CHAPTER 46: THE TOWER HEAD [1]

Veronica’s gaze fell on the boy standing before her.

Resting her pen, she conjured a beautiful simile before greeting back.

"It’s nice to see you, youngest."

Leon’s brows twitched at the sight. For a second, he thought that he was hallucinating.

But it was real.

"..."

That expression on her face was not something he was expecting.

’Did she just smile?’

He didn’t recall ever adding this facial feature to her character, nor could he imagine the Veronica he knew being capable of mustering it.

In the game’s storyline, Veronica was supposed to be a cold-hearted ice queen. Who cared less about useless people.

"..."

Rising from her seat, she walked toward Leon.

With graceful movements and an elegant demeanour, her golden, piercing gaze stayed fixed on him the entire time, as if reading him from the inside out.

"..."

Tak—! Tak—!

The sound of her heels echoed through the entire ’indoor forest’ despite nature’s harmonic sound. And with each step, the surrounding sounds dimmed down.

He hesitated. After all, he feared that his sister would see right through his act... that she would discover it was someone else inside Leon’s body.

But what she did was completely unexpected.

Raising both her hands toward his face, she squeezed his cheek.

"You have grown taller," she said, flashing that same smile again.

"Whaah waa Eeoo wooin?" (What are you doing?)

Leon, stunned, tried to speak, but his words came out differently.

"I’ve been waiting for you," she added, still squeezing him.

’What in the world...’

Leon didn’t know what to say.

Tilting her head and finally letting him go, she asked softly.

"I got the news that you were hurt recently."

Leon, half expecting this question, simply answered.

"...yes, sister."

He saw Veronica’s lips curve faintly into an amused smile.

"How do you feel now? Myra said you were in a coma for the past eight days and that you just woke up. Did I invite you at the wrong time?"

From the way she was acting in front of Leon, he understood one thing that... his sister cared a lot about him—or to be precise, she cared a lot about the original Leon.

’Is that why she assigned one of her Elite members as my maid?’

That explains a lot of his questions. But, there was still this one question which was eating him away:

’Then, why didn’t Leon have any maid beside him in the game?’

Myra was not in the game’s story-line. Leon was all alone. And from the looks of it, it seems Veronica truly did care for Leon, off-screen.

’...even then, Why Veronica didn’t do anything after Leon’s death in the game?’

If she truly did cared for him, then at least she should have tried to take revenge.

But she didn’t. Veronica even helped Ethan in some of his quests. Knowing full well that it was Ethan who killed Leon when he went on a rampage due to Lucian’s manipulation.

’Did her care for Leon only develop after I transmigrated into him?’

Leon raced his mind, thinking deeper into this matter.

’Am I missing something?’

What exactly happened to Leon before Haru transmigrated?

With each passing second, Leon started to feel nauseated after his mind uncovered more and more unanswered questions.

All of it just twisted the mystery behind Haru’s transmigration more and more.

But one thing was clear to him.

’Something might have happened to Leon, before I died in my office....’

A cold hand suddenly touched his forehead out of nowhere.

"What’s wrong? Your face went pale all of a sudden? It doesn’t look like you have a fever."

It was Veronica, she was checking his temperature.

Snapping him out of his thoughts, Leon’s eyes looked up to her.

Nodding, he said.

"I just feel a little dizzy. It’s nothing serious, I must be tired after waking up."

"Oh my," Veronica said, gesturing to Leon, "well, don’t just stand, have a seat, I’ll settle up the table."

"Thank you, sister."

Leon awkwardly replied, turning his head in search of a sofa.

"..."

But all his eyes could see were tall trees, open sky, and plants surrounding him.

Leon blinked.

’Do I sit on the floor?’

He gazed down, tapped the ground with his boot, and proceeded to bend his knees.

Seeing him, Veronica interrupted.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh." Leon stopped, lifted his gaze, "You said to have a seat, so..."

He momentarily paused, letting his sister find out what he meant.

Blinking, she looked around.

"Ah, my bad."

She said, before she picked up a round object from her desk.

It was a tennis ball-shaped crystal sphere, which had a blue glowing sapphire inside it.

The moment she gripped it, the scenery surrounding her room shifted.

All the trees, plants, animals, and rocks started disintegrating into small particles, dispersing completely to the air, before they gathered in one space and got absorbed by the crystal ball.

The blue sapphire inside it stopped glowing after she placed it back on the table.

