Mystical Journey

"I haven’t seen Dani for a long time. It’s unfortunate since I’m rarely free to be able to." Garen shook his head. "Whatever, the reason I came here today was to see how cousin sister is doing. Just voice out if you need any help."

Sophie looked at the person in front of him, once an immature kid. Cia was once a gambling addict who was kicked around all the time by a horrible woman named Aquarius. As time went by, that useless boy had matured and was able to sustain the Trejons Household all by himself.

"I don’t need any help here. Your life should be a mess since the situation in your household isn’t that well, right?"

"Eh…" Garen awkwardly rubbed his nose. His household’s situation was indeed dire, but he wasn’t the management type and had accidentally forgotten about the Household.

"I’m working on it." He said softly.

"I believe you can do it." Sophie Hathaway patted Garen’s shoulder. Two of them had decided to forget about the awkward ordeal of getting married.

"Let me introduce you a good friend of mine, West Virginia." Sophie Hathaway averted her attention towards West Virginia. "She’s slightly older than you so you’ll have to call her sister."

"Sister West Virginia." Garen put away his position as a captain and called out to her. Kid, who was beside him, had his mouth wide open as he saw a drastic difference in Garen’s personality. He couldn’t believe what he just witnessed.

"It’s definitely something to be Sophie’s cousin. You’re so handsome!" West Virginia openly got closer to Garen as she revolved around him to assess him. "Woah! You have a very good body! Your muscles are well built too." Without any hesitation, she reached out her hand and pinched Garen’s arm and the sensation of his muscles made her inhale loudly.

Sophie helplessly shook her head as she looked at Garen.

"Alright West Virginia, stop fooling around. This is my cousin brother Cia. Oh right, he’s changed his name. He’s called Garen now."

Garen was speechless as he looked at this woman with beautiful legs circle him and assessed him as if he were some sort of rare species.

"Alright alright. Didn’t you have other things to attend to? Go and do your stuff!" Sophie blocked her best friend who was getting out of control. "Quickly!"

"Hmm… Sophie, you don’t want your best friend anymore now that you have your cousin brother?" West Virginia acted in mock pity.

"Didn’t you have your part-time work to attend to?" Go!" Sophie gently hit West Virginia.

"Ouch! That hurts." West Virginia was sent out of the door by Sophie, and the living room finally quietened down.

She turned her head around, and only then did she realized that Garen had Kid, who was in the same black shirt as him, by his side. This black-shirted man’s existence was so low-key that she had completely neglected him.

"This is?"

"He’s my colleague. He’s currently working with me in the Kingdom." Garen simply introduced him and didn’t explain further. Kid’s history was mysterious and was most likely related to totem users. As a commoner, it would be disadvantageous for Sophie Hathaway to know more about him.

Hathaway didn’t pursue further as well. They sat down and started to talk about the past with Garen.

She originally planned to ask Garen about what happened in the past, but things got turned around, and she was the one being asked instead.

After coming back to the Kingdom, she returned to her old job as the royal guard. As she had just finished a mission recently, she had been promoted to First Lieutenant. Her lifestyle was simple. However, as she had to spend a lot of time at work lately, she had neglected Dani, she had been mixing in with the delinquents all day long.

"You have to help me with her. Dani doesn’t even listen to me anymore! We had an argument last night because I didn’t give her enough money allowance." Sophie frowned as she mentioned about Dani. "You guys got along in the past so maybe she will listen to you. I can’t do anything anymore."

"It’s alright, Dani is currently going through a rebellious phase, she’ll come to her after some time. Wasn’t I the same? I still have a lot of the poems I’ve written back in my place." Garen laughed.

Time passed as he talked with his cousin sister.

It was unfortunate that cousin sister didn’t have the attribute to become a totem user. The death rate was too high for any modification experiment, not to mention the intense pain she’d have to go through. Without an absolute control over the Secret Technique, her life would be meaningless even if she were to be modified.

It’s best for her to live the rest of her life as a commoner.

He listened to his cousin sister talked about her lifestyle, which was gentle and peaceful. There was no killing, no conspiracy, just a little bit of quarrel between relatives which would return to normal after a few days. After a hectic day, her wish was to have a good meal, take a good, relaxing bath and have a good sleep.

This kind of gentle lifestyle was so much better than his current one, where he could die at any moment.

As Garen listened to his cousin sister’s interesting stories, he unconsciously recalled the days he had on Earth. It was the same lifestyle as hers, simple and gentle.

"Sister Sophie, the reason I come here today is to tell you something important."

"Something important?" Sophie blinked.

"If, and only if, something major happens to the Kingdom, I want you to head to this address immediately." Garen gave her the paper that he had prepared earlier.

Sophie received it and had a look at it.

"White Phoenix Forest Academy?"

"Yes." Garen nodded his head. "Remember. If something happens, you have to go to this place with Dani immediately."

Sophie nodded as she understood the importance of this as she realized how serious Garen was. "I understand. I will."

The White Phoenix Forest was one of the rare places which would be unaffected when the Kingdom was in trouble. This was because the dean was one of the two Grand Dukes of the Kingdom, who was also Prynne’s grandfather. He was the third strongest individual in the Kovitan Empire.

If the assassination of Avic becomes a success, the place that would not be in any trouble would definitely be there.

The Kingdom had more than ten academies, and the White Phoenix Academy didn’t stand out because no one knew that the dean of the academy was one of the Grand Dukes. The performance of the academy had been rather low profile as well, so the Obscuro Society didn’t really pay attention to this place. No one would know that this academy had set up a powerful Tactical Alliance Formation.

