Seed of Titan-Chapter 166: Dead Letters

Drai, Max, and Horsie were walking through the fog. A few days had passed since Drai handed over the Lightning King, and earlier today, he received a telepathic message from Madeleine, telling him to come over with Max. However, Horsie was particularly clingy today and didn’t want to be left alone in the camp, so Drai couldn’t help but let him tag along.

"Are you sure we’re not lost?" Max questioned as he glanced warily at the surroundings. Trotting behind him, Horsie was also unusually anxious due to the eerie dense fog.

"Yeah," Drai simply replied. He had rechecked the stone house’s location using Arachno Sense a few minutes earlier and adjusted the direction they were walking in accordingly.

Seeing the lad’s confidence, Max nodded and kept quiet. Nonetheless, he was still spooked by the depths of Misty Forest. It was unlike any other place in Siyeun Mountains, and knowing that Madeleine fully controlled it didn’t remove his worry. In fact, it gave rise to a whole different concern—he and the others would be entirely under Madeleine’s mercy as long as they remained in this area. Despite Madeleine’s hospitality during the past couple of weeks, Max still didn’t fully trust the old lady.

After continuing on for several more minutes, the three finally arrived at the large stone dwelling. The door opened, and Madeleine’s voice entered their ears.

Horsie stays outside. The rest of you, come in.

Drai patted Horsie and told him to stay behind before leading the way, with Max following him closely. Horsie neighed softly and walked along the outer walls, inspecting the unfamiliar structure.

Upon entering the house, Max was visibly astonished by the sight, reminiscent of Drai’s reaction when he came here for the first time.

Drai, on the other hand, was a bit startled. Madeleine was standing near the center of the furthest wall, looking at them. But instead of a fireplace, the spot behind her revealed a dimly lit opening.

Under the gaze of numerous fluffy critters, the two made their way toward their host. Halfway there, Drai sent a curious glance toward the open entrance, wondering why not a single one of these creatures tried to flee.

Madeleine greeted them with a nod before turning around, leading them into the previously hidden chamber.

As Drai walked in, he discovered that the space behind the wall was quite spacious but was still a lot smaller than the room outside and wasn’t decorated at all.

The candle-lit chamber housed file cabinets, several desks, and a few large machines. There were also passages leading downstairs on both the left and right, and from the left passage, a faint, constant buzz could be heard.

Madeleine brought them to one of the large machines, which had a slightly convex analog screen that was displaying a bunch of lines that Drai could neither read nor understand. Drai glanced at Max and saw that the man was staring at the screen with furrowed brows, indicating that he also couldn’t comprehend the displayed words.

"Sorry for the outdated tech—it must look ancient to you," Madeleine said upon seeing the men’s focused stares.

Drai and Max instantly shifted their gazes and scratched their heads awkwardly, feeling that they had just been caught prying into the woman’s secrets.

As if reading their minds, Madeleine chuckled and said, "Don’t worry. Unless one of you is both a math and linguistic genius, you would never decipher this even if you tried for a hundred years."

Drai and Max looked at each other and smiled wryly, clearly acknowledging that neither of them was knowledgeable in either of those fields, let alone a genius in both.

Drai then turned to Madeleine. "Since I don’t understand how the machine works, you’ll be the one connecting me with my parents?"

"Yes, but calling it ’connecting’ would be a bit misleading, since there will be no calls but only text messages," she said.

"Only text messages?!" Drai blurted in dismay.

"Yes, child. Is there a problem with that?" Madeleine asked.

Drai quickly shook his head as he brushed away his disappointment, thinking that it was better than nothing.

"Before we begin, let me warn you—this operation breaches the regulations, which is why I’ve tinkered with the system to obscure it. But I’m not a tech expert, so if anything goes wrong, you must follow my words to the letter," she said before turning to Max. "This applies to you too. If either of you object to this, I’ll cancel the operation and you guys can move on with your life. So, what do you say?"

Despite being alarmed by her warning, Max quickly shrugged and gestured toward Drai, "I’ll follow the lad’s decision."

Drai contemplated briefly before nodding. "I’ll do as you say, Madeleine."

"Good. Let’s hope that my fears don’t come true. Now, give me your parents’ contact IDs."

Drai swiped the air, retrieving his comm that hadn’t been touched for almost two months. Thanks to his prudence, it still had plenty of power. After turning it on, he navigated through his contacts and projected his parents’ contact identifiers and showed them to Madeleine, who immediately operated the system and input both strings of characters.

