Chapter 46: Order
For someone like Cole, whose enemies vastly outnumbered the few allies he possessed, remaining inconspicuous was always the wiser choice.
The less attention he attracted...
The longer he would live.
The bustling streets of Blackstone City gradually swallowed the three of them as they passed beneath the towering city gates. Merchants loudly advertised their goods from both sides of the road. Horse-drawn carriages rumbled across the stone pavement while awakened warriors carrying bloodstained weapons came and went without pause.
Despite the city’s liveliness...
The three walked in silence.
Once they had entered the city, the Summers siblings naturally slowed their pace before eventually stopping.
It was time to part ways.
Jessica offered Cole a faint smile before turning around alongside Ethan, the two siblings gradually disappearing into the endless stream of pedestrians.
Cole remained where he stood.
His eyes silently followed their retreating figures.
His expression was unusually complicated.
More than once, he opened his mouth as though intending to say something.
Yet every single time...The words stopped at his throat. His brows unconsciously furrowed.
Should I tell them...
Or should I keep it to myself?
The answer wasn’t nearly as simple as it appeared.
If the cure was exposed, countless people would undoubtedly become interested in him.
Perhaps even the Blue Pegasus Family...
Or worse...
The force hidden behind Originanl’s death.
Remaining unnoticed had always been one of Cole’s greatest advantages.
Yet...
As his gaze landed on Jessica’s somewhat frail figure, memories involuntarily surfaced within his mind.
The overwhelming heavenly lightning.
The collapsing barrier.
The burning pain that had nearly erased his consciousness.
And those two slender arms that had stubbornly wrapped around him, shielding him from the final wave of destruction.
She had nearly died...
To save him....A complicated emotion quietly stirred inside his heart.
Cole slowly exhaled.
Some debts...Could not simply be ignored.
His previously hesitant gaze gradually became resolute.
Just as the Summers siblings were about to disappear into the bustling crowd...
Cole finally spoke.
"Wait..."
His voice wasn’t loud.
Yet amidst the surrounding noise, it somehow reached their ears with perfect clarity.
Almost as though they had been waiting for him to call out...
The siblings stopped simultaneously.
Jessica immediately turned around.
The curiosity hidden within her bright sapphire eyes was impossible to conceal.
A faint smile unconsciously appeared on her face.
Meanwhile, Ethan’s brows drew together.
His sharp gaze landed directly on Cole, carrying both vigilance and confusion.
"What is it?"
Cole didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he slowly walked toward them.
One step.
Then another.
The bustling sounds of the marketplace gradually faded into the background.
The distance separating the three quietly shortened until only a few steps remained between them.
Only then did Cole finally open his mouth.
His voice was calm.
"I have a cure..."
A brief pause followed.
His gaze shifted toward Jessica.
"...for your condition."
"..."
Silence.
An eerie silence suddenly enveloped the three of them.
The bustling city around them seemed to vanish completely.
The merchants’ shouting...
The clattering carriage wheels...
The conversations of passing pedestrians...
Everything became distant.
Only one sentence continued echoing inside the siblings’ minds.
A cure...
For her condition...
Ethan’s pupils visibly contracted.
For several long seconds, his mind went completely blank.
A cure?
Did he hear that correctly?
The illness that had tormented Jessica since childhood...
The condition that countless renowned physicians had declared incurable...
The disease that had forced his sister to repeatedly endure the agony of heavenly lightning merely to suppress its symptoms...
Cole had just casually claimed he possessed a cure.
His first instinct was disbelief.
Ridiculous.
Impossible.
If such a cure truly existed...
Why had none of the great alchemists discovered it?
Why had the Summers Family exhausted countless fortunes searching for one in vain?
Why had they traveled across kingdoms, visited ancient ruins, and consulted legendary healers...
Only to return empty-handed every single time?
Every ounce of reason inside Ethan screamed that Cole’s words were absurd.
Yet...
When he looked at the young man standing before him...
Those thoughts gradually faltered.
Images from the Lightning Domain uncontrollably resurfaced.
The impossible bloodline fusion.
The terrifying lightning storm.
The monster he had personally witnessed Cole become.
And finally...
The overwhelming display of strength that had completely shattered everything Ethan considered common sense.
This young man...
Had already accomplished far too many impossibilities.
Slowly...
The ridicule that had nearly escaped Ethan’s lips disappeared.
In its place remained only silence.
He stared quietly at Cole, his expression more serious than ever before.
Beside him, Jessica reacted differently.
Her delicate fingers unconsciously tightened around the corner of her sleeve.
Her breathing became noticeably uneven.
Hope.
Fear.
Disbelief.
Longing.
Countless emotions intertwined inside her beautiful eyes.
She understood better than anyone what those words truly meant.
A cure...
Those two words represented something she had almost forgotten how to dream about.
She didn’t question him.
She didn’t ask for proof.
After everything she had witnessed...
After everything Cole had already achieved...
She simply looked into his calm eyes.
Then...
Almost imperceptibly...
She gave a gentle nod.
After witnessing the siblings’ reactions, Cole didn’t continue trying to convince them.
He neither made grand promises nor attempted to paint an impossible future.
Instead, he simply said one sentence.
"One week."
His calm gaze moved between the two of them.
"Meet me again after one week."
Jessica and Ethan exchanged a brief glance before nodding almost simultaneously.
Neither of them asked where.
Nor did they ask how.
The conversation ended just as simply as it had begun.
After agreeing on a place and time, the Summers siblings turned around once more, gradually disappearing into the endless sea of pedestrians.
Cole remained standing exactly where he was.
His eyes quietly followed their departing figures until they were completely swallowed by the bustling streets of Blessed Moon City.
Only then did he slowly withdraw his gaze.
A thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
His mind was already racing far ahead.
To survive in this world...
Personal strength alone isn’t enough.
His fingers unconsciously tapped against his arm.
Strength could allow one to survive.
But surviving...
Wasn’t the same as thriving.
If he wished to stand at the very top...