by Jakob Tanner
“I’m not sure if I—”
“See—I feel like I know who I desire above all else. The beautiful Sakura Sato,” said Blake, his face blushing as he hugged his arms with happiness as he clearly pictured Sakura in his mind. “Also, we can’t have this kind of disunity on the team before the final match. So, sort it out!”
The tailor, who for the most part had stayed quiet during their conversation, looked up at Max and in a gruff voice said, “Seriously, kid, you gotta sort it out.”
Ten minutes later, they left the tailor shop with proper attire for the tournament ball.
They strolled down the streets of Caesaria, bags in hands.
“Well, thanks man for helping me with all of this,” said Max.
It had turned out to be a surprisingly fun time and Max regretted being so against the shopping trip when he’d first woken up. He figured it must have been morning crankiness.
And now that the shopping was done, he still had half a day to do some of the extra research he had been hoping to do.
“No problem,” said Blake. “Happy to help.”
Max was realizing that Blake—despite his borderline obsessive crush on Sakura and addiction to cigarettes—was actually a really solid guy.
He wanted to show his appreciation for the help he’d given him that morning and he knew just the thing.
“Alright, well, since we have a bit of time on our hands,” said Max. “Why don’t I walk you through how to make a basic bowl of bacon and egg ramen.”
Tears welled up in Blake’s eyes.
“You truly are the greatest gentleman, Chef Master Max!”
41
After walking Blake through the details of how to make the perfect bacon and egg ramen, Max decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on his own.
He walked through the streets of Caesaria, admiring the mix of old stone buildings with columns made of concrete and marble. The old architecture coupled with the advanced magitech was a sight to behold.
He strolled through a market bazaar crammed with stalls. The scene could have been straight out of the human history books—well, except for the mana drones floating around and the merchants with metal robotic arms. There was also the fact that human history prior to the tower didn’t feature any group of people with golden-colored eyes and a pair of horns jutting out of their foreheads quite like the Caesarians, so Max quickly walked back his own observation in his mind.
The merchants yelled deals as Max walked by. He tried to keep looking straight ahead of them because he could tell the merchants here were all trying to catch his eye, lock him into some sort of sales spiel.
He’d spent enough time in Hawker’s Alley down in Zestiris to know the tricks of the trade and he wasn’t going to fall for them here.
He made his way through the streets, ambling towards the library near the city’s acropolis.
The library was a beautiful ancient stone building with a glass domed roof and vines crawling down along the sides.
Max stepped inside and felt a cool comforting air to the place.
It didn’t matter if he was on a floor high up in the tower—or in practically a completely different world—the smell and presence of books always brought him a sense of familiarity and comfort.
The Caesarian library shared a lot of similarities with the tower-zone library but, as with so much on this floor, it was decked out with special manatech.
There were special drones floating among the different stacks of books, keeping track of air pressure and temperature so that the paper of the books didn’t get damaged.
Max looked around with awe until an old Caesarian man with a cane approached him.
“Can I help you, young man?”
Max assumed the man must work there, so he jumped straight into it.
“Yes, actually. I was wondering if you had any books on the history and founding of Zestiris?”
The man blinked at Max with disbelief.
“You come all this way to study your own history,” scoffed the old man. “The stereotype of humans being the most egotistical of the tower races holds true!”
Max felt an urge to defend himself and humanity as well while he was at it.
“I mean no disrespect, sir,” said Max. “In fact, I’d love to learn more about the history of Caesaria. The reason I’m curious to look at your collection of books on Zestiris is, I’m curious to see if you have any information missing from our own collections.”
A gentle smile appeared on the old man’s face.
“Ah, you’re wiser and less self-obsessed than I initially thought,” said the man. “You’ve come to an insight that I would’ve struggled to come to when I was your age. Sometimes you can learn more from what others say about you, than what you say about yourself. Different nations and tower races have a knack for mythologizing their own history, turning facts into legend, legend into myths. It is good to question these things. You, young human, have single-handedly given me hope for you and your people.”
With that, the old Caesarian man led Max to an area of the library where they kept books on the lower floors, including Zestiris on floor-4.
The old man left him to his research and Max didn’t waste any time.
He quickly scanned through the books, parsing through the titles he’d looked over down in the tower-zone library and pulling out the ones that looked new to him.
Based on the lettering on some of the spines, he was worried he wasn’t going to be able to read the text of them, but when he did a quick skim, he saw the pages were written in English.
The tower auto-translated all the tower races speech so everyone could understand each other. It looked like the tower did something similar for written texts.
Max took the stack of books and went and sat in the reading area, which was beautifully lit with natural light coming in from the glass rooftop.
As he started his research, he got the strangest feeling that someone was watching him.
He looked over his shoulder and saw nothing.
