Chapter 29: The lucky cat

Minutes passed in placid silence with nothing but the sound of the passing gusts of wind and the occasional echo of Vienna's gentle yet sporadic footsteps to fill Arthur's already bored mind. He couldn't see, he couldn't hear, he couldn't even talk, all of his senses had been limited, and this wasn't even a punishment, more so a repercussion of the speed that the beautiful mother was moving at, his untrained body couldn't keep up with the mighty strides of the advanced mage stage girl.

In short, Arthur was a human doll, a mere ornament that accentuated Vienna's beautiful appearance with his less than stellar visage, though thankfully, no one was able to witness the scene of the boy draped across Vienna's outstretched hands as the two quickly traversed through a brief spell of empty land that connected the Zepar estate to the main entrance to the city, undetected and unperturbed the couple promptly arrived in front of a sizeable cobbled wall in the centre of which was a crevice, the entrance to the city so well known for its red light district.

Placing the shivering boy down, Vienna gently stroked Arthur's dishevelled hair, fixing any noticeable issues with it before lovingly staring at the child's absentminded expression as he, in turn, stared at the monument. 'Woah…' Arthur could only stupidly mutter, his brain urging him to spill forth the famous lines that every iseakai mc in existence must have said at least a dozen times upon their initial transmigration. 'This really is a fantasy world,' Arthur continued, apparent glee quickly reaching his apathetic face at the fact that for the second time today, he had managed to forcefully connect himself to the mc's of old, following in footsteps that simply didn't fit him, yet he found them strangely comfortable.

Arthur's gaze remained dazedly fixed on the scene before him as hundreds, no, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people from all different walks of life trailed into the bustling city. The previously stagnant silence was now an unbearable mixture of gibberish and the clapping of thousands of disordered steps, yet such trivial matters didn't phase the once housebound Arthur. However, what did bring emotion to the peasant's face was the appearance of the people that entered and left the gargantuan city like ants, exiting and entering their nest at such a rapid pace that even Arthur, with his enhanced sense of sight, failed to keep an eye on one specific person for longer than a couple of seconds as he observed each and every person walking into the place he had technically called home for the past seven years. His gaze fixated on those with different features than himself, or moreover, that of his entire race.

Yep, for the first time since his transmigration Arthur had finally caught sight of some of the different races that filled this expansive world. From the cat girls dressed in scantily clad dresses that waited along the side of the cobbled monolith preying upon those with evident lust in their hearts to the stern yet soft elves whose business in the city seemed to be of utmost secrecy by the way their eyes frantically darted around the place, shying away from those of their own kind as they too fell victim to the rambunctious atmosphere of the city that could only be labelled as the capital for all things lusty.

'It's odd,' Arthur absentmindedly commented, 'I thought I'd freak out a bit seeing these previously animated races in the real world, with all their specific species' oddities and traits, but for some reason, I can't help but feel…well calm…Is this because I'm technically one of them as well? I mean, I'm an incubus, right system? Or at least I will be once my bloodline awakens' The boy continued, blaming his odd sense of normalcy on his bloodline. This fact hadn't and likely never would be confirmed by his not-so-handy system that once again didn't even spare the boy a moment of its unused time, even if it meant allowing Arthur to fall deeper and deeper into a pit of a delusion that he would likely never escape from less he beg for a miracle.

"Amazing, isn't it? All these people from all different parts of the empire and even outside of it united in their desire to enter the city that I so painstakingly worked on," Vienna suddenly asked, breaking Arthur free from his self-imposed trance. However, his mind still remained enthralled with the concept of race and his own background. Had he always been an incubus by blood? If what the system had to say about his bloodline being connected to his soul was anything to go on, then yes, that would be the case, but such an answer felt odd to Arthur. It just didn't sit right with him for some strange reason.

If he really had always had the potential to awaken his bloodline as an incubus, then wouldn't that throw the entirety of earth into panic, or rather, didn't that confirm the existence of demons and other such races and creatures on earth, or was he, with his weird soul connection an exception. Just thinking about all the necessary requirements for Arthur's existence filled the boy's head with a racking pain that he would rather avoid for the moment. He could always debate the meaning of his existence at a later date. Still, this opportunity to spend a day out with Vienna, to meet some supposedly influential people, was something that would only happen once.

