61st chapter : two feet .

As the fight was overwhelmingly one sided from Marco’s, it showed to Sam that the pride that he built through talent only was crushed in seconds because of sheer training regiment. Marco showed him that the true strength doesn't come from the name and talent only.

Few moments later, everything was fixed, including the training grounds. The rest returned to their daily tasks as Sam followed Emilis obediently into the office room.

“Well did that give you a good shock!?”.

Emilis said, sipping tea for Sam who was sitting on the couch. Sam was totally dejected because of the shocking events however his expressions weren’t that of sadness.

“I wasn’t expecting that much but I guess you got a point in what you said back then” Sam answered calmly.

“It wasn’t meant to be like that if you listened to me in the first place, also it was meant to be your loss even if you go full strength” Emilis responded while he drank some tea.

“What do you mean?”.

“Because Marco has something else than a normal serment, he has something we can call a curse” answered Hana.

Hana entered the room with some books to deliver for Emilis. Her composed expression sent some chills into the two’s bodies.

“Thank you Hana chan, sorry for making you do this”.

Emilis said, taking the books from her hands. Sam was surprised, seeing Hana entering the room while his focus was on what she said instead.

“I’m not really catching what we just said,” interjected Sam.

Sam looked at the two giving him some poker face in response, he was stressed at some point.

“The thing that I’m not catching is how do you know about the curse? Hana chan!”.

Emilis looked at Hana who smiled a vigilant smile at him, responding in a way too different from how she usually talks to anyone even for Sam. Hana’s words once again sent some chills down their spines.

“I guess not only master or the others keep secrets. After all, we are in the lead role of our lives and support roles in other people’s lives. So, Don’t really give this kind of stuff a lot of thinking, master”.

The vibe that Hana let out just for a few seconds shocked even Emilis as he wasn’t expecting that kind of aspect from Hana to show up, as if her presence was matching Marco’s presence in a lot of ways. In that aspect, both heaved a deep breath so Hana smiled at them keenly.

“That was unexpected! So let’s not talk about it again, until it's time for it. For now Sam kun!!” Emilis grinned awkwardly as he addressed Sam thereafter.

“Yeah?!”.

Sam was spacing out, thinking about this sudden change of character from his girlfriend as he looked at Emilis calling for him so sudden.

“I guess you learned about the current strength of the rest of the members the hard way so let’s see. for the next month you’re going to train under me” stated Emilis.

Emilis looked at Sam taking a deep breath and not responding to this offer which clearly is a one lifetime offer.

“I’m glad that you made this decision but I was planning to return to my family’s mansion and train there…” Sam said, waiting for more explanation aside from actually wanting to be held from going back.

“I thought you would do that but again, that won’t be really giving any good results even in the long term compared to the others’ level. So actually…” said Emilis, responding to Sam’s words.

Emilis stopped talking by the moment that the door of the room was opened. Sam was still completely clueless about what is going on and what isn’t. Eventually, Alice’s arrival to this conversation was astonishing in some ways for Sam.

“I guess it’s time to step in for a while and make you learn to do the job in our way. I’ll be helping with the training too” Alice said.

Alice took a seat next to Hana as again messing with the timing, Sam thought the things had turned weird for him.

“Any reason for doing that?” Emilis asked her.

“Wha? Can’t I help my cousin once in a while?” Alice responded, asking plain simple questions.

Alice had a grin at the end of her words as Hana was surprised to hear what she said. Sam had some deep thoughts, thinking about what Alice had just announced, that took him a solid minute then all of that stopped as he sighed.

“I honestly don’t know what to say anymore, but if it’s for the sake of reaching everyone, then I’ll accept the training!! When do we start?!!”.

Sam responded with enthusiasm as he stood rashly.

“First, give me your serment”.

Marco said, popping out of nowhere just like how he always does. Unlikely being scared of his sudden appearance, Sam, who didn’t know what Marco actually meant, got startled because of that absurd request.

“What do you mean?!! And heck you teleported inside?!”.

Sam asked in response, not wanting to give him the serment. Marco sighed as he took it by force while Sam was protesting with every fiber of his being against that.

“It’ll be ok!! Because this is the beginning of the training actually!!”

Emilis was holding Sam as Marco took the serment then started doing the actual task he was going for.

“What does he want with my serment?!” Sam asked in confusion.

“Don’t worry he’ll return it soon, so don’t think about it and follow me”.

Alice comforted him as she opened the door for Sam. He knew that Alice was going for a harsh training method therefore he wouldn’t be refusing that way at all.

