The rest of the bus ride was spent in a rather awkward silence.
Katherine felt this awkwardness the most, having been childishly competing with Zarath, ending up taking a seat on Elijah's lap.
Marianne was seated on the other side of the bus, elbow on the armrest, chin resting in her palm, her gaze vaguely looking at the outside.
Léa came to sit next to her, but Marianne didn't give her more attention than a couple of seconds.
"Hey…" Katherine pulled on Elijah's sleeve as she whispered. "What do you think?"
He really couldn't answer.
Marianne had told them about her visions, but nothing seemed too worrying. The flames born from the airplanes crashing and the armed Goblins, there wasn't much to think about, Elijah thought.
It was just like Zarath had said. Marianne's father was either dead, or alive. Thinking about it wouldn't change a thing, and getting to him faster wouldn't change a thing either.
"Of course, there are looters. If he starts wandering around, he might get into trouble. Still, he has no choice but stay home if he wants to see his daughter again." Elijah answered her in a low voice.
"Let's just assume that he's alive." Katherine nodded. "Wait… What if he takes the opposite path we're taking? While Marianne is going home, he's going to pick her up from campus?"
"Master has already thought about that." Zarath muttered, seated with her arms crossed, sulking. "Right now, every person that watched the Boss Monsters fighting knows that someone called Marianne was there. Plus-"
"Right!" Marianne suddenly turned in their direction, pointing at Elijah. "You told her to tell them, didn't you?" Her eyes all of a sudden seemed to regain some of their light and energy. "The spectacle is brought to you by Marianne! Unfortunately, we couldn't make this more flashy since Marianne needs to go home. Remember this, okay? Marianne is going home! Right? That's exactly what the Demon shouted! So if my dad gets there, he will know that I survived and went home! Even if we don't find it for one reason or another, he could still have gone to look for me! With the buses, it's definitely possible! Right? That's right, isn't it, Elijah?"
"Yeah." He answered with a nod, trying his best not to stare.
"Alright! Good, good…" Marianne sighed. "This is so stressful, hahaha." She looked through the broken windows for a moment. "That's our spot if we want to check out the museum!" Marianne pointed, and quickly got to her feet.
Léa got up right away.
"Sorry." Katherine apologized with a smile as she took her legs off the seat next to Elijah.
"Don't apologize." He said.
Elijah laid a hand on her lower back as she got off his lap, a gesture that Zarath's eyes did not miss.
'Why won't Master touch me like that? I want him to touch my waist as well…' The Succubus thought, letting out a sigh. 'Don't lose hope. It's the same as what he's doing to that girl, Léa. That's right…' She clenched her right fist, feeling a surge of motivation and energy. 'He's just making me work for it! Eventually, I will get my reward! I will get to taste his-'
Elijah waved his index finger, and the chain wrapped around the Succubus's neck roughly yanked her out of her seat.
"Masteeeer!"
"Don't slow us down." Elijah turned towards the bus driver as he stepped out. "Thanks for the ride, and good luck."
"Yes, you too."
"M-Master… You're choking me…"
Elijah took a deep breath and stretched his arms.
'That bus driver is not going to make it. Buses might be useful to the Apocalypse now, but once they aren't anymore, they'll be discarded.'
"..."
Hit by the reality of what most of the city looked like presently, Katherine and Léa froze.
There were no Monsters.
'It's not just that the Monsters will leave buses alone, they don't stay around their routes either.' Elijah thought to himself.
Zarath obviously couldn't care less about the city. She was standing right behind Elijah's arm.
Marianne, despite having lived her whole life in the city, seemed just as detached as Elijah. She waited for Léa and Katherine to snap out of it.
"The museum is that way." She pointed once they noticed her looking at them.
"Y-Yeah..."
"I-I know. It's just…"
Their words trailed off, one turning towards a amalgamation of crashed cards which seemed to have blown up, the other turning towards the debris left by an airplane's crash into the street.
