Scarlet Asger

The city is full of life today, just like it apparently always is in a Tier 1 city such as this.

A beautiful full moon hanging high in the sky, just towering over the massive skyscrapers that are blocking my view of the rest of the city, despite me already being nearly thirty floors up above the ground. What must be hundreds of magi-tech cars quickly flying through the air-streets between each building, not even mentioning the various magic-less cars driving by on the ground belonging mostly to city visitors. Like me. And dare I mention the lovely shimmer radiating off of each skyscraper’s outside windows and walls, acting as a shield in case of a Demonic Assault occurring in the capital?

So much beauty. So much awe.

And yet…

“Are you listening to me?” the lady standing next to the comfortable chair I’m sitting on in the middle of the room asks in a rather disgruntled tone. And I so want to respond with ‘no, not really’. But I don’t. Because that won’t help my situation in the slightest.

“Yes,” I answer while turning my gaze away from the large window to see the lady in all her receptionist glory standing next to me. She’s wearing relatively normal business attire, with a dress shirt and a plaid skirt, and her hair done up in a braid running down one of her shoulders.

I can’t help but look up from my seat at her thanks to her annoying high heels. Something no one will ever find me wearing.

Just the thought of it gives me shivers.

“You can either sit there and wait for four more hours for the CEO to come back and kick you out, or you can leave now,” she says, her voice relatively high pitch as she adjusts her glasses with a sneer sent my way.

I let out a sigh. One that seems to irritate her even further somehow before I turn my back to her to face the window, where I see my own reflection in the mirrorlike surface. In it, I’m wearing my favorite red and black jacket over a random plain black shirt that I grabbed from my closet. One with a simple design on it. And to top it off, a pair of black pants and black boots with a random red necklace.

A rather nice color scheme if I do say so myself. It even matches my black hair and incredibly grey eyes!

“I’ve already said this, but I’m here because-” I begin, only for the rude lady to cut me off.

“Yes, you’ve said it before.” She says with a glare that I can see reflected in the window. “You’re here because you believe that your old orphanage director-” she pauses here to scoff “-was the CEO of Silver Works.” She scoffs again as if once wasn’t enough. “Ridiculous.”

Yeah, this isn’t getting very far. But what can I do?

It does sound rather outlandish when you think about it, even if it is the truth. Not that I know why he was working as an orphanage director despite being the CEO of one of the richest companies in the world.

Nothing I can do but ignore the lady though, since she can’t legally call the cops or the security officers in this building unless I’m being an actual problem for their office. And since they can’t get in touch with Allen until he is done with his meeting, and I proved in some ways that I’m at least connected to him thanks to that little badge he gave me, I can sit here for as long as I want.

But I do wish he would get here sooner, because this lady is annoying. Or at least let someone else get here to take her attention away from me.

As if on cue, the phone over at her desk rings, saving me from the hell of sitting here with her constant discriminatory nagging.

It’s not my fault I’m an orphan from a Tier 3 city. So please take that nasty face you’re making at me and shove it in a pot somewhere.

Why a pot? Not sure.

Why not?

“I’m not done with you!” she says, still making that face before turning around and walking back across the empty reception room, past the many empty chairs towards her own desk where she sits down and grabs the phone. “Hello? You’ve reached the Silver Works upper reception. How may I help you?”

I try really hard not to scoff at the obvious difference in treatment.

It was like a switch flipped in her head the moment I mentioned ‘orphan’ and ‘Tier 3’. In fact, just hearing the term orphan tends to make people tense up, mostly out of fear that the orphan may be a changeling in disguise – something that started over one hundred and fifty years ago. Kind of sad, but not something I haven’t grown at least a little bit used to now. After all, the number of times I’ve been turned away from the universities here in the capital city of the Terran Republic, Terra, is way too many to count. Which is surprising, considering that I didn’t even realize they had that many universities to begin with.

Then again, they have a lot of stuff in a Tier 1 city that a Tier 3 doesn’t have.

Flying cars for example.

I let out another sigh while focusing on the peace and not so quiet outside of the building. At the many people going about their day. The flying cars, the shields, everything else that this city has that we didn’t have back home.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

All of it makes it just how clear the world is.

In fact, if I had to describe the world in some way, then I’d say it were like a video game. One with handicaps depending on where you’re born, rules set in place only for those who don’t have the strength or backing to ignore them, and no clear cut way towards victory. Just one endless battle of wits, blood, luck, and a touch more blood in the case of Demonic Assaults that everyone has to navigate through every day of their lives.

And one where certain people-

I glance at the receptionist lady happily speaking away with too many platitudes to count towards whoever it is on the other side of the phone.

-have a fun little handicap boosting them far above others even at the start of the game.

I lean back in my chair while closing my eyes and facing forwards again.

Just the idea of moving up in the world to a Tier 1 city, where I can live a much better life without others bothering me. It’s all I really want.

