In the end…
I didn’t assimilate a new card.
Not even Ax-Man (the fitting nickname for Axel Manning).
Not that I’d dropped the idea of getting stronger or anything, it’s just…
honestly, the fact that even Kagami’s card, a perfectly ordinary athlete without any particularly outstanding traits, had changed my personality at all, scared the hell out of me.
On top of that, the two cards best suited for absorption right now — Ax-Man and Helltaker — well, the first one, while not taller than Kagami, even a bit shorter, is way more handsome, and more built too, and I’ve still got family to go meet and even my current look to somehow explain…
yeah, “I spent three months of depression hitting the gym hard” is totally a normal reaction for a sixteen-year-old “nerd”…
riiight.
So better not risk it for now — my current build can still be hidden under the right clothes, plus the side of the family I’m about to visit hasn’t seen me in a long time (yeah, not counting the funeral), was never particularly interested in me, and if it turns out I don’t have the worst physique, that won’t be quite as alarming, and as for the height, no need to stress — a growth spurt at my age is totally normal, plus there’s my parents’ genes to fall back on, so I’ve clearly got somewhere to grow into.
But Ax-Man’s build I definitely won’t be able to hide anymore.
And I won’t even bring up Helltaker, that guy’s built like a tank and would raise way too many questions if I assimilated him.
And also…
that whole iron-will, ultimate-chad thing about him scares me a little, what if he completely dominates me during assimilation?
Yeah…
as I’ve come to realize, I’m a bit of a coward, but the prospect of losing myself doesn’t just make me anxious, it genuinely, thoroughly terrifies me!
So I’ll hold off a bit, let everyone get used to this new look (plus I’m worried Axel might smooth out whatever flaws are left, and that’d be way too noticeable), gradually rolling out my plan of progressively-less-baggy clothing.
And actually, maybe I should focus more on summons, items, and abilities instead?
And leave assimilation alone entirely?
Good idea, honestly — why dive into the thick of things when I’ve got summons available?
But…
sooner or later I’ll have to assimilate Axel, if only to be able to defend myself even a little.
Or should I just skip it and build that up the natural way?
Sign up for the gym (which also doubles as an alibi for my current changes — just don’t mention that I actually signed up after the changes already happened), take some kind of martial arts class, and grind out the skills myself!
Slower, sure, but fully mine, with zero influence on my precious sense of self.
Alright, time to go finish the remaining company’s ad campaign, get the others’ running, and call my uncles and aunt — probably about time to talk to them and sort out some details about my father’s company.
Strangely enough, unlike the previous days, everything went perfectly this time.
Finished the ad campaign, checked in on all three companies’ ads, called my father’s side of the family (the ones on my mother’s side, I’m still too ashamed and scared to call), and in the afternoon headed off to meet them — well, to three back-to-back meetings, actually (leaving the ads running to keep up appearances of working).
Throwing on some decent but slightly oversized clothes (going in a plaid shirt and pants buttoned above my stomach would’ve been overkill — I’m not that paranoid about hiding it), enough to hide, if not all, then at least part of the “extra,” I headed off to my string of meetings.
First up was my father’s sister, my aunt, in charge of my father’s company’s offices (or who’d claimed them, more accurately), but contrary to what I’d braced myself for, there was no hostility, no rude staff, none of that.
I was greeted politely at the office, given condolences, and shown in to see my Aunt Gloris.
“Lucian, so good to see you!
Sorry I haven’t come by, there’s been a lot going on, and it seemed like you didn’t really want anyone around anyway…” my aunt greeted me cheerfully, coming out from behind her desk and crossing the entire office to pull me into a hug, ending her greeting with a questioning tone, as if giving me the chance to explain what had happened and why I’d been acting the way I had.
And also…
that warm welcome felt genuinely nice.
Sure, I understand it could be completely fake, but…
I’m just not great at reading people or their emotions like an open book.
Honestly, I’m not exactly a social creature, and I’m out of my depth on a lot of basic things, there’s never really been a chance for me to build up the kind of experience needed for that sort of “reading.” So…
even if this whole scene had been fake and staged from the moment I asked for the meeting, Aunt Gloris still made it feel nice, and either way I’ll never actually know what she really felt.
