Chapter 238: Home
[System Theta: !!!]
System Theta went silent for half a beat.
Then panic flooded in.
[System Theta: This is bad.]
It was the first time it had ever seen a favorability score drop.
The New System Field Guide had a section about it, though the manual treated it as an edge case. Favorability could decrease, yes, but it happened so rarely that new systems were told not to spend much time worrying about it.
The guide also included one warning.
Once a score started falling, even by one percent, it usually did not stop until it reached zero.
So how had Elias made that mistake?
Giselle turned away.
She wanted out of the garage as quickly as possible. She did not want to remain another second in its stale concrete air, surrounded by Blackwood security, Serena’s shaking breath, and the sight of Elias crying in Serena’s arms. The longer she stood there, the more it felt as if the place itself was closing around her.
Then Elias laughed.
It was a quiet sound.
Giselle stopped.
She did not turn around, yet his voice reached her clearly through the stillness of the garage.
"I told you already."
"There was never a home for me there."
His voice came again, softer this time.
"Serena and I broke up. There’s nothing left between us."
Giselle finally turned.
Elias had pulled free of Serena’s arms.
He did it slowly, with enough steadiness to make the motion look deliberate. Serena’s hands remained lifted for a moment after he stepped away, as though she still expected him to fall back into her. Elias staggered once when he got to his feet, then turned toward Giselle.
His mouth lifted into a small, tired smile.
Giselle stepped forward instinctively and reached for his hand.
Elias drew his hand away.
The movement was light. He did not slap her hand aside. He did not look angry.
That made it hurt more.
"You don’t need to," he said quietly. "I don’t want to get you dirty too."
Then Elias refused both of them.
He left Serena’s hand hanging in the air. He left Giselle standing beneath the fluorescent lights with all the anger and protection she had brought into Blackwood Group. He walked away alone for the first time since the garage confrontation began.
And he went home.
His real home, at least according to the life this world had built for him.
The place Marlene and Arthur had lived in was old enough to look tired from the sidewalk. The narrow building had been standing for decades, its exterior washed dull by weather and neglect. The windows were grimy. The small front step leaned slightly to one side. A broken railing had been fixed with a strip of metal that was already rusting again.
Elias stood outside the door for a moment.
He had known Marlene was a compulsive gambler. He had known Arthur had been living comfortably in Longhaven Hospital. The house still caught him off guard.
So this was why Marlene had never sold it.
It was not because she had some hidden moral line.
No one would want to buy it.
Elias unlocked the front door and stepped inside.
A trapped smell met him at once, stale dust layered with old fabric, shut windows, and the faint sourness of a house that had been ignored too long. He held his breath on instinct and waved one hand through the air in front of him.
How long had no one lived here?
Arthur had been enjoying the hospital suite and had no reason to return. Marlene spent every day chasing cards, dice, and the next bad decision. Looking at the dust gathered across the floor, Elias guessed the house had been empty for months.
He did not care much.
He had slept in worse places during previous missions. He had slept in rooms with peeling walls, broken locks, and mattresses that had no business being called mattresses. Against those memories, this was practically decent.
Elias went through the small house until he found the bathroom closet. He pulled out a towel, a broom, a mop, a bottle of cleaner, and an old basin. Then he went into the smallest bedroom, which had clearly been meant for him.
He worked quickly.
Dust swept out. Floor wiped down. The sheets stripped. A clean cover pulled from a storage bin and spread over the bed. He shook out the pillow, opened the window enough to let fresh air in, and threw his shoes toward the door.
Five minutes later, he was on the bed.
The whole process had been so smooth that System Theta nearly forgot its panic about Giselle.
[System Theta: Host, is this another skill? A homemaking skill?]
Elias lay on his back and stretched lazily, his body loosening into the mattress. "Only one skill can be brought into a world. Did you forget?"
[System Theta: Oh.]
It paused.
[System Theta: Then how do you know how to do all of that?]
