[10:30 AM]

[Road to Hart Child Care]

Because I didn't know anything about Darkest Secret, and it was our first visit to his orphanage, I stopped at a store first to get something for the kids in the orphanage.

At least I wanted to leave a good impression on him and the kids.

Speaking about an orphanage, I was thinking about finding the orphanage where Vincent came from. Surely, I would like to visit it to give some gifts because that was what was expected from someone who was taken care of in their childhood.

Although I had no memories of Vincent, I still wanted to know more about the world I had created and Vincent's complete backstory.

The gifts I bought from the store at the airport were two full bags of candies and snacks. It was a typical gift to be bought when one visited an orphanage.

I had some experience with it because I was also an orphan and lived in an orphanage until I could make money myself on Earth. That was also one of the reasons why I made a lot of important characters in my novel an orphan.

"Are you sure we should bring just candies and snacks, Vi- Rai?" Chloe asked me as she raised the bag that she held in her hand.

We were walking toward the orphanage because it was not too far from the airport. From the map that I looked up on my phone, the orphanage was only 10 minutes away.

"It will be okay. We will also make donations using my money in the orphanage later. So the children will be happy with the snacks and candies, while the adults will be happy with the money." I explained. "The money will be used to fix some damage in the orphanage or to buy meals for the children, at least that's what an orphanage usually does, except someplace where the director is corrupt, I think."

"Corrupt?" Chloe asked.

"Yes. Unfortunately, not all people are like you, Chloe. Some of them moved for their own benefits, such as money, fame, honor, and others. That's why the remaining Demons from the second Abyss entice people to do something for them instead of doing it themselves. The corrupt part of the Humans is what made them fall to Demon's enticement."

In this world, Demons blended with humans. They enticed people to do evil by promising them something that they wanted. The most common promise was a promise of power to an Awakener.

Unlike Witches who decided to keep their strength quietly while waiting for the perfect time to strike, Demons moved individually with the goal of decreasing humanity's strength by making them fight with each other. Hence, their target mainly was Awakeners.

"Demon.." Chloe muttered. "How many Demons are still roaming the world as of now, I wonder."

"I myself don't know about it."

The number of Demons was a mystery even for me. I often wrote 'a certain Awakener had defeated something like a Demon in this place' or 'two Demons were found dead in Egypt' or something.

I couldn't write a lot of details because they were not too important of an event and didn't involve Zaiden directly, but I couldn't ignore them in this world. After all, Demons were free real estate to make Zaiden suffer.

After walking for a few minutes, we finally arrived in front of a big building with a big gate. On top of the gate was a big sign with the words 'Hart Child Care,' and it seemed to welcome visitors. The main building of the orphanage was like a typical school building, but it had five floors.

The yard was also big, with a few children running around. The left side of the yard, right beside the gate, was unexpectedly a soccer field, while the right side of the yard was a mini baseball field. The fields were filled with children who played around.

Among them, I noticed a girl with an appearance that I wouldn't ever forget. How could I forget about it? The girl's appearance was similar to Lily's, with her platinum hair and amethyst-colored eyes. Only, the girl who played baseball with children on the field was a bit shorter in height and hair and had bigger assets than her.

She was wearing some kind of oversized jacket and in her left hand was a baseball glove. She became a pitcher for the kid and threw the ball with a cute yell.

"Ei!"

"Is she Lily's sister?"

Chloe seemed to notice the girl, too, as she muttered while looking at the platinum-haired girl.

"No." I answered confidently while shaking my head.

This.. What kind of bullshit was this? I often bullshited in this world, but I never got bullshited like this.

This couldn't be a mere coincidence. I always wrote something that related to each other without leaving a plot hole, at least a big one. But I just noticed a plot hole in my novel right now.

That was right; I never specified the orphanage where Vincent came from and how he could become the Unknown Sharpshooter with just his background. His Talents and Luck were indeed great, but he couldn't just become strong without anyone's backing.

My memory seemed to fail me as I forgot about something important. Maybe the stress had gotten into me again? I should do something about it before it became too bad and made me do something too far again.

'I almost forgot about it. I made Darkest Secret and Unknown Sharpshooter had some relationship in my setting. So it became real, huh. Then that means.. All my settings in my documents also turned real? If that's the case.. then she's the real one.'

I entered the gate of the orphanage without hesitating.

"Rai?!" Chloe called out to me, surprised by my sudden movement. However, she still trailed behind me, following me close. "What happened so suddenly?"

"I found her," I answered Chloe without giving her much context.

Even without much context, Chloe was smart. She didn't need many hints from me. She quickly placed what I said and realized it herself.

"Could it be?"

"Yeah. She's the one." I smiled under my mask.

I didn't expect to find her in this place, but all pieces now came together.

Zaiden's interference seemed to be bigger than I thought. Just by saving Lily and his family, he also saved other's families, including Vincent's.

That was why Vincent didn't become a womanizer. His little sister was indeed still alive. But now, that led me to one problem.

'How did Vincent usually act?'

Should I just use that card, the one often used by the Transmigration novel's protagonist? The one called 'Amnesia Card' where he just suddenly lost his memories? Or should I act just like usual?

Of all the characters in my novel, Vincent resembled me a lot, in a bad way.

If Zaiden was a character that I created to be tortured, then Vincent was an Extra that I used as a self-insert. He was one of the first characters that I wrote in the first volume, and he resembled me a lot at that point.

I didn't let him make an appearance again due to me cringing with self-insert, but then I decided to make him the last Extra I made in the novel. If I needed to describe Vincent, then he was a lonely person who wanted to seek company and then fell into a temptation that he couldn't escape from.. women.