"Mmm, it is," Arthur dazedly nodded, making sure to keep his honed gaze on the entrance of the city in preparation for Vienna's following question.

"Is this the first time you've seen it? The entrance to Zepar city, that is?" The mother continued, observantly picking up on the boy's starry-eyed expression as Arthur acted "enthraled" by the overwhelming spectacle in a manner befitting a peasant.

"Y-yes," The boy blushingly replied, clearly embarrassed by the ease with which the marquis had seemingly managed to read his mind. "Although I grew up here, I never really knew or paid attention to the people that entered the city, so seeing them all here, I guess it kind of makes me realise just how many people were always around me, whether I wanted them to be or not," Arthur continued his voice dying out into a low murmur near the end of his childish speech, his hands slowly gravitating to his stomach while his eyes momentarily turned dead.

Vienna's heart dropped as involuntary tears of regret began to pool at the seams of the loving mother's beautiful emerald eyes. She hated herself. She hated the fact that she, of all people, had allowed for a place where a child as innocent as perfect as Arthur would have to starve merely for the fact that he was born into poverty, sure Vienna had done her best to prevent such a scenario from occurring with all the job opportunities the city's abundant red light district had created, but that still wasn't enough and Arthur was the clear evidence as to why, she had to do better, to prevent a world that her dearly beloved peasant would be ashamed of, to stop other children from experiencing the horrors that the boy had clearly seen. And this meeting today would hopefully be Vienna's first step towards such a goal.

However though her heart was set out on this illusory aim to eradicate homelessness in her land, her mind seemed to overlook one glaring fact that besides Arthur, she had yet to see or even hear tales of any other child who had had to suffer through this illusory plight. In fact, Vienna had yet to even see another peasant besides her hired child. Arthur truly seemed to be an illusory singularity, a red herring that only served to make the marquis overly conscious of her city's well-being while presenting her with an issue that didn't even exist.

Soon a strange sense of warmth began to radiate from the dead-eyed Arthur's back, along with the feeling of two rubber-like spheres pressed against the child's emaciated form in a seemingly futile attempt to merge with Arthur. Warm air brushed against his now reddened ears while the sounds of Vienna's suppressed moans assaulted Arthur's mind and heart.

"It's ok. You're safe, Arthur. You'll never be alone again," The mother seductively whispered in a failed attempt to "reassure" the boy whose previous act had all been one big ploy to earn some more affection points from his current target. Though she obviously remained oblivious to this fact, the mother's actions still perplexed the stunned Arthur. Sure he had been vying for the woman's attention, but he didn't think his little sob story would affect the mother to such a degree, nor did he understand why she had gone so far out of her way to comfort him. Everything that Vienna did. Every action that would be deemed normal, in the eyes of anyone else, was so foreign to the young child who had grown up without so much as a handshake from his parents for his entire life, let alone a hug or even the tiniest semblance of affection. Nonetheless, it seems the act of the stunned boy had succeeded as along with Vienna's comforting warmth came the system's affirmation of the rise in the mother's love.

{+5 Love (Vienna Zepar)}

{+1000 Affection points}

"We should get going now, Arthur. We're still running late after all," The mother chimed with heated breaths, reluctantly freeing the boy from her vice-like grasp and turning her gaze towards the entrance to her city. For what reason she did so was unknown to the boy who just assumed that Vienna was anxiously looking forward to her meeting with these affluent guests, when in reality, Vienna was too embarrassed to even meet the delirious Arthur's gaze. Her heart rapidly beat in response to the lingering warmth of Arthur's reluctant touch while her face simmered in a deep shade of brilliant crimson. 'What did I just do~ I hugged him, right?~ I definitely hugged him!' Vienna furiously muttered, the already unstable rhythm of her heartbeat increasing with every second spent fretting over her precious person. 'He won't think less of me for doing that right~ I swear I'm not someone who just does that to anyone, Arthur~ Please don't compare me to the woman you grew up seeing in the red light district!' The mother continued subconsciously coming to terms with her growing feelings for Arthur while at the same time remaining unaware of the obsessive cravings that came along with it.