He was going to be caught even if he ran away after all.

A month and a half later,

Sunday 15th October 19xx , 10 am in the morning ,

“Aren’t we going to be late like this?” Minerva asked, packing some bags at the restaurant.

“Don’t worry, I guess it won’t be hard to get there, for now” answered Iris.

Iris was helping her as most of the red mermaid members were present there, preparing for the trip that was ahead of them. Their destination was one of the distant islands that are close to the Casbah continental. The island was one of the regions that have no actual followup for the presidency system upon its people and had a long lineage with the euro society’s council, so that explained why it was such a target for the current 50th festival.

At the same time that red mermaid members were preparing their luggage, Emilis was discussing some topics with the man that provided their ride to the island.

“Thank you for landing this to us Phillip san!” Emilis said as he was waiting for the members to get everything done.

“No, the pleasure is mine. People around the world don’t know the joy of staying around you guys, so I’m only paying the debt for going with my daughter’s ambitious demands during the past month”.

Phillip responded, grinning a smile as he was waiting with Emilis for the rest of the guests that were going with them too. It appears that Phillip used his wealth and got a ship for the red mermaid exclusively to get them to the island, taking along everyone who got an invitation to the festival who are the three families from the fourteen main families like Phillip. Emilis had expressed his joy in that and accepted Phillip’s help after a long run.

While the two were talking, Sophie arrived, jumping in joyful movements.

“The sea!! We are going on a trip to the sea!! Yay!!” happily said Sophie.

Sophie was holding her hat while roaming around Emilis who couldn’t help but to pick her up and let her sit on his shoulders.

“Still, why didn’t we ask for Amano san’s private jet?” asked Arthur, who arrived looking for his sister.

“hmm! She’s still a Night Owl member you see, although she’s a private pilot who works on her own” answered Emilis.

Emilis responded as he saw that Arthur was enthusiastic for the trip however a hint of disappointment rather than sadness showed in his eyes because they were going by the sea.

“The ship Is also big !! So I’m happy to go on a ship like this one!! Thank you Maria nee’s father!!” Arthur said.

Arthur saw that Phillip was a little bit disheartened by what he said so Selicia told him to fix it up with a thank you and an apology.

It took them about an hour to get everything done, checked up once more before getting all into the ship. The red mermaid now are ready to head into the trip.

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“Man!! It’s my first time going on a trip in the ocean like this!!”. Carla said as they were gathered at the front of the ship.

“This is your first time on a trip like this one?”.

Sam asked as they were all admiring at the blueness of the ocean’s water without any land to take in a space init.

“Not all of us are wealthy kids from the main fourteen families” Hana responded with a smile at him.

“That’s rude Hana san!! We are also here!!” Maria protested, feeling offended by what Hana said.

“I’m surprised that you agreed to go to watch the festival personally and not from the TV” Marco said so suddenly.

Rachel was the one to answer his words.

“Well, since it’s the first time in history that the festival is broadcasted around the whole world, we thought it would be better to watch it live!! Because normally or previously I guess, was like a recorded event, that would be distributed after each part of it ends. So imagine being at the center of that!!”.

Looking at what she said Marco found it logical, so he ended up nodding in response to her words.

“She has a point and thank you for letting us go aboard too!” Milize came from the inside, holding some drinks for them.

“Don’t mention it!! My father tends to spoil me sometimes so I guess this is kinda, a thing that he wanted to do on his own! You should thank him too!” Maria blushed, responding to Milize’s words of gratitude.

“You’re surprisingly enjoying the trip but I guess it’s not the time for that”. Alice said as everyone had sensed an ominous vibration in the air passing through them.

All of the red mermaid members had it easy, thinking that this is a natural sensation while being on the water, however something was approaching from afar.

“So who’s going to defeat this big guy?” Alex said as she smiled at them, pointing at the huge sea monster that appeared in the west.

As they saw the monster, the red mermaid looked around with a heavy sigh.

“Can I fight him!?!”.

Arthur rushed from where he was playing with Sophie as he was about to jump to the water but Vanica caught him with her tentacles.

“That’s not happening,” Vanica said with a stern look.

Arthur looked dejected as he didn’t want to argue with her.

“I’m not sure but any one of you would make a ruckus by one of his attacks. So I’ll take care of…”.

Emilis was talking, not giving any attention to the monster as the ship got protected by a massive amount of chains, blocking the monster’s attack.

