Chapter 7: Cyan

The following day. Sector 17 High School.

Linda sighed as she sat down on her cubicle in the Faculty Office.

Her eyes looked over a certain empty desk near her and remembered what happened last night.

Thankfully, just as she was thinking about taking leave on school as she didn't know how to face Lucas, Lucas had contacted her first that night and said that he'll be taking the day off today to take care of some personal matters, giving her some time and space to face him...

Lucas also asked her to cover for him for his class. He had already prepared the materials and she can just read off it.

She packed up her things and prepared to head to his classroom.

"Hm? Miss Blanc? Did you enter the wrong classroom?"

Adam asked when he saw Linda come into their classroom instead of Lucas which was soon followed by the others laughing in humor.

Linda smiled and shook her head.

"Mr. White is on leave today and asked me to cover for him. He already gave me the materials for today's lesson so I'll be teaching that to you. When Mr. White comes back tomorrow, he'll briefly explain the topic again and hand out a small test so pay attention."

"Another test!?"

"Mr. White sure loves to give tests..."

The guys moaned and complained when they heard about another exam the next day.

Meanwhile, the girls' eyes narrowed and their inner gossipness started to show.

Claire grinned as she asked.

"Miss Blanc, how come I feel like...there's something going on between you two?"

"Eh!? No way!? Are you two dating!?"

"Nooo! My Miss Blanc~!!!"

"Screw off! She's not yours but mine! Noooo!"

"Miss Blanc and Mr. White are dating!? Wooah!"

Instantly, the entire class was in an uproar.

While some guys lamented that their idol teacher was taken, some were excited and wanted to join in the gossip as they bombarded Linda with questions.

Linda flustered upon suddenly being asked like that and her face blushed.

"T-that's not it! We're just colleagues!"

"How come your expression says otherwise?"

"Ah! Is it unrequited love!?"

"Tsk tsk, unexpectedly, Mr. White is such a heartthrob."

"Hahahaha!"

Then, as if to add fuel to the fire, Adam spoke.

"Come to think of it, I saw Mr. White's hoverbike yesterday leaving school with a woman on his back. Was that you Miss Blanc?"

"Eh? Eh? Did you guys go on a date!? Kyaaa!"

"Miss Blanc! Where did he take you!?" Come on! Spill the beans!"

"Y-you guys! We are still in the middle of a class!"

Linda couldn't take it anymore and shout back.

However, to these kids who were more interested in the gossip than class right now, it wasn't enough to stop them at all!

Linda sighed and asked.

"...If I answer, will you guys stop asking and listen to the class?"

"Yes!"

Everyone answered in unison and immediately quieted down, waiting for the answer.

Linda hesitated for a moment before shyly answering.

"He bought me a dress...in Sector 12...and we ate there too..."

"WOAH!!!"

"Sector 12! My man!"

"Is Mr. White actually a rich man!? Now that I think about it...he does look kinda handsome...will he like younger women?"

"Hey! Don't make a move on Miss Blanc's man! If anyone's making a move, it will be me!"

"...I wonder if Mr. White is interested in guys too..."

"FUCK OFF!"

The students all chatted in excitement for a while before Adam clapped his hand to get everyone's attention.

"Alright everyone, that's enough fun for now. Let's listen to the class now."

"Finee~"

Everyone sighed and knew when to stop so they soon quieted down.

Linda finally sighed in relief and started the class.

Meanwhile.

Sector 10.

A man with white hair appeared in a certain tall building and stared at the very top floor for a brief moment before walking inside.

This man is none other than Lucas.

While Sectors 11 - 20 were free of access, the Sectors above are different.

Before being able to head up to Sector 10, one would require either a special identity or permit to be able to enter.

Just being able to reach this Sector alone showed that Lucas was not a normal person by any means.

Lucas entered the building and arrived at a large hall with a receptionist desk in the middle.

Lucas didn't mind the receptionist and continued to walk to the elevator past her.

As for the receptionist, she heard the elevator door open and turned to look, only to see it close already. She didn't even see who got in just now.

"Was I just seeing things?"

