A little bit earlier
How boring this is constantly taking to all these grown children. The only things they ever talk about are their extraordinarily dull lives, or they keep asking the same question; when will you get married again? What idiots would ask a widowed old woman like me that? But what is worse is that they try to woo me with all they got, since if they can get me to marry one of them, Basileia would pass down to them.
At least not all of them are idiots, the sharper ones among them have brought their daughter to seduce some of my family. They have probably guessed that the guards I have brought with me are probably the ones I am passing Basileia down to, and they would have been correct if Tana had been here. Still, that is no worry since Tana isn’t one to be swayed by women.
“Good day, lady Morgon,” I hear a voice say behind me.
Turning around to see who is calling me, I come across an unpleasant face “Oh, good day to you, sir Viktor”.
Viktor Anwunta comes from a rather famous line of merchants, but his generation happened to exist during the same time as the Animus family, and thus he was one of the least successful merchants in his family history.
But when the Animus family collapsed, he acted quickly to fill their place, leading to great things for him. My issue with this man is his willingness to do whatever it takes to get his desires. His company was one of the significant contributors to the hate against Animus, and he has indirectly tried on multiple occasions to hurt our business. An utter pest.
“My, you’re looking as beautiful as ever, you’re just like a dichid.”
“Oh, thank you so much,” to my knowledge, a dichid is a flower with incredible beauty but starts to smell as it ages. “I am surprised a busy man like yourself could make it today.”
“Oh well, I was hearing something about how your business is going and wanted to see if you’re ok. We are friends, after all,” he says with a smile.
“Don’t worry about me. I happen to be doing excellent and am livelier than I ever was before.”
“My friend Richard said the same thing to me right before the incident.” He says, looking disheartened.
Hearing murmuring behind me, I applaud Viktor in my head for his acting. The people around me must believe the words that are coming out of his mouth. Well, I guess people are more inclined to think what comes out of a beautiful person’s mouth. “Well, if such a thing happens, I am sure business would start going amazing for you, wouldn’t it.”
“Please don’t joke about such things. I would rather all my rivals stay in business, my family motto competition breeds growth.”
If only you meant those words, you wolf in sheep’s clothing. As I am about to respond, music starts playing in the ballroom. Viktor then asks me, “Would you like to dance.”
I want to reject him, but this party is about helping our image, so I have no choice. “Yes, I would love to.”
As everyone, including us, starts to dance on the ballroom floor, I say to Viktor, “Now that no one can hear us tell me what you want you pest.”
Sheading his mask, he replies, “You were never one to beat around the bush, hag. What I have come to do in this party outside of mocking you is to present an offer.”
“If this is about Basileia, I refuse you idiot.”
“Oh, I have given up on that a while ago. What I come with you today is to buy your dragon. To my knowledge, his name should be called Cyrus.”
How in god’s name would he know what Cyrus’ name is. “Do you think you have anything to offer worth a dragon.”
“Well, I don’t, but my client does.” Whispering into my ear, he says, “This is how much he offers.” The number Viktor tells me makes me freeze for a minute, but Viktor pulls my body along to continue dancing with him.
After I regain my composure, I say, “Don’t lie to me. No way someone would be willing to give me that much Lupas.”
“My client will and says they will pay fifty per cent upfront. So how about it.”
Hearing this deal, my heart dropped. If I was to get this money it would allow us to prepare for any issues to come in the future. It would also let me invest in some improvements to the mine. But I know that my answer is, “No.”
“Have you gone senile? You know how much we’re talking about.”
“If I was to sell Cyrus to you, I have no idea what would happen to him. For all I know, you guys plan to kill and then stuff him up to hand on your walls as a decoration.”
“You truly are a fool, to care about a slave that much. But if that plan has fallen through, I can do this,” he says as he holds me tighter.
“What are you doing, fool.”
“You are accepting my request to dance, and this ball as a whole has given me all the evidence I needed that your company is in a weak position. This is all for the sake of rebuilding your reputation. So, if I were to kiss you right now, since you wouldn’t want to make your reputation any worse for the people who will inherit this when you die, I’m pretty sure you would take it and not cause a scene, especially since all the eyes in this ballroom are on us. Oh, how I have dreamed of putting you in your place.”
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As he pulls me closer, he says, “This will be your first kiss in decades. Enjoy.” As his lips almost touch mine, I hear a smacking sound. Looking at the cause right in front of me, it seems Porto slapped him to the ground.
“Sir Viktor, there was a poisonous mosquito on your face.”
As Viktor looks up at Porto with rage in his eyes, Porto quickly crouches and says, “I am so sorry for striking you, I just couldn’t let any harm come to a man as great as you. Would you please be able to forgive me for this oversight,” as loud as he can.
Viktor looks around to see all eyes are on him, then says, “No problem, thank you for saving my life.” Then Porto quickly stretches his hand out for Viktor to lift himself.
Looking at Viktor’s face during this debacle, I can’t help but smile though I try hard to hide it. After Viktor gets up, Porto says, “Now if you would excuse me, and my lady Morgann have somewhere to be,” Porto then quickly takes my arm and escorts me out.
As we leave, I tell Porto, “It seems I underestimated how calculated you can be. Making sure Viktor couldn’t cause a scene while keeping me free of blame, how excellent, though I am scared what this might do to your reputation.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. Everyone is already scared of the hulking man with an iron mask on his face. But I didn’t get you out of there to avoid Viktor.”
