After parting ways with Pela that day—
Time flew by, and the date of the performance drew closer. Venti put his activities in the lower city on pause and stayed in the upper city for now.
But, maybe because Natasha worried about him getting into trouble, she sent Seele over to keep an eye on him while the Wildfire members recovered using the medical supplies.
“—Anyway, Boss says thanks for your help. Next time you’re down there, he’ll buy you a drink.”
Leaning against the wall like some gang member from a movie, Seele delivered the message.
“Good to hear Oleg’s doing fine. He’s one of the rare people I can count as a drinking buddy.”
Venti lounged comfortably on a soft bed, his tone relaxed and light.
While it wasn’t easy to come by alcohol in the lower city, sometimes you needed something to take the edge off. If you didn’t blow off steam once in a while, the stress might crush you before the challenges did. After all, not everyone’s made of iron, able to stand firm no matter the weight of life.
And then there were people like Sampo, two-bit merchants who always managed to scrape together a bottle or two. Venti had more than once bragged about bringing Oleg some “explosive oolong tea.”
But money was always too tight…
Seele rolled her eyes at the memory.
“Oh, please. As I recall, someone here choked on it the first time and coughed for half an hour.”
She even shot Venti a pointed look of irritation.
“And let’s get one thing straight—if you end up passed out drunk with Oleg, I’m not lugging you back to my place again.”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. This time, I’m ninety percent sure I can out-drink Oleg.”
Venti stroked his chin with a confident look.
“That’s… not the point here!”
“Oh, does that mean you don’t like me, Seele?”
“Ugh—It’s… it’s not like I hate you or anything. I just don’t need to be dragging random strays back to my place, got it?”
Seele turned away, her gaze avoiding his as if she were trying to dodge his look.
“Oh, speaking of cats, I can’t help but—ah-choo!”
Venti rubbed his nose. His mysterious tendency to attract cats had caused him no small amount of trouble. Most of the cats here were hardy, cold-resistant types with thick fur—exactly the kind he was allergic to.
Whenever he spotted them, he had to be extra careful to keep his distance.
“Wait, are you seriously afraid of cats? That’s so lame!” Seele’s grin widened.
“It’s not fear; it’s just an allergy. The second I’m near a cat or cat hair, I start sneezing.”
Venti sighed.
“Ah, no wonder you’re holed up in here. With weather like this, the upper city’s probably crawling with stray cats.”
Seele shifted slightly, glancing out the window at the thriving cityscape outside.
Her mouth curled into a slight smile—whether teasing or something else, he couldn’t tell.
Seeing this shift in her mood, Venti’s tone grew a bit more serious.
“Seele, you really don’t like the upper city, do you?”
“If ‘not liking’ counts as hating, then yeah, you could say that.”
She didn’t even look back, her voice flat.
“The people here, the environment, even the buildings—they all feel like reminders of a divide I’ll never cross…”
Frustration flashed in her eyes as she yanked the curtains shut, blocking out the blinding light from outside. The room took on a muted, dusky tone, and Venti gazed at her with gentle concern.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
The smile slipped from her face, replaced by her usual cold expression.
“Because I’m worried about you.”
Venti rested his hands on his knees.
“So, I’d like to make a promise with you. If—just if—you wake up one day to find this city rotting from the inside out, and you decide to burn it all down… let me help.”
“…That’s dark, even for you. Aren’t you an upper city person? Aren’t you afraid of what they’ll think if you say things like that?”
Seele’s expression was a mix of exasperation and curiosity.
“Haha! Homes can be rebuilt, but some things need to be reduced to ashes before they can rise again.”
He brushed off the “upper city” label, smiling.
“But just saying all this isn’t enough to make sense of it. So, why don’t we put it into practice—”
Venti had explained before that the Supreme Guardian’s power didn’t come from taking by force, but from the trust placed in someone able to lead everyone out of hardship.
And a homeland, as something so easy to feel attached to, was bound to stir up deep emotions when destroyed. By the same measure, the act of protecting it gave rise to countless moments of bravery and sacrifice.
For Wildfire to make an impact in the upper city, they needed a banner to rally around.
First, it couldn’t carry the dark overtones of a debt collector, nor could it blatantly oppose the current regime.
They needed to focus on the primary needs of the lower city rather than rush into retaliation.
The resentment simmering in the hearts of most lower city residents wouldn’t be ignored; it would eventually erupt once Cocolia fell.
By then, she’d be like a cornered rat, and any “aggressive” moves by the lower city would just be seen as hammering the final nail into her coffin.
So, with all that in mind… where did Wildfire begin?
The look in Seele’s eyes seemed to ask just that.
“Tomorrow, during the performance, the Silvermane Guards will be patrolling the streets and the rail lines below, just in case any stray Fragmentum creatures escape the new rift.”
“…You want me to make a name for myself there?”
“No, no. Those small-time creatures won’t threaten the patrol or disturb the city’s order.
What we need is a bigger stage—a stage everyone will focus on.”
A hint of a smile played on Venti’s lips.
“I don’t get it.” Seele shook her head, looking puzzled. “You want to get famous, but not with a tiny event like this, and we can’t exactly stage an attack on the Silvermane Guards ourselves, can we?”
“Heh, you’re close! We may not be able to do anything shady, but there’s someone who can do it for us—”
With a snap of his fingers, an invisible force took shape, quickly coalescing into a small but finely detailed “monster.”
It had a tough, metallic exoskeleton with a sea-slug-like shape and delicate, luminous green wing-like appendages.
“…What’s that?”
Seele’s heart skipped a beat as she watched him conjure the creature seemingly from thin air.
“Oh, just a little trick, nothing more.”
Though it was enough to cause a stir anywhere else, the bard remained as carefree as ever.
“When the show starts, I’ll send this little guy out to make a scene, creating a crisis the current regime won’t be able to ignore—one with just enough pressure to shake things up.”
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