Genetic Ascension

"Oh?" Sylas replied calmly.

"You know, this is a big deal. Not everyone goes out on a Tuesday and becomes the enemy of yet another government, then comes back to nap away his days as though nothing

Happened."

"News spread?"

"Of course news spread! You told me to handle the Professor Fembroise situation, so why did you end up going yourself?"

"There were some... changes. Originally, I went to the Grimblades because the sensationalized headlines were a major red flag that something was going on. It feels like Earth is very close to reaching its bursting point. But I ended up receiving a list that had Professor Fembroise's name on it."

"So instead of contacting me about the changes you decided to go personally. Typical."

"It worked out in the end."

"You call this working out?"

Cassarae projected her notification screen with a push of her intention and yet another bold sensationalized headline appeared before him.

'Yet another secret tryst?! The Story of a Traitor and a Married Mother of Two.'

Seeing the headline, Sylas shook his head inwardly. This was almost certainly proof that his mother had been correct.

All things told, this headline would have likely been written no matter what. But the fact that it headlined with a censored image of Vesta hanging from the end of a vine definitely didn't help.

There already wouldn't be much of a benefit of the doubt when it came to these matters, but now it was even less so.

Even Sylas' own mother might do a double take when she saw such a thing even if she was quite confident in her son.

But therein lied another problem.

How had this journalist even managed to get this picture in the first place?

It felt to Sylas that if it was possible to get this photo, then it also shouldn't have been hard for this person to continue following him. So why did they act after he passed out?

Could they not fly, maybe? But even then, if this person was part of the undercurrent that Sylas thought they were, then they would certainly have people under their charge that would be capable of doing many things that they couldn't.

"God this is so embarrassing. You've made an enemy of all the women in the world."

"Is that so?" Sylas asked casually, his eyes scanning back and forth as he speed read through the article.

It didn't take him more than a few seconds, and despite the ridiculous things he read about him being a jealous lover who was infuriated by the way an affair ended, he really couldn't be bothered to care.

His personality was already quite level-headed and unbothered by most things. But after killing Lucius, he seemed to have transcended into an even calmer state.

It was odd and hard to explain... but what he did know was that the improvement to his resonance with the system thanks to the activation of the Progenitor Flame Quest and the loss of his Demerit status was a huge part as well.

"Let's go, then."

"Aren't you going to put clothes on?"

"I don't have any outside of this."

Sylas pulled a seal skin skirt out of his Madness Key again.

"Your mom is right. We really do need to get you better clothes."

"I think she's right too. That's where we're going right now." "Huh?"

Sylas didn't reply as he stepped past Cassarae.

-

With large strides, Sylas walked through the City Lord Mansion, Cassarae quickly catching up to him.

"You know, you can't just walk around here like you own the place."

"What happened to what's yours is mine and what's mine is yours?"

"Why are you pretending like we've already taken marriage vows?"

"I'm not pretending."

Cassarae grit her teeth as she recalled something. She never mentioned it to Sylas because she felt that he would get too much satisfaction from it, but the system certainly no longer called her Cassarae Hale.

Clearly, Sylas was smart enough to figure that out without Cassarae having to say it so

Explicitly.

"In that case I just might have to divorce you and take half. All you do is smear my name out

There."

A light smile curled Sylas' lip, but he didn't reply.

The two made it out of the City Lord Mansion.

The tension was palpable as every hand on deck seemed to be busy with something. People zoomed by, and were unsurprisingly quite organized.

As much trouble as Cassarae ran into because of her peculiar Class, it meant quite a bit that she had managed to hold things together for so long.

Though a large part of that fell on Sylas' shoulders and the aid he provided, he was so hands off with how things worked in the City that it would be foolish of him to take all the credit for

It.

Not that he ever had such intentions.

Sylas walked right toward what was maybe the busiest intersection of the village, passing by several unfamiliar faces as he appeared before Maya Sinclair's seamstress shop.

Maya was Cassarae's very first spawn, and from the looks of it, although her personality was a handful to deal with, she was one of the few spawns that hadn't been compromised, likely because Cassarae hadn't even been targeted so early on.

If Sylas were to have any merits listed for his contributions to Casstle Main, the largest piece

Of that pie would certainly be bringing Maya back over to Cassarae's side.

And it was quite simple at that...

All he needed to do was provide high quality beast skins.

And other than Genes, that was the one thing Sylas lacked the absolute least of.

Cassarae and Sylas walked in quite easily.

The small shop was filled with hustle and bustle as Maya shouted out orders. Right now, they were absolutely swamped with repairs, trying to get the army up and going for the inevitable

Battle.

Maya scowled slightly when she saw Cassarae, but to her this might as well have been a polite

Greeting.

"City Lady, I really don't have the time to take on any more projects right now."

Sylas didn't say anything. Instead, he took out a piece of raw hide.

The moment it appeared, a thick stench filled the air.

Maya's pupils trembled.

But before she could even react, Sylas took out a second, much smaller hide and her breathing

Became labored.