Damien returned to his Ocean Haven Villa and was greeted by Valentina, "Big Brother, how did it go?"
Damien gave a confident smile as he said, "Things are looking good. Now, all we have to do is visit those two dumb families."
He continued in a serious tone, "You remember my instructions, right? Don't pay any heed to whatever I say to them. My words carry no weight when I talk to them. You just have to follow my lead, and soon they would be kneeling before you. I-no, you will make both of them kneel before you, and their families will thank you for it."
Valentina smiled, "Mn. I know Big Brother does everything for my good. I will follow your instructions just as you said."
Based on the instructions Damien told her, Valentina couldn't understand how Damien was going to make Roy Clive and Dennisa Rivers kneel before her. However, she was looking forward to the pleasant surprises Damien was going to give her.
Soon enough, it became noon, and as Damien expected, Falko was standing before the gates of the Ocean Haven Villa.
Damien came outside along with Valentina and saw Falko standing with a polite smile.
Falko stepped forward and bowed to Damien as he said, "Senior Azrael, the heads of Clive and Rivers families, has agreed to meet with you. We can leave now if you are ready."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Damien nodded and summoned Misty, "Get on. We have enough space for three."
"Ah, okay." Falki hurriedly climbed atop Misty and stood behind Damien and Valentina in a restrained manner.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop his eyes from wandering towards Valentina occasionally.
He wanted to strike up some conversation with her. Still, for some reason, just from her bearings, he was losing confidence even to utter a single word.
He sighed to himself, thinking that he was so lame to not be able to talk to his dream girl.
Ever since he saw Valentina, he who before thought alchemy was life suddenly felt that his life seemed bland and colorless. He thought that a girl like Valentina could paint his life in beautiful colors and bring meaning to his life.
He couldn't even sometimes properly concentrate on his alchemy studies and even received some reprimands from his master, who never even chided him once before.
His master had instructed him to meditate for a longer time and purge his mind of all irrelevant thoughts. But no matter how much he tried, the image of Valentina's intoxicating figure would flash in his mind, sending his mind into disarray.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})But he thought that a virgin like him wouldn't probably find the confidence to approach someone like Valentina ever in his life. Nor would she take an interest in a loser like him.
Valentina was unaware of all the thoughts going on in Falko's mind, not that she would care even if she knew. She already received lots of love tokens and gifts from many illustrious young masters. But she threw them all back on their faces. At first, she tried to refuse them politely since Damien told her not to be hostile without good reason.
But when they kept pestering her, she decided to take things into her own hands and beat them all black and blue. Of course, not to the extent she thrashed Luke. Only when it involved Damien would she become bloodthirsty.
Falko had told Damien that the meeting place was on the Clive Family's property. Damien felt that the relationship between the Clive and the Rivers Family seems to be good for now. After all, he had heard it from Dennisa River's own mouth.
Soon enough, Damien saw a huge and lofty mansion coming into his sight as Misty descended towards the ground.
The gates opened as the guards bowed after recognizing Damien.
Along with Valentina and Falko, Damien entered the Clive Family's property and was greeted by two maids.
The two maids bowed with a respectful expression as they said, "Senior Azrael, please follow us. Our Masters and Mistresses are awaiting your presence."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})The three followed the maids. They led them towards a huge courtyard surrounded by a lush garden of grass neighboring by uniform hedges, flower bushes, and shrubs.
There was even a greenhouse in the garden's back right, housing exotic flowers and butterflies. It seemed like the garden was designed around the greenhouse.
Damien raised one of his brows when he spotted Low to Middle-Level Sky Grade herbs casually growing amongst other flowers.
However, his main focus was on the center of the courtyard, where six people, three men and three women, were seated in a circular fashion. Each of their faces had an aloof and overweening expression, most prominent on the faces of the two middle-aged men sitting side by side.
Damien recognized two youngsters around twenty years of age as Roy Clive and Dennisa Rivers. He guessed that the other two women were their mothers. And obviously, the two middle-aged men were the family heads of the Clive and Rivers Family.
One of the middle-aged men had a stocky build clad in expensive purple robes, while the other middle-aged man clad in silver robes looked muscled like a gorilla. However, his face was so small compared to his body that Damien felt like letting out a chortle because of how funny he looked.
Whereas both the women looked around the mid-thirties and were dressed in exquisite and colorful garments, highlighting their curves perfectly. It was as if they were proudly displaying their bountiful assets and the beauty of their faces were top-notch enough to seduce any gullible man. However, their faces had a supercilious expression, and they were looking at each other with a not-so-friendly expression.
But the two middle-aged men seemed to be quite familiar with each other and didn't seem to be so hostile to each other.
As Damien and the others got closer to the courtyard, the six slowly got up to exchange greetings.
As they all thought Alchemist Azrael was senior to them, and since this was a friendly meeting proposed by Damien, they had to show some respect even if they held hostile feelings.
After all, unlike their heirs, they knew how valuable Alchemist Azrael was to the empire, if not the whole continent. It was not good to make enemies with such a person, especially when one was in the top 1% in terms of status and power.
This is why they readily agreed to the meeting. In fact, the heads of both families thought that things couldn't have progressed better. They were at first a bit worried that their heirs managed to make an enemy out of Valentina, who was the personal disciple of Alchemist Azrael, and if he would take offense to it.
But it seemed as if Alchemist Azrael wanted to sort out things in a friendly manner which they never expected for a man of such status to do. Even if Alchemist Azrael's presence wasn't well established, they, as the top echelons, knew the influence Alchemist Azrael had.
The main proof was how Alchemist Azrael managed to move Leon Xeton to talk with them and arrange a meeting. Even they would think twice before making use of such a connection. Unless they were in a desperate situation, they wouldn't think of meeting such a busy and supreme existence.
But when they saw Valentina, even the two middle-aged men had awestruck expressions seeing such a bewitching and intoxicating beauty. All three women harrumphed, seeing the foolish expression on the men as even Roy Clive was no better than his father.
All three women were extremely jealous when they saw Valentina, and Dennisa Rivers had an ugly expression on her face as she remembered how Valentina dared to stand against her.
And, of course, she didn't forget how Damien tried to humiliate her by calling her an ugly bitch. She couldn't wait to turn Damien into her boy toy and toy with him before Valentina.
Herwin Clive and Harvey Rivers were remembering their days of debauchery when they were young masters centuries ago. Even now, they had plenty of mistresses, but they all seemed unsightly when compared with the heavenly beauty in front of them.
Herwin Clive now understood why Roy was so dead set on obtaining Valentina. Heck, if he had the chance, he would have even fought over his son to obtain Valentina. It was because he was afraid of his wife's father that he had to restrain his debauchery.
However, they didn't ignore the presence of Damien and willed their focus to shift towards Damien.
