V1C16

Matteo could not place his finger on it but he felt Lucretia was suspicious although he could sense this lady did not have any ulterior motive except for, "Oiya, could it be your enticed by my beauty and want to have a taste of this mature body?" Matteo who heard this did not feel flustered thanks to the training he received from being teased by Erica all of the time, Lucretia who saw her teasing was not working but instead, Matteo leaned forward "Before we speak about lunch, I want to know if you will be getting involved in this event?" Lucretia shook her head, "No I won't but your no fun, boys like you should be pure"

"I have a beautiful fiance who loves to tease me the same way you do, so it was quite the norm for me" Matteo spoke with a smile, hearing this Lucretia was quite interested "Who is your fiancee?" Matteo chuckled, "Erica Blandelli and Lilianna Kranjcar" Lucretia's eyes widen "TWO!? You're engaged with two ladies?" Matteo smiled while nodding, Lucretia rubbed her forehead, "Guess I will become an aunt sooner than expected huh?" This time Matteo almost spurted out the tea was drinking feeling his face was burning hot, Lucretia who saw this smiled feeling she finally has gotten something to tease about.

"Cough cough... Well, I hope you can support me in Italy since I am currently the Campione in charge of Italy's protection from the shadows" Lucretia arch her brow feeling quite surprised, "Why in the shadows? I thought Campione's like you would love to fight strong opponents" Matteo nodded, "While I do love to fight, I prefer not to be attracted by every annoying fly so Salvatore is the little mosquito glope that attracts while I can choose to fight the juicy ones" Lucretia began to giggle hysterically thinking this boy was truly amusing making use of a Campione as a Shield like it was nothing, "Hehe, your really interesting" Matteo smiled warmly, "I'm glad to make your acquaintance Lady Lucretia, I hope fate will allow us to meet again" Matteo stood up and left.

Sitting alone in the home that became Silent Lucretia took out a locket that had a picture of a baby in its crib with the name Matteo written on it, she could still remember how she was chased down by enemies of Voban who wanted to kill her along with her child as they feared another Voban would bring the world to the brink of annihilation, afterwards, she came up with a plan to fake her death and change her identity. Ever since then she kept her eyes on Matteo, there was not a day she did not want to go pick him up and take him home but the enemies of Voban was quite strictly monitoring him.

"To think Fate would allow me to meet him once again" Lucretia held the locket dearly, she never loved Voban but Matteo was her first and only child she loved now until the day she would part from this world, soon she picks up the ringing phone "Madam Zola, we completed the preparation" Lucretia felt relieved, "Than be on standby, Matteo will be coming there shortly so only move when things get out of hand"

Meanwhile, Matteo arrived at the Blandelli Manor having a headache, the information about his mother was simply too much. If it was about anything else he could simply toss it aside but this was something both important and unimportant to him. "Matty!" Erica came out of the manor leaping into his embrace, when he smelled the familiar scent he dug his face deeper into her neck with sniffing, the familiar smell of Erica was enough to simply blow away all the worries he had in his mind. Erica blushed a bit but did not want to lose against Matteo's teasing so she too held him tighter till Liliana came closer only to get herself dragged into the hug by Matteo.

"I have a request for you two girls" Hearing this both Erica and Lilianna looked towards each other before looking towards Matteo seriously, he handed a few strands of his hair to them "Can you perform a DNA check-up with the lady that was sent to the hospital by Lucretia's people and check if she is... my mother" Erica gave Matteo a kiss on the lips before taking the hair, she could see how distraught he was about this situation and hated to see him being down like this.

"What happened?" Liliana asked Matteo while walking with him into the manor so he began to explain what happened, Paolo just happened to appear hearing what Matteo was saying shocking him. "a woman claiming to be your mother called you?" Paolo asked Matteo shocking the boy as he did not sense his father or perhaps he was so trusting to his father he did not pick him up, Matteo nodded while continuing the story but when Paolo heard that he met Lucretia his face cramped for an instant before returning to normal.

Paolo sighed, he knew this boy was strong physically and mentally but Matteo always kept his mother on his mind when he became aware that she was still alive, even Paolo only learnt of her true identity when he chose to adopt him but that knowledge cost him the price of keeping it from being known to Matteo, at least till he was older. Matteo rubbed the bridge of his nose while closing his eyes feeling a bit annoyed with having too many questions but no answers, plus his friend has been kidnapped. "I will be moving to Venice, so I might be coming home later tonight"

"Take Lilianna with you, you will need the support of the Kranjcar family in Venice" Hearing Paolo's suggestion Matteo nodded while holding Lilianna's hand before teleporting away to Venice, shortly Erica came out looking at her uncle with sharp eyes "You know who his mother is don't you?" Paolo who saw his niece appearing as a shadow could only rub his forehead feeling that he was getting old to be discovered by a little girl, "And?" Erica came closer "Tell me..." Paolo sighed, "On the condition, you will not tell Matteo, let him find it out himself" Erica nodded but did not say anything, so Paolo could not discern if this niece of his understood what he said but chose to trust her and told her about Matteo's parentage.

