Chapter 761: New Era [Top 5 in Golden Tickets Bonus]
Sylas looked at the change calmly.
If Professor Broussard thought that he could catch Sylas off guard with such a thing, he was sorely mistaken. But Sylas also had a feeling that that wasn't really the point.
If they were sitting across a chessboard, this was nothing more than an opening move. But the fact this move had been played told Sylas all he needed to know about the opponent he was facing.
Sharp. Cunning. A man with backup plans for backup plans.
And maybe that was only natural.
This Professor Broussard had what seemed to be an unnatural control over the government of Terranova. His means were unordinary, and because of that, he was someone that Sylas always planned to take seriously.
However, this move was entirely unnecessary on the Professor's part. That was because... Sylas never planned on trying to use Guiz City as a leverage play or for some extra strength.
Quite frankly speaking...
He simply didn't need it.
With a step, Sylas crossed the skies, landing in the City Lord Mansion. Soon, he had made it to a familiar fathomless room. Even now, it still looked like the cooling cores of a nuclear waste facility, its glowing waters seemingly carrying the weight of the City Stele floating above it. Sylas descended the winding stairs and calmly chose to claim the City Stele and move it. This time, he didn't sacrifice it for Free Experience. After all, they would need this City Stele in order to mitigate the losses they would suffer from moving Casstle Main.
The city rumbled and then lost most of its functions. Its walls remained intact, and the homes didn't vanish, but the system oversight crumbled right before their eyes.
Now, it was not much different from a city before the Summoning.
This would put those in the slums in an even more vulnerable position, but Sylas could only place this to the bottom of his priorities list. Whether they could do anything for them would be decided on Cassarae.
Beyond this, Sylas didn't feel much of a burden to help them. At most, he would allow them to use his name as a deterrence.
The moment the city was moved, the mandate Sylas was under vanished into wisps of smoke. He no longer felt compelled to do anything.
'A Mandate Quest, huh...? Interesting.'
Sylas left the City Lord Mansion and leapt into the skies. His peacock unfurled out from a vine beneath him and shot into the distance toward Casstle Main.
**
Cassarae stared at the City Stele before her, her eyes bouncing back and forth between her notification screen and the cube. She had to double, triple, quadruple check the date.
"Three days..." she mumbled beneath her breath.
Eventually, she looked up at Sylas. He sat there calmly as though he hadn't accomplished much at all. There was even this lazy look in his eye that left her halfway between wanting to tackle him to the ground and well... wanting to tackle him to the ground.
She stood to her feet, rounding her desk. She kicked out at Sylas' chair, forcing it to roll back on the hardwood floors.
Sylas raised an eyebrow, but didn't stand.
"How did you do it?" She asked.
Sylas shrugged. "Not much. Tasia deserves a lot of credit. She did a lot of the information groundwork I needed. If not for the fact I wanted to finish quickly, I might not have had to fight a single battle. We would have won a Culture Victory."
With the way the city was on his side, a Culture Victory was certainly in the cards. But instead, it was more efficient to use a near Culture Victory to weaken Plinli's City Lord Title and kill him in one fatal sweep.
After all, one way or another, Sylas had to kill him.
Cassarae stepped forward and took a seat on Sylas' lap.
"What's this?"
"Shut up." Cassarae grabbed Sylas' face and tasted his lips. She lingered for a moment, breathing in his scent.
She pulled away to find a calm pair of green eyes staring back at her. But for some reason, the lack of passion in them only made her more feverish.
This time, however, she controlled herself.
"You can be useful." Cassarae nodded as though she needed to kiss him to confirm them.
"Can be?" Sylas asked.
"Only sometimes. At other times, you're more annoying than you're worth."
"Is that so?" A light smile tugged on Sylas' lip.
Cassarae stared into Sylas' eyes. "Tell me the truth, Sylas Brown. What is it that you like so much about me?"
Sylas paused, his thoughts moving in slow motion compared to what his mind should be capable of.
"Hm. I don't know." Sylas finally replied.
Cassarae shook her head. "You don't see that as a problem?"
"Not really."
"You overanalyze everything, and then suddenly the one time something all men can't seem to control comes to life and you've lost that ability. How do you think that should make me
feel?"
"You're far from the only beautiful woman in the world."
Cassarae rolled her eyes. She knew that these words weren't a threat, they were a simple statement of fact. Sylas was saying that if it was just about that, then he would have fallen for some other woman long ago. Why waste time chasing after her?
"And here I thought you had learned to be romantic. You're still an insufferable asshole." "Some things shouldn't need to be explained so clearly. Humans are fallible creatures, and a lot of what we think doesn't have a single, pinpointed reason for it. Someone who can distill their feelings in such a way is either lying through their teeth or has a mental capacity far beyond my own."
"So that's it? You want to get off with a "just because" answer?"
"I mean, I have an answer. You probably just won't like it any more than the one I've already
given."
"Let me hear it."
Sylas shrugged. "I met you first."
Cassarae's eyes flickered. "You lied."
"About?"
"I like that answer far more."
Cassarae gave Sylas a cheeky tap on the cheek and moved to stand, but she had hardly done so
when she found herself pinned between her heavy desk and Sylas.
She leaned back, almost falling over. Luckily, Sylas caught her waist with an arm.
"Hey, I didn't consent to this."
Though she said this, her blue eyes bounced between Sylas', their noses practically touching.
She licked her lips as their breaths intertwined in a steamy heat.
"You don't seem to care very much about consent." Sylas said, a fire lighting in his eyes.
"Well I'm a woman. That's allowed in only one direction. City Lady, remember? Get with the
times."
"It's a new era."
Their noses touched.
"And who dictates the rules of that era? You?"
An overbearing momentum came from Sylas.
"That's right."
There was a deep cadence to his voice that made Cassarae almost melt into his arm. The heat
built up in her chest, a fire practically sparking between her legs.
"Kiss me already, you fucking-."
Sylas pressed his lips to hers, pulling her body so tightly into his that they practically melded into one. Their tongues found one another's, intertwining in a rough dance.