Chapter 605: Rowan [2]
For the past days since he had regained his mind, these thoughts had chased him through every moment. Every time he sat down to eat. Every time he closed his eyes to sleep. Every time he stood at the base’s perimeter and looked out over the wilderness.
Olivia’s face was always the last thing he saw before the dark took him.
He had been putting off the decision.
Now Moon was unconscious in a medical bed, and someone had to leave the base for help.
Rowan was going to be that someone.
The decision felt like tearing down the first wall of a fortress he had spent a long time constructing around himself. Once the wall came down, the others would follow.
Once he was back on Earth, he would deal with the issue at hand.
And then.
Then, when the mission was done, he would go find her.
He would knock on the door of the house they had chosen together. He would find out what remained. Whatever the answer was, he would face it.
Because Moon needed the help, and Rowan had spent long enough hiding from the world he had lost.
He stood up from the chair.
’Olivia. I miss you. I hope you miss me too.’
He turned toward the door.
"Watch him. I’ll be back within a few hours."
Talan nodded silently.
Rowan walked out of the medical wing, heading to the gate.
♢♢♢♢
Rowan stepped through the return gate and set foot on Earth for the first time in years.
The world hadn’t changed the way he had feared it would. The buildings around the outer gate station were the same buildings he remembered, although there were a few more.
The permanence of the city felt reassuring.
Then he looked at the people.
Something was off. They walked with their heads down. Their eyes darted toward passing shadows more than they should have. He watched a mother pull her child closer to her when a stranger walked past on the opposite side of the street. He watched a group of teenagers glance around before speaking, as if the walls might be listening.
The city looked normal.
But the people were afraid.
It didn’t take long to understand why.
He caught fragments of conversation as he walked toward the transit center. A shopkeeper murmuring about the eastern district. A vendor complaining about business being down since the attack.
A woman on the corner whispering that her cousin still hadn’t been found in the wreckage. A newsstand displaying headlines about the dark organization, the reconstruction, the casualty counts, and the ongoing search for survivors.
The massive screens along the transit plaza played the coverage on loop.
Rowan stopped beneath one and watched for a few minutes.
The footage showed everything he needed to know about what had happened.
Then a name he recognized appeared on the screen.
Moon Outlaw.
The segment showed him from the tournament’s promotional footage. The anchor called him a young hero. A rising star. A national genius.
The report detailed his role in exposing the dark organization’s operations during the battle, his coordination with Ascender Tom Glassy and the Light Sword Saint Alaric Sky, and his personal takedown of two Surpasser assassins with only one arm.
Rowan’s chest tightened when he saw the arm.
’So that’s how he lost an arm.’
Rowan kept moving.
At the transit center, he pulled up a public information terminal and did some more digging. It didn’t take long to fill in the gaps. Moon’s connection to the Glassy Group was public.
Tom Glassy had personally sponsored him. Moon had been fighting alongside Tom during the tournament attack.
Which meant Rowan needed to reach the Glassy Group directly in order to help Moon.
"The Glassy Group. Main branch."
The terminal displayed the location. Kingdom-wide headquarters. Three hours by the fastest space shuttle from his current position.
A local branch existed much closer, but Rowan dismissed it immediately. He couldn’t risk the information leaking through a mid-level office where staff might sell the intel to competitors or, worse, to whatever remained of the dark organization’s networks. Moon’s condition was a serious matter. It needed to go directly to someone senior enough to make decisions without triggering an internal review process.
Main branch. VIP transit. No local detours.
He turned toward the orbital station.
Then he stopped.
His hands moved to his belt. His pockets. His storage ring.
"Shit."
He didn’t have any money.
Fortunately, he had other assets.
He had spent time hunting Second Sanctuary beasts alongside Moon and the other freed Evolvers. His storage ring was stuffed with Second Order beast corpses, cores, and miscellaneous loot from clearing out Layla’s other converted slaves. Any legitimate trading center within a kilometer of the orbital would pay him well for that inventory.
He located the nearest trading center on the terminal map. Two blocks from the orbital.
The transaction went smoothly. His inventory was extensive and unusual, collection that trading center appraisers rarely saw walk in through the front door. They processed his items through several rounds of verification, offered him fair prices, and completed the exchange quickly.
By the time he walked out, he had a VIP trading card, several million dollars in his account, and enough remaining inventory in his storage ring for whatever he might need next.
He walked back to the orbital station.
He booked the fastest VIP shuttle to the Glassy Group’s main branch.
Three hours later, he stepped off the shuttle at the corporate campus.
The Glassy Group headquarters was an imposing structure at the center of a private district. Soaring glass towers around a central courtyard.
Rowan walked through the front entrance and approached the reception desk in the main lobby.
The receptionist behind the counter was polished, professional, and clearly trained to filter out unqualified visitors. She looked up at him with a polite smile.
"Welcome to the Glassy Group. How may I help you today?"
"I would like to speak to your senior leadership. Or, if possible, to Ascender Tom Glassy directly."
The receptionist’s smile stayed in place, but her eyes flickered slightly. Looking at him as if he was silly.