The receptionist was very professional and didn't shrug it off immediately. Instead, she opened up her terminal and checked the surveillance cameras in the elevators to check.

When she saw that all elevators were empty, she finally believed that she was just seeing things.

As for why the elevator is moving, someone on the higher floors probably called it.

Upon reaching the topmost floor, Lucas got out and pressed a button on his phone to deactivate the block he put on the camera.

He then walked the long hallway and arrived at an office room at the end.

This time, he didn't do any special tricks and simply knocked on the door.

A female voice called out from behind.

"Is that you White?"

"It's me."

"Alright, come on in."

Lucas opened the door and walked in.

Inside, a large room spanned with a single desk at the middle-end of the room. At the sides were shelves and display cases where various objects and statues were placed.

Seeing all these in display, one would already know that the person who owned the room was a collector of odd things.

And that collector was sitting on her chair behind the desk with a wry smile right now.

"You know, I already told the receptionist below to allow you in. Since she didn't even report to me that you're already here...you snuck in again didn't you, White?"

Lucas chuckled at that.

"You know that's just how I am Cyan."

Cyan, just like her name, had a cyan-blue short hair and wore glasses, appearing to be very intellectual.

Her figure also had a lot of curves which would drive men crazy...well, most men.

Lucas looked at the nameplate on the desk and read it.

"Jana Cyan. I like it."

"I can say the same thing to you. I hear you call yourself Lucas White now. I like that. You should stick to it from now on."

"Maybe."

Lucas smiled and sat down on the sit in front of her.

"Alright, we can walk down the nostalgic lane later. You said you came across an artifact?"

"Right. I have it with me."

Lucas took out the orb from his bag and showed it to Cyan.

"Hoh?"

Seeing her look, Lucas knew that Cyan was already interested in it and placed it down on the table.

Cyan tapped on her table twice and the table scanned the orb a few times before producing a holo-screen with its details.

She read the data and continued to run more scans for further checking.

Lucas knew best than to bother her while she was so engrossed so he stood up to have a look at the displays on the shelves.

His eyes settled on a certain cube with different colors on each side. It was Rubik's Cube.

Lucas smiled as he remembered this was the first gift that he gave Cyan a long time ago.

Speaking of their relationship, they could be considered to be 'colleagues' or even 'partners' at some point.

The organization he used to belong to had created dozens of assassins like him. Well, he was still considered the best among all of them, and the rest were considered as 'failures'.

Still, they were only considered as failures because Lucas...or rather, because White was simply too good.

In fact, the failures were still a cut above the rest and are considered elites among the elites.

Cyan was one of those elites created by the same organization that created White.

Lucas recalled his first mission together with Cyan.

They were activated to kill a certain high-profile individual.

The two of them acted like brothers and sisters while attempting to get near the target and kill him.

While undercover, Cyan saw the target's child playing with a Rubik's Cube and showed the same expression she is showing now when looking at the orb.

Lucas knew she wanted it. But the organization forbids them from taking 'trophies' in order to avoid anything being traced back on them.

So after the mission, Lucas sneaked out of the organization and bought one for her using the money that he earned from all those missions.

Actually, the money was nothing but a small change that the organization gives them to 'reward' them. The organization took 99% of the reward money all the time.

In truth, that was also Lucas' only chance to get out of the organization's grasp which he had been planning for a while. But he couldn't bring himself to abandon his 'little sister' as well as the rest of his 'family'...so he only bought a Rubik's Cube and went back.

The organization didn't even know that he escaped already and just came back.

After many more years of planning, they were finally able to escape and live their lives. Everyone went off to do what they want and Cyan was no exemption. She collected all sorts of things that interest her but to do that, she needed money.

She didn't want to live like a criminal anymore so she didn't want to steal.

More importantly, Lucas himself had bought the Rubik's Cube for her back then instead of stealing it so this had also become her core value.

Looking at her now, Lucas knew that she had finally made a name for herself and became a real 'elite' in the world.

'I wonder how the others are as well?'

While Lucas reminisced about the past for a while, Cyan's voice exclaimed from behind.

"T-this is!!!"