Garen wouldn’t need to rush to save her if she were to seek refuge there when there was trouble.

This was the main reason he was here today.

The sky gradually became darker.

Sophie was busy making a sumptuous dinner to have a feast with Garen, who rarely visited.

She had cooked some expensive foie gras, bird’s breast and even boiled a big bowl of fresh fish soup. This was considered a delicacy in the Kingdom, who was in shorts of resources.

In addition, there even was chicken meat surrounded by a big bowl of vegetables.

"This is the new aberrated meat His Majesty just passed. It’s one of those meat only a selected few can get their hands on. Do you want to try some?" Sophie gave Garen a piece of golden meat. She then proceeded to dip some concentrated black salad sauce onto the chicken meat.

Garen took a bite. The taste was delicious, and the meat was very tender. However, the fragrance was too strong, giving off a slight stuffy feeling.

"Should we leave some for Dani?" He looked at Kid beside him. This guy’s stomach seemed like a black hole as he kept eating without any sign of slowing down at all. For some reason, Sophie didn’t seem to notice his existence. It was obvious that it was the mysterious power to mask his presence was in its full effect.

"I have left some out already. It’s fine." Sophie smiled.

The sky had become dark.

As the three of them were having their dinner, the first-floor door opened, and someone seemed to have entered the building.

"Sister! What’s with the aroma!?" A clear voice of a young girl came from below.

"It’s Dani, she has returned." Sophie frowned. "You have to help me out. I’m afraid she might go onto the wrong path if she continues like this."

"Alright, leave it to me. I haven’t seen her for a long time too." It was rare that Garen was able to enjoy such a peaceful lifestyle and he unknowingly put his guard down. He didn’t want to destroy this peaceful feeling.

Soon, a young teenager with shoulder-length black hair came upstairs. This young girl seemed to be eighteen or nineteen years old and was wearing a tight white shirt which revealed her tummy. She was also wearing ultra-short black leather shorts, revealing a pair of white, long legs.

The supposedly mildly sexy attire was nothing jarring. However, the entire vibe was changed entirely after some modifications made by Dani to her getup.

The long sleeve on the left of her shirt was completely cut off, revealing her white arm. She even had a tattoo of a rather complicated black tactic symbol on her arm. These symbols didn’t seem to have any totem light, which meant that it was obviously just an imitation.

The girl had thick makeup on her small face, which gave off a rather matured look. All of the five fingers on her right hand were filled with fake red gemstone rings, with imitated tactic symbols on them. In addition to that, there even were some strange, beautiful patterns that Garen had never even seen before carved onto the ring as well. It was obvious that the small merchants had designed it themselves to allow the ring to give off a more mysterious vibe.

With a small chest on her body, the lady rushed upstairs as she rushed over in a pair of black leather boots. She then noticed the additional two people sitting on the dining table. Kid’s existence was, of course, unnoticed by her, and her attention immediately landed on Garen.

"Acacia!!?"

"Call him brother!" Sophie’s mood suddenly changed for the worse.

"Why should I call him brother? Isn’t he just slightly older than me? Sister, I don’t have any money. I want more allowance to spend." Dani complained and reached her hand out as she walked towards Sophie.

"I don’t have any!" Sophie turned her head around and ignored her. "I just gave you fifty silver rumbs yesterday and you have already spent all of them?"

Fifty silver rumbs was equal to five hundred copper rumbs. With the current state of the Kingdom, A thousand silver rumbs would equal to about one gold rumb. It was considered a small amount to a totem user. However, fifty silver rumbs were enough to sustain a family of three commoners for a month.

Garen calculated in his mind and found out that it was about five hundred to eight hundred dollars on Earth. It was considered a big amount for a child to be able to spend all of it within a day. No wonder his cousin sister, who was considered a highly paid commoner, was angry about it.

"Isn’t it just a small amount of money? Rafier could easily spend three hundred silver rumbs per week." Dani was getting impatient. "Are you going to give it to me or not?"

"I’m not giving them to you!" Sophie replied coldly. "If you dare to steal and sell off the things in my house again. I will break your leg!" She immediately raised her voice.

"I would like to see you try!" Dani had no intention of backing down at all.

"Alright alright. It’s just a small amount of money. There’s no need for you two sisters to argue."

He gently placed a hundred silver rumbs onto Dani’s hand.

Garen smiled as he butted in.

"Wow!" Dani whistled. "You’re amazing Cia. Have you become rich in the time we hadn’t seen each other?" She flicked the paper money with an elated heart.

Sophie was about to voice out but she saw Garen looking at her with the intention of telling her that he would handle it.

Feeling helpless, she didn’t say anything further.

"I think it’s about time. I still have some stuff to handle. I will visit sister Sophie again." Garen stood up and said gently.

"Alright. You may come any time you want, the door will always be open." Sophie nodded and stood up.

Garen and Kid were seen out by Sophie downstairs. As they were about to leave the place, Dani Hathaway unexpectedly followed along.

Dani’s eyes were moving about as if she had some brilliant idea.

"I’ll send them off!"

Sophie was stunned as she didn’t know that her sister would common courtesy. As she was about to speak up, she saw Dani was running towards Garen.

Suddenly, Sophie understood what Dani had in mind.

This fellow definitely was thinking of seducing Garen’s money.

Furious, she wanted to catch up to her but then she recalled Garen’s gaze and believed that he must have had some kind of plan in mind.

"Whatever. Let’s see what Cia can do."