314 Bar Fight [1]
I gave him a look of deep disappointment and turned around to face away from Reynold.
"You abandoned me because I was weaker than your other son, didn't you?" I asked, a serene smile slowly washing over my face. "I'll cripple him."
"W-What are you saying–" Reynold's eyes widened at my declaration, a bewildered shock visible in his gaze.
However, I cut him off before he could finish voicing his thoughts. "You know I can do it. My Master once claimed to sense the power levels of others. I'm sure you can sense it as well. You should know, I can kill him if we were to engage in combat."
"Do you even know what you're saying?!" Reynold exploded with anger. "You are talking about committing treason!"
"Not if he attacks me first," my lips curled up into a smirk as I started walking away. "Then it'll be considered self-defense."
Reynold was on the verge of saying something. However, before he could even start, I preempted him and began speaking without even bothering to turn back or stop walking away.
"Why am I back, you ask?" I retorted, my legs never ceasing their movement as I walked away. "Well, let's just say that's none of your damn business. I'll be gone from the city in a few days. You can treat me as invisible like you've always done, but if you want me out of this manor, you'll have to strip our family name from me."
†
A radiant archeress with emerald eyes, the last of her kind – a Phoenix disguised as a crow, and an adorable puppy with pristine white fur and striking green eyes walked into a dimly lit bar…
Amelia instantly frowned. "Wait, doesn't this look like the start of a joke?"
"Kriek?" Sera, who was sitting comfortably on top of Amelia's right shoulder, chirped in confusion.
"Never mind," Amelia shook her head but then scowled again as soon as she recalled something. "So, did Lucas send you?"
Sera quickly nodded her head up and down in response. Amelia then turned to look at the little white puppy following closely behind her.
She met this little creature when she returned home. Her neighbor handed her this puppy and told her that her father left it in their care.
Her neighbor also said that her father strictly instructed them to only give this puppy to Amelia when she gets back home.
Since then, Amelia had tried contacting her father but he never responded to her calls or texts.
"I wonder what's gotten into him," Amelia mused aloud. Obviously, this puppy was a mana beast.
But why did her father give it to her? And why didn't he tell her anything about it?
"Wait," she stopped moving suddenly.
It was her birthday in a few months. Was this puppy her gift? But it was still August and her birthday was in January.
"Maybe he just got a good deal on a mana beast pup and bought it for me," Amelia concluded with a nod before resuming to walk forward.
She still didn't know what type of mana beast this puppy was, but she felt herself growing inexplicably attached to him due to his big, round green eyes which looked strikingly similar to hers.
Yep, they definitely had similar eyes.
Of course, instead of the spark of intelligence, the puppy's eyes radiated harmless playfulness like mundane puppies.
It wasn't anything unusual.
Yes, mana beasts were known for their heightened intelligence and superior strength compared to the mundane animals from which they had evolved seven centuries ago, but the difference wasn't too magnificent, at least in terms of intelligence.
They had enough intelligence to follow commands or launch crude attacks on small human settlements, coming up with whatever rudimentary plans their primal minds were capable of.
However, their intelligence was in no way a threat to civilized society. But this got Amelia thinking...
She shifted her gaze to the bird perched on top of her shoulder and mumbled, "You are quite intelligent, aren't you, Sera?"
Sera proudly glanced back at Amelia with a blush, as if silently responding with a smug "Thank you."
Amelia couldn't help but be amused by Sera's reaction, covering her mouth with her hands as she chuckled.
But jokes aside, she had to admit that Sera displayed an exceptional, even unnatural, level of intelligence — almost too much for a mana beast.
After all, not only did Sera understand human language, but she could also sort of converse with people.
And the scary part of all this was that Sera was barely a few months old. What will she become by next year or even a few years from now?
Maybe the old legends were true after all.
Dragons and Phoenixes, and all the other extinct mythical mana beasts, were said to be blessed by mana itself.
Ancient elves said that mana granted them a wisdom that far surpassed that of regular mana beasts, and perhaps, to some extent, even humans and elves themselves.
