Senju did not react.

She only sat there and looked at Adam.

Adam waited for a second. Then another second passed. There was still no reaction. Adam felt a little strange.

’Why is she not reacting?’ Adam thought.

He looked at her face again and spoke more clearly.

"I said, I am Wil."

This time, Senju blinked.

"What?"

Adam stayed quiet. Senju stared at him.

Then a small laugh came out of her mouth, but it was not a happy laugh. It was the laugh of a person who had heard something too strange to accept at once.

"Are you joking with me?" she asked.

"No." Adam said suddenly.

Senju’s smile disappeared.

She leaned forward a little.

"What nonsense are you saying?" she asked. "If you are Wil, then who is Wil’s son?"

Adam looked at her.

"Wil’s son was also me."

Senju froze.

Adam continued, "The person who came as Rivan was me too."

Senju stood up at once.

"What?"

Adam did not move.

"What?" she said again.

Then, almost without meaning to, she said it a third time.

"What?"

Her eyes moved over Adam’s face.

At first, she only saw Adam, the student in front of her. But now that he had said it, her mind started pulling old images together.

Wil had looked like an old man. Rivan had looked younger. Adam looked different from both.

But if she looked carefully, there were small things that were the same. The shape of the eyes. The way he looked at people before speaking. The calm pause before giving an answer.

Senju’s face changed.

"This..." she said. "How did you do this?"

Adam lowered his eyes for a moment.

"I had no choice," he said. "There were conditions around me. I had to hide my face."

Senju was still standing. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

She wanted to ask how he changed his face. She wanted to ask what kind of tool or trick could do that. But another question came first.

"Wait," she said. "Is your family very rich?"

Adam looked at her.

Senju spoke faster now.

"You are too young, Adam. You are barely around twenty. How did you build this? How did you bring money? How did you push Aster Core forward this fast?"

The questions came one after another because her mind had finally started moving again.

If Adam was Wil, then the man who had guided Aster Core from the shadow was sitting in front of her as a college student. If Adam was Rivan too, then even the person they had treated as Wil’s son was only another face.

That made everything harder to accept.

It was not only the disguise that shook her. It was the scale.

Wil had brought money. He had made the Aster Core team move together and work hard. He had pushed the company forward like he had already seen the road ahead. That was not something a normal student could do.

And now that person was Adam.

Adam did not answer.

Senju could see that there were parts he did not want to say.

Still, now that the truth had started coming out, she could not stop herself.

"What is going on?" she asked. "How are you doing all this? If your family is not supporting you like that, then where is the money coming from?"

Adam was silent for a moment.

For a second, the thought of telling her everything crossed his mind.

’Should I tell her about copy and paste?’ Adam thought.

The answer came almost in instant.

’No, not that.’ Adam thought.

But he stopped there.

He could tell her that Wil and Rivan were both his masks. He could tell her that he had enemies.

But he could not tell her about his real power.

Not yet.

"I can’t tell you every part," Adam said quietly.

Senju looked at him.

Adam continued, "But I can tell you this much. My family is not behind it."

"My family is not rich," Adam said.

Senju slowly sat down again.

Adam continued, "They are lower middle class. My parents are simple people who live a simple life."

Senju looked even more confused.

"Then how?"

Adam took a breath.

"I made a small network," he said.

"A network?"

"Yes," Adam said. "In the underworld."

Senju’s face became serious.

Adam did not look away.

"I found people who had fear," he said. "I found people who had greed....I found people who had weakness. Then I used those things to make them move for me."

He did not say it proudly.

That made Senju even more uneasy.

If he had sounded like a boy showing off, she could have called him foolish. But Adam sounded like someone who had accepted a dirty method because he believed there was no clean one left.

Senju did not like that answer.

It was clear on her face.

"Adam," she said, "that is not a small thing."

"I know."

"No, I don’t think you do," Senju said. "This is dangerous. If you are using people like that, then danger can come back to you. It can come to us too."

Her voice was not loud, but it became sharper.

For Senju, this was no longer only about Wil’s identity. If Adam had truly touched the underworld, then Aster Core was standing closer to danger than she had known.

And the most frightening part was that Adam said it like he had already accepted that danger.

Adam gave a small laugh and raised one hand.

It was not a laugh full of joy.

It was more like he had already heard this warning inside his own head many times.

"I know what I am doing," he said.

Senju did not look convinced.

Adam continued, "I have fail-safe plans for all of them."

"Fail-safe plans?" Senju asked.

"Yes," Adam said. "If any danger starts moving toward you or toward me, I will deal with it before it reaches us."

His voice became calmer.

"And I will neutralize that danger right there."