"What do want to say to both of them?" she asked with her fingers on standby over the strange analog keyboard below the screen.

"Is there a character limit?" Drai asked back.

"No, but make it as concise as possible. The shorter the message, the easier it is to obscure."

"Alright..." Drai thought briefly before saying, ’Mom, Dad, I’m fine. Go into hiding and be safe. Love, Drai.’ Okay, that’s all."

Hearing Drai’s extremely concise yet vague message, Max raised his brow. On the other hand, Madeleine merely asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Drai replied with an assured nod.

Madeleine looked at him for a second before returning to the screen, typing in the message. Inwardly, she praised Drai for being wiser and more mature than she had expected.

’The child really cares about his parents,’ she mused. ’He chose to focus on their safety and left out any potentially endangering information alongside all his pent-up feelings. Unless his parents were secured by his enemies already, this message wouldn’t be of any practical use. Heh, no wonder Max and I grew fond of him in such a short amount of time. I bet even that cold loner would take a liking to Drai if they ever met. I hope they never do, though—that man’s burden is too heavy for anyone to share, let alone a fledgling like him.’

Just then, a short beep resounded from the machine.

Madeleine frowned slightly before turning to Drai. "We have a problem."

"Were you detected?" Drai asked anxiously.

"No. It’s your parents—the message couldn’t reach them."

Drai’s heart sank, and both his and Max’s expressions turned grave.

"Calm yourselves, gentlemen. This doesn’t necessarily mean that something bad has happened to them," Madeleine quickly reassured. "They could just be like us, out of comm’s coverage. It’s also possible that they ditched their old comms for a pair of new ones. Their comms being simultaneously off or broken is also a possibility, though I think it’s highly unlikely unless they’ve been attacked or kidnapped."

"Or—you know," Max added, to which Drai’s expression darkened further.

"Shut it, idiot!" Madeleine immediately scolded as she glared at Max, causing him to frantically cover his mouth with both hands while eyeing Drai nervously.

"It’s fine," Drai remarked, his voice a bit hoarse. "It’s been more than two months since the incident, so that particular scenario isn’t unexpected. I’ve been avoiding thinking about it, but I’d just be deluding myself if I deny that possibility."

Attempting to shift the grim topic he had insensitively brought up, Max asked, "So, what do we do now?"

Before Drai could answer, Madeleine asked, "Is there anyone else you want to contact, Drai?"

Drai was stunned. He didn’t expect such an offer since their agreement only involved contacting his parents.

"How many people can I message at once?" he inquired.

"Two—that’s the number I set beforehand," Madeleine replied. "Any more than that, and the risk of detection rises significantly."

Drai contemplated briefly before scrolling through his contacts. Shortly after, Ravi’s and Christo’s faces were virtually projected alongside their contact information. Madeleine briefly scanned the two small screens before typing on her keyboard.

"That’s one handsome lad," Max suddenly remarked, perhaps still trying to distract Drai from the previous topic.

"Oh—that’s Christo, the friend that gave me his pendant."

"Hmm, he does look the part. I don’t recognize his family name, though. Maybe it’s an obscured family," Max said while scratching his chin. Just then, he noticed Ravi’s info. "Hey, isn’t that the weird assistant professor?"

"Professor Ravi? He may seem weird to most people, but he’s now a vice-rector. Do you know each other?"

Max shook his head. "I doubt he knows me since we’re from different faculties. The only reason I knew such a trivial figure was because he was a constant topic of conversation among the students."

"Why was he talked about a lot? Because he was weird?"

"Because he experimented with the students. They were small experiments, but several of his test subjects ended up with strange injuries or side-effects, which led to his notoriety."

Drai chuckled, wondering what Max would think if he knew his companion was the eccentric academician’s latest test subject—a highly successful one at that.

Just then, Madeleine interjected, "What do you want to say to them?"

"Just write: ’I’m fine. See you soon. Drai.’" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Madeleine immediately typed in the message, while Max gave Drai a side-eye.

"What?" Drai asked upon noticing the glance.

"You’re pretty heartless, aren’t you?"

"Heartless? I was just being concise."

"At least put ’love’ before your name like you did in the previous message."

"Nah. That would sound gay."

Both of them burst out giggling, but their merriness was cut short by another short beep from the machine.

Madeleine turned to Drai and said with a slightly perplexed look, "I’m afraid both of them are unreachable too."

Drai stood there in daze, wondering what on earth was happening in the outside world.