Chapter 77 People Like You

With light steps, I walked towards Valerian summoning my plasma sword. While I was drawing out the golden blade, I stood right next to him by placing the heated radiance under his chin before starting time again.

-…

Valerian was surprised as he stared towards the place where I stood originally. He wasn’t panicking though and kept sitting on the seat. Finally, he noticed I was right next to him holding the sword under his chin… He was wide eyed so to speak, as he felt the heat coming from the golden blade while staring at me in wonder and confusion.

But in the end, he was only surprised and not scared as his heart rate was beating normally. Making a wryly smile, he looked at me not moving a single inch from his position.

-I really stepped into the lion’s den, didn’t I?

His words were followed by a tone of irony as the fog in his eyes started to squirm faster.

-I will ask you again, what do you want and why did you do that?

My question made him blink for a moment as he smiled deviously.

-Hey, that girl was pretty good you know? Don’t say you didn’t like that kiss. And for a slave, she is quite good… alright alright, I’ll stop talking.

In the end, I raised the sword a bit to shut him up as I asked again:

-What do you want?

-Well, I didn’t see you or your friend in the ball tonight so I figured I would make a friendly visit to say hello…

-By breaking into my room?

My words made him smile awkwardly again as he nodded his head explaining to me.

-It’s not really breaking into someone’s room if nothing was damaged, but I figured that your bodyguard friend wouldn’t quite like me coming so close to you. But in the end, my judgment seemed to have cost me quite a lot of things such as my throat, which is something I’d like to keep intact. If you would be so kind as to lower your weapon James, I mean no harm and I am sorry for interrupting your…

He looked towards the door while gesturing with his hand.

-Whatever that was…

He made a slight smile when he said that and shut up, keeping his face from showing any other emotion. He was good and I could see that he actually didn’t come here to cause me harm. As he said, he just wanted to visit…

(Shik)

The golden blade withdrew into the handle as I stored it back inside the clavicula. Grabbing onto a chair and setting it in front of him, I sat down directly in front of Valerian without my mask.

The person in question seemed to have made a sigh of relief while I wasn’t looking, and reverted back to his act which made me question him.

-Be quick Mr. Valerian, what do you want? I have no relation to the Broken Brotherhood or to you in particular. If you don’t have anything further, I am seriously advising you to leave right now…

I didn’t want to deal with anyone right now, especially with someone with his standing who was a genuine member of the Broken Brotherhood. Pissing off someone who is known and feared so much doesn’t look appealing to me. But I also could not show any weakness and go on my own terms so he wouldn’t take advantage of me. This brought us to a situation where neither of us wanted to piss off the other, while we tried to stay on neutral grounds so to speak.

Listening to me talk, Valerian made a small gesture as he pulled out a blood red card, placing it onto of the table and sliding it towards me. I took a small glance at it and noticed that it was a phone number written in small black numbers… Valerian seeing my confused expression quickly explained:

-You see, originally I wanted to come and ask you to let my clan scout your bodyguard. But things didn’t go as planned and now that we have reached this point, I instead wanted to ask you to join us…

-I refuse.

I said flatly, interrupting his speech rudely making him frown for a second as I shoved the card back to him.

-Please reconsider. Our clan can give you a lot of privileges normal organizations can’t. We also…

-I am already aligned to a different organization Mr. Valerian. I am happy you are inviting me and Hestia but both of us will respectfully decline. Now if you are finished here, could you perhaps leave my room?

I could tell my sudden interruption made him bitter, but joining them wasn’t going to help me nor did I want to do it. And concerning Hestia… I already know the answer to that one.

In the end, Valerian just sighed and stood up from his seat, walking towards the balcony and not the door. But as he was about to leave, he stopped in his tracks for a moment before turning towards me with a crooked smile.

-You see, these kinds of conversations actually don’t really last long in my experience. They usually end up with the opposite partner joining the cause of course, be it money or power. Sometimes there are of course people like you James, who aren’t willing to join. But they are also people who have weaknesses, lack of recourses which they are, how do I say this… scared of losing?

-Get to the point Mr. Valerian. Are you saying that you simply threaten such people… like me perhaps?

I leveled my stare towards Valerian while my hand was inching towards summoning the plasma sword at any moment. Valerian himself was still calm but you could see some drops of sweat forming on his forehead…

-Of course not James. We just nudge them slightly and convince them that way but at the same time, I wouldn’t call those people someone like you. After all, it isn’t wise to fight someone unknown and as powerful as you, or your organization. We are more than happy to go into friendlier terms and to be sure, I will still ask Hestia if she wants to join…

I snickered for a second as he finished saying that. The reason you’re asking? The reason was right behind Valerian producing large amounts of heat, almost charring the ground. Valerian also noticed the sudden rise in temperature and slowly turned towards the balcony entrance, looking at a red haired woman who was burning hot… I mean it literally, not metaphorically.

She had a slight cold expression on her face as she looked at Valerian with a cold gaze, not fitting her blazing figure as she answered him:

-My answer is no. Now leave before I light you up like a christmas tree.