The room, which was a forest a moment ago, changed entirely.

The room was well-lit, circular in shape, and had enough furniture, including tables, sofas, and several bookshelves lining up. But this room didn’t have any paintings on the walls, and neither did it have any curtains.

Why?

Because the room had no walls.

And the first thing Leon saw was clouds, then his gaze shifted to the moon.

The moon was much closer in comparison to the ground floor.

Leon’s mouth almost hung open.

"What the—"

"Alright, have a seat."

Veronica said, gesturing to the nearby sofa.

He sat down, still glancing outside.

Curious, he asked.

"How high are we?"

Haru thought that the height of the towers was irrelevant to the plot, so it was only mentioned as ’the calamity towers reach the heavens’.

Taking the seat in front of him, she casually answered.

"Eleven kilometres from the ground."

Leon almost coughed. Playing with the numerics, Leon did a quick calculation.

’Eleven kilometres, huh... if I consider the dimension of each floor, then that would be four metres per floor, so for Eleven thousand metres, that would be roughly... two thousand seven hundred and fifty floors. Even for a fantasy world, that’s pretty high.’

Leon’s eyes twitched at the information.

’Is that even possible? I wonder, how is the air pressure being maintained at such a high altitude?’

Leaving the topic aside, Leon asked his sister.

"Why did you suddenly invite me, sister? Do you have something you wanted to ask?"

’Is she going to scold me about the Shinra Incident?’

He was trying his best to remain calm as much as he could.

"Yes," she said calmly, "you must have heard that there was a huge commotion at District Four of Shinra recently. Have you not?"

Leon nodded. "Yes, it was all over the news."

"Hmm," she continued, with the same expression, "and on the same day and time, the Eclipse got attacked, do you know about that?"

Leon tried his best not to show any kind of nervous expression.

Staring back at her, he nodded again, faking a stunned expression.

"Yes, I also had the same thought; the time and date were indeed colliding."

"Oh my, aren’t you sharp."

She praised Leon, displaying a smile.

But the smile this time felt suffocating to Leon.

"...it’s nothing much, I just saw both the articles on the new paper right beside each other, and instantly made this conclusion."

’Shit, how much did she know?’

Leon gritted his teeth.

He indeed wanted to let her sister know it was his doing and that he and Ethan had defeated the Primordial.

But, he didn’t want her to find out that he was close with the Twilight Order’s leader.

And if she finds out, Leon wants to join the Twilight Order...

She would definitely try to stop him. Given the fact that Veronica now cared for him.

’Shit, I have made my plan perfectly, so that she wouldn’t link me to the Order, but...’

As the Tower Head, all the information about any big incident passes through her ears first.

And the way Veronica was asking him all these questions made him feel like she knew all about his little plan.

Glancing up, Leon saw Veronica’s golden eyes piercing right through his soul.

’What’s... with this face? She was squeezing my cheeks a couple of minutes ago, but now...’

She looked as though she was interrogating a criminal.

Leon gulped a lump of saliva.

"Why... are you asking all this, sister?"

Her expression didn’t relax.

"Next question." She continued.

"Did you see the lightning in the sky that night?"

She was talking about Eula’s Heavens Strike. A three-line incantation spell that Leon had given her.

Eula’s Heavens Strike that night had attracted a lot of attention from the citizens living in Shinra.

Almost everyone that night had felt its terror, as it struck the ground that nearly shook the entire capital.

"I did."

He answered without hiding.

"Next question," she once again said.

’How many is she planning to ask?’ Leon wondered.

"Do you know what was struck by that lightning?"

It was a simple question, yet it made Leon think before answering.

Finally, Leon made a choice.

Heaving a sigh of defeat, Leon beamed a smile at his sister before saying.

"I am impressed, sister," he kept smiling, "you must have done a lot of investigation in this incident."

Veronica didn’t see it coming, but after hearing those words, her expression relaxed.

"Of course I would, after all this incident mattered to me... or rather the contributors involved in this incident mattered to me."

Closing her eyes, she gave Leon a doting smile.

’As I thought. She knew all about it.’

Nothing hides the Calamity Tower Head.

Leon lowered himself back into the sofa, and with his usual calm tone, he admitted.

"Yes, I was the one who orchestrated it."

.

.

[A/N]: From tomorrow I will either increase the length, or do 2 chs of short length.

And as for the 300 PS goal, we have achieved it. And as a promise, I will publish, 1 extra ch.