Chapter 55: Just Rest And Enjoy, Okay?

Logan woke at eight in the morning to sunlight already pouring through a window he hadn’t gotten used to yet, and for a moment he just lay there, waiting for the familiar drag of exhaustion to catch up with him.

It never came.

Whatever the match had taken out of him, whatever the last several days of fighting and merging and barely sleeping had cost, all of it had settled somewhere overnight and simply stopped mattering. He sat up feeling more rested than he could remember feeling in years.

He found the garden already full of noise by the time he made it downstairs.

His parents sat at a table near the largest of the canopy trees, cups of tea in front of both of them, and across from them sat two more people Logan recognized immediately.

Garen and Isolde Rezvolt, chatting with Daniel and Helen like old friends instead of two of the most powerful people on the planet.

Vina ran laughing through the grass nearby, chasing something Billy had detached from his own wheel, Solveig standing watch a few steps off with his usual patient stillness.

The tea in everyone’s cups had come from Martha, who was currently occupied elsewhere, working alongside someone Logan hadn’t seen before.

A dwarf stood at a cooking station that hadn’t existed in the garden yesterday, thick beard braided with small metal rings, hands moving with the kind of confidence that came from centuries of practice rather than mere years.

```

[ Baldrun Ironhearth - Mythic-rank Production ]

Tier: 9

```

Martha worked beside him, clearly deferring to whatever he called out, the smell rolling off both their stations together thick enough to reach Logan from halfway across the garden.

"Morning." Logan dropped into the empty seat at the table, and four heads turned toward him at once.

"There he is." Garen grinned. "Sleep well?"

"Better than I have in years." Logan meant it. "Alice already left, by the way. Her first match. I sent her in with three Mythics."

Isolde’s smile came easy. "Andrivida already told us."

"Thank you, Logan," Garen said it plainly, no flourish to it.

Logan shook his head. "Please, no need for thanks. You’re doing more for us than that already."

Garen laughed. "You’re wrong there, Logan. What you did is far more admirable. You trusted us with something that shocking, and we feel responsible for it. We’ll make sure nobody else ever gets a hint of it. You’re a future powerhouse, and the more of us there are together to help each other, the better."

There was something in his tone that implied something more, but Logan didn’t get the chance to actually catch it.

Daniel and Helen just sat there, content to stay out of whatever exactly Garen meant by that. Logan could see it plainly enough, the deliberate choice not to ask, not to push for details that might only end up being one more thing for their son to worry about. They just wanted to be happy. That was enough for both of them.

"Speaking of which." Isolde set her cup down. "Press conference is at noon. Four hours from now, at the Agency’s headquarters."

"Leon Flanke. Mythic-rank Talent, Mythic-rank Class." She said it like she was already rehearsing the announcement. "We won’t be revealing the real names of either. We’ll use something close enough to what they actually do, without giving away the specifics."

Logan nodded slowly. "Makes sense."

"We’re leaving a Tier-8 aircraft here for you. Full AI, no pilot needed." Garen gestured vaguely toward something Logan couldn’t actually see yet. "Come whenever you’re ready, but no later than eleven thirty. We’ll need to brief you before you go in front of anyone."

Not long after, Garen and Isolde said their goodbyes and left the way they’d arrived, and Logan spent the next three hours doing absolutely nothing that mattered, sitting in the garden with his family, watching Vina drag Billy into increasingly elaborate games, listening to his parents laugh about something that had nothing to do with money or exhaustion for the first time in longer than he wanted to think about.

Synthia had crafted three items overnight already, and was resting now before she used the remaining materials to craft a fourth.

Eventually the time came. Logan climbed into the Tier-8 aircraft a little before eleven, and it lifted off smooth and silently, nothing like the aircraft he’d already gotten used to riding.

As soon as it started moving, it spoke.

```

[ ROMO: Hello, friend. You can tell me how fast I should fly, and I’ll do that. I prefer top speed, though. It’s refreshing. ]

```

Logan chuckled. "Go at top speed, then."

```

[ ROMO: Roger! ]

```

His parents and Vina drifted inside the mansion not long after he left, into a living room that already had everything anyone could want sitting in it, and turned on the television because they wanted to see Logan.

Every channel they flipped past seemed to be running the same thing, a countdown ticking down in the corner of the screen, thirty minutes and dropping.

```

[ Player L reveals himself, his Class, and his Talent! Officially joining the Ascendant Circle Agency. ]

```

Vina pressed closer to the screen, eyes wide. "That’s brother, right? That’s actually brother?"

"He looks less handsome with this new face." Helen smiled.

"Hahaha, that’s true." Daniel laughed, joyous. "But our son is talented and hardworking. He’ll get strong enough soon that he won’t need to hide his real face and name anymore."

Vina grinned. "True. If brother becomes the strongest, nobody can threaten him."

She clenched one fist, thinking about her own future. "Just wait, Mom, Dad. I’m going to awaken a powerful class and talent too, like brother. We’ll both get strong."

"Yes. You absolutely will."

"But you’ll have to work hard for that, you know."

"I will! I already asked Billy and Solveig to teach me how to fight. I’m going to train hard!"

Helen and Daniel smiled at that.

They were happy enough, right then, that they felt they wouldn’t mind dying now. Because they could finally see a good future waiting for both of their children.

Neither of them noticed they’d both gone teary-eyed, hands locked together on the couch between them.

"Let’s watch over them and bless them," Helen said, feeling light. "It’s the only thing we can really do now."

"Mhmm." Daniel nodded, stifling his voice as he wiped at his face.

Vina looked at the two of them and bit her lip. She’d grown up the way she had. She understood everything, even the parts nobody had ever explained to her directly.

"Mom. Dad. You’ve done plenty for us already." Her voice came out steadier than either of her parents managed. "It’s our turn now. So just rest and enjoy it, okay?"

Looking at her standing there, fists clenched, face set with more determination than an eleven-year-old had any business carrying, Helen and Daniel broke into tears and smiles at the same time, pulling her into a hug between them.