“Yeah…
I withdrew into myself a bit.
But I’ve made up my mind now — I don’t want to shame my father’s name, and in two years I’ll be inheriting all of this anyway, so it’s worth getting at least a basic understanding of what’s going on starting now,” I answered, sounding pretty polished and logical…
if only I hadn’t stumbled and mumbled through it, I’d have been golden!
Damn it!
More confidence, Lucian!
You’re not some poor relative here begging for scraps, quite the opposite, you’re the future owner of all this!
“A sensible decision, but you should finish school first.
That said, I’m happy to help out in my free time.
Want me to show you around?” my aunt replied cheerfully to my little speech, smiling and nodding approvingly.
Damn, I want that too!
With charisma like that I’d be the life of the party, not that I’m chasing that exactly, but it wouldn’t hurt, would it?
And without waiting for my answer (or rather, I’d stalled too long, so it all got decided without me), I got dragged around to meet the setup and the staff, all while she somehow managed to keep chatting with the secretary who’d brought me in, pay attention to me, and talk to employees at the same time.
Meanwhile I just started losing myself under the layers of speech.
At some point I think I started filtering part of it out entirely, like white noise.
“So that’s basically how things stand, and honestly they could be a lot better if I didn’t have to run everything past my brothers first.
If the company were under one person’s control, we could really optimize things.
When you go meet them, put in a good word for me…” “How do you know I’m going to meet them—” damn it!
Get it together!
Stop mumbling!
Stop losing your footing!
How did I even manage to give that away?
In response, she looked at me the way you’d look at a slightly clueless child.
Condescendingly, sure, but not in a demeaning way.
“Well, let’s just say, that’s exactly what I’d do in your position.
You’ve gotta see the whole picture from every angle.
So honestly, I wouldn’t even take my word for it if I were you, go ask both my brothers too.
For what it’s worth, if it helps put their minds at ease, I’m not after their positions, I’d just like it if they listened to me a bit more, because when three separate bosses all decide everything on their own without even really coordinating…
honestly, straight-up sabotage would probably do less damage sometimes…” — and my brain got chewed on for another fifteen minutes after that.
I genuinely can’t describe it any other way, but I walked out of there alive, in one piece, still sane, and charged up with positivity practically to the brim!
“Alright, seems like things are fine here,” I say, standing outside now, trying to gather my scattered thoughts.
“Right, time to head over to Uncle Francis, at the warehouses,” I say out loud, mostly just to collect myself, get focused, and shake off the daze.
Also need to wipe this dumb smile off my face.
Damn, Aunt Gloris is something else.
Even through my lingering low-grade depression, she managed to charge me up with pure positivity like it was nothing.
As for Uncle Francis, he’s in charge of shipping the finished medications, sourcing raw materials, logistics, and warehousing.
That’s the piece he’d grabbed for himself.
And fine, without coordinating with the main office…
sounds rough for everyone involved.
Do they actually clash every time they meet over who’s really in charge?
Though, I’ve genuinely never once seen Aunt Gloris arguing (though admittedly, she wasn’t exactly a big presence in my life), and after today it’s become genuinely hard to even picture her arguing.
But there’s nothing to be done, gotta get moving, and I spot a free taxi right by the neighboring building.
And about half an hour later I was already at my uncle’s place, where he actually came out to greet me personally, dressed in a work jumpsuit with an expensive-looking blazer casually thrown on over it.
“Well look who crawled out of his shell.
Honestly wasn’t sure you’d actually show up until you did!
Glad to see you’re pulling yourself back together, we all miss your father around here.
And sorry for the getup — busy day,” said a slightly stocky, tall man, walking up and giving me a friendly clap on the back, and even now, with my full Taiga-inherited height, I was still a bit shorter than him.
Yeah, seems like everyone on my father’s side is a giant.
Man, I used to envy them all so much, right up until recently.
“N-no, it’s fine, sorry for showing up out of nowhere and pulling you away from work,” I stumbled over my words.
