--
"Oh my! Alexander Vire? Arriving early to an appointnt? Damn, is the world ending?"
A clear and crisp exclamation from a female voice echoed in the smithy. Alex, Old Sam, and Ren looked over to see at least six people arriving at the sa ti, led by a gorgeous woman with a large hunk of tal wrapped in cloth hanging on her back.
"Boss Lady!!" Alex exclaid in glee. He practically jumped into the lady’s arms with how excited he was.
Ren was surprised with how Alex reacted, even more so when he saw Alex plumting face first to the ground after receiving a firm smack on the head, given by this ’Boss Lady’ herself.
"He just doesn’t learn, does he?" Soone from behind muttered softly in disappointnt.
’She’s strong,’ Ren muttered inwardly. He couldn’t see how the lady did it. He just saw the results.
That speed was also controlled. She did not have any ill intent when she struck. Sothing tells Ren that this was a common occurrence in their party.
And it wasn’t just her. The rest of the party mbers were strong too. As for how strong they are exactly, as in the level of martial practice, Ren had no clue. He can’t see through them.
"Good morning to you too, Boss Lady. I miss you so much!" Alex shalessly got up like nothing happened and was already invading the personal space of the lady.
Then, his eyes went to the people behind her. His tone then shifted when he greeted them: "Oh, you guys are here too. Hi."
"Oi! What’s up with the greeting, huh? What are we to you? Chopped liver?"
"I an, if the shoe fits..." Alex shrugged.
Ren sighed, hopeless at how Alex was behaving. Although he knew that Alex could be infuriating at tis, he didn’t expect him to be so unruly with his party.
His attitude caused another incident. Right then and there, Alex and two other boys began punching each other right in front of the smithy.
Ren would’ve panicked, but when he looked at the rest of the party acting as if nothing was happening, he figured that this must be a common occurrence to them.
This also suggests that maybe Ren was wrong. Maybe Alex wasn’t being rude solely because he dislikes his other party mbers; maybe they’re just this close to each other that they don’t bother hiding who they truly are anymore.
"Hi, Sam! Long ti no see." The boss lady’s attitude was completely different from the one she showed to Alex when talking to the blacksmith.
"Long ti no see, Sue." Old Sam was the sa. He sounded gentler, as if he were talking to his precious daughter. The difference was a bit staggering, really. "What do you have for ?"
"Well..." The boss lady then unceremoniously removed the large hunk of sothing from her back.
She removed the cloth wrapping it, revealing a thick, lumpy, and blunt hunk of tal attached to a handle. Looking at it as a whole, it looked like a greatsword, but with how uneven and unrefined its surface was, it just looked like sobody attached a handle to a raw, rectangular-shaped tal with an uneven surface.
"What manner of atrocity is this!?" Old Sam sounded aghast and deeply offended at the sight of the thing.
"I said the sa thing when I first got it," the boss lady chuckled. "But we found it like this on Stage 55. It’s abandoned for so reason. We tried surrendering it to the Lost and Found, but nobody has claid it after a whole month."
"I’m not familiar with what kind of tal was used to make this; the system also couldn’t identify it. The appraisers are also puzzled. You’re my last hope. If even you can’t figure out what this is, then I’m afraid I’ll just have to toss it aside."
"I see." Old Sam nodded.
He then held the handle of the sword and hefted it up. He grunted in surprise as if he weren’t expecting to discover sothing by doing.
"This crap’s surprisingly heavy," he said. "It’s also fighting as if it doesn’t want to be handled."
Ren looked over curiously. He really couldn’t glean any useful information just by looking at it; he also couldn’t rember this thing making an appearance in the story, so he had no idea as well.
But even if he did, he’s not in the position to say anything. He’s an outsider here, and he didn’t want to be rude.
He shifted his gaze to Alex, who was now bruised and had a split and bleeding lip. He’s on the floor, panting in exhaustion. But so were the two other boys he fought.
