"Max, it's me."
Max took a deep breath, sat up and put away the letter before calling out, "Come in, Aunt Vivian. The door is unlocked."
The door opened and Vivian walked in, carrying a plastic bag in her hand.
She came over, sat beside him and took out a blue, checkered shirt, "Here, try it and see if it fits you. It's my son, Alex's. He is as tall as you, but a bit skinny, so..."
Max tried it and nodded, "It's good, Aunt Vivian."
"Good." Vivian nodded and fell silent. Then, she looked at him, opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't speak.
As the awkward silence befell the room, she began rubbing her thumbs on her index fingers while thinking how she should approach this topic so as not to sound insensitive. After all, she didn't know what he might be feeling right now.
Right then, Max put his hand on hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. "It's alright, Aunt Vivian. You can tell me whatever you want."
Vivian gave him an awkward smile before she took a breath and carefully said, "I heard that you... dealt with those people outside."
"Yes." Max nodded, his hand still on hers and his thumb ever so slowly caressing the back of her palm.
Vivian ignored this harmless movement and asked, "How are you feeling? Do you want to talk about it?"
Max smiled and shook his head, "I'm good, Aunt. Don't you worry."
"You sure?" Vivian asked.
Max was about to nod when he thought of something, sighed and wistfully murmured in a low voice, especially the last part, "What would it matter if I was or not? It's not like you would do anything to help me."
Vivian immediately took his hand between hers and earnestly said. "I would. Just tell me how I can help you feel better."
Seeing her genuine concern for him, Max almost felt bad for manipulating her like this.
"You could..." He said, his voice low, almost a whisper, looking at her lips, "...Let me kiss you."
"Sure... wait, W-What?!" Vivian nodded before her mind to register what he said. When she did, she exclaimed in disbelief.
Max pulled his hand out of hers, gently grabbed her chin and brought his face dangerously close to hers before saying, "I want to kiss you. It'll make me feel better. You won't refuse me, right?"
"I-I..." Vivian stuttered, her mind blank.
Seeing this, Max put his lips on hers and very slowly and gently, he began kissing them.
Immediately, Vivian froze in place, and all strength seemed to have left her, making her body go soft.
Before she could fall, Max wrapped one hand around her waist and the one holding her chin went around and held her upper back with his palm supporting her neck.
So, the kiss continued... uninterrupted.
Several minutes later, Max finally pulled back and stared at her, red, dazed face and into blurry eyes. She looked simply ravishing at the moment, igniting the flames of his lust. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
"You tasted delicious." He whispered seeing she had regained her senses.
His words made her go red once again and she lowered her head, not daring to meet his gaze.
'How sweet!' Max thought seeing her act all shy.
He then activated [Discerning Eyes] and checked her sexual arousal.
[Sexual Arousal: 30%]
'Damn! It increased so much when lips aren't even her sensual point.' He thought and raised her head with a finger below her chin.
Blushing and embarrassed, Vivian looked at him with half lidded eyes. Again, she looked very sensual like this, making him want to flip her around, pull her skirt up and fucked her hard, right then and there.
'No. She isn't Ruth. Calm down.' He told himself. While she wasn't resisting mostly because of her kinks, he couldn't risk it, at least not until he had made her his woman.
After calming down a little, he kissed her lips lightly, then her forehead, her nose, her lips again, then her chin, cheeks and her earlobes before stopping at her nape.
Hnn~
As soon as he placed his lips on her skin and breathed out a hot breath, Vivian shivered and let out a moan.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw her sexual arousal spike.
After he kissed her a few times and gave her fragrant skin a few licks, it had exceeded 50 and was reaching 60.
Seeing this, he began to push her back on the bed. But right then...
Knock! Knock!
"S-Sir Max... The governor is asking for you."
Max's expression froze and annoyance welled up in his heart, making him furrow his brows.
Vivian let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly gathered herself. But at the same time, she also felt a hint of annoyance, the realization of which made her bite her lower lip in shame and... dark excitement.
Then she saw Max's annoyed expression. In the next moment, countless thoughts flashed in her mind before she finally placed her hand on top of his and softly said, "It's okay."
Swoosh!
Before Max could react, she jumped out of the bed and rushed into the bathroom on her tippy-toes, making almost no noise.
After she disappeared in the bathroom, Max's annoyance evaporated and his lips curled up into a victorious grin.
Fixing his shirt, he walked out of the room and saw a girl, around Natalie's age, standing there.
Seeing him, the girl hurriedly lowered her head and nervously said, "D-Do you know the way, sir, or s-should I lead you there?"
"I know the way. Also, no need to be nervous around me. I'm not a bad guy." Max smiled and gently rubbed her head before saying, "Now go home and rest for a while."
"Y-Yes, sir." The girl bobbed her head up and down rapidly before taking a step back and bowing her head, "P-Please excuse me."
"Hmm. Go on." Max nodded. After the girl left, his expression turned serious and he headed toward his grandfather's room.
Hopefully, the old man would keep calm this time and some of his questions would be answered.
Furthermore... It was also time to meet his mother.
Soon, Max arrived in front of the old man's room and after knocking it twice like Vivian had done, he entered.
The old man was sitting on the sofa, facing the door like before. Seeing him enter, he didn't say anything, but just stared at him.
"Hello, Grandfather. I hope you are feeling better." Max broke the silence.
The old man sighed and shook his head, "I don't know if I should feel better or be more worried."
