Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

While Adam was discussing various things regarding his weapon with Makarov inside the world of Dreams that he created with his powers, Cecilia's eyes twitched ever so slightly as she felt the power of mental interference that was prevalent in the air all around her.

She hesitated for a moment but once she was sure that the source of this interference was none other than her son— Adam himself, she just shrugged her shoulders and started eating a slice of pizza with relish.

For some reason, she required a vast intake of food to sustain herself these days, as she was almost always hungry, and thankfully she didn't have to fear mundane things such as gaining weight due to her unhealthy eating sprees. With all the calories she was burning passively with just her existence alone, gaining weight or anything of the sort would never become a problem for her in her life.

'He became stronger than before.'

She noted absentmindedly while munching on the slice of pizza as she looked at her son through the walls that separated them. By now she was not even surprised by this phenomenon in the least. Adam's growth curve was basically not something that could be judged using a common standard. He was even more of a monster than his mother was by a large margin and then some. That was how vast his rate of growth was.

Mei might have been far stronger than Adam was now when she was merely 15 years old, but this didn't take into account all the years of rigorous training she had gone through before even entering the double digits in age. 

Some people liked to compare talent with hard work, pitting them against one another as competitors. But she found such discussion boring and meaningless in the long run.

Talent was nothing more than the speed of knowledge acquisition as well as the ability to understand and innovate through gained knowledge and inherent wisdom.

But there was no such thing as talent without work put into it to make use of its specifications. A genius wasn't born with all the knowledge to utilize their talent after all. They needed to learn. They needed to study. They needed to adapt. They needed to first prepare themselves through rigorous work to make their talents bloom.

All of this took effort and sacrifice.

Mediocre people would only see success without paying attention to all the hard work and the extreme amount of luck that was necessary throughout the process.

'My boy must have suffered once again.'

She could only smile a sad smile at that thought as she imagined the number of deaths and torturous encounters Adam must have had to go through to reach his current level of power.

Indeed. He was growing strong and fast. Faster than anyone else in the world or even history, in fact. But such growth had a price attached to it.

She was sad to realize that as a mother. All she could do was observe and be there for him. Wish him success in his endeavors and not interfere in the process.

Sighing once again, she gulped some tonics and stood up. Clearly, Makarov and Viktor were in an illusion right now, an illusion created with her son's powers.

She would—

"Mom…"

Cecilia stopped, a little surprised by the voice that resonated in her mind. She could see that both Makarov and Viktor were still in illusions and in fact, each of them seemed to be in different ones altogether.

She then remembered that Adam had a skill that allowed him to separate his mind into individual self-governing entities and it all started making sense.

"What is the matter."

"I told Makarov the truth."n--O1n

Adam was clear. This secret might be his own to share but it was also Cecilia's secret as well. One she had been bearing for two decades alone.

"I see." She nodded her head, "So this is why you plunged him into an illusion. This is an ingenious idea, son."

"Thanks."

"Makarov is a good man. I didn't like having to lie to him. But now it's all good. What about Viktor?"

Adam shook his head, "I like Viktor but I can't share that secret with him yet. Nothing says someone cannot look into his memories. Makarov is different."

One of the reasons Adam told Makarov the truth was because he was old and steady. He was also an ally of many races and someone very close to Cecilia.

Adam acted friendly with Viktor but they were not very close all things considered. At least not enough for him to share some deadly secret that could make him become hunted throughout the world.

Cecilia chuckled to herself, "So. What else do you want to tell me?" She knew that there was much more Adam didn't tell her. She simply chose not to pry too much into it most of the time. Adam wasn't a child after all. She now saw him as an adult who could take care of himself and his matters, so she decided to respect his privacy.

"I have many many things I want to tell you. So many in fact that I don't think one day would be enough to tell everything."

There were so many things.

About his shadows.

About his adventures in Wonderland.

His fights and lifestyle in the underworld, being under Yui's gang.

His desire to save Natasha.

So many things he wanted to talk about with his dearest mother. But Adam knew that if he told her all that information, she would feel obligated to help and try to alleviate some of the pressure.

This wasn't what he wanted. He wanted her to rest and wait for him to grow on his own. He wanted her to become better and live peacefully.

"Now, though, isn't the time. Rather, I want to ask— could you ask Theresa to lend me a hand? I would be happy if Makoto came to help."

Adam decided that this time, he would be as shameless as possible.

Since there was a traitor in the midst, he would make sure nothing happened.

Even if he had to ask Yui's help for this. 

'I will also ask Hacker.'

In the current situation, rather than power, what was truly needed was accurate intelligence.

Hacker was someone who could actually obtain nearly all possible information through her skill.

But this wasn't enough for him to get through this situation. Adam wanted something more. He did not want to make the same mistakes he had made previously in Hae-Won's case.

He would rather be over-prepared than not enough and lament for the rest of his life.

Having Hae-Won die on him was one thing. But now that Natasha was his, he wouldn't allow anything to happen to her.

'Ugh… I guess I have no choice.'

No. He did have a choice. There was always a choice.

He simply decided to take the most efficient one even if he didn't particularly like it.

Taking his old phone out, Adam scrolled down on the contact list.

There was one number.

A number he didn't erase even after all the years that passed by him.

A number that might not even be active anymore.

But if it was her— he was sure she would still have it.

In the end, he simply sent a message.

[Meet me at our old dating spot.]

[Understood.]

Adam sighed to himself when he saw the immediate response. 

He didn't know what was creepier.

The fact that she still had this number.

Or the fact that she instantly answered him back.

Or the fact that she didn't mind being ordered around by him.

Truly, she was a complicated woman to understand.

He hoped everything would be alright in the end.

"Your expression seems complicated."

Adam laughed, "I guess making contact with the ghost of the past isn't easy."

Cecilia ignored his drama and turned to observe Makarov and Viktor still in trace.

"Sooo…When are you gonna free them?"

Adam scratched his head. "Makarov screamed at me for being wasteful and not knowing how to use a treasure. He is currently using the dream world to do experiments while casting the weapon."

Cecilia was once again speechless. 

Did the old man think everyone knew the entire composition of all the materials they used?

Without such knowledge, the things created in the dream would only have an appearance and nothing more.

"This house is truly filled with Madmen."

She sighed and started eating again. It wasn't easy to be the only sane person in this place.