Extra's Ascent-Chapter 130: Brush The Worries Aside

'What is happening right now?'

He could only watch as Dante and Saldrich volleyed verbal jabs across the aisle, dragging him straight into the crossfire.

"Your brother said that?" Dante leaned in, playing the part of the intrigued gossip. "You mean, he actually admitted something about him and her?"

"He did," Saldrich answered, her voice laced with mock gravity. "Quite a lot, actually. Said he was entangled with Fiona Helmswoth, the pageant queen of Upstate, the prodigious darling of the Helmswoth name."

Aldrich internally winced.

'Sal, I never said any of that.'

But saying so aloud would only make him seem defensive, guilty even. Better to remain silent. Smile faintly. Avoid his sister's gaze like the plague.

"He really said that?" Dante pressed, raising an eyebrow. "Verbatim? Word for word, just like that?"

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"Oh, yes. That's how he described her," Saldrich continued, her tone dripping with exaggerated reverence. "I started to wonder myself, what did the Duchess of Upstate ever see in my brother? She's a star, while he's… well, he's Aldrich."

Aldrich nearly groaned.

Here it comes.

"My brother, mediocre at best. At his peak, he rivals a second-year student. Meanwhile, Fiona? Financially unmatched. Socially radiant. Academically brilliant. And let's not forget her prowess as a mystic."

Saldrich paused, only to deliver the punchline.

"Put them side by side, and it's clear one of them's out of their league. It's laughable, really. Like watching a pigeon trying to court a phoenix."

At this point, Aldrich wasn't sure whether to laugh or leap from the moving vehicle.

'Are they still joking?' he wondered. 'Or has this turned into a full-blown intervention?'

He sat there in strained silence, biting back the urge to respond. A single word, and they'd devour him alive with twice the energy.

"With the way you two keep circling around the subject, I'm beginning to think this trip isn't what Pendragon claimed it was," Aldrich muttered, his tone dry.

Because it wasn't.

Not really.

This wasn't some spontaneous day of fun. This whole outing was a well-planned operation carefully orchestrated by the unholy alliance of Dante Pendragon and Saldrich Aldaman.

They'd decided it was high time to interfere.

To step in where Aldrich and Fiona refused to.

The pair was supposedly dating, yet they barely saw each other. Always using exams as an excuse, always too busy to make time. They were a couple in title, but in practice? Strangers passing in the halls.

Dante, being Aldrich's closest friend, and Saldrich, being both his sister and Fiona's confidant, had taken it upon themselves to change that.

And this trip? It was their battlefield.

"Now, now, brother," Saldrich said sweetly. "Why would you suspect such a thing? This is simply a chance to unwind. A genuine opportunity to escape the pressure and, you know… act like an actual human being."

Dante threw an arm over the back of his seat and looked back at Aldrich with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Exactly. And you, Aldaman, might want to consider expressing yourself for once instead of clamming up like a broken marionette every time you're near a certain someone."

If looks could kill, Aldrich might've vaporized them both right there.

Instead, he closed his eyes, forcing himself to breathe through the barrage of teasing.

'If only wishes turned real,' he thought darkly. 'There'd be a Dante-shaped crater outside this car window.'

And so the torment continued, lighthearted on the surface, but laced with enough truth to make it sting. They teased and prodded, their words dancing on the edge of friendly mockery and merciless exposure.

Fiona, to her credit, remained composed through it all. She sat quietly by Aldrich's side, a knowing smile playing on her lips, occasionally chuckling under her breath as if enjoying the show.

They kept it up all the way into the city until the car finally pulled to their destination.

Dante practically leapt out the moment the doors opened, sweeping his arms out in an exaggerated arc. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome… to the wonderland of wonders!"

The group stood at the edge of a wide drive-through, the city noise fading behind them as they faced the sprawling sight ahead.

Aldrich blinked at the towering metal structures.

A Ferris wheel, at least a hundred meters tall, spun slowly in the distance. Snaking roller coasters twisted through the sky like dragons mid-flight. Laughter echoed faintly from within the gates.

A theme park.

"You brought us to a theme park?" Aldrich deadpanned. "Seriously, Pendragon?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Dante replied, grinning. "What, you don't see the magic?"

"If I were ten, maybe I would."

But he wasn't ten.

He was in his twenties now, though that age sometimes felt like a technicality to his life as Paul. The idea of screaming through rides and cotton candy lines didn't charm him. It made his stomach twist for an entirely different reason.

The last time he went to a park like this… was with his parents. As Paul.

Before everything changed.

Before they were gone.

"Come on, Aldaman," Dante said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't be such a grump. This isn't about being a kid. It's about letting go. All work and no play, you know how that ends."

Easy for him to say.

Dante Pendragon the golden child who never needed to try. He could afford to joke around. But even so, he might have a point to work on here.

Just for today, Aldrich thought, he could set everything else aside. No eyes of mystics. No tests. No burdens.

He could let himself… feel.

What harm could come from that? Right.