"O-ok," Arthur dumbly mumbled, still stunned by Vienna's sudden increase in skin-to-skin contact. "Are you going to pick me up again or-"

"We're walking!" Vienna hurriedly blurted. She couldn't hold Arthur anymore, not so soon after that. She didn't want her heart to give out from beating too fast. She couldn't die, not after making such a declaration to Arthur, a declaration that held a hidden meaning that both parties remained unaware of.

However, before either could take a step, Vienna begrudgingly turned towards the child, her face still a furiously bright red, she spoke. "From this point on, I recommend you wear one of these," Vienna said, tossing what seemed to be a thin piece of translucent cloth towards Arthur which he deftly caught in one swift motion.

'A veil?' Arthur acutely observed turning the piece of fabric in his hands before stretching it towards his face only to lower it once again, evident confusion now apparent on his average face. 'Why do I need one of these? It's not like I'm some sort of super hot cultivator, nor am I anyone famous?' The boy inwardly questioned with his rhetoric monologue being promptly answered by the now hidden-faced figure of Vienna, her otherworldly charm obscured by her own piece of green fabric.

"You'll need one of these to conceal…you're um…good-" Vienna mumbled, her expression hidden though Arthur could tell even through her veil that she was a blushing mess right now. "Looks," The mother continued in a hushed whisper so low that even Arthur had difficulty hearing Vienna's mutterings. However, he still did, and her worries though seemingly justified through the view of the enamoured woman, went utterly unheard by the inwardly snickering boy.

'Ah, that's it. Vienna must think I'm some super attractive kid thanks to our bloodline connection…I'm sorry to say this, Vienna, but I'm absolutely average. Even my charm stat says so… well, it says I'm slightly good looking but who the hell would pay attention to some marginally cute kid,' Arthur inwardly ranted, his head a steaming mess. He wasn't used to this, not one bit. Being complimented was something Arthur simply couldn't handle, not after being neglected all his life, so he hurriedly sought to dismiss the mother's claims, even if that meant the violent oppression of his already humbled self-worth.

"I um-don't think this is really necessary, sorry, mistress Vienna," Arthur apathetically stated any joy that may have previously prevailed in his clouded mind now gone, his heart and, more importantly, head were calm as he dismissed his boss's blatant order. Usually, such an act would be paramount to treason, a fact Arthur knew yet one he chose to perfectly ignore. After all, Arthur knew that he could pretty much get away with any issue concerning Vienna, hell, he could probably attempt an assassination against William, and the mother would likely still protect him. That's just what love makes someone do.

"I-is it not," Vienna dazedly nodded again, inwardly praising the thin veil that shielded her otherworldly visage from the breathtakingly beautiful boy that glowed like the brightest of stars in the mother's lust-filled eyes. With this precaution in place, Vienna could gaze at Arthur with no repercussions. This piece of fabric really was the greatest investment Vienna had ever made. "Then you should at least change out of your blazer. We're trying to go incognito, so it'd be best that we remove anything that could point towards your affiliation to me," Vienna responded, piquing Arthur's curiosity with all the precautions Vienna was taking to avoid being spotted. However, Arthur quickly reasoned that all her actions must have been taken in order to avoid getting swarmed by some of the more bold tourists of the city. After all, this was a fantasy world, so the chances of them running into a couple arrogant men who couldn't help but yelp at any pretty girl they stumbled across weren't precisely zero.

"Ok!" Arthur beamed, quickly removing his emerald green blazer and placing it upon the luscious green ground of the hill they had temporarily made their base of operations, leaving him in his thin, almost see through long sleeved dress shirt, the fabric of which seemed to be increasing in transparency with every month passed in Vienna's servitude.

"*Haah* *Haah* Y-you look good," Vienna heaved, momentarily turning away from Arthur to catch her laboured breath. "Well then, let's go," She continued, taking the boy by his pale hand and dragging him towards the expansive crowd of people that they proceeded to wade through like the most dangerous of waters. At any moment, someone could lose their temper and use magic, taking the lives of hundreds of people in the process. Everyone was a walking bomb, and yet, nothing happened besides a passing glare or two focused on the supposed "Mother and Child" pair as they easily bypassed their way through the Zepar family's supposedly strict security gaining entry into the city that could be deemed as the very epicentre of human sin.

