For a moment, Lily couldn't help but feel dread. For Jack to be able to exert such strong control over her meant his power was among the rumored legends she previously scoffed at.
She desperately wanted to run but knew that she should at least wait for the attention to be off of her, so she continued on.
"T-The Spades um, are weak against Clubs assuming that they are of similar strength. Although Spades can fight against those that are stronger than them fairly easily, the suicidal way that Clubs do so makes it incredibly hard to get out of the battle unscathed, as they are usually willing to take a possibly fatal wound just to injure their opponent. The Spades usually do not have the kind of tenacity to simply endure it."
Mia's eyes lit up hearing all of that. She seemed quite interested in learning all of that information.
On the other hand, Jessica looked over at Kenji.
"So... he's supposed to counter me then?"
Lily blinked a few times before pushing her hair back.
"Not necessarily. It's just more likely assuming you are a Spades and he is a Clubs."
Mia let out a soft hum, tilting her head to the side as she looked at Lily.
"Interesting. I am a Diamonds, does that mean I'm weaker in combat?"
Lily promptly shook her head.
"As I said previously, you have trump cards that most people fear. Many times a group seeks out a Diamonds to help out in the worst-case scenario and to provide direction to the group with their knowledge. The only iffy part is that in normal combat they are not necessarily reliable."
She paused for a moment, deliberating on how to explain.
"Their major advantage comes in telekinesis which isn't directly effective as its power is almost always low. Usually, they depend on their wits to use tools or enact various plans to be effective, usually ones that rely on their telekinesis. That leads to their environment matters much more along with how well their tools are for countering the specific enemy. And sometimes they just won't think of a way to fight effectively."
Mia's eyes widened slightly, enlightened.
"Interesting. It seems I need to put more thought into the future. Though I'm not exactly sure how to approach it."
Lily waved her hand dismissively.
"I don't really get it either, but I imagine it's something the Diamonds build up with time, as it requires experience and a familiarity with their abilities. So it's only natural to feel a bit weak."
Her eyelid twitched after saying that. She just naturally went along with things, when her focus should've been on escaping, not becoming chummy with the rest of the group. While she was in distress, Mia responded with a smile.
"Thank you. I will be relying on you in the future to answer some of my questions."
The corner of Lily's lip twitched.
"Y-Yes..."
Jack let out a giggle, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"Thank you, Lily! And you don't have to call me Master, you can just call me Jack!"
Many opposing emotions clashed within Lily's mind. There was a warm feeling in her heart that she was consciously furious about, yet couldn't get rid of. Despite knowing that calling someone by their name wasn't something to get worked up about, for some reason she felt like it was an incredible privilege she simply didn't deserve to have.
"Y-Yes, J-J... Sorry, it simply doesn't feel correct for someone like me to call you anything but Master."
"Mm... ok, if that's what you want. Then um, I think it's like this?"
With a bit of hesitance and awkwardness, Jack reached out to lightly hug Lily. He glanced briefly at Jessica, almost as though asking if he was doing it properly. In turn, she pursed her lips slightly, a bit uncomfortable.
It lasted for barely a second, yet Lily seemed to have experienced a lifetime through it, her eyes closed as she desperately tried to control her shaky breathing.
Jack looked at her for a moment before losing interest and walking to a nearby moving flower, crouching down and eyeing it curiously. The flower in turn waved its leaves excitedly, quite enthusiastic.
Seeing this, Mia spoke up with a smile.
"You can ask them to dance together, and they are quite good at it, I must say."
"Wow! Could you please dance for me?"
It nodded before several of the flowers got together in a circle and began doing a dance. They were rather simple movements such as exaggerated marching. It was occasionally complemented by flowers jumping over each other and performing impressive moves where they would stack on top of each other. Quite similar to what would be seen in a children's TV show.
Jessica watched on with a smile, and even Kenji's gaze was attracted to the dancing flowers.
Lily slowly opened her eyes and realized that this was probably going to be her best opportunity to try and run away. With that in mind, she slowly got up. Then, she turned tail and ran.
Or at least, she thought she did.
Despite consciously willing it, nothing ended up happening. Almost like she was dreaming of waking up instead of actually waking up. Something was binding her, though she didn't need to ponder over what it was.
Because she already knew the source.
She slowly moved her hands away from her heart, revealing the bloody eye. It was something Lily was aware of in the back of her mind, but didn't want to acknowledge. Still, she slowly came to terms with the fact she needed to get rid of the eye. Otherwise, she simply wouldn't have enough control over herself in order to actually run away.
While looking at the bloodied eye that almost seemed to be looking back at her, she began crying. A frown had formed on her face before she realized it, her lips spasming uncontrollably.
"No... this is... impossible."
Lily felt like she would be willing to give up her life just to protect the eye, as stupid as that was. How could she possibly throw away the eye if she valued it more than her life?
She fell down to her knees, once again clutching the eye close to her.
"I'll just... do it later. When the control ends up weakening. I'm sure it will weaken..."
Jack briefly peeked over his shoulder at the sorry state she was in. He let out a giggle before focusing on the flowers once more.
Lily ended up securely putting away the eye in a small black container that was supposed to be used for jewelry. The contents that used to be in there, a pair of diamond earrings, was taken out and carelessly put elsewhere.
She ended up joining the others and played with the plants, making for a strangely wholesome time.
After playing for a few hours, they decided it was time to go. As they left, Lily continued to explain how things worked.
"As you've seen with this building, as you go up in floors the difficulty gradually increases. There is a plant race that blocks people from entering too high to prevent overconfident people from dying right away in almost all of the buildings, except for the ones that are very far from the hub. Speaking of, the further you get away from the hub, the more unpredictable the challenges within the buildings become. It's widely considered much harder to deal with the games and environment the further you go out because of how strange it becomes."
She blinked a few times, thinking to herself for a short while.
"Also, I've never seen it myself, but there have been other people that said the buildings disappear entirely if you go really far away and the terrain becomes almost impossible to traverse. Regardless, I've never gotten close to that place as what I am certain of is how dangerous it is."
The five of them returned to the hub while Lily went on about places in the city, noting some of her favorite relatively cheap foods available as well as the places that were either too expensive or basically scams. There were several places she put strong emphasis on.
The first was the fortune telling shop, which they had already been to. The second was an auction house that usually contained valuable items. The third was a trading center where people could do a secure trade for a small fee. The final one was a shop with items that changed every day. Although most of the items wouldn't be useful, there would occasionally be an incredibly handy one and the prices were never too high.
As they began walking towards the apartment complex once more, Lily started to talk about it.
"Here, you can pay a fee for a place to stay for resting or storage. The more you are willing to pay, the better room you can get. But more importantly, the security is tighter, making it incredibly hard for someone else to get in without permission. Still, I probably wouldn't use-"
"I-It's him! Over here!"
All of a sudden, a woman hurriedly stumbled over to them. A woman that was missing part of her finger. It was Lilth, the one that had once tried to kidnap Jack. Behind her, was a familiar face.
Brian, the person who hosted Jack's first promotion test.