Puppeteers.

After a pause, Kace breathed out and his eyes glazed over to the beautiful tile. Before silence engulfed the atmosphere, Kace spoke again.

"I'm lucky that I didn't go to that academy. I'm not so sure how things would turn out if Aiden enrolled in my academy."

"He would be... a formidable opponent."

Kace's head swiveled towards Vyrin's face, which kept staring straight ahead into the blank monitor. A grunt was heard from him and his pale blue eyes were accompanied with a cruel smile.

"Stop with your modesty... VTeK."

When Kace spoke, his voice was filled with understanding and total confidence, as if he had no doubts in his mind about his claim. The last word was unnatural and definitely wouldn't make sense to witnesses listening in.

However, Vyrin's lips tilted upwards again.

"Very well. So, you and the others all got the same class?"

"Tch, who do you think you're talking about? It would've been that way if Ceres wasn't a complete smartass and didn't get himself in Class S-1."

"Figures. He's always been the one to do things right even when holding back."

The upbringing of Ceres was expected for the black haired freshman. Kace's tone held a hint of admiration for the brought-up individual, however it was also interlaced with slight disgust.

"I told him to-."

"It's fine. Besides if Ceres was in the same class, it might've drawn unnecessary attention to everyone. He's a little *too* smart."

"Hmm... Alright. I'm gonna go take a shower. Did you set up our beds upstairs?"

"No. I'll turn on the machines when I go up again."

"Roger that."

Kace's reaction to Vyrin's claims was unexpectedly calm and understanding, as if he already knew this fact that the latter threw at him.

Throwing a towel over his neck from a closet near the bathroom door, Kace sauntered into the bathing room and closed the door behind him.

Prior to going in, the "machines" that Vyrin spoke of were the transformation machines on the second floor.

Considering that so much space in the bedroom was unnecessary and useless, it only made sense that transformation machinery kept some features hidden within the walls and/or the floor.

Upon counting, six king-sized beds would have taken up the space following the commencing of the "machines".

Thus, the oversized monitor on the second floor was in fact given a necessary use.

Transformation machines were used to alter the design and structure of compositions without disrupting the stability and giving a clean product. By using these machines, for example, multiple pieces of furniture could have been hidden inside of walls and the floor, which were flipped into the interior of the composition and swapped with whatever was cloaking the furniture.

It was a simple concept but a complex production.

Kace's utility of a shower was also mildly unique. Most individuals cleaned themselves with Puppeteering by cleansing themselves either with their Filo or cleansing themselves *OF* their Filo. However, showers weren't exactly a huge rarity either. They could've been found in multiple homes, and of course in homes that weren't occupied by Puppeteers.

But according to his confidence in himself and his black haired buddy, it would have seemed as though he was plenty capable of simply cleaning himself.

Again, authenticity was a major aspect in the household.

The door opened again the moment Kace turned on the shower, which could be faintly heard. Vyrin had now leaned himself back and closed his eyes, already on the verge of slipping into a snooze.

Once again, he did not react to the noise.

Unlike Kace's footsteps, these ones were light and didn't press on the floor with overwhelming weight. The source's presence was mild and gentle.

... Total silence. The only sound that could be heard was the pitter-patter of water droplets coming from the bathroom.

Abnormally, Vyrin did not react. Such an absolute silence would have unsettled anybody, but the resting young man did not budge.

Suddenly, a soft weight pressed on his lap. From the texture and the simplicity of the teenage mind, it was obvious that a body was responsible for the interaction.

For any teenager, a female performing such intimate actions to them was naturally flustering. On the contrary, Vyrin simply opened his eyes and tilted his head back up to a normal sitting position.

Before anything he saw the red-and-black skirt uniform of the Western Gate's Partnered National Puppeteering Academy pressed against his pelvis.

Arousal was inevitable, yet he did not seem to be disconcerted.

The voluptuous figure of a young woman casually sitting on his lap entered his vision entirely. Looking up slightly, her fine facial features were quite attention-grabbing, inevitably attracting many individuals with them alone. Her luscious, pure white hair reached to her back and was accompanied with a set of bangs that covered her forehead; the left side of her bangs slanted to the right, while the right side of her bangs slanted slightly to the left.

To top it all off, her crystal blue eyes, in contrast with Kace's navy blue eyes, were enhanced by her flawless pale skin.

