Chapter 252: Nameless Brother

Memories from the past ran through Moon’s head. How much anger he had held at that time and how much he had loathed 9th Bro...

Well, he wasn’t ’bro’ at that time, just a bully who deserved enough of a beating to get his head straight and his behaviour properly corrected.

His heart was heavy, but he had also wept for a very long time.

He exhaled slowly with the food tray in hand. ’You bastards wouldn’t even have imagined food that good could exist.’

Moon pushed the door open.

Phut~

Something sharp flew into his face.

Moon leaned back, letting it pass.

Tak~

It stabbed into his door.

"You?" the girl said with a hint of disbelief, as if she had expected anyone but Moon.

Moon glanced at the small, dart-like object, covered in saliva, and frowned. He turned his gaze to the assassin on the ground.

"You’re just like that bastard!"

Stomp~

Moon drew a bit more blood from her nose and lips as she glared at him.

His eyes scanned her. He tied each finger at the first joint to the corresponding finger on the other hand.

Thumb to thumb, index to index, and so on.

He also tied her neck to one of the legs of his bed, while her hair was tied to the drawer.

As for her legs, they were now free.

"Welp, this isn’t impossible to break free from, but it would take more time than needed for me to bring some food," he said, laying the tray on the drawer before looking at the window.

In the darkness, Mishu was standing on a branch, staring at something that looked like a bug.

"Mishu, come to eat," Moon called softly once, knowing he would hear him.

Mishu turned around and sniffed softly before glancing once at the bug and returning to the room again.

The girl watched Mishu intently.

They were from the same branch. She had witnessed what this little menace could do.

Moon sat on the bed, looking at the girl’s face, which was flat on the ground.

"I knew you were awake, so don’t be like this," he said, laying the tray on his legs, shredding a piece of meat before placing it in his mouth and extending his other hand to Mishu.

Feeding the cat was becoming one of the few low-stress activities he could do here, and might be the only one.

The girl stared at him with eyes full of controlled hatred.

She couldn’t afford to open her eyes before he left the room, and she had no idea it was him until the moment he opened the door.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" she asked.

Moon swallowed his food. "Where else? I’ve never been anywhere but the first floor," he answered casually.

"Lies!" she growled. "There’s no way anyone on the first floor would know this!" she added.

Moon paused for a moment. He had never known where any of his brothers came from...

The question itself didn’t make any sense. They were slaves without names... The world to them had grey skies.

The concept of the Tower didn’t exist in the first place, not for them and, as far as he knew, probably not for Ashspawns either.

He had lived among them for a long time, but had never heard of an Ashspawn ascending or of the term ’First Floor’ even once.

In the end, Moon couldn’t help nodding in agreement.

"Probably. That’s why I brought you here." He proceeded to shred a few more pieces of meat for Mishu to chew easily before his gaze fell on the girl again.

"I knew a bastard on the first floor, and I beat him up the way I did you, so many times I lost count."

Moon paused.

"He was also my brother, the only one who could watch my back," he added with a little smile and heavy eyes.

The girl glared at him, but didn’t say anything... For a long moment, she went silent.

"He was also stronger than you, you see... We didn’t have any Echo on the first floor... or proper weapons."

Moon waited for her to make up her mind and say anything. He turned back to his food and ate some more while she kept glaring at him in different ways.

After he was done eating, Moon turned to her again.

"How about this? You tell me what you know about him or where he came from, and you can go back. I’ll send you back myself."

He made an offer, another generous one that was both stupid and disadvantageous to him.

Letting her go back would threaten the work he suffered to finish for days, but it was a price he was willing to pay.

If anything, Moon wasn’t trying to trick her.

He also had no interest in the Order of Assassins.

After a long wait, the sky brightened. Moon didn’t get to sleep a wink, and now he was about to start a new day.

Looking at the light outside, he sighed.

’Should I lock her up in a cell or just let her go?’ Moon, though, was more concerned about what he wanted to know than about her role in the war.

"Why do you ask?" She questioned.

Moon had his own assumptions, but he didn’t take any of them. The Tower was a weird place, and he didn’t want to assume something that would turn problematic in the future.

He wanted to know about 9th Bro, now that there was a chance he wasn’t from the first floor in the first place.

Where did he come from?

What did he do before sharing the fate of war slaves with the rest of them?

What was his name then?

Where was that sister of his... On the first floor?

Elsewhere?

Or maybe—

Moon thought long and hard...

’He said he had a sister a while before I ascended.’ Moon decided it was what he should ask first. "If she’s not on the first floor, then I should at least find her..." he said with a straight face, locking his gaze with the girl lying on his floor.

"What did he look like?" the girl asked. Her voice was a little shakier than usual.

"Scrawny. He was also a little taller than me. Pale as a ghost, with hair so straight it felt sharp," Moon proceeded to explain.

"His features were also sharp... black eyes..."

Listening, one word after another... The girl’s eyes gradually widened.

"What was his name?" she asked.

Moon paused there... He thought of how to explain this... The fact that they didn’t have names.

’Stupid bastard.’ Moon cursed inwardly. ’If you had a damn name, just say it, you asshole.’

"We were part of the same mercenary group. We didn’t use our real names," Moon explained slowly. "I never knew his real name, and he never asked mine for the years we worked together."

It wasn’t impossible to believe, especially with how so many things were different on the first floor from the rest of the Tower.

Moon tried to pass this off as a core difference.

More importantly, Moon was worried about one thing.

’I hope you really aren’t her...’