Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

After a brief hug and congratulations, Natasha gazed at Adam, eyes filled with intense love and gratitude. In her mind, she could hear the excited voice of her new sister when their gazes locked on Adam. She was acting like a puppy greeting its master and just happy being around him.

"So where have you been? I was quite worried as I was unable to contact you. Also, could I ask about the new look? It looks… interesting if I say so myself."

She was pretty intrigued by his sudden change in fashion and wondered why he even had a need for an eyepatch. She was genuinely worried, wondering if this was the result of some wound she had inflicted on him when she went berserk due to Fenrir's influence but he simply shook his head in response to her words, seemingly already aware of what was going on in that head of hers.

"For now, this eye of mine is pretty sensitive. I simply need to protect it from light for some time and it will be back to normal. No worries."

As for where he was? A calm smile was Adam's only response. He couldn't exactly reveal that he had been exploring the Dreamscape and met Sae on one side, while on the other, he spent the day shadowing Tsubasa now, could he? Deliberately, he had been even dying repeatedly while traversing the dimensional portal that Tsubasa was able to invoke with her powers… just to increase his resistance to the shredding of space and perhaps get a skill related to the space-time continuum side of things. [1]

She nodded her head in understanding. She was curious but clearly also realized the fact that she didn't have to hurry him to reveal his thoughts. He would simply tell her what he wanted when he deemed it necessary to reveal that piece of information. She had all the trust in the world for her.

"Hello, Miss Aleksandra. It has been a long while."

Aleksandra looked at Adam, there was a faint tremor passing through her body, goosebumps rising slightly as she looked at him but the feeling did not last for long. Hiding the feeling of discomfort she felt near his presence, she bowed quietly and elegantly,

"Greetings, Young <aster. I am happy to see you as well."

The last time she had avoided Adam because she was feeling quite awkward being near him. She had a strife against Cecilia and it was safe to say that this did not end well for her… Well, saying it like that was the understatement of the century but it was best not to uncover that hole.

However, while it was one thing to avoid him when he was just Natasha's friend or more precisely, boyfriend…

… Now that he had essentially become the savior of their lives and that of their honor and wealth, she had to show her gratitude to him to the best of her abilities.

"The Master and Mistress had expressed their wish to contact you and discuss some things… they wish to express their gratitude for the help you have provided to us in this dark hour of ours."

"I told them you might be busy but they really insisted I relay that to you."

"I will indeed be busy soon and by soon, I mean tomorrow actually. I am going on a mission in France."

There was no need to hide that he was the Red Magician [1] since they already saw him yesterday in all his glory.

"The mission should last around 10 days to around two weeks at most. So I should be back by the time of Christmas."

"So we will be separated so soon?"

"What can I say? Adventure beckons me. I have to answer its call, I have no choice."

There was a tired smile on Adam's face. After all, he truly had a little too many adventures for his taste. Hence there was just no way he could really be happy about this surplus of stress and tension that was being piled atop his body every single day.

If it wasn't for the Divine Weapon and his desire to test out some things, he would have not gone at all and would have simply opted to rest his days out comfortably. He had a hunch that things in France would be tricky to deal with and very much of a pain.

"Anyway. I came here for your birthday and see how the two of you are."

He gave a pointed look at Natasha when he said the word two and then looked around before speaking in a small voice, "I also wanted to speak to Fedora. I want to see how she is doing."

Adam could have simply explored every nook and cranny of the house with his domain, but who knew if Fedora was bathing or doing something of the sort? Something that would hinge on her privacy. He did not want to inconvenience her, even if she would never know that he had been inconveniencing her.

"Fedora… Is… Well…"

Natasha hesitated ever so slightly once Fedora was mentioned. Not knowing how to formulate it, Adam simply sighed before speaking himself.

"Has she gotten traumatized? Fear, guilt, hesitation? Is she refusing to leave her room?"

"Huh… Yeah. Was it that evident?"

"Pretty much. At least for me, it is. Well, in a sad way, this isn't truly surprising. Every time I have an adventure, someone, and by that I mean, generally me, ends up being traumatized in one way or another."

It was quite sad how all his adventures were mixed with world-ending scenarios and sad circumstances. He was starting to wonder if someone was out to get him or something like that.

Otherwise, it was hard to explain his whole situation logically.

"Where is she? I will talk to her myself."

Both Natasha and Aleksandra looked at each other. In the end, Natasha nodded and Aleksandra relented, "Follow me please."

Adam nodded and now that he knew her mental state, there was no way he would not take a look in her room. Depressed people should not be alone after all.

You never knew what could happen when they reached their limits. The steps they could take in that state of mind were not pretty by any means. Thankfully, while she seemed lethargic, it was clear that she had no traces of self-harm… yet.

'Though, I might not know how fast they regenerate.'

It was only after they reached Fedora's room that Adam stopped observing her condition while Natasha promptly knocked on her room.

"Fedora. It's me. Open the door, please."

No answer could be heard in response. Natasha looked helplessly at Adam who simply grinned before approaching the poor and knocked as well.

"Fedora. I will go from 10 to 0. If by then you do not open the door, I will blast it open. Okay?"

"Huh?"

Both Natasha and Aleksandra were quite a bit surprised, however, what followed was far more surprising, so surprising that it went beyond their wildest imaginations…

"10… 0, Open Sesame!"

Bang~!

The entrance opened wide, as the door was sent flying, finally shining light in the darkened room and showing a Fedora with a face that looked like that of a deer in front of headlights.

It was quite the funny situation in a way and Adam fought to not laugh as this was a serious moment. Laughing now would make it difficult for her to open.

"You didn't count…"

"Never said I would."

— And so Adam entered the hastily opened door. It was time to be on the side of therapy for once.

[1]: This will be detailed in the Side Story soon. I think in the future all Dreamscape chapters will be named Side Story.

[2]: Just realized that Red Magician sounds awfully like Scarlet Witch. I swear this wasn't intentional. Perhaps it was subconsciously? It's funny how the two deal with reality manipulation. Obviously, Scarlet Witch is at a far higher level, at the moment that is. I could definitely use some inspiration from her later on.

(AN: edit as of 30/12/23?Hi! I keep apologizing again and again and I am sorrier by the day. I can't say this won't happen again. I am not trying to give an excuse, but I at least want to give you information about what is going on. As you know I terminated my contract with SHK not long ago with WN. Recently, I was in another contractual talk with a publishing house more geared toward Amazon and we were striking a deal for an Ebook/Paperback and most importantly, an Audio release. Yep, my story might be an audio which is honestly pretty cool. Anyway, after the WN contract, I was more careful and took the time to contact a few lawyers I know to read the contract. Increase in Royalties, more room to break the contract, and limited license in both rights and time. Wasn't easy but I had numbers of SHK to back me up and now we have settled on the clause it will soon be time to sign. Since I need to do all this alone, it's eating my writing time and for that, I apologize once again. Even now, I should be doing research and discussing but I decided I need to write because you guys are getting short-handed in this situation. Hopefully, once everything settles, I will be freer. )n(-OIn