Chapter 59: Clarity (Part 1)

"I need to study! Y-You said it yourself, Milan—"

"It’s Milo."

"Milo, h-hehe..." Eve wrung her hands at waist level. "I’m very sorry to leave you behind like this, but I... I..."

Her words trailed off as Milo narrowed his eyes.

"I-I’m sorry! I think I’ll be fine, even if there’s... noise. But you said there won’t be noise. I trust you."

"Just because you do well at Studies doesn’t mean you won’t die."

"...W-What are you saying?!"

"I’m not a Field boy. You think my arms won’t fall off if I drag this cart over all by myself?"

With both hands, Milo presented the cart as evidence of the crime she was about to commit.

"You’re just gonna abandon me here when Henry entrusted this task to me, and to YOU. He’s an instructor. Our instructor. He will not be satisfied to hear this."

"M-Milo, you’re a student too...! So, what do you say we go leave this behind and study—"

"And get suspended? You don’t wanna know what happens to those who break promises in a time of crisis."

"What happens?"

"Not a simple slap on the wrist. We’re talking detention."

"T-That’d mean—"

"Being unable to study. However..."

Milo squinted at her bag. As though he had asked for it already, Eve gripped the strap.

"There’s one thing you could do, and I’d let this go."

Without releasing the strap, she shuffled closer. "R-Really...?"

"Really." He extended an arm toward her and snapped his fingers. "I’m going to need your phone."

"No."

"Then you’re staying."

"You’ll go through all my messages...!"

"I just need to make a call."

"I don’t trust you."

"A call to my friend. It might involve some romantic undertones. You said you did trust me just a few sentences ago. Do you not have a password?"

"A password... I do have that. Still, my mom always told me t—"

"Parents know nothing about technology, all right? Leave it locked. All I can do is type in a number and make a call; I can’t read your messages."

"And take pictures..."

"Nothing sketchy."

"If I give it to you, do you pinky promise to not tell on me?" Eve uncurled her pinky finger. "That I left you with the almonds?"

"Pinky promise." Milo hooked his finger around hers. "Almonds are all mine. But you need to promise me, in exchange, to not tell anyone about the phone. It’s a delicate matter."

"You do not have a phone."

"Yeah."

"You poor thing!! If you’d only told me that, I could’ve lent it to you right away."

"Shh. I just told you to keep quiet about it."

A hand flew over her mouth. "Oh you’re right."

Eve held out the phone with the lock screen facing him, and he took it.

The lock screen offered a dial pad, a camera, and a cutesy black-and-white anime wallpaper he was free to admire. Since he had no use for them, her messages could remain private.

He didn’t intend to keep it in the first place.

Eve only needed to be convinced she had no phone for the time being and tell no one about the shift in labor.

As she turned for the classroom, Milo tucked the phone back into the side pocket of her bag, along with one omen.

Once the footsteps faded, he wheeled the cart to the pickup spot and grabbed another omen.

After rotating the small piece of crystal in his palm, he tossed it into the air without much thought and caught it with his mouth.

Gulp.

The sheet snapped open.

[ Absorption complete. ]

[ Consumed: Gray Amber Omen. ]

[ Trait: Plague. ] 𓂃🖋

"Column?"

[ The Innate Column ]

[ Maturity: Hour ]

[ Progress toward Day: 61.15% ]

[ Developments: 2 / 9 ] 𓂃🖋

Milo had been at 59.3%, if memory served, so the omen had added 1.85%. Half a Minute’s worth.

He might have overestimated the scaling. So much for a handful boosting him all the way up to Day’s maturity.

Assuming the Gray Amber Omens all contained the same Longevity, he needed twenty-one more.

His eyes slid to the tray.

In those orderly rows, the gaps would be visible without anyone having to count.

Additionally, he didn’t have all day for this. He had only so long before the quiet classroom was taken, and if Eve blurted out their arrangement prematurely, he’d be convicted of a heist in which the gold had gone poof.

So Milo tossed the ambers into his mouth, one after another like potato chips.

[ Absorption complete. ]

[ Consumed: Gray Amber Omen ×21. ]

[ Trait(s): Plague. ] 𓂃🖋

"Day development?"

[ Day Development ]

[ Consultation ]

[ Permits the User to pose elaborate questions. Answers draw only upon what the User has discovered and what the pages have witnessed through him. ]

[ Acquire Development? (Y/N) ] 𓂃🖋

"Finally, you’ll talk to me."

Twenty-one omens put him at a clean hundred percent, just as he’d calculated.

If quick arithmetic took part, he really would have to underperform on purpose during the Studies exam.

"Yes."

[ Consultation acquired. ]

[ Developments: 3 / 9 ] 𓂃🖋

"Hi, how are you?"

[ Afloat. ] 𓂃🖋

"You can actually speak now. Okay, this is amazing. Tell me how to turn a Mercy off. I need to hear my own footsteps."

[ Direction is Week’s development. ] 𓂃🖋

Milo leaned against the wall.

So this was how it had been set up from the beginning.

The goalposts kept moving.

First the sheet told him he’d have to unlock Consultation just to ask something. Now, Direction was likely only the first thing he’d need to acquire to toggle the Mercy off.

By the time he earned the right to make an ordinary footstep, he’d be a grandpa asking someone to help him out of his chair.

"Direction?"

[ Direction ]

[ Grants greater authority over how the User’s blessing manifests and operates. ] 𓂃🖋

"Greater authority sounds promising. Before I eat another trayful to get it, though, I’d like to know what that covers. The Mercies I acquired count as part of my blessing, right?"

[ Correct. ] 𓂃🖋

But he’d fed the Plague as well, and it was time to find out what that had bought him.

═══════════════════

⋆˚࿔ Coming right up: "Clarity (Part 2: Finale)" ... ⤵︎ [!]