Yes, and you are?""Sarah, Sarah McKinnon." Then she proceeded to extended her hand for a handshake, which Linri promptly grabbed.
Sarah seemed to be in her early thirties. She had an oval shaped face and had slant-eyes: she must have been of Asian descent. Well, this was a surprise, considering her name Linri had a.s.sumed she would be English or Albonian in this world"s terms. That must mean her father is Caucasian or married into the family but the latter one is not likely. Still, both of those scenarios must mean she is a half. Her mother"s or father"s side should be from Hanawa as that was the place she sent Kris. A woman as smart as her shouldn"t just send her child to that place with only an ex-cla.s.smate. Wait, thinking about those lines, that must also mean her grandparents must be someone of stature that can influence the inner workings of the country. Wow, this just got more interesting!
"To be frank, I am quite surprised. I didn"t expect you look like this." Sarah said with an astonished expression.
"Why does everyone keep saying that? Brie, why does everyone keep saying that?" Linri said the second part looking towards Brie who made an "I don"t know" expression, but she was clearly laughing under that. What she said could be accepted as a compliment by others, but for some reason, Linri seemed to be offended by that, so she found it funny. Then she started to inspect the women sitting next to her. To be honest, she didn"t seem like someone who would kill him. The image she gave her was that of a kind warm hearted big sister, but that was good, right?
"Pardon my manners. I just expected someone looking younger when I heard you were one of Snow"s students. And who might this young lady be?" She said with a little blush and turned towards Brie with a big smile on her face. Still, Linri wasn"t paying attention to any of that: he was still a.n.a.lysing her in his mind. From the way she spoke, it was obvious that she was from n.o.bility, which confirmed his first guess. Thinking further, her mother might have married for political purposes. She didn"t have a ring on her finger, so that must mean she was not married yet. It might be either because she was rebelling against her family and didn"t want a political marriage or her parents were relaxed enough to let her choose her own life partner. Actually, scratch that: both her parents married for political purposes and, thinking of their backgrounds, it was impossible they would let her choose her own partner, so it is most likely that they didn"t find anyone "worthy" of her yet. Give 2 more year tops, she would be married.
"Oh? Her? She is just my cousin Brissa. She just graduated from elementary school and will be starting middle school this year. She is eleven now, at the age where she is starting to rebel, acting like a grown up. She doesn"t even cling to me like she used to! You should have seen her when she was 4: she was such a little m.u.f.fin, always clinging to my leg, calling me "big brother" and asking me to play with her. Oh, here is a nice story. Did you know that she used to say "I will marry big brother Linri"? Ahh, such sweet times. How the time flies!"
"Who would want to marry you? Humph!" said Brie with clear rage on her face, which Sarah took as cute. So she really did have a sweet spot for children. I guess that explains why she would want to save an artificial human made with her DNA and even call him her child. Linri did not know if he should call this heartwarming or stupid, but who cares? It worked in his favour and that was all it matters.
"Oh yeah, beautiful sis, why are you here talking to my big bro?" Brie was offended by Linri and angry at him, but it was still not enough to cloud her judgement. Even if she didn"t like it, she knew the reason why he brought her here and she had to play along. Sarah, however, looked distressed while thinking about how to answer this question. Frankly, this was not how she imagined the conversation would go.
"That... Is it alright to talk such matters with her here?"
"I don"t think it would be a problem. I mean, she is only 11. I am quite doubtful she would remember half the stuff we have talked about...Ouch!" Linri"s sentence was interrupted with Brie kicking him in the leg. Oh, she was good. Really good. This was exactly the response a child at that age would give and she also had revenge.
"Actually, now that I think about it there should be a children"s playground inside. Brissa, would you be so kind as to leave big brother and big sis alone for a minute? We have some grown-up stuff to talk about."
"No! I am a grown up too. I will stay." Brie started to throw a tantrum. Her acting was so good that even he would believe she was a child if he didn"t know her.
"Come on, sweetie, I will buy you ice cream when we get out." Brie then showed 2 fingers.
"Fine, I will buy you 2, but don"t tell your aunt otherwise she is gonna kill me, okay?"
"I promise." Brie said with a smile and left the table. When she confirmed that Sarah can"t see her she made a gesture that clearly indicated that she was gonna kill him and she really wanted those ice creams. Then she really went inside and started to play with the children there. Seeing how natural she was at this, Linri wondered for a second that if she actually did it frequently.
"Forgive me for being so forward, but might I ask why did you bring a child here?" Sarah asked with a serious expression.
"Well, her parents are out of town for a funeral, so she is staying with us. When Ms Snow called so suddenly I didn"t have anyone to entrust her to, so I had to bring her with me."
"Mr Harclaw, please don"t play me for a fool: we both know how dangerous this is. If you think this is a child"s game, I would have to ask you to leave." Upon what Sarah said Linri just smiled.
"I am sorry, but you are the one looking down on me, Ms McKinnon." Sarah frowned.
"How so?"
"Simple actually. This is just a gesture that shows I trust you. After all who would bring a child to a place that is dangerous? Secondly, I know that you don"t have a cruel heart to hurt children. If you ask me how I know it, my answer would be that a cruel person wouldn"t call an artificial human that she made her child just because he possesses her DNA. Lastly, if I got a bad read on your personality, I am confident in my abilities that I would kill you before you could do anything to her. So, you can say that me bringing her here is both a show of trust and a warning, because no one touches my family." Linri spoke friendly at the first half of his sentence. At the second half, however, there was this flame in his eyes that scared her. She unconsciously clenched the purse on the table with her left hand which didn"t escape Linri"s attention. Since it was an unconscious act it must mean there was something inside it that made her feel safe. Seeing the size of the purse it must be a gun. So he was right that she might try to attempt to kill him. However, Linri was not a gun nerd so he couldn"t determine the type of the gun just from the size of the purse. Linri also noticed that she was looking at his hand which he found weird. When he followed her gaze, though, he noticed it was the silver serpent bracelet on his hand. The ruby eyes of the serpent were giving off a red light. Linri panicked and immediately covered his right wrist with his left hand. That seemed to let Sarah get out of her trance.
"I am so sorry. I didn"t want to offend you."
"None taken. I shouldn"t have been that harsh either." Linri answered with a smile that seemed to ease the environment. I guess it pays to be handsome and he also cursed all the other handsome guys in his reality. Just why couldn"t he get a treatment like this in his original body?
"Now, shall we talk about business?" Sarah said with a beautiful smile.
"Please, I should be the one asking you."
Edited By: ZombieCat090