The city was beautiful, with high Georgian-era buildings stretching as far as the eye could see. At the same time, busy people went about their everyday lives, their hurried steps sounding more akin to the gentle pitter patter of rain against the city's white stone streets as opposed to the city's entrance thunderstorm of noise. Shop stalls littered the side of the road, with goods of all kinds on sale, while the serene odour of cooked food blessed Arthur's exposed sinuses. Yet this serene environment was nothing more than an illusion, a front to the city of sin. Sure this place may be nice, but this type of scenery only occupied roughly ten per cent of the city's total land while the rest, well, the rest belonged to the night.

"Come on, we need to move", Vienna called, tugging at Arthur's frozen hand and dragging the boy towards what could only be described as the heart of this depraved city. With each step the couple took, Arthur could observe the scenery change. At first, it wasn't very noticeable. Simply more people appeared while the houses remained the same. However, this image too began to gradually distort as more and more people flooded into the already crowded streets, the petulant stench of body odour and smoke replacing the delectable whiff of food that had previously plagued the air. In contrast, less-and-less houses lined the streets, their size decreasing the closer Arthur and Vienna moved towards the centre of this hell hole with their uses becoming increasingly blurred, changing from the occasional bar to straight-up brothels that openly showcased their goods. The deafening roar of banter and yells echoed in Arthur's forcefully closed ears as the boy attempted to shield himself from the occasional street fight, elves mingled with humans while beast folk displayed their otherworldly strength and beauty.

'Despite being a red light district, this city is probably as close as possible to the most ideal place for all races to exist in perfect unity. I mean, everybody, every race, is primarily fueled by their needs, and this city provides them with the perfect opportunity to fulfil these needs. There's no needless conflict here simply because one race is genetically superior to the other. No, they're all scum here, and they know that' Arthur inwardly monologued, brushing past a scantily clad woman who stood by the opening to a brothel, her voice a booming volume that echoed out into the crowd as she beckoned in some potential customers.

"How far is it until we arrive at the meeting place?" Arthur curiously questioned his hold on Vienna's hand tightening in an avid attempt to avoid getting separated from the future succubus, who in turn subconsciously tightened her grasp on the boy.

"It shouldn't be long, Arthur. Just keep an eye out for a casino called the lucky cat," Vienna answered, turning another corner to reveal yet another crowded street. The bright lights blinded Arthur with all their vibrant colour, giving form to the previously invisible cloud of smoke that drifted through the compact space like a thick fog. Girls hollered at the pair, with some even grabbing the stunned Arthur, clearly unaware of the boy's age, as their gaze proceeded to shrink in horror upon seeing the child they had won through the courtesy of their blind grab into the crowd. In contrast, others seemed to almost revel in the child's slightly above-average figure as they proceeded to tug at the boy's free hand in a futile attempt to remove him from the agitated Vienna, who simply released a bit of her newfound intimidation on the woman who promptly let the child go. Though that wasn't to say that Arthur was the only one being hollered at in this depraved place, no, Vienna too had her fair share of attempted assaults as men became overly bold in the cramped space, their hands snaking their way up to the woman's plump asset's only for them to be crushed by the overwhelming strength of the unknowingly over possessive boy.

"AHHH!!" One man screamed, recoiling away from the couple and falling head first into the crowd of passive onlookers, many of which had become desensitised to such wails of pain in the rambunctious place. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY HAND, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" The man screamed, his face a cherry red shade of rage while his bloodshot eyes leered at the apathetic Arthur.

"I broke it, and if you try that again, I'll break the other one," Arthur coldly said, his voice a chilling tone laced with dread. All the while, his apathetic eyes seemed to swirl with a repressed madness. He didn't want to fight this man, but if it came to it, Arthur was sure he would win.

And sure enough, upon seeing Arthur's obsessive gaze, the man released an involuntary whimper, like a beaten dog before its strict owner. He felt powerless, utterly useless despite the boost to his confidence that the alcohol in his blood provided, he still lacked the nerve to confront this chilling child, any other man he might have fought. Still, for some reason, some ungodly reason, he refused to face this child of all people. Maybe it was because he had so effortlessly broken his elemental extraction stage hand, or perhaps it was his harrowing gaze, but whatever it was, the man feared it. He feared this passing child like a demon, an overwhelming being in which he simply couldn't engage.

