As expected, the discussion continued rather smoothly after that unexpected surprise. Tira wished she had rationed more snacks but it would have been impossible to stuff any more candies into her pockets. 

 

At least she had her notebook to write in and fill her time.

 

 

Since one party had tried to kill everyone in the room; the remaining two university reps had become more careful and polite in their interaction. They sat so stiffly that it seemed at the slightest sound, they were ready to jolt off their seats.

 

The rest of the entourage then introduced themselves in order, and although their demands had stayed mostly the same, the tone they turned to use to address each other made it feel as if she had stepped into a formal speech contest.

 

Tira held off the urge to yawn. She had finally scribbled down the main points of her hypothesis and speculations. She supposed as they droned on, there was no better time than now to review them.

"Now that we’ve reached some kind of agreement, would you mind if I ask about...?" Cahya, the redhead by Lydia's side, shakily pointed up at the roof. 

 

"Ah, we have a little bit of a ninja infestation," Dias answered in a teasing tone before he waved his hands to shrug off the confused looks he was received in return, "don’t worry about it."

 

It was easier said than done.

When the lunch bell rang, the meeting paused for a lunch break; food was brought in—boxes upon boxed heaped on each other and with sweet and savory aromas escaping each of the containers.

 

 

Tira was still hanging out above, observing in silence when Dias glanced up at exactly where she was and waved his hands in a pulling motion, a gesture that Tira had to pay closer attention to understand.

 

Taking a guess at what he wanted, she opened the latch just a little wider and made sure the pike's end was blunt, and threw down a line of chain.

Dias took the metal dangling by the side of his head and channeled a bit of energy through it as he looped his lunchbox and a bottle of water with the chained portion, as if making sure that his intention couldn't be any more clear by giving a kiss at the end of the blunt bat, before patting the chain like one would do a pet.

 

Using that energy boost, Tira controlled the chain to lift itself without her having to pull it and carefully balanced the lunch box though the small latch opening.

 

She then closed that latch, and moved on to another opening with a stronger support beam and as if opening a present, waited for a few moments before she uncovered the lunch box. 

 

The familiar sight of an orange chef hat logo told her that the styrofoam lunch boxes and their contents were most likely ransacked from the actual joint and not a devoted recreation made by the cooking club.

 

The white steam that rose from it carried a delicious scent that filled her nose and the dusty space around her. It almost felt nostalgic. 

 

Tira put the box on her lap and returned to her duties, observing from above as everyone else dug into their meal. 

Most looked teary-eyed upon receiving the lunchbox as if they did not expect to be able to eat junk food again after the first disaster day. Some were openly sobbing as they ate, the stress and tension in the room turned to one of joyful gratitude.

 

Though their circumstances had differed, she somehow understood what they were feeling. It was no easy feat on either party's side to survive this long on a medium difficulty.

 

After a few bites in, she turned her attention back to the representatives again. Henry was... eating. His oily face looked as if he had reached enlightenment as he slowly chewed the fried tempura with such passion. His friend had to keep telling him to drink water and come back to the moment since he looked so entranced by the pickle that the man nearly shed a single tear.

 

As for the other representative…

 

If Lydia’s attitude from before had been subtle hinting, this time, she had turned to a complete mess of fawning on Dias that even a baby could tell that flirting was happening. 

 

So far, Dias himself was handling it well, cracking jokes and showing sympathy when she talked about the full situation at her university. The topics soon veered onto the academic track as Lydia asked, "So, what subject do you teach, sir?"

 

"History." Dias answered smoothly, still masked with his usual unreadable smile as he threw his own bait in, "And you, what subject are you learning?"

 

"Oh, I’m in fashion design." Lydia smiled sweetly in return, her food was left untouched, not even a slightest opening on the box. She had only sipped from the water bottle that had been provided along with meal the entire time.

 

The lady looked around then glanced towards the ceiling for a second before she scooted closer, wanting to whisper. "Actually, can I tell you a secret?"

 

Dias gave her a consenting nod. Tira watched as the woman leaned even closer, her soft voice trailed off by the end of her confession. 

