Curse The Mainframe! 405 Happy Birthday, Boss!

The next day.

Alec rubbed his eyes as he woke up, feeling surprisingly lethargic for once. He'd slept in, his mind filled with a strangely unspeakable gloom and depression. 

The determination had lasted him all the way until sleep, then it had sunk slightly due to the unspeakable feelings he had coursing through his body.

Though he had already resolved himself not to get worked up over Elysia leaving, his dreams had reflected something else, leaving him in a bad mood.

Alec hardly ever dreamed.

But whenever he did…

He got up, brus.h.i.+ng his hair out of his face, and the touch of warm metal caused him to pause. The ring was still on his hand…

He looked at it fondly, most of his annoyance dissipating.

Quietly, he locked up all the negative thoughts behind a wall again, shoving the lid down firmly, just like when he'd been happily ignoring whatever he felt at the sight of Elysia.

How was he going to find Ye Sha?

He'd been looking all this time, but he still hadn't been able to find a clue. Ye Sha should be in some place that wasn't constrained by the boundaries of human beings.

If he wanted to find Ye Sha, he would likely have to ask One to help him out. She should know where Ye Sha was.

But One was somewhere on Awerk continent still, touring around with Dominique.

Alec's lips twitched at the thought. One always clung to Dominique, like he was her father. It was a bit strange considering she looked like a blend between himself and Elysia. He didn't know when it had changed from One clinging to him to One clinging on Dominique.

It always gave him funny thoughts.

He strode out of the room, ready to run his Spectres into the ground today. 

They would be training for real this time. They hadn't had a proper training session for such a long time. He didn't know if their skills had regressed.

It was especially important after going through such a battle with the company. Their gains should be quite substantial, and they would likely have a lot of bloodl.u.s.t pent up now.

He'd have to let those wild wolves out for a bit of a hunt.

Alec tilted his head when he heard all of his Spectres with heavily beating heartbeats, like they were holding pent-up aggression. Sure enough, he was right.

Their heartbeats told him that they were all excited. They were probably just short of pacing around.

He could even hear Nicholas' heartbeat, who was surprisingly blending in quite well with them. Feral Nic had finally gone to sleep, and normal Nicholas came back out to play.

He raised a brow when he realized that all his familiars were nearby as well. They too, seemed rather excited.

Confused, he stepped out. He was more than ready for a good training session to get rid of all the negative feelings that were plaguing him.

The first thing he saw was Bunbun's face, and what followed nearly deafened him.

His three familiars all threw themselves at him, hugging and nuzzling him cutely. He just barely managed to reach out and pat them and hug back when there were various pops and the shower of confetti rained over him.

His heart actually jolted from the shock of the sudden loud noises.

He looked at it blankly, the normal smile on his face freezing a bit.

"Happy Birthday Boss!" they all shouted.

Alec was dazed for a split second before he felt something akin to embarra.s.sment.

He looked around at his Spectres and his familiars, and he realized that the feelings of excitement they gave off previously was because of this.

No wonder they were all gathering near his room.

They all looked so happy to do this that he didn't have the heart to stop them. Experiencing a normal occasion like this where they weren't discriminated against was hard for them.

His heart softened, and he decided to let them rest for a day. He would push them into h.e.l.l tomorrow…

Yuki seemed to have noticed the dark foreboding feeling that his Boss gave him, as if he was thinking about another h.e.l.l routine, and he shoved a slice of cake at Alec in an attempt to run some damage control.

For some reason, he felt as if tomorrow's training was going to be very hard…

"Eat up, Boss! We know you don't like it too sweet, so we got chocolate that was a bit more bitter."

Alec scooped a bit of the cake into his mouth, munching it. It was pretty good.

He couldn't help but feel that his Spectres were all just little puppies, with their tails wagging as they waited for his judgement on the cake.

"Pretty good," he said with a smile.

Half of the room cheered while the other despaired.

"Haha! I knew my cooking would conquer Boss! Pay up!"

"No! Boss, isn't it too sweet?!"

"Haha! Pay up! Give me my twenty right now!"

Alec's lips quirked as the room exploded into noise. So, they were waiting so eagerly because they'd made a bet?!

It was a bit hard on his ears, but he couldn't stop them when they all looked so excited.

"You better not have gotten me presents," Alec said with a smile.

Rosabel, who was eating cake on her own, tutted. She had s.h.i.+fty eyes. "Who do you think we are? Of course we didn't!"

Alec looked at her expression, and she looked away guiltily. He raised a brow.

Yuki tried to deflect his attention, but only succeeded in drawing it. "Uh… there might be more than one cake."

Slowly, Alec's eyebrows were climbing. "…Just how many cakes are there? Tell it to me straight."

The Spectres nearby looked around s.h.i.+ftily, and they all made various excuses to run away. They all scattered like dominos.

Alec let them be as he walked around the ex-company's headquarters. His Spectres had all but taken over now.

He found a cake in the corner.

Then, he rounded the corner and found another cake.

The cakes were all in various stages of being devoured by them, which left him a little speechless.

No wonder they had all looked so s.h.i.+fty earlier. They'd gone overboard on the cakes, and now the base was filled with all the different styles and kinds of cakes.

Still, that much was fine. At least they hadn't gone and bought him presents.

The moment he thought that, his eye caught sight of a big group of Spectres hurriedly dismantling the present pile that they were trying to keep out of his sight.

The sight of his Spectres panicking and trying very hard to dismantle the present pile startled a laugh out of him, and they all whipped around, looking very guilty.

They tried to hide it with their bodies, but obviously, there were many presents that were still visible.

"Uh… Boss, it isn't what you think," one of them spoke up.

"Yeah, yeah, Boss. It's not what you think."

"These are our presents! Uh, that's not right. What I mean is, these presents belong to us! Wait…"

Someone whacked him.

"What he means, Boss, is that we bought presents for ourselves?"

The questioning and panicking tone was very strong from them.

Alec's lips twitched. Alright, they were trying so hard to save themselves that he felt sorry for them.

"Then… why don't you do a mystery present exchange? One for everyone?"

"Uh…" The Spectres looked surprised.

Suddenly, they felt like it was a good idea. Devious looks appeared on their faces as they contemplated how to cheat.

"Good idea, Boss!"

Their eyes burned. Who would be the one who gave Boss their present!? Compet.i.tion suddenly emerged in their eyes. The flames could have scorched with how hot they appeared.