"O-Ok," The man skittishly whimpered, disappearing into the crowd to hopefully never be seen again. Turning away from the vanished locale of the drunkard, Arthur was met with the veiled figure of Vienna, her head loomed over his short-statured body like a giantess obscuring her obsessive gaze. Her breaths were heated, steaming as they condensed against the green fabric, staining it a darker hue, while her mind repeated the same maddening mantra of praise towards her dearly beloved Arthur. She had got what she wanted. This whole ploy of entering the city in incognito had paid off. Arthur had defended her, protected her against someone out of his own free will without the need to be ordered. He cared for her, a skewed fact that filled the mother's frozen heart with an overwhelming heat, a warmth so ferocious that it instantly thawed Vienna's chilled emotions revealing her obsessive desire solely focused on the now moving figure of Arthur, his dainty hands pulling her through the faceless crowd of bystanders with a minute blush plastered on his stoic face.

'Arthur~ hehehe,' Vienna dazedly laughed, drunk on the love that spewed forth from her euphoric mind.

{+3 Love (Vienna Zepar)}

{+600 Love}

{(Vienna Zepar) Has reached 110% on the love metre

The host is now capable of receiving the multiplied point bonus from (Vienna Zepar)}

The system bluntly alerted, informing Arthur of the now depraved status of the woman he so dearly clutched onto. She had broken past the limit, just like Charlotte. Her fate from this point on was basically sealed, a fate Arthur knew would eventually bring him to ruin. However, instead of feeling despair at the system's announcement like one would expect, a broad smile instead began to pull at Arthur's snide lips. This was good. With Vienna like this, Arthur now had a more efficient method of farming points without having to worry about hitting the 200% mark on one already established yandere.

However, before Arthur could even comment on Vienna's now promoted status, his gaze was forcefully drawn away from the translucent blue panels of the system and to a new series of sensations. A brilliant building stood before him, occupying the entire area at the end of the seemingly infinite street he and Vienna had been dredging through for what seemed like the past half hour. Painted in gold and supported by a copious amount of intricately designed pillars of the same colour, the expansive building acted seemingly like a fly trap to all the nearby bystanders, many of which filed into the locale like a herd of sheep eagerly awaiting the delight's that lay in store for them. Brilliant, multicoloured lights shone in Arthur's eyes, spelling out a name he had been so desperately searching for.

'The lucky cat,' Arthur dazedly mumbled. He had heard of this place once before in his playthrough of the gate to Avalon when he was in the midst of completing Charlotte's route, but that was just it, he had only heard tales of the place described as a wonderland by many of Zepar city's occupants, so experiencing the entrance to such a place for the first time, Arthur was left rightly stunned.

"We're here," Vienna muttered, pulling at the boy's motionless figure, beckoning him through the crowd of people until they eventually reached the front door to such a grandiose place. "Arthur, I need you to suppress your power before we enter," Vienna absentmindedly commented, already self-assured in the realm of Arthur's powers and the capabilities in which the boy possessed, a self-assurance that would promptly be broken by the squirming boy's following statement.

"Umm, I-I, I kind of can't do that," Arthur bashfully stammered, preferring to bite the bullet and admit his shortcoming to the now stunned Vienna rather than keep this delusion going by making up an excuse for his lack of control.

"Eh…" Vienna dumbly blurted, her veiled face contorted into a dumbstruck expression. "What do you mean you can't suppress your power? I thought everyone knew how to do that. It's basically an instinctual capability that comes to you the moment you advance through the stages," The mother continued, bewildered by Arthur's admittance of cluelessness.

"Well, I can't do it. My power's stuck at the elemental harnessing stage, and I can't repress it," Arthur continued, his face now a brilliant beet red.

"Ummm…" Vienna mumbled her mind, a turbulent storm of thoughts on how she should approach the situation. Vienna had been so sure that Arthur would have been capable of such an easy feat that her whole plan of action revolved around this seemingly obvious ability. So now, left with not even a second to spare, her brain began to revolt against her. There was no answer to her current plight. She either left the boy here and refused to take him in with her to the meeting out of fear that they appraise his level, exposing his monstrous talent, or she simply threw caution to the wind and placed all her cards on the fact that her guests would merely overlook the child she had been chirping so much about recently.

