Georgina gave him a death stare, but his niece ca to his rescue. "Uncle Damon is a lord of overlords!" She burst into giggles. Hearing that, Georgina muttered under her breath. "More like lord of the beggars and the useless."
Their mom, clearly overwheld, let out a tired sigh and reached up to rub her temples. "Okay. Enough. Stop this nonsense. I just want to know: are we really safe here, Damon? Truly?"
"Yes, you can trust Artimius," Damon replied. Even though he personally had no trust in that old bastard, he did not want his parents to live in constant fear while they were here. Nothing wrong with a white lie that could give so peace of mind.
But his timing was on the mark as he heard a light chuckle coming from the distance. The old man gave Damon a knowing smile as he walked towards the group. "I am assuming everyone is headed to the cafeteria to have so breakfast?"
Damon’s eye twitched. Of course, Artimius had to show up right now. "Yes," Damon said through a strained smile. "We were just about to go grab sothing to eat. It’s been... a long day."
"Oh, I’m sure," Artimius said, his tone full of amusent as his gaze briefly drifted over Damon’s parents, then to his brother, John, then to Georgina, who for once kept her mouth shut.
Their dad stepped forward and offered a hand. "Thanks for hosting us, Mr. Artimius."
Artimius took the hand with a polite nod. "Of course. Any friend of Damon’s is an honored guest within these walls."
Georgina rolled her eyes but did not say anything.
Artimius simply continued. "But I must trouble you to have your breakfast without your son, Damon. I am afraid I have to borrow him for a mont to talk about sothing important."
"If you want to talk about sothing important, you should talk to John. He got better grades even back in high school, and he is on track to beco a respected senior executive at Bosh and Grater. I am sure you have heard of the company. It is a very famous pharmaceutical company. If you want sothing done right, you should be talking to John. He is a lot more trustworthy."
Damon’s face twitched. John cleared his throat and awkwardly glanced at his shoes.
Artimius, to his credit, didn’t flinch. He simply offered a warm smile that made Damon’s spine itch. "Ah, yes. Bosh and Grater. I believe we have undertaken a few projects together. John is indeed an exceptional young man to have found his way so deep into their hierarchy. But I am afraid this particular task requires Damon’s expertise. So if you’ll excuse us..."
"Ya. Ya. Sure. Mom, Dad. Please eat sothing. You are fine here. Don’t worry about anything. I will co back in a bit and talk to you if you are still worried."
Georgina muttered sothing about "bad choice" under her breath, but Damon ignored it. He watched as the group was led away, his niece waving dramatically over her shoulder. Mark stayed back this ti, and it looked like he was not going to take the fall one more ti.
Once they turned the corner, Artimius gestured for Damon and Mark to follow, and they began walking down another corridor. The old man led the two of them to what looked like a huge conference room.
Damon recognized a couple of faces right off the bat, Sylvara and the guy who had fought with him earlier. Damon smiled at both of them but only got chilly stares in return. He shrugged it off and sat down casually at the head of the conference table, Mark standing right behind him.
His one move imdiately created chaos in the room, as obviously the head of the table was reserved for Artimius, but Damon did not care. He wanted to muddy the puddle a little bit to bring out so of the hidden fish.
Damon’s gaze keenly observed everyone sitting around the table to gauge all of their reactions. Except for one or two, everyone else seed to be basically against him. This was not really good news. This ant that the cooperation wouldn’t be as smooth as he had hoped.
But then again, there was nothing a little show of power couldn’t correct.
Artimius chuckled at his antics and did not seem to care at all as he sat down at the other end, the second head of the table.
"Very well then," the Ice Patriarch said smoothly. "Now that we are all here, how about we start talking about the problem at hand?"
Damon leaned back in the chair, casually draping one arm over the rest, his crimson eyes locked on Artimius. "Inside the ga or in the real world?"
Sylvara exhaled sharply. "If you stop interrupting, maybe you will get so answers."
Doing a I surrender gesture with his two raised hands, Damon chuckled and remained silent.
Artimius ignored the two of them and continued. "As we all know, my granddaughter Sylvara has managed to get a cosmic vessel quest after a lot of hard work and deliberation."
Damon almost spit out the water he was drinking. Did he just say cosmic vessel? His full attention was now on the old man.
Artimius smiled and continued, "Unfortunately, the quest itself is arduous to clear. It requires exploring a new hidden territory that is full of level 60 and above creatures. Moreover, the territory is an extre environnt where only those with very high ice affinity might be able to step in."
"With this in mind, I have put together a task force that can head out and test the waters. Since this matter is of utmost importance, we will give this top priority. Damon, would it be possible for you to join this task force? They are about to set out in a couple of hours."
Damon wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and leaned forward slightly. "Are you talking about an actual fucking cosmic vessel? The one you can use to travel out of this world? Like a space rocket, or space shuttle, or sothing that can take you to other planets?"
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