- Arthas -
I woke up the next morning and felt a weight on my chest and saw a mop of brown hair in front of my eyes.
The next thing which assaulted my senses was the musky smell of the entire room and the memories of the last night flashed in my mind.
We had been going at it until dawn and looking at the window, it seemed as if we were late getting up.
It's a good thing today we didn't have any hunts scheduled as Shiroe was going to collect information about the next bosses.
Still, I should probably get up.
Elaine is still in the other room.
My moving woke Veena up and she looked up at me groggily. "Hmm, is it morning already?" She asked while getting up and stretching her body.
"It's probably afternoon." I replied while looking at her figure again.
Even after last night's….events, just the scene of her stretching made my already hard morning wood even harder.
She also noticed it and chuckled. "Oh my, excited so early in the morning?"
"Can you blame me?" I asked with a smile of my own. "I am beside such a stunning woman. It would be odd if I wasn't like this."
"My my, did you get a Silver Tongue after last night?"
"I could always show you if you want. You did seem to enjoy my tongue quite a lot last night."
"Oh my! As delightful as that sounds, I guess we are already late for our duties. Moreover, I don't think our guest would appreciate being kept waiting while we indulged in pleasure."
A serious look came to my face as I remembered the thing about Elaine.
We wanted to ask her about the information on the outside world.
I nodded.
"Oh don't look so disappointed. We still have tonight. You don't think I was done with just one night, do you?" She said as she leaned me and kissed me.
My hand slipped around her and my tongue reached her lips which she opened, inviting me within.
We separated after a minute or two.
"Good Morning."
"Hmm, good morning."
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We cleaned up and got dressed before leaving the room.
Outside, Elaine was waiting too.
She was sober right now and looked slightly tense so she probably remembered what had happened yesterday.
"Good Morning, Elaine." Veena wished. "My apologies. We were tired last night and slept late today. Please give me half an hour to make myself presentable."
The girl bowed primly.
"Arthas, please give her company till then."
I nodded and looked at the girl while Veena walked towards the bath.
The girl also looked at me and hesitated before opening her mouth. "Guild Master."
"Arthas."
"Eh?"
"Call me Arthas. This is my home. I prefer not to bring my work to my home." I said, quoting my father.
Both mother and he made it a point to keep their work outside the home and concentrate on the family, something I was quite glad about.
She hesitated and nodded and a period of silence fell over the room.
I made an effort to break the silence from my side.
"So….Veena tells me that you are a magician, I mean in the real world. Is that true?" I asked.
I was a bit interested in her as I didn't know anything about her apart from the fact that Arthur Pendragon had run away from his home so that he could be with her. It was only from Veena's words that I found out that she was apparently some big deal in the Magical World too.
She opened her mouth, hesitating slightly before nodding.
"Ah, I am new to this as Veena only told me about this recently so I am just a bit curious about everything."
"Yes. I was a part of the Golden Dawn Magician Organisation before my services with the Pendragon family."
"The Pendragon Family? The same one with Arthur Pendragon?" I asked, pretending to be surprised.
She nodded.
I smiled. "That's amazing. My mother named me after Arthur Pendragon too. Oh, my real name is Arthur Strauss. Mom was always interested in stories of the myths." I said, trying to break the ice.
It was not a lie either and somehow my plot seemed to work too.
I saw a look of interest in her eyes but she was still a bit hesitant.
A moment later, I understood why she was like that.
"Oh, by the way, I have slightly muted emotions so if you feel the difference in my words and expressions, I apologise." I said and a look of realisation appeared on her face.
"No….no, I am sorry. I didn't know."
"Don't worry. Most people take it as me being too serious or just plain rude so it's better to clarify things beforehand to spare everyone the awkwardness later on."
Suddenly, an odd expression came to her face as she looked at me carefully.
"Arthur Strauss….Strauss….if I am not prying too much, may I ask where you are from? I mean in the real world?"
"Zurich, Switzerland."
She looked at me for a moment. "Are you perhaps related to George Strauss of the Strauss Industries?"
This took me by surprise and I replied with a nod. "Do you know my dad?"
She nodded. "Mr. George and his wife, Mrs. Emilia has been a patron of the Golden Dawn Organisation for years. Before them, it was his father, your grandfather, Mr. Marcus Strauss."
"What!" My dad was a magician? And mom too?
She seemed to realise my confusion and spoke before I could say anything.
"Patrons don't necessarily mean being Magicians themselves. Golden Dawn and many other such organisations have patrons, people who give them donations for various things but mainly protection."
"Excuse me, protection?"
She nodded and explained. "Yes, protection. You realise that in the supernatural world, it is very easy for even a normal human magician to hypnotise and take over any industry?"
I froze at the implications of her words.
I had never thought about all this before but it did make sense.
After all, even Devils and Fallen Angels had businesses in the human world so there were obviously other races and supernatural factions with similar businesses in the human world.
And where there is business, there is competition and fighting. In such cases, anyone from the supernatural side could easily control any rich person and easily drain them completely. They would be able to do nothing.
She explained further and her words were in accordance with my guesses.
"Sure there are unsaid laws against such things but there is no concrete body to enforce this and again….they are unsaid laws. Nothing is concrete. To prevent such things, most big businesses have contracts with the Supernatural side of the world. They provide them funds for research and in return receive protection from such cases. In many cases, they are also the ones who help the Supernatural factions clear out news of the sightings of the supernatural world if such an incident happens and keep a lid on things so it is a cooperation of mutual benefit."
"So…."
"No. While your family has been associated with the Golden Dawn for several generations, there have been no magicians in your family. They have always maintained a strictly business relationship with the Golden Dawn."
"Then how do you know about them? I don't think you would remember the names of everyone who supports Golden Dawn?"
"Obviously not. I only remember you because I remember George Strauss searching for ways to cure his son's muted emotions. He wanted to check if there was any supernatural involvement in it and if you were in any kind of danger." She smiled at me. "You have very good parents."
I opened my mouth at the sudden revelations. "I….I do."
It really warmed my heart to have such parents in this new life.
"Sigh….they would have been happy to see my improvement in all this time." A look of determination came to my eyes. "I guess I just have to complete this game and go out to meet them."
She looked at me again and nodded. "Yes. We will complete this game for sure and reunite with our precious people."
At this time Veena came out of the bath, all changed up.
"I see you two are getting along well. Good. Since you have already gotten acquainted, we can get to the serious talks once again."
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Author's Note:
I am back with another chapter of 'Soul Art Online'.
So, finally the time has come which many were waiting for.
Arthas bagged the devil milf.
Apart from that, I tried to build up the background a bit with the information about Arthas' parents.
Next chapter, we will see the reactions of everyone to the things going on outside.
Enjoy the new chapter.
Good Day, Peace Out.