Nancy gasped.
Everyone present in the room stared at her. But her gasp was justified as their conversation was strange, to begin with.
Two maids increased the moment of silence further by entering the room to serve tea. They placed a cup in front of each person present there and filled the cups with warm oolong tea.
They bowed their heads a little before leaving the room.
"I certainly did not run away from an engagement." Samuel clarified. "It was never supposed to happen as the parties never consented to it."
"Wha-!.." Grandma was speechless. "It was not a request! It was an order!"
"The only orders I must comply with are given by the superior-most military officer of this country. As much as I respect your elderliness, I believe it is wrong to force marriages on children, no? And I do not belong to anyone whatsoever."
Nancy carefully listened to how intricate his words were. With all due respect, this man was more than what he seemed to be. Nancy was kinda impressed.
Hertwig clenched his teeth nervously. His grandmother was going to be mad.
"I never forced anyone. I only want to do better for my children. Is that wrong?"
"It is wrong if no one consents to it."
"So you're saying, I shouldn't give opinions?" She sighed. "How the times have changed. Children used to oblige quickly back in old times."
"They would still oblige, given that your request falls in their criterion."
She sighed again.
"I can't argue with you. That proves it's you, Samuel." She chuckled. "But still, lying about such a trivial thing is unacceptable."
"Yes. That was Hertwig's idea."
She glared at Hertwig.
"I guess it was for the right then. She got married recently." Grandma sighed.
"Thank God you're not into cousin marriage." Hertwig nervously chuckled.
Though she was old and traditional, she was quick to understand. Even if they hadn't faked his death, she would've understood.
Hertwig just had been too scared to bring anything up. So he planned the most trivial things ever.
"Who's this young lady? Your girlfriend?" Grandma asked Hertwig.
"Ew," Nancy whispered.
"No, no." Hertwig nervously replied. "It's Nancy. The girl I've been tutoring for 8 years."
"And?" Grandma smiled lightly.
Uh oh. Not her as well!
"Nah, granny." Hertwig seemed confident. "Nancy and Samuel are dating."
Samuel loudly gulped the oolong tea, and Nancy lightly slapped Hertwig.
"Yeah?" Grandma asked in suspicion.
"They were together last night-"
****
"Fuck you, Hertwig!" Delirious Nancy was angrier than ever as they drove to attend the party.
"What?" Hertwig complained. "You wanted her to start talking and finalizing our marriage? Didn't you see how we got away with Samuel's case? She was fixated on getting my cousin married to Samuel. You have no idea how hard it was to get away with that."
"It was not too hard if we are being fair, as you faked my death when I migrated to Australia," Samuel added.
"No one asked you." Hertwig stuck his tongue out. "Anyhow, Nancy, it's not like you're going to visit her again, so it's all cool. Chill."
"Did you have to mention last night?" Nancy glared at him.
"It was the truth." Hertwig shrugged.
"It was the truth." Samuel agreed.
Nancy scoffed. She was utterly speechless. She crossed her arms and waited for their 'late' arrival at the party. She was worried that David would do anything to Veronica without her having to even appear at the party. No, right?
It was in a club. The place Samuel despised. He wasn't conservative, but he wasn't interested in anything that wasn't conservative.
The music was loud and it was filled with people from their college. Nancy sort of wondered how David reserved an entire club. She had known him for quite some time. All she knew was that he was an orphan and his only older sister worked at a mart.
Maybe Veronica paid for this. Nancy scoffed as she entered the club. Samuel turned around to leave at the sight before Nancy grabbed his arm and pulled him inside with her. Hertwig followed like a sheep.
"Professors!" Katherine, one of Veronica's minions exclaimed, bringing the two men beside Nancy to light.
Soon, Nancy was shoved away, and the crown was swarming onto the boys.
"Tch." She sulked as she saw the girls dragging Samuel around.
The girls shoved him to the bartender, and Nancy observed from a distance.
"Professor, we have the best cocktails tonight! You should try!" One of the girls, whom Nancy forgot the name of, asked the bartender to prepare a drink for Samuel.
"I do not drink." Nancy chuckled, witnessing Samuel say the nostalgic thing.
"Oh c'mon!" The girl sulked. "Sir~ Only today."
"Sl*t!" Nancy whispered loudly at the sight.
The girl offered the glass, bringing it up to his mouth. He rejected her offer by pushing the glass away from his mouth.
She nervously sat down, putting on a nervous smile on her face, and looked around to see if anyone saw that.
Nancy chuckled. Samuel was a golden nugget. A golden nugget she had all for herself.
Hertwig on the other hand, received all the love from all the girls. Of course. Since he was a prodigy, he loved that spotlight.
Nancy looked around in search of her prey, or more specifically, the victim-to-be.
She looked into the crowd in search of David and Veronica, making sure she stayed close to Samuel. She didn't want him tripping over, trying to find her.
Suddenly, her head became heavier.
{Activating Live Programming. Trigger: Crowd.}
Her eyes widened. She was programming! Did that mean her actions would program her in the way she wanted to?
She still didn't know how it worked. The system never gave her instructions. Maybe she could think about it and get the system programmed to give her instructions for more programming. That was a long process, right?
{Now receiving Live Programming instructions.}