Faced with such a conundrum, the usually cool-headed marquis was at a loss. She wanted Arthur to be with her. Of course, she did. After all, this whole meeting was basically arranged out of the self-created need to introduce the child to the people he might very well be working with in the future as head of the Zepar family, but at the same time, Vienna didn't want Arthur's talents to be exposed in fear of the envy such a prodigious child may earn from the more snobbish members of the upper echelons.

"Arthur,"

"Yes?"

"We're going in," Vienna affirmed, her heart beating at such a rapid pace that the mother questioned the possibility of it thumping out of her chest. Vienna had come to a decision, one rooted purely in selfishness. Vienna didn't care about exposing Arthur to the world. That was her "husband's" issue, nor did she seem to have the forethought to ponder the repercussions of such an action. No, Vienna's love-driven mind simply arrived at the answer that would allow her to spend more time with the person she held dear. She wanted Arthur. She wanted to be near him every second of the day. In Vienna's now impulsive mind, any second spent without Arthur was a second wasted.

At Vienna's heed, the two resumed their march towards the entrance of the well-off establishment, the sound of rigorous jeers and shouts soon greeting the couple's ears along with the slow, methodical tune of a song that seemed to have been composed by the very gods of this world with the way it seemed to ease the couple into a weirdly comfortable atmosphere in which their heads felt light, as though connected by a string that their thoughts had to pass through in order to affirm their every action.

"Cover your ears, Arthur," Vienna commented, shrugging off the invisible aura of serenity that seemed to embrace her otherworldly body with an invisible aura of her own.

'Is this some type of spell? No, it can't be, I can see the instruments that are playing the tune, and with pseudo mana sense, I can confirm that they're not using any magic, nor do their instruments show any signs of being enchanted with runes, so then what? I definitely know that something's going on. Is this a technique, or is it simply the melody that's making me feel so carefree,' Arthur inwardly commented, his ears now plugged by his dainty hands while his eyes remained ever fixed on the band that performed this mystical melody.

However, just as Arthur was about to continue his rhetoric debate, he was guided away from the entrance of the famous casino and pulled inside the mystical building. Gold. That was the only word that could even encapsulate the scene that greeted the child's ever-open eyes. Everything was just so golden, from the many tables filled with an ever-increasing number of guests to the gigantic pillars that supported the blindingly bright roof, everything was painted in gold, or at least that's what Arthur initially thought. That was how he reasoned the existence of this exorbitant amount of wealth, but he was wrong. This wasn't paint. Paint didn't glimmer under the beautiful light of the establishment's many diamond-encrusted chandeliers. Paint didn't reflect one's image so perfectly that one would be convinced they were staring at a mirror. No, this was real gold. Every structure, every tile, every inch of flooring in this bedazzling space was made of real gold.

'Holy shit…' Arthur's jaw dropped at the exorbitant display of overwhelming wealth. 'Just how pretentious do you have to be to do this type of shit,' Though that shock only served to act as a momentary buffer on the boy's true thoughts, he didn't know the owner of this casino. Of course, he didn't. Arthur had never visited this place before in his playthrough, so his mind naturally gravitated towards anger at the presumed male owner of this place.

"We're heading upstairs," Vienna's faint voice could be heard echoing past Arthur's muffled ears as the pair soon began to journey up the golden staircase, much to the unknown amusement of the many guests who stared at the couple, eager anticipation glittering in their hollow, bankrupt eyes. After all, it wasn't every day they saw someone foolish enough to climb the stairs to the second floor, to the boss's quarters and the land of royalty.

However, what the dead-eyed gamblers didn't expect was the fact that both Arthur and Vienna went completely unhindered in their journey up the gold-coated staircase. Nobody came to stop them. No security showed up to pause their journey, to beat them and throw them out of the establishment for their gross arrogance. Nothing happened. They simply continued their flight up the staircase, their gentle footsteps resonating like the loudest of gongs throughout the silent expanse as all eyes remained ever fixed on the couple.

