“Good morning...” William greeted Mi-Yung without a shred of shame from last night.

  Wincing awake, Mi-Yung blinked, yawned, crawled back to some dignity, and realized she had fallen asleep.

  “Morning?” She asked, half glancing at the empty bottles and him.

  “It is morning.”

  “I see. Weird. Where is Yungmin?”

  “No idea.”

  Humming, Mi-Yung looked in the fridge for food and bread from yesterday. Butter and fresh carrots, tomatoes, ham, and sausage were the usual breakfasts in this household, followed by eggs or rice.

  “Can I?” William walked to her, and his stomach realized he had forgotten about dinner yesterday quite late.

  “Do you think I would keep food from you? Me?”

  “Would you? I feel like I would eat anything right now.”

  By this point, Mi-Yung went over her sleepiness and watched his face. Those red cheeks and hair had seen better days, so she wondered what that was about.

  “I insist,” she offered a plate in hand, and overlooked whatever was up from yesterday. She knew it should move naturally from now on, or devour him piece by piece, and it was no longer her place to mess with it.

  William ate four whole plates of food and never found tomatoes and simple bread this tasty. Ham or sausages went a long way, too, and tasted better than ever. As for something better, like eggs or rice, there were none because Mi-Yung had none to offer this morning.

  “Why are you dressed in the uniform of... what is this Division again? Assembly does wear black a lot, so what are those strips? You also look more normal than usual.” William asked a bunch of questions to quench his curiosity and clear his mind of yesterday's thoughts.

  “Normal? You say it as if it is a bad thing. Is it that bad? Why do I feel you think so?” Mi-Yung bit into a tomato aggressively.

  “Normal isn't a bad thing. Not that I want to be insulting, I mean. You look... good.”

  Smiling, she didn't take him seriously and enjoyed his open compliment. “Some stuff happened, and onto a job, I go. I have a small summon that will go around a bunch of monsters in human skin. If I am too blunt, I am one of them myself, so what am I to judge?” Then, Mi-Yung chuckled, and she found her words greater than usual.

  “Summon? Had something bad happened again? What?”

  “Oh, who is so curious? I am also quite curious about what happened. In particular, you and yesterday night,” Mi-Yung leaned forward and poked into a small hole in a mountain of feelings that was in William. She loved to tease him from time to time, and it always left him helpless.

  “I... won't tell,” William answered, escaping her eyes by glancing at the plate. He found a new plate and began to devour a bare baguette.

  Unfortunately, anything else was long gone.

  “I see. You want to keep the secrets. Good. That is good.”

  Nodding, William almost itched to escape to the library and not give her any further chances. If she wanted to tease him so much, silence was a good idea because she had a job to do. That meant he had yet another day of freedom without her troubling him for hours, so he looked forward to a clean, simple day ahead of him.

  Crunching sounds later, William washed it down with sips of water and felt full. Then, Mi-Yung no longer teased him and recognized what should come next.

  “You've been here for a long time, right?”

  He nodded again.

  “Good. I will be busy again, and it might last even beyond tomorrow. More than a month has passed since you came here, and my quota has been a burden for many kids before, so how are you faring compared to those, I wonder?”

  “I think it is good. Not great. Good.”

  “Anything more concrete? I am really worried you will end up like Luke and not speak properly.”

  “I think he speaks plenty about everything, and who is he to speak at all? He is strong and even a Captain. Not... because of you, right?”

  Mi-Yung didn't want to continue with this conversation because a small amount of nepotism was definitely going on. “My workload is hard. What have you not seen or picked?”

  William paused and gulped down a dry baguette. Then, he spoke. “Stuff about the deeper Systems and Rank, followed by Darks, of course. Many rooms were off-putting because of you, and I didn't visit them. And for some reason, Kaufman's card couldn't push everything since I experimented with it a little and discovered several rooms off-limits.”

  “Oh, maybe that's Heidi's work. Or did higher-ups from the Assembly deem it so? Kaufman isn't entirely on the same page when it comes to this whole place and the Assembly, so don't worry about it. He left the library years ago, and Heidi made numerous changes when he left it in her hands. That card still provides access to almost everything, but what about new stuff or special stuff? See? That's what I call a proper explanation. What a morning...”

  “That explains something.”

  “What?”

  “I mean, a lot? I wanted to look at some rooms and couldn't, so your explanations make sense to me even if that card is kind of ridiculous.”

  “Not as if it is an issue. From my look, you should be troubled with goals and act like it if you don't want to lose this chance.”

  “Why would I do it all? It isn't homework.” William said resolutely.

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  “Are you... sure it isn't? Do you not take my words seriously and think about your future? Walkers can be many things, but your future is unnatural as far as your history goes, and don't pretend it is normal. I know what I am talking about.” Mi-Yung said, her tone turning colder, and even her eyes sparkled in Arcana.

  “I... know. I will be better.”

  “Then what have you touched from the remaining tiers of importance?”

  “A bit of the Awakening, Rank 1 to Rank 4 Darks, some aspects of the body-systems, Arcana, and Emblems in general, which are quite broader than what Outside gets. Again, I pretty much guess that can be said about anything.”

  Mi-Yung nodded in confirmation. “Walker words are also Outside, but Walkers there and here are different. What are you? Where are you going? Those questions mean a lot of things depending on what we are talking about. What does it mean to you?”

  “Many basics are like icebergs, I think. You seriously meant that the beginning of Rank 1 will get broader, and this time is for me to look at the surface and poke my head underwater since I am at Rank 0. It is weirder than right.”

