Kaori stepped outside, leaving Ishiki to process that bombshell while nursing his bruised skull and wondering exactly what kind of "princess" she was talking about.
After some time they were both walking through the same garden once again. The calm settlement of broken people was gone, now... replaced by what could be called, almost like a rushed party hall.
People clustered in groups, talking excitedly. Children, and even elderly were walking towards a singular point at the center of the garden.
Everyone seemed happy. Full of energy. The stressful, hopeless environment had executed a perfect one-eighty turn.
Ishiki couldn't help but wonder... how can a person's presence change so much. 'Figures they call her princess.'
Kaori was moving with a steady pace, Ishiki matched her stride and asked. "So, Where did this princess return from, anyways?"
Kaori glanced back at him with complicated expression. "Twelve days ago, she was chosen as a Player and sent to her trial just like the rest of us." She paused, then added with something that might have been respect, "But she came back alive. That's the important part."
'Damn. Twelve days. Some people made it back faster, sure, but she returned and immediately took charge again. That takes incredible willpower—or incredible stupidity. I would never.'
Together they entered the crowd proper, and Ishiki immediately regretted it.
Bodies pressed close, too close for comfort. The air was filled with the smell of unwashed humanity mixed with cooking fires and something else... hope, maybe, if hope had a scent.
They squished through the gaps between hundreds of people and walked to the center of the crowd. Ishiki felt like he will be dissolved in the crowd if not for the strong lady walking in front of him. First time in his life... Ishiki realized how small he was.
'I still have have time to grow taller... not like I won't grow. Right?'
Finally, they made it through the crowd and now Ishiki could see beyond what few people remained.
At the center of the garden, surrounded by a loose circle of space that people instinctively maintained, stood a figure that made Ishiki's heart skip a beat.
The princess.
His eyes widened. 'Wait... What is she doing here?'
The princess was standing with a confident expression on her face, accepting greetings from the crowd. A smile played on her lips that was—Beautiful, warm and perfect.
And completely fake.
Ishiki had seen that fake smile all his life... on his mothers face, enough to recognize a performance when he saw one.
But everything about her was devastatingly real.
'No. No way. That's-'
Koyo clan's only daughter and the Princess.
Ishiki would have never guessed that Kaori was talking about an actual princess, he thought that these people might be calling their savior a princess. Of all the people who could have survived Neo-Tokyo's fall, she was perhaps the least likely.
But she was alive and leading these desperate people.
She wore an armor—if you could call it that. Thin, form-fitting material that looked more like reinforced cloth than proper protection. It was destroyed from a number of places, revealing pale ivory skin beneath that seemed to glow in the firelight. The armor kissed every curve of her figure with shameless precision.
Pink hair cascaded down her back like wine catching light, with a few rebellious strands falling across eyes the same impossible color. Those eyes swept across the crowd, making everyone feel seen without actually seeing anyone.
Ishiki found his gaze fixed on her, unable to look away.
She looked stunning, breathtaking and... dangerous in equal proposition.
Just like a particularly sharp blade, wrapped in silk.
He remembered her visit to their school— has it really just been over a month? he couldn't quite believe it. Back then she wore formal then, looking a regal diplomat making a PR appearance at a lower-sector institution.
Pristine and Untouchable. Someone who existed in a different stratosphere from people like him.
Now she looked like someone who'd kill without thinking twice. And somehow that made her even more captivating.
Ishiki jerked his head. 'This is bad. What am I thinking.'
He took a deliberate step backward, creating distance between himself and the gathering. His Corruption was already making him say stupid things to normal people. What would happen if he got near someone this... overwhelming?
He could already imagine the scene: she'd greet him politely, and he'd immediately say something unforgivably perverted. Then he would be either executed, Or worse, exiled from the camp to die in the ruins.
'No. Better to avoid her entirely. At least until I figure out how to control this damned Corruption.'
He spotted a concrete bench at the garden's edge—partially hidden behind a cluster of supply crates, and made his escape, slipping away while everyone's attention remained fixed on their returned savior.
No one paid him any attention anyways. Which was a good thing, honestly.
He mentally commanded 'Status' and the status window got summoned in front of him. The same platinum lustrous window as before.
Nothing had changed... then he focused onto the Exclusive corruption part and it opened in front of him on a new window.
======================
Corruption - [Phantom Voice]
Rank - [Exclusive]
Corruption Description - [Listen closely When the Reaper speaks, You may hear the whisper Of everyone they've reaped.]
======================
Ishiki's eyes twitched, there was nothing else, he hoped to see some kind of ability description of sorts he saw when he looked at that horrifying protocol.
He lowered his gaze, gritting his teeth, but remained calm.
'Okay. The Corruption. Let's figure this out logically. Every time I've said something stupid, it's been... what? My actual thoughts? Things I was thinking but would never normally say out loud?'
He traced back through the incidents, and concluded that it has to do something about his desires or his thoughts.
'I would say for now that, it makes me speak my thoughts. Unfiltered thoughts that should stay locked in my brain. That's... that's very bad. Very, very bad if I can't control it.'
"Screw It." he cursed out loud.
The system had given him a Mythical title and skills to make him grow stronger, but at the same time cursed him with the inability to keep his mouth shut. It was almost poetic in its cruelty.
"Ishiki!"
Someone suddenly called his name out loud. He snapped his head up, instantly knowing who'd called him.
That vile woman, Kaori.
The crowd had dispersed while he'd been lost in thought. People drifted back to their tents with satisfied expressions. Where hundreds had clustered moments ago, now only a dozen figures remained at the garden's center.
And every single one of them radiated something that made Ishiki's skin crawl.
Authority and power.
Standing among them, Kaori waved her hand with exaggerated enthusiasm, gesturing for him to join them as the group turned toward the school building.
The princess was there too, of course. Already walking toward the entrance.
And Kaori had just invited him to join them.
'Oh no. Oh no, no, no—'
But refusing would be worse than going. In a survival camp where the strong decided who lived and died, making enemies of the leadership was a death sentence.
Ishiki stood slowly.
And walked toward the group of powerful Players who'd survived trials and earned their place at the top of this new hierarchy.
He sighed. "This is going to be a long night."