Transcendent Gene
Chapter 139: Farewell [7]

Chapter 139: Farewell [7]

The trip was especially short by car. Gio and the Old Lady were already back at Gastle’s gates within minutes.

However, the reason why the Old Lady had been urgently notified was easy to see before they were ever that close.

Gio sighed as his suspicions were confirmed. Nobody else in this world would ever be able to predict an event like this.

The car screeched to a stop on the sand and the Old Lady got out without saying a word to Gio. She gave him a hard look to stay in the car before rushing over to the gates.

She was too focused on the situation at hand. The fact that Gio didn’t heed her warning in the slightest didn’t register in her mind.

He stepped out and looked up. Indeed, it was just as he remembered it.

There was a new fleet of airships landed in front of Gastle’s gates.

The main ship was a massive black and red warship. Such vessels were usually never used for travel unless they were manned by the forces of a prominent clan.

The rest of the ships possessed a similar color scheme. Gio spotted several starjets, twinjets, and omnicopters; standard aircraft in any fleet. However, alongside them were several individual jets that were much harder to find being used in combat.

It was a fleet that could only belong to people with a good amount of influence. The Old Lady had no choice but to be wary from the start.

The report she received was vague, but it didn’t seem to be made under duress.

"A fleet has landed at the gates. Its Captain is present with armed personnel, however, he is not presenting hostility. He has asked to see the ruler of this city."

When she received it, she wondered if some of her old connects had come to find her.

That was not the case at all.

This red and black color scheme along with the insignia engraved into every airship revealed their identities to her.

"You asked to see me?" She said, arriving in front of the gate and standing before her guards.

She locked eyes with the man in question, an older individual with a long grey beard and sharp snake-like gaze. He wore a long robe adorned with the same insignia and colors as the ships he commanded.

"You are the owner of this city?"

"You could say that. What business does someone of your status have with people like us?"

The Old Lady’s responses were laced with just a bit of hostility. She knew of the clan that backed this fleet. She didn’t have enmity with them, but they also had no reason to be in Gastle.

If they had any hostile intentions...

"I see, so you are the City Lord. It is a pleasure to meet you," the man said, bowing slightly in acknowledgement.

He waved his hand, telling his guards to back off as he stepped forward.

"I have come to find someone in your city. We have no interest in causing trouble with someone of your stature either."

"You know me?"

"We have, of course, done our research before barging in. We don’t want to be unwelcomed guests, after all."

"I see..."

The Old Lady squinted her eyes inquisitively.

"So? Who is it you’re looking for?"

"Right, that would be a child who shares my skin color. He should have only recently arrived..."

The man’s eyes went over to Gio as a slight smile rose on his face.

"...he’s been up to quite a lot recently, so it was important for us to come find him once he stopped in human territory for the first time."

Gio returned the smile awkwardly and walked over. He couldn’t necessarily keep himself out of this situation.

It was always a situation he’d have to confront.

’This confirms it. There are some events that will happen one way or another. Just like how Raymond had to lose his legs for me to save the team from death, changing the future is always give and take.’

If there was such a thing as a "fixed timeline," the "Goddess" in the tower wouldn’t have told him that changing the future was possible.

However, even if it was malleable, there were levels to things. Gio didn’t know how much he could truly control the events of this timeline.

’I can fight against them and prevent them to the best of my ability, but right now, there’s something like plotted points on the timeline that can’t or won’t change.’

To change those events, Gio had to slowly mend the timeline until it was willing to accept more major changes.

This event happened exactly as it did in the past. The only difference was which City Lord was being confronted.

And unlike last time, this City Lord was on Gio’s side.

The Old Lady watched Gio approach with a strange expression.

The foreign man, the first person many present had seen with a skin color like Gio’s, also looked over at him.

"You go by Gio?"

"That’s my name, yeah."

"I see...do you perhaps know who we are?"

Gio hesitated,

"I do."

He wasn’t supposed to, but he couldn’t act unaware at a time like this. It would make things inconvenient later.

"Oh?" The man muttered in interest.

"I guess you learned more than expected on your excursions."

"You could say that."

"Then..."

The man glanced at the Old Lady before turning back to him.

"...you can assume why we’re here today, can’t you?"

"I can."

Gio could, and since some time ago, the Old Lady did too.

"You’ve come to take me back...to the family that abandoned me."

To a place far higher than this.

To the 2nd Stratum, Arcadia.

"To the Atmos Clan."

An insignia of a magic circle overplayed with an upside-down triangle. In its center was a single shining star.

It was the same insignia that existed on the rags on Gio’s body in his very first memory. It was an insignia that the Old Lady had seen before and disregarded because she didn’t believe in the possibility.

But that very possibility was coming to life in front of her very eyes.

"That’s right," the man said, smiling wider.

"The Atmos Clan is your true home. Your family is eagerly awaiting your return."

He conveniently ignored the part where Gio said they abandoned him.

"If you are already aware of our identity and relationship, then is there anything more to say? Come with us to Arcadia. Your like will begin anew there."

Gio had taken the offer once.

From the beginning, he planned to take the offer again.

The Atmos Clan was his foothold in Arcadia. The identity of its son was one he needed.

Besides...

’Father...’

However, even as he thought about meeting his father for the first time again, another face appeared in his mind.

His eyes went to her. She wasn’t focused on anything but him. She looked at him with worry and more complicated expressions in her eyes.

"Haa..."

Even if Gio knew he had to leave, he had no plans to do it suddenly like this.

He turned his eyes back to the bearded man and bowed his head slightly.

"Please give me a few days to think about it. It is still too sudden to make any life-changing decisions."

The old man didn’t seem too happy about it, but he still conceded.

At the end of the day, Gio was a legitimate son of the Atmos Clan. He was outranked through and through.

Gio knew that his perception of the event was ruined, it being his second time experiencing the same thing.

However, for everyone else, it was the first.

In the Old Lady’s eyes, the world had just been flipped upside down.

Before Gio could even think about leaving, he needed to have another talk with her.

His heart would never feel settled otherwise.

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