'Elijah said he came here by plane…' Katherine gulped. 'Did his plane land, or… Or is it one of these…? I know he said he didn't want to talk about it but…'
'The world as we know it is over.' Léa thought to herself, a drop of nervous sweat going down the side of her face. 'The areas that were completely destroyed like these were probably outside of every Main Quest Location… Just what caused this much destruction? What happens outside of Main Quest Locations during the Main Quests?'
While the two were deep in thought, Marianne took a couple of silent back steps until arriving by Elijah's side.
"You don't seem perturbed by it all." She whispered in his direction.
"I'm not from here."
"..." Marianne frowned. "I'm not sure that should have any impact on how you feel about it."
"Funny you say that. You don't seem perturbed either."
"No…" She nodded. "I saw it."
"With your Clairvoyance Skill?"
"You could say that." Marianne scratched her head. "I didn't see it with my Clairvoyance Skill." She explained, aiming to be specific. "My Clairvoyance Skill showed it to me."
"So it's not the kind of Skill you activate when you want."
"It isn't. But it's not like you didn't know." Marianne sighed.
"I can't see any information about that Skill." Elijah explained.
"Guess I can keep one secret after all." She chuckled. "By the way, I wanted to ask you something."
"Ask away."
Marianne turned towards Zarath with a frown.
"Beat it, Demon."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Beat it, Zarath."
"Yes, Master~"
Elijah looked around for a moment.
'Chief, Slave A, and B, stay a good distance away at all times. Scan the area.' He ordered telepathically. "Let's start moving." Elijah said as he clapped his hands, catching Katherine and Léa's attention at once. "Marianne, walk with me."
"Yeah."
The groups started moving, led by Marianne and Elijah. Katherine and Léa were a couple of steps behind them. Zarath walked on the opposite side walk, a dozen steps to Elijah's right.
'Wonder which of these houses we could break into to have some fun… Master would probably want to do it on a nice and comfortable bed.'
***
"This is getting old." Elijah commented as his punch caused the attacker to stumble back and fall to the ground unconscious.
"I guess." Marianne muttered. "People are panicking and fighting against each other."
"Yeah…" Elijah turned to his right, his gaze moving up the building. "We arrived."
"That's the museum." She nodded.
"And you haven't said a word yet." Elijah scratched his chin. "Wasn't there something you wanted to ask?"
"I didn't want to disturb you while you ordered your minions around."
"You can tell, huh?"
"I could see them move at times." Marianne crossed her arms and turned in the opposite direction to face the path they had taken to get here. "Katherine and Léa are staying back. They probably wouldn't have noticed."
"Hm? Why should I care if they notice? It's only natural that I'll order them around, don't you think?"
Marianne turned to face him, staring him dead in the face.
"Despite the destruction, things have been pretty clean."
"Aha." Elijah chuckled, realizing immediately. "Can't hide anything from you anymore. How you've grown."
Marianne stared for a little longer before joining him.
"It's kind of you to do that." She said, letting her back rest against the same wall as him. "That said, you won't be able to get the corpses out of the way forever."
"I'm protecting your innocence for as long as I can."
"Hmph. Thank you, dead patriarch." Marianne scratched the side of her forehead.
"Protecting your innocence is more paternal than patriarchal."
"What about having women as Slaves?"
"Don't hold that against me." Elijah waved a hand dismissively. "Katherine and Léa will be here any minute now."
Marianne stared at the ground, her arms crossed.
"This is better anyways." She muttered. "This way, you'll have to be quick and to the point."
"Aren't I always?"
It took a moment for Marianne to feel capable of asking.
"Do you think my father is dead?"
"I don't know." Elijah answered right away.
"But what do you think?"
"I have no thoughts on it."
"Can you just answer the damn question?"
"I am answering."
"Fine, if you had to bet on him being dead or alive, which would you pick?"
"That's a fucked up way of-"
"Just answer!"
