Alessandro yawned loudly again; he had spent the entire trip back to Elena reading the sign language books front to back a few times. Thanks to his tactician role and one of Minerva’s divine wills, he was able to hyper learn anything he wanted to. He just needed a manual, book, or manuscript to learn from.
His carriage came to a stop at the Bianchi estate; Radcliffe opened the door and told Alessandro that the two brats made it here a day earlier than expected.
“They have been causing a ruckus, boss. The boy in particular is making things difficult, he doesn’t want the girl to leave his sight.”
From the top of the carriage, the pale death jumped down and held a small duffel bag. “Not too shabby boss, I’ll go claim my room.” As she took her leave, she turned her head to Radcliffe. “See ya later, Cliff.”
Radcliffe turned bright red, Alessandro just sighed, “You can court her if you want Radcliffe, I wouldn’t try to seduce that one.”
Radcliffe's face beamed with joy. “Thank you, boss.” Radcliffe saluted and led Alessandro to where Luca and Gia were. Minerva appeared as Alessandro made his way to see his two slaves. “What’s this? Is my sleazy scumbag of a retainer turning a new leaf?”
“Oh hush my Lady, I don’t need to use sex to control the pale death. We have a deal already set up… Either way Radcliffe had his eyes on her the entire time we were in Tir. I would rather have my sub-retainer commander happy than to have a night with some assassin.” Alessandro picked up the pace, he didn't want Minerva to see how red his face was. But she still did.
“You care for him. HA. Unbelievable, is my whittle bad mafioso growing a heart?” Minerva got close to his face and started to mock him and laugh.
“Shut up. I would have ruled my familia one hundred times better if I had a man like Radcliffe by my side. True Loyalty.” He brushed her ethereal form aside like he was swatting an annoying fly then quickly entered the dinner room of his estate.
There Luca and Gia were eating, they both wore clothes nobles would wear. Although they looked out of character in them. Luca in particular had a giant bow tie that did not fit his look one bit.
“Hello, my gremlins,” Alessandro jokingly said. Luca grabbed his knife from the table and threw it straight at Alessandro, it flew towards Alessandro's face but was caught by Radcliffe.
“Nice throw, gremlin.” Radcliffe smiled and then threw the knife back at Luca, the child flinched as the knife hit a piece of chicken still left on the table.
“I see you still have that bite in you.” Alessandro sat down with the two children on the opposite side of the table. “Let’s cut this chit-chat and get right to the point, I have ownership over you. I wish to make you two fine retainers to guard me once I start to go senile and old.”
Luca snorted as he stuffed a piece of chicken in his mouth. “You sure you aren’t already going senile? You think giving us a nice place to live and food is going to make us want to protect you? Screw you.”
The boy was quite mature for his age; it seems the hardship of his life and the life that Gia had had forced the children to quickly mature and strengthen their wills.
He pulled out the knife Radcliffe threw out of the chicken and pointed it at Alessandro. “You want us to respect you? Then release us from our slave collars and prove to us you're a man worth giving a damn about.”
Luca laughed and stuffed his face with the food, Gia had no expression as she ate but it looked like she agreed with Luca's statement.
Alessandro knew that the boy would be the most difficult to win over. If a person hates you, they usually hate you for life unless you can provide value to their life.
For some men their hatred will continue even if you bring value that significantly changes their lives. At least that is what Alessandro thought from his experiences dealing with the ambitious men of the mafia world. The best way to get a man filled with contempt for you on your side was to attack or win over what he loved.
Whether it be a family member, a place of interest or a loved one. The way to the boy was the girl, Alessandro got Gia’s attention and started to communicate with her in sign language.
“Is this what you also want, Gia?” Alessandro signed. Gia’s eyes widen in shock, Luca dropped his utensils and the chicken in his mouth fell to his plate.
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Gia's eyes beamed, how long had it been since someone could truly communicate with her?
“Yes, if you really want us to do this for you, we don’t want these collars on us. We are still very wary of all of this; we are just children and Luca is only protecting me from creepy men like you. Like he always had.”
“Ouch, you wound me. I understand you don’t know anything about me. I am a genius when it comes to finding warriors and I picked you because you have talent. Your boyfriend over there, not so much but I can make him a fine retainer.”
Gia paused and stared at her plate thinking about what to sign next. Luca looked at her and asked Alessandro what she was telling her. Gia grabbed his arm and gave a look of “let me handle this”.
Luca trusted Gia and decided to sit this conversation out. Slowly but surely Alessandro knew he was starting to win Gia over, just a few more pushes in the right direction.
He loved manipulating the conversation. Oooo come on, tell me what you're thinking! I want to have this battle with you. I will win you two over, he thought, trying his best not to paint a creepy or weird look on his face.
“What if I don’t want Luca to be a warrior, would I be enough?” she asked as she looked longingly at the boy who protected her from people that wish to do the most vile acts to her.
“Nonnegotiable, I need two retainers for my personal guard. Do you not want the boy to become something more? I can make both of you something, I can give you purpose.” He paused and smiled; it was time to reveal his trump card. “I can also teach him to communicate with you.”
Gia froze, her eyes widened again. Alessandro had captured her;he had won this exchange. But he knew he could start to win the boy over as well.
“Boy, do you wish to truly communicate with her?” Alessandro asked.
