[Chapter 236. Known by All Except One]

Searanox let his gaze sweep across the assembled crowd. His face betrayed nothing as he took in their expectant expressions, the fear and the hope. The air in the spire grew heavy with unspoken questions. He could feel the weight of their collective stare, a physical pressure against his armor. "The same goes for everyone over level five. If you seek more experience, you are welcome to enter the Labyrinth." His voice carried through the vast chamber, each word carefully measured.

"If you would excuse me now, I have other business to attend to." He spoke in a clear, calm tone that echoed off the walls inside the spire. The words were a dismissal, delivered with the detached courtesy of a ruler addressing subjects rather than a man addressing fellow survivors. Behind his sunglasses, his eyes tracked the subtle reactions of those nearest him—the tightening of jaws, the clenching of fists around weapon hilts, the slight bowing of heads in reluctant acceptance.

The crowd parted further as his travel drone appeared between them. Its silent materialization was accompanied by a faint shimmer of blue light that danced across their armor and faces. The machine hovered close to the ground, its anti-gravity emitters humming with a frequency that made teeth ache. Without a backward glance, Searanox mounted the drone, his movements fluid and practiced from countless repetitions. The drone lifted him from the ground with the effortless grace of a hawk taking flight. Below him, the dungeon spire shrank rapidly as he flew toward the fortress tower in the city center.

He landed on the fourth-floor balcony with barely a whisper of sound. His drone vanished, and he stepped into the tower, revealing the grand hall within. Sarah lounged in one of the corners, sitting on a velvet couch. Its deep red fabric offered a stark contrast to the cold metal and stone surrounding them. She had one leg thrown over the armrest, her foot swinging idly as she traced patterns in the air with one finger, absorbed in her boredom.

At the sound of his footsteps, she snapped her head up. Her eyes widened with sudden interest as they locked onto him. "Searanox!" she called out, her voice echoing in the vast space, unconcerned with the formalities others observed in his presence. "I'm bored. Can I stay with you?" The question was less a request than a demand, her tone suggesting she expected his compliance as her due rather than a favor to be granted.

"Sorry, Sarah, but I'm busy at the moment." He spoke in his normal tone as he turned toward her. "And I'm afraid it will be this way for the rest of the week at best." He didn't elaborate, letting his statement hang between them like a wall. He walked closer, his boots ringing against the light gray marble floor, each step measured and deliberate. "And no, you may not join me on whatever I'm doing. You have your own obligations to fulfill." His voice remained even, but beneath the surface, he felt the familiar tension rising—the constant balancing act between leadership and isolation, between the needs of others and the demands of his own survival.

Sarah folded her arms over her chest, the fabric of her tunic straining against the gesture. She puffed her cheeks, her lower lip jutting out in a practiced pout as she tilted her head back to stare at the high ceiling of the grand hall. The dome above them reflected light like stars in an inverted night sky. "I haven't asked. And I didn't even want to tag along anyway." Her voice carried the petulant whine of a teenager denied privileges she felt entitled to.

"You are cute when you are like that," he said, his voice losing some of its usual detachment as he walked over to her. The scent of dungeons clung to his armor, mingling with the faint fragrance of her perfume. His fingers brushed against her cheek, the contrast between his armored hand and her smooth, makeup-covered face stark. "It isn't easy to find time for you all right now, but why aren't you doing something if you are bored?" His thumb traced the line of her jaw, the gesture both intimate and possessive.

"Doing what? There are no clubs in this city. Nothing has changed since we came over here from the forest, except that now there are more people." Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper as she leaned into his touch, her body molding against his. "We got a few books, and a lot more that aren't from this world. But who reads them anyway?" Her fingers trailed up his arm, the pink of her manicured nails a vivid splash against the dark metal of his armor.

"I have read most of them. They are not helpful in general terms, but they tell us about the history of other worlds, as far as I can gather." His voice remained even, but there was an undercurrent of something else—perhaps the weight of knowledge few others in Androxis possessed. "And what is history good for?" he asked while pulling her closer, his hands settling on her waist before lifting her onto his hips. Her legs crossed behind him instinctively, her boots pressing against his back as she held on to his coat, the thick fabric bunching in her hands.