"Wuhoo! I, the handsost Alex, won again against the ugly and villainous brothers! You two will never be a match to !"
Then, he acted as if he suddenly rembered sothing. He got up and looked in the Boss Lady’s direction and yelled, "Hey, Boss Lady! Did you see that just now? Look, I won! Aren’t I handso? When are we getting married?"
The boss lady’s face fell, then she sighed in exhaustion. Alex’s behavior was really testing her on this fine morning.
Ren felt the sa. He almost regretted coming along. Alas, it’s too late now.
It was then that Alex finally rembered Ren’s presence. He got up, dusted himself off, and imdiately went to his side. He draped an arm over Ren’s shoulders and said:
"Guys, let introduce you; this cutie is my cousin, Soren Marek Vire, Ren, for short."
In that instant, Ren felt like he was being stared at by six monsters eyeing his flesh and bones. He felt a chill down his spine and sowhat regretted that he was related to Alex.
"The two loser twins down there are Timothy and Thomas, Tim and Tom."
"The fair lady at the back is Alice."
"That guy over there is Oliver."
"The one beside him is Ronald."
"And finally, the apple of my eye, the most beautiful specin I’ve ever laid my eyes upon, my favorite sweet, the reason why I get up every morning sporting the hardest and first boner—"
BAM!!
Ren’s heart shook as he suddenly found Alex’s face buried on the concrete before he even saw what happened. He shifted his body and saw the boss lady now standing in front of him with those nacing and twitching eyes.
"Susan Bones," she said, completing Alex’s rude and shaless introduction of her. "You better watch your mouth when you talk to , kid. If you’re even half as shaless and perverted as that cousin of yours, then it’s best that we don’t see each other often."
"Uh, yes. Sorry about him. He got dropped on the head when he was a baby, which made him like this...at least I think that’s the reason why. I’m kind of ashad to be related to him, but I can’t really choose where I’m born to, so...yeah, sorry. I’m rambling. I’m Ren, nice to et you."
"PUHAHAHAHAHA!" One of the twins, Timothy, if Ren guessed correctly, laughed uproariously. "I like you, kid. But is it true that he was dropped when he was a baby?"
"Yes," Ren nodded, being very serious. "Did he not tell you about it? I recall that he seed to be fond of telling everybody about it. It was his dad, my uncle, who did. It’s an accident, of course. But he fell to the floor head first with a loud thud. But instead of crying, he laughed joyously like he wanted it to happen again. It’s a popular story in the clan."
"PUHAHAHAHAHA!! HOLY SHIT! FINALLY, WE’VE GOT SO REAL DIRT ON YOU, YOU BASTARD!!" The twins were now rolling on the floor laughing.
"Well, no wonder why he’s like this."
"Yeah, it finally makes sense."
"True."
"So he wasn’t faking it, huh? This is just who he really is, and it’s because of that.
The whole party talked as if they finally found the solution to an age-old problem.
Ren wasn’t lying at all. What he said was the truth. Mikel really did, accidentally, drop baby Alex to the floor, where he landed head first. But instead of crying out in pain, he laughed and even showed signs of wanting to do it again.
Mikel admitted to this once upon a ti in his drunken stupor. Once it was discovered, his wife made him sleep on the sofa for a whole month. anwhile, Alex actually loved this story and would tell it to anybody who’s willing, or unwilling, to listen to it.
With how shalessly talkative he was, Ren was surprised that his own party mbers hadn’t heard of it before.
The first thing Alex did once he got up from the ground was to glare at Ren.
"How could you, you traitor!" The accusation was thick in his voice. "I was planning on making a spectacle out of that story! And you revealed it just like that! How could you? You stole my mont!"
Alex looked heartbroken while shaking Ren’s shoulders. It’s like he’s geniunely distressed that his big mont was ruined just like that.
To this, Ren could only sigh. Really, it’s hard to understand Alex’s priorities sotis.
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