"How dare you disregard my husband! Ferdinand Winter is one of the most prominent mages of our generation! He has successfully conquered two dungeons, destroying their cores and making the world a safer place! Show some respect!"
"Oh, should I be impressed that he cleared two low-ranked dungeons?"
"Tsk, what have you done then to speak such high and mighty words?"
"Thirty."
"Thirty?"
"I cleared thirty dungeons and some of them were high-ranked ones. You might have heard of me, my name is Darwin."
"D-D-Darwin?!!! Well, I guess you can speak with such arrogance then. However, do not think that we will simply let this go!"
The woman storms out with a pale look on her face. Hearing the name Darwin must have really scared her. But what was that about conquering thirty dungeons? Isn't it our job to protect them?
Darwin must be one of the strongest adventurers known in human history, right?
Paragons?
They sound like pretty bad news to me. I hope I never meet them.
Good.
I look around to see how Valeria is doing and find her strutting towards me. Darwin is holding a high-tech camera while taking pictures of the destroyed reception area.
"Navi, I'll be borrowing Jade for a while. Can you man the reception for today?"
"Sure, make sure not to bite her though."
Navi's voice rings out behind me and the blond beauty strides past me. I didn't even notice her approaching me from behind!
But at the moment I'm more worried about the content of their conversation. What did Valeria mean by borrowing me? And why did Navi agree? I can decide that for myself, dammit!
Not that Valeria would care. She reaches me, picks me up in princess-carry and walks right out the front doors. I am carried down the road and into a mansion surrounded by willow trees.
The mansion has a dark vibe and the front door creeks when Valeria pushes it open with her foot. The inside is dark like the oak wood used to build it.
"Usually only prey may enter my mansion but today I'll make an exception. I need someone to hear me out and Navi is not the girl I want to tell any more about my past than I already have."
"So what, I'm your emotional support snake now? I don't remember agreeing to take on such duties."
"I asked Navi so you got no say in this. Become strong enough to beat me and then you can drag me around as your emotional support bat."
"I don't want an emotional support bat!"
"I also suck your blood if you want to."
"I don't want that either!"
"Too bad."
Valeria sets me down on a cushioned chair and walks away. The is no source of light in the mansion so I have little idea what is going on. Valeria isn't registering in my thermal detection and my surroundings are all at roughly the same temperature.
A few minutes pass as I simply sit there. I don't dare to move since Valeria seems in a weird mood. I can't tell what she'll do if I act up.
Finally, with the sound of glass clanking, I hear her come back. Curiously I don't hear her steps but the rustling of her clothes when she moves...
Is that really Valeria? It could be anybody.
The glass objects are set down generating more noise and the sound of whoever is there ceases. Feeling a little nervous, I look around trying to get a grasp on the current situation.
"Oh, I forgot. You can't see in the dark, can you? Let me help you out."
I am now certain that it was Valeria who came back and is now only a few meters away from me. She claps her hands twice in rapid succession and a flame spontaneously lights up in a fireplace behind us. The fire roars as it begins to consume the finely chopped wooden logs in the fireplace.
With a source of light now present, a part of the room we are in is revealed. Two cushioned grandma chairs are placed opposite each other, a small table between them. I am sitting on one of them, Valeria on the other. A bottle of wine and two gorgeously made crystal goblets are placed on the table.
The light doesn't reach further so that's all I can see. The fire is the only source of heat I can detect. Valeria is completely invisible to my heat detection even now.
"I quite like the dark but sitting in front of a crackling fireplace also has its charms. Would you like a glass of wine while you listen to me?"
"Why are we doing this again?"
"Apparently it's bad for your psyche to keep memories of the past bottled up and I feel like I can talk to you. Also, if I read your face right you are also experiencing some... complications with your family."
"I don't have a family anymore!"
"Blood ties are hard to break even when you have a new body. Just look at me failing so hard to keep my composure before the one I used to call mother."