Chapter 149: Club Cards (2/2)
'Seriously?' Everyone except Flavia and Allan retorted in their head.
”Meh, Rak is smart enough to deduce the situation from just looking anyway,” Allan snorted. ”One or three words won't make much of a difference.”
”I was also wondering why Tyran shot Neptunia in town but it was probably because he felt giddy about something and wanted to show off its effects to the children,” the therian nodded. ”And then you,” he addressed the owner.
”Yes!” The man stood up straight with his hands parallel to his body.
”Do you want to renovate this place by any chance? Hm, no, that's unlikely. You're most likely planning to build something else over it. Renovating this wrecked thing would take more effort than building a new one. You can always keep some of the ground foundations too,” he mused.
”I see what you mean…” Marie whispered to Allan.
”Well, whatever. Do you plan to build something important here? A hospital? A factory? An inn?”
”N-no, I intend to use it as a warehouse and for a small company in my name to sell localities of this Plateau to the Hosts' channel…”
”Hm, I see. In that case,” Rakna said and approached the man who stepped back. He looked at him in the eyes and released his soul power, invisible to everyone except a few from his group. When it came into contact with the owner's group, their eyes lost focus and they stopped being stiff.
”From now on, this building will belong to the girl over there, without strings attached, okay?” He said whilst pointing at Nana and the owner nodded dazedly. ”Now, you will go back and forget everything about whatever you planned to do here, understood?”
”I understand…” He said emotionlessly and walked away with his men.
Rakna watched them leave then turned to the sources of several stares thrown his way. ”What? It's not like I killed them. I civilly made them give up.”
”Right…” Allan replied sarcastically. ”If mind control is considered civil… sure. Where did you even learn that? Is that a skill you got with your Nirvana Skill?”
”Nah, you can get it yourself if you try hard enough. It's an application of soul power,” Rakna stated and looked at Nana who was awkwardly standing at the door while everyone was outside. ”What's your name?” He asked and she trembled.
”I'm… my name is Nana Valentine,” she answered and bowed. ”I can't thank you enough for what you did for us.”
”Keep it. I'm just doing what's to be expected. I can't just go on my merry way while aware that you're in danger of death,” he said and puffed some smoke. ”Besides, I'm not done yet.”
”Not done?” Flavia tilted her head and Pronos mimicked her from atop her breasts. Rakna's lips twitched when his eyes swept over the little snake and he summoned a deck of cards in his hand.
He casually shuffled them and hummed. ”Let's see,” he muttered and stopped after a short moment before pulling out the card at the top. He looked at the card's face then back at everyone. ”Hey, you better put the children outside for this. It could be dangerous,” he warned and Nana looked at Nyx who was standing right next to her for confirmation.
”It's okay. You can trust him,” she said with a small smile, and a minute later, the children were all outside and the building was empty.
Rakna flipped the card between his fingers and threw it at the building. ”[Jack of Clubs,]” he said and the card shone as it stuck itself to the wall. Right after, the light was spread across the entire structure within a second and Rakna was the only one who didn't look away. He hummed quietly and when he was done, the light faded away.
”…now you're just messing with me,” Allan uttered. ”Rak, you have to teach me your ways. How in the hell do you summon lightning and rain and even do stuff like this?” He jested as the image of a perfectly repaired building was being reflected in his eyes.
”It comes from the item I got in the Tutorial,” Rakna said as the Trickster's Sleeve went back inside his body. ”The one from the Hidden Quest, remember?”
”Yeah, yeah, I remember the cards,” the blond said with a sigh. ”I wish I had your luck.”
Meanwhile, Marie was waving her hand in front of a motionless Nana. ”Um, are you okay?” She asked but there was no reaction. ”I think the shock was too much for her…”
”Can you blame her though?” Allan smiled.
Rakna snorted and went closer to the building. He knocked on the wall at different spots to see how well his card had patched it up. ”It worked well… it was a good spot to test it,” he told himself and looked at the sky when he felt the rain getting weaker. 'Neptunia's effect is almost over,' he thought and powered down his Aura before turning around.
Nana seemed to have snapped out of her daze and the children were dragging her to the entrance in excitement. Rakna watched them go inside and threw away his cigarette. He looked at the sky again and the rain had finally stopped; the clouds would be gone after a few minutes.
”Hey, Rak,” Allan spoke up as they all grouped up. ”Where did you go earlier?”
”Ah… that. I was at the Pavilion. I was forced to accept a Quest when I destroyed the Dungeon. Eva wanted to see me because of it.”
”Eva?”
”From what I was told, she's like the face of the mainframe. A super AI that has control over a lot of aspects of the System. Dungeons and Adjudicators, among other things. And after meeting her, I think she also seems to be concerned by what Hosts and Locals do; from a social outlook.”
”And what did you talk about?” Flavia asked. ”Did she give you a punishment?”
”Not really. In fact, you could say we made an arrangement.”
”What kind?”
”I agreed to do something for her and in exchange,” Rakna looked at Marie. ”I got two things. One of them was a right to claim terrain in the System and the other… it looks like you haven't noticed it yet. It's rather unlikely that she tricked me so maybe she did it without alerting you.”
Marie scowled and pointed at herself. ”You're talking about me?”
”Why don't you try looking at your status?”
”Why would I need to…?!” The lamia gasped as soon as she saw the first lines of her status. Her hands started shaking as she traced the words with her finger. ”Is this…?”
”Yes.”
Marie let out a dazed chuckle then started laughing meekly. Her eyes glistened and tears rapidly gathered before going down her face. She clenched her heart and sobbed.
”Thank you… thank you…” Her voice got fainter and fainter. Allan put a hand on her shoulder and she immediately latched onto him to cry on his chest.
Everyone watched them with a warm gaze and even Rakna's eyes softened as well and he opened his mouth to answer her, ”You're welcome.”