He turned back to his book and calmly triggered mana sense. He still perceived nothing.
He sighed and returned to his research.
In the end, his research didn’t prove as fruitful as he was hoping. The only juicy nugget of information he was able to find was the original name of the Arcane Crafter, one of the founding creators of Zestiris.
The man’s name was Nicolas Adler.
It didn’t ring any bells to Max, but it was a good piece of information to pocket for later. He could take that name to Jessica the librarian down in Zestiris or even quiz Sakura about it.
Maybe this research trip will prove to be a lot more fruitful than I realize, Max thought optimistically.
Nicolas Adler.
The name could be the missing puzzle piece to a jigsaw he didn’t even realize he was putting together.
He closed the book and sighed.
His sister’s words haunted him once more.
They lied to you. Even more than you think.
What was she trying to tell him?
He wished he could just talk to her directly and learn what she was trying to tell him.
But it was a weird catch-22: if he was able to talk to her directly, he wouldn’t care about this cryptic message. In such a scenario, he would just want to hug her. Laugh. Talk. Be a family with her again.
One day, he thought to himself.
One day I’ll make that happen.
Max was taken from his thoughts when he heard a rustling in the book stacks nearby.
He turned and swore he saw a pair of eyes looking above the spines of the books, spying on him.
Max stomach sank.
Is it the cat-folk again? Seeking revenge from the first round challenge?
Max stood up, picked up the books he’d taken and placed them on a nearby trolley for them to be reshelved, and quickly left the library.
If the cat-folk wanted to fight with him again, he didn’t want to do it in
the library where there were innocent citizens that could potentially get hurt in the fray.
He turned down the first corner he saw and then another.
He could hear footsteps echoing behind him.
Crap, crap, crap.
Max tried to form a plan. Did he go back to the outpost and get back up or did he simply try and escape these guys?
What if it was the cat-folk’s A-ranker coming after him?
Max wasn’t sure he’d be able to outrun someone that powerful.
Finally, Max turned a corner and a shadowy figure appeared at the other end of it.
He quickly spun around, only to see another figure at the other end.
Damn. These guys have trapped me!
Max looked to the nearby roofs.
Or have they? he snickered to himself.
He was about to trigger shadow blink when one of the figures shouted, “Wait!”
Max paused.
His racing heart slowed slightly.
The voices didn’t sound like the cat-folk. The words didn’t sound hostile either. They sounded more like they were pleading, as if they wanted Max’s help.
Emerging from one end of the street was Will, the Elestrian team’s C-ranker. From the other end was Oliver, the same team’s B-ranker.
“Oh, hey,” said Max, slightly confused.
What did the two Elestrians want with him?
The two boys came up to him, out of breath. Their purple eyes glistened in the sunny afternoon sky.
“Good afternoon, Max,” said Oliver.
“I hope we didn’t give you a fright,” said Will.
Max’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. They were being incredibly friendly. Too friendly, especially given the fact that they’d concealed their mana from him while in the library.
Elestrians were known as some of the best wielders of advanced internal mana control.
“Can I ask why you guys are following me?”
Oliver turned to Will.
“I told you we should’ve approached him directly,” said the B-ranker.
“How was I supposed to know secretly following him around was going to freak him out and make him suspicious of us!?” replied the C-ranker.
“Okay, okay,” said Max. “I forgive you for stalking me. What do you guys want?”
The two of them shared a nervous glance, then Oliver began to speak.
“We need to speak to you on a subject matter of the utmost importance,” said Oliver.
“Utmost means it’s a very big deal,” said Will.
“I know what utmost means,” said Max.
“Forgive him,” said Oliver. “The tower translator doesn’t always work smoothly.”
“We were wondering,” said Will, “if the beautiful E-rank girl on your team has a date to the tournament ball in a few days’ time?”
Max blinked. “Sarah?”
“Yes,” said Oliver. “The name is so sweet.”
“Neither one of us has been able to get her out of our minds since we first laid eyes on her,” Will added.
Max wanted to burst out laughing but held back.
He couldn’t believe only a few moments ago he’d been running from these two preparing for some kind of brawl in the streets.
“Please,” said Oliver. “Tell us she doesn’t have a date yet.”
Max felt a strange relief pass through him, which he wasn’t able to understand the reason for at that exact moment.
“You guys are in luck,” said Max. “Sarah is currently dateless.”
Both Oliver and Will jumped for joy and clenched their fists with triumph.
“But, um,” said Max. “You aren’t both going to take her, are you?”
Will shook his head.
“No, we’ve figured out our own method for determining who will get to ask her first,” said Oliver.
“But before we spent the effort on that, we wanted to make sure she hadn’t been asked by anyone else.”
Max narrowed his eyes and looked at the two Elestrian boys. They were around his age, maybe a year or two older.