>\/<

Sweet Venice, the sound of moving waters and boats sailing like cars on the streets. Matteo and Liliana appeared in an Alleyway near the Doge's Palace, the number of delinquent dressed people walking around was quite numerous to the point it made Matteo wonder if the Police are not feeling threatened at this sight. "Let's watch our steps, for now, we are not certain how many people we are dealing with here" Matteo took Lilianna's hand while they followed the crowd, if they were not here for a mission then this would have been an excellent place to have a date at.

"Where is Bruno located at?" Matteo had a stern face, "Saint Mark's Basilica" Hearing this Liliana was shocked, "Why there?" Matteo smiled wryly "That is what I want to know as well" The two of them followed the route swiftly moving over small bridges that connected the city like a puzzle, occasionally Matteo picked Lilliana in a princess style to leap from one bridge to the next to move faster till they finally reached the massive plaza with the familiar church buildings with cupcake roofs with crosses on top like cherries.

Matteo sent out a presence detection spell only to feel the people he was searching for is underground, so he took Lilliana's hand while he began to search for the entrance leading underground since it appears the people he was looking for was directly underneath the plaza. "Do you know of any hidden passages leading underground?" Matteo asked Lilliana softly, but the two of them were interrupted when another beautiful brown hair girl similar age as Matteo and Lilliana appeared, she was dressed in priestess clothes but from looking into her eyes Matteo knew this girl was skilled.

"It's an honour to meet you at last Matteo" The girl spoke with a bright warm smile that would have appeared saintly if Matteo was not alerted the way he was, "And who may you be?" Lilianna asked in his place while preparing for engaging in battle if required, the girl smiled regardless of how Matteo and Lillianna was reacting towards her then her eyes locked with Matteo's, "I am an assistant sent by Madam Lucretia, I was ordered to follow you as your assistant from now on" Matteo felt sceptical so he called Lucretia only to hear her teasing voice, "Already fell in love with her?"

"Why?" Lucretia giggled, "She is a good girl, besides she will be able to help you find what you seek. Can you keep her at your side?" Matteo could not help but raise his eyebrows "To monitor me?" "Yes," Matteo sighed, suddenly Lilianna's cellphone went off with a message sent from Paolo saying he should accept, "Very well" "Good boy! Anyway, make use of her as she is incredibly skilled mage trained by me personally. You owe me homemade dinner for this"

Matteo was not sure what his father and Lucretia was planning but for now, he will trust his instincts, "Alright" Lucretia giggled happily before saying goodbye and closing the call, when Matteo turned to look he saw Lilianna and the girl was chatting quite closely, "My name is Aurora Zola, I'm adopted by Madam Zola who took interest in my talent and hereby pledges to be of use to you" Matteo raised his eyebrow.

"You're quite fast to pledge" Aurora giggled with a smile, "Because I was brought up for the sake of today" Matteo wanted to ask more but from the looks of Aurora's smile it appears she did not want to talk more about it so he thought of cornering Lucretia with his culinary skills to get some answers. Thanks to Aurora's help who knew Venice far better than Matteo and Lilianna does, they found the entrance that led to the underground at the right-wing of the Church's building, it was a tiny fountain built into the wall itself, by turning the flower sculpture in the correct posture the fountain moved outwards and then leftwards revealing a flight for stairs leading downwards.

"Be careful though, from our investigation we came to know that they were already preparing to summon the Heretic God so you will have to be ready" Aurora spoke while she shredded off her priestess outfit revealing a tightly worn black combat outfit revealing her voluptuous body that made even Matteo a bit surprised, it was different from Erica's devilish style. He diverted his eyes as he felt he might get questioned by himself why he would get unusually drawn at her figure, "You can look some more" Matteo chuckled at Aurora's teasing which helped him calm down, "Thanks for the offer but I am engaged" Aurora pouted "I don't mind being a mistress though"

Matteo coughed heavily while Lilianna blushed thinking this girl was just as bold as Erica, 'I can imagine Erica is going to have a tough opponent' She thought while following Matteo, she was not feeling a tad bit jealous as she already knew she had her spot in his heart so there was no need to become greedy for more. "That is a good offer but for now, let's save my friend first" Aurora nodded turning serious "As you command master" Matteo followed Aurora while wondering 'What the hell is going on today' he thought