MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin

Adam was quietly driving the car while Viktor sat next to him on the adjacent seat. The two of them had been tasked with buying the necessary ingredients and groceries for the Thanksgiving dinner and they were slowly making their way back to Adam's house.

Alcohol and meat were bought in copious amounts and they were now coming back after making sure everything was in order and they had finished the task they had set out to do.

Sometimes, Makarov would give a side glance toward Adam but he would not speak in the end. He had something he wanted to ask him for some time already but he had the impression that Adam was not exactly in the most convivial mood right about now so he was not able to muster the courage to break the ice between them.

"What do you want to say? Spill it out already…"

Adam spoke without taking his eyes off the road. He didn't want to risk an accident. After all, if that happened, the ones who were at risk of dying would not be the two of them but the destruction they would cause in the wake of their accident and the lives they would reap in the process.

"Wel… Ahem~ I wanted to know if I could invite Susanne to the dinner."

"Oh?"

His attention was slightly diverted by his large-sized friend's words filled with hesitance, "So you two are already in a steady relationship, I suppose?"

They should have only met once or twice only. This was quite fast to confirm a relationship between two individuals, thought Adam in his mind.

Viktor scratched his head with a somewhat silly smile on his face, "I don't know if we are, to be honest. I mean, we did it, right? So does it mean that we are together? I am not really sure if I am to be honest about it."

Adam cringed slightly at the words that came out of his mouth but he could understand Viktor's confusion…

Nowadays we were in a world where lust and love were strictly separated and for most people, having sex together did in no way mean that they were entering a steady relationship with each other. It was far from it actually.

Adam knew this rule more than anyone else in the world. After all, he had his relationship with Sae that was quite hard to explain.

But… "I don't know her well. But from what I have seen, I think she is also interested in being in a serious relationship with you, my friend. Perhaps you should call her and see if she is free now?"

"You sure?"

The way Viktor's eyes twinkled made Adam flinch slightly. He had the feeling that if Viktor's relationship with that woman didn't last, he would be embroiled in quite a complicated situation of his own.

But it was already too late to back out now. "Give it a try. After all, isn't it better to try and fail than to not even try and regret it later?"

He could see that Viktor was not convinced so he continued on, "Look at it this way. If you try, you have chances of succeeding and chances of failure. But if you do nothing you have no chance of succeeding at all. So, it is better to just try and see where it goes…"

Adam spoke the last words quite quietly, a forlorn smile forming on his face.

As they said, preaching was always easy when you were on the side of doing it. It was always easy to say what someone should do or blurt out a solution to someone when you were not the one executing it.

However, putting a piece of advice into action was quite a complicated procedure and few in this world were truly capable of doing something like that.

His grip around the steering wheel became stronger as he thought more about his words.

"Look. She is a Hunter and you are also a Blacksmith. No, even before that, the two of you are humans. You never know what can happen tomorrow. You should act now. Because, once it's too late, you will only have regrets left to wallow on. Never let yourself regret anything, my friend. You don't want to face that feeling, trust me…"

This was something he wished that he had understood a little sooner. Because of his hesitation, he lost many things last night, and while it wasn't things that would gut him from the deepest part of his heart…

It instilled a certain fear in him nonetheless…

What if… In the future, his hesitation caused even more problems and made him lose even more precious people. People far too precious for him to even think of the possibility of losing them…

Could he truly say that he was ready to bear all those losses in the future?

'I need to build more Karma first.'

In the past, three thousand karma was an impressive number to him, but now it was basically close to nothing…

'I also need to visit the Bronze library one last time.'

He didn't even need to learn new skills. He simply needed a place where he could test Death in different ways. It might also be possible to find a book about Necromancy though he doubted it would be possible to find something like that in the Bronze section.

Time. He needed time. Much, much more time. He had so many things to learn and understand that even his three minds working together were not nearly enough for him to process them.

Soon he would have to go to France to retrieve the statue of the goddess of victory and he would surely fight many strong people there. Some of them would surely be far stronger than he could possibly imagine.

Facing a divine weapon holder was not an exception in that scenario and when this happened, the person would not hold back unlike what happened with his fight with the Lightning Blade, Makoto.

He needed to get the help of a Zodiac. Perhaps Medusa, to find the medicine for Cecilia. Then after all of that danger-inducing scenarios, he had so many more things to deal with in his hands.

'I am tired.'

"Adam? Look at the road."

Adam woke up with a startle and took back control of the steering wheel. A tragedy nearly happened because he was losing focus while being lost in thought.

"Sorry. Had a big night yesterday."

"So, I see."

Viktor gave a worried look toward his friend.

What he had seen on Adam's face wasn't just the face of someone who had a rough night.

Rather, his eyes had looked completely empty for just a moment there.

But now, looking at Adam, smiling and joking with him like nothing was wrong, Viktor began to wonder if he had simply seen things there.

Finally, after this small alert… The two of them soon parked in front of the house, ready to kickstart the Thanksgiving Dinner…

(AN: Edit as of 13/06/23. Damn, I have been receiving a large amount of gifts since yesterday. Honestly really thanks for the support. It makes me truly happy. This is why today I will write 3 chapters at least. Hopefully 4 again but I will see.

For Adam's mental state, I don't wanna boor you with too much internal drama but at the same time I need this for his growth. Finding the perfect middle ground is tiring. But as the end of Book 1 is approaching, I believe Adam's Character and personality need to pass a new milestone.)