 

"I think I just fell in love with you at first sight."

 

The demigod chuckled. Not the mean, jesting kind, just a heartfelt, joyful, pure giggle. With a smile, he leaned into their proximity and whispered back, "May I tell you a secret of my own?"

 

Lydia nodded in anticipation.

 

Leaning closer until her ear hid his lips from the perspective of those sitting across from them, his voice was low and alluring, his answer rumbling through the air, though heard by none other themselves. 

 

"I don't think you meant that at all."

Instead of a standard reaction of bafflement or anger, Lydia leaned back into her chair and maintained her smile then giggled as if she had been told a joke instead. 

"I look forward to seeing you around the campus tomorrow," she unexpectedly followed with, "I’d asked for your number but phones aren’t working right now, too bad."

 

"A regretful matter, indeed." Dias played along and corrected his seating arrangement again, "Enjoy your lunchtime, Miss Lydia, the meeting is about to resume soon."

 

Lydia winked and returned to her seat, only to immediately get jumped on and interrogated by Cahya with a panicked exclamation of, "What in hell’s name are you doing?!" and with each question that followed seemed about more prodding than the last. But that seemed to have put the end of Lydia's socializing attempt for now.

Seeing that nobody else tried to get close to Dias for the next few minutes, Tira finally opened the lunchbox and chewed on the plain rice.

 

The rice and the pickle were surprisingly tasty for a fast food meal. Not that she knew what it should have tasted like, as this was her first time trying out this cuisine of food, and she was  honestly quite impressed. Though, she could finally compare it with Ginan's attempt of recreating it later but for now, she had to agree that the tempura was truly worth shedding a tear.

Despite lunchtime becoming a gracious moment for the attendees to calm down after being held at gunpoint, the second that Armand and his boys returned, the room descended into a terse silence all at once. 

 

"Those fuckers ain't policemen, they’re gang members."

 

No one could have expected to see the discussion resumed with such a threatening note. Henry looked concerned as he nearly stood up from his seat, lunchbox about to be thrown aside just to utter a two-word question, "Which one?"

 

"Red Lalar."

 

Having resided in the southern part of the capital, Tira found the gang name unfamiliar to her ear. But based on the reaction of fear that painted the faces of the jocks and art students alike, they must have been a bigger threat than she'd assumed they were. 

 

Dangerous enough that a choir of sharp inhales echoed throughout the room as realization dawned on everyone one by one.

 

Her seniors' posture also turned stiffer after hearing the name, which meant this was more serious than she thought and recorded the name in the notebook for further research.

 

Donny was the first one to recover from his shock and to placate the clueless masses. "Last night, we captured a man who tried to abduct a girl from school grounds and held him under our custody until we figured out what to do with him. But… we held a suspicion that maybe he wasn't acting alone. Perhaps there were other members who were waiting for him and witnessed his capture."

 

Disgust immediately replaced the fear on Lydia’s face. She turned in anger towards Henry before glancing away and asking Armand coldly. "And you couldn't pull more info off of him?"

 

"He had just passed away an hour ago from biting his own tongue."

 

Huh. What gang acted that gritty nowadays? Tira was pretty sure those type of people had all run out of the capital since– 

 

"We found out about his affiliation after uncovering a tattoo hidden under his clothes. That’s as much of a lead that we have at the moment." Armand gruffed as he glared back at Lydia as he ended his report and threw himself back onto his seat.

 

"Things have gotten serious now," Gunawan, who has been silent aside from the introduction finally voiced his thoughts, "the fact that Wahdi guy was so eager to lure us to the supermarket is bad news. Is it too much to assume that they have taken over the supermarket?"

 

"And the clinic. He didn't lie about the clinic in that area," Miss Erisa added grimly, her fists clenched tightly on top of her lap as she spoke through gritted teeth, "I used to live around there before I moved closer to the school. There was a clinic and a daycare run nearby…"

Even though her words trailed off at the end, the sight of her shaking frame was enough to convey the worst-case scenario; clearer than the cloudless day outside.

