Ch36. Everything Starts with an N

When Kurt arrived at the second floor, he noticed that it wasn't that Nikolai was getting a special delivery, but just that he was talking to a holographic projection on his holowatch.

"Oh, you're here, Kurt. Good, come here." Nikolai called him, and Kurt approached, raising his brows at the projection.

"it's nice, isn't it? It's a new piece of tech in which the government is working to better communications and streaming services. Nadia was kind enough to send me, but it took a while to arrive and I just found it on my desk."

"Nadia...? The girl you're speaking with?" Kurt looked confused.

"So he's the runaway guy who cut Laurent's hand out?" The woman in the projection asked.

She was stunning beautiful. Dark green eyes, red curly hair, freckles all over her face.

She reminded him of Evellyn, but more mature, and without the mysterious aura of when they were at her work study at the guild.

"Exactly. Kurt, meet Nadia Cross. Nadia, this is Kurt, and he's been one of my most valuable friends and assets in this last few weeks."

Nadia smiled at Kurt, who blushed a little bit, but smiled back and waved a silent hello towards her.

"So, since my silent brother here isn't going to talk, I'm going to spill the beans right away. We need to go over your place, because Kurt needs to retrieve his register and go back to school."

Nadia looked at Kurt, then at Nikolai, scratching her chin.

"Let me see if I got it right. You want me to 'retrieve' his register?"

Nikolai smiled brightly.

"Exactly. The monitoring division tortured him and erased his register, but he needs to go back to school for reasons I can't discuss with you without his permission."

"Hum, guys?" Kurt raised his hand. "I'm here, you don't have to talk about me like I'm not in the room." He smiled awkwardly.

But his heart beat faster every time he looked at Nadia.

Was it because she reminded him so much of Evellyn? He remembered the way her lips touched his and shook his head violently, feeling the slight pain from the incident at the stairs.

"Join the conversation then, my friend."

Kurt nodded and began to talk.

"Yes, I need to retrieve my register, because just creating one from scratch won't do."

Nadia looked at Kurt with a gleam of interest in her eyes.

"Hum... Another risky job that would probably get me in prison faster than I could say vodka?" Nikolai nodded, smiling. "Right, then. I'll send you the address and you meet me there after the Legends of Aluria finals end. I'm not missing this game for the world!"

Nikolai chuckled and muttered "Nerd" under his breath, but Nadia laughed and sent a few kisses before ending the call, making Kurt even more uncomfortable than before.

"What are you two, if I'm not intruding?" Kurt squinted his eyes towards Nikolai, but Nikolai just shook his head slightly.

"She's just a bit of a very extroverted friend. Did you like her?"

"She reminds me of Evellyn, the Red Oracle."

Nikolai hummed and looked at Kurt, a slight tone of mockery permeating his voice.

"So you like this Evellyn girl, yes?"

Kurt kept silent, but the slight red on his cheeks gave it away.

"Oh, so 'that' is why you were so reluctant on going back to school... You don't know how to look at her after what happened..."

Kurt just looked around, trying to find a specific and very interesting spot on the office walls when Nikolai passed by him and slapped his back.

"Tough up, my dear brother! You won't get the girl unless you take the shot. Besides, there are more pressing matters that we need to attend now, right?"

"Yeah. So," Kurt finally felt a bit more comfortable in the situation "what did she mean by the finals of Legends of Aluria?"

"Brother..." Nikolai stared at Kurt, deadly seriousness glowing darkly in his eyes. "You do know about the existence of the internet and online games, right? It's the twenty-third century after all."

Kurt glared at Nikolai and slightly punched him in the shoulder.

"Idiot."

They laughed, and then Kurt replied.

"Of course I know about the internet, but never played online games. I just know the basic concept, so... This Legends of Aluria is an online game?"

"Wait!" Nikolai frowned. "You know about the internet, but never played a game before, so how are you thinking of showing the video you recorded of Leblanc trying to kill the man from before?"

"I, hum, was thinking of letting you handle this?"

Nikolai chuckled.

"Oh boy, it seems like we have a whole world to show you. But... What was the word like, back in your previous life, then? Weren't there any live streams, content creators or anything of the sorts?"

Kurt sat down, tool a deep breath, and asked.

"Do you really want to know?"

Nikolai looked apprehensively at Kurt, but nodded, and Kurt started speaking.

***

After Kurt told everything he remembered, Nikolai was speechless. He never imagined that wielders could represent such a threat to society as he knew it.

When he heard Kurt say that he was killed by Quintus, supposedly a member of the Shadow Guild, but nothing more than a spy working for his father, owner of the Dawn Guild, he thought it was okay.

That it was nothing but an isolated problem.

"We can't let the same thing happen to this version of your life."

"I guess that's why I came back, right?"

"Yes, but how do we stop it?" Nikolai looked worried, for the first time after he told his father he was going to drop school and quit the family.

"First, we need to find a way to stop the New Dawn guild," Kurt looked determined "but for that to happen, I need my system functioning properly again, and I need Evellyn for that."

"So you need to go back to school and try talking to her. And to do so, we need Nadia."