He thought about Queen Violet and how he generally always had good experiences with Elestrians.
The big brother in him, made him say, “And you promise to treat her with kindness and respect, even if she rejects both of you goofballs.”
Both Elestrians nodded their heads seriously.
“Well, in that case,” said Max, “do whatever weird ritual or game you’ve agreed to sort out who gets to ask her.”
“Thank you, Max,” they both said in unison.
Then Oliver tilted his head and looked at Max. “Out of curiosity, do you know who you will be taking to the ball?”
As soon as the Elestrian boy had asked Max the question, he realized who he wanted to go with all along.
He might have always known; maybe that was why he had felt that sense of relief as soon as the two boys had asked him about Sarah.
“Not yet,” said Max, answering Oliver’s question.
He felt his heart begin to beat a little bit quicker in his chest.
“Better hurry and find someone,” said Will. “The longer you wait, the more likely it is the person you want to ask will get asked by someone else.”
42
Max wished Oliver and Will goodbye and set off back to the Zestiris climber’s outpost.
As soon as he turned a corner and was out of sight of the two Elestrian boys, he began to sprint with hurried impatience.
C’mon, said Max. Please don’t be too late!
He was running through the Caesarian streets with the same demented zeal that had led Oliver and Will to secretly spy on him.
Will’s words echoed in his head, like a taskmaster whipping him to run faster and faster.
The longer you wait, the more likely it is the person you want to ask will get asked by someone else.
Max hurried forward, getting held up by a merchant shepherding sheep through the streets, only for a few minutes later to be stopped by a marching band of minstrels who were in town specifically for the big tournament.
I don’t remember it being this crowded earlier, Max thought full of frustration.
Max considered Will’s warning once more.
Is it possible someone had asked her while he had been out with Blake? Or when he was researching in the library?
As Max ran through the streets, getting more and more out of breath, he couldn’t even imagine who would ask her to the dance.
But then again: he never would have considered Oliver or Will being interested in Sarah simply for the fact that they had barely spent any time with the other teams.
Finally, Max arrived in front of the Zestiris climber’s outpost.
He stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and braced himself for what he was about to do.
Be confident, he told himself.
He sighed, then made a step towards the outpost entrance, when the door swung open and out came Gigan, the Boldrin team’s E-ranker.
No, Max thought.
He couldn’t have...
The Boldrin was walking with an undeniably cheery gait and whistling a happy tune.
This guy was too pleased with himself and the possibilities as to why made Max want to puke.
But Max knew he’d already wasted too much time and he couldn’t spend any more standing around outside.
He entered the outpost and ran to the stairwell.
One of the clerks shouted, “No running!” but Max ignored her.
Please don’t be too late, he kept thinking over and over. Please don’t be too late.
He felt his throat burn as he sprinted up the stairs.
He stumbled onto their floor and saw that Casey’s door was ajar.
His mind began to panic.
Does that mean Gigan had come to visit her then?
He gulped.
He’d find out the answer to his question soon enough.
He just had to walk
in there and do what he needed to do.
He stepped into Casey’s room.
She was sitting cross-legged on the ground, Toto perched on her shoulder, surrounded by countless paper cranes on the floor.
“Whoah,” said Max, not expecting to see so much origami sprawled out on the ground. “What are you up to?”
“My cranes don’t have a long life if Blake keeps lighting them on fire, so I gotta keep making more. They don’t grow on trees, you know!” Casey then paused and made a quizzical expression. “Well, actually, they are made of paper which comes from trees so I guess they kind of do grow on trees—but you get what I mean!”
Max mustered a smile at her banter, but his heart thumped in his chest.
Why is my heart beating like I’m about to face the Galrog or Bone Basilisk all over again?
“Are you okay?” asked Casey. “You look kind of ill. Like, you’re making more of a weird face than your normal weird face.”
Max was starting to realize there were some things that no amount of training would make you an expert in and one of those things was asking a girl you liked out to a dance.
Even with that realization, Max still tip-toed around the subject.
“Did you see Gigan? You know, the Boldrin’s E-ranker?”
Casey blushed. “Yeah, he came by.”
Max felt his stomach sink at the way Casey blushed when she answered his question.
“Oh,” he said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. “What did he want?”
“Oh, he wanted to know if I’d go to the tournament ball with him.”
Max’s heart felt like it was slamming itself against his chest over and over again.
“And? What did you tell him?”
His voice unintentionally cracked. He felt like sweat was forming on his forehead. He thought his head might explode.
Casey paused, not looking up to face him, focusing instead on her paper cranes. He couldn’t help but notice the slightest quiver of a smirk on her lips when his voice so embarrassingly jumped up ten octaves.
“I told him I would think about it,” she said. “But I also told him truthfully that I was holding out for someone else.”