"Do you really think every normal thing needs to be bought from the system store?" Elias asked. "Do it enough times, and you get good at it."
[System Theta: You’re amazing.]
Elias accepted the praise with a faint smile.
He did not tell System Theta that he had once spent an entire world raising a child. At the beginning, he could barely heat food without ruining it. By the end, he could clean, cook, repair clothes, manage a household budget, and soothe a feverish kid at three in the morning without help.
No system skill had taught him that.
Circumstances had.
System Theta returned to the matter that had first sent it into panic.
[System Theta: And Giselle Frost’s favorability... I’ve never seen a score drop and then rise again so quickly. It’s even higher than before.]
"Where is it now?"
[System Theta: Seventy percent.]
Elias smiled.
"I only gave the little virgin a ride on an emotional roller coaster," he said. "It’s not some remarkable method."
System Theta did not believe him.
Everything Elias dismissed as simple usually turned into an incident report no beginner system wanted to file.
Elias shifted slightly on the bed. "What about Liora?"
System Theta went quiet.
The silence lasted long enough to make him open one eye.
[System Theta: Ninety-five percent.]
Elias gave a small nod, his expression turning thoughtful.
Liora was nearly finished.
"And Serena?"
[System Theta: Ninety percent.]
One sequence of moves had pushed all three women close to the line.
Giselle had climbed from forty back to seventy. Liora had risen to ninety-five. Serena had reached ninety.
The results were excellent.
Elias did not look excited.
He only said, "Mm."
Then he lay still.
After a while, System Theta asked carefully, [System Theta: Host, what are you going to do next?]
"Shh."
His voice was quiet.
"Baby, stop talking. Let me sleep for a while."
[System Theta: Okay.]
Elias’s breathing slowed.
The room settled around him. The bed was not luxurious. The mattress was older than he liked. The ceiling above him had a faint water stain near one corner.
Still, the sheets were clean.
That was enough.
An hour passed.
The front door opened.
System Theta did not have time to warn him before Elias’s eyes opened naturally.
He was still half asleep. He covered a yawn with the back of his hand, his voice soft and lazy when he spoke.
"My habit is simple. When I’ve earned a lot of favorability, I reward myself with a proper nap. Understand?"
[System Theta: Yes.]
Then it reported, [System Theta: Marlene Bennet and Arthur Hale are outside.]
His foster parents had come home together.
Elias did not need to think hard about why.
Serena had ordered it.
She had likely told them to return and take care of him. The urgency behind that command must have been obvious. Serena would not have sounded worried unless she believed Elias was in a bad state.
Elias remained on the bed.
He did not get up.
He listened to the front door close, followed by footsteps crossing the stale living room. A few seconds later, his bedroom door opened.
Marlene came in first.
Arthur followed behind her.
Elias looked at them as if he had expected them all along. He did not appear surprised or pleased. He only lifted his chin slightly.
"You’re back?"
Both of them froze.
That was clearly not the reaction they had expected.
Elias had guessed right. Serena must have told them he was unstable, devastated, perhaps one step from breaking apart. Yet he was stretched across the bed with one leg bent lazily, looking more like a young man accustomed to being served than someone suffering through emotional collapse.
Arthur’s face looked different from the man Elias remembered.
His complexion had color now. He looked rested. Better fed. The hospital had treated him well. Longhaven’s private suites had been good for his health and even better for his comfort.
Elias smiled.
"What? You forgot how to talk?"
Marlene and Arthur exchanged a look.
The Elias in front of them did not fit the boy they remembered. He did not look fearful. He did not look dependent. He looked relaxed in a way that made their old authority over him seem faintly ridiculous.
In the end, Arthur spoke first under Marlene’s hard stare.
"E-Elias..."
The room went awkward immediately.
Arthur seemed to feel it too. He looked as though he regretted opening his mouth before he had even finished the name.
Elias did not.
His smile became bright and clean.
"Dad."
Arthur blinked.
Elias’s tone remained cheerful.
"I’m hungry. Go make me something to eat."