"What? How is that possible?"

Cassarae hated Professor Broussard. The issue wasn't just that his actions would lead to the deaths of tens of thousands in all likelihood, but that he was also cruel enough to try and suppress her mother.

The entire reason for why her hand was forced was because the government tried to arrest her mother. They might as well have been watching fascism play out in real time.

However, even with this being the case, Cassarae hadn't thought that the Professor was actually a traitor. All things considered, the government wasn't stupid; how could they trust someone like that to be at such a high position?

No, even further, when was there even time for Professor Broussard to become a traitor in the first place? The System Cities weren't present during the Trial and they had only just appeared. Also, someone like Professor Broussard was the brains of the operation, not the muscle.

He wouldn't be sent out to the field, so he wouldn't even have time to interact with the System Cities after they had already appeared.

Whether he entered the Trial or not, it didn't seem like any of this would be possible. It was ridiculous.

However… Cassarae had simply never seen Sylas be wrong before. At the very least, he wouldn't be wrong about something like this.

She took a deep breath and calmed herself.

"I don't know. But I'm 80% sure," Sylas replied.

Sylas could obviously think of the same things that Cassarae could, he saw all of the same problems with his theory. Another person would have dismissed the thought because of these alone. But Sylas wouldn't do such a thing.

It couldn't be said that he trusted his gut, but rather that he trusted his own intellect and what he saw with his eyes.

"Explain."

"There are several problems. First, have you realized that the portals here are in the same general proximity of one another as they are in the outside world?"

Cassarae frowned, not understanding immediately until it dawned on her suddenly.

Sylas nodded. "Those are tall odds. Portals usually have vastly different destinations. I've seen three portals in close proximity before. One led to Lone Star, one led to the Africor Continent, and the last led to our home town near Veridian.

"Portals are never so geographically consistent."

"Yeah, but that still might be a coincidence," Cassarae rebutted. "My portal isn't natural, remember? I just opened it up. It might be the case it's like this because of me."

"I thought of this as well, which was why I dismissed it at first. I even think that you're probably right even now, that it's nothing more than a coincidence."

Cassarae only became more confused, but this time, she didn't interrupt.

"But, while I was out on the ocean, I ran into someone from a System City. It felt somewhat like a coincidence as well, but then I thought about it, I realized that in all likelihood, they were after the Den in my hands.

"I thought, then, how they would know about the Den. There are a ton of things about this world that I still don't understand, so I was mostly willing to ignore it in this case. Maybe they just had a treasure that I didn't know about.

"But then you said that the government predicted the appearance of this portal before it appeared as well. That's already the third coincidence.

"First, the portals appear side by side both on Earth and the Aether Plane. Then the System City people knew about the existence of the Den when it had only just appeared. And third, the government knew about it ahead of time."

Cassarae listened silently, but she still felt like this wasn't enough.

What if the System City located the Den only after the portal appeared? After all, it had been a while. There was no guarantee that they knew the Den would appear even before the portal did.

"The fourth problem is that the underwater portal appears high in the skies. I've already seen several portals until now. Not a single one of them hangs in the air like that… at least not without some outside interference.

"It feels very convenient for that to happen. It allows them to benefit from helpless creatures that fall out, and now you're telling me that they've been benefiting from the Gene Cores with hardly any effort at all while simultaneously ruining all the ground around you."

Cassarae's heart skipped a beat. "Are you saying they've been targeting me the whole time?"

Sylas looked toward Cassarae with a hint of surprise, as though he didn't expect her to suddenly leap to his conclusion before him.

"What's with that face? Don't make me punch your nose into your gut!"

Sylas' lip slightly quirked again.

"Yes, I think they've been targeting you from the very beginning. It might not even be a coincidence that your mother was targeted. A System City would find it very difficult to deal with you on their own because there's likely a very high price to pay."

"But why?"

Sylas gave her a look. "That depends on where you got your necklace from."

Cassarae blinked, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Sylas had suddenly cut to the heart of the matter despite only having small tidbits of information. Maybe she shouldn't have been surprised that he had a guess, but she couldn't help it.

In the end, Legacy had gone out of its way to target Cassarae, and now there seemed to be a continuous layering of plots and schemes against her this time as well.

If Sylas had to guess, it should surely be related to the necklace. And further than that, unless they didn't know that Cassarae's necklace had already been stolen, then it should be the case that there was far more to how she had gotten the necklace than she had told him.

Cassarae hesitated for a moment. But then, Sylas saw a screen flash in front of him.