Roberto's eyes fluttered open as he fought to regain consciousness. Groaning, he forced himself to sit up as he let out series of painful coughs. He paused as his blurry sight caught an image. Out of fear, he scurried backwards.
"Calm down you big baby", Esau grunted.
He was seated on the floor with his legs folded into each other and his hands folded across his chest.
"Sleep well?", he smiled.
Roberto glanced at him carefully as memories of what happened resurfaced. He had been knocked out clean by just a kick. This man in front of him was powerful. Too powerful.
"Now that you are awake, I want my information", Esau said.
Roberto knew better than to act against him. He had been defeated squarely by Esau. He glanced around and saw his brother at the far corner of the room, unconscious.
"Is my brother still alive?", he asked with concern written all over his face. Esau took a casual glance at Antonio before turning back to Roberto.
"He'll live".
Esau had actually checked on him and had noticed he had broken few ribs and probably had an inflamed lung. With enough treatment in the hospital, he'd be fine.
He watched as his tensed shoulder finally relaxed. It was obvious Roberto cared so much about his brother. This made him remember a little about his own brother. He really wondered what had happened to him.
"So what would you like to know?", Roberto interrupted Esau's wondering thoughts. He had come to accept the man in front of him was not on his level. If he wanted to kill him now, he easily could.
"How about we start with how many Blesseds are out there?", Esau licked his lips. His eyes narrowed itself in concentration and curiosity.
Roberto raised an eyebrow in confusion. He didn't understand why anybody would ask him such. He wondered if Esau thought he was an official of the World Government as it was only them that would have such information.
"I do not know the specific number since I'm not an official that works for the World Government but I think I can give an estimate. It should be close to a hundred million.", Roberto concluded.
Esau's eyes glowed in surprise. He was really amazed. He wondered how they had been able to stay in hiding with such a number. Not like he had searched but since he came out of his isolation, he had never had an encounter with any.
"Then, how come they've been able to sta...", he was about to ask when something hit him. He frowned a bit before speaking.
"Wait... The World Government knows about Blesseds?", he asked.
Roberto was confused at this point. He was beginning to suspect Esau was messing with him. He wanted to to say something but decided against it. He chose to answer the question instead.
"Of course. Well for starters, they are also Blesseds and they are the World Government.", Roberto deliberately emphasized. It was absurd for a Blessed to not know of this unless they had fallen from heaven instead of being born like every other man.
Esau rubbed his chin. He knew of the World Government. He knew of how they were formed centuries ago but he only knew the basics and not the comprehensive details. He knew the Government had sixteen council members whom are occasionally replaced when their time in office is up. He didn't know how that went nor occurred. He didn't care. Well, not until now.
"Give me the details you have on the World Government", Esau quickly requested.
Roberto's eyebrows twitched in frustration. He really didn't want to start going on and on about something that virtually all Blesseds in the world knew about. Even ordinary people knew to a point, how the system of the World Government worked.
"The World Government was formed centuries ago. It was said to be formed after late Lord Mark Dean had one day decided to subjugate the world. He was a Blessed and a very powerful one. I do not recall his blessing's rank though but I heard he could evaporate seas and send rains of fire with his abilities. With an enormous army, he marched against the world. It was one of the greatest battles. During the war, Lord Mark Dean failed and lost his life and that had ended the war. Although he had passed his blessing to his son, the war was discontinued and soon the Dean family disappeared from the face of the earth. Wanting to never allow this to happen again, Earl Clifford whom had created his own army and had single handedly gone toe to toe with Lord Mark Dean and had even killed him, decided to create a council to watch over and lead the world. Fifteen of his strongest soldiers were picked and a sixteen man council was formed. He had named it 'The freedom council'.",Roberto paused as he noticed Esau was fully concentrated on him. He coughed awkwardly before continuing.
"At that moment, the council had decided to pass a bill that every Blessed be registered for accountability. As expected, some Blesseds didn't agree with the system and decided to stay out of it and not answer to them. It was fine for a while until another bill was passed that any Blessed who deliberately acted against ordinary humans be prosecuted. It caused an uproar in the society as most Blesseds had taken some of the ordinary humans as slaves. In addition, in a world ruled by strength.... That rule was absurd.", Roberto threw his hand in the air dramatically.
Esau squeezed his eyebrows. He had missed all these when he ran off to an uninhabited island. He was learning a lot from the history of the World Government. They called themselves 'The freedom Council' but it looked like they were only trying to protect the ordinary humans. Esau had no problem with that but it just seemed fishy.
"Soon more absurd rules were passed and all were to surpress the presence and influence of the Blesseds on the human world. Not long after, a rebellion started. At first, it was a simple protest that was led by Archduke Franz Ferd until he was assassinated by the World Government. It had led into a war and had been named 'World War I'.", Roberto continued.
Esau shifted on his position uncomfortably as he scratched his head awkwardly. He recognized that name 'Archduke Franz Ferd' very much, simply because he was the perpetrator and not the World Government. His little action had caused the misunderstanding and led to a World war. He wondered if Roberto would even believe if he told him he instead had actually killed Franz Ferd.
Roberto didn't notice Esau's suspicious actions and continued.
"The rebellious army had lost completely and had been wiped out entirely. The Government used that chance to further impose on the freedom of the Blesseds. Soon, we became mere myths and fairytales to ordinary humans. Most of them have never even heard of us."
Esau nodded as Roberto concluded. Honestly, he was satisfied with the debrief. Staring at the large man, a smile formed from his lips. He placed his cheek on his palm and rested his elbow on his thigh.
"Tell me. What is the rank of your blessing?"
"My Blessing is a C-rank and I'm a 2-star Hessian.", Roberto answered proudly.
Esau looked at him befuddled. Thousands of years ago, Blessings were only graded alphabetically after some practical tests. He didn't understand what the '2-star Hessian' meant.
"What is a 2-star Hessian?", he asked curiously.
Roberto wasn't as surprised as before. He had partly expected the question from him. Esau was a man that obviously didn't know how the Blessed system worked. It was strange but it wasn't completely impossible. He breathed in deeply and exhaled.
"I'll start with the meaning of an Hessian", Roberto started.
"Hessians are Blesseds registered with the World Government as mercenaries. The Hessians, just like Blessings, are ranked. From the lowest which is a 1-star up to the highest, which is a 5-star.", he pulled his collar to the side and revealed two stars tattooed on his broad chest.
Above the starred Hessians, we have the High Hessians.", Roberto's face became extremely serious as he stared at Esau. One could tell the weight of the High Hessians from his actions.
Sudden excitement suddenly filled Esau's eyes. He looked like a kid listening to his dad tell a fairytale. The truth was Esau was only curious about how powerful these guys were. Living a very long life had made him extremely bored. He wanted to fight strong opponents and feel the thrill of using his powers once more.
Roberto smiled bitterly as he noticed the light in Esau's eyes.
He could tell Esau was powerful. He probably was as strong as a 4-star Hessian but he had seen the strength of High Hessians and it was terrifying. Not like he cared about Esau's well being but a simple advice wouldn't hurt.
"Mister.... Eerr?"
"Esau", Esau answered.
"Mister Esau. High Hessians are very powerful beings. This title is given to the strongest hundred and it's from this hundred, the World Government assigns officials from.", Roberto spoke carefully.
Esau understood Roberto was trying to warn him that apart from being powerful, High Hessians were influential. But he was interested in seeing their strength for himself. He asked Roberto for places he could find these High Hessians but even Roberto had no idea. These were big shots, how would he know?
After a while of more interrogation, he finally left. He had found how he could register himself as an Hessian and had decided to go do that immediately after his quest.