“If you want to put us through danger just say so!! I’m dealing with this shit!” Marco yelled as he pulled the chains, blowing the sea monster’s limb away from reaching the ship’s radius.

“Sigh, I hate it when things go this pattern in our way”.

Xavier released his serment and shot the monster down to scare it away.

“That’s true but at least we can have some fun with it”.

Carla released her serment too then leaped off the ship, freezing some of the ocean around the monster to block its movements. followingly Alice passed through a portal that Alex opened for her, kicking the hell out of the monster.

“You guys are taking it way too easy around monsters, don’t you think?” Miha commented as she was still surprised by how fast they took care of the things while the ship was still moving into the horizon.

“We just got used to it so don’t mind it Miha nee”.Elise responded as she was drinking some juice, holding Sophie on her back.

After seeing that the monster was done for, everyone took it easy again and returned to what they were doing, enjoying the ride until they would be close to arriving at their destination.

“It’s almost time for us to reach the shore, everyone get prepared!!”. Vanica said as she was looking at Marco.

Her eyes were clearly burning with calm anger somehow.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”.

Marco asked as he knew she was having some other thoughts.

“Hell no!!”.

He instantly said as he dashed away but for some reason, Alex was also on the move so she caught him. They forced him to brush his long hair and braid it with a different look, although he said that he’ll do it on his own, they forced their opinions on him.

They took half a day to reach the island as they saw a lot of yachts and many other large helicopters around the landing area in the port, their excitement went to the roof later on.

After seeing Phillip preparing the arrangements for a side on the shore, Emilis told him that the ship will be in their care so he can go and take care of everything else on the island. In accordance, the three families alongside Fabia and her girls, went ahead first.

After they finished dealing with the luggage and the ship’s paperwork, the red mermaid members descended to the port. The small chit chat kept them walking while Arthur was pleading and shaking Emilis to let him join the rest of them because he told him that he’s not joining any fights during this festival.

“Like I said!! Master !! Let me fight too!! Master!!”.

Arthur didn’t stop crying about it as they reached the front gates of the port’s interface.

“Arthur kun! we can’t fight because we weren’t listed in the fighting list. So be a little bit patient now!! Master will see something else for us, you know that!!” Iris said.

Iris tried to comfort him as everyone from the red mermaid noticed that the glares of disgust and hatred had filled the air around them. All the guilds around them were having displeased gazes towards the red mermaid as a young woman holder blurted it out of nowhere loudly while most of the talk was nothing but whispers and blabbers.

“Being spoiled at that age is truly a disgusting facade, sigh. What a bunch of losers”.

Her words were heard clear and loud as the entire crowd of each guild fell silent at that statement that was followed by pure mocking laughter. The red mermaid stayed silent for a moment, looking at each other before Alex and the others looked at the girl.

“Oowah!! The disgust glares can’t get any worse!! Are we really in this kind of sloppy situation!? Master!!”.

Xavier spoke bluntly out of the blue which attracted more glares towards them. Not noticing at first glance, none of them were expecting that Sophie popped up next to that girl holder and her friends as she yelled complaining with a pouting face.

“Arthur nii is strong!! And everyone is strong too!! So don’t badmouth my family!!”.

The girl was surprised.

Sophie’s appearance did send some chills therefore not that of fear but surprise, she giggled in response over Sophie’s words.

“What a lousy peasant, you dare reply to my words, little one”.

She replied almost kneeling to match Sophie’s height as she was about to slap her. Out of the blue, she suddenly saw herself laying upside down while looking at Marco who was already holding Sophie in his arms.

“And you think you’re royalty? Don’t go around slapping children that would give you a bad reputation. And for you little girl, what I told you about being around bad people, let’s go Sophie” Marco said.

Marco walked away on her as the scene was already filled with mumbles all around. The girl rose to her feet in complete fury as her guild members took her side later on.

“Hey you!! How dare you make me fall like that!! Don’t you know who I am!! You’re gonna regret messing with the Valkyries!!” the girl said as she stood in rage about to attack Marco.

The scene started to become a hassle by now as even the guilds masters took notice of it.

“Don’t push yourself too much, Uruha. They’re still peasants after all and I see that you’ve got a wild kid Emilis”.

Edina interfered at the last moment, calming her member Uruha by patting her shoulder. Edina’s girls, the ones who hold the seven seats titles, the seven Valkyries, stood next to each other as they put on the victory smile. The entire group was well known around the whole world since the Valkyries is a team of idols as their front for the real world way back then too.