Were they royals? No, they couldn't be. They weren't dressed the part. If they truly held a place amongst the upper echelons of the Abraham empire, their appearance here would have been much gaudier, their dresses wouldn't be so bland, nor would they be as unaccompanied as they were. Where were their bodyguards? Where was their pretentious attitude? Why weren't they snobbishly looking down at the lower class like the scum they were? Such questions rattled in the mind of all who experienced Vienna and Arthur's ascent, their inferior minds unable to fathom the simple and obvious fact that the couple were royalty. No, that simply wasn't a plausible outcome to the many, but what was, was the possibility that perhaps the guards had left their stations. Maybe this was their chance to ascend that forbidden staircase for themselves, to take their place among the upper-class, albeit for a millisecond. This was their chance to take back the money they had so effortlessly lost to the money-grubbing owner of this soul-snaring establishment.

With their eyes flashing with undisguised greed, many left their stations amongst the golden tables, their destination the assumed unguarded staircase. However, the moment their feet touched the golden monolith, their bodies froze as a tremendous pressure befell the group, and their breaths halted. At the same time, some among the many simply collapsed under the sheer power that pressed against their paralysed bodies. The staircase wasn't unguarded. It had never been left unattended for even a second. They thought Vienna and Arthur were simply fools that just happened to get lucky, but they, they were indeed the fools. Too ignorant and too self-absorbed in their ideas of what royalty should be, they seemed to overlook the one glaring fact that remained ever enforced in this hell hole of a casino that a future version of Charlotte had so pleasantly called a paradise to the lower class, and that was that only royalty could enter the second level of the lucky cat unhindered.

'Shit,' That was the one unanimous thought that passed through all the heads of the collective. They had fucked up, gotten cocky, arrogant, and now they would have to bear the punishment for their sin.

"AHHH!" The sound of muffled screams soon pressed against Arthur's daintily clogged ears. He had seen everything. He had watched as the establishment's occupants began their little uprising, only for it to be thwarted seconds later as their overly inflated pride and self-righteousness crumbled under the overwhelming might of the casino's security.

'I thought this place was paradise for the lower class?' Arthur inwardly muttered his mind in a state of forced disbelief after witnessing the supposed treatment of this paradise's guests. But then it clicked with him. Arthur had heard this tale from a biassed narrator. Of course, an aged Charlotte would view this place as a paradise. After all, it was making her money. 'So that's it…. This place isn't a paradise at all. No, this is hell. The music, the golden environment, it all makes sense now. This casino hasn't been made to accommodate the commonwealth. It's been made to prey upon them, to give them a false sense of wealth and grandeur, to lure them into a false sense of security where they place little value on the money they currently have but instead carelessly stake their well-being on the slim almost null chance of making it big….This…This is so fucking scummy,' Arthur inwardly seethed, 'How many lives…How many families has this place destroyed with its predatory tactics,' The boy continued, unaware of the underlying hypocrisy that his statement carried. You see, Arthur didn't really care about any of the shit he was spouting, a fact the boy wasn't even aware of. No, the only thing Arthur inwardly cared about was that he couldn't get ahold of this place for himself like he already did to the Zepar family. Arthur thought he could relate to the lower class; having been considered a peasant all his life, Arthur believed he could sympathise with the broken families, yet for some strange reason, despite his heated head, Arthur felt nothing for them, only repressed regret plagued his heart, regret not directed towards the impoverished people that lined the golden seats, but regret for the fact that he couldn't take this place for himself.

And it was when Arthur was in the midst of this inner monologue that he felt it, a gentle tug at his quivering hands followed by a soothing warmth. "We're here," facing an ornate golden door Vienna hushedly whispered, her voice filled with the caring heat of a lover.

"Hey, Arthur?"

"Mmm"

"Don't do anything that would make them suspicious of your strength, ok?" Vienna warned, her hand tightening around the boy's dainty digits, giving them a tight squeeze in a brief showcase of affection. If only Arthur knew, if he had even the faintest idea of the obsessive thoughts that flowed through the mother's deranged mind, maybe he wouldn't have taken the actions that seemed all but inevitable to the perilous child. No, even if Arthur had known, nothing would have likely changed about this preordained encounter. Every action taken, every minute movement, whether conscious or not, all lead up to this one meeting. From this point forth, the course of his whole life would change. This was the beginning, the prelude to an event that would shake the heavens and make the gods take action. Arthur was about to upset the very nature of this world, awakening a hidden power that should have remained dormant forever.

"Ok,"

Arthur lied as easily as he breathed.