Lucielle was no longer paying direct attention to the duo but she was still keeping tabs on what they were doing out of the corner of her eye. Starks older brother Robert was a bit on the tall side, with a thin nose and brown curly hair as well as a very athletic body which was the norm for high ranking Slayers though not every Slayer fit into that standard.
Body shapes like that of obese Slayer that had raided the Mutated Gate with Lucielle could usually only be found within the lower rank Gates, since after rank E, it was almost impossible for anyone to survive inside a Gate with a body like that. The monsters inside were significantly faster and vastly more intelligent in rank D and higher Gates, so being fat inside one of those Gates would only make the Slayer a big walking target, but they'd be so slow that the "walking" part could almost be discarded.
Starks' older brother Robert was still looking at Lucielle with a puzzled look, since he remembered the woman he thought was a valet and now saw that woman was the woman his younger brother was talking about so much, that had survived the Mutated Gate even though she had a rank F ability. Seeing this surprised him, since Robert didn't expect he would find this Slayer right here. Walking over to Lucielle and Ramon the man began speaking.
"So you mean you are the rank F Slayer who survived the Mutated Gate with my brother? It looks like you're not really that big of a deal..." Robert said as he looked at Lucielle with an unfriendly stare, as if he were just saying a fact.
Lucielle raised an eyebrow as she finally looked fully at Robert., surprised that Robert said it so openly yet unhappy that this person came to ruin the atmosphere that was so good between her and Ramon. "I doubt that a poor rank F could look like anything in your eyes," Lucielle said, pretending to truly believe that Robert was far superior to her.
"It's good that you know this. From what my brother told me, apparently you are stronger than an ordinary rank F. What are you? A peak F rank? Or maybe one of the rare cases that managed to exceed the rank itself?" Robert asked Lucielle out of curiosity.
"Cases where someone exceeds their rank are very rare. I am already happy to have reached the peak of rank F," Lucielle said, pretending to be sorry. She might as well have showed her true strength around here, just as she did with her aunts secretary, but this situation was different. With the secretary they would try to hit her anyway, so in one way or another Lucielle would have to fight back and consequently she would have to show her own strength. Not to mention that the strongest Slayer under her aunt were rank D, something that Lucielle could contend with right now. Now, concerning Robert, Lucielle knew that she would only be looking for trouble since Robert was at the peak of rank D and almost with breaching distance of rank C. It would be almost impossible to kill him. If she succeeded, Roberts family would probably send people of the same strength or even stronger to avenge the man, and if she did not succeed, she would have a future rank C enemy going after her from then on, something she definitely couldn't handle right now.
So Lucielle determined maintaining the façade of being just a weak rank F was the best choice. For possible enemies so powerful, revealing ones strength would just be suicide.
"Hmm, what a pity. I think you really should become a valet, since that way you would have less chance of dying." Robert said as he looked Lucielle over onnce more. "Or perhaps being a bed mate would suit you more with a body like that." He leered at her briefly before turning to leave with Stark at his side, who followed after him while flashing a mocking smile towards Lucielle.
Every time Robert said something, Lucielle had to hold Ramon back so that Ramon wouldn't interfere. She knew that from her friends expression, he was very angry to see how Lucielle was being treated, but Lucielle couldn't let Ramon make things worse. "Calm down. Do you think those idiots pissed me off?" Lucielle said to Ramon.
Ramon snorted and replied to Lucielle. "I never liked those two. They think that just because their family has a lot of rank D and C Slayers that they're better than everyone else. And even though they came into my house as guests, they showed me no respect, and worse still, they spoke ill of my friend right in front of me! I can't tolerate that."
"Nah, don't worry about it. They're just two idiots. What shit spews out of their mouth holes doesn't bother me in the slightest." Lucielle said in a calm voice. Insults of this degree had long since lost their sting, especially now that Lucielle knew she would eventually outclass them all. For now however she just wanted to enjoy the time she had right now with her friend.
During the rest of the party, Ramon made it clear to Lucielle that he was happy that Lucielle had come, since if it weren't for her, it would probably be a very long night having to entertain these boring and involved people.
Lucielle stayed late into the night until people started to leave and she called a Tuber to pick herself up. Ramon tried to convince her to stay over, but since she had already done so on several occasions, but Lucielle said she had an appointment for the next day. So, leaving her friend behind discouraged, Lucielle left for her home where she had a good night's sleep.
The next day Lucielle opened the GSC app on her phone and put on her profile that she was looking for rank E Gates to raid. That was how the government decided who would raid the Gates. Usually the Slayer would receive a login on the application with the account already registered and whenever one wanted to raid a Gate, the only thing needed to do was put it to available and looking for a Gate, in addition to saying if they preferred to go as a group or in a partnership with someone they already knew.
Lucielle never used the group option since no one ever felt that she would be necessary or useful enough to be invited to a raid party. So whenever she looked for a Gate, he was alone.
Now that she was queued for for a gate, Lucielle had a good shower and breakfast before practicing with her Hellfire skill. Mithrial said the skill would become stronger and she would have more control of it when it evolved, but she still wanted try controlling it on her own rather than overly relying on the system to assist her.
Sitting cross legged in the garden outside, Lucielle took great care not to be near any bushes or trees so that no accidents occurred. She might have been able to control the flames to stop it from spreading, but she didn't want to ruin anything in her home garden, especially now that the bushes were too big because they had grown without any care due to a lack of money.
With an open hand, she started to control the fire to float calmly in the air before violently spewing forward in a cone shape as Lucielle tried to fashion the Hellfire fireball she usually used into a flamethrower. The fluctuations in temperature caused a sheen of sweat to appear on her skin.
Releasing her hold of the Hellfire skill, Lucielle wiped away the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead. "Phew that temperature is no joke. It doesn't hurt but it really isn't pleasant." Lucielle was about to try her new Hell Stride ability when her phone rang, notifying her that a rank E Gate had been found.