"To remember what happened?" Sarah answered, her voice muffled against his chest. The steady rhythm of his slow heartbeat beneath her ear seemed to calm her, the frantic energy from moments before replaced by a languid contentment. Her body relaxed against his, trusting in the strength that held her.

Searanox began to walk to the other side of the room, taking slow, careful steps that barely disturbed the silence of the hall. "That is just one part of it. What good is remembering if you don't learn from what happened in the past?" His voice took on the tone of a teacher explaining a difficult concept. "One book speaks of a man obsessed with power and living forever. In the end, he tried going against his System-given class of a warrior and began to learn necromancy. It worked until it didn't, and the failure of the skill he was attempting killed him and all his people. What does this short summary tell you?" The story hung between them, a cautionary tale from a world light-years away yet terrifyingly relevant to their own existence.

She looked up from his chest, her dark eyeshadow smudged against the black material of his coat. Her expression was thoughtful, the earlier petulance replaced by genuine consideration. "That it is dangerous to go against one's System-given class."

"Sarah, dear, it's dangerous to go with the System. You could die every day even if you play by the rules. But no, he didn't just try; he did it. That tells me you can learn whatever you like within the System or outside of it. The question now is just how—how did he do it?" His voice softened as he spoke, his thumb tracing circles on her lower back where her tunic had ridden up, exposing a sliver of skin.

"Doesn't it say in the book how he does it?" Sarah asked. Her fingers tightened on his coat as she shifted against him, the movement creating a friction that sent a jolt through him.

"No, sadly some of them are illegible, and I believe those are his notes on how he did it. The pages are warped, as if they're not meant to be read. Anyway, this won't solve your boredom, I'm afraid. And you're right—there isn't much entertainment in this city."

Sarah poked his chest, her nail leaving a faint mark on the dark metal of his armor. "Isn't much? There is nothing you can do to have fun. Before you say anything, the dungeon is not fun. We're just happy we could shorten our time to below half an hour." She poked him harder while trying to look mad, her lips forming a tight line that did little to hide the amusement dancing in her eyes. "You could have told us that we only have to kill the boss of the dungeon to gain the rewards. When Vanessa heard that from another team, she exploded—"

Searanox pressed a finger against her lips, the metal cool against her warm skin. He whispered, "Shhh. From the beginning, my dear. What do you mean you only have to kill the boss?"

Sarah pulled her head back. The strands of her platinum blonde hair brushed against his chest as she spoke, her voice laced with a mix of surprise and teasing. "You know, if the boss dies, the System will announce its clear. We all thought that was the reason you were so fast in the first place." Her eyes sparkled with the thrill of sharing a secret—the kind that made her feel clever and in the know, even if it was at his expense.

"Who figured that out?" Searanox asked in a stern tone that cut through her amusement. His voice was low and dangerous, a stark contrast to the intimacy of their position. The air between them seemed to crackle with sudden intensity, his fingers tightening on her waist.

"I don't know, one of them. It was all over the place; everyone was talking about it. Does that mean you didn't know that?" Sarah's voice faltered. The playful edge was replaced by genuine curiosity. Her brow furrowed as she looked up at him, her earlier smugness evaporating under his scrutiny.

Searanox adjusted his hold on her. His hands shifted from her waist to the small of her back, pulling her flush against him as he pressed his lips to hers in a deliberate, possessive kiss that was both a question and an answer. "I am neither omnipotent nor omniscient."

`I'm looking forward to dungeon runs that take less than a few minutes. Especially now that they begin vanishing right after they are killed.`

The thought flickered through his mind, a cold calculation beneath the warmth of her body against his.

He opened Iris's chamber, but it stood empty. The silence of the room echoed his next question. "Speaking of not knowing... Sarah, dear, would you know where I can find Iris?"