"Alicia, are you busy right now?"
"No, Uncle Angus. Why is it?"
"There is something I want to talk about. Where are you right now? I will go there…"
The tone of Angus's voice made Alicia worried about what would happen. As far as she knew, her uncle was always kind and cherished her like his own daughter. It was rare for him to talk to her seriously unless there was an accident happened right now. She then informed where she was at present and just waited at there. The noble girl didn't know that her father and Angus was already
nearby so it didn't take a long time to meet each other. Harry didn't come out from the magic carriage since the matter was complicated. At this time, he let Angus to have a conversation first with Alicia regarding his decision. As for the result, he didn't think too much since he already chose the best way for Xavierius family to develop more.
Alicia sat at one of many luxury cafes. When she noticed her uncle walked to her, she stood up and wanted to greet him before she saw the expression he made. Unlike the past happy man before, Angus was frowning with
uncomfortable face. Alicia had bad premonition but she tried her best not to
look troubled for her uncle. After a simple greeting, Angus took a seat while looking at his favorite niece.
"I'm sorry to bother your shopping time, but there is an urgent thing I need to solve…"
"It's alright, Uncle Angus," Alicia didn't mind, "By the way, what is this urgent thing? Am I involved in here too?"
"This… Actually…" Angus couldn't explain clearly before starting from the beginning, "It's like this…"
Once again, Angus retold the story when he got a call from Tasco from Luminos City. The old knight had relationship with Xavierius family so he quickly talked about his important findings. One of his recent customers showed him Gale element when performing one of his advanced skills. Tasco knew this customer of him could be the savior of the family. That was why he
hurriedly called Angus and told him about the fat man named Sebastian. Angus
himself didn't actually believe it since the Gale element had already disappeared
from public for a long time. Still, when Tasco sent a video and he watched it, he surely couldn't calm down anymore. For someone else, they might not notice the difference between wind and gale element, but he as the wind wizard knew exactly what happened right now.
Because of this unexpected discovery, Angus and Harry quickly confirmed where Tasco found this fat man named Sebastian. After getting the information, both of them quickly headed to Luminos City. In the middle of the trip, they discussed about how to interest Sebastian to enter the family. To
secure the possibility of Gale element appeared for the next generation, they
needed to act fast before another noble families popped up from nowhere and
joined the fighting to get this man. The Xavierius family had money, land, influence, and many other things as noble family. Despite of that, there were also many nobles who had more than them. To ensure they could win Sebastian, Harry proposed one more thing which was his own daughter. Listening to the story, there was no change of Alicia's expression. Angus wasn't sure whether she was upset or just accepted her fate.
On the other hand, Alicia was calm at the outside but deep inside her heart, there were many fluctuations of her emotion. She really
wanted to refuse her father's arrangement but she clearly knew that she couldn't oppose the words from the head of the family. It was indeed for the good of the family however, she wondered why she was chosen. There were many girls inside the family yet being excellent at the top seemingly became disadvantageous at the moment. It seemed the collected merit from before was useless. She thought she could live independently and made her own decision once there was enough merit to trade, but it was too bad that her fate told her
otherwise.
"If you don't want to, I can oppose this decision…" Angus suddenly said, "Alicia, there's no need to push yourself. Although you are born in Xavierius family, it doesn't mean you're indebted forever."
"I know, uncle… But…" Alicia took a deep breath, "My father must also think it's very rare for us to regain our glory back. This
opportunity can't be wasted so he as the head of the family must do his best in order to win Gale element. Once the family secures it, we only need to maintain the basic relationship with the said person. Still, we have to make it happen first…"
Although the reasoning was right, Alicia slowly became incoherent when talking about a new man that she was going to meet. It felt to her that she was going to say goodbye to her freedom. After going to blind
date, there must be a process of introduction before her father went into serious talk with Sebastian. As a passerby, she could only listen without any right to comment. If it was successful, there would only be a matter of time before the family announced that she would marry the fat man. She hated this
hopeless situation but she realized that life might not be like what she dreamed of. Slowly, it reminded her how people around also struggled for their own lives.
Baston who came from poor class struggled to get recognized while dealing with the cult. Panto tried to learn magic even though he would be busy on his own business in the future. The last one was Luke who resisted his uncle even though he was weak and had a small probability to win. Everyone she met
had their own fight so she started to clear her mind. Although she might marry with someone that she didn't love at all, but it didn't mean the family would neglect her completely. If the fat man named Sebastian was kind and loyal, she didn't mind to become a good and faithful wife. Otherwise, she would let him remembered the taste of her anger.
