Dante's House, Venice, Italy

In the training room Lok and Den were dueling. They began with cautious strikes. The pace of the fight accelerated and they started exchanging increasingly powerful blows. Lok moved forward, delivering a quick kick that Den successfully blocked. Fears attempted to hit his friend.

Lok evaded it and he tried to knock down Den. However, Den didn't yield easily and defended himself effectively, forcing Lambert to retreat. Boys started exchanging blows again. Their movements became increasingly clever and agile. Blonde tried to surprise Fears with a quick leap and attempt to hit his chest. However, Den was alert enough to block the attack. Their fight continued uninterrupted.

Fight had been going on for some time. Boys were feeling increasingly tired. In the end, Lambert managed to topple Fears, thus concluding their duel. Their duel didn't arise from any conflict between them. They simply wanted to test themselves against each other from time to time.

"Quite good" Lok told and gave his friend a hand.

"Thanks for the compliment" he grabbed the hand and got up.

Boys went downstair. They saw Cherit and the girls in the living room. They were eating sandwiches made by Cathy.

"Is there anything left for us?" Lok asked hopefully.

"Of course, look" the sister pointed to a plate on the kitchen island.

The boys each grabbed a sandwich and sat opposite girls.

"When will you guys learn to eat like humans?" Sophie asked.

"But we eat like humans" Den mumbled with a full mouth.

"Propriety is lacking too" she sighed.

"Yet you manage to put up with them since you've been a team for so long" Lambert girl laughed.

"There were moments when they could behave like true gentlemen" Casterwill girl remarked.

Suddenly, they heard the turning key in the door. Everyone looked towards the entrance. As the door were opened, seekers saw the man. A man Zhalia had warned them about.

"Dante!" said Lok, Sophie and Den at the same time.

All seekers went to Vale. Unexpectedly, another person emerged from behind Vale.

"Did you forget about me, Den?" asked brown-haired boy.

"Harrison?! What are you...?" Den said.

Fears hugged his big brother.

"Thanks to Dante I became official Huntik member" Harrison answered.

Everyone looked at Vale.

"I don't even know how to thank you" Den said.

"I did nothing special. It's only Harrison's hard work" Vale replied.

 "As they say: What goes around comes around" Sophie said.

"Who is she?" Harrison pointed Lok's sister.

"Ah, right. You've never met before. That's Cathy, my older sister. She became seeker a short time ago" Lok said proudly.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Harrison. As you could notice - I'm brother of that fool" Fears pointed his brother with a thumb.

"Hey, don't you exaggerate, my lovely brother?" older Fears took his brother's head and messed up his hair.

"Okey, you don't know how to joke. I didn't know you became that serious" Harrison said and folded his arms.

"I feel like I saw myself and Lok" Cathy thought and smiled.

"Nice to meet you too" girl answered to Harrison.

"You must be hungry. Take one, I will make more" Lambert girl said.

Dante and Harrison took one sandwich. First man looked like he wanted to go out somewhere. He ate fast and stood up.

"I have to get things done. I think I'll be back on evening. I have to talk with you about one thing. See you later" Vale said and left his home.

"He's on vacation but still at work. That's Dante" Lok stated.

"I think members of Foundation's council have worse life than seekers" Cathy muttered.

"They became seekers to sit on their backsides now" Den joked.

"There's no fun when you sit and do nothing in my opinion. What is seeker's life without adventures?" Harrison said.

"Everyone have to answer it individually. There are questions which have a lot of different answers" Sophie stated.

"That would explain why Lok told me something similar" Cathy said in her thoughts.

"Contrary to appearances, Foundation council members should be experienced seekers, just like Dante. They know what to do to keep everyone satisfied" Lok stated.

"And so that the Foundation doesn't collapse like a house of cards" Cherit added.

"If our father hadn't gone missing, he might have become a council member as well. What do you think?" Cathy asked her brother.

"Definitely. He liked dealing with paperwork, so he would have fit in perfectly there" he agreed.

"Harrison. I heard that you haven't had training and missions all this time. Do you feel up to it?" the leader looked at the boy.

"Don't consider me as a beginner" Fears grumbled.

"I just want you to answer honestly" Lok said.

"Let's take him to the headquarters. Clease will surely find a job for him" Den took his brother by the hand and left home. 

Cathy a bit confused followed them.

"And now they went on a threesome date" Lok turned the lock on the door and sat back on the couch.

"We need to find a fourth person; it will turn into a double date for them" Casterwill said cheerfully.

Few minutes later...

