Heavy Mind

'I need a breather.'

These past few days have been hectic for me; I kept feeling overwhelmed throughout the day. This had to be a joke or something.

'What do you mean I'm an inheritor of some family that used to be at the pinnacle of power?'

Somewhat, I was relieved that I was not the son of those two pieces of shit… but what now? Was I supposed to get revenge for these people I don't even know? This overstimulation has had me on edge constantly.

There are no people alive to see what happens. I could just reap the benefits of the things they left behind and move along, just take the evaluation test and get a license. That's it, just work hard and get my brothers a better life.

'I sound ungrateful, but what can one boy do against a whole organization?'

It suddenly feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders. All these expectations put on me all of a sudden made it seem like I was forced to take action when in reality I had no obligation towards them. After all, they had abandoned me.

'This is absurd…'

[Stop talking to yourself, you annoying rat.]

Suddenly, a voice sounded through my head. It was a familiar voice I had heard before when I entered a trance-like state and relived someone else's memories. This has to be Bruno.

[Yes, dipshit, it's me. Took you long to figure that out, genius.]

"Stop talking to me like that."

[You know you can just talk to me in your head, rat. I reside inside you after all.]

'What do you mean?'

[If you were more attentive to your own body, you would realize that your marking has fully developed.]

Pulling my long sleeve up, right on the back of my forearm, was a marking exactly shaped like the shadow creatures that I came across in the castle.

'Wha…'

Before I could form a thought, Bruno interrupted my thinking.

[Before you spiral into your thinking, let me explain. Your marking is that of a Xa'anath, a creature found in Rank 1 Rifts, specifically the castle of ————]

'The castle of who now?'

Again, just like the times before with the woman in the castle and Bruno, I couldn't comprehend the name that was being said.

[Oops, I forgot that can't reach you yet. Nonetheless, you need to prepare yourself if you want to survive past the one-month mark.]

'You say all of this but still are not explaining a thing.'

[You'll realize in due time, rat. Just wait.]

'Wait, Bruno…'

Even though there wasn't much silence, I could sense he went away. I didn't even ask this weirdo about the marking or how it worked.

This one is going to be hard to deal with, along with having so much already going on inside my head. Now I have a second voice I need to worry about…

[Pretty much, dipshit.]

'U sure are pretentious as hell for someone that's dead.'

Again, the voice fell silent.

Gathering as much information as I could, I managed to find out a couple of things about the Royal Angel's household. Number one was that their situation wasn't that good currently; secondly, an underground organization had risen named "The Fallen Angels."

This second piece of information had already reached me before, as I'd heard some gang members of the slums talking about a fallen noble organization that was plotting against the Royal Angels.

Although I didn't know the current scale of this organization, I was sure that they could do a substantial amount of damage. Be it to their image and public opinion or overall strength.

The Royal Angels wasn't some low-level hierarchy that you could overthrow overnight. Having 20 Rank 1 Rift Walkers meant having enough firepower to take down one-fifth of The Sanctuary of Dawn. Tearing down one of the five famiglias was easy for them.

The only reason they had not done so before was due to {Xander's Pact of Ceasefire} that was signed by all the famiglias after the civil war ended. With no other choice, the Blue Moon famiglia, which was the DracoFists' main supporter and ally, signed it to ensure their survival.

Not that I blamed them, even if they did take that decision by themselves. This only meant that they were in a position where they could stand among the other three remaining famiglias.

The closest branch of Royal Angels to Dark Waterfalls was the Ace of Spades branch with Earl Graham as a duke, the first target of my startup plan.

I first needed to get a TEC, short for Talent Evaluation Card, needed to complete the procedures for getting a Rift Walker's license. Although I had an illegal one, I was exempt from earning any X points that you could turn in for rewards, weapons, ability crystals, etc.

For the past two years, ever since I started earning some money, secretly I always put some aside. This was to hopefully get my brothers into the academy.

Laughably, I had only managed to gather a measly 170 silver, which for us was a lot, but they couldn't get anything done.

Breaking the jar, I picked up and counted 100 silver, which I needed for the TEC and 20 for the License Test.

'I'm sorry, brothers, but as soon as I start making money again, I'll make sure to get you into Xenovia. I promise…'

Dressed up in leather armor and two daggers strapped to my belt, I left the house after greeting the twins.

'Let us pay Ace of Spades a visit now, shall we?'

The tough road from Dark Waterfalls leading up to the inn right next to the entrance of the Dukedom roughed me up. Enough to look out of place where I was currently going.

Usually, the only people that gathered at the Ace Inn where they distributed TEC cards were well-respected mercenaries part of the dukedom or nobles that loved drinking and playing snooker.

This meant that I had to just suck it up and end this quickly to avoid the hassle of getting humiliated.

In a swift manner, I entered the inn, going unnoticed for the first few steps, but just seconds after, I was noticed by the people sitting down giving me dirty looks.

"Since when were rats allowed here, hahahahah?"

Some redhead noble said while slamming down the beer pint he was holding, making me flinch in response. I was still very wary of my surroundings right now.

Just after a few more steps, I had already reached the bar stools that were lined up. Quickly jumping in one of them, I gestured for the bartender to come around. Despite the questioning look he gave, he slid across the bar with no effort.

"What do you want, kid? Don't you see you're causing too much noise with just your presence?"

"I need a TEC, right now."

"Oh… kekekeke. We don't give those to rats for free. Go beg somewhere else."

Slowly feeling a sting in my arm, I felt my control slip as three solid knives appeared behind the bartender's neck.

"Listen here, pissant. If you don't bring out the TEC, I'll make sure to find it myself after I rip your damn soul out."

Feeling the knives on the back of his neck, the bartender quickly pulled a pack from under the counter.

[That's how you do it.]

The control over my body came back.

'You idiot, if I planned to threaten in the first place, I wouldn't have done this.'

Quickly pulling the pack, I noticed two of the waiters coming close from behind.

[Duck.]

That single word made me react in time to the knives of both waiters.