Chapter 57 - Progress!

A few streets away, in a regular looking cafe a group of kids, 2 boys, and 3 girls were sitting around a table, and happily chatting while slurping on their drinks. This group was Aiden and his friends. Well, to be more precise, his friends from his previous life.

They were currently celebrating their results. As it turned out, all of them have managed to score high, meaning their years weren't a failure, and they all have a chance at a bright life.

"Kat, not so fast, why are you in such a hurry?" Andrew berated her sister, who was loudly slurping on the drink she ordered. It was an iced coffee with a scoop of vanilla ice cream added in it. They called it "Cannes' Coffee". It was expensive but it tasted incredible, no one could really blame her for being greedy.

"I'm sorry Andy, but it's just soo good. You should have a taste, you will understand!" instead of feeling remorseful Kat actually offered a taste.

"You know I don't like coffee even if it's something like that dessert thingy you ordered. Also, why would you drink that? It's still morning, shouldn't drinks like that be ordered in the afternoons?" Andrew retorted.

While the siblings were arguing about something pointless, Aiden looked at the other 2 girls that came with Kat. One of them was a blonde-haired petite girl, that if you would look at from a distance you would presume she is still in her early teens and would never guess that she is actually the oldest of the group. She was actually 25! She was at least a head shorter than Aiden and was wearing round glasses. Her blonde hair was tied up to a bun, and she was wearing a plain-looking burgundy colored blouse, with a simple light blue unisex jeans. She was Elena.

She was looking at the siblings as they quarreled with a distant look in her eyes with a small smile crept up at the edges of her lips. She was just holding his cup of latte that she ordered without drinking it, seemingly lost in her thoughts or perhaps her memories of someone.

The other girl, Natalie, had shoulder-length straight brown hair, and an average body. Aiden couldn't really judge but she most likely was an early B-cup, nothing fancy. She was slightly taller than Elena, but still at least half a head shorter than him. She was wearing a light, yellow t-shirt that had the image of a shore in it with the words "Always look at the bright side of life!". Below that, she was also wearing some simple-looking dark blue jeans, but this one, contrary to what Elena was wearing was clearly designed for the women. It was a tight fit, that also put the focus on the backside, highlighting her butt.

She was also paying attention to the siblings with a bright smile on her face, but instead of being 'somewhere else', she was silently drinking from her Iced Tea with the help of the straw she also requested.

"And why can't I order something like this in the morning? Is it against some law? Or did you want to forbid me of doing something again?!" Kat's voice forced Aiden to come back to his senses.

The sibling's quarrel started to spiral out of control, Aiden was wondering if he should step in at some point, but thankfully Andrew took a step back, not wanting to ruin the mood today. This was supposed to be about celebration so him berating his sister wouldn't be appropriate. At least not now.

"S-sorry… I didn't mean to upset you sis. It's just that…" she stopped him abruptly.

"You just what? Felt the need to point out the mistakes I made once again?"

"No, nothing…" Andrew stuttered a response.

'Something is not right… This pointless argument is spiraling out of control way too fast. Wait a second…' That's when Aiden realized he haven't checked the girls in the system yet. However, he was sure that Enya didn't make this mistake.

With that thought, he looked at Kat more closely. That was when Aiden noticed that the system had already marked her as an enemy based on her emotions and intent. She clearly wanted to cause pain and suffering to her brother, which was rather unhealthy for a girl of her age. She was radiating negative thoughts, hatred, anger, and the pure desire to cause suffering to Andrew. She was focusing this intent on her brother currently as if she was trying to break his will.

From the outside, for the regular person, this just looked like a heated quarrel between siblings, but for Aiden with the help of the system, this was much more. This was the first irregularity he finally found in this illusion!

'I really need to pay attention…' Aiden muttered to himself. Once again, he was so lost in the moment, that he almost missed another important detail. Fixing it however was another matter. He can't just punch her and be done with it!

'Enya, how can I remove the Nightmare from her? What do I need to do?'

She replied instantly.

[You need to fix the irregularity in the events Aiden. You have to end this quarrel, by any means necessary. That would expel the Spawn out of the body and banish it from the illusion.]

'I see... I thought they are monsters like all the others we've met so far.'

Aiden could hear Enya's chuckling, while she replied.

[Not every conflict will need to be resolved with your fists Aiden.]

Embarrassed, he did not respond, but opened his eyes, only to see that conflict got more heated in the few seconds he was 'out of commission'. Nobody even noticed him dozing off, it seems.

"Why do you always feel the need to control my life? Why do you always stand in my way? Huh, brother? ANSWER ME!" At this point, Kat was already standing and was shouting at her brother with a flushed face.

"Sis… Please, stop this…" Andrew couldn't really muster any courage to stand up against her and just weakly muttered.

"ANSWER ME!" Kat shouted angrily. She stepped closer to him, and raised his hands, preparing for a slap.

However, before she could do so, suddenly a hand grabbed her wrist from behind. It was Aiden, who -seeing the conflict escalating to a point of no return- utilized his superior speed and grabbed hold of Kat's wrist. He looked at her deep in the eyes causing her to become flustered.

"W-Wha-What are you doing? L-Let me go!"

Aiden smiled gently at her and pulled her close to her embrace. Similarly, to how he sometimes embraced Lily to calm her down when she was agitated, or frightened, he did try the same with her.

Pink tint crept up on Kat's cheeks, she was so flustered that she simply couldn't react to the situation. After a bit of weak struggle, she went limp, and just the warmth that came from Aiden's chest.

Nearly a minute has passed in silence. Nobody spoke a word and just kept looking at them with mixed and complicated expressions.

'Khm! That should be enough. Could you let go of my sister now?" Andrew's voice broke the rather intimate moment.

Frightened by her brother's voice, Kat jumped out from his embrace, and with her eyes cast to the ground, she turned to 'face' her brother.

'Listen, Andy, I'm s-sorry. I don't know why I got so mad… Please forgive me!" she said.

Andrew sighed, and with a small smile on his lips, he petted her head.

Meanwhile, I heard the familiar sound of the notification in my head. Briefly checking it, I noticed that my quest objective updated, showing the progress I made.

[Objective: Banish the Nightmare Spawns (1/???)]

Apart from his mother and father, Aiden didn't know how many he will have to face. But one thing was sure; he made some progress finally!

"Don't worry about it sister. I was in the wrong too. I shouldn't have said what I said. Please forgive your idiot brother!"

Then he looked at Aiden and nodded.

"Thanks, Aiden. I owe you one."

Aiden shook his head and replied as he walked back to his seat.

"Not at all. Today should be about the celebration, so what's the plan for today? I'm guessing we are not planning to spend the whole day in this cafe, right?"

"Of course not. This was just to relax a bit and get you all up-to-date. I just didn't expect to…" Andrew looked at his sister who still had eyes cast on the ground in shame. Then looking back to me, he smiled as he continued. "Anyways, so the plan is that we go back to our dorms and then meet up later in the afternoon. There's a big celebration party that will be happening at 5 PM in the Boy's dorm. We will meet in front of the building at 5 PM and then party until the next morning!"

"S-sure." Aiden replied curtly. He still didn't know what to expect but was feeling increasingly more agitated as time passed on. He knew from Enya that today is her last day alive, and if he is to complete the illusion, he might need to make sure he dies the same way he is supposed to!