“Duh. So you're going to have me learn what those signs mean?”
“See? He wants that too,” Alessandro signed back to Gia ignoring Luca, which pissed him off.
“Okay,” Gia signed.
“Excellent. We will start training tomorrow; I will go and fetch your personal weapons. It’s important for you to bond with them.” Alessandro got up from the table but was stopped by Luca's voice.
“Hey, wait a minute, you agreed to this? This guy is a slime ball, he still has us as slaves. We—“
Alessandro was waiting for this moment, he quickly walked towards Gia and reached out to her slave collar, crushing it in his hands. “As a sign of good will, I’ll allow her freedom. But I can’t allow yours, who's to say you two wouldn’t just leave after I grant you freedom. So on top of living in luxury, excellent food every day, the finest teachers and the ability to communicate with Gia, I severed her contract as well. Is this good enough for you?”
The two children were flabbergasted, he had truly won. Alessandro had started to break the children’s doubts about him. Luca grumbled and accepted the terms; he was much more cooperative and complacent now after that little show.
“Excellent, I’ll be right back. Radcliffe, amused the children with one of your stories or silly jokes.” Alessandro walked away as Radcliffe saluted and began to tell the children a horrible pun-filled joke.
Alessandro made sure he was as far away from prying or wandering eyes, he stopped in front of a door next to his study, really any door was fine, but he really liked using this door in particular.
“Advent, Porta de Janus.”
He summoned a golden key and placed it into the door. This door didn’t have a keyhole but the key went through the door. He turned it and went inside, into Minerva’s armory.
“Oh, my lady,” Alessandro shouted out in an annoying voice, Minerva appeared in her physical form to him. Because this was her real armory she could physically manifest here. The Fantasia world was linked to certain aspects and places of the eight deities.
For example, Zhong kui’s diyu, his section of the underworld, was linked to the Fantasia world. Fólkvangr, the home of Lady Freya and her einherjars is also linked to the Fantasia world.
Although the deities are forbidden from using their powers in the Fantasia world as their abilities and godsends are already in the hands of their retainers.
“So what godsends are you going to give my three new sub-retainers?” Alessandro asked.
Minerva had made it quite clear that she would be the one to choose the godsends that the sub-retainers would use. She was the general for the Roman sect, although not the true leader of the Romans on paper. She was the deity her sect looked towards for guidance in battle, the Romans named after the planets of the universe themselves were under her direct command.
In a way she was like Alessandro, an underboss who was the one that truly controlled the strings in the background.
“I already theory crafted the perfect weapons for those three . The boy will bond and use Attila, my brother Mars’s sword.” She grabbed a sword with a red scabbard, the sword was designed like a typical Roman sword known as a gladius. “Make sure he has a regular sword to use as well, Attila is a reflection of my brother. His savage nature will start to take over the host over the course of battle.”
In that moment he remembered that the boy was supposedly special, he had no last name when he read his soul. So he begrudgingly asked his deity to explain what it meant, of course Minerva teased her retainer endlessly before telling him what made Luca special.
“Certain souls that are placed here could be famous humans from your history, Luca is a reincarnation of one of those famous human souls.”
Alessandro chuckled, “Exactly who is that crude brat supposed to be?”
“We wouldn’t know until he remembers, he wouldn’t necessarily share the same traits as his previous incarnation had. Once we train him it will return to him and then you can use the eye of the general and see the name of his previous soul.” She handed Attila to her retainer. “Isn’t it much more amusing that we don’t know?” she said with a smile that bothered her retainer to no end.
Alessandro didn’t agree; he liked having every piece of information to devise his plans and schemes. He grabbed the sword and opened it halfway. The blade of the sword was a dark crimson red; he felt the power of the sword immediately.
“Fight, fight, fight, kill!”
He closed it quickly and placed it behind his back. “Told you, weak willed people like you would succumb to the rage of the blade immediately.” Minerva smiled at her dig on her retainer and then grabbed a bow from the wall. There were a few bows,but she picked the longest one, which was in the middle of all the other bows. It shined of pure gold. “The girl will use this longbow, Apollo’s golden bow. This bow will let her attack from a safe distance, especially if Luca starts to go berserk.”
“Would it not be wiser to give the boy a different weapon?” Alessandro asked as he inspected the bow.”
“Yes, but say he doesn’t improve during his time training. Attila will compensate for the boy. Plus you never know, the boy could quell the savage nature of the blade. He is special after all,” Minerva replied.
Alessandro wanted to say something sarcastic about how special the boy truly was but decided to hold his tongue. Finally Minerva pulled out the final godsend.
She pulled out four cuffs or bracelets and put them on one of the tables in the armory.
“Your new assassin doesn’t look like the type that enjoys using unfamiliar weapons. These cuffs are Mercury’s anklets and bracelets, the anklets infused her feet with lighting. She can make herself faster, create lightning steps to walk on the air, and infuse her kick attacks with lightning. The bracelets infuse lightning into her fist or weapons; once it comes time to battle a retainer she has to always have Mercury’s lightning flowing through her weapons. She can’t kill a retainer otherwise.”
Alessandro nodded and put the four items in his pockets.
“These will do, thank you, my lady. I promise you I’ll have my sub-retainers master these godsends in no time.”