Without wasting time, Alicia quickly went to the magic carriage where her father had already waited for her. The guards surely
couldn't bring all the stuffs that she was shopping before so one of them must go back first while the rest would follow her. Despite their loyalties, Harry just told them to rest and wait for them at the nearby inn. Once he finished the deal, he would then go back here and let his daughter to roam free again. It was because the meeting with Gale element holder was secret and he must keep it tightly.
Angus wanted to stop Alicia who acted recklessly but he didn't know that the girl already accepted the arrangement. In her mind, there was no need to be sad because everyone had their own troubles. Even though she wanted to complain, she couldn't because she wasn't strong enough. She wondered if she was like Baston, would she be happy or not. Despite the poor status, the
fat boy never lamented his sad fate. He kept struggling over the injustice treatment from everyone, creating his own strength. Unbeknownst to her, the girl thought her situation wasn't bad enough to always look gloomy. Her life was decided by her only, not by her future husband. Still, she hoped this fat man named Sebastian would be unlike Clark.
Inside the magic carriage, it was very awkward. Harry as Alicia's father must know her daughter should be upset so he didn't dare to order anything more from her. Alicia herself didn't want to make the atmosphere
inside to become worse so she chose to stay silent. After all, any comment from her might not be listened. In the meantime, Angus didn't know what he should do. It was a matter between the father and the daughter so he as the outsider didn't dare to intervene. Besides, this matter was very important to the family. He just hoped the Xavierius could interest Sebastian with anything except Alicia.
"Let's just pray that everything will proceed well…" Angus thought.
Far from Alicia and her family, Baston who disguised as Sebastian excused himself from the training. Before the fat man could go, Tasco pleaded to him to stay here until the Xavierius family reached Luminos City.
Based on the recent information he got, it seemed few people were coming here as fast as they could in order to meet him. Of course, Baston couldn't bear to refuse since Tasco already refunded his money. This goodwill must be repaid so he chose to come again every day until one week passed.
In the meantime, the situation between Luke and Viktor became increasingly tense. This old man didn't dare to face his nephew directly, just ordering few subordinates to act as unreasonable people to make a fuss every time they ran into him on the way. As for why Viktor didn't dare to push further like what he did before, Luminos City guarded the safety of every people inside so no one would be stupid to make a mess. The man might be a noble but even a nobleman must obey the law in this city.
The harassment intensified with each day passing. However, both of Luke and Victor seemingly waited for a moment of truth. They perceived each other without clashing directly. Judging by the increasing activity,
Baston could say that Viktor was taunting Luke hardly. It seemed the old man wanted his nephew to take a bait, striking him at Paradise Resort. Truth be told, Baston knew the real hideout but he refrained from informing Luke. It was not because he didn't trust him but he had to make sure both of them looked like falling into Viktor's plan. That was when he could kill the target with
the help of his puppet.
While Baston was accompanying Luke to several places, the noble boy suddenly made a decision. Luke said that both of them would go to the Paradise Resort tomorrow. He also added to be prepared because most likely, his uncle was there and would welcome him. Baston showed surprised expression on purpose to make Luke thought the fat boy didn't know anything about Viktor. In Luke's mind, the fat boy only worked as additional helper and no more than that so he should never know the recent information about his uncle. However, Luke himself didn't know that the fat boy had his own channel to look for the information.
With the help of information guild plus the coincidental event before when people from Viktor spied on them, Baston finally concluded the real hideout of his target.
Today's dinner seemed bland because everyone was restless. While Luke was pondering what his next action, Baston was trying to learn more about his duty as the servant. Paradise Resort was not ordinary place so he needed to work extra hard. The place would be full of rich and prestigious
people, making every gesture of him to be very important so as not to embarrass
yourself. There was a distance between the place and Carpel Inn so Baston decided to deploy his puppet between those 2 places in order to cope with the situation. Afraid there would be a chase later, he had to keep the distance between him as the puppet master and his puppets. Even though he could control them for longer distance, but in order to take care for the worst, he decided
to be like this.
The night passed slowly and the morning came finally. With new outfits, both of Luke and Baston went out to Paradise Resort after getting a simple breakfast. There was only a silence inside the carriage. It was quite
awkward but none of them wanted to talk for now. Luke didn't tell exactly how he would take out his uncle. The noble boy seemingly had his own secret but Baston didn't mind because he also had his own secret too. Their visit to Paradise Resort would be the bait while another puppet would take the job. It took a few minutes until they arrived at the place.