"I think.. we should take a rain check on our supply problem," Henry proposed, with desperation clear in his shaking voice, "and try to tackle this one. The Red Lalar are too dangerous to be left alone as they are since they have access to guns."

 

"It’s not that hard to get your hands on some; there are literally five small patrolling stations they could look through. The number of guns they can take from each one is at most nine or ten. At most." 

 

Armand chuckled, which suddenly turned to him having a fit all by himself himself as he got elbowed in the ribs by Rina with a speed unseen to the naked eye. 

 

But somehow, as if used to it, the blond managed to mask his groaning of pain by clearing his throat. The blond turned serious once again. "Ahem! Unless those guys were insane enough to go out of the barrier, they would only have a magazine at most, if the guns were retrieved unused."

 

"You know an awful lot about this." Rina remarked with surprise in her voice.

 

Armand merely raised his brow at her, his eye twitched ever so slightly before he delivered the rest of his conclusion. "Anyway, that’s my estimate. Give or take some margin of error, they’re not all that invincible."

 

This somehow caught Cahya’s attention as he leaned forward with a frown, "You’re suggesting we attack the gang."

 

"I’m suggesting nothin'." Armand barked, the most condescending smile stretched his lips, along with his thick brows that were barely joining under the force of his smoldering glare. "We can beat ‘em without having to fight, even though that would be kind of boring."

A moment of silence passed before Gunawan, of all people, broke the tension. So far, Tira's observation had gathered that while he didn’t seem to be the talkative type, his questions so far were fairly inquisitive. "You said you have a way..  Is it perhaps…?" 

 

The man's eyes darted towards the ceiling for a sliver of a moment.

 

But that moment was enough for his action to be noticed. And so was the contemplation that followed right behind his silent guess.

 

"There are… certainly other factors that we haven't told you about."

Principal Guntur said with sincerity, addressing all the young adults and teens in a wise tone that he usually took on during motivational speeches on Monday mornings. "Information is dangerous under the hands of those we’re unsure if we can trust, for the sake of the children. This is one such piece of information."

 

Tira found herself unconsciously fiddling with the pen in her hand and stopped herself before she twirled it out of boredom. Who knew what would happen if her hands slipped and the cap fell off and through the vents? It would be a hassle to retrieve and might spook their guests out some more.

Lydia gave a glance at Dias, turned her sight to the ceiling, and then to Cahya before she addressed the school's side as a whole. "Then what can we do to earn your trust? Seeing that this seems to be important enough for you to be so unwilling to distribute medicine and supply?"

 

The principal sighed, abdicating the decision to the trio, who also threw it over to Dias at the end with their conflicted look.

 

Dias merely smiled as he took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a brief moment before he snapped his gloved fingers.

 

The dark brown color faded from his hair and eyes as he opened them once more, revealing the face that had been hidden underneath the entire time. The silver scales glowed once more in tandem with the drop of silence that had accompanied his reveal.

"It would be in the best interest of everyone to have more people knowing the situation at hand. And..." 

 

He paused dramatically, as if having all the eyes of the room focused on him was barely enough to respect the performance he was about to give. He leaned back leisurely on the backrest of his seat.

 

"Make yourself comfortable, this is going to take a bit of time."

Dias recounted the tales he had told to the council once again, his wording now a bit more concise and explained his role in the simplest words possible, yet not missing a single nuance. 

 

Not once was he interrupted in his story; he had grasped his audience with a mysterious charm that made them unable to look away.

She could almost believe Dias' claim of being a teacher. Through his stories and manner of speaking; the hypnotic way of that his tone rose and fell, brought attention to the important parts with his careful emphasis, and sometimes. He was unlike the monotone, devoid of color and passion, hour-long drivel that she pulled from her limited experience. 

 

From the way this was going, he was already way better than the last history teacher they had.

 

Tira admired his ways with words as much as she envied him for it. If he ever decided to become a teacher, his class without a doubt would never be boring to attend.

He’d make a good teacher if he wanted to.