Eventually, stirring these kinds of problems was like drinking water to them, knowing that the fans from other guilds would stand on their side. The looks turned to Emilis who smiled with a completely keen smile, pulling Marco and Sophie to his side.

“Been a while Edina! Seeing that your girls are still as righteous as you are indeed!!” Emilis said.

Despite the fact that they meet each other in meetings that often, Emilis greeted her with total warmth.

“A ridiculously approaching greeting as always, I still find it that I was at fault to be your ex-wife after all” answered Edina.

Edina responded, heaving a sigh at the end of her words so sudden. That reply left those who didn’t know anything about it in complete utter shock.

“Before you lot say anything!! Let’s go!! I’ll explain everything you ask for later!!” yelled Emilis.

Emilis was pushing them, precisely Marco, Sam and Hana who were looking like landmines for him right now.

“The others know for what I know but still not telling your members about your life huh, and you got their trust easily!!”.

Edina was enjoying herself twisting the calm out of Emilis’ mind as her reply came from the three at once, even the rest of the rest of the red mermaid answered too.

“Who said we trust him”.

The reply left Emilis devastated.

“You little shits and I thought we shared a great bond!!”.

Hearing his response made Edina giggle at him as she found it enjoyable.

“Well that’s so Emilis like. Come on now girls, I’m starting to feel that I would vomit if I stay one more moment here”.

Edina spoke as she turned but instantly stopped walking the moment she saw that Arthur was standing right behind her.

“Say master! You married her but she feels weird, in fact is this your taste in women?”.

Arthur said out of the blue making the situation worse therefore Edina flustered only with no response, holding her composure. However, Uruha spoke in response.

“What kind of parenting you got to be saying something like that, be happy she didn’t have you punished!!” answered Uruha.

“That means!! you wanna fight me, right!! Master, can I fight her!?!”. Arthur ignored her threats and spoke in a happy voice rushing to Emilis’ side.

Arthur’s words were quite disrespectful to a point where even Marco sighed after that and made him bow to Edina.

“That’s bad manners. Apologize to Edina san and master too”.

Marco spoke calmly as the girls around Edina covered their mouths and giggled in mockery towards them.

“That’s how you should act around us! you should also kneel if you don’t wanna be humiliated in the festivals!”. they said with a smirk knitted on their faces.

The red mermaid thought this would escalate to something else, therefore Marco heaved a loud sigh as he didn’t want to say silent against those words.

“Now that I apologized, I’m not obligated to let this slip around. Kneel so I won’t get humiliated in the festival? Is this some kind of a joke?” Marco responded then held his head up “Bitch please, I’m gonna clean the floor with you the next time we meet”.

The words left a shivering chill into their souls as Marco glared upon them with complete bloodlust. The silence fell down upon the scene so Edina heaved a breath, ordering her girls to move along to their destination.

Marco had a mocking grin by the end of his words, walking back to his side and as he reached them Vanica slapped him on the head.

“What was that for?” Marco asked.

“That’s because you spoke ill in front of your brother and sister” she responded while covering Sophie’s ears.

Marco looked at Sophie having a brimming smile although he understood what Vanica meant then he sighed. In that aspect, they all watched a similar act from someone else who was passing by as Ruby sighed the same way as Marco did.

“Ruby san!!” Carla said as she called for her.

“Hmm, the red mermaid members!! Carla chan!! Been a while!!”.

Ruby responded cheerfully as she approached them hugging Carla warmly.

“Yeah, been a while”.

Cor appeared behind Ruby as he pulled her to his side.

“Cor kun !! Let me go!! I wanna hug Arthur and Sophie too!!” Ruby was trying to get free from his grip as the others felt like it was a weird scene.

“Let her go already, she’s not just a kid!!” Jasmine said as she slapped Cor from behind making him let Ruby go.

As Ruby was hugging Arthur forcibly the black heart members’ main seats passed by as they all crossed eyes with the red mermaid members.

Alice looked around and hid herself behind Xavier to avoid being seen.

“You’re awfully calm, Alice chan!!”.

Caught in surprise, Alice heard a voice behind her as she turned to see Nate, the black heart’s vice master, smiling at her.

“Seems like you’re in good shape, N-Nate kun!!” Alice responded, clearly feeling embarrassed.

The other members looked at her as they didn’t get the meaning behind her sudden act. Seeing that it wouldn’t be more reluctant than what it is right now, Emilis sighed as he greeted the black heart fast and pushed his own, so they would go to the mansion where Fabia and her girls were waiting.

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