I carried Clary down the sidewalk like she weighed absolutely nothing.
She, meanwhile, had decided violence was the correct response.
THUD.
Her fist landed squarely against my shoulder.
"...Ow."
THUD.
"Put."
THUD.
"Me."
THUD.
"DOWN!"
"I would," I answered calmly. "But you're making a scene."
"I'm making a scene?!"
"You started shouting first."
"Your carrying me."
"Fair."
She immediately resumed punching me, people walking past slowed to stare.
An elderly woman smiled.
"Aww... young love."
Both of us froze.
"..."
"..."
"WE'RE SIBLINGS!"
"WE'RE SIBLINGS!"
The old woman froze mid-step.
"Oh."
She hurried away without another word.
I looked at Clary.
"That was awkward."
"It was YOUR fault!"
"My fault?"
"You're carrying me like a princess!"
"...Would you prefer a sack of rice?"
"..."
"Actually don't answer that."
She groaned into her hands.
"I hate you."
"I've been informed."
A few more streets later, I finally set her down, the moment her feet touched the ground-
THWACK.
She smacked the back of my head.
"There."
"Feel better?"
"A little."
"Good."
She dusted off her hoodie before looking at me again, she crossed her arms, still glaring.
"Something's changed."
"Hopefully for the better."
"No."
She narrowed her eyes.
"I mean..."
She circled around me once.
"...You're standing."
"Hm?"
"You."
She pointed at my legs.
"You're standing normally."
...
Only then did I realize what she meant.
Four years.
For four years I'd leaned on my right leg, dragging the other behind me without even thinking about it.
Now...
Both feet rested evenly on the ground.
Clary stared at me.
"Your leg."
Clary's expression shifted from confusion to fascination.
She crouched slightly, studying my stance.
"Does it hurt?"
"No."
"Any numbness?"
"No."
"Muscle weakness?"
"Not that I've noticed."
She reached toward my knee before stopping herself.
"Can I-"
She paused.
"Never mind."
I raised an eyebrow.
"You were going to examine me?"
"I was going to look."
"That's basically examining."
"It's not."
She stared at my leg again.
"Your tendon was damaged years ago. The fibers would've healed irregularly by now. Even if the bone is fine, the surrounding tissue wouldn't just..."
She trailed off.
Her fingers unconsciously curled into a fist.
"...How did you fix it?"
I smiled faintly.
"It got better."
"That's not an answer."
"It worked."
"That's even less of an answer."
She looked genuinely bothered now.
"Did you have surgery?"
"No."
"Physical therapy?"
"No."
"Medication?"
"No."
"Then what did you do?"
"Killed some people and it healed..."
"I'm serious.... Did, did it hurt?"
I shook my head.
"No."
"At all?"
"No."
"Must been one hell of a surgery..... Wait!where did you even get the money from?, did you win the lottery or something?"
"Something like that."
"You robbed a bank?"
"No."
"Crypto?"
"No."
"Rich foreign sugar mommy?"
"...What."
"I'm narrowing down the possibilities."
"You skipped several normal explanations."
"There are no normal explanations."
"...Fair."
She folded her arms.
"Then explain."
I pulled out my phone.
"Don't scream tho."
"When have I ever screamed?"
I simply unlocked the screen and held it in front of her.
She looked down.
Her eyes scanned the balance.
$10,000,010.36
...
"I'm gonna need you to be honest with me, did you do something illegal again?."
"Technically not"
"What does that mean?!?."
"It means no."
Clary looked behind the phone as if expecting hidden cameras.
"Is this edited?"
"No."
"Photoshop?"
"It's my banking app."
"..."
She took my phone.
Closed the app.
Opened it again.
The number stayed exactly the same.
She refreshed it.
Still there.
"..."
She refreshed it again.
"..."
Again.
"..."
One more time.
"...WHAT?!"
Several pedestrians turned to look.
She ignored them completely.
"CASSIUS!"
"I told you not to scream."
"TEN MILLION DOLLARS?!"
"Technically ten million and ten dollars."
"THAT'S THE PART YOU CORRECTED?!"
She grabbed me by both shoulders.
"WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?!"
"It's complicated, but it's not illegal."
"How complicated?."
I thought about the contract.
The ghost.
The corpse.
The mountain.
The murders.
The talking rectangle.
"Very."
"Try me."
"The short version or the long version?."
I let out a slow breath.
"The short version."
scratching the back of my head.
"Alright."
"I got dragged into another world."
Clary stared.
"I have to save it."
"..."
"I possessed the body of a sixteen-year-old noble named Barry."
"You mean Barry? From-"
"Yes that Barry."
"I can come back here whenever I want."
"..."
"And every time I finish... something important, I get paid."
Silence.
She didn't laugh.
She didn't call me insane.
Instead...
"Were you hurt?"
"Yeah."
"Badly?"
"I almost got stabbed at."
"That's not what I asked."
She stepped closer, searching my face.
"When that Barry gets hurt..."
She hesitated.
"Do you feel it?"
"Yeah.
"and..."
Her voice grew quieter.
"If Barry dies, will you die too?"
I shook my head.
"I won't, only Barry will."
A familiar white rectangle appeared in front of me.
[You will too.]
...
I stared at it for a moment.
