Chapter 208: A Growing Kid.

Heaving a long sigh, Dante opened his eyes and looked around. Pale yellow light shrouded the interior of the cafe, cast by neon lamps lining the corners and the wide glass windows. The world outside was no different, although a bit more colorful. Though he couldn’t see the sky, Dante could tell by the atmosphere alone that the night had already fallen.

“Is it over?”

The question made him face the other side of the table, where a young boy with auburn hair sat. The tone of his voice, as well as the look on his face, both spoke of how bored he was.

“Yes, it’s over.” Once again, Dante found himself sighing. “I’m starving, so… let’s get out of here.”

Since Volcan was doing most of the work, there was no real need for Dante to spend several hours sitting in the far-from-comfortable cafe chair while watching a first-person view or a museum tour, and he certainly didn’t have to go all that time without eating anything.

Of course, he had to put on a show for the little brat, and he wanted to catch a glimpse of the Stahlwölfe mansion, too. The latter was a good enough reason for him to waste all that time, but he didn’t know about the former.

“Grandma’s place closed a while ago,” Finn replied, sulking further into his seat.

“Half this district is nothing but restaurants. We’ll find somewhere to eat soon enough.”

“Yeah, about that…” The brat pressed his mouth into a thin line. “I’m… not really hungry right now.”

Dante stared at the boy for a second, then furrowed his brows, a bad feeling slowly rising from the back of his mind. He opened one of the apps on his NIM, the one connected to the cafe’s menu and the tab that he had left open. As the numbers appeared before him, his left eye suddenly twitched, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

Finn’s face grew pale and he poised his body, preparing to make a run for it.

“Six ultra-deluxe pancakes? Really?” Dante said. “Are you in such a rush to have your eyes fall out?”

There were drinks and other desserts as well. The brat didn’t hold back, ordering almost everything on the menu so long as it seemed like it had sugar in it. Dante didn’t understand how anyone could eat so many sweets in one sitting. What’s more, he didn’t understand how anyone could do it while remaining so short and skinny.

Of course, the only reason he cared about what brat ate was that he ended up paying for everything. It wasn’t much to speak of, but after spending most of his savings not that long ago, he has yet to recover financially, making every Gold he spent hurt on the physical level.

“I had nothing to do so…” Averting his gaze, the brat spoke in a hushed tone. “Well, I thought I might as well try the stuff they serve here.”

Dante’s left eye twitched once more.

“You know I’m going to make you pay me back for all of it, right?”

His statement was like a lightning bolt that struck the boy from above. Dante didn’t really mind paying for the drinks here and there. Heck, he even payed for the ammo they used in the shooting range. There was a limit to his generosity, however, and he wasn’t about to let anyone take advantage of it.

“W-well, forget about that for now.” Laughing awkwardly, Finn tried to change the topic. “So… How did it go? Were you able to find an access point?”

Staring at him for a moment, Dante decided to drop the topic of the open tab and got up from his seat.

“You could say that.”

Klaus Stahlwölfe turned out to be far more obsessed by his hobby than anyone had anticipated. After spending a couple of hours rambling about the relics in his collections, he decided to invite Mr. Pike and the others to dinner just so they could continue the conversation. A part of it was Mr. Pike’s fault for showing how knowledgeable he was when it came to relics and history, which prolonged their stay in the white mansion.

Dante, or Volcan, to be more precise, had spent most of that time looking for whatever outlet they could use to invade the enemy lair. In the end, their search proved to be fruitless. It felt as if the white mansion was truly a piece of the past, lacking the slightest trace of electronics.

In the end, they were left with no choice but to bet everything on the phone carried by Bianca Romano.

“That’s… a little crazy…” Said Finn. “Are you sure there was no jamming.”

“Nope.” Dante replied, descending the stairs to the cafe with slow steps. “Either they have cut electricity to every device within range, or they really don’t have anything at all.”

“I… can’t imagine that… How do they even live like that?”

“There was a time without all this stuff, you know?”

“Yeah, but that was then, and now is now.” Said Finn. “I can’t imagine going a day without a proper connection.”

“Then you got some problems to work on.”

As the two walked down the street, Dante’s mind went back to the events that transpired in the white mansion. Well, nothing transpired, really. Once the dinner ended, Mr. Pike received an official invitation to Klaus Stahlwölfe wedding. Not only that, but they were also moved to a suite on the forty-second floor so they could enter the mansion on the day of the wedding without trouble.

That left Dante more than a little confused. Klaus Stahlwölfe’s wedding was a massive event simply because of the sheer number of guests attending. That number had to be trimmed down significantly, since not everyone from both sides could fit into the white mansion, no matter how large it seemed. For an outsider such as Mr. Pike to receive the right to attend, it simply didn’t make any sense.

It made even less sense when considering that they were outed by the head of security and might be disposed of before they could attend. The only explanation Dante could come up with was that Shirogane Ushida had yet to discuss the matter with his charge, which is why the scion’s decisions weren’t influenced by the need to bring judgment on the heads of his enemy.

A more unsettling theory was that Klaus and his Sorcerer bodyguard were so assured of themselves that they simply didn’t care. If ill intent was the only thing Mr. Pike and the others were known to harbor, suspecting them of being hired assassins should have been the first option. With that in mind, quickly disposing of them should have been the first option, but that wasn’t what the rich scion and his guard chose to do.

The next few hours were going to reveal the truth, so Dante only needed to wait. He had already contacted Victor, and from what the fixer told him, Mr. Pike hadn’t decided to abandon the heist, and neither had Rose or Kirk. Even while knowing that their cover had been exposed, they still decided to risk it all and keep going.

’Damned lunatics…’

Dante knew he had no right to call them that. After all, he was planning on carrying the entire heist on his own if push came to shove. With how things were going, it seemed all the more likely that he would be forced to give it a go.

“Hey, how about this place?”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Dante looked to where the brat was pointing. It was a run-of-the-mill steak house with nothing going on for it, but Dante knew there had to be a reason why his short companion decided to recommend it.

“I thought you weren’t hungry?”

“I’m still a growing kid, you know,” Finn said. “You think some desserts will fill me up?”

“You aren’t doing much growing, though.” Dante shrugged then walked into the restaurant, ignoring the brat’s angry retorts.

’So, did you find anything yet?’ Just as they sat they their table, Dante turned inward and asked his resident AI.

[Nothing at the moment.] Volcan replied. [It seems Bianca Romano has yet to leave Klaus Stahlwölfe’s side.]

’Really now…’

Dante didn’t think that the two were on such good terms that they would spend a lot of time together. Their marriage was political, after all.

[Dante, I would like to report something I have noticed while Diving in the smartphone carried by Bianca Romano.]

’I thought you didn’t find anything?’ Dante said while making his order.

[I was referring to the outlets that would allow us to infiltrate the mansion’s network.] Said Volcan. [This has more to do with the device carried by that woman.]

’Well, what is it?’

[After noticing that she does not have a NIM implant, I assumed that she was using her smartphone as a replacement for its functions. But after checking the apps, internal storage, and the search history on the installed browsers, I came to the conclusion that it is a new device that hadn’t been operational for long.] Pausing, the AI added after a few seconds. [I believe that device is no different from the burner phones you have previously purchased.]

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