Everyone Else Has a System

...….

Zero moved towards Mark\'s office and, after walking a little, he reached the office where Mark Leeway and his wife, Britney Leeway, were discussing something in a serious manner, with a butler pouring tea for Britney.

The office was similar to before, with a bookshelf at the corner and an authentic brown coloured wall. There were small green plants near the big bright window, opposite to the gate. The window was behind the table where Mark Leeway was sitting.

The table was a bit arked than square shaped, with few books placed on it. Britney was sitting opposite to Mark and as soon as Zero entered, all three of them looked at him with a slightly serious gaze.

Britney was a red-haired lady in her late 40s, though her appearance matched that of someone in their early 30s. Her eyes were black, with her hair reaching down to her waist, and her face looked similar to that of Bernette, except with a mature look.

She, as far as Zero had collected information on her, was a manipulative yet caring lady. Manipulative because she didn\'t want anyone to exploit her family, no matter what. She didn\'t regard anyone, on equal footing with her family, even the other SS-classes, and openly looked down on them.

Caring cause, she loved her family more than anything, despite failing miserably to show that. While her words can be misinterpreted at times, it was said that not once had she had any intentions of harming anyone from her family.

She died when the parasite inside Bernette took over Bernette… while Bernette was trying to kill herself to kill the parasite with her; she was the one who gave up her life to stop Bernette from doing so, ironically resulting in the death of Bernette…

The parasite died as it spread its last bits of power, killing her as well.

Her power level was comparatively weaker than the other Leeways, making her stay on A-Grade level, the reason being her reluctance to train in any physical or magical activity and focus on developing her communication skills in order to deal with the social and political problems.

"What happened?" asked Mark Leeway as he looked at Zero with a sudden serious expression and Zero spoke,"Can we speak alone for a few moments?" as he looked at Britney and the butler.

While Britney wanted to stay, Mark followed Zero\'s words and asked her to move out immediately. This kinda hurt Britney, but she did not go against his words, while only giving Zero a glare as she moved out of the room.

-Creak!

-Thud!

The door opened and closed before Zero turned at Mark Leeway before speaking with a relaxed and casual expression contrasting to his previous serious expression,"nothing just that I have done my part of preparation and I wanted to discuss further on how we are going to proceed with the ritual."

Mark looked at him for a few moments before speaking,"sure, go ahead."

Zero nodded before beginning to describe the plan to him,"firstly, I want to know the power levels of people here. Yours… I already know, others… I think I know most of their powers too. But still, I wanted to run a check on who is capable of what and then formulate a plan on how to deal with things accordingly.

For starters…"

Zero threw across a paper mentioning the strength and the weaknesses about the Scout Parasite and complications that may have resulted in that parasite merging with Bernette. There was a possibility of the parasite being able to harness Bernette\'s power and that is surely going to make it an SSS class grade threat… though it is still just an assumption.

"... these are the properties of the enemy that is residing in your daughter… under normal conditions. There are a few possibilities that may result due to various reasons and I have mentioned them there as well," he finished speaking and Mark intently kept looking at that paper over and over before he looked at Zero. He had a doubtful look on his face, but Zero didn\'t seem to care much about it.

"Other than that, I also wanted to discuss our own personal deal regarding your curse, too. Would you like to do that now, or perhaps later?" Zero asked making Mark turn at him with a slightly pondering look over his serious face before he spoke,

"Let\'s deal with this first. Once my daughter is saved, only then will I think about myself."

Hearing that, Zero nodded at him because while he did want to make that deal and use Mark to achieve his own goal, he really can\'t put it into motion unless Zero himself is at least SS level or more.

Zero then ponder a little before speaking again,

"About that basement… Once all this is over, I will visit that place so I would like to have some information about that place… whatever you can get me."

Mark looked at him with a keen look before asking,"any special reason?"

\'Because it is connected with the gate of Avalon,\' is what he wanted to say but,"It feels intriguing."

He looked at Zero for a few moments before speaking,"if you can cure my daughter, I don\'t have any problem with that. Though, I must warn you again, it is not a place where you should go. You can never be sure that you will be able to come back if you go too deep down there."