"Hero, please… can you just— stop frowning like I've stolen your favorite toy or something?"
"No."
"But—"
"No."
'Raising a kid is never a simple task to do' was the greatest lesson of this week.
Like, how could I convince him that I didn't forget his existence this whole week and I was just too busy to call him out?
It was really a tough week with three Vessels, crazy tasks, and I was even imprisoned in it. Of course I wouldn't remember to call him out, and even if I did remember him, where should I call him? In a Vessel? Or in that crazy company that was no longer a good place for a kid?
Deep breath, Nathan…
Take a deep breath.
You can't just let a kid be involved with your problems.
"So, you want to spend this precious weekend like this? I don't even know how I got it in the first place."
"What do you mean by that?"
"The company assumes that I'm on a Vessel now, or maybe that I became a corps— Never mind, would you like to order now? I'm really hungry."
Agh—
You mustn't say such things to a kid, Nathan. What kind of fathers are you?
"Did you go to the Carnival?"
"Yeah— what? Do you know about the Carnival?"
"Yes." He was still frowning, "You've used to take me with you there."
"Really?"
Now, that was a shock.
"Why did I do that in your opinion?"
"Work."
"Work?!" at the Carnival?
"Yes. supervision or something alike."
Oh,
Supervision? In there? How? Why?
"Did I used to go to that control place and do things with the computer?"
"Yes."
So…
"What's my name?"
Hero looked at me with narrow eyes, as if he thought it was a trap question or something.
"What do you mean?"
"As I said, What's my name?"
He hesitated, as anyone would do in such a situation, then simply answered.
"Nathan."
"Nathan?"
"Yes? Are you okay, did you have a new memory loss this week?"
"No, No. Don't worry. I was just wondering if it was Tristan or something."
Yeah, tell me if you know anything about this name, please.
"Can we order now? You seem tired."
"Okay."
He seemed genuinely concerned so I let the topic slide for a while before bringing it again.
"Did you hear me say anything about Tristan before, Hero."
"No, I don't remember such a name."
"Fine." I cut the meat for him before giving him his plate. "What about Silas?"
"Oh, I know this one!"
"Who he was?"
"Your nemesis!"
Ha?
"Nemesis?"
"You used to argue all the time when you meet."
"But we couldn't call someone a nemesis just because of this? Can we?"
"Doesn't it mean people who argue a lot?"
"No, it means people who hate each other."
"But you told me once that you used to hate each other when you were in college."
"Really?"
"Yeah, then you worked together and so on."
He was talking, and I just remembered what happened in the Old Company Vessel when Silas started to talk to the anomalies as if it was the most natural thing to do…
His work card got his name too,
And he talked about arguing with me and such things, right?
Did Silas know something about Tristan and the Old Company? Maybe even about the control room and what the Old Company's network was doing there?
Should I ask him?
"That's so complicated…"
"I think that going back to the company will help you a little." Hero suddenly suggested. "You used to go there a lot."
"Which company?"
"likely the one you are already working on?" He tilted his head, confused. "Yeah, you brought me there once or twice so I could remember that it was the same."
…?
What?
Wait a second.
If Tristan was Hero's father, then he was involved in this company? And the other company in the other world? How could that happen?
And if it was true,
Was there any Silas beside the one I knew, since this one was a newcomer just like me?
And there was another question…
Did Tristan have something to do with my system? Since he was the one to develop that old watch in the first place?
If yes—
What did that have to do with me?
Did I reach a point that made me sill my body for experiments one day and that brought me somehow here in the end?
If yes again,
Then when? Did they erase my memories after? What was the point?
Agh—
You know what?
Just forget about it.
"What do you want to eat after this?" I took a breath, relaxing my tensed shoulders. "I want ice-cream."
"Me too, but pizza first."
"Pizza? Could you do it after this?"
"No, you'll eat the rest of this for me." He moved his plate to my side then called the waiter. "Pizza please, small, with Vigitable."
…
I might get broke just because of this kid, unfortunately.
Maybe if I searched in the forest house I could find money? Maybe a bank card or something?
