Read Novel Full Chapter 448: Commemoration Ceremony [II]
Chapter 448: Commemoration Ceremony [II]
For such a grand event, the food didn’t live up to my expectations. Or maybe I just had a bitter taste in my mouth.
Lately, it seemed like everyone was just getting their way with me. My ego was in shambles.
I was supposed to be a fucking god-slayer, for gods’ sake!
Yet here I was, playing the role of a well-behaved show pony for reporters after an S-rank asshole casually threatened my life to my face.
I aggressively chewed a piece of smoked salmon that tasted like cardboard on my tongue, then washed it down with another glass of whatever high-end wine they were serving.
“So, you this… uh, Tree King, you called it? You said you found his enthralls using your fellow Cadets as hosts to sprout their offspring? Could you go into a bit more detail? What were your feelings? What was the scene, the smell, the sound? How were they doing it? Were the Cadets alive?”
There were these three journalists from Metropolitan Daily and City Central News constantly buzzing around me. Even as I ate. Even as I hinted I was clearly uncomfortable.
The woman in particular was eagerly thrusting a recorder to my chin. One man behind her was furiously scribbling into a legal pad, as if my words were gospel, while the third had not stopped filming me ever since he spotted me on stage.
I wanted to strangle them. But they were unAwakened. It was against the law, it was terrible PR, and worst of all, it would only give them a better headline.
“Hero of the Bloody Night Suffers PTSD Meltdown, Murders the Press!“
Yeah. No, thank you.
“The scene was dark,” I said, dropping my plate off to a server’s hand while taking another drink from a waiter’s tray. “The smell was like rotting leaves and pine. We were in a fuc– full jungle.” My eyes were darting around the gilded banquet hall, silently praying for either a sudden terrorist attack or someone to come save me. “And I was only thinking about saving Alexia Von Zynx and Juliana Vox Blade.”
But of course, there was no one who cared about my prayers.
Why wasn’t I just shoving these peasants aside and walking away, you ask? Because my fate could be much, much worse.
Behind the three buffoons, I could see Alexia and Michael surrounded by military officers from the Central High Command.
Juliana, Kang, and Ray were trapped in a separate but equally agonizing circle of high-society lords and heirs and some High Priestesses from the three Holy Churches.
That just left a haggard Lily alone to deal with a horde of greedy representatives from multiple different Hunter Guilds and Corporate Agencies trying to buy out her exclusive contract on the spot.
It wasn’t that surprising. She was the first true seer of the West in generations. And there were probably only a handful like her who could predict the future with unmistakable accuracy.
But still, now that so much value had been attached to her name, they were practically salivating around her. It even disgusted me.
So yeah, as annoying as these three clodpoles were, I was actually getting off easy. What if I shoved them off and someone whose authority I couldn’t challenge grabbed me?
What would I do then? Dance like an idiot until they let me go?
The only people who seemed chill were the third-years. Our seniors.
That was because most of them had already been through exactly what we were currently enduring. All of them were rising legends in their own right, and all had done their fair share of gate-clearing, crisis-averting, and city-saving.
In fact, they were all so famous that I was pretty sure I could recognize half of them. The other half probably preferred operating under the radar.
“And the hosts?” the woman pressed, seeing my attention was wavering, her eyes wide with that insatiable, ghoulish hunger only vultures possessed. “The Cadets who were… implanted. Was there any sign of cognitive awareness left, or were they already entirely hollowed out by the parasite?”
Hollowed out by the parasite — what an ironic choice of words.
Get it? Because a parasite was asking this while hollowing me out!
I was about to bite my tongue and kill myself, when my salvation arrived in the form of the most unexpected and deeply disturbed individual I knew.
My. Sister.
“Leave,” came her callously authoritative voice, reminiscent so much of our father.
We all turned to face the young woman. Thalia’s gaze bored into the woman with the recorder with an icy disdain, the golden of her eyes brought out by the raven-black of hair that she had decided to wear down tonight, cascading over the shoulders of her uniform.
The three journalists stilled.
“L-Lady Thalia!” the woman stammered, frantically lowering her recorder. “We were just— Lord Samael was just giving us an exclusive on—”
“My brother has had a long week,” Thalia cut her off, looking at the reporters like their mortal presence revolted her. “Leave.”
“But—” the woman, foolish in her ambition, still tried.
I really thought I’d see a murder tonight.
But my twin restrained herself with a sharp, “Now.”
That seemed to be all the encouragement the three unAwakened needed to pack up and scramble back into the crowd.
I let out a long exhale, rolling my shoulders as the tension finally bled away. “Aww. Look who decided to play the doting older sibling. To what do I owe the honor, Ace?”
Thalia’s eyes remained fixed on the space the reporters had just vacated.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” she spat, her voice dropping into a much quieter register. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it because watching a Theosbane get picked apart by vultures is an insult to the family name. You look pathetic.”
“Right. Heaven forbid I tarnish the golden pedigree by answering a few questions,” I snickered, taking a slow sip of my wine. “Tell me honestly, you’re jealous you’re not getting enough attention, right?”
Up close, the little signs of exhaustion under her otherwise flawless facade were visible as day. Yet, when she looked at me, I saw nothing.
No pride or humor. No resentment or warmth. Nothing at all.
“You really don’t know when to stop talking,” she huffed.
“I’ve been told it’s one of my most charming qualities.”
“It isn’t.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t.”
I laughed into my glass. “What are you doing here? Surely, you aren’t worried about my health, since you never bothered to check on me before.”
Thalia suddenly looked offended. Her gaze tore from the empty space on the ground and flew to my face. Angry and hesitant at the same time, she seemed like she wanted to say something. Many things.
But then she stiffened her jaw and looked away coldly, not saying enough for a long enough time to make me think I was going to be ignored.
However, after a very long and very awkward silence that she spent chewing on her lower lip, Thalia sighed and finally shifted her full attention back to me. “Take back your Mock War challenge. And when Father drafts his quest, I’ll ask the Council President to let you accompany us. You can come to Iron Height and help me.”