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“Yes... Just like all those other ants,” she whispered.
Dante frowned. Someone expelled from the Core should have had their SIN removed and a large, visible scar on their neck. Eden clearly didn’t. Not only that, but she had proven she was used to the Suburbs and didn’t think like someone from the Core… How would she have been able to make such a turn-around, even in a few years’ time? While a hundred thoughts were flooding his mind, Dante grabbed his napkin and directed it toward Eden’s mouth to wipe the sauce off her lips. As one would have expected, she moved to back away and grabbed his towel to do it herself.
“Were you expelled then? When?” he asked, still intrigued.
“I wasn’t expelled,” she retorted. “I fled the Core. I don’t remember how old I was. But I was very young.”
“With your mother?”
“Stop asking about my mother,” she suddenly glared at him.
It didn’t put an end to all the questions Dante had. How could she have fled the Core alone? She ought to have had an adult, someone helping her...
“No one runs away from the Core,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Some things... some people don’t make sense.”
Her words didn’t either. The people from the Core were raised with three principles: they wouldn’t need anything as long as they served the Core, loved the Core, and loathed the Suburbs. Since they were raised from their very birth to hate anything outside the Core, why would one want to leave? The hundreds of lies and myths presented to them were precisely there so they wouldn’t. That was why anyone sent to the Suburbs from the Core never lasted a day. They naturally feared everyone and everything. It was simply tattooed in their brains their whole life. They didn’t want to leave the Core, so they never did. So who would have taken little Eden out and why?
Still, Dante purposely fought himself to hold his questions back. Eden had grabbed her glass of wine and was sipping it, her eyes set on the window again. More precisely, her hazel eyes were directed at the Core.
“...I don’t even remember most of it,” she said. “Only... the vague memories of a child who had no idea what was going on. I was dragged, told to flee. My mother and Master’s voices kept saying this. Run, Eden, run. I remember running, fleeing those white walls and something that was chasing me. I remember hiding where I could and obeying everything they told me. I was too young to understand, but I was scared. I knew we weren’t safe, and something or someone was chasing us. My mother... guided me outside, and that was it.”
“Your mother was the one who made you leave the Core? And that master you mentioned?”
Eden slowly nodded.
“They made me promise never to go back... and I didn’t. I hid in the Suburbs without knowing what I had fled. Master helped me for over ten years, to work as a Dive Hacker and get just enough money to survive on my own.”
“Your mother didn’t come with you?”
Eden slowly lowered her head, avoiding his eyes, and finished her drink in one go.
“She did. She didn’t stay.”
Dante remained silent, and Eden turned to finish her plate. The pasta was just so good, and she decided to stuff her mouth instead of wasting it unnecessarily. Why had she ended up telling him so much? Maybe the wine, or the atmosphere. She hadn’t intended to reveal that part of her past, but... Oh, whatever. It didn’t really matter. He couldn’t get to her mother or Master from where they were, anyway.
“...How come they never found you? The Core?” he asked. “Since you were born there, you should have had one of their SINs. It should have been like a tracker right on your neck...”
“Master did something to my SIN,” she said, “to hide it, wipe everything on it.”
Dante nodded and grabbed the bottle to refill her glass. It made sense. The only way would have been to turn her SIN into a corrupted one... which was what most hackers were capable of and did. So her master was definitely the one who had taught Eden to be... what she had become. It was somewhat strange to witness how her actions did not match her appearance. She was pretty, even more so when she was wearing this dress. However, she wasn’t acting like a dignified lady. Instead, she was like a cautious animal, ready to leave and run at any given moment. How had she survived in the Suburbs with such an unusual background? That was one more mystery to add to his list.
“So... you want to find your master?”
Eden nodded and grabbed her glass to wash down what was stuck in her throat.
“Any leads?” Dante asked, tilting his head.
“No.”
“No?”
“I don’t have any to give you,” she retorted. “I spent years looking for Master, and I never found him because I had no clue where to look.”
“What about his appearance? His habits?”
“I don’t know what Master looks like. When I was a child, whenever I was Diving, he’d just be there.”
