Chapter 32: Chapter 32: With great power comes great responsibility… and money. So much money.

The fabric of my suit pulled at my chest. The moonlight illuminated the fabric and cast a favourable glow on me. I liked it. I could count the number of toddler birthdays I remembered on one hand. I was confident that they weren’t as fancy as the one I was going to.

Jackson, Indra and my dad had all laughed when I said I’d go in my regular clothes. Seeing that my dad had joined the group’s chuckling had stung.

They’d made it up to me by presenting me with a custom-made suit. I ran my fingers across the fabric, the material soft and pliable in my fingers.

I hope I didn’t wrinkle it.

William Wilhelm. That was a name I hadn’t heard for a while. I’d laughed when I first saw him, and I still laughed every time I imagined an armour wearing baby. It was so silly.

That didn’t mean I was going to underestimate him. In this world nothing was as it seemed, and I didn’t know what his [wisdom] skill did. I assumed it was similar to my Mark, considering he’d been speaking in full sentences to me like a terrifying demon baby. Now that little guy was all grown up.

Did that mean his armour had to be adjusted?

“Are you excited for the big day?” My dad asked.

“I think this means a lot more to you than it does to me dad.” I replied.

My dad had been shaking nervously all day. I don’t think he got a wink of sleep either. When William’s father had promised to invite him to his son’s birthday it was a dream come true.

I’d learnt a lot about the structure of Zodiac in the time that I’d been there. The lower ranks were tin masks, the bronze masks were what we’d call junior managers, and the silver masks were the head honchos of divisions and sections of the compounds. Above all of them were the gold masks

My knowledge of the organisation heads was minimal, communicating with any one of them was way outside of my pay grade. In fact, I only knew one.

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Master Wilhelm, father of William Wilhelm, was a gold mask.

Did he have a first name? I wasn’t important enough to know.

What I did know was that this man was my dad’s boss’s boss. Possibly even one more boss above that. To make a connection with him was my dad’s dream come true.

It had been a sad realisation when I found out that my dad was a corporate brown noser.

“Nonsense, this day is important for both of us.” My dad’s tone turned serious. “Remember what Jackson said.”

“If I have to do something, do it big.” I repeated the words the silver mask had told me.

We planned to have my debut at this party. I would finally show myself to the world.

I’d improved a lot this past year. More than Indra, Jackson or Marv had predicted. They didn’t know how much mana I had, but they suspected. I couldn’t hide the endless streams of rocks and dirt they emptied from the inventory box every week.

Whatever number they suspected, I had more than that.

 

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