“What did you just say to me?” Helena narrowed her eyes.

“That this might be the day I make you cough out your bitchy teeth and teach you some fucking manners, I think.”

Juliet slowly got up from her bed. She had fallen asleep with the previous day’s clothes on and she looked ragged.

“Juliet, I need to talk about Jacob. It’s—”

“Listen, bitch, whatever problem you have with Jacob, mind your own fucking business,” Juliet spat out. “He has enough problems to juggle around. Worrying about you is not high on my priority list at the moment.”

Juliet had previously tried to calm down Helena to avoid escalating the situation with Jacob, but now things were different. Jacob was in a delicate spot and needed some time for himself. If Helena thought she could mess with him again, she better think twice because Juliet was ready to pull back her crazy self on the table just to put the blonde in her place.

“I just want to talk about Jacob, Juliet. Since he’s not just a childish creep, things are different now.”

Juliet slowly twisted her head.

“How so?”

“I want to apologize to him. I realize I made a gross misjudgement and I would like to—”

The bell rang once again in Juliet’s house. It had its own battery and it kept working even after the apocalypse had gone down.

“Is my house a fucking coffee shop or what?” Juliet swore and started walking toward the door.

“Juliet!” Helena tried to stop her.

“I heard you, Helena. I will listen to you, but since my mom and her stupid fucking boyfriend are two useless sacks of shit no one wants to talk to, I think that the bell is ringing for me.”

Helena exhaled loudly and followed Juliet. The nosebleed had finally stopped, thankfully. A cultivator’s body was a miracle in itself.

“Oh my, what a lovely home! Miss…?”

“Marise—you are...”

“The Vermillion Tyrant, in the flesh. Has word already spread? Ha! I have brought some food and wine, Marise. May I let myself in?”

“Sure, sure.”

Juliet came down and saw her mother blush in front of the same man he had seen discuss strategy with Jacob for an entire night. She had met him at the gates when he had come with many warriors of his own and asked for Jacob’s.

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The Vermillion Tyrant, a dashing hero.

“The two most beautiful women of St. Peter are both here! How lucky am I?” the Vermillion Tyrant smiled at them.

“What are you doing here?” Juliet barked at him.

“I need to have a chat with you,” the Vermillion Tyrant winked at her, “but it truly is a blessing that the famous Helena is here too. It’s going to make things much, much easier.”

“Who’s making this ruckus?” Juliet’s step-dad came out of the living room, his face red as a tomato.

Hektor scrutinized the man for a second, then looked Marise from top to bottom. Once he saw that there were no signs or anything that seemed to indicate that this household was tainted by violence, he simply smiled and approached the shorter man.

“Nice to meet you, I’m the Vermillion Tyrant!” Hektor stressed the second world. “We are organizing a re-education camp for rude people. I’d like you to participate tonight, ok? Perfect! See you tonight!”

Hektor started turning before Juliet’s stepdad could say even a word.

“What the hell? I’m not going anywhere!” he immediately said.

“Oh dear,” Hektor turned toward the man again, but this time his expression was slightly furrowed. “You have the strongest person in the city telling you to do something and you complain like that? Why? What is going on in your brain? Don’t you have any self-preservation instinct? What would happen if I were a killing-crazy maniac, huh? You would be dead by now, that’s what would happen. I’ll give you a longer version of the course, it seems. And if you refuse again, I’ll break your legs. Deal? Nice! See you at nine sharp at the city hall! One finger broken for every minute you are late!”

The Vermillion Tyrant added a bit of his aura to his word and the man in front of him almost pissed himself on the spot.

Everyone froze.

It was the first time the Vermillion Tyrant even suggested violence, but it was weirdly similar to Jacob’s M.O. with people, just… even weirder.

“Are you serious?” the shorter man asked, now worried.

“Oh, dead serious. Good manners for guests saved humanity from wars! Or they caused wars when they were not good enough! Can’t have such a rude man among our people if we want to build a nice future for humanity,” Hektor said it with such conviction that Helena almost nodded to those words.

“Now! I’m so sorry Marise for that! Would you and your partner like some wine? I plundered many bottles from a cellar in a vineyard close to the border between Marche and Abruzzo.

The couple nodded cautiously and in minutes the Vermillion Tyrant had all of them seated while recounting some story of how he got the wine.

“There were so many monsters! But they didn’t eat the grapes! I think we can get the vineyard working again very soon! Italian wines are always so good!”

“I’m sorry, mister Tyrant, where are you from, if I may? Your Italian is perfect,” Marise asked.

“Oh! It’s almost impossible to say! My family moved all over the world. There is some Italian in my blood too! But I think that I’m mostly Spanish, French and maybe a bit Greek? Who knows! My father is a great businessman and our whole family has been made of merchants for generations! I couldn’t tell you what I’m made of even if I wanted!”

The Vermillion Tyrant still kept his eyes on the two girl who seemed to stare balefully at each other while he entertained Juliet’s parents.

“Marise, would you two lovely people mind if we got some privacy? I have some very serious and private matters to discuss with your daughter and her friend. If you two go ask for Angelo, you will find my general can give you some pointers on your cultivation! You definitely need some catching up and he’s an amazing guy, just tell him I sent you. He has someone stationed at the gate with the other sentinels at all times, go ask!”

With some other platitudes, Hektor got the two people out of their own house and then turned to the two girl with a serious expression.

“We need to talk, you and I.”