At the end of his talk, Dias let the weight of his words sink in before he sat. That lasted for quite a while until the representatives decided to break the ice for themselves. A random woman from the B group's entourage asked out of the blue with a sheepish expression. "So the ninja? That was your power or…?"

 

Bride, ninja... The next thing she knew, she could be a kaiju. Tira held back a smile from her musings. Being called a kaiju didn't sound too bad.

Instead of a verbal answer, Dias glanced up to the roof and exactly to the spot that she had moved to once again. His eyes found her as if he could peer through the asbestos and locked his gaze onto hers, questioning.

 

So he knew she could see him. And now she was certain he could see her. Then it quickly became clear that she was unable to respond with anything other than yes.

 

 

Carefully, Tira collected the candy wrappers she had accumulated in her pocket and shoved them into the empty styrofoam lunch box along with the chopsticks and crushed PET bottle.

Time for the attic dweller to finally touch the ground.

Opening the latch all the way up, she hooked the chain on the hook meant for gymnastics rope and jumped, lengthening the chains as she dangled down, lunch box on her right hand and her left hand steering her descent to land by Dias' side.

 

 

When her feet touched the ground, she controlled the chain to unlatch from the hook and close the asbestos latch back into position, before retracting it all in one go.

 

Her eyes scanned the room, finally on ground level with the faces that she had grown to recognize during the past hour and a half, ignoring their stares of mixed emotions as she bowed and introduced herself for the sake of brevity.

 

"Tira. Nice to meet you all properly."

 

No silence settled and needed to be broken because someone immediately squealed at such a high pitch it had taken her aback.

 

"Aw, you didn’t tell me that Miss Ninja was cute!" Lydia cooed with her hands covering her cheeks, smiling widely back at her. "Nice to meet you too! It's about time a cutie joined!!"

 

…This somehow feels familiar.

 

Henry gave an awkward bow back, though his cheeks were lightly dusted with red. So were most of the men in the room. She glanced at Dias, who magically seemed to have an answer ready as soon as their eyes locked. "They might have seen your panties. How risque, coming down with a skirt like that."

 

"Huh." 

 

The redder their cheeks, the more she wondered about the truth of that statement. She eyed his impish grin with a raised brow, challenging his words with a surefire question to prove their factuality. "So, what was the color?"

 

Dias pursed his grin.

 

"Thought so." 

 

Careful to not leak anything from her tone, Tira walked behind his seat, standing at attention while she shrugged away the itch coming from all the eyes focusing on her all at the same time. "Now, why have I been summoned, my lord?"

 

Dias cleared his throat awkwardly. "I just wanted to have you down here… Isn’t it dusty in the attic?"

 

"Oh. Thank you for your consideration." 

 

She thanked him sincerely and ignored the crawling sensation that shot up her neck instead made a general note about the cause of it with a quick eye check and returned her stare straight forward. 

 

"Please, ignore me and continue your discussion as before."

 

 

Dias obliged her request with a nod and redirected the room's attention back towards him. "As I was about to say earlier, there are two choices we may take to deal with this current problem. First is to establish domain rules and law, thus expelling the Red Lalar gang members from the barrier due to their on-going violations."

 

"And the second option?" Lydia asked with eager anticipation on her face.

 

"The second option is we send my lovely partner over here to their headquarters to subdue the members, then have them put on trial with the remaining citizens as judges, to sentence each member on the counts of their crime with an appropriate punishment," Dias crossed his legs, resting his folded hands on his knees as he leaned back with confidence.

 

"Up to expulsion, at maximum."

Armand seemed offended when he heard that and jumped in, looking pissed off. "You’re sending her alone?"

 

"She is the most powerful weapon we have in our arsenal right now."

 

Dias turned his head towards Armand, replying to him head-on despite the near growl the boy gave. "Even if your calculations were correct, which I don't doubt they are, there can only be so many ways that we can make them exhaust their non-renewable resources; their bullets. Especially since they wouldn't think of unarmed civilians as a threat. The surprise attack would work because of that."

