Chapter 359: Need to corner him

"Yes, I am absolutely fine, and I am currently somewhere safe." Blake reassured his fiancée for the third time. She had apparently received word that he had been ambushed. His mother and secretary had called as well, each demanding to know what had happened.

{Where are you right now? I will come pick you up.}

Blake exhaled slowly before giving her the address.

{What are you doing in a café at this hour? Amd rohit after the incident no less?}

Blake shrugged. "I just came across a friend... who actually saved me, too."

His gaze drifted toward the quiet boy sitting a short distance away, calmly sipping his coffee as though the world around him held no urgency at all.

Blake was growing impatient to speak with him, yet beneath that impatience was an uneasiness he could not quite shake. There was something about the boy that made him wary, as though every answer he might receive would only lead to questions he was not prepared to face.

Just then, Corella spoke again.

{I will be there in twenty minutes. Please don’t go anywhere else.}

Blake hummed in acknowledgment before ending the call. He slipped his phone away and made his way toward the boy’s table.

As he pulled out the chair and sat down, the green-haired boy spoke without looking at him.

"She never changes. Regardless of how you treat her, she always worries about you."

Blake paused.

He slowly lowered himself into the chair and studied the boy across from him. "You... don’t just know Corella, do you?"

The boy did not answer the question. Instead, his expression remained calm as he said, "What if I told you that what I am about to reveal could put your life in danger? That it might draw you into a world where beings beyond your imagination could begin to take an interest in you?"

Blake leaned back in his seat, his eyes never leaving the boy.

"I’ve reached a point where I’m willing to take any risk if it means finding out what my own mind has been trying so desperately to make me forget."

The younger man hummed softly before asking, "And you believe I know what you’re trying to remember?"

"I know it," Blake replied with absolute certainty. "You have all the answers I’ve been desperately searching for. You can ask anything of me in return for what I need to know."

The other man simply stared at him.

Blake remained silent as well, giving him the time to gather his thoughts and decide whether he was willing to reveal what Blake sought.

There was one thing, however, that Blake had already decided. He would not let the man walk away without giving him something, anything, that could fill the inexplicable void in his memories.

Finally, the younger man spoke.

"I will tell you."

He raised a hand, his expression turning solemn.

"But you must promise me this stays between us. Not a single other soul can know what I am about to show you."

Blake nodded without hesitation. He cared little about the danger now. All he wanted was to fill the hollow space where his memories should have been. Besides, he had always been the kind of person who could keep someone else’s secrets buried deep.

The younger man reached across the table and extended his hand. Then, with two fingers, he gently tapped Blake on the forehead.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, in the very next breath, a torrent of memories came crashing into Blake’s mind.

His body stiffened.

He instinctively leaned back in his chair, his eyes widening as images, voices, faces, and moments he had long since forgotten surged through his consciousness with overwhelming force.

And Blake could only stare blankly ahead as the past he had been searching for finally began to return.

Kyle just sat back and sipped his coffee. This would take some time.

....

Christopher paced restlessly around his office, concern etched across his face, his brows drawn tightly together.

His hand remained clenched around his phone as he waited for a call, even though a part of him desperately hoped it would never come.

He did not want to hear from them, not when his frustration was already threatening to boil over. Yet the silence offered him no comfort either. Eventually, the call he had been dreading came.

Bzz.

Christopher drew a slow breath, then answered.

"It failed."

{Are you certain?}

Christopher hummed. "Yes, I am. I lost the signal just seven minutes ago."

{All of them?}

"Yes."

He took another measured breath before continuing. "And since we disabled the surveillance in that area, we couldn’t determine what caused it."

There was a brief silence on the other end.

{Astortia Blake may be strong, but he can’t possibly take on our creation all at once.}

Christopher hummed in agreement.

"True. He must have had help... but only if he was actually expecting an ambush."

There was a brief pause before the voice on the other end spoke again.

{Did you perhaps leak the information to someone? There was no discussion on my end that could have allowed the intel to escape.}

Christopher immediately defended himself. "I never shared the information with anyone. I believe someone simply happened to be there when Blake was ambushed and intervened."

{Coincidences don’t happen without reason. Investigate this matter before the Astortia Clan brings it before the Ten Petals Conference.}

Another pause followed.

{I can’t have him showering this experiment with any more attention before we obtain his eyes.}

Christopher hummed quietly.

"The only missing piece... is Judgement. We need that."

There was no response this time. The call simply disconnected.

Christopher slowly made his way to the window and stared down at the scene below.

On the lower floor, hundreds of identical clones hung from thick cables, their bodies suspended in rows as they awaited deployment. Every one of them stood ready to be dispatched at a moment’s notice.

Christopher’s expression hardened.

I need to corner Blake as soon as possible.