"What are you doing here?" I exclaimed in surprise, my eyes fixed on Hugh.
"Close the door again," Kai interjected before Hugh could speak up, asking me to shut the door as he slumped back on the sofa.
"Oh, sure," I replied with a polite smile and closed the door. Then, I turned back to them and exclaimed in shock once again.
"No, seriously, what the fuck is going on here?!" I yelled, my voice laced with a mix of bewilderment and puzzlement.
Hugh, who was still sipping on his boba tea, finally turned to Kai, who was seated on his left, and asked, "Did you not tell him anything?"
In response, Kai merely shrugged his shoulders, as if it was the most natural thing to do to answer Hugh's question.
Because of that, Hugh couldn't help but let out a deep sigh, pressing his fingers to his forehead.
After a while, he let out another sigh and looked up to face me.
"Pardon him," Hugh said to me, pointing at Kai with his thumb. "He has a thing for being dramatic."
Yeah, I figured – I thought to myself.
"So, what is this place?" I repeated my question for the nth time, my patience on the edge.
"This is the hideout of a next-generation elite shadow organization known as the New World Order," Kai responded. "I'm the one who created this organization to achieve my goal."
"A shadow organization?!" I blurted out in utter shock. "But you weren't–"
"But I wasn't supposed to do something like this?" Kai interjected before I could finish my sentence. "Yeah, that's why every member I recruited in this Order did not play a major part in the original timeline."
…Oh, I see.
Extras!
In a long-running story, there are hundreds of extras and thousands of unnamed characters.
Some characters are only there to be in the background – only there to add a dialogue or two and never appear in the story again.
While some are merely small stepping stones in the protagonist's path who would not play a major role in the story after their part is done.
If I have to give an example, think of that Jake guy who came to me during the Flag game.
Now, I'm not saying I'm a protagonist or something, but he was only there in the game to be a stepping stone for me.
Small characters who wouldn't affect the flow of the story in any way with their appearance or disappearance – those are Extras.
So, does Kai want to say he recruited Extras to be in his organization?!
"But why?" – was the only question that escaped my lips. "Why did you go through so much trouble?"
"Isn't it obvious? I can't save the world alone," Kai retorted matter-of-factly. "The smart move is to have as many pawns in my game as I can. That way, I can easily control a multitude of scenarios to my advantage."
After a heavy silence that lasted a couple of seconds, I was about to ask something.
However, before I could even open my mouth, Kai stopped me in my tracks and spoke up, "I know what you're going to ask. I will tell you now."
In response to Kai's words that held a vague meaning, Hugh turned to him and gave him a look of disbelief.
"Wait, are you really going to tell him about the Book?" Hugh asked, a hint of surprise evident in his tone.
"Yes," Kai nodded. "I kind of have to."
"But didn't you say that showing it to people is very risky since we can't predict how it may affect the timeline?" Hugh leaned forward with a frown on his face.
"I know what I said, Hugh," Kai said. "But the situation has changed now. Besides, I have reason to believe that Lucas is 'The' Spearman."
"Wait…" The frown on Hugh's face deepened upon hearing Kai's words. "No, how are you so sure?"
"Because he has a Phoenix in his possession," Kai revealed.
Hugh's eyes widened to the point where it looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.
With mouth agape, he yelled out, "He has a what?!"
"Hey!" I hollered at Kai, taken aback. "I asked you to keep it a secret! Whatever happened to that talk about the token of trust and all?!"
"Calm down, Morningstar," Kai waved his hand nonchalantly. "Hugh is trustworthy."
As if that was a cue, Hugh turned to me, his jaw still hanging from the shock, as he yelled out at me this time, "You have a what?!"
After patting Hugh's back as a gesture to calm him down, Kai got up from the sofa and walked over to a small golden vault on the wall.
After he placed his thumb on a biometric sensor on the wall and aligned his eye in front of what looked like a retina scanner, the vault unlocked.
Before opening the vault, however, Kai turned to me and started speaking:
"When I was little, one day I went out to play in a park with my friends. There, I met someone. She was an old lady. Old, wrinkled, tired, lonely. She had no friends, no family, and no one to rely on as I would come to know.
"Yet, she had a smile on her face. A smile that wasn't the brightest in the world, but it was enough to tell me that she was at the very least happy with the life she had led.
"That day, my friends left early after I had a fight with them. Because they left me, I started crying. The old lady came to me and gently patted my head.
"She asked me why I was crying and I recounted what happened to her. She silently listened to my petty, mundane problems and lovingly consoled me.
"After I was done crying, she said that I should apologize to my friends and makeup with them. I refused, saying that I don't need them.
"In response, the old lady said that no matter how grand of a life I live, it would mean nothing if no one is there to notice it. I, of course, was dumbfounded by her words which were too confusing for the little me to understand.
"Seeing my dumb face, the old lady laughed and asked me if I wanted to see my future. I said yes, being the curious little kid I was."
Kai took a pause, causing me to ask, "What happened next?"
As if waiting for that question, he resumed, "The old lady touched my forehead, and suddenly, memories that were mine yet quite not, of a time that I have yet to live, began to flood in my head."
…Wait a second!
"I saw my future. Actually, I saw quite a few futures that could've been mine. But you know what? In all of them, one thing remained the same. I died without being able to accomplish anything– without being able to reach my goal.
"From the sudden surge of all the information that overwhelmed my mind, I stumbled back and fell. When I looked ahead, the old lady was gone."
It was only then Kai opened the vault and took out a book with a red cover on it.
Showing the book to me, he said, "In place of her, this book was on the ground."