Thankfully, I was able to escape from being a womanizer after writing my novel. That was why Vincent was the character that was closer to my real self.

Finally, I decided on something.

'Let's act like usual and bullshit things through if it goes awry.'

The girl who played with the kids, my little sister in this world, noticed me, and her eyes went wide. It was like I thought she knew about me being Rai. It was no surprise, considering the director of this place is the Darkest Secret, someone who knew all secrets in this world.

If she lived in this place, the director surely had told her about me. Though I was not sure why the Darkest Secret told her about my secret identity. Maybe he was considerate? Or my little sister had some sort of cooperation with the Darkest Secret so he told her about it? I had a lot to question myself.

I never wrote anything about Vincent's little sister because she had died in the monster outbreak. How could I know something about someone who never appeared in my novel because she had died? She was an Extra's little sister, so she was not too important in my novel. She only served to add some backstory to an Extra.

Anyway, when she saw me, she threw the baseball glove in her left hand to the ground and began to sprint in my direction shortly. I was expecting her to be happy to meet me, but her eyes betrayed that expectation. Instead of a happy expression with a bright smile, she was frowning as she sprinted at a fast speed toward my direction.

She suddenly jumped and shouted when she was ten meters away from me.

"You fucking shitty brother! How dare you disappear for two months without telling me!"

Her legs were put together as she flew in the sky. From the direction of her legs, she seemed to have an intention to kick me straight in my face.

Chloe moved in front of me when she saw what the girl did, but I stopped her by giving her the bag that I held in my hand. The girl was indeed fast; I never expected her to be an Awakener too.

But, even though she was fast, it was not to the point I couldn't avoid it. I tried to put myself in Vincent's position and found the best way to deal with this situation.

I stepped to the left, dodging her kick, then I grabbed her legs and yeeted her away.

"There you go."

She flew away beautifully to the soccer field. She balanced herself in the sky and landed like a professional gymnast with her arms while dodging the kids. The kids who played soccer were amazed and clapped their hands in admiration.

"Woah! That's neat." I put my hand above my eyes and let out an amazed voice. It seemed like what I did was something that Vincent always did because from what I see from my little sister's expression, she was used to something like what I did before.

"You shitty brother!" She shouted, but her loud voice betrayed her happy expression.

She was all smiles as she ran toward me again. This time though, she didn't try to kick me and just stopped in front of me while looking at me.

"I thought you were going to die before meeting this amazing little sister of yours again."

"Hahaha, do you really think so?" I answered with a laugh as I looked at her. She was way shorter than me, so I lowered my head to see her.

"Nah, not really. Considering how you always disappeared every now and then, I know that you will be back here someday. You even showed up with a mask and such, using your fake identity. I guess you are here for business, no?" She flashed a smile as she put her hand behind her.

Then, she leaned to the side, peeking at Chloe over my body. "Anyway, she's the Hero?"

"Yeah, she's Chloe. Go introduce yourself." I said as I stepped to the side and pointed at Chloe.

"Hmm~ So she's the one.." My little sister muttered as she approached Chloe.

"Nice to meet you. I am Tina Dihart, you can call me Tina! I hope I can get along with my brother's girlfriend." She giggled as she glanced at me.

As expected, she was a little devil. I knew that from what she did earlier. I couldn't expect any less from the little sister of a character that was based on myself.

But, she underestimated Chloe's clueless attitude. She must've expected Chloe to correct what she said and embarrass me, but Chloe did exactly what I thought. She did correct her and nodded her head, but the correction was not exactly what she expected.

"Un. I am Vincent's partner, Chloe. Just call me Chloe, Tina."

"Huh?" My little sister, Tina, let out a confused voice. "Really?historical

She looked at me, and I just gave her a look of 'You got used to it'. She glanced at Chloe once again before turning to me. It was good enough that Chloe didn't introduce herself as Chloe Dihart again. It would make things complicated if she did.

"Ah, right. Pops told me to take you to his office when you arrived." She exclaimed.

"Pops did?" I asked.

"Yup. He has some information for you, I think. Something related to the Fake Artifacts incident yesterday."

I narrowed my eyes when she mentioned the Fake Artifacts incident. The pops that she talked about must be the Darkest Secret, and apparently, he already knew about yesterday's incident. And now, he wanted to see me? So he also knew that I had planned to visit him today. What a terrifying man.

Honestly, I was fortunate that Vincent actually was related directly to Darkest Secret. That meant I would be able to use his information network in the future if I needed it.

"Alright. Can you take me there?" I asked her.

"Sure! I also have some information that may interest you." She said with a grin. She began to walk to the main building of the orphanage and I followed her from behind with Chloe.

At that moment, I realized. My little sister, Tina, was actually a smart and cunning girl. I could ask for her assistance in the future. Furthermore, she was also an Awakener.

'I will check her Talents using [Horus' Sunglasses] later.' I thought to myself as I entered the orphanage building.

'Now, though. It seemed like my initial plan to find my little sister was finished. But, there might be some problem with yesterday's Fake Artifacts incident.'

I didn't know what the problem was. I had rooted the mastermind, Raymond. There shouldn't be any more problems, but..

'Considering it's the Darkest Secret that we are talking about, he might know something that I didn't know. But I think I know the information that he's about to tell me. It must be about a hint related to the second arc.'

The first arc and the second arc were connected. The Fake Artifacts were only the start of a big conspiracy. And it was clear who the perpetrator was.

'It must be about the Demon's re-appearance.'