Young Lambert was already sitting with the last books for her upcoming exam. Her spells were quite good but she stillhad some issues with controlling her powers. Currently she was reading about defensive spells. When Clease heard about new member in Lok's team, he began searching the library to find the relevant books. He preferred to take out all the necessary books because he didn't know what Harrison had forgotten.

"Come to the training room for a moment. I need to figure out what I should teach you or help you with" the man opened the door to the next room, with the younger Fears entering first, followed by Clease.

Den sat down next to his friend.

"Aren't you going to spectate?" she asked without taking her eyes off the book.

"It's better if I stay with you" he replied.

"Den, I appreciate that you've been coming here with me all this time. I've already turned up in Venice. If you came here with me because you were worried I might get lost, you don't have to do it anymore" she looked at him.

They looked into each other's eyes. Den felt a knot in his throat.

"Why can't I say anything to her?" he asked himself in his thoughts. 

He felt himself blushing. Quickly, he stood up and walked to the window, avoiding eye contact with the short-haired girl.

"Den? Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Y-yeah, it's o-okay" he stammered. 

He turned to her. 

"You're right." he sighed. 

"At first, I was afraid you would really get lost. Now I'm worried that those guys from Death Spiral might attack you. And that's a more serious problem" after a while, he felt the knot in his throat loosen, and he finished his statement.

"Since Harrison is going to come with me, you can give up on that now. At least for now." she answered.

"When we were in the orphanage, I always protected him. Now I also have this feeling that I have to protect him. Too bad Lok doesn't feel the same way about you. After all, you're siblings too." Den said.

"Despite being a beginner, I feel the same way. I should be the one protecting my dear and only younger brother. I'm sure your Harrison also wants to protect you, just like Lok wants to protect me" she replied and went back to reading.

"She's right. I should see if Harrison can defend himself. We're both seekers, not helpless kids like before. Maybe I really need to relax a bit" he thought.

He brought back fight with the Betrayer.

"Stay back. He's too strong" Harrison said while shielding Zhalia.

Then the Betrayer used a shadowlock on him. It was a monstrous pain for Den to see his brother in that purple mess which had a similar effect to the petrification of Zhalia's King Basilisk.

"Almost two years have passed since that event and I remember it as if it were yesterday" he thought.

After a few minutes of silence Harrison and Clease left the training room. The man handed him some books and told him to sit next to Cathy. Then, with a gesture, Clease indicated to Den to come with him.

"So, how was it?" Fears asked when he closed the door.

"Your brother hasn't forgotten much. I had him read about a few spells. His stamina is a bit worse." he answered.

"Don't tell me that he was defeated by this dummy" Boy pointed to the mannequin leaning back the wall.

"If he wants to tell you, you'll find out" Clease replied evasively.

"So, it defeated him. I can't believe it" he answered himself in his thoughts.

There was a knock on the door.

"I'm ready" Cathy entered without waiting for a response.

"Come. Here is the machine on which I will examine you today" they went deeper into the ttraining room.

"Your first task is to color and maintain all these balls in blue for a minute" Clease explained briefly.

The machine looked like a square billiard table. Balls were arranged in five columns and five rows. Some of them were glowing in red and the rest in blue. It reminded Den the times he wanted to give up and quit being seeker after failing the exam on this device. Fears decided not to disturb and went to check what his brother was doing in the adjacent room.

"I see that reading books gives you pleasure." Den said.

"I met someone in the main headquarters who showed me that books aren't that scary. Besides, I'll endure three books of this thickness. If you saw the bricks she read next to me, you probably wouldn't believe it" he replied.

Late afternoon

The trio was returning from the headquarters. Harrison took a book with him. Cathy managed to color all the balls blue on the third attempt, and, of course, she maintained it for a minute.

"Do you know how difficult it was to complete this task? Every time I tried to figure out how the balls change color to red on their own. Clease could have been more considerate and let me practice on that machine earlier! I feel like I'll never learn to control my powers" she began to complain.

"I wonder how Harrison would handle it" said the older Fears.

"I don't know. Maybe we'll find out tomorrow?" Harrison suggested.

"I'll be first to use it! Even though I managed to complete the task, Clease decided that I have to repeat it. As he stated himself - if I want to protect Lok, I can't harm him or anyone else in the team." said Cathy.

"You'll gain experience and you'll be like us" reassured Den.

"I agree. Beginnings are not always easy" added Harrison.

"Thanks for believing in me" girl smiled.

When they were passing through one of the intersections, they saw a man in a dirty yellow coat heading their way. Trio stopped.

"Dante, what are you doing here?" Den asked, surprised.

"I'm just going to the headquarters. Did something happen?" Vale said.

