"What are the two of you doing?"And then as if by magic, the flames calmed down, the cutting stops, and the sparks all disappear. Val and Felicia immediately turned over to Cole. He had to shield his eyes for a bit from their blinding smiles.
"Col!"
"Cole!"
At this point, Cole gave up the sibling theory and now he thought that the other one was the gender-bent version of the other. But there were more important things here at hand.
"Anyway, why is it that we are here?"
"What, you don"t like seeing me?"
"Yeah, you don"t want to see your best and only friend Val?"
Val had turned on his puppy dog eyes and Felicia started supporting him at the side. Cole wasn"t really in the mood for such antics right now. His brain was filled with all kinds of thoughts and he really just wanted to go home and sleep.
But he still needed to address the fact that he was seen as a loner by these two not siblings.
"He"s not my only friend. Do you think I"m some kind of tortured loner? And what would that make you?"
"Well, slightly. And what else besides your future wife?"
"That should be left up to future decisions."
"I"m the only candidate present here so far though? Which means I"ve practically won the race already."
Maybe it was the fatigue getting to him but Cole could feel his brain cells decreasing by the second.
"If you"re going to be Cole"s future wife then you have to be an even better cook than me!"
As Cole watched this ridiculous exchange that he wasn"t even sure made any kind of sense at this point, he felt very close to putting a random bomb in this place and blowing it up.
Yes, it would be very troublesome to deal with the aftermath. Val would lose his cave but he could probably find another one. His relationship bar with his family would probably lower by at least 10% if it didn"t drop to rock bottom.
But if Cole actually went through with that, it meant that he really wasn"t having anyone"s s.h.i.t that day.
"I could say that seems a bit s.e.xist but I don"t know. But if being a good wife means that you can cook, what about Lala?"
"It"s fine because I can cook! But you can"t so if you get a wife, she needs to be an exceptional cook!"
Cole only wondered why all of this was so important right now. He was 23, turning 24 this year. And as a Mechanica, he had a very good thousand to look forward to. Even back in the〈Avant Zone〉there wasn"t any need to worry about marriage.
Technology had slowed down the ageing process and even the average person would have their lifespan doubled.
And he hadn"t recalled talking about any kind of subject related to the matter, This only meant that their "cook-off" had probably started over something Felicia had said and that had somehow provoked Val.
"Genderbent versions of the other, secret siblings or past selves? Not like that matters. Why must both of them grow flowers for brains? At least the flowers are picked on certain occasions."
He could feel a headache coming on because of the current situation. Cole decided just not to care. The food was probably going to be great, Eva had a kid her age to talk to, and Cole had at least one other adult to talk to in the form of a pink-haired Vampire.
Yeah, everything was going to be great.
"Can you two even smell the thing behind your backs right now?"
Cole gestured over the obvious plume of black smoke emanating from behind them. While the fiery mountain from before had disappeared, that didn"t mean they had put it out.
"Oh yeah."
"Oh f.u.c.k."
They quickly went over to fix the mess they had created while Cole decided to just go and talk with the only other adult available.
.
.
.
Cole was later told that they would have been eating dragon meat if it weren"t for some dumb rule in dragon culture. Although he wondered if that really was fine, he eventually decided to push it aside since he"s seen weirder cultures.
The dinner was enjoyable but Cole had other things to focus on. Like his current situation. After that and about a day pa.s.sed, Igor and Mikhail had arrived.
Igor looked like he had been sent to the Gulag four times in a row and the same could be said for Mikhail, save for the fact that his dark blue suit was somehow still in perfect condition. Unfortunately, the same couldn"t be said for his head and gla.s.ses.
He gave a simple nod as a greeting and immediately headed over to one of the vacant seats. He popped out a cigarette from one of his suit pockets but realized he must have dropped his lighter.
"Got a light?"
"I would be happy to offer you one but I don"t like the smell of smoke in the house. Or anywhere for that matter."
Reluctantly, Mikhail popped the cigarette back into its box and leaned into his chair. He looked quite comfortable doing so but he was still somehow able to maintain his intimidating presence. But his companion looked to be the exact opposite.
Igor had dark circles underneath his eyes and intimidated people differently from how Mikhail did.
His face was contorted into something that could only be described as extreme dissatisfaction (and maybe a dash of annoyance).
"〈I"m never doing that again.〉"
"〈It saved us more time.〉"
"〈AND IT NEARLY GOT US KILLED!〉"
"〈Everything nearly kills us in Russia. I thought you would have grown used to it by now.〉"
"〈THAT"S WHEN--〉"
*SHING*
The sound of a blade quickly flying by registered later in Igor"s head than the sight of a particularly sharp knife being only a hair"s breadth away from embedded in the wall. He turned his head to see Cole still in his stance.
"Ah, sorry, my hand slipped. You see, my daughter is having a nice nap and I"d appreciate it if you could keep your voice down."
Although Cole was wearing a smile, Igor knew that it was far from it. He went over to one of the vacant seats and crossed his arms, sulking.
"And besides, we have more important things to discuss, don"t we?"
"Yes, that is indeed the case. But I have one more important question."
"Yes, what is it?"
"What is this woman doing here?"
Mikhail sent a nod over to Felicia who was trying to decide if she should pour the Spirytus Vodka she"s been keeping for the time she wanted to get wasted or some orange juice. She could always go with the option of mixing a c.o.c.ktail but was it really the time for that?
"She"ll help me with information gathering."
"So, she"s like a honey trap?"
Igor was the one who had raised the question. He had a dubious look on his face and while he knew they could prove to be effective, he was wondering if the person in question was willing to go through with it.
"I"d rather be a venus flytrap honestly."
"She"s targeting the women actually so I"m not sure if that"s applicable."
Mikhail raised an eyebrow but let it slide. Cole seemed to have some sort of faith placed in Felicia so he decided to trust in his decision.
"Anyway, let"s start with some basic information about Serigan party."
As Mikhail said that, Igor brought out a tablet and handed it over to Mikhail. Where exactly he pulled that out from, Cole wasn"t sure. But because it had a waterproof case, maybe Igor had turned part of him into water and kept it there.
Mikhail placed the tablet on the table and pressed a few b.u.t.tons here and there, allowing a hologram to spring up from the tablet.
"It is a party in which individuals with great power or influence from varying fields come and exchange information."
"Multimillionaire company presidents, people from the entertainment circle, generals from various countries and quite a few political figures."
"The reason why the party was done in the first place was to strengthen bonds between countries and to relive the public that everything was doing fine. This was especially needed when the world was recovering from an apocalypse."
Cole nodded his head at Mikhail"s words as the hologram changed to follow along with his words. It made for quite an interesting school presentation. It seemed that Felicia had a similar thought as she raised her hand to ask a question.
"The Zombie Apocalypse?"
She asked while tilting her head to the side. For a second, Cole thought that it looked cute but he had other stuff to focus on.
"There are still people calling it that? I must tell you young lady but that is extremely far from the truth."
Felicia and Cole shared a glance, both of them wanting to know what exactly this "truth" was. Their imaginations could go wild with possibilities but it would only stay as such, a possibility.
Seeing their reactions, Mikhail leaned in closer. A mysterious light in his eyes could be seen.
"Then, let me tell you a little bit more about the events that transpired, so many years ago..."