His expression calm, Max glanced at the sofa facing the old man and after he nodded, he took the seat before asking in a neutral voice, "Because Samuel Brown won't stop?"
The Old Governor jolted and stared at him in surprise, "How... Did your father tell you? Nah, why would he tell you about him when he didn't tell you about us."
After mockingly saying this, he asked, "So, you found one of his letters, huh?"
"Yes." Nodding, Max took out the letter from his pocket and placed it on the table.
The old man didn't pick it up, "I can roughly guess what's written in there. So, no need to get my blood pressure high by reading it."
Though the old man's voice sounded calm, Max noticed the hidden frigid chill and the murderous glint that briefly flashed in his murky eyes.
His pupils constricted for a moment and his heart slowed down before everything went to normal. But in that moment, he felt as if he was staring at a wounded, fierce beast, ready to unleash carnage.
Feeling curious, he activated the [Discerning Eyes] and immediately felt his head throb in pain—this activation had taken more energy than all the other uses during these two days combined.
Enduring the pain, he glanced at the information screen and immediately, his eyes narrowed because except for his name, there was no other information on it.
[Name: Robert Foster]
"What is it?" Robert asked, noticing him staring at him with narrowed eyes.
"I'm just thinking exactly what is going on here?" Max said. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Robert looked at him for a moment before he said, "I'll tell you, but first, extend your hand."
Though puzzled, Max did as asked. Robert grabbed his hand and began squeezing his palm, wrist and forearm.
Once he was done, his brows creased in confusion and he muttered, "You haven't practiced your family's martial arts, nor you are an Awakened... Even so, you are way stronger than an ordinary person. This is strange!"
Max's eyes flickered in surprise when he heard the words 'Martial Arts', and 'Awakened'.
'I was right. This world isn't as simple as it appears and supernatural things aren't just a myth, a thing of fiction, but a reality.'
He knew this revelation had just increased the difficulty of achieving what he was aiming for—to become invincible in this world.
Despite that, he didn't worry or became depressed even a bit. In fact, excitement surged in his heart.
Things had just gotten a lot more interesting.
...
After coming to his senses, Robert noticed Max's excitement.
For a moment, he was confused, but then he remembered he had spoken out loud just now and revealed some things he wasn't aware of.
'Tsk! A spawn of Williams indeed!' He clicked his tongue in displeasure and then coldly said, "What are you getting excited for, you brat?! Do you really feel happy that you have many powerful enemies, who can kill you with a snap of their fingers?"
His words jolted Max to his senses and his expression hardened. He knew the old man was talking about his Williams family's enemies.
"Do you know how many such enemies my Williams family has?" He asked.
"Heh? How many?" Robert's lips curled up into a mocking grin. "Let me just say that thanks to the 'grace' of your father and ancestors... you have more than enough to last you a lifetime."
"Is that so?" Max muttered, his eyes flickering in thought for a moment. Then, he asked, "Now, can you tell me about Samuel Brown?"
Robert's eyelids twitched seeing he didn't seem worried even after hearing this. He wanted to tell him not to take this lightly, knowing if he died, Sarah would be heartbroken, but he knew telling him anything of this sort would be futile for no reason other than that he had Williams blood running through his veins.
He stayed silent for several seconds, several thoughts running in his mind. In the end, he let out a wistful sigh, and shook his head.
"You want to know about the Brown family's kid?" He asked, but without waiting Max to respond, he continued. "I'll come to him later. First let me tell you some basic knowledge about this world."
Max focused on him, not wanting to miss even a single word or expression.
After pausing for a moment to sort out his thoughts, Robert began.
"Most of you have learned about the history of this world and mankind is made up. As for why, you'll come to know the reason in future."
"Now, roughly 10,000 years ago, this world had abundant world energy which people called Mana. I'm sure you have heard or read about it in those magic fantasy novels. The description of Mana in those novels is close to reality. So, I'm not going to waste my breath explaining about it."
Saying this, he paused for a moment before continuing, "At that time, people were capable of harnessing this energy and could continuously become stronger.
But then, for reasons unknown to me, the mana became sparse before completely disappearing from the world.
Without Mana, people fell to mediocrity and gradually became ordinary. Then the passing of time not only erased the traces of that wonderful but brutal and unforgiving world, it also erased its memories from people's minds."
Robert let out a sigh at the end and fell silent.
Max didn't urge him and calmly waited for him to continue, which he did after a short while.
"During that time, several organisations and family clans dominated the world. Since everyone was vying for supremacy, most of these organizations and family clans weren't on good terms with one another.
When the Mana disappeared, most of the weaker organisations and family clans were either destroyed by their enemies, who looted them clean, or the time reduced them to mediocrity and they became part of the ordinary population.
Just as the chaos caused by the disappearance of Mana had died out, most of the forces gathered together and attacked the Williams Family, one of the strongest forces of that time."
Robert looked at Max as he said this, but Max had no change in his expression. Shaking his head, he continued, "As I said before, most of the organisations and family clans had enemies, so the Williams Family hadn't let their guard down yet.
But they probably hadn't expected so many forces to gather and attack them, so within a day... The Williams Family was destroyed. Every member, be it old, young or newborns... all were mercilessly slaughtered.
This wasn't the end of the things, however, because the coalition army then marched toward the Williams Family's subordinate forces and began destroying them one by one.
However, there were a few subordinate forces who weren't attacked.
Can you guess why?"