Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

When the sun finally started to rise over the horizon from the east, Adam opened his eyes and breathed out ever so slightly to leak a small sigh.

After his discussion with Viktor, which ended on a rather ominous note, he had been sitting and meditating with one of his minds while a second one worked on studying the Book of Dreams that was written by the Crawling Chaos himself. Meanwhile, the third mind worked on ameliorating his fine control over various aspects of his skills and reading books on pure physics and its applications over the world.

He could feel that the stronger he became, the slower his progress was increasing the proficiency of his skills. But, all things considered, his growth was still extremely fast compared to the rest of the pack.

"Eve is hiding something… Again"

He had been working slightly on his handle on the power of dreams and illusions. but he could feel a certain amount of smoothness in using his abilities related to this path that hadn't been present in the past.

He refused to believe that this was just the result of entering the Dreamscape. There was no mention of such an effect in the Book of Dreams that he had been reading diligently for all this time and he did not feel anything different thanks to the Dreamforce that he had accumulated from the Dreamscape.

He wondered if she hadn't already handed him the authority of Asmodeus or something and he was simply too weak to really use it or understand that he even had it.

'Well, let's take it one thing at a time.'

It didn't really matter whether she already handed over the authority to him or not. Adam was indeed not ready nor willing to be chased by a group of thirsty apostles for the authority or anything similar in nature. So the current situation was good enough for him.

His eyes flickered and his ears twitched a bit as his gaze fell immediately on the door that could be clearly seen from the living room.

He looked on as the shabby door opened and Cecilia walked through it. The faint smell of blood coming from her body could be felt even from here but there was a bright and feral grin on her face that made a natural contrast to her bloody self.

"Damn. Makoto, are you seeing what I am seeing? Some unknown man entered our house and is even lounging on my couch as though it belongs to him."

"Intruder. Die."

Adam grimaced visibly at those cold remarks.

"Sorry, Mom. I know I should have warned you before leaving."

"Heh, you shouldn't apologize to me but Makoto here. I have found a way to entertain myself. Poor girl, though, has been waiting for you in vain for basically one week now."

"Liar.".

The innocence in her eyes, her monotonous expression, and the deadpan way with which she delivered that word to him were like an arrow that was shot straight at Adam's heart.

It seemed like, even though he had an eidetic memory, he had still managed to forget his promise to meet her later on that he made with her during the gathering.

Though to be honest, it was more like this promise was not particularly high on his list of priorities right now.

Still, a promise was a promise and the words of a man were worth more than gold or at least it should have been. This remark was taught to him from when he was a child yet he had violated them like they were nothing.

"I am sorry. Really. I have no excuses for my conduct."

At this point, giving excuses would only make him seem even more unsightly. Though he did have a few good ones at hand.

Tortured for three days with poison, finally having sex with Shuri, killing her brother-in-law, meeting his billions of years old grandmother, entering an alternate reality where dreams had taken place of reality, kidnapping, mentally torturing, then accidentally killing two mafia bosses, eating their soul and becoming some sort of spirit necromancer on the way before finally stalking his kinda girlfriend kinda aunt with the soul of one of his victims. There really was an endless amount of excuses for him to choose from.

'Man… Thinking about it, I really had a rather charged week now, didn't I?'

It was funny how in one week he could have more adventures than most people would have in a lifetime.

But he was already used to this rather hectic life of his.

"I forgive you."

Makoto was truly magnanimous. Though it seemed more like she had not particularly been angry in the first place. This seemed more like a prank etched by his mom than something she spoke of her own volition.

"Thanks."

"Heh, see how cute Makoto is."

Cecilia ruffled the hair of the silver-haired girl while grinning at Adam.

"So, dear stranger lounging on my couch, what brought you to my humble home?"

Cecilia walked while pulling Makoto with her before jumping on the couch next to Adam. She gently bumped against him slightly then took the remote and lighted up the TV.

"First, I am your beloved son and not a stranger. Second, I have a friend who wants to visit and also greets you. It's Natasha."

"Oh… That wolf girl? Hehe. Is she your girlfriend? Should I start expecting a pup now?"

She lightly nudged his side while directing a rather perverted and leery smile at him… to which Adam simply shrugged,

"I don't really know what we are. I guess we are kinda more than friends and less than lovers thing."

"Bleh! Never thought I would hear this outside of some Korean drama or something."

She waved her hand in a dismissive way before looking at Makoto.

"Speaking of Natasha, you fought alongside her, right?"

"She was strong. Lacking training though."

"Pretty sure most people are lacking in training when compared to you."

Cecilia joked slightly before finally looking up at Adam. Her eyes were far more serious than before making him straighten up his posture,

"Well, you aren't a child anymore so I don't care who you date as long as you are careful with it. You know about her, right?"

"The fact that she is part of the Mafia?"

"I don't care about petty criminals. The problem is her power…"