Valerian was already sweating profusely. Was it fear or the heat? Who knows. But what we do know was that he didn’t take dally anymore as he quickly walked towards the balcony turning into fog and dispersing into the sky. Hestia still stood at her position quietly for a few minutes until she started talking, probably checking if he was really gone.

-Well, this is why you have me here remember?

Hestia said with an “I told you so” smile on her face while putting out her flames. She then sat down onto the red couch making herself comfortable.

-I had it under control Hestia. And how did you come here anyways? I thought you were mad at me, your absence really did wonders to me you know…

I said sarcastically, making her roll her eyes at me as she said:

-It’s not like I was really mad… I was just put off that you don’t tell some things to me, that’s all. And by the way, Christina came back into the room a couple of minutes ago and she said you and her kissed…

She said as her mouth twitched for a second. I couldn’t tell what she was feeling but for some reason, I felt like I was being wronged or accused of something. Her manner of speaking even made me flush for a moment there, making me wish I was still wearing the mask.

-It was an accident, alright? She tripped while walking up to me and fell on top of me…

I could see that Hestia didn’t believe the story one bit, but at the same time knew it was the truth. Christina probably also told the same story, maybe she was assuming that I ordered Christina to tell a lie. But Hestia should know very well that I’m not that kind of person so I didn’t add anything further.

As I was about to go towards the kitchen for food, Hestia suddenly got up from the couch. Her eyes had a very sly glint in their eyes as she quickened her pace and walked straight in front of me, blocking the path.

-What are you…?

I didn’t get to finish that line as Hestia jumped at me from the front, suddenly hugging me by embracing my neck and making both of us fall to the ground. The impact of the fall was softened by the carpet which surprisingly did not hurt at all. Her actions were confusing and baffling at the same time as she locked me in place, pressing her soft breasts onto my chest and entangling her leg with my leg. She used her left hand to stroke my chest, pretending to search for support while her breath was next to my ear making me flinch even more…

-Hestia, get up! What are you doing?!

I said under my breath.

-Oh sorry… my mistake. I just tripped… Wait a second, I think I hurt myself.

Tripped my ass I wanted to say as I clearly knew that she did it on purpose, making it as obvious as hell too!

I kinda felt like I wanted to just stop time and get out but at the same time, my body felt really bad at the moment. I had slight spasms and a light headache since I woke up, and using my power for this seemed really dumb so I let it be and just raised my body myself.

-Ahh…

Hestia moaned seductively as I pushed myself up. I was confused for a moment why she did that until I realized my knew was under her crotch…

-Not so hard please…

-…

I was speechless… How in the living hell can this be true…?

In the end, I was done with the games and just shoved Hestia to the side, causing her forehead to hit a wall and getting her to moan in pain instead…

-Haha…

I laughed like an idiot. For some reason, Hestia seeing this also seemed happy for some reason. She completely forgot the red welt on her forehead as she smiled at me. My headache was also getting a bit better for some reason…

(Ring Ring Ring)

While Hestia and I were playing stupid on the ground, I didn’t notice that my phone was ringing. I wondered who it might be at such time… But at the same time, I didn’t really know the flow of time in different dimensions I’ve been at, meaning it wasn’t important. As I picked up the phone call, it was Cecilia’s number.

-Hello?

There was a small fizzling in the phone call like it did with Stewards call. It calmed down a few seconds later finally letting me hear the person’s voice at the other end of the line.

-Brother?

I was surprised for a moment and it obviously showed on my face since Hestia looked at me a bit closer, narrowing her eyes towards the phone call. She probably heard the other person calling me her brother.

-Stella? Sweetie, is that you?

I was surprised but that was only temporary, replaced with a feeling of happiness after hearing the voice of someone I cared about. It felt good to hear from her again after a few days, which wasn’t a lot but enough for feeling a bit home sick, which was where Stella was of course.

-Unn… brother, Cecilia said you aren’t coming tomorrow so I asked her why? And she said she didn’t know so I asked her to contact you, and that’s why I am calling… So why aren’t you coming tomorrow?

Her explanation was slightly comical and simple, making me smile for no reason. But right now, explaining to her why her brother can’t come home is a bit too long and hard to describe, so I simply said:

-I am bringing some friends along with me. I think you will like them, they are similar to Leraje.

Hestia twitched for a moment hearing me say his name, but she didn’t interrupt and quietly listened to my conversation with my sister, clearly very interested about her. After an hour of back and forth talking with Cecilia, I was finally able to convince her that I was alright and that I would come back home quickly before ending the call. By the way, Cecilia seemed to be falling asleep towards the end of the call.

I sighed heavily. I really want to go home now…

-So you have a sister? When were you going to tell me and what is Leraje doing actually?

-She is my only sister and Leraje is protecting her in my absence…

And like so, the night ended with me explaining to Hestia about a part of my family and other small things. Tomorrow we were going to go to the colloseum.