Left with no choice she slowly approached Julian.
He either purposely ignores her or is entirely not aware of her presence, but she's guessing the former.
She smirked upon seeing how the game was progressing on the board.
A true Rhodes indeed. She thought.
She felt proud. With the years that she hasn't been physically around her nieces and nephews they seemed to have grown drastically. Though she felt a bit regretful not being able to personally witness their growth, she's happy for them.
Picking one scattered black piece on the side she placed it at the board giving an opening for the opponent to try to take over that particular area of Julian.
This finally caught her nephew's attention.
"Aunt Sel…"
The sharp tone on his voice didn't escape her. He also did not bother looking towards her meaning he has been aware of her presence since the very beginning as she predicted.
"Putting a piece here would give your opponent the chance to conquer this area of the board. That would have decreased your chance of winning by a margin."
Knowing well where he is planning to put the piece on his hand she decided to approach him by discussing the game. That is how she usually approaches her late younger brother then by pointing out the error in the next move that he's about to make.
Doing this not only will she be safe and avoid provoking his temper she'll also get his full attention.
"That could have also created an opportunity for me to approach and conquer his secured area on the board."
"True but that would mean you have unnecessarily sacrificed this particular piece of yours, when you could have just made your opponent believe that they could conquer this other area of yours leaving this side of his secured area completely open for you to conquer."
Julian didn't talk for quite a while digesting how he could have missed that pattern in the first place. No he didn't miss it, perhaps the notion has always been there all along, he's just hesitant to take the risk.
Then a memory flashes through him.
*****Flashback*****
"What? Again? I can't believe I lost my secured piece. How did you even do that?" A young Julian complained. In front of him is a handsome man grinning from ear to ear.
"It's a secret, if I tell you how I won then I won't be able to beat you in the future."
"Not fair... one more time. I'll definitely win this time."
"Nothing is ever fair, remember never be afraid to take some risk."
*****End of Flashback*****
Julian shook his head, his grip tightening on the go piece he's holding, trying to get rid of the memory and return his focus on the game on hand.
His next move makes Selene smile, after all she was the one who taught Soul how to play Go who then later on taught Julian as she is already too busy with her military duties when Julian showed interest in learning the game.
"They send for you to call me?" He asks after going through what his aunt has told him earlier.
"Not really, I just wanted to see for myself what could have caused them to bend their tails from the mere mention of your name." Selene purposely increased her voice knowing well that the rest are just outside the room.
Julian smiled which gave Selene an epiphany, it is scary how Julian resembles Soul especially when he wears that devilish smile that is considered to be a signature smile of his late brother.
Between the four of them the twins, Hanna and Anna, resemble their late mother's classic beauty while she and Soul have their father's look.
So they're a bit surprised when Julian grew up to look so similar to Soul. With the similarity of their eye color, the ridiculously perfect chiseled jaw and thin even lips.
They even joked with Nathe because of this as it seemed that the only feature that Julian got from him is his Roman tall nose.
The distinct feature of the old Rhodes which seemed to be passed to all generations is his grey set of eyes with a speckle of blue, though the shade of blue varies to all of them you can't deny the fact that it runs in the family. And so far it is Jin's eyes that matches the old Rhodes eyes the closest having a deeper speckle of blue.
"I assume everyone's around then?" Julian finally put the final piece at the board then stood up to head down towards the meeting room.
Hearing this the rest of the family who is idling outside his room scram at once.
Selene only nodded and looked at the board one last time.
Complete dominance, not even a single area is completed by the other piece. She involuntarily shivered at the thought as to what kind of devil incarnate has Soul and her father turned her nephew into.