Maybe the Central Government's decision to eradicate every single living mythical mana beast wasn't overkill.
Maybe the mythical mana beasts were really a threat to humans.
Thankfully, not only the mythical mana beasts were scarce in number, but the military had also come up with ways to kill those immortal, almost god-like creatures.
Only immortals could kill immortals.
Only mythical mana beasts could kill one of their kind.
Only a God can kill a God.
That's why the military believed. They used the carcasses of dead mythical beasts and made weapons from their remains.
Bones turned into swords, spears crafted from their claws, shields forged from their carapace— the Blacksmiths weaponized each part of their bodies.
The military equipped their strongest fighters with those weapons and hunted the mythical beasts to extinction.
The elves, having a close affinity to nature, were not happy with that decision.
But since most of the council seats in the Central Government belonged to humans back then, they had no choice but to comply.
The dwarves didn't care much as long as they were paid for employing their best blacksmiths and creating those weapons.
Yet, who would have thought that, after all these years, a mythical creature would be born again into this world?
Unfortunately, she was the last of her kind.
The Last Phoenix was fated to die in utter solitude, never to experience the warmth of another of her kind's embrace.
It was so poetically tragic that Amelia couldn't help but feel pity for her as she lovingly patted Sera's little head.
"Krieeek~"
Thwam–!
Just as she was gently stroking the Phoenix's head, Amelia accidentally bumped into someone.
"Ahh," Amelia stumbled backward, startled. She quickly regained her balance and looked up to see who she had collided with.
Before her stood a towering, bald young man wearing a black tank top with an ugly scar running down his face.
His imposing muscles rippled beneath his skin like boulders of steel, and he cast an irritated look at the black-haired girl before him.
But upon scrutinizing her, that look of irritation on his face turned into one of perverted delight.
Arching an eyebrow, Amelia couldn't help but be genuinely impressed by the man's physique.
Earlier, it felt like she had collided with a solid wall.
He might just be the most muscular individual, man or woman, she had ever seen, even more so than Alberto.
But her interest faded almost instantly as she uttered, "Sorry, I was looking elsewhere."
With that, she began to walk past him, but before she could even take a step forward, the man quickly grabbed her by the shoulder.
Amelia's legs stopped moving as she abruptly halted in place under the man's iron grip. A sly smirk stretched across his face.
"Nah, nah, little girl. That's not the right way to apologize," the young man chuckled, spinning Amelia around with a casual flick of his hand. "Come on, apologize properly with a drink."
Raising her eyebrows, Amelia scanned the man from head to toe and offered a polite smile. "I'm in a hurry right now, so I'll have to take a rain check tonight–"
"Oh, I'm not asking, darling!" The man's laughter was loud, revealing a broad grin as his large hand slid from her shoulder to her neck.
Amelia sighed heavily. She knew this place mostly only catered to the elites, and this man was also likely among the nobility.
She really didn't want to escalate things here, but it seemed inevitable. In fact, she could already tell that this interaction was going to turn into a fight very soon.
Unless…
Glancing around, she noticed that the upper-class patrons were seated comfortably in their booths, completely turning a blind eye to the commotion.
Never mind, her instincts were correct. No one here would intervene.
The man's grin widened upon seeing how Amelia was looking around. "Oh, love, no one's coming to your rescue. I'm a cadet of Ethereal Academy and the first son of the Blackwood family, Apolus Blackwood. You don't look like an elite. You're lucky I even offered you a drink. Stop playing hard to get and join us."
Oh well, Lucas would have to deal with the consequences. After all, she was here on his request, and not to mention investigating his case.
"Heh," a wry smile curled on her lips. Playfully lifting her chin, Amelia met Apolus' gaze head-on. "Thanks for this, it was my first bar fight."
Apolus, looking perplexed, stammered, "Uh, what now?"
A long, tense silence hung between them. After a while, Amelia's smile turned into a mischievous grin as she said, "...Fine, let's do it the hard way."
