My Scumbag System Chapter 681: The Seraph’s Measured Gaze

I’d been thinking about this since our encounter on the pier. The alternate timeline version of my mother who’d accepted transformation and become something beyond human. She’d given me information. Pointed me toward Helena Vasquez. Warned me about threats.

But she hadn’t asked for anything in return.

Which meant either she was playing a longer game than I could see, or her goals genuinely aligned with mine.

Neither option was comforting.

"She wants me to succeed where she failed," I said. "To find a middle path between transformation and rejection."

"Which you’ve already done."

"Partially. The integration gave me a fragment of connection to trans-dimensional energy. But it’s incomplete. Like having a key to a door but not knowing which lock it fits."

Natalia processed this.

"So she’s investing in your potential."

"Seems that way."

"And if your potential doesn’t develop the way she hopes?"

"Then I become another failed experiment in a very long line of failed experiments."

"Cheerful."

"I aim to please."

The door opened.

A figure stepped through that made both of us tense instantly.

Celeste Vance stood in the doorway, silver-white hair cascading over her shoulders, periwinkle eyes fixed on me with an intensity that bordered on unsettling. She wore the Academy uniform with the same supernatural perfection she applied to everything, not a single thread out of place.

"Satori Nakano."

Her voice was soft. Almost hesitant.

"Celeste."

"I hoped I might find you here. The administrative staff informed me you’d scheduled an evaluation this morning."

"And you just happened to be in the neighborhood?"

"I specifically arranged to be in the neighborhood."

Honest. Direct. Completely lacking in social guile.

That was Celeste Vance. The Ice Princess of Valoria. Seraphina’s beloved little sister. A prodigy groomed for greatness who’d never once been allowed to make a choice for herself.

She was also one of my targets.

The System had flagged her as a potential addition to the Ensemble. Her power was immense. Her connections invaluable. Her loneliness so profound it practically screamed vulnerability.

But right now, standing in this shitty waiting room with my girlfriend’s hand wrapped possessively around my arm, I wasn’t thinking about the System.

I was thinking about how tired Celeste looked.

Dark circles under her eyes that her makeup couldn’t quite hide. A tension in her shoulders that spoke of sleepless nights and endless obligations. The posture of someone who’d been running on fumes for too long.

"You look like hell," I said.

Natalia elbowed me.

Celeste blinked.

"I... pardon?"

"When was the last time you slept? Actually slept. Not just closed your eyes and waited for morning."

She didn’t answer immediately. The silence stretched between us, pregnant with unspoken truths. Her periwinkle eyes remained fixed on mine, and I watched the careful mask of composure she wore begin to fracture at the edges.

"My schedule has been... demanding lately," she finally said, her voice carrying that same gentle, measured cadence that had been drilled into her since childhood.

"Your sister’s schedule has been demanding lately," I corrected, not bothering to soften the observation. "You just get dragged along for the ride like a particularly expensive piece of luggage."

Something flickered across those periwinkle eyes. A flash of raw emotion breaking through the pristine surface of her carefully maintained persona. Recognition. Understanding. The profound, almost painful shock that comes from being truly seen by someone who wasn’t supposed to be looking that closely.

The shock of being perceived as a person rather than a position.

"I came to speak with you about something specific," Celeste said, her tone shifting slightly as she visibly redirected the conversation back to safer, more controllable ground. "The Black Gate incident. My sister has been... curious about your involvement in the resolution of that crisis."

"Seraphina is always curious about me," I replied evenly. "It’s practically her hobby at this point."

"This is different." Her fingers tightened slightly on the tablet she carried. "She’s received reports—detailed reports—that you demonstrated abilities during the incident that don’t match your registered Aspect classification. Capabilities that shouldn’t exist within the parameters of Thermal Incision."

"Reports from who?"

"I don’t know." A note of frustration crept into her otherwise carefully modulated voice. "She doesn’t share that level of operational detail with me. I’m merely the messenger."

Of course she didn’t. Seraphina Vance kept her beloved little sister on a strict information diet, carefully rationing what she was allowed to know. Fed just enough to be useful as an extension of the President’s will, but never enough to develop independent thoughts that might threaten the perfect future Seraphina had so meticulously planned.

"What does she want?" I asked bluntly.

"To understand what you are," Celeste said simply. "To determine whether you represent a threat that needs to be neutralized or an asset that can be controlled."

"I’m a Hunter prospect with a B-Rank Aspect," I replied, my tone deliberately flat and bureaucratic. "That’s what the official VHC records say. That’s what’s on my provisional license. That’s the story."

"The records say many things," Celeste countered softly, her eyes never leaving mine. "Not all of them are true. My sister knows this better than anyone."

Smart girl.

Too smart to be kept in a cage.

"Tell your sister that I’m exactly what she thinks I am. A variable she can’t control and a threat she can’t eliminate without causing problems she doesn’t want."

Celeste’s expression didn’t change.

"She won’t accept that answer."

"Then she’ll have to learn to live with disappointment."

A ghost of a smile crossed Celeste’s lips. There and gone so fast I almost missed it.

"I’ll relay your message." She paused. "Though I suspect she already knows what you’ll say."

"Then why send you?"

"Perhaps she wanted me to see something for myself."

"And what did you see?"

Celeste looked at me. Really looked. With those eyes that had been trained to analyze and assess and calculate but had never been allowed to simply observe.

"I saw someone who isn’t afraid of her," Celeste said quietly. "Someone who speaks to me like I’m a person rather than an extension of my sister’s will. It’s... unusual."

"I’m an unusual guy."

"Yes. You are."

She turned to leave.

Then stopped at the door.

"Satori?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For being honest with me. Most people aren’t."

She left before I could respond.

Natalia waited until the door closed before speaking.

"That was interesting."

"She’s lonely."

"Devastatingly so."

"Seraphina keeps her isolated. Controls who she talks to. What she knows. How she spends her time."

"A gilded cage."

"The worst kind."

Natalia’s grip on my arm loosened slightly. Something thoughtful entered her expression.

"You want to recruit her."

It wasn’t a question.

"The System flagged her as a high-priority target months ago. S-Rank potential Aspect. Direct connection to the President of the VHC. Emotional vulnerabilities that make her susceptible to genuine kindness."

"All the right boxes."

"All the right boxes."

"But?"

I considered the question.

Celeste Vance was everything the System wanted me to pursue. Power. Access. Leverage. A weapon that could be turned against her own sister with the right manipulation.

Six months ago, I would have exploited those vulnerabilities without hesitation.

Now?

"She deserves better than being used as a pawn in someone else’s game," I said.

Natalia’s hand found mine. Squeezed.

"That’s not very scumbag of you."

"Don’t spread it around. I have a reputation to maintain."