Chapter 10: Not A Chance

"Do you know my mother, Mrs. Renix?" Freya asked, innocently as she blinked

Mrs. Renix felt even more conflicted the more she looked at her.

How could that treacherous vixen give birth to such an innocent-looking girl?

This girl didn't look anything like her backstabbing mother.

"Hm." Mrs. Renix nodded after much deliberation, refusing the urge to curse out loud.

"Are you staying with your parents?" Mrs. Renix asked.

She knew Freya was going to ask how she knew her mother, and that was a question she didn't want to answer, or else she would end up cursing and saying more than a few bad things about someone.

So, she switched the direction of the conversation while not making it too obvious.

"No." Freya shook her head. "My parents aren't in the capital so I live alone."

"That's good." Mrs. Renix mumbled with a faint smile.

"Huh?"

"I said it's good that you start learning to be independent at this age." She said proudly, this time with a more obvious smile.

"Oh, is that why you also abandoned, senior?"

Atlas, who was leaning against the fridge, slowly savouring a glass of juice, almost spurted out the sip he had just taken and afterwards almost choked on it.

Could this girl talk more like a normal person?

Freya specifically liked to use the word "abandoned" whenever she described how her parents left her all alone in the capital. They didn't seem like they had anything better to do from what she had seen so she didn't see any reason why they couldn't stay in the city.

Mrs. Renix, on the other hand, felt the corners of her mouth twitch as her face darkened.

This girl might look cute and innocent but for a moment there, she really had the urge to beat her up.

Still, she would never touch a child.

She had never beaten up a child.

Never ever!

"We didn't abandon your senior, to be honest, he doesn't like living with us." Mrs. Renix explained, using her signature responsible mother tone.

Freya turned to Atlas with a strange expression and asked, "Is that true, senior?"

Atlas, who had the glass against his lips, suddenly felt like biting the whole glass into pieces.

This woman was really the master of making things up and making it sound reasonable.

Just for the sake of looking responsible, she didn't even hesitate to put all the blame on her son.

Atlas didn't answer the question and just kept drinking the juice.

"See? He knows it and he feels guilty." Mrs. Renix suddenly said.

Now, Atlas really felt like crushing the glass in his hands.

With a helpless expression, he raised his head and sighed.

"Mom."

"Don't talk to me, I don't want to talk to you, I'm still talking to Freya." Mrs. Renix heartlessly shunned her son before turning her attention back to Freya.

Atlas, who was suddenly shunned by his mother after being falsely accused, didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Why did he have to end up with such a heartless mother?

Freya and Mrs. Renix talked for a while before Freya had to return to the kitchen, she was still cooking after all.

Mrs. Renix was still smiling after Freya left, but the moment Atlas grabbed the tablet and she saw his face, her smile vanished.

His expression turned even more helpless as he let out a weak sigh.

Did his mother find a new child and was now thinking of actually abandoning him?

Mrs. Renix's smile did disappear because of Atlas but it had nothing to do with what he was thinking.

"She's a good girl but you should still be careful around her." She cautioned.

"Why?" Atlas asked with a straight face.

"Just listen to me."

Atlas couldn't help but sigh in exasperation as he shook his head.

"Right, it's always been 'just listen to me, ' and then no explanation is offered afterwards. It was the same when you gave me this bracelet." Atlas didn't hide the displeasure in his voice as he lifted his hand to show the bracelet.

Mrs. Renix felt her heart sink the moment she heard Atlas mention the bracelet and her face suddenly turned pale.

"Listen, Atlas, I don't know what you've heard or found out, but under no condition are you to take that bracelet, you can't take it off." She shook her head.

"Why?" Atlas questioned.

Mrs. Remix felt conflicted; she had the answer, but she just couldn't bring herself to say it.

Atlas only felt disappointed by her lack of response.

"Can't say it, can you?" He scoffed. "Good night, mother."

He didn't give her the chance to say anything in response and just ended the call.

"I'm going upstairs." He said to Freya before heading upstairs with the tablet.

"Um…okay." Freya nodded and just watched as Atlas slowly made his way upstairs.

She could tell he was in a bad mood, and she knew most people in this type of mood wouldn't like to be bothered, so she didn't say anything.

"What is wrong with him, master?"

A fire wisp the size of Freya's small fist suddenly poked its head out from behind her.

"I don't know." Freya shook her head.

She actually didn't know.

"You humans are so strange." The wisp sighed.

This little wisp was actually the weapon Freya used against the ghost that murdered an entire neighbourhood.

Her contract spirit, Ayro, who perfectly aligned with her affinity for fire.

"Master, are you sure he has that thing? I really can't sense it and I doubt anyone with a divine spirit bond would be able to either." Ayro said as he flew around Freya who was heading toward the fridge now.

"You can't sense it, and they can't sense it, but I can," Freya said as she scanned the fridge to find what she was looking for.

Specifically the eggs stacked on the left.

"Then since you're so sure, why haven't you done anything yet?" The fire wisp sounded quite confused.

"Done anything like what?" Freya was equally confused as she picked two eggs from the crate of eggs.

"Weren't you looking for him to absorb his divine spirit core to strengthen your own divine spirit?" Ayro stated matter-of-factly.

Freya's steps suddenly halted and she almost dropped the eggs she was holding.

"Mention something like that again and you'll get no spirit stone for a month." She glared at the brainless contract spirit before walking past him.

"Huh?" Ayro was even more confused.

And when he was confused, he was always adamant about getting to the bottom of it.

"Isn't that what most sorcerers with a divine spirit bond do? Find other sorcerers with divine spirit bonds to increase their strength exponentially?"

Freya, who was about to crack the egg on the bowl in front of her, suddenly tightened her grip on the egg, and it was instantly crushed in her hand, the liquid now oozing out from the gaps in her closed hand.

"I told you to drop the topic."

Freya's voice was cold to a bone-chilling level that even Ayro, who was a fire spirit, had the illusion of feeling a chill.

Sensing that his master was truly angry, Ayro tactfully closed his mouth and shifted to the side.

At this moment, Freya's eyes were filled with so much disdain and anger that her innocent side seemed to have been completely absorbed.

"You want me to give that brainless bird a chance to get stronger?" She scoffed.

In a dark space, a Phoenix bound by numerous chains with dark flames surrounding its body slowly opened its eyes at that moment.