"So you are those who people like to call peerless beauty huh"
"..."
Hanna was genuinely confused by his question. She doesn't like to brag about her looks and doesn't revolve her personality around them, but she knows how beautiful she is. So why is this person in front of her so dense?
"Ahem… Yes. Um, The day I was born my bloodline awakened. They found that I have the strongest bloodline since our progenitor. Making me by far the purest of all our ancestry. Since I was still just a baby, my DNA was still easy to modify"
She continued to play with her food as she spoke.
"So all the impurities from the past generations were eliminated. Boosting my talent, physical strength and lastly, my looks. Then I felt rather proud of how I look, my family treated me like a flower not to be sullied. It was kind of nice you know"
Her eyes drooped, looking at a whisper of the past.
"I was being treated as a little princess, what I wanted I got. Whatever I put my mind to,my training was easy, almost boring. Ha-ha. But all good things come to an to an end I guess"
Mike could feel a surge of emotions in her bubbling like a dark cloud ready to rain on a once sunny day.
"I come from a powerful background, the only mythical species on par with Dragons, The phoenix… Yet when real power come trickling down the branch, even the once mighty tree becomes a plant"
She wiped the little tear threatening to form in her eye.
"There are different kinds of species in the underworld, but we always had to adhere to a severe hierarchical structure. Everyone had to know their place and maybe a chance at peace would find them. But…"
Crrrt
Her fists shook hard enough her bones started to crack.
"There's always that one bully who fears to be overtaken so it was better they discarded the challenger before they become a real threat to their position"
The sadness was replaced by pure rage, her eyes red and veins popping out her neck.
"My family was just a side bench of the Phoenix clan. We were on the far tip of the branch that my brother could hardly even put his hands in flames. So my family thought the Progenitor had reincarnated into me. My family had long moved out of the clan. We had no ties to them, my grandfather started a small business that grew so fast now we are known by almost half of the underworld."
"We had long forgotten our standing in the family, but I guess with how huge it was and the rumours of my talents and blood purity. The head of our clan called my father back to the clan"
Mike raised his arm.
"Why does it sound like all these problems are linked to your clan head. Couldn't you just ignore him or something?"
"Well it would have been easy if this was only linked to our clan head. But there's another party at play. They practically forced our clan head to use his authority on my father."
"My father heard what they were after... Me. He tried to deny them. Wh…"
Drip.. Drip. a waterfall streaming down her smooth skin.
"Who knew they would go after my brother, decapitate him and burn his body in front of our house while his head was on a pike strung on our gate. My father almost killed himself. My mom.. Mom went into a coma. Some of our branches burnt down and the innocent died. My father almost succeeded in killing himself. I heard about their demands so I sneaked to the clan head and accepted"
She held her hand over her head to take cover so that no one could see her face. Luckily her back was turned against the cafeteria.
"My father begged me to reconsider. He even started planning to sell his business so that we could run away. That was until he heard the name of the third party"
Mike had been quiet all this long. His heart was racing, almost ready to jump out of his chest. He couldn't figure out what actually triggered his emotions. It is because she is trapped, or because there is a higher power threatening her freedom. Or something else playing he wasn't aware of.
Troubled by foreign emotions, most of his life was spent sitting on one spot. Observing a world of actors. The kids in the orphanage, the nuns and most importantly mother superior. Everyone of these people had a role assigned to them or should I say forced to them.
They lived like prisoners always under constant watch, fear gripping them. They could never really fully express their emotions or play out their desires.
Though Mike doesn't necessarily have a good outlook on humanity that doesn't mean he doesn't know where their fear comes from. It's just that they almost killed someone he cares about. He had always lived his life as an observer, disassociating himself to every character in the God story. He thought such action of oppression and taking advantage of the weak was something only the Gods do but clearly he was naive in his thinking.
"Who is this third party?"
She closed her eyes for a moment as if ready to say something that is stuck on her throat.
"Aamon he is what could be considered a Grand Marquis of the underworld. His influence rained far and wide and amassed a great number of legionnaires. He governs life and reproductions, the Dark old God who is closest to Promodial Gods. He wants me to become a bride to his Son"
Her eyes defeated after finally getting that out of his chest. Visibly tired and hopeless to get out of this situation.
"So when I smelt Satan's scent on you and the rumours it wasn't hard to connect the dots"
"How do you know Satan's scent though, he just woke up. You aren't even close to the main branch of your family. So how is it you know that"
Sniff, sniff.
Wiping away her tears. She is finally able to gain a bit of control over her emotions.
"Sebastian is a frequent customer at our main branch, he is like a Godfather to me. So I could smell the same scent off him as I do you."
Then it hit him. Sebastian is practically always near Satan.
"By the way, what business does your family do?"
"We run the biggest artifact and spirit herb in the underworld."
Phweeww! Whistle
"So your pocket is heavy like that"
"I take it Zenif is the son of this Marquise person"
Mhm!
Slight nodding.
"You lead a terrible life, all because of your looks. Your situation is no different from that of humans"
Shift
She quickly looked him in the eye.
"You know humans? So you are human. Is that why you have an odd smell? But there also another distinct smell about you, I can't quite put my hand to it"
Mike subconsciously moved back a bit.
"Your mood surely changes fast. I didn't promise I would do anything. We just met. But I'm still interested in being your friend. Your situation is fucked up so you need someone to call a friend which makes it easy to detemine if you are being authentic. Besides, If you betray me I would also 100% expect it"
Hanna raised an eye brow.
"Bye the way."
Pointing at her plate.
"Are you going to finish that"
Hanna roles her eyes. And pushed her plate to his side of the table.
"Aren't you afraid I will chase away potential friends?"
"Saves me the trouble of having weak people around me."
He wiped his mouth. The plate is already clean.
"When it comes out that I'm close to satan and heir of the underworld, there would've been people who got close to me with ulterior motives and perhaps some of your fiance's dogs would be mixed up in them. So having you around aint that bad after all"
HIs face produced an innocent smile. She on the other hand was surprised by his view of the world.
'Do you even trust anybody man. What kind of life have you led thus far? Is this the effect of living with Satan'
"It's non of that, trust like giving a stranger a knife and hoping they don't stab you"
"Stop reading my mind"
–_–
"You think anybody will be stupid enough to become your friend and oppose The Aamon Clan?"
"Nope, I think life is an adventure and having fear rule your path will only lead to ruin. I don't think anyone would want to be my friend but I know there are some souls out there crazy enough to join in my adventure. We'll just have to wait and see"
***
"Rex you really think you can do it, those beats are obviously of second rank even those second year from the academy won't dare come close to them"
A young man, rough black hair wearing tattered clothing with a spear in hand, the tip hand purple aura coming of it
"Don't lump me in with those sissie. Speaking of the academy I wonder if he is there yet"