"So… Explain."
After the call, silence took over the place for a while, until Silas ended it.
Of course, I was the subject of this investigation, but I simply tried to hold on to my silence to the end.
"Should I? I wonder…"
"Nathan."
"No. I know nothing." Silas already knew that I went to the carnival but the company did not. And the ethics department for sure shouldn't be the one to know, from all the crazy departments out there.
"At least hints?"
That man asked, seemed too interested in the conversation, which wasn't helping him at all, nor anyone from us.
"Adeline is fine and breathing, why know more then?"
"But how could she get out?"
"She'll find a way. Lots of people are out there, they'll help each other."
"How heartless."
"Cruel."
"Ha? So what? Go and get killed in order to help her? We'll get trapped there with her. Put aside the chance to go to another Vessel."
"You talk like a helpless out-of-energy human being I know."
"I? Did you just compare me to Louis, out of all people?"
"Oh, we aren't allowed to call hom by his name." He just got to the least important thing. "But yes, the more we talk the more I see the similarities."
What a bad news…
"Which Louis are you talking about?" Silas asked.
"Our team leader." The man, who remembered that I didn't know his name, answered. "I think that those too will get along pretty fast. Would you like to join our team, Sir Nathan?"
"...Who in this world would join your team so obediently?"
"What team are you two talking about?" Silas was obviously on the blind side of this. "What kind of puzzle is this?"
"He is from the Ethics Department. Or at least, what I think is the ethics."
"... Really?"
He was asking the other man, and that one just nodded without a single word.
What a headache.
Silas didn't even know that he saved someone from that team…
"Okay… it will be helpful in many ways." Silas seemed to control his temper really well. "You have to make an oath not to speak a word to anyone about anything we did, or will do."
"That's fine, it's not as if they really do care about anything happening to us…" he stopped as if he was thinking, before continuing. "you too have to stay silent about anything you see. We have an unspoken rule in the ethics: the more you show, the more you suffer. I don't want to get held back by things just because someone talked about… not after all this time."
"Fine."
From that moment on, I didn't really understand what kind of ritual they were doing. All I knew was that the oath they made was something similar to anything I would see in a horror movie… special paper and blood and random extra things that I didn't pay attention to on purpose, since it seemed crazy.
I did write my name there though, nothing more.
"Now, we are basically a team."
"Yeah."
"But, what's your name?"
"Mathew." He answered, confused about how I could forget a name that he mentioned in the thing they've just finished. I didn't even hear anything back then. "Nice to meet you."
"Yeah, you too."
But not in these circumstances, nor in this place.
"Then let's make a plan."
Silas just looked at me as if I would be the one to do it. Meanwhile I didn't have any single idea about what we should do, and of course I wasn't the most experienced one in the group.
So, Why me?
No body knows.
Even that man Mathew just waited for me to talk like the other one.
I sighed, then took out my notebook, ready to give them a headache from all the nonsense they chose to make me say.
"First, What's your specializations?"
"..."
"..."
"What? We did that oath anyway, plus… knowing your powers will make it easier to come up with a plan."
"Right." Silas nodded. "I could change the item's use, but I have to know something similar with the use I want. And it's temporary… the more difficult it was, the shorter the time to use."
"Okay." I didn't write anything, since I knew it. "What about that 'know item's use' on your company record?"
"It's true too but not that good. It barely ranks C."
"Still, it seems useful."
I wrote 'item's' in the notebook, before facing the other man, Mathew.
"I— you can say that I could change the plant's status?" He scratched the side of his neck. "I didn't get the chance to describe it before so I can't really put it into words."
"...?"
But he has something to do with plants at least?
Maybe he could help with that glass tree I have?
"Could you give an example at least? That may be easier." Sila's suggestion was pretty good this time. "Anyone will do."
"If I'll give an example—" he looked around, unconsciously, as if he could find a tree here or something… and of course he couldn't. "I could typically double the benefits we get from the plant, the vitamins, the quality of the woods, the leafs… things like this."
"What rank is this?"
My question made him hesitate a little before answering.
"A"
"A?"
Woh—
Wasn't that too much for such an ability?
Or could he do it with anomalies' trees too?
Shall I make him try with the tree now?
"Nathan."
"What?"
"Your turn."
"Excuse me? My what?"
"Your specialization."
"I don't have."
"...?"
"..."
Those two looked at each other as if they were doubting my mental health or something.
"Is he being serious?" Mathew asked.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"But how could anyone reach this point without a specialization? No records of this. No human being enters three Vessels and comes out without one."
"I don't know. Maybe his stubbornness is his specialization."
…
"You two know that I'm still here, right?"
"Yes." They both answered together, then Silas alone continued. "No one would ever believe you. Not after all you did."
"You are talking as if I did something utterly inhuman… could you please stop joking?"
"Believe whatever you want." He just gave up. "What about the plan?"
"Before the plan."
I thought twice before taking a deep breath and took the plant out of my ring's space. What I imagined was receiving skeptical looks, but what I got in reality were completely stunned looks—
As if I showed them my space ship or something, proving that I was an alien.
"What does this thing do?"
"What?"
"What can it do? Isn't it your specialization to know the item's use?"
"... this isn't even an item, Nathan."
It wasn't Silas who answered but Mathew.
Is it not an item? But it looks more like a vase than any other thing.
"So, what is it then?"
Both of them looked at each other again, offering the answer one to the other.
Was it that bad?
"It— you could say that it's an anomaly."
"Anomaly?!"
Now, that was a shock.
Did I plant an anomaly just that simple? Wasn't it a bit too easy?
"How did you get it, from where?"
"Get it?" I tilted my head, looking at the tree with question marks all over my head. "I had a seed by a coincidence, and an hour ago I was so bored and tried to plant it."
"...?"
"Eh?"
"What? Now your expressions are too suspicious. What's going on?"
"Ordinary man, you say."
Silas sighed, Mathew on the other side rubbed his temple as if he couldn't process what was happening.
Me too,
I wasn't processing a single thing.
"First of all, how did you know that it's an anomaly?"
I asked, writing notes to order my thoughts.
"because it's so well-known?"
"Well-known?"
"If you need to buy this thing, you have to be a multi-billionaire at least. And you just got it by chance?"
I actually got it with a few coins?
Multi-billionaire you say?
"And… what could it do?"
"Anything."
"Anything like what?"
That was too generalized, right?
What could a tree do, after all? Make magic fruits or something?
"Nathan," Silas put his hands on my shoulders as if he was going to say something very important. "Listen well."
"Okay—?"
"You have a specialization now."
"What?"
"You can have a specialization now."
"...Who told you that I need one?"
"This is what this tree does."
Woh—
What?
"How?"
"Any specialization you want. This tree can make you a fruit that could give you any specialization you've seen before."
Mathew explained, too focused on what he was saying.
"...?"
"Just one each week. And it lasts two days."
"Just?!"
That was an actual cheat code! Any specialization you say?
That's crazy.
"So, what do you want to do with it?" I opened my notebook again, making sure to write every specialization I've ever seen before on it.
Then I remembered something…
"What's the side effects?"
"Who knows?"
"You don't know?"
"How could we know if only one or two people had it before?"
"...So you two don't know?"
"No. Try yourself and tell us."
"I'm not a lab rat, you two."
"We can't say 'lab rat' if it's about trying such a precious thing, can we?"
I just took the tree and put it back on my ring's space while looking at the other two, who unfortunately seemed too consonant with each other.
Maybe being with them would be a headache itself,
Since I already started to feel as if I was being the suspicious one in the group…