 

"That doesn’t mean it's okay to send a girl alone behind the enemy line!" Henry interjected, anxiety coloring his exclamation, though his eyes that landed twisted his face into further distress. "Not to doubt your capability but wouldn't it be better if we took a less bloodied path–"

 

 

"The less bloodied path you’re looking for doesn’t exist, buddy."

 

Lydia pointed this out before Henry could finish his argument. Her tone once again returned to the calculated cold timbre that she had shown when orchestrating a three-way deal. "Even if the rules were established and later amended just for the sole purpose of kicking those guys out; we’d still be condemning them to their death. You can't pretend that you don't know what lurks out there. Outside the barrier."

 

Henry snapped his mouth hard enough that Tira heard his teeth clash against each other. The man’s brow was drawn together so tightly that it looked like it was on the edge of escaping the confines of his face and pop away with how sharply he glared at Lydia.

 

Lydia herself had ignored Henry and asked Dias again, without any hint of warmth, "But if it were so hard to establish a single rule since you have yet to do so, I suppose there must be something else going on. Am I correct in my assumption?"

 

"You are." Dias leaned forward so far that he was almost hunched, his ponytail draped over his shoulder. "My personal beliefs aside, there is a legitimate reason why I have not done so."

 

"The easiest way I can put it is that I lack the qualifications."

 

Dias sighed as he leaned back onto the backrest as if the burden of air that had weighed on him had let his body become a little lighter. "I need to have authority over five generals, or Majoras, as we call them, before I’m allowed to implement any rules in my domain."

 

"And how many generals do you have on hand at the moment?" Gunawan posed his question with a hint of uncertainty.

 

Dias didn't answer immediately.

 

Instead, he studied the crowd, just briefly, smiling as he once again faced the crowd with a chuckle coming from deep within his chest.

 

"These three sitting on my right," Armand, Rina, and Donny revealed their surprise as Dias finally admitted the number of cards on his table. "-they’re all the Majoras I have right now."

 

 

"Wait but—the girl behind you?" A woman on the Uni B’s side looked so confused that she had asked out of turn. Tira wouldn't blame her for feeling bamboozled due to the lack of information.

"I don't count, obviously." She clarified for Dias, giving a personal statement in the hope that it would reinforce the idea that he was telling the truth.

 

Perhaps not the whole truth, but the truth nonetheless.

Tira nodded and opened her mouth, letting her opinion be known before their murmurs and whispers took another leap in volume. 

 

"So, we need two more. Any volunteers for our not-so-great and bloody cause? Because that is what this is. There is no justice in a mass execution without context served with it."

The room fell into silence. She had intentionally made her words contradict themselves with her actions. She did not want these people to delude themselves or to lie about whether they would or would not reap lives with their decision, even if the blood they spilt didn't bloom in front of their sights.

 

Maybe this was why he called her down. Dias probably didn’t wish to be the bearer of bad news all the time.

 

His smile towards her now seemed to confirm that to be the case. A sad turn of his brows was both apologetic and thankful. She gave a small nod back. 

 

It felt… good to have him share his burden with more people. Had his pathetic smile humanized him more, or was it from her understanding the man better after each interaction they had?

 

She couldn't figure it out. Not yet. Not the time for it now.

 

"Will you allow us some time to think?" Henry put a hand in front of his chest in a pausing gesture and his other hand was shaking, digging through his temple in pain or headache.

"Take all the time you need." Donny glanced down at the wristwatch he was wearing. "Let’s also take a recess. Get some fresh air; we’ll be back in thirty minutes."

Another pause in the meeting left everyone on a somber note. Some stood up from their chairs while others collapsed to their knees in their seats. 

 

Nevertheless, their reactions didn't mask the bitter taste that lingered from the demigod's suggestion.

 

Tira wondered how it must feel to think as a normal person, and to find oneself in a dilemma about murder and death. To agonize on whether it would matter on what path had to be taken—even if the outcomes were all the same.

 

Ending another person's life before death took them naturally. An act that was recognized as a worldwide sin and taboo. A concept that wouldn't matter to an outlier like her.

 

Dias had noticed her wandering gaze and winked. Tira held back an urge to sigh. That was more thinking than she wanted to do for the day.