The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Aria raised a brow, gesturing for the child to continue. Alena's speech sounded like she was deliberately testing and waiting for Aria to respond.

Alena smiled and placed her palm on top of her chest.

"If that is the case, then I can provide you with the utmost support without actually interfering with your work. I, Alena Croft, pride myself in my knowledge at using the inner workings of the world," Alena laughed.

Indeed, there was nothing that could beat money in this damned world, no matter what era it was.

Money, power, fame. The cursed trinity that would entice anybody whose heart was vulnerable, the three components that intertwined with each other to form a sly cycle. One would result to another, and so on.

"Your offer is very enticing, but how can I trust you?" Aria leaned forward, scrutinizing the child with intrigued eyes.

"..It is very simple, actually. Rather than thinking of our relationship as a cooperation, let us treat it as work. A trade based on work. We do not have to.. involve feelings, do we? Of course, if we could build a relationship with feelings mixed in it.. it would be a preferable choice as well, but it is not necessary. Or.. have I misjudged your character, big sister? I thought that you would be very suitable to this offer because of the way you preferred to work," Alena tilted her head.

"Hmm? What do you know about my character?" Aria rubbed the tip of her nose as she questioned.

"It is merely a wild guess based on what I have seen, but I might have been wrong. If that is so, then it would be a shame, because I thought that.. we would have been great partners,"

"What do you think my character is? Your assumptions, I would like to hear it,"

"I thought that you would be an empathic, yet strong-minded person that is willing to discard and make changes to obtain your goal,"

"Hah," Aria laughed in scorn. If Alena said that to the past her, then she would have given the girl a hundred marks on that guess.

And yet, the current her was experiencing changes. She was adapting to the world, and the world was also adapting to her.

"Mm, was I wrong indeed? I still think that we can be a great duo, though.." Alena fiddled with her fingers, receding back to her childish persona.

The child was certainly a smart individual. A genius, even.

Perhaps it was because she knew how to move around the matters of the world that she obtained a fitting skill, something that would allow her to utilize her brain.

Nonetheless, a smart ally would be welcomed with open arms.

"You are not entirely wrong," Aria confirmed. "Those matters aside.. About the explosion of dungeons you talked about, what if we aren't able to contain the situation well enough? Won't there be a massive chaos? If so.. shouldn't we prepare from now on?"

"Fret not, big sister. The existence of <Players> is of course, special, but it's not like there won't be any other strong people emerging aside from us. Although the <Players> will be considered by the System as the chosen ones, the others will presumably obtain benefits from 'quests' as well, although they will work in a different way,"

"..You're right. We are only seven, if the humanity ends up relying at us to take care of every single huge dungeons, it would be a disaster," Aria huffed. "So, these Systems will start to apply to other people as well?"

"Yes, that should be the case," Alena confirmed.

"In truth.. I don't have any qualms in teaming up with you. I think you are an exemplary child, but my current dilemma is that I am involved with the other two entities that has helped me too. I would like some more time to debate on this matter.. And discussions with my associates too,"

"That would not be a problem. In the first place, I am not asking you to be completely bound to myself. I am just requesting your assistance, but naturally I would want a high service in exchange for my power, which I believe is valuable enough for a great exchange," Alena replied. "In fact, I do not mind if we loosely intertwine. I could provide you with some light information, whereas you could start training me from the basics first,"

Aria nodded, thinking that the deal was already reasonable enough. There was no longer a reason to hesitate because the girl was willing to stoop down this low. She was very desperate, although Aria did not know why it had to be her and not anyone else.

"I will be counting on you from now on, my dear informer," Aria stretched out her hand to offer a handshake, which the child happily accepted. Her eyes slightly narrowed as she inspected the little girl.

"Of course. I have prepared everything, I even have a whole living space for you. It would be fine for you to move in whenever you want in case you want to engage in an exclusive deal with me," As soon as she finished assuring Aria, a ringtone went off. Alena had received a call.

"Ah.." Alena stood up, looking at Aria before picking up the call.

Excusing herself, she took the call and chatted with the opposite party in a foreign language. Once the conversation finished, she hung up the call and diverted her attention back to Aria.

"Big sister, can you understand any other languages besides Korean?"

"..Just Korean," Aria answered. She found it weird as well. Her native language was totally different from the 'South Korean' lexical, but she somehow managed to understand every single word, be it writing or speaking.

"Is that so? Your name doesn't sound Korean, though. Well, I guess circumstances happen. I'm going to sort some things, stay here," Alena raised her brows before leaving the vicinity. "Ah, I thought that we would be able to converse in another language, but I see that that is not the case,"

"Hmm," Aria hummed.

Not even a minute had passed before Alena received another call. This time, Alena's expression warped to be more serious.

"I'm sorry, I have to pick up this call for a bit," Alena walked away from their table and stepped outside.

Aria's eyes followed the girl's movements, but she did not bother any longer since it wasn't her position to do so.

Unbeknownst to her, someone was watching her movements from afar.

The other party was clad in a black suit with blue mist surrounding his figure, coldly standing on top of a skyscraper's roof and looking down at the lady introduced as the 'Seventh <Player>'.

The monument was nearing three hundred meters in height, but that didn't pose a hindrance to his eyesight as he could easily lock his gaze down on the jet black - haired woman that was happily spending her time on the small device, having not noticed his arrival.

Due to both the long distance separating them and the disparity between their current strength, Aria was unable to detect the man's presence.

"ria... Aria Schreiner," The man mumbled, frowning at the familiar sounding name. With his exemplary memory capacity, he was sure that he had never encountered a woman with such a name, but strangely, it felt nostalgic to let the name roll off his tongue.

He repeated her name over and over again, but still couldn't find out where he had familiarized himself with said name. It was a relatively odd one considering that they were in South Korea and the woman, according to his data, was not familiar with the world's culture.

He was certain that the woman was hiding something, he just couldn't figure out what was it.

"Aria Schreiner. In the short span of one day, you have encountered two.. no, three <Players> and associated yourself with two of them, I suppose," The man laughed. "What a social butterfly, unlike the other kids,"

"I will have to wait a bit longer before I can decide on my next move.." The man sucked in a deep, sharp breath. His eyes were firmly locked onto the composed woman who was happily enjoying her beverage with innocence. "What would the final decision be, I wonder?" 

"Though, let us just say that it was a pleasure to meet you," He jumped off the building and disappeared into thin air.

Just at the last second, Aria felt a knot in her heart.

It was uncomfortable.

As if she had forgotten about something and missed an important chance.

'..What was it?' Aria rubbed her arms uncomfortably, feeling like she just received a hidden message.

With the recent changes, and her discovery about losing all her childhood memories, she didn't know what to do.

What was the truth? What if the thing that she had been seeking all this time was actually only a mere lie? A cheap fraud orchestrated by who knows who?

Whether she was still the Aria Schreiner she believed, or that her past persona had already disappeared into nothingness, she didn't know what to do.

She was still on the path of discovering herself.