Ch 23: Slight Argument

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Felix's POV

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It was all really risky. It could be a make or break situation. I sensed an opportunity in this dire situation. It all depended on the choice Silia makes and how I handle it.

Honestly, I had my doubts about whether humanity would survive, even if I get all the main players together. If I could make a deal with her, then at least my family might be safe.

.

.

.

It took some time to calm Silia down. She was really panicky inside.

"Are you okay now? Again, I'm really sorry for scaring you. This situation was also out of my calculations. Honestly, your deductions have been a bit too close to home. I laughed because my emotions were quite chaotic then."

"....."

She seemed to have eased up a bit. I gave her time to calm herself down.

When I felt that she was stable enough, I opened my mouth.

"I know you don't trust me completely, honestly I'd be concerned if you did. Likewise, I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you some things. Are you okay with that?"

"Mhm"

She nodded while not looking at me.

"*Sigh* An opportunity and a disaster are coming our way. Not just us, but humanity as a whole…"

Silia turned to me after hearing that. I had made a great choice going with this intro.

"Your deductions were spot on. Dad and I had a purpose in hiring everyone, and will have the same purpose in hiring more."

"Is there any specific reason why you hired those people and my dad?"

She finally spoke up. I could feel through my telepathy that she was getting her confidence back.

"I have, but I can only give you the general idea… If you want to know the specifics, then you have to at least wait long enough for Irene and Melena to mature up. I'll tell the three of you at the same time. Can you wait that long for me?"

"Only if you at least tell me how you know all this. How did you know about dad and me?"

"Has Melena ever told you about her history?"

"Yeah…"

"Tell me, how could Dad and I know about her and her situation when she was living in a completely different city? She only had a single entry in her public registration. We couldn't have found out about her situation just from that, now could we?"

"....."

"Did Irene tell you about Aunty Martha and her tumor?"

"Yes…"

"Tell me, how could I just see that tumor on her when it was barely even noticeable by touch?"

"...."

"Can you connect the dots now, Silia? Think outside the box. You have already seen the supernatural powers I conjured before. So think in that direction."

Silia bent her head down and started to think hard.

"Clairvoyance? Some sort of omniscience?

I shook my head at her.

"I'll give you another hint. You have said it multiple times now, how I'm way too mature for my age. You are pretty smart. This should do the trick."

Silia put on a pondering expression and then suddenly her eyes shot open as she stared at me.

"You're a Time Traveller. That's the only thing that I can think of, but it doesn't make sense. Unless something horrific happened to Melena in the future and she came on the headlines, you wouldn't know about her. The same goes for my family as well. I doubt that my father would ever make a decision bad enough to make us an international headline."

"Eh, close enough. I'd call it bingo. The correct term would be a regressor. As for your query, I told you about humanity facing an opportunity and a disaster, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the people we've been hiring are those with the potential to take great advantage of that opportunity. They all got pretty famous, that's why I know about them. I don't know if we can really overcome the disaster part, but I'd like to assemble them all under the same banner and see if we can really make it or not."

"So you're saying that all of us are just your pawns?..."

"No… rather I'm probably gonna be a pawn in the future… I know all of you because you had the potential and had gotten quite powerful after taking the 'opportunity'. As for me, I'm just a talentless sod and will be like that in the future as well. My power in the future was to just eternally remember things. I had luckily gotten a chance to regress and somehow had mana in me when I regressed. But I can't count on it anymore. The chance of another regression is worse than the sun going supernova at this very moment. My only wish is to have my family and loved ones be safe when all the shit breaks loose."

*Inhale*

"Is dad the one who will get this 'opportunity' you speak of?"

"No, it's actually you who'll get it and become extremely powerful, but your father was not bad at all. He was a great leader."

"Are you not regretting telling me all this? What if I just ditch you and wait for that 'opportunity' to come?"

"That's why I'll make a deal with you. I'll teach you how to take full advantage of that 'opportunity'. But in exchange, just ensure my family and loved one's safety, of course, only if your own safety isn't compromised. You can even get rid of me after I've fulfilled my purpose."

I said with conviction in my eyes.

"....."

She didn't reply for a long time. I was getting a bit nervous. Maybe I had lost the gamble.

"Look, I can sweeten the deal a bit mor-"

"I don't like it."

I was stumped. I really had lost this time…

'*sigh* I guess it won't work… should I 'compel' her? Let's try a bit more. If it doesn't work, then 'compelling' should be the last resort.'

"Do you not like the terms? What do yo-"

"Shut up!.....Who said I wanted to make a deal! Let alone one with your life on the line! Even…even if I had gotten this 'power' without you telling me anything, I would have NEVER let your family be harmed!"

"Silia, you'r-"

"I said shut up! Now listen to me, Felix Hudson! Nor me, nor my dad, are ungrateful bastards! Your family has given us too much! You don't even know how valuable your family has become in my heart! Let alone letting them get harmed, I would've ensured that they are as happy as possible! You asked me to trust you, but you have not an ounce of trust in me!"

I tried to reason with her, but she kept spouting bullshit. I felt deep anger listening to what she said.