Because honestly, yeah, I’d just shown up to look around and see how people would react to me, pulling him away from his job, wasting his time on me.
Didn’t exactly feel great about that.
“No, no, don’t think that way, Lucian.
At the end of the day, this is your father’s life’s work, and your inheritance.
I’d want to check up on what’s practically my own business too.
Sorry, I don’t have a ton of time, a new shipment of raw materials is coming in about half an hour and I need to receive it, unload it, and inspect it.
So until then I’m all yours, and after that I’ll hand you off to my deputy, someone reliable.
Let’s start with a tour, if that’s alright with you, and feel free to ask whatever questions come up along the way,” my uncle said, once again in a friendly, warm, and kind manner, sure, nowhere near Gloris’s level of positivity and charm, but honestly, I don’t think a man’s supposed to be quite that…
sweet?
Open?
Warm?
Probably all of it at once, really.
In the end I stuck around the warehouses for over an hour, after which, along with part of today’s incoming raw materials, my thoughtful uncle sent me off to my third relative.
To the factory, or should I say the lab?
Basically that’s where raw materials get turned into finished products, where new medications get developed, and where all the production capacity and lines are located.
So, my second uncle, Russell, had really set himself up well, essentially controlling the actual heart of the whole company, and both Aunt Gloris and Uncle Francis have to answer to that fact.
And yeah, strange that only part of the raw materials got sent over.
Not that I’d know much about it, maybe the lab can’t handle receiving more at once, or something else entirely.
Or maybe it was some kind of subtle jab from Uncle Francis.
Though after talking with him, that doesn’t feel very likely anymore.
He turned out to be the only relative who didn’t greet me warmly.
I was met by one of his employees and led into an office attached to the lab, where, in a gray suit, sat Uncle Russell at his desk, working through paperwork, only looking up once the still-unnamed employee and I reached his desk.
After which he waved the man off, and only then turned his tired eyes on me (you could tell they were tired from the bags underneath), and I didn’t like that look one bit.
It was kind of…
grim?
Displeased?
Hostile?
Couldn’t quite place it, but one thing I can say for sure — it was like a cold shower after all the warm welcomes from the other relatives.
“Lucian, how are you holding up?” — and he didn’t even open with words of comfort, didn’t radiate any warmth, nothing!
Quiet, and somehow…
off, in a way that made me nervous and put a lump in my throat.
“I-I’m fine,” — yeah, I was nervous enough that my voice actually cracked mid-answer.
“Doesn’t look like it.
But you need to be strong, if only for their sake,” — that same look again, that same tone of voice.
And it hit right where it hurt, too.
His own father’s still alive!
Tch…
I’m liking this less and less.
“And I will be strong,” I answered confidently, not even a shake in my voice.
I really will be strong, thanks to my gacha.
So that part’s the complete truth.
“Glad to hear it,” he said, nodding like I’d just passed some kind of test of his.
Tch, annoying!
I’m the one who came here to run the test, if anything!
“Ahem, right…
I’d like to know more about the company,” — ugh…
damn it!
Way too blunt!
Damn it, I’d gotten used to my last two conversation partners just volunteering the info themselves, steering the conversation in a totally different way, and here I go, running on emotion (from irritation) and just blurting it out way too directly.
And in the wrong tone too, just…
damn!
That came out…
not great.
“Yeah, I figured as much.
Here, this folder has all the documents you need, go through them whenever you get a chance and get back to me.
You shouldn’t stick around here right now, someone will show you out,” Uncle Russell said, sliding a black folder across the desk toward me, then picked up his phone and called someone, and pretty quickly a different man showed up, not the one who’d led me in originally.
Wait, is he seriously kicking me out?
How dare he?
Fine, I’ll remember this!
And I will read your folder.
I left the factory in a mess of emotions…
okay, let’s be honest, I was furious!
Tch, that last meeting was off from the very start.
But then again…
even there, nothing outright bad had been said.
I’ll take back what’s mine eventually!
So enjoy it while you can!
Damn, not really in the mood to go home and dig through paperwork now.
Not in this state.
Maybe I should walk for a bit.