"Let's go to the forest house once these days."
"Really?! Woh! Yesss!"
A kid who loves to return home… That was unusual.
Or not?
I have no idea.
"Yes, let me organize some things, then we will go there."
"Work again."
"Yes. Work."
Existence crisis, if I was being honest.
"Dady."
"What?"
"Do you know those people?"
"People?"
I frowned then looked at the place he was looking at, then I genuinely got a heart attack for the third time in my day.
Dean and Drew were literally glued to the glass, trying to see who was inside. Too childish. Even the child with me eyed that as if he was seeing something unpleasant.
"Who are they?"
"Just ignore them."
"So you know them?"
"My colleagues at work, just never mind their existence."
Hero gave them another look before raising his shoulders once and continued his juice.
My brain was working really hard to come up with any good lie to tell the twins about this situation, but unfortunately, all those ideas just vanished when I saw them coming in and taking place on the table without even asking for it.
"So this is your plan? Going out with this little cute man?" Drew was talking to me but looking at Hero while offering his hand for a shake. "What's your name, handsome?"
"Hero."
"Oh, nice to meet you Hero, I'm Drew."
Then Dean just did the same and introduced himself. "I'm Dean."
"Are you twins?"
"Yes! How did you now? Are you a genius or something?"
"It's not that hard."
Those people know how to treat chicken. What a smooth introduction was that?
"You didn't answer, this is your plan?"
"Yeah."
"Why didn't you tell us? We would be extremely happy to help you with such tasks, whose cute boy is?"
"It isn't a task." Drew was just talking with Hero casually at this point so I continued to talk to Dean without much stress. "I'm just going out with him."
"He is your lovely nephew?"
"No. He's my son."
"Oh, I got it, you're babysitting your— what?"
"Son?"
Even Drew cut his conversation to show his ultimate shock as his brother.
"You have a Son? And you didn't tell us?"
"What a betrayal! Why did you hide this cute little man from us? Are we even friends?"
I don't think that we have reached the 'friends' stage yet.
"I just didn't get the chance to tell anyone." Hero's order came so I cut it into small pieces so he could eat it well. "And you did know now."
"Woh—"
"Yah—"
"What?"
"Who imagined that you could really act like a father! I'm seeing things, am I?"
"After looking again, he looks like you, in many different ways."
"Yeah, I look like my father!" Hero just jumped to the conversation without a notice. "But uncle Silas always told me that I'm not having his attitude."
"Believe me, you don't need his attitude." Dean replied, fully serious. "You don't want to scare people for their lives."
"I'm scaring people for their lives?! I? I don't even talk to them."
"Imagine talking to them too, complete disaster." Drew nodded as I was a helpless case. "I heard an hour ago about what you did in the examination Vessel they put you in lately, did you really do that show? That was literally crazy."
"Show?"
"'Kill me if you can' show."
Hah?
Did I do that?
No.
What I remember doing was just making them aware of the trap they were in.
"My daddy loves to provoke people."
"Oh, you know that too?! What a clever boy! Don't try to act like him!"
"But he's cool."
"Yeah, yeah, no one could deny this."
…
Why were they talking so seriously?
I had no idea.
But at least that wasn't bad.
"Hey, Nathan." Drew let Dean talk to Hero and gave me his full attention. "What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean?"
"They said that you are in a Vessel, like anyone who got killed there. How did you come out?"
"..."
Nice question…
"I didn't go anywhere. I just ended up in this city after the shoot. Maybe it's a random thing."
"Did the company know?"
"No."
"That's better, being the only exception won't do you a favor." He took a sticker out of his pocket and put it in front of me. "This will make recognizing you a hard task. Put it on your hand."
"Thank you." I put it on my hand before hiding it with my sleeve. "Any new news?"
"Aside from what you've done before? No."
"That's a relief."
"But there's something—"
Dean suddenly entered the conversation.
"Your team leader got arrested."
"Who?"
"Your team leader."
"... why?"
"Something about doubting the higher console decision or something…"
Oh—
What?
Why did I get the feeling that I had something to do with this?
"What a tragedy…"