But I only have a few more months left to shoot for that goal. Just a few months. And then it’s to a Tier 2 city I go instead.

Damnit.

What the h-

My thoughts are interrupted by the feeling of my phone – recently purchased – buzzing in my jacket pocket, making me practically jump out of my skin from surprise. I quickly reach into my pocket while opening my eyes, only to find a message from Belle, my best friend. Otherwise known as Arabellia Silvester. The CEO of this very company, Allen Silvester’s daughter.

[Did you find dad yet?]

Following the message is some sort of emoji with a tanuki holding a sign with a question mark. Where she managed to find an emoji like that is beyond me, but I do have to admit that it is a little cute.

[No. Apparently he’s in a business meeting right now in a different building, so I’m left listening to the nagging of a receptionist.]

Her response follows incredibly fast, making me wonder just what she’s doing right now.

[Aww, just hold tight until he gets back, champ! And don’t get yourself into trouble!]

I blink once, then twice at the text before narrowing my eyes.

Now why on earth would I get myself in trouble? I’m perfectly well behaved.

[You know very well that I’m not the one who gets into trouble all the time. That would be Arthur, your little sweetheart.]

I respond with a smirk.

She’s had a crush on Arthur – our other best friend, and another orphan from the same orphanage I stayed at – for who knows how long. Even if neither of them have said anything about it to each other. So it certainly makes for fun teasing.

Before she can respond, I send another message as if as an afterthought.

[Also, stop treating me like a child just because you’re three inches taller than me.]

I nod my head to myself, satisfied with my work, only for my mouth to drop open when she responds back to me.

[I’m four inches taller, and you know it. So you can go ahead and stop with your little teasing, because Arthur and I are already a thing!]

They’re what?! How! When?!

I begin to type in response, ready to barrage both her and Arthur’s phones with texts, only for a loud cracking sound to echo throughout the city, following which a shattering sound akin to glass comes from the skies. When I look out the window, I find myself staring at a blood red moon, with various cracks in space high above the skyscrapers.

A loud alarm begins blaring throughout the building, following which the power to the lights shuts off, leaving us in the dark with the only light being that of the emergency lights and the red light of the blood moon.

“Nonono no no noooooooo!!!” I faintly hear the receptionist screaming while dropping the phone and seemingly having a full blown panic attack. This snaps me out of the daze I had entered the moment I saw the blood moon.

I immediately get up from the chair, feeling slightly dizzy from getting up so quickly after being seated for a long time. Or at least, that’s what I’m guessing it is. Then I rush over to the lady, where I try to shake her as I ask, “Do you know where the closest bunker is?”

But she’s too deep in her panic attack to notice me. All she manages to do is mutter barely audible words, most of which make very little sense in her panic.

So I slap her in the face, snapping her out of it before shouting, “Do you know where the bunker is!?!”

That gets her attention, and she finally blinks, sanity returning to her, followed closely by anger – likely at me slapping her. But fortunately, she has enough sense to drop it and get up, albeit shakily as she answers my question, “T-there’s one on the other side of the f-floor.”

I nod my head in appreciation before standing up straight again, feeling the dizziness growing stronger and stronger in the process.

Strange. Why isn’t it going away? I’m pretty sure I’ve been standing for long enough now…

Deciding that it doesn’t matter right now, I quickly focus on the receptionist who is still frowning at me.

“Are you just going to stand there and frown at me?” I ask her rather cynically with a frown of my own, snapping her out of it as she turns away and unlocks a door that was behind her desk and leads me through it to a point where the glowing red arrows are. I don’t have to ask where they’re pointing, considering all of the drills we’ve had back in high school in case a Fracture ever occurred there. Which it didn’t.

I glance down at my phone as we’re walking, noting that my internet connection has been severed before I look up again and massage my temples.

Just what’s going on?

The original bout of dizziness is still growing stronger, but with a headache mixed in with it now.

At some point we begin running down the halls, mostly because of the lady rushing off after a loud crash sounds from somewhere nearby. Then, after a few minutes of running, I begin to hear a strange sound. Almost like a bug skittering across the ground.

“Miss, do you he-” I begin to ask her, only to cut off as a large, one meter long spider suddenly bursts through a door, smashing it in the process before landing on the lady, who is now screaming her head off. “Holy shit.”

Finding that the demon – who I’m assuming is probably a Spawn, the weakest amongst all of the demons – has already pierced its incisors into the lady’s face, killing her and cutting off her pained screams, I perform an about-face and run away as fast as my legs can carry me. But in the process of running so quickly, I only find that my headache and dizziness is growing worse. And to make matters worse, my eyes and the top of my head are beginning to hurt as well.

Shit shit shit, what the ever fliiipping hell is going on!!!!

I glance back to find the original demon that had appeared snacking on the receptionist’s body while two more of them make their way out of the door before noticing me.

And it just gets worse.

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