149. Club Cards

“What is this rain?!”

Allan frowned and turned toward the door when he heard someone shout from outside. He had already used his Aura to keep the water away from his body.

“Hey! Open up!” Someone started banging on the door and the children gathered together behind Nana in the half of the building that was covered from the rain.

“Do you know who it is?” Flavia asked the young caretaker of the place.

Nana nodded slowly. “I think… they’re here to kick us out. The owner of this place came here a few days back… He wants to demolish this building to rebuild over it,” she uttered and a few children hugged her legs tighter.

“That’s shitty luck,” Allan commented and Flavia glared at him. “…sorry. Don’t hit me again please.”

“Do you have somewhere else to go?” She asked. “Another abandoned building for example?”

Nana shook her head. “I don’t think so… the only reason this place was even vacated was because of a fire. We’ve been here for a few months. It allowed us to sleep without the risk of freezing to death or being beaten up.”

Allan scratched his head. “Well, if it comes to the worst… we wouldn’t mind lending you a hand.”

“Do you want me to send my snakes?” Marie offered openly. “They can kill them and no one will ever suspect anything.”

“…” Everyone looked at her in silence.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

“Anyway,” Allan continued. “What do we do? It’s not like there’s anything illegal going on here. We won’t attack them out of nowhere, right? Not that I know this place’s laws…”

“I could charm them,” Evelyn said with a finger on her chin. “I never really tried it before but basic mind manipulation shouldn’t be too hard for me as a succubus.”

“Hey! We know you’re in there! Open the door!” A shout came from outside.

“It’s not locked though…” Nyx deadpanned and the others chuckled.

Allan sighed. “It’s at times like this I wished Rak was with us,” he grumbled and walked to the entrance. “For now, let’s just let them in,” he said and opened the door wide. The wind from the outside rushed in at once and he was faced with a group of around ten men. The one at the front was wearing a suit and they were all shielding themselves with their Aura, even as small as it was.

“Um… hi!” The blond raised his hand with a bright smile and they blinked at each other.

“Who are you?” The one in the suit asked and leaned to the side to look inside the building. His face froze when he saw a gathering of women more striking than anything he had seen before.

“What are you looking at?” Allan’s voice jolted him.

“Uh…” He stepped back and exhaled. “Ahem, just answer the question; who are you? We are going to proceed with preparation for the demolishment. If you are going to interfere, we will be forced to come to hands.”

Flavia stepped forward. “Are you really going to kick out homeless children without remorse? You could at least make an effort to help them relocate.”

“Lady, it’s not my problem. This kind of thing happens everyday, everywhere. This town is already small enough and tight in resources, we don’t need people to freeload. It’s just the basic cycle of life. I have other things to worry about.”

Allan sighed. “I told you, girls… let’s just get the kids out of here for now and we’ll discuss what to do with Rak. I’m sure he’ll-” He abruptly paused and slowly walked out of the building with a sigh.

“Hm? What’s wrong?” Marie asked as she followed him.

The blond snorted. “I just got the chills and I think I know why,” he laughed to himself and turned toward the owner. “Hey, you, you can talk with the guy who’s coming. We’ll do whatever he says to do.”

“Who are you talking abou-” The man couldn’t finish his question as a wave of cold hit him. He obviously knew that there were ropes of water falling around him but this was wholly different.

“B-boss,” one of his men spoke up and pointed at the sky.

He bent his neck to look up and his eyes practically popped out of their sockets. The rain around them was slowing down and turning into something even more inconceivable than rain in the middle of the desert.

“Snow?!”

After a short moment, the temperature had fallen even more and the rain was entirely turned into snow for at least a radius of several meters around them.

Allan snickered and hinted somewhere with his chin. The building owner furrowed his eyebrows and turned around. What he saw would forever be branded in his mind. In the distance, a therian with four tails flailing behind him was getting closer and closer.

He had a taciturn face that he had scarcely ever seen an equal before, even on trained killers. There was an Aura of pure coldness around him and he was sure that the snow around him was probably closer to floating rocks than anything else. His hands were in his pockets and he was smoking as if the weather-altering presence of his was nothing to fuss about.

“Sometimes I wonder if he is from a comic or something,” Allan whispered and the girls who heard him couldn’t help but agree. “Goddamn, I wish I can get that kind of entrance one day…”

When Rakna finally reached them, the group led by the building owner reflexively took a step back and gulped loudly. “What’s going on?” The therian asked coldly. For his companions, it was the most normal of interactions but for anyone else, it was as if they were being interrogated by the devil himself.

“You should tone that down, they’re going to pass out like this,” Nyx said with a small smile. Rakna responded with a genuinely confused look and she couldn’t help but giggle. “May I ask why you’re turning the rain into snow? Isn’t that a waste of mana?”

“I don’t like rain. Snow is a thousand times better, is it not? Also, I couldn’t have it extinguish my cigarette,” he said offhandedly. “Aura can’t affect objects for some reason. Additionally, maybe it’s because this rain is from my spell, but it’s somewhat easy for me to turn it into snow.”

“You could just have used a barrier to cover yourself, you know?”

Rakna shrugged and huffed a cloud of smoke. He glanced at the shivering men and pointed at them with his thumb. “Who’s this?” He asked and then pointed at Nana and her children. “And they?”

“Long story short,” Allan pointed at Nana’s group. “Destitute.” He pointed at the building. “Shelter.” Then pointed at the owner who was being absolutely still. “Owner.”

“…isn’t that a bit too short?” Evelyn retorted quietly.

However, Rakna seemed to ponder before nodding. “Got it.”

‘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.”

AhraManyu

That moment when I want to write a badass entrance for the sake of having one. It's just fun for me, okay? Don't take it too seriously.