Lowly Ascent

Cain was working as usual, however, today he felt energized and in a good mood. A few days prior, he not only increased his strength but also solved problems related to his mind, it was two birds with one stone!

He was now brighter, he felt accepting of himself no matter how he changed.

Although it sounds stupid, if someone is enemies with themselves, it will be impossible to succeed. The mind's worst enemy is the mind after all.

If someone is against themselves, they will fall into a perpetual mental struggle that will lead to their own demise.

Since this spiritual awakening, Cain has made sure to regularly go through his memories to make sure everything is in order.

Although it is tedious, it helps with not only his mind but memorization of details, an example of this would be a memory related to Sarah, she seems to always take a break at 2:20 every day, other memories show that Michael does the same.

This would confirm many of the group's suspicions towards these two, though it's not like they hide it, they always come back from breaks together exhausted so it was pretty obvious.

But this is only one case, Cain found that it would be beneficial to his social skills to memorize little details like this and organize them in his mind to create a profile he can use on anyone he has met previously.

Of course, such tiny details may not always be important, but having them to have them could perhaps help in life-or-death situations.

Though doing all that work felt like one of those factory machines that work all day and do simple tasks, all Cain did for hours was going through memory after memory and replaying some of them over and over, it was tiring.

This arduous process was stopped when Sarah knocked at the door to drop something off. It was another letter from the Garsh Family.

===============================================

Dear Cain Lavedel,

I Rebecca Garsh, Invite you to spend the evening of the 28th with me and accompany me to the monthly ball at Mayor Ivins's mansion in the city's center.

Please have a servant send a letter back with your answer, If yes, I will be waiting at 7:45 pm at the Garsh Mansion for you to accompany me.

Love,

Rebecca Garsh

===============================================

'Bingo, the Garsh family is so reliable.'

Cain smirked and stood up from his desk, he then gathered his team, of course not before writing a response and sending it back to Rebecca.

...

"So why have you got us all together Captain? Are we abandoning the mission?"

Cain's team was gathered around a table in the building's basement, it was a hidden room that held their gear and mission details.

"No, the opposite. I have a way to enter the Mansion, I can only bring Anders since he can act as my coachman. You will have to get in differently, this would be from infiltrating the mansion prior. For this, I already have a plan. It will be done from the bakery delivery Victor regularly gets."

Sarah stood up and laid a bunch of papers on the table, they were fake identities and credentials.

"With the help of these, you can enter the mansion as delivery men. Once inside, you must hide for a few days before the ball, then disguise as servants and blend in. Michael will be in charge of keeping our traces covered. We will meet with each other during the ball to assign roles, you all will also be undergoing training so you can at least act the part."

Daniel stood up confused "What? Why do we have to do this, and why do we have to hide, how am I even supposed to hide?!"

Cain retorted, "A big mansion like this will have lots of space to hide in the cracks, you would have already passed all the checkpoints so unless you're on the premises, there will be no guards inside the first and second floors. Even someone like you can hide easily"

Daniel scoffed and crossed his arms, he then sat back down. Sarah nodded to Cain and returned to her seat, Cain preceded.

"Since this mission might as well be suicide, rest and recharge to be at peak performance. We still haven't had contact from the other group of mercenaries so we do not know if they are taking action.

"Just in case, I've made copies of the token the Commander gave me and I will now give you all your own just in case you meet someone from that group"

Cain handed out tokens identical to his, it was a coin with the symbol of the Puffrid Military on them.

Sarah then directed the rest to a higher level of the building where trainers were waiting, Daniel was visibly distraught the whole way there.

Cain went out for a walk, he was now close to the objective, completing such a task should give him a great amount of credit which will allow him to reach a higher position within the military and therefore, the government.

Being trusted will allow him to start rotting the Kingdom from the inside and make it the perfect weapon to descend Netherane into Chaos.

Before Cain might've been against this, he would be sacrificing millions of lives after all. But he was now clearheaded and calm, he knew this was his best course of action and the only action he could take, he already made up his mind.

He can destroy both the Empire and the Kingdom, after which he plans to make a new organization that won't be affected by greed and debauchery.

Although this plan will take many sacrifices, a world filled with peace and happiness filled Cain's head, which made all of it worth it.

The world he imagined was beautiful, he imagined himself getting older and passing the torch of maintaining peace, finally able to let go of all the evil he did and seek forgiveness from those he hurt.

He would live out the rest of his days repenting and helping others, fixing society of its ill nature, and dying surrounded by people thankful to him.

He wished to help the world and be forgiven in turn for his actions, he hoped to have his victims understand and accept what he did as a necessity and send him off when the time came.

However, now was not the time for imagining an uncertain future. Now was the time of action and Cain needed to gain more information.

He contacted Lina to get such information on the ball and the layout of the mansion, he then memorized the information and spent the rest of his time looking for suitable clothes.

'With the contacts with the delivery company, everything is in place. With the team in position, the assassination can take place with a quick escape.'

.........

Rebecca stood in front of her family manor, she was waiting for someone to pick her up and was wearing a beautiful orange dress. People walking the streets would stare blankly, mesmerized by her looks.

She began to smile as she saw a carriage gilded with gold stop in front of her. A figure came out of the carriage and offered their hand, they were wearing a dark green dress shirt tucked into their pants.

Over their shirt, draped an even darker black suit. The color scheme was basic yet worked, what was even more distinct was the figure's eyes.

They were red and had an alluring influence when you looked at them. They were like a deep sea filled with dread, a crimson sea.

This ominous feeling from their eyes didn't affect Rebecca, she gladly took the figure's hand and entered the carriage.

"You always wear red, green, or black? Care to try a different color"

Cain was sitting across from Rebecca, and Anders was driving the carriage to the center of the city, though he would sneak glances at Rebecca while he drove.

"Well they are both my favorite colors and I like to wear them"

"You should incorporate other colors too! How about we go shopping tomorrow and I will help you buy clothes"

"...Sure"

Cain enjoyed how Rebecca always nitpicked at him, he felt peaceful when someone worried or was thoughtful for him. He couldn't put his finger on as to why though.

He continued to talk with Rebecca, she was excited to go to the ball which surprised him.

She had never gone to one at the mayor's parties before, and Rebecca would go on and on about seeing the mansion's library which was said to be the 7th biggest in the Empire.

She being excited about the library of all things made Cain break out into a hysterical laugh.

...

After passing more than 8 checkpoints, Cain could finally see the mansion up close.

It was around 5 stories high, maybe six. It was hard to see at a glance.

The mansion was huge and had hundreds of windows plastered across its white walls.

Finally stopping, Cain stepped out holding Rebecca's hand, they were then greeted by a grand entrance adorned with twinkling lights and a bustling crowd.

There were hundreds of people in a vast field to the right talking and standing at tables.

There were even more people going inside to the left, where a massive hall was filled with people dancing and drinking while others were off to the side eating and talking.

There were similarly a few groups of men going into different rooms to smoke or listen to music.

Cain was amazed at how big this event was, and the mayor held it monthly at that. He could get lost in this crowd as if it were the streets of Free City!