"This is where you'll sleep at night," Hermes said to Ethan as he showed him around a large bedroom complete with a king-sized bed, a large walk-in closet, a double sitter couch, and a TV? Ethan was surprised at the homeliness of the room. It looked like it had been designed with comfort in mind.
It was the next day after school and Ethan had brought his stuff which wasn't much to Hermes's place. He had shared a teary farewell with his mother who had burst into tears again as she saw him with his school bag and old clothes bag. Ethan had comforted her and stuffed all 750 UWC of his monthly salary into her palms. She had refused to take the money but Ethan had finally managed to convince her to take it, saying that she could keep it safe for him if she had no use of it in the next month.
Finally, he had left the house with a surprised Dred staring daggers at his back after he had told Ethan he wished he never came back from wherever he was going. Ethan had ignored him but had silently wished Dred's wish came true for him. He had made his way to Hermes's place and here he was, being shown his room which was bigger than their entire living room.
"Are all the rooms in this house designed this way?" Ethan asked the Protector in slight awe.
"Yeah..I try to make the rooms as comfortable as possible. One never knows when they might get an important guest. Even though I have a nice living room with furniture and entertainment sets, I still opted for this design since I am well aware that not everyone will want to come join me in the living room. Some people just like to be alone." The Protector explained.
"Hm!...don't be too impressed child, you should see our castles. This place looks plain compared to my home. Everything is made of diamonds." Ares, the war god bragged.
'pft...you must think me a naive little boy if you expect me to believe that. Do you know the value of diamonds? How can you build a whole castle with diamonds when only one stone can buy you.' Ethan questioned the Protector.
"How insulting!! Are you saying a mere stone is worth more than I am?" The war god thundered in Ethan's head.
"Calm down Ares. I don't think that was what he meant. Remember we're in a different realm. Diamonds are rare valuable stones here whiles they are just normal shiny stones where we come from so it's easy for him to doubt you." Zeus calmed the angry Protector.
'you mean what he said is true?' Ethan asked Zeus, still finding it hard to believe that a whole castle could be built with only diamonds.
"I'm afraid it is true. Even though not the castle itself is made of diamonds." Zeus corrected. "Not that it's impossible but it's just too time-wasting due to the nature of diamonds. We only use diamonds for decorating the interior of our castles whiles the castles themselves are made from plain stone. Albeit very beautiful stones." Zeus finished to nods from Ethan who had completely forgotten that the one in his head couldn't see his actions.
Hermes watched the boy whose head was bowed in silence and knew at once that he was having a conversation with the others.
Ever Since Hermes had found out that the other's consciousness lived inside the boy, he had been wishing it was his head they had entered instead.
He held no grudge against the boy though. For all he knew, this could turn out to be a blessing for the boy and he was going to help the boy be the best version of himself so he could avenge the others.
"If you're done talking to them, then you should enter your room and unpack," Hermes said to Ethan whose cheeks started coloring as he realized he had spaced out on the Protector for a bit. "Dinner will be at 7 and training will start early at dawn. 4 am to be exact" The speedster announced.
"Huh..4 am? Why?" Ethan asked In shock. He needed his sleep. He didn't want to sleep in class the next day or worst end up lethargic.
"Because there's no time to waste, Ethan. Remember you have a quest to complete. This is the only way if you want to finish that quest and unlock your first power. We need to train three times a day, starting at dawn for the desired result. And also because discipline is the key to every martial arts" Hermes finished and turned to leave.
Ethan watched him leave in apprehension before making his way into his room to start unpacking. 4 am? The time kept repeating in his head the entire time he worked until he could swear at one point he had seen the number '4' everywhere around him. 'what a rude awakening I'll have come dawn' Ethan thought as he threw himself face-first onto the super-soft bed.
Not too far away, In a completely destroyed room that looked like it had been hit by a tornado, a large man was tied to a small chair he was sitting in. He had bruises all over his face and was bleeding from his mouth and nostrils. One of his eyes was closed shut and his lips were busted. It was hard to tell whether the man was conscious or not since his head was bowed low and his breathing was also shallow.
Three men who didn't look too good themselves stood around him. They also had bruises on their faces but not as severe as the man on the sofa. One of the three men moved forward and lifted the man's head by his hair.
"So even in this state, you still refuse to help us.", The man said. "Even when I mentioned your Alpha to you, you still refused. I'm wondering if Brava is that weak to the extent that his name commands no respect among his pack or if you're just special." The man wondered aloud. The bruised man in the chair looked at his tormentor with his one good eye but said nothing.
"All the same, I've concluded that you won't help us no matter what so I've made my decision. We've killed three of your neighbors who came to check what the commotion was yesterday. I had an idea from those three. What if we killed all your neighbors and then framed you for it?" The man asked his silent audience.
"No..no.no. I have a better one. What if we killed all your colleagues at the station including their families? They've been calling non-stop all day. I'm sure some of them will show up soon. No..no. that's also not good." The man sighed as he said this. The man on the sofa was still not showing any reaction.
"Aaahaa...I have the best one of the lot. What if we did all of the above..." The man said as he slowly pulled out a phone from his back pocket "and then add your son and your sister to the list of body counts." He finished just as he switched on the phone and showed the tied-up man a long conversation he knew all too well. It was a conversation he had with his sister not long ago, asking her to come take away his son.
Anston, for that was who the bruised-up man was, felt his heart stop for a second. No, not his son and sister. Anyone was fine with him but not those two. "You will not touch them!", Anston shouted as he felt new strength flow into his weak body. He started to wiggle in his bounds but they were too tight to even allow him proper movement.
"I'm sorry but I've already sent a group after your family. Don't worry, I'll let you speak to them before they die. As for you, we're taking you to Brava so he can deal with you himself." The man said and motioned to the other two intruders to grab Anston.
"Wait! Please wait. I'll help you. Just let my son and sister go." Anston bargained.
The first intruder looked at him in silence for a few seconds and then nodded. "Very well. We don't need them anyway. They were only punishment. I'll call my group and ask them to not hurt your family. For now, they will only be tailed. When you finish helping us, we will leave you and them alone and I promise not to Tell Brava anything about your actions today. That's all I can do for now." The man informed Anston.
"That's fine. Just tell me what you want so we can get this over with. The earlier you get out of my hair, the better for me and my family." Anston replied annoyed.
"Sure..sure. we have a simple task that needs your expertise and position. We need to find someone we believe is in this town and we need to find him quick." The man stretched the importance of the task.
"Do you have a name or anything we can use to identify him?" Anston asked. He wasn't playing when he said he wanted this over with quickly.
"His name..is Hermes" the first intruder announced.
Anston frowned. He knew of no such person in town. Anyway, there were other ways to narrow down a search. Besides, it could be that he had forgotten there was such a person or just that the person was using an alias. All the same, if he was in Mid-Mount, then they would find him. "do you have any other identification method? Perhaps a sketch or something? Can you even draw?" Anston asked the man.
The first intruder smirked as he heard this. "You have the best sketch artist standing right Infront of you. I could whip you a sketch of our man in 5 minutes max." The intruder bragged to a disbelieving Anston.