William Drawhand got acquainted with what a Liaison was pretty quickly, but it still wasn't easy for him to accept that an Expert outranked him.
However, he was still shocked that it was Nick who had saved him.
How had an Expert managed to sneak a pill and a weapon into his cell without him noticing?
William had looked out, and when the light vanished, the objects had already been there.
"You can stay here for now," Nick told William. "You should get reacquainted with normal life first before doing anything else. I would advise you to stay in Crimson City for a month before you think about your future."
"You could try becoming another Governor. You could join another city as an Extractor. You could join this city. You could also try becoming an Agent right away. There are many options, and you should think about it for a month. Just tell me what you want in a month, and I'll forward the message to Aegis."
William was still a bit surprised that an Expert was talking to him like that, but he nodded anyway.
Too many things had happened today, and he just accepted the shocking events as they came.
Nick ordered a Veteran to be William's assistant and to show him around the city.
A Hero was a powerful person, and they needed to be treated with respect.
The Prison was put into the new Containment Unit, and the doors were locked.
Only Nick and Aria had access to the Containment Unit.
Time passed.
Over the next couple of months, Nick dealt with the future of Kugelblitz's Heroes.
Nick requested a new position for the Heroes in Crimson City from Aegis.
The request was accepted, and a special position for the Heroes in Crimson City was created.
Aide.
That was the name of the new position.
An Aide was a Hero who worked for a city and took orders from the Governor.
In the past, the position of Governor was only used by two kinds of people.
People who had no more ambition in their lives after reaching this level of power or people who wanted to become Agents and wanted to prove themselves.
While Aegis needed Agents, they still couldn't accept just anyone.
It was important that the Agents were loyal to Aegis.
A corrupt Agent could destroy several cities.
But if an Aide was corrupt, they would only damage a single city.
Additionally, Aides were not only evaluated on their personal achievements and powers but also on the city's achievements.
An Aide was chosen by the Governor.
If the city wasn't producing a lot of Zephyx, the Governor would most likely not be very good, and the Aides they had chosen would most likely not be any good either.
That made the Aides invested in the city's prosperity.
A strong city meant a strong governor meant strong Aides.
Of course, this also tied the Aides to the Governor's reputation.
If the Governor was trash, the Aides still needed to back the Governor and make them appear amazing so that they themselves appeared amazing.
This ensured a high level of loyalty from the Aides.
Nick had been the one that designed 90% of the position, and Aegis mostly just accepted whatever he wanted.
This was supposed to be an experiment, and if Nick was blocked now, the experiment would become tainted and become almost meaningless.
Nick could do whatever he wanted with Crimson City as long as he improved profitability for Aegis.
Eventually, Jornis, Vanessa, and Libran officially handed Kugelblitz's shares over to their two most powerful Specialists.
But not before handing the Crimson Fungus to Crimson City.
It was done.
The city was now unassailable from the inside.
The only five Heroes of the city worked for the city directly.
Five?
Yes, five.
William Drawhand decided to become an Aide to become an Agent in the future.
All Heroes were united.
The city had absolute, untouchable power.
Over the last couple of months, Nick showed the new Aides how he ran the city and what his thought process was while making decisions.
Keeping his thought process secret was no longer necessary and would only damage Crimson City's future.
Nick taught them that only power was relevant and that the only relevant power was Aegis.
Aegis owned the city, and as long as they represented Aegis, they would be the most powerful.
But he also told them that they had to be genuine.
Aegis would only be their shield as long as they genuinely wanted to help Aegis.
One more important part was that success was different for the city than it was for companies.
Long-term growth was much more important than short-term growth.
Since the city was the most powerful party by far, there was no reason to hastily make decisions.
Things had to be properly thought through before being implemented.
After learning from Nick, the three former Heroes from Kugelblitz realized why they had lost against him.
He was right.
Nick was Aegis.
For several moments in the past, they had thought that they could deal with Nick.
However, that had never truly been the case.
Because of one simple reason…
Killing Nick meant committing suicide.
It was essentially mutually assured destruction, and in such a situation, one's conviction was most important.
How much danger were they willing to put themselves in for something they wanted?
And Nick always went all-in.
The Heroes from Kugelblitz didn't share such convictions.
They believed that they could have gone through with killing Nick, but those had only been coping mechanisms.
Deep inside, they had always known that they would never risk attacking Nick.
After all, they didn't want to die.
Finally, they accepted it.
They had lost against a 36-year-old Expert.
The Aides also accepted that, while Nick's physical power was weak, his strategy and conviction were things that they should study and implement.
They also understood why Aria was willing to trust Nick so much.
Nick's conviction was contagious.
While they didn't exactly copy his ideology, they couldn't deny feeling a flame burning inside of them when they felt his undying conviction to improve the city and the world.
The way he spoke almost made it seem like changing the city, or even the world, was an inevitability.
They had never met anyone that exuded such an aura of conviction.
It could also be described as zeal.
Or fanaticism.
Eventually, the five years were up.
Nick had become Crimson City's Liaison five years ago.
Any day now, somebody would arrive to analyze Crimson City's development.
Five days after the deadline passed, Crimson City received a transmission.
In three days, someone would come to look at the city.
When Aria heard that, she had mixed feelings.
Their relationship had iced over.
When the two of them had started their relationship, Aria had said that they would be able to deal with anything.
Yet, was Aria actually willing to do anything now?
This relationship was very different from how she had imagined it to be.
She had tried to initiate intimate contact with Nick before, but he always walked away when it seemed to develop.
Aria knew why this happened.
Deep inside, Nick believed that he wasn't allowed to feel happy.
Whenever any kind of happiness or excitement appeared in his heart, he felt a mountain of guilt and pressure.
He was betraying his conviction.
He was betraying all the innocent people he had killed.
Aria could tell that Nick genuinely wanted to be in a relationship with her, but she could also tell that Nick couldn't bring himself to do anything with it.
In fact, as soon as they entered a relationship, they talked even less with each other than before.
Yet, even though Aria understood Nick, she was also extremely frustrated.
At some point, understanding couldn't suppress the frustration anymore.
One partner couldn't always give, give, and give.
At some point, they also needed to take.
And Nick wasn't giving anything to Aria.
He was only giving to the city.
This was not a relationship.
They had had a couple of years to deal with Nick's issues, but they made zero progress.
And now, Nick had to leave again very soon.
There was no more time left to deal with Nick's issues.
Naturally, Aria wasn't willing to keep up such a relationship for the years or decades it would take for them to see each other again.
There was no point.
The relationship had been on life-support since it was born.
"Nick, can we talk?" Aria asked after she entered Nick's office.
Two days from now, the inspector would arrive, and Nick would most likely leave with them.
"I'm planning some things right now," Nick spoke without looking at Aria.
"It's important," Aria said with an uncomfortable voice.
Nick frowned, sighed, and looked up at Aria. "What is it?"
Aria took a deep breath.
"We need to talk about our relationship," Aria said.
Nick felt two conflicting sensations.
Dissociation and intense pressure.