"No, not at all. I'm just afraid that Clease has been tormented by those two." older Fears answered.

"If you only knew what kind of seekers he used to have..." man replied.

"Is he talking about himself?" thought Fears.

"Are you going somewhere afterwards?" Cathy asked.

"Yes, straight to home." Dante said.

"Alright, we won't keep you then" the girl replied, and they went their separate ways.

"Dante looked stressed" said the short-haired girl after a few steps.

"Him? Stressed? You must be imagining things" Den replied.

After a dozen minutes, they reached the house. Lok was sitting in the armchair, and Sophie was in the kitchen preparing something.

"Finally, you're here. How long can you study?" the leader took his eyes off of his holotome.

"Not only did Clease give me an exam that I passed on the third try, but he also makes me retake it" Cathy said, outraged.

"Power control is essential. You wouldn't want to harm yourself or us, right?" Lok asked.

"Well, yeah" she muttered.

"What about Harrison?" leader asked.

"You've got a new sparring partner" Den answered for his brother.

"First, I suggest hitting the gym, then we can duel" Lambert advised.

"Finally I heard something new. Quite a good idea" the younger Fears remarked.

"Lok always has good ideas" Cherit spoke up.

"Too bad I had to come up with what to prepare for dinner!" leader's girlfriend shouted from the kitchen.

Cathy just chuckled.

"Speaking of dinner, did you see Dante?" Lok asked.

"Yes. He was just heading to the quarters when we were coming back from there" Den replied.

"Uh, good to know" leader muttered under his breath.

"Do you need help, Sophie?" Cathy offered her assistance.

"No, I'm almost done, actually. Can you set up the plates?" Casterwill girl asked.

After a few minutes, the five of them enjoyed carbonara in the living room. Unexpectedly or expectedly, they heard an attempt to turn the key in the door. Door were opened after a moment.

"Who was the last one to enter?" Vale asked.

"Me. I guess I forgot to lock it" said Harrison.

"As long as the house isn't empty, you don't have to worry, Dante" Lok wanted to defend the boy at least a little.

"This is still my house, so please close the doors regardless of the situation." man said.

"Alright, it won't happen again. I promise" declared the younger Fears.

"Come and eat with us, Dante" Sophie suggested.

"I guess I can't refuse after such a tough day" Dante took a plate from the kitchen counter and sat between Den and Lok.

They ate in silence. They still had plenty of time to hear what Vale wanted to tell them.

"Firstly, I wanted to congratulate you on the new member in the team. Secondly - we're intensively discussing whether we should assign another person to your team. We decided that the number of team members should be between five and eight people. Cathy doesn't know much yet, and Harrison is a bit ahead of her. Clease told me a few things about your day, so I roughly know where you stand. Metz expects that the best seekers from the Death Spiral can be very dangerous, even more than Rassimov. You form one of the better teams hence his concern for you. Mine as well" Dante began.

"Montehue and Tersly would be perfect, but I know it's impossible" Lok interjected.

"As for those two, among others, Scarlet joined them." Vale stated.

"It's hard to believe" boy thought.

"Scarlet? Is it a coincidence of names?" Cathy chimed in.

"No. That's Scarlet you're probably thinking of. She's a seeker too" Vale replied.

"Everyone around me was a seeker and I didn't notice anything" she muttered.

"Now we have no more secrets" her brother replied, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"As I said, it's not certain yet whether we'll assign someone to you. We're waiting for more data on Death Spiral. We still know too little about them to make the right decision. That's all I wanted to tell you" Dante concluded.

The rest of evening was filled with discussions about the information from their friend and other trivial matters. Besides, a very intriguing thing was who could be the next person in their team. It was enough for them that someone (possibly Harrison or someone else) had to move on to the room that required a major clear-out. No one had lived in it for decades. Only Dante had the key to that room.

It's true that they could have broken in using Farslip but Vale warned that anyone attempting to enter would face severe consequences. The suggestion quickly arose for Cathy to move into that room. From a certain perspective, it made the most sense. In this scenario, Harrison would take Cathy's place, and the siblings would reside in the same room.

Dante opened the door to the room where someone important to him once lived.

"I barely feel like I own this house anymore. It only holds sentimental value for me, and I'd like to come back here without needing anyone's permission..." thought the Foundation councilor.

"Cathy, until now, only Metz and Cherit knew what was in this room and who used to live here. Now you can feel honored and join that small circle" Vale spoke up.

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Hi everyone, chapter arrived. Hope you liked it. I can say that next chapter will be about Dante's past. Have nice day/evening!