  “Good. Passable progress. Going further might trouble you, and I had no time for pretentious ideas like taxing your mind with strange experiences because you don't get what I am talking about.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Knowing limits and acknowledging them isn't a bad thing. You worked for yourself and did what you wanted for years—is that bad? No. And just for you, I will say it: perfection is often a facade. You have your strengths, and leaning on the wrong side is unlikely to benefit you. You didn't even get lazy in the past two years, and your past is decent as far as I am concerned. How rare for an Outsider, eh?”

  “Are... wait, what? Are others like me more... or, to put it another way... worse?”

  “Some are, but in the end, we are Walkers, and we have options and ways to live, and it isn't very teachable how to start it. People have their circumstances and needs. I think I mentioned how some recruits do too much and how some families or Outside forces conduct their trials and training regimen like a sort of war against youthful egos. Such methods have their shortcomings and merits, though it is not entirely without value. A lot of it is subjective.”

  William accepted it and knew what it meant. “It is about years. After the Awakening, things change a lot, and what came beforehand might be great, greater, or nothing. Nothing is less. Prepared minds or ideas can be a big deal. So is knowledge about Darks or what the thing in your body is doing, or how Darks are working.”

  “Oh, how much?” Mi-Yung tested him and stopped eating.“Maybe I should test what you make out of the Examination and Forced Awakening first.”

  “You said that already and gave me resources to look through it. I did that and will look at them further because there is no end to it. There are a lot of topics, and this whole Forced Awakening is a little bit more complex than you made it out to be. I don't get the science part, and a lot about our biology is even more bizarre. I never considered blood, nerves, bones, and... imagination to be that important.”

  “It is difficult to blame. Some focus is due because it has a base. I don't think anyone ever knew you, so what can you do or what will you do?”

  “You know it?”

  “I knew your father.”

  “I am not him, though.”

  Mi-Yung paused. “But the Emblem points that way, and you are son, so what the hell is wrong with mentioning him when you dislike it?”

  He shook his head. “Fine. I don't like this comparison. Aside from that, the choices in the Examinations are even worse. The idea that most Pillars come around and look at youths is... nerve-wracking.”

  Mi-Yung stared at his best attempt to change the topic from him elsewhere and figured accepting it was for the better. “Not just the Pillars, William. Division leadership has many faces and layers. The military is big. Then, there are Heads and representatives from other places. China, Japan, and Africa will also send a delegation. It's going to be an interesting time, and you'll be a part of it. Celeste, too, by the way. I got a recent confirmation from Dreadus about it.”

  “Oh.” William didn't find it surprising and believed that Celeste might be the most ready youth in her generation. She looked and seemed to relish the terrific times, ready to roll and do everything she possibly could. What was the end of it, however?

  William wasn't sure, but he trusted his instincts that she was the most glorious young menace he had ever seen.

  As for himself, he didn't know his chances or what he even held within himself that could compare to his generation. His Emblem could not do him justice alone.

  He should do it instead, like Celeste, who was doing a whole lot better at many things than he was. Unbeknownst to him, that might not be the wrong way to do it. Some reliance and belief were part of one's strength, and so was luck.

  Recalling her words and topics, William used his moment to learn. “So even Africa is involved...” William was surprised because that place was rural and different from the rest of the world.

  Not only was Africa a vast and reclusive place, but its tribal communities were seen as natural survivors who had endured the Dawn since the very beginning. Indeed, the majority of Africa's population declined, no longer resembling a hot, savage natural mass, but many from the former population survived in tribal forms and thrived in different yet familiar forms.

  As a whole, many people estimate that at least fifteen million people were scattered in these tribes all over Africa, and their Walkers were seen as natural-born killers thanks to their instincts, histories, and cultures. They did things very differently from the likes of America, Japan, and China.

  Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to get their tribal numbers right since they weren't one, coherent force. Africa was too large for tribes to form a single organization, or perhaps their natural composition, minds, cultures, and sheer dedication would never allow it to happen.

  They scattered for a reason, as survival was better that way, and Darks couldn't wipe them out in one swoop.

  The same was true for South or North America and Europe, where large-scale organizations were rare and incredibly complex, whereas in Africa, they relied on its culture.

  China had well-developed geological features and a large population, yet it was vast, and its governing main body was more than capable of functioning. Because of that, it might have as many people as Africa, if not more.

  As for Japan, it was a comparatively small land compared to the rest of the world, yet it held resilient people and strong Walkers, and its internal structure was well-suited to outlast the Dawn and beyond. Considering that it wasn't that big and that the starting lines from Dawn hadn't spread there immediately, it retained much of its structure.

  Coupled with the dedicated people and just sticking to what was best for them--the lockdown, that is--things worked out for them better than most had expected. Not only did Japan survive every major outbreak and event, but its Walker populations were quite effective and knew how to work from there.

  For these places to come and send youths over to the Federation for the Forced Awakening, William understood why and how it might have given this place a lot more face than anything else. From the history and politics, it was a curious time indeed.

  In terms of the warring effort, it was shocking. Why did these places not have their own Forced Awakening if it was so important?

  With a million people, the Federation wasn't seen as small, yet it was. It was dense and critical in economic points, and it had done one thing that the rest could not manage. For a more notable example, no other place managed an area of influence as extensive as a large web and stuck to such methods for decades. Other organizations were much more focused on their ways, survival, advancement, and lands.

  In a sense, the Federation was like a huge tower that paid much more attention to others so they wouldn't get lost or reclusive, and that was all because of its location and extensive Walker culture. The core came with the area. The Federation island was a hub, and numerous limb-like links extended outward and around the world, wrapping, helping, and seeing to all that the heart desired.

  William wasn't even aware of those links, though Examination touched on them and revealed their names or stormy spots.

  There were even islands, underground secret societies, and fortresses built in good spots around the world. Each was part of the Federation's structure, yet far away from it, whilst still being part of it. All because of Walkers, Darks, and overall build and purpose, the dedication to crafts, resources, and building on foundations that never ceased.