Adam looked at Eve with bated breath, anticipation evident in his eyes. She was the one with the broadest amount of knowledge among anyone he knew of in the entire world and her words held much more weight than anyone else in his heart.
As such he was very keen in obtaining her opinion about this matter that troubled him deeply.
"Well…"
His tension increased as he waited for her to respond with some plausible facts. But in the end,
"This is something I sadly cannot confirm nor deny. I don't want to defy the Scales of Equilibrium right now, not in my current state. But… whether or not you are a hero, does it really even matter at this point? All you have to do is live your own life as you see fit."
"You are right."
Adam nodded his head in response to her words. He was quite disappointed about not obtaining a clear answer but he didn't complain. Even if he was really said to be a hero or whatever, it would not change his life, nor would it do anything with his personality.
He was happy to use this trait to his advantage to keep Medusa on his side but that was all to it. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Heh. The Daughter of Echidna is someone worthy to be kept as an ally. In a world where mortals seek ascension, she is one of the few mortals who actually refused the thoughts of ascension altogether and still continue to live on and help out others."
"You know her?"
"Not directly. But Echidna, as the mother of thousands monsters, is something similar to my antithesis of sorts and we fought many times through our proxies. Well, I always won though."
She hummed pridefully and Adam clapped as if on cue, "Hehe."
Clearly this made Eve feel even better about her accomplishments.
"Anyway, you don't really have to worry about her. Medusa is firmly on the side of humanity and in fact the two of you are related in a very special way. This gives her even less incentive to bring you any form of grief in the foreseeable future."
"Related…"
Adam mused a little on those words. He didn't ask Eve to give him an answer as he could already guess that she would not. But this time… It seemed like he had enough hints to make an educated guess.
It wasn't that hard.
"Cain… The one who saved her life in the past was Cain, I presume."
Eve simply smiled, neither denying nor affirming his words.
"You will have to find out by yourself."
Adam was too focused on his own thoughts to answer. This made so much more sense now and he had the feeling that Medusa knew or suspected that he was related to Cain.
'No wonder she didn't want me to say his name out loud.'
Adam knew that people like Medusa, beings of divine origin, were monitored closely by the gods. In the same way, Eve could observe him and Yui's mom was able to observe her, it was possible that Medusa had her family observing her at any and all given time.
If he came out and said recited his true identity to her, even if she does not betray him directly, she might leak information to the higher beings without even meaning to.
'This is quite interesting.'
He internalized this information, well-intending to use it when needed.
"Thanks."
"Do not thank me. I have said nothing nor will I say anything."
The two shared a small smile of schadenfreude. The meaning was clear between the smile but Adam did not insist and changed this topic altogether.
"So heroes aside. What else?"
"Honestly… I am a pretty boring person if I must say. Outside of discovering the world of novels and manga recently, all I did was read and gather knowledge."
"Knowledge is power."
"Yes. For people like us, nothing beats the weight of knowledge. Even when using the same kind of power, the difference between knowing and not knowing the intricacies can show easily in a fight."
She moved her hand and a ball of light instantly manifested in her hand,
"For example… If I had the skill you call 'The World' then you cannot even begin to imagine what I would do with it or what I would be capable of."
Adam gave a bitter smile. He knew that despite everything he was doing, he had still not scratched even the surface of his powers.
"Do not be ashamed. What I can do is the results of eons of research and reading through endless texts of knowledge. Obviously, it's impossible for the two of us to be at the same level. You are simply 21, after all."
"But my future enemies will not care about my age."
He was facing progressively stronger enemies and none of them would give him a chance simply because he was young.
"That is true. But there is very little you can do about that. At least not now. When you enter the Silver section you will be able to obtain more knowledge. Do you wish to use it now?"
Adam shook his head, "I have yet to assimilate everything I know and I don't know when the next Epic Ordeal will appear or if I will be even able to succeed in it."
Eve laughed, "I am glad you took this decision. I guess, I didn't fight for the little gift I had in mind for nothing."
"A gift?"
A new crimson light appeared floating next to Eve and the red ball of energy was divided into many smaller parts.
The lights swirled around her hands before she pointed them toward Adam
Then, following the movement of her fingers, each of those lights flew so fast he could barely perceive them before entering his body.
Adam trembled and he could feel his mind becoming hazy.
"I am happy that you want to talk with me more. But we sadly have to focus on important matters. Have a beautiful dream, my dear grandson."
The last thing Adam saw was the candid smile on Eve's grandmotherly face.
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