"You say you wouldn't let my family be harmed… Hehe! What do you even know about those times?! You say it so easily, but do you even know how the world was like then?! It was a world where brothers would ditch brothers to save their own skin! Even that was considered appropriate for those times! People killed people for meager resources back then! Everything everyone did for each other was an exchange. There was no such thing as humanity or comrades then! I was even sacrificed and killed because of a so-called 'comrade'! Silia Myers, you live in a very peaceful world right now. You don't know jack shit about the true horrors that will come in the future, so don't give me that shit!"

Silia was in tears, but I had to give her the reality check.

After some time, I calmed down a bit and my rationality finally came to. I felt a bit guilty. She was still a child. She didn't know what was coming, nor did she ever experience such atrocities. I didn't have to lash out at her.

*Sigh*

"Look, it's not like I've lost all faith. I've been trying my best too…. I've been hiring all these individuals so that we could have a chance at surviving, even if just a little. I've also been trying to weed out all the unsavory individuals, just so that I can strengthen my hope for a better future. Hoping that by sheer luck our world might be saved and those bastards wouldn't be able to see that world. But it's hard, Silia. Really hard. Dad and I are just two individuals. We work our asses off, day and night, just for a better future. And for all it's worth, all of our efforts just might be a sand castle, ready to be swept up by the coming tide. But we still do it….for hope. We never discuss the pessimistic future that might await us, even if we know it deep down. Just for hope."

Even if I embellished it a bit and hid my other agendas, these were my honest thoughts.

Silia wiped tears and looked at me for a long time.

"If it's so hard, why don't you find people who can share the burden?"

"I wish we could, but do you really think others wouldn't take advantage of the situation and create new factions? Different factions would have different interests and they'll fight for them. It would be the same as last time then, Earthlings cannibalizing on Earthlings. Silia, you have misunderstood me. I told you all this because I trust you and your character. If I didn't, we wouldn't even be having a conversation here with what you've seen this afternoon. I'm not even asking you to share the burden, just to ensure my family's safety in return for my assis-"

"Enough with your deals! I'm not going to change my mind about that! And what if I want to share this burden? What if I want to hope for a future too?! You can't decide that for me!"

I most probably had a dumbfounded expression on my face. She was really stubborn, but she was offering something that I didn't even remotely had hopes to get.

"Do you really want to do that? It's called a burden for a reason. What if all your efforts and hopes get dashed? Do you think overcoming such a setback is easy? People even crumble into nothingness because of that."

"I'm ready to take my chances. You have already changed my dad's and my life for the better. Who knows? We might even change the fate of our world."

I sighed at her naïve optimism, but I guess something like that would be needed to overcome the hurdles. I raised a white flag to her.

"You can, if you want to. I don't think there could have been a better conclusion than this. But you have to promi-"

"Promise your family's safety? That's without a question!"

"Let me at least complete… if it all doesn't work out, then escape with my family… the powerful ones had opportunities to do so."

"Don't be so pessimistic…but I promise I'd do so and I'll be dragging you with me as well."

Silia had a smirk on her snot covered face.

'Man…she has really changed a lot since the first time I met her. Uncle Derick once told Dad about how she used to be a cheerful kid before his wife passed away. Maybe she's just coming back to her origin.'

"Haha…If the future you saw this scene, then she would probably destroy a whole mile worth of radius thinking this was a disorientation array."

"How was my future self? Was she that different from me?"

"*Sigh* I didn't ever really come directly in contact with her, but from what I had gathered, she was an emotionless machine. She always thought rationally, nothing like the 'you' now. I'm pretty glad that you didn't become her."

Silia visibly shuddered. She could probably envision herself being that way if I didn't get her out of Ormat in time.

"Thank you"

"I've said it many times before and I'll say it again. Stop with your formalities, especially now that you have decided to share the burden."

"What do I have to do now? Is there something which I can be of help with?"

"Nothing, just train for now, like you've always done. Just enjoy your life for now and let us adults handle all this stuff."

"Hmph, what even is your real age?"

"27, I'm a really old man. Better watch out."

"A 27-year-old man who gets harassed by little girls is all I see here."

"And all I see is a little girl smirking with snot all over her face."

"Hiik! You mean old-man-child! You were the one who made me cry! Give me some tissues!"

I shook my head and fetched the tissue box from Dad's desk.

After she cleaned herself up, she asked.

"Is there really nothing I can do right now?"

"Hmm, there are two things you can do besides what you've already been doing. First, help me keep Irene and Melena a distance away from me. They're getting too bold these days. Second, I'll give you a chart of glyphs tomorrow. Start memorizing them. We'll upgrade your course as time goes by. We can also let Irene and Mel learn them in the name of meditation, but we'll have to see about that."

"Are you really not going to tell me about the specifics of the future? I even agreed to share the burden…"

"It wouldn't really change anything, even if you knew about it. But if you want to, I'll tell you about it when we discuss glyphs tomorrow."

"You still haven't told me about that power of yours…"

"I'll tell you about it with the glyphs too. Context is needed for it."

"Okay…"

She looked a bit disappointed, but I ignored that.

"Alrighty then, clean up your face properly, then we'll head out."

After making ourselves more presentable, we exited the study.

We headed to the lounge and what we saw there was anything but good....

(A/N: Another one in the bag…..

Leave a power stone if you like my content…and…

Thank You all for reading this chapter!!!)