Then quietly looked away.
I didn't correct myself.
There wasn't any point.
Clary let out a breath she'd apparently been holding.
"Then that's a relief."
I smiled.
"Yeah."
The walk home was quiet.
For once... neither of us had anything to say.
Clary occasionally glanced at me, then at the phone still clutched in her hands, as if she expected the number to suddenly disappear.
It never did.
When we reached the house, she quietly returned my phone.
"Don't do anything reckless."
"I wasn't planning to."
"You weren't planning to get dragged into another world either."
"Fair."
She shook her head.
"I still don't know if I believe you."
"I don't blame you."
She opened the front door.
The familiar smell of old wood, medicine, and freshly washed clothes greeted us.
"We're home."
No answer.
Grandma had fallen asleep on the living room sofa.
The television played quietly in the background, volume barely above a whisper. Her glasses rested crookedly on the bridge of her nose, an unfinished sweater still sitting in her lap.
Clary smiled.
"She waited."
"Again?"
"Again."
I carefully picked up the folded blanket draped over the chair and covered Grandma's shoulders.
She stirred slightly...
"Cassius... Clary..."
"We're home."
"Good..."
A tiny smile appeared on her face before she drifted back to sleep.
...
Neither of us spoke after that.
There wasn't any need to.
Clary quietly headed toward the kitchen to prepare dinner.
I climbed the stairs to my room.
Click.
The door closed behind me.
Silence.
For the first time all day...
I was alone.
I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at my hands.
Ten million dollars.
It was enough to pay every debt we'd ever had.
Grandma's medicine.
A proper caregiver.
A bigger house.
Clary could go to the university she wanted now.
Her books.
A car.
Insurance.
Investments.
Enough savings that neither of them would ever have to worry about money again.
...
Then my thoughts kept going.
Hospitals.
Scholarships.
Charities.
Neighborhoods.
Entire businesses.
I could solve problems that had haunted thousands of people.
If every completed Arc paid another ten million...
How much money would I have by the end?
...
My breathing slowed.
"No..."
The realization settled over me like ice.
"...I didn't asked for too much, did I?"
The room felt strangely smaller.
It wasn't the money.
It was who controlled it.
Every dollar sitting in my account existed because someone... something... had decided it should.
For the first time in nearly a decade...
I felt genuine fear.
Not of monsters.
Not of dying.
But of the being that could casually make me a multimillionaire before breakfast.
A white rectangle quietly appeared beside the bed.
[Are you scared?]
...
..
.
"You already know the answer."
The rectangle remained silent for a long moment.
Then new words appeared.
[As long as you fulfill your end of the deal... I won't do anything.]
I looked at those words for what felt like forever.
"Good to know."
That wasn't comforting.
Because it also meant...
If I didn't...
I slowly leaned back onto the mattress, staring at the ceiling.
"What exactly did I make a deal with?"
[A very very strong person.]
Damn I get it.
I stared at the ceiling for another minute.
"You're really committed to that answer."
[Brand consistency.]
"That's not how that phrase works."
[Are you sure?]
"No, I'm not sure."
I rubbed my face.
"...Actually, I don't have the energy to argue with a floating rectangle."
[Wise decision.]
Silence settled over the room, for once... It wasn't uncomfortable.
Before something occurred to me.
"Hey."
[Hm?]
"You said I could ask whether something's allowed."
[Correct.]
"So..."
I folded my hands behind my head.
"Can I tell people about you?"
[Yes.]
"Really?"
[You just shared the whole another world thing, with your sister, and now your asking this?]
"You can read my mind so i thought that was allowed since you didn't say anything, but seriously no cosmic secrecy? Ancient laws? Divine confidentiality agreements?"
[Those sound made up.]
"They are."
[Most people simply won't believe you and even if they do... Knowledge isn't understanding.]
"That's suspiciously profound."
[I stole it.]
"From who?"
[Some princess.]
Another thought surfaced.
"Why me?"
[Because you said yes.]
"That's it?"
[That's enough.]
"There had to be thousands of other candidates."
[Billions.]
"Now I know that's not true.."
[You didn't ask whether there were better candidates.]
"Were there?"
[Yes.]
"Then why didn't you pick them?"
[They.]
[Didn't.]
[Say.]
[Yes.]
"You're telling me, the fate of an entire world... came down to whoever signed the contract first?"
[It's more complicated than that but more or less.]
"That's an absolutely insane recruitment strategy."
I let out a long sigh.
"You know, i imagined world-saving would involve destiny, a prophecy, a chosen one, maybe a glowing sword."
Instead...
"I negotiated my salary."
[You negotiated it upward.]
"I'm still proud of that."
[You should be, that was objectively impressive.]
I grinned.
"See?, i knew I was worth ten million."
[I was referring to the negotiation.]
"..."
A sudden knock came from downstairs.
"Big brother!"
Clary's voice echoed through the house.
"Dinner!"
"I'm coming!"
[Oh.]
I stopped.
"What?"
[A little tip, you can still use the inventory here, you may want to buy winter clothes.]
"Are you telling me I can bring a gun?."
[Yes.]
I snorted, smiling despite myself, As I headed downstairs, one question refused to leave my mind.
Why kill them instead of simply erasing their memories?.
...I guess I'll ask next time.