“Then why did you.”
“A situation has developed.”
“What is it, Porto.”
“It seems Willow planned a little rebellion in the mine. He got most of the workers to try and escape with him.”
Shocked by this news, I say, “So he has been calculating this since the beginning.”
“He must have. A little while ago, just after the last hourly check-in, Tana told me he got one of the inmates to break earlier today and tell him the plan.”
“Then he should’ve dealt with it earlier today.”
“He told me he wanted to make an example of them to all the other prisoners. He would ensure that nothing like this would happen again by letting them almost escape then breaking their spirits.”
“I don’t like taking chances like this.”
“As long as Cyrus is with him, they won’t be escaping.”
“Your right, but I am still worried.” And as if God was mocking me, I heard an explosion. “Porto that came from the mine.”
With a shocked look, he says, “What the hell happened.”
With a heavy heart, I say to Porto, “I didn’t want to ask you ever to do this again, but would you use your power for me.”
“Without a doubt.”
“So go get ready, while I head back to calm the worries of everyone in the ballroom,” following my instructions, Porto heads off, and it is in these moments that Porto’s green and purple eyes shine the brightest.
-Break-
Φ Running over at incredible speed, Orb hugs me by saying, “Thank god you guys are ok.”
While he hugs me, I start crying again and say, “You to Orb.”
“We probably have a lot to discuss, but that can wait now. We need to get you out of here,” he says as he starts leading the way.
Pulling him back, I say, “We will. In a moment, I have a few more people that need to come up the elevator, so we need to wait a little bit.”
“Wait, you mean the contraptions that use a pulley? I always wanted to see one,” says Orb, excited by the machine.
Kicking him in his butt, I say, “You never change, do you.” Orb makes a rather sad expression in response to my words. Sitting beside him, I say, “We got some time to kill right now, so tell me what you have been doing.”
So, Orb then tells all of us everything that happened. The people who robbed our village, the fact it was ransacked, what happened with Cole and Sequoia, the tunnels where all the women are located, his ice ability and their rescue mission to get here.
Hearing all this, the people from my village, coming up bunch by bunch started to have many different reactions. Some were crying, and some were frustrated, but I didn’t know what to feel, especially to look at Orb’s face while he told the story. His hair kept turning white, and his face was more despairing. He had been through some much to save us.
As I am about to say something to him, a group of people from my village come up to him, get on their hands and knees, and then say, “ORB, WE ARE SORRY.”
“Why are you guys apologising to me.”
“When we all regained consciousness, we started to doubt you, but you have done all this to come and save us, so all we can say is SORRY.”
“Don’t worry; you guys didn’t have enough evidence not to doubt me. Whatever happened was either mine or Cole’s fault, so it doesn’t bother me that you came to such a conclusion.”
“Well, Orb, since you shared such a story with us, I will give you mine as well,” so I ramble on about everything I did and everyone I had met here, especially Cyrus.
“To think you would be able to befriend a dragon, you happen to be one of the luckiest humans on the planet,” Orb says with a frustrated expression.
“Yes, I am. That friend is the only reason I am still alive right now.”
“Sorry for your loss if I was just a little faster.”
Smacking Orb across the head, I say, “Don’t be an idiot. You couldn’t have done anything, so don’t worry about it.”
“Ok.”
“Guys,” Oren says.
“Yes, Oren,” me and Orb say in unison.
“Everyone is up so that we can head off now.”
“So our next stop is to get the hostages, then get out.”
“Willow, I think we should change that. Some of the prisoners, like Oren, are in terrible shape. It would be best to have them go to Willow the 2nd while you and I go to get the kids.”
“I see that would be a good idea.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” Oren says.
Alis slaps him on his back and says, “Old men shouldn’t lie about their health, especially if they are doctors.”
“He is right, Oren. Just please put up with this. You do want to see Pine again,” Orb says.
Letting out a sigh, he says, “Ok.”
“Now then, let’s escape”, I say with great fervour.
While running, Orb says, “Someone is excited. I wonder what for maybe to see a certain someone.”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Oh no poise, I like that, Maple should learn from you.”
“I hope she, will,” as I say this, a sizeable chomping and shattering sound rang through my ears. Looking at the origin, I see a massive metal ball that looks alive with a giant open mouth.
Orb pushes me out of the way and freezes all the rock fragments from the shattered wall, breaking them. But he can’t dodge the ball in time, and it bites into his right arm and pulls Orb through the hole it broke in through. Orb says, “CONTINUE WITH THE PLAN,” as he is taken away.
As everyone is shocked by this, I scream, “WE HAVE NO TIME TO WASTE BELIEVE IN ORB,” and then I start running with everyone following close behind. Today has been unlucky so god, please let Orb be all right.
Φ Shit, my arm hurts, is all I can think as this thing pulls me. As it pulls me out of the hole, it throws me in the air, where I can finally release my arm. As I land from the sky, I land on a platform in the middle of Basilea, where I see a massive man with a metal mask.
I see the ball with a mouth on it return to this man. I also see chains wrapped around the man’s right arm connected to the ball. Taking a good look at the ball, it looks biomechanical, just like my legacy and then it hits me that he is using a legacy.
“I remember all the faces of the employees and prisoners here, and you’re not one of them. But that doesn’t matter since you will be killed right now. Hunt him legacy Orthrus.”