Fio and Lorrin smashed open the fourth door and rushed into the bathroom. As they dragged the alien out from the corner and killed it, Malin heard a whisper.
"Painted in the basement, while I wait for you upstairs... Stop killing my children, aren’t you looking for me? Come, find me, and let us end all this."
Malin turned to glance at the girls and the self-proclaimed most handsome guy from the Central Administrative Province and realized they seemed not to have heard any noise at all.
Looking up at the ceiling, Malin suddenly began to miss her youth, when she, in that same tone of voice, would talk about their hopes for the future. Sometimes, they even mentioned that when they grew old, they must return to the orphanage where both of them had come from and rightfully belonged.
It’s called coming full circle, she said... It’s just that Malin took ten years to understand that she had no future in his future.
Yet, she hadn’t expected that one day, like today, she would once again hear a voice that belonged to her.
But then she thought about it again and seemed to remember that on some previous day, she had heard and even seen her, only to have the impostor who dared deceive her bashed out the next second.
After thinking it over, Malin decided not to smash the fifth door but instead led Fio and Lorrin straight to the basement ahead.
"Malin, what’s happening? Where are you going?" Lillim, who had been controlling the exit at the main door, shouted.
"I heard the Mother’s whisper. The painting is downstairs, and she’s upstairs." Malin paused midway through his words, approached the center of the hall, looked up at the second floor, and after a moment of silence, spoke: "I can come up to meet you, but you must tell your children to leave the first floor and the basement. I will let my friends retrieve the scrolls from the basement, and then, I will personally come up to see you."
The room fell silent, but when several doors opened and the aliens cautiously crawled out, then obediently climbed up the pillars to the second floor, Jiaxi still couldn’t help but look at Malin: "You must be crazy! You’re making deals with a different kind!" He stepped up to Malin, looking down at him: "I’m going to report everything that happened today to the Royal Investigation Office headquarters and the Churches!"
"Sure, I look forward to you dramatically narrating everything that’s happening here in front of everyone. I’ve dealt with the mutants that infected this city before; this is just another trade. Now, you go to the basement and bring back that damned Magic Carpet, and I, I’m going to meet an old acquaintance."
Jiaxi was stunned at first but then seemed to understand the meaning behind Malin’s words. He fell silent and looked at Malin with a hint of understanding in his expression.
In the end, he went to the basement alone, rejecting Jessica’s kind offer to cover him: "Remember, your husband told me there are no aliens in the basement. If I die at the hands of an alien, that’s on him." The young man stood at the top of the stairs, just brushing past the alien as it ascended.
"I never knew your cousin was so bold." Clovis looked towards Faye, then noticed the confusion on the elf’s face: "What’s wrong, Faye?"
"I’m wondering... if I should follow him up." Faye watched Malin turn and head towards the stairs leading to the second floor, doubting herself: "I really want to follow him, so why can’t I take a step?"
"Is it because of the old acquaintance?" Clovis looked at her sister, who also seemed interested in doing the same, but ultimately just smiled: "Mr. Malin certainly has a mysterious past, and my Mage’s curiosity more than once tells me it wants to know all of the secrets. But as a woman... more than once, I’ve warned myself that some secrets are not for me to know."
"Have you been curious too?" Faye asked.
"Of course, it’s the inquisitiveness of a Mage. You should feel the same way, right?" Clovis spoke while watching Malin stroke the head of an alien, which sat like a Thainese Cat.
"No, my curiosity comes not from a silly, curious Mage but from the heart of a jealous woman." Faye finished speaking and finally took a step forward: "I want to see for myself, the owner of the whispers echoing in Malin’s mind, whether she is human or Alien."
"You’re just making trouble for her, Faye." Although Clovis said this, she made no move to stop her.
"...I’m not stupid enough to follow Malin upstairs." After saying this, Faye took out a metal tube from her Spatial Bag and tossed it to Malin.
Malin caught it and looked curiously at the metal tube: "What’s this?"
Faye smiled: "It’s a gift from our mother. She said it was something she found during one of her adventures in the ruins of the First Epoch when she was young. Infusing it with Spiritual Energy will produce a Psychic Sword... Also, don’t point the opening at yourself. That would be the most foolish suicide in this Epoch."
Moving the tube away from his face, Malin examined the object, noticing an almost obliterated circular mark on it: "I’ve never heard you mention this."
"You’ve never told me about your old acquaintance either. Share your vision with me, will you?" Faye asked with a smile.