Elijah's gaze moved away from her. He looked into the distance for a moment.
"Of the Tutorial Quest's 180+ Participants, I was the only survivor. That gives worse odds than 1-to-180. I wouldn't take such a bet, except if I were player or Participant."
"..."
"Of the 800+ Participants of the Main Quest, 800+ survived. Less than a dozen died. Those are really good odds. The Tutorial Quests that took place on campus also went well. As long as nothing out of the ordinary happens, the odds of him being alive are higher. The destruction here was caused by people and Monsters. It's likely that campus would have turned like this, had we failed."
"Failed…?" Marianne muttered with a hand to her chin. "Oh." Her eyes widened as she realized. "The Time Limit. Of course. Why didn't I think of that…?"
"Plus, you said that he was smart and strong… Which I will take as him not being stupid or weak."
"Are you saying that I wouldn't know intelligence or strength if I saw it?!"
"Well, you were uselessly banging on the Barrier. Had I not appeared there, you would be dead now."
"I know…" Marianne's eyes narrowed. "Why are you bringing that up now?"
"What do you mean?" Elijah asked innocently. 'Tsk.'
"Nothing." She shook her head. "So basically what you're saying is that…"
"Yeah." Elijah nodded. "I would bet on him being alive."
Marianne stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, before clenching her fist.
'Although…'
[Legendary Class: Nascent Seer.]
[A-Rank Skill: Clairvoyance.]
[B-Rank Skill: Golden Eyes.]
'I do hope he is dead.' Elijah thought to himself as he looked away. 'I can't lose talent like that. Navigating this will be tough. Will her father let her fight? Or will he be the stupid kind that thinks his little girl cannot? A father being thrown into the mix is a messy ingredient. I'll have to think about this…'
Moments later, Katherine and Léa appeared.
They stared at the unconscious bodies lying on the ground.
"Why are so many people attacking us?" Katherine sighed.
"It's probably because of your Cloaks." Léa said, pointing at Katherine's Fire Mage's Cloak, then at Elijah's Elite Assassin's Cloak. "They can smell money on you… Or Achievement Points, I guess I should say."
"But with money comes strength." Katherine muttered with a slight frown. "I mean, you gotta be at least a little bit strong to get money through the Quests."
"Some people just don't like to think very much." Elijah stepped away from the wall. "They think that defeating a person is easier than defeating a Goblin Chief, even if the person has defeated a Goblin Chief. I suppose appearances haven't changed much, so they still think they've got a shot."
"Appearances haven't changed much…" Marianne muttered, thinking. "They still think people are equal."
The corner of Elijah's lips curled upwards.
"It's been a while since I came here." Katherine said, staring at the museum's imposing entry. "Some windows and doors have been destroyed. But other than that…"
"Yeah." Léa nodded. "Looks relatively the same. Probably because it's not just a normal place."
Elijah cracked his knuckles and stood five steps away from the museum's main entry.
"Ready to go in?" He asked.
"Isn't the emergency exit safer?" Léa asked. "We can probably take whatever the group down there is keeping secret."
"Nope." Elijah turned away from her. "This is your chance."
Léa's eyes narrowed as she adjusted her glasses.
"Marianne?"
"I'm ready." She answered.
The next moment, Katherine appeared by his side, standing inches away from him.
"Let's go in, then."
He stepped closer to the entry and,
[Warning!]
[You are entering a Special Event Dungeon Location!]
"Pardon the intrusion," Elijah muttered as he stepped inside. "We didn't get tickets ahead of time."
[Entering Special Event Dungeon: "Undying Archives of Old"]
[The past lies buried and forgotten, but not gone.]
[History sleeps within these halls, until you wake it.]
[A New Era rises from the ashes.]
[The New World looms, but echoes of the Old still whisper.]
[Seize the Relics of the Old World, and bend them to your will.]
Elijah grinned widely.
"Sounds good to me♪"