An expression of total comfortability rested on her face as she smiled at the young man she currently sat on.

"I'm home, Vi."

"I see that... What are you doing, Tessa?"

"Just waking you up."

Her teasing eyes and sensually constructed way of speaking was unrestricted as she spoke to him. Nicknames were never really used in this day and age due to all of the aspects to an individual were placed into a system, thus nicknames only made the individual look like they planned to use a false name.

Times were so serious in the 28th century that the mere act of giving somebody a nickname had the potential to cause problems.

Having such an ridiculously beautiful young woman casually give him such contact would have effectively aroused mass jealousy among teenagers, however there was nobody around... until Kace came out of the shower.

Soaking wet, with a towel wrapped around himself, his expression switched from confusion to bewilderment in a matter of moments.

Upon the latter, he pointed at her in accusation.

"What is...? HEY! WHAT'RE YOU DOING?"

"Oh? Me? I'm just waking Vi up. He was about to go into a snooze."

"Stop acting so innocent Miss Pretty Princess! I know what you're up to!"

"Go get dressed you oversized muscle head. Me and Vi have catching up to do."

Tessa gave him a triumphant smile as she deflected his questions with ease. Remaining on top of the obliviously lucky young man, she leaned forward, intentionally using her too-close assets to fluster Kace, and placed her finger on Vyrin's bottom lip in a very erotic way.

"Besides, we still have to thank him for expanding his home for us to live in it. Might as well start now."

"You slick bastard..."

Kace's comically interlaced anger directed at the "innocent" young woman did not make her budge whatsoever. Their usual bickering went back and forth, however its familial feeling gave Vyrin a small, subconscious smile.

Apparently, this wasn't an insignificant event, for they both slowly came to a halt and looked at him with expressions of surprise.

Genuine happiness was seen in his eyes.

"Kace, I'm grateful for your concern, but you can go ahead and get dressed. Tessa, you should shower and get dressed as well. After Ceres gets home, we have a meeting with William."

A sigh escaped from Kace's mouth as he followed his orders with a reply of understanding. When Tessa pouted about needing to go in a separate room from him, Vyrin stayed silent as he took out his portable console, opened up a news portal, and scrolled through the multiple passages.

Tessa's footsteps went silent and her figure remained in front of the staircase, near the elevator. The distance between the two teenagers wasn't enough for their voices to be inaudible, even if spoken in whispers.

Echoes weren't a problem for multiple sound dampeners were placed along the walls which integrated sound comfortability and design.

"So... did your mother email you or...?"

"Times haven't changed over here."

Tessa's voice was a dangerous whisper that held such animosity that Vyrin felt it all the way from the living room. Her question contained pain that indicated her awareness of the answer he was going to give, yet her body couldn't help but shake when she heard it.

"I swear... I'm going to-."

"Tessa. You guys are all that I need right now. Don't worry about it. Go get ready."

Vyrin's calm, pacifying tone loosened her shoulders and unclenches her fists. Tears soundlessly dripped onto the floor, leaving similar water marks compared to Kace's shower aftermath, which he already evaded responsibility for by running upstairs.

Although it wasn't normal, it seemed habitual for him to have used Puppeteering to restrain the water on his body to drop onto the floor during his journey up.

With Vyrin's final reassurance, she quietly accepted his answer and walked up the stairs while wiping off salty liquid from her cheeks.

As said before, families usually disregarded failures, even if they were family members themselves.

Experts were respected.

Talents were privileged.

Variants were ostracized.

Vyrin was a perfect example of a failure. His inability to utilize the "proper" system of Puppeteering made him unacceptable to the family name.

Somehow, his lineage had not helped him.

Unfortunately, he couldn't change his family's emotions.

Now he had a new life that he would now be pursuing.

He worked for his house.

He worked for enrolling into the academy.

And, now he officially assigned himself to be a better Puppeteer than he ever was before.

Starting that day, with his new family's help, he would live his life to the fullest.

Vyrin Wellington, the variant, would break free from the system itself.

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Hello everybody reading this!

I just wanted to let you guys know that writing a review would be extremely helpful! Be as blunt as you can and point out any errors you see in my work. I'm grateful for all criticism.

Happy reading!

— The Clockmaker