Stark Continued…
"And a few months later, she disappeared. My mom sent me this picture in a letter, and said they were thinking about adopting her. That letter's long gone, though. I couldn't find it anywhere."
Tony's eyes darkened.
"After she vanished, my parents never mentioned her again. Not once."
Lemu's brows furrowed. An unknown girl suddenly appearing and disappearing—was she really human?
And if not, was it possible she'd left Earth entirely?
Tony snapped his fingers. "You get what I'm saying, right? The first time I saw you back in the desert, I knew you looked familiar. Didn't I tell you that?"
Lemu nodded slowly.
Tony leaned forward, his gaze probing.
"So? What if there's a connection? Maybe you two came from the same place? Could she be related to you? A sister? A cousin? Her kid?"
Lemu almost burst out laughing.
A kid? Seriously?
Great Sage, confirm my biological age and genetic structure.
'Notice: Biological age approximately two years. Genetic structure—artificial construct. No familial connections detected.'
Two years old.
And people kept treating him like a teenager—or worse, a child.
Suppressing a smirk, Lemu raised his hands in surrender. "Sorry to disappoint, but I don't know her. I was raised by an old man in the mountains. Never met my parents."
Tony frowned, leaning back. "Huh."
Pepper, however, let out a soft gasp. Her face crumpled, and before Lemu could react, she pulled him into a gentle hug, patting his shoulder.
"Oh, honey…"
Lemu froze, caught completely off guard.
What's with the pity?
In Pepper's eyes, the story painted a tragic picture—an orphan boy raised by a reclusive hunter, only to lose his family to terrorists before being stranded in a foreign country.
A brave, independent survivor… who was secretly just a lost, lonely child.
Pepper's heart ached, and her motherly instincts kicked in.
Lemu, meanwhile, sat stiffly, unsure whether to squirm free or let her continue.
'Great Sage,' he thought desperately, 'help me out here!'
'Notice: No immediate threat detected. Emotional bonds can be leveraged for long-term strategic benefits.'
Traitor.
Pepper finally let go, sniffling as she wiped her eyes.
Tony, clearly amused, took the moment to steer the conversation back.
"Alright, alright. Enough drama." He pointed at Lemu. "Answer me this—do your people all have the same 'talents' as you?"
Lemu blinked. "Talents?"
Stark deliberately avoided revealing Lemu's true identity as an 'alien.' Instead, he used vague terminology to mask the truth.
"It's not like that. Back there, I was… special in my own way. Geniuses aren't exactly common," Lemu said, brushing the topic aside with a nonchalant tone.
Pepper arched a brow, curiosity evident in her expression. "What kind of genius?"
Stark adopted a serious demeanor, though his words were far from it. "Something like a photographic memory, I suppose."
Lemu nodded earnestly, his tone matching Stark's conviction. "Exactly, I have a photographic memory."
Great Sage has a photographic memory. 'Great Sage is mine. Therefore, I have a photographic memory.' The logic was impeccable—or so Lemu convinced himself.
Stark's expression turned contemplative. After a brief pause, he leaned forward slightly, his sharp gaze fixed on Lemu as if trying to read his deepest thoughts.
"You can't go back now. You're stuck here with no connections and no roots. So what's your plan?"
His voice softened, layered with subtle persuasion. "If you're willing, I can arrange for adoption paperwork. Legally speaking, you'd become my heir, inheriting a multinational corporation worth billions—enough wealth and influence to determine the fates of countless lives."
Stark gestured casually, but his tone carried an undercurrent of temptation, as though offering Lemu the keys to a kingdom.
Of course, there was more to his offer than met the eye. Inheritance rights didn't guarantee actual inheritance. At the end of the day, the power to distribute his fortune still lay firmly in Stark's hands.
This wasn't an act of charity, nor was Stark suddenly feeling sentimental about taking in a stray alien.
Firstly, it was a test—a way to gauge whether this extraterrestrial was drawn to wealth and power.
Secondly, it was a safeguard. Leaving an alien with mysterious abilities to roam freely on Earth was a disaster waiting to happen. Whether Lemu acted out of malice or was exploited by others, Stark couldn't ignore the potential threat.
And if something went wrong, leaving Lemu unchecked would undoubtedly come back to haunt him.
Stark had wrestled with the idea of simply handing Lemu over to the government, letting them deal with the problem.
But no matter how he looked at it, the kid had saved his life just yesterday—in the middle of a desert, no less.
And then there was the matter of the photograph.
The uncanny resemblance between Lemu and the girl in that old picture gnawed at him. If the two were connected, Lemu might even be—however improbably—linked to Stark's own family.
That possibility alone was enough for Stark to decide he needed to keep Lemu close, both to monitor him and to protect his interests.
….
Adopt me? Are you kidding?
Lemu's brow furrowed. He stared at Stark as if the man had grown a second head.
Money? That wasn't even a factor. Lemu had never cared about something as trivial as wealth.
'A little maybe.'
But
Was it possible Stark had hit his head in the desert and was now suffering from delayed brain damage?
But more importantly—I thought we were friends. Now you want to be my dad?
Lemu's thoughts raced, processing Stark's words in an instant. The next second, he decisively shook his head.
"Apologies, but I'm not fond of living under someone else's roof." His tone was polite yet firm, leaving no room for negotiation.
Keeping too close to someone with a damaged brain is dangerous. I might get dragged into their mess—or worse, catch whatever condition they have.
'This child… he's so strong!' Pepper, as an observer, was once again moved to tears. Her eyes shimmered with emotion.
A helpless child, stranded far from home, all alone in an unfamiliar world—and yet he rejected the offer of adoption from a billionaire without hesitation, unwilling to impose on others.
Keep power stones coming!!