Most of the people in the room were very beautiful. The rare ugly people were usually men who were accompanied by very beautiful women. It was funny for Lucielle to see all these people keeping a serious look on their faces, always adjusting their clothes to try to look as serious and beautiful as possible.
There was even an obese man who was slowly turning red in the face, probably because he had put a shaper belt under his suit to try to hide his belly but had failed miserably when the rest of his body exposed how fat he really was. Lucielle started to have fun watching this man almost choke from shortness of breath. In a short amount of time the man had to sit down and get up three times in a row to greet people who came to talk to him, but each time the man got up, Lucielle saw his face getting redder.
The man, who had only been slightly red, was now as red as a tomato. The other people around him pretended they didn't see it out of respect for the man, or because they were struggling with similar issues, but Lucielle didn't care and just smiled and giggled at the funny situation.
Suddenly Lucielle heard a sweet voice beside her. "Alone in a corner, eating a plate with a overflowing amount of food, and laughing with a look as if you were watching a stand-up comedy show. If a picture of you alone were to be taken, it would be difficult to say that we are in the same environment."
When she turned her head to look off to her side, a beautiful woman who looked to be in her late teens with blonde hair that just barely reached her shoulders and wearing a yellow dress was looking at her with an interested expression.
"You must learn how to enjoy the shows that life presents you with." Lucielle said, still with a slight smile on her face as she stopped looking at her and back at the fat man. " Look at this in 3.. 2.. 1.. now!"
When Lucielle said "now", the man she was watching couldn't take the belt anymore, and in despair, tore off his suit jacket and with shaking hands he pulled the shaping belt away from his belly as he stretched out on the chair as if he were recovering from a marathon.
When Lucielle saw the man breathing with pleasure and other people looking away so as not to embarrass the man but trying their best not to laugh at his situation, Lucielle was no longer so discreet and gave a low laugh at the situation unfolding before her amethyst eyes.
While she took another snack from the plate on the counter she was propped up against, the woman next to her looked at her with renewed interest now since she also had to to take a few deep breaths so as not to laugh at the mans situation. It was like an unwritten rule for this kind of environment to respect whoever was trying to keep up appearances, but apparently the woman in front of her didn't care at all about that rule since she continued to laugh and stare at the obese man.
"You're obviously not a part of this sort of social circle are you?" she asked.
Lucielle was looking for another show to watch and without bothering to look at the young lady next to her, replied, "No, I don't have the money to participate in such circles, not that I'd care to participate in such behavior even if I was."
Seeing that Lucielle was not paying her much attention, the woman felt mildly annoyed, but her curiosity kept her talking to Lucielle. "But you're not afraid of these people either; you know that among them there are some who even have rank C powers, but you still don't care. Why?"
Lucielle, finding this question interesting, finally turned to look into the woman's blue eyes once more. As her amethyst eyes glittered under the lights of the room, she said calmly, "Why would I be afraid of something that I will eventually achieve myself?"
Hearing Lucielles' response, the woman was surprised. If what she said was true, then she was probably a rank C Slayer as well, but she didn't carry herself like a rank C Slayer would. Usually when one awakened to such a talent they would gravitate to the same circles as their peers, adopting the customs and mannerisms that would be appropriate for the social circle they were a part of.
But this woman in front of her was not like that. She was obviously past the age of awakening her power some time ago, so she would have interacted with these people enough to absorb the customs, even if subconsciously. None of these signs were present in the young woman before her. "interesting.." she said to herself in a low voice. "Thanks for the conversation. I hope to meet someone as interesting as you again in the future," she told Lucielle before leaving.
Lucielle watched her leave until she was out of her sight. Lucielle was very much a proponent of the age old saying "Treat others how you want to be treated." The young lady had been polite and respectful, though given the kind of event they were attending that wasn't too unusual. Another one of her favorite antiquated sayings "Give me a grain of good rice and I will give you a handful in the future, but give me a bad grain of rice and I will give you a bucketful in the future."
After what happened with the fat man, Lucielle found nothing else worth noting, and seeing that her plate was running on empty she prepared to get more food when she heard a voice speak up behind her. "It looks like you haven't eaten in days. Don't you have any food at home girly?"
Hearing that familiar voice, Lucielle turned around with a big smile on her face as she looked upwards to meet Ramons' teasing stare. The two were like that: at any given opportunity to make fun of each other, they would go at each other, but of course, without making it personal.
"While I don't have food at home, you look like you've eaten your whole house!" Lucielle laughed while leaning up to give Ramon a hug and mocking Ramons' pudgy belly, which when they had been in school had never shown up, but after they finished growing he sprouted it and no amount of working out had gotten rid of it. Otherwise Ramon would have been model perfect.
Hearing what Lucielle said, Ramon punched his friend in the shoulder and laughed. "At this point I can't argue. After all, I am talking to the one blessed by the god of beauty, the one who eats as much as she wants and still has the perfect physique without putting on a single gram more than she should!"
"Touché!" Lucielle responded with arms raised in surrender, laughing with her friend.
"I missed you, girly. We haven't been together in a long time. How is life? have you given up raiding Gates?" Ramon asked worriedly. He knew that Lucielle was not a high ranked Slayer, so the chance of his best friend dying in any random Gate was very high.
"I missed you too. Today I raided a Gate that in the end turned out to be a mutated Gate." Lucielle answered honestly.
"Wait a second... were you in *that* Mutated Gate? The one that's been on every news channel since the government released information stating that only four people made it out while eleven people died. Roberts younger brother keeps telling everyone how spectacular he was for surviving this Mutated Gate.," Ramon said with an astonished face.
"Oh... are you serious? I didn't know that was happening. I spent the rest of the day relaxing at home and resting so I didn't even turn on the news. But you talked about someone who also participated there. Who was it?" Lucielle asked, surprised. She didn't think Ramon would know anyone from that Gate.
"He's Roberts younger brother. Robert awoke a rank C power at 16 and nowadays at 23 he has already reached the strength of a peak rank D Slayer, almost crossing the barrier between C and D. His younger brother also awakened at 16, but unlike his brother, his power was only rank D, so people don't pay as much attention to him as they do his older brother," Ramon said.
After hearing her friends explanation, Lucielle already knew who he was talking about. In that Gate, only one person fit the characteristics described by Ramon. Now, what Lucielle didn't know is that Stark had an older brother with a rank C power, and that he had almost reached the full strength of the power itself.