CHAPTER 370: UNAFFECTED

"...Have you really not heard about it?" Lane couldn’t help but ask, just to make sure. "Didn’t Ethan mention it in his report?"

"Uh..." Nyla blinked, equally confused. "He did say that the Association members had succumbed to the hypnosis, and the team had to take refuge inside the dungeon... But that was to be expected, considering the scale of the influx of the monsters in the Lapis Lake. We have already heard about it on the day of the incident from the Association, and there wasn’t much to add, so Ethan only briefly mentioned it in his report..."

"Did he say anything about how we... unlocked the shed blocking the Gate? What about how the team had dealt with everyone who had succumbed to the hypnosis? Did he mention which members had fallen under hypnosis first, and which were the last?"

"Uh... No?"

"Are you sure about it?" Lane insisted. "Could it be that you don’t know the full report?"

"That’s... unlikely. This is the report he had submitted to our father. I have only obtained it... through my spy."

"...Ah?" Lane blinked, staring at his sister as if he were seeing her for the first time.

A spy? Nyla had her own spy? In the Allen Guild? Considering how obedient she had always been to their parents, Lane would have never expected that such a thought might even cross her mind, let alone that she would execute it... And to get a spy capable of accessing reports submitted directly to Miles Allen would require a lot of time and caution. Lane knew it very well, since he himself had experience with planting spies. And even he couldn’t obtain Ethan’s reports... Well, that was at least partially due to the fact that his spies were from the secret organization, and he was reluctant to use them to gather any information unrelated to the organization’s goals, since he didn’t want to risk his identity being revealed...

But still. Nyla must have either planted a capable spy who had managed to advance in ranks high enough to become Miles’ trusted adviser, managed to somehow get one of the advisers or assistants on her side, or scouted Espers with unique abilities that allowed them to sneak into the office and access confidential files undetected. Possibly unregistered Espers, posing as civilians and working as servants or something. All three options required a lot of work, and must have been prepared long in advance...

It was surprising. Shocking, even. But then again, how much did Lane really know about his sister? They might have been close once upon a time... But that had been what, two decades ago? And this point, they had been distant for far longer than they had ever been close...

He tapped his fingers on the table. Either way, it was more important to figure out what was going on with Ethan. Just what was he thinking? He had reported that Lane seemed to be far more skilled at fighting monsters and using his abilities than he should have been, but he didn’t even mention about his resistance to hypnosis? It’s not like he hadn’t noticed it, he clearly had, and even though Lane and Damien had put on the show, it looked as if he didn’t believe it...

"Lane, what’s going on?" Nyla couldn’t take it any longer, and finally broke the silence, looking at Lane anxiously.

Snapped out of his thoughts, Lane gave his sister a long glance, before letting out a heavy sigh.

Should he explain it or not? Although he had decided to trust Nyla, he was still approaching it with caution. No matter what regrets and grievances Nyla might have, that didn’t mean she would necessarily support him in his quest against the Allens... After all, she had mentioned that they had something they held over her, something important enough for her to stay as their obedient puppet all those years... Who knew, even if she cared about Lane, that thing might be even more important to her.

He glanced at Ava, who was no longer paying any attention to them, focused on her experiments. She had probably figured out what had happened from the questions that Lane had asked - that is, that Lane had made a mistake and had almost exposed his true rank by resisting the hypnosis for too long (if it could even be called ’resisting’, when the hypnosis was too weak to affect him). After all, she knew Lane all too well.

The question was... Would she be able to come up with a legitimate excuse that would explain why Lane had been able to resist the hypnosis? Lane had planned to discuss it with her today, but they hadn’t quite gotten there yet. If it turned out to be impossible, then perhaps it was better to avoid the subject altogether...

’Ah, whatever.’

"I have been the last one to succumb to the hypnosis among the A-rankers on our team," Lane finally admitted. "Or rather, I wasn’t affected by the hypnosis at all."

"Ah, is that so... Huh?" Nyla paused, taken aback. "You... weren’t?"

It was understandable for her to be surprised. After all, she had experienced the power of the Lapis Lake’s monsters personally, so she knew how hard it was to resist. And she wasn’t just any regular A-ranker - she was on the verge of breaking into the S-rank. Supposedly. The Allens had been preparing for it for almost a year now, and there was still no news...

But it was a very powerful A-ranker, that’s for sure.

As to why Lane was suddenly being so honest with her... There were a few reasons. Firstly, he wanted to gauge her reaction. Secondly, he wanted to take a gamble. Reveal something he kept a secret to her, and see what would happen. It wouldn’t be enough to cause him too much trouble, he would still be able to handle it, and it would help him determine how much he could trust her later on. And finally...

He just felt like it. Mending their relationship was already hard enough after all this time, and if he insisted on keeping everything a secret from Nyla, then it might just be impossible. Since Nyla had made the first step this time, approaching her with the information she had, Lane wanted to respond in kind.

"I wasn’t," he confirmed. "The monsters’ hypnosis didn’t affect me. I helped Damien break through the locks on the door to the shed, then helped catch the rest of the team members who had gotten hypnotized, and tossed them into the dungeon. It was only when Ethan had noticed something’s off, that I pretended to be hypnotized as well."

"Oh." Nyla went silent for a moment, organizing her thoughts. Although it was all very unexpected, it didn’t take her long to get a grasp of the situation. She glanced at Lane...

It was obvious that she was curious. How come her brother, a mid A-ranker with an elemental type ability, had been able to remain unaffected by the hypnosis, when she, almost an S-ranker, couldn’t do it? It wasn’t that she was jealous or anything, it simply didn’t add up, no matter how she thought about it...

She didn’t say anything about it, though, and instead asked, "So you’re saying that Ethan had noticed that you weren’t hypnotized?"

"Yeah. I’ve tried to pretend to be, but it was too late, and I don’t think he believes it..."

"How did you explain yourself?" Ava suddenly cut in. Lane was so focused on his conversation with Nyla, that he hadn’t even realized when she had returned to the table.

"I’ve said that because I was in pain, it helped me keep my mind clear and resist... Is that possible?"

"...What kind of pain?"

"Sore ass."

Ava’s brows shot up. "Yeah, nope," she snorted. "That wouldn’t work. At least, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Perhaps if you were in so much pain that you wouldn’t be able to even walk, then it might be plausible... But that’s just a theory. It could very well be that being in pain would make you distracted, thus more susceptible to hypnosis."

"Ah... Is that so?" Lane sighed with disappointment. As expected, it was hard to figure out how to resist hypnosis, when he didn’t know much about how it was to be on the receiving end... "How about my experience with the Domination? Could it make me more resistant?"

"That’s... more likely," Ava admitted, "But wouldn’t it be the same for Nyla?"

That... was a fair point. In the past, Lane had been the more frequent recipient of their grandfather’s ability... But Nyla had been with the Allen family all this time. She might have had her own share of Domination experience...

Lane glanced at Nyla. He kind of wanted to ask... But even if he did, would Nyla even tell him the truth? Probably not...

Anyway...

"Do you know why Ethan was sent to the Association?" he asked instead.