Announcement (I)

"…ang ...... stang...…."

The room was spinning, and my head felt like it was being hammered. I heard a voice in the distance, but I couldn't make out what it was saying.

"Gustang!"

"So, you want to do it the hard way?"

This voice….

That motherf**ker…

I opened my eyes to find see a familiar scene of a dude puckering his lips for a kiss, Liam…

"Liam who the f-ck let you into my room?" I groaned, rubbing my temples.

"See? He woke up, take notes Ruby" Liam was giving instruction to the confused Ruby again.

Wait, what the f-ck just happened?

"What time is it, guys?"

"it's 5AM, and you are in my room"

"How the f**k did I get here…"

Ah shit now I remember, Ruby cooked for me… I forgot how it tasted, probably it was a psychological defence mechanism.

It is better for me to forget about it.

I looked at the culprit who standing 5 meters far, even if her cooking was bad, she is still charming, and I am willing to taste that poiso- I mean cooking of her again…maybe my body doesn't agree with me but, I will force it to do so.

I got up to notice that Liam's residence was a suite and even the bed felt comfier, I guess how this is how it will be from now on.

"Anyways, how did I get here?"

"She brought you here when I was taking shower … you were like a poisoned, what happened to you?"

"Someone tried to assassinate me due to how great of a man I am, but ruby saved me" Ruby's face lightened as I lied just now.

"It doesn't look that way to me…" hold your tongue man, you don't know what hell you are getting yourself into. "By the way ruby…" a faint glow on his fingertip manifested, attracting a bottle of orange juice to his hands, and he took a sip from it "what four-star ability did you get?"

"Darkness manipulation I guess, not that great but pretty useful, based on what I just saw your ability is Gravity manipulation"

"Yeah, not that great but pretty useful"

We fell into an uncomfortable silence, then a voice echoed in the area.

"Attention, please. This is a formal announcement for all the new refugees to assemble in front of Vincent castle at 9 AM to have a chance to put light on the current situation. Your attendance is highly appreciated and necessary for the success of this event. Please make sure to arrive on time and be prepared to know of the purpose of being here, you can ask about the location details in your residence reception. Thank you"

"Well, I guess that's it for today, I am really clueless on the current situation" added Liam after hearing the announcement.

"Gus, you have any formal suites at your room?"

"No…why?"

"You can consider this your new home, son…and you can win however you want" said Liam in a sad tone while a tear was rolling on his face. Wtf you don't have to act like that, you are supposed to be insulting my lowly status…is this what they call true friendship.

"H-hey why are your eyes glowing,"

"Ah…nothing"

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I looked at myself in the mirror and adjusted my tie. I was wearing a Black suit, white shirt, and black dress shoes. I didn't wear formal suits very often, no actually I never did, but today I wanted to make a good impression. As I walked out of the changing room, I could feel the heavy breathing of Ruby that just returned from locating Vincent castle. Uh…probably she was tired from using her abilities a lot, but that aside, she looked extremely gorgeous in that lavender dress.

"You want to impress some cute elves?" asked the handsome looking Liam, that dressed in a brown suit.

Of course, I ignored that question, sweat rolled down my spine just thinking of what may happen if I said yes, in front of the now breathless Ruby, I still can't grasp if she's a kuu or a tsun or a yandere, maybe all of them.

"Well then miss Ruby, shall we go?"

She smirked before; a shadowy figure was summoned behind her turning into a gate in a dark purple gradient colour.

I stepped into the gate, my stomach churning and heaving, I can feel the waves of nausea wash over me like a tidal wave. My mouth feels dry and bitter, and I can taste the acrid bile rising up my throat, to stop the moment I got to the other side, As I approached Vincent Castle, I was struck by its grandeur and beauty. The castle's facade was stately and elegant, with a series of columns and arches that seemed to stretch up into the sky. The castle was situated on a sprawling estate, surrounded by lush green fields and trees that seemed to go on for kilometres.

We were one of the first hundreds to arrive and soon this place will be crowded by people from multiple races, the other people attending wore classy noble suits except for the minority that didn't change the cloth they arrived in, it's like what you see on stories, soon there will be that annoying noble faction that pick on the weak.

The place started to get crowded each minute after all it was 8:34 AM in the clocktower that was beside the castle, and while we were waiting, I saw a couple of winged beings coming to our direction I didn't recognize them until they have gotten closer, the beings stood before me and greeted, there were none other than Zagreus and Thalia, both in wings, Thalia in beautiful white angelic wings that emits beautiful golden light with each flap, on the other hands I don't how he acquired them, four black wings, each emits a dark aura that can carve the ground beneath them if he flapped stronger.

They both landed in front of us.

"Oh! You're Gustang, I heard a lot about you from mister Bob" The woman smiled warmly, her full lips curling up at the edges

Mode playboy gentleman, On.

"I don't know what he said about me, but I'm glad to be recognized by a gorgeous lady such as you" I said while lowering my head a bit, hiding my embarrassment of course.

Thalia leaned in closer, her perfume wafting over me. "Oh, thank you sweety, but wouldn't it be better if you said such beautiful words while looking at me directly", my heart didn't skip a beat, hell no, skipped twenty years' worth of heartbeats.

What should I say now? Should I just run away, oh maybe it's time for me to kill myself once and for all.

"Thalia! That's enough, stop teasing the boy like that what if he skips twenty years' worth of heartbeats." Interrupted the man in four black wings.

"By the way fathe- Bob, how did you get these wings, just what kind of blessings a six-star blessed gets…"

"I already had them when we were on earth…"

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"ahahahhahahahahaha, what a funny joke!"

"haahahahahahahahahahahahaahaha, yeah, right"

While exchanging a weird hysterical laugher, Thalia passed by me to greet Liam and Ruby that were discussing some topics, I noticed a couple of other familiar faces I knew from earth in the crowd wearing their casual dresses, the time was 8:45 AM, still 15 minutes to go.

"Well then, I'll excuse myself, Bob…"

"Ah I see, you're going to see her…"

"What…"

"What?"

"Just now, what did you say?"

"Me? I said 'ciao'"

"I'm sure if somebody scrolled back, he'll find otherwise, but anyways, bye!" I turned my back to him and moved forward randomly with no goal in mind, I'll check if there is a buvette somewhere.

As I was passing by the crowd, just to notice a green haired draconic lady, she stood there in the middle of the crowded are a, a glass of juice in her hand, watching as the other people from different races laughed and chatted with each other. For a short amount of time, I saw a vision of someone standing in the darkness as he watches from an eye sized window something …

I approached her, actually to take something from the snack bar, it's not like I'll have the slightest chance with her, so I walked fast toward the last glass of avocado juice

"Ah hello there…" she seemed taken aback by my sudden approach.

"Good evening miss Clara, how was your day?" shit I'm taking a wrong path here, undo…undo…undo, I should've just greeted her and moved as fast as possible.

"Today, I had nightshift last night, so I was asleep this morning, the whole daytime" she answered in details? I stepped on a landmine; I should change the topic or I'll fall down the rabbit hole of the unending awkward meaningless conversation cycle.

"Indeed, sleeping is good for health…" sometimes random irrelevant answers are the best choice.

"Well then miss Clara, I'm glad to see you having fun, I'll be excusing myself"

the moment I tried moving she grabbed me by my arm

"Gustang Lijk…"

"Just...who the hell are you?"