Today wasn’t a good day for a widowed Lady Long.
Kouzuki Miya, Lady in Black, looked down as if trying to find the truth in the wine glass.
‘In vino veritas.’
An old quote, which wasn’t exactly all that right in her situation, flashed inside her mind. A number of unpleasant thoughts tried to follow, but she stopped them with another sip of her favorite red.
Today wasn’t a good day for a widowed Lady Long.
A double anniversary. The day when two of the most important men in her life left. On the same date, in different years.
Another wave of sadness rose somewhere deep in her soul. Another sip showed that her glass was empty, failing its duty.
‘First Chen, then Hao.’
And now she was left all alone, drifting along with her life, trying her best to keep appearances, if not for her own sake, then for her sister and Hao’s memory.
‘Oh, Hao, how much I miss you. For how much longer do I need to keep up with it all?’
She made a gesture, and faithful Jakub, an indispensable part of her small bar’s interior, appeared by her side to refill her glass.
The Lady in Black showed her appreciation with a nod and took another sip.
Today wasn’t a good day for a widowed Lady Long.
It was an important thing, and, as everyone knows, important things should be repeated three times.
Maybe it was all the wine in her talking, but Lady in Black found this misplaced thought quite funny.
Once more, Kouzuki Miya found herself staring blankly into a half-empty glass of wine.
She was alone. All alone.
On this cursed day, anyone who knew about this place also knew better than to bother her with their trivial problems. As for the... She paused momentarily, trying to find an accurate description. ‘Fated’ people, those guests that were led here by fate or sheer chance, were a rarity.
As is often the case, a coincidence, fate, or Heaven's cruel joke interrupted her contemplation. The door leading into the bar opened, letting an unexpected guest inside.
Due to the special design of the interior, Lady in Black could perfectly see the newcomer while staying hidden herself, a precaution to give her time to decide whether they would pique her interest.
And pique he did.
The guest was a tall, easily over 190 cm, incredibly built man dressed in a red dress shirt with short sleeves, black jeans, and a pair of peculiar leather shoes, also black. A matching set of silver accessories, from a simple locket on his neck to a simple yet stylish buckle on his belt to an intricate timepiece, finished his wardrobe.
Black with a bit of salt and pepper mixed-in hair, styled into a crew cut, a five-o’clock shadow on an angular jawline, as well as a collection of old scars visible on his exposed arms, created the impression of a rugged man with quite a story to tell.
But the thing that did catch the most of her attention was, undoubtedly, his face.
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Even Lady in Black, with her rich experience in meeting all kinds of people, couldn’t help but admit that the stranger was very handsome.
‘More handsome than that brat FangTian... Or Chen… Maybe even more than Hao...’
Yes, the new guest was definitely handsome in that particular way that all men from the Long clan were. That is, if she looked only at the right half of his face.
A long, ugly scar crossed the left half of his face, starting from the middle of his forehead and heading downward, across the eye socket, his cheek, and to the side, stopping just before reaching his neck.
Considering the fact he had an artificial eye, whether it was one of RobCo's cybernetic ones or Big Pharma’s bionics, as well as current-day cosmetic surgery levels, this scar was being kept deliberately.
‘A reminder to himself or some sort of sentimental value?’
Widowed Lady Long wasn’t sure, but her curiosity had already raised its head.
While she was busy ogling the newcomer, the man in question spotted Jakub and decided to approach the bar counter. His unsure footsteps revealed the fact that he was less than sober.
‘A bit of a letdown, but punishing a rude guest would be entertaining in its own way.’
Yes, Kouzuki Miya, the Lady in Black, was sad and bored enough to invite a pretty suspicious merc into her bar. Of course, the hope that it was Chen had been long-since gone, after all those false claims, but, even if it was yet another faker, she would help to repatriate him into the clan.
“Oh, a customer.” She voiced her traditional greeting, honed with years of such encounters. “What brought you here? Was it sorrow? Or happiness perchance?”
Her mellow voice, admittedly a notch colder than usual, reached the ears of the suspicious man, making him turn around.
A mismatched pair of eyes, a dull red glow of an artificial one, and his natural brown one, which was just as cold and apathetic, met with her own gaze.
The stranger then took another moment to give her a once-over, something that Lady in Black hadn’t experienced in so long that she almost forgot what it felt like.
Instead of feeling offended, this gesture of his made her even more curious. The look in that brown eye of his was still completely void of any emotion.
“Both.” He replied with a smile that sure didn’t move any further than just his mouth. “The happiness of such a pleasant meeting. And sorrow that I am running from.”
It was a calculated response, targeted at hooking a lonely woman sitting in a seedy bar with a glass of wine, evidently not her first one. And she knew that perfectly well.
Alas, today, in particular, she was looking forward to any sort of company. Obviously, there wouldn’t be anything boorish enough to tarnish her oaths to Hao, but this suspicious man was just the right sort of company to forget herself for just one evening.
“How curious, indeed. Maybe we have something in common then.”
She let out a smile, just as artificial as the one this man had. The stranger, in his turn, read her cue and made a step to join her table, only to stop abruptly.
“Oh, pardon my rudeness, but where is a washroom? I would really love to wash my hands first.”
He raised his hands as his smile got an apologetic undertone, and only now she noticed fresh blood on his knuckles, evidently not his.
She gestured toward the inconspicuous door to the side of the hall, and he thanked her with a nod, turning around.
For an endlessly long fraction of a moment, this wide back caught her eye. Three figures overlapped together. Hao, who walked out of her bar for the last time; Chen, who left forever; and now this stranger, who clearly had at least some blood of the Long Clan in him.
‘So I still have those useless hopes. How curious.’
Lady in Black wasn’t sure what made her do this; perhaps she was way more tipsy than she thought, but another question left her mouth:
“What’s your name?”
It wasn’t something that she should ask, not if she wanted a distraction, but Kouzuki Miya just couldn’t help herself.
The stranger halted his steps and looked over his shoulder, showing her the right side of his face. His brown eye was still as unfeeling as ever. The pause dragged on, making it obvious that he, as expected, planned to lie.
He turned back and went inside the washroom, leaving behind his reply. The pleasant hue of alcohol intoxication left the widowed Lady Long instantly as soon as the one-word answer reached her ears.
“Tian.”