Chapter 165 165: The vow [pt2]
"Stop joking around Bambi. If you like me, then try and make me like you back. But don't do this if this becomes too much for you, alright?"
God, how could Bambi not love Yoko Tsurugi? This female knew what to say to her at the right time. Yoko made Bambi's heart melt and her knees weak.
"I understand. Now, I shall take my leave. My grandfather might have acknowledged me but there is still much I need to do to take over the family officially. I will meet you all soon if the time permitted it."
Bambi left the gathering with her brother. Amane watched her go with a solemn look on her face.
Once Bambi had taken her leave, everyone else began to leave as well. And Sakura was only able to hold her annoyance and anger until a few more minutes before she erupted.
"Yoko, you were not serious about marrying Bambi, right? She is not someone worth your status-"
"I know Sakura. I do not intend to marry for quite some time. We have too much work to do before I can even think about it."
Both Sakura and Charlie breathed a sigh of relief at her words.
"Good, that makes my worry lessen for your future. Anyway, what are your plans after this? Are you going to head home?"
Charlie asked with a curious tone in her voice. As soon as Sakura heard this, she knew that something troublesome would happen if she did not make an excuse to make Charlie go home.
But Yoko was here to spoil her plans by telling Charlie what she was going to do.
"There is going to be an auction for the pearl of desires soon. My information said that it is going to be held close to here, I am thinking of going to check out this auction and see what the fuss is all about."
Amane's calm voice betrayed how excited she was to get her hands on the sacred treasure. It had been a powerful object that had allowed the heretics to rule their territory.
According to Legends, heretics were a class of sub-humans who worshipped beasts and had even evolved to understand them. Their society was also strictly female-only and had a lot of powerful spells.
In that sense, they were somewhat like Amazonians but had a much stricter rule set. Some had even evolved as futas which was a big deal back in Amane's time.
As a researcher, Yoko had been interested in visiting the society. Mainly because she wanted to show Isabel her family.
Isabel was a heretic baby left alone in human society and Amane had picked her up. Their time spent together had been short, about 5-6 years, and then Isabel had been sent back home to her people.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
"I see. Of course, you are interested in a heretic treasure. So, do you think I can tag along with you this time? I promise to be quiet and now make any noise."
Sakura groaned as soon as she heard Charlie's words. She did not want Charlie to drag herself along, but she failed.
"I am sorry Mother, but I don't think you would be able to attend the auction. We have a press conference regarding market shares coming up soon. And no, you cannot wiggle your way out of this."
Charlie Suzuki looked disappointed. Amane was even sure that Charlie would try to force her way through this meeting.
But Helios's disappointed look made Amane weak. She was always weak toward children and Helios felt like a child to her.
"Charlie, I think you should attend this meeting. We also need a participant for this meeting. Sakura, can I count on you to attend this meeting?"
Sakura opened her mouth the deny Yoko but then paused. She realized that she had no reason to say 'no' to Yoko's request this time.
In the end, she could only grit her teeth and agree.
"Fine, I will attend this meeting in your place. But be careful out there and do not go after a dangerous beast on your own Yoko. You must come back alive."
Frankly, Amane was amused to see Sakura's concern for her safety. But she decided to humor Sakura anyway.
"I will stay safe Sakura. You just need to focus on yourself and take care of our stocks."
......…..
"How long will it take for us to reach our destination? I am getting a little dizzy now."
Ariana complained as her vision began to go in and out of focus. She did not like to sit back on the drake's back and fly.
She would much rather fly on her own and follow this pair.
'Huh, can I fly? Is that even a possibility?'
Ariana's mind was filled with useless thoughts as she tried to correct her posture. She felt sick and tired of this travel.
"We are almost there. Look, we can see the sea."
Kiana pointed out toward the sea and asked her drake to land. It did so but not gently which caused Ariana to finally let out her lunch.
Kiana gave her some space while she talked to the staff in front of her.
"Hey, where are you all taking me to? I don't want to do this anymore. Just let me return home."
Ariana cried out as she was held and cuffed by those men in a diving suit. She tried to instinctively use her power but these cuffs prevented her from using any of her power.
She was sedated and brought into the HIVE. But the phoenix did not wake up until she was locked up in a cage.
"Well, hello there. It is nice to see you again. But I don't think you remember me."
Ariana looked toward the scientist in front of her with a cautious expression. He did look familiar but her instincts also told Ariana to be careful around him.
And then Ariana made the mistake of looking up and her heart stopped. She could only see the distortion of the world around her and the feeling of something being wrong gripped her heart.
"You! What the hell did you do to end up like this? You are no longer a living being, but a demon. No, you are even worse than that-"
"You need to keep quiet. Please don't talk to my father like that. You can trigger her if you are not careful about your words."
The scientist jabbed Ariana in her pressure point and she went down. But that did nothing to lower the fear and the feeling of 'wrong' she felt.
"It's such a pity that you have such sharp senses as a phoenix. Had you not recognized what father was, we would have let you go. Unfortunately, Father has no patience for people like you. So even if you are the last phoenix, you will be killed off once you are no longer of use."
Ariana looked up at the creature that looked like the calamity itself.
She blinked her eyes and felt as if she could see the form of a beautiful woman even through the fog of calamity that covered her. The throne she sat at was huge and radiated authority and dominance.
But during the next blink, it was all back to the same fog as before.
"Now let us begin our experiment. Oh, Father, I will take this sample back to my lab and test it. Don't worry, we will revive Mother soon. If her soul exists, she would be back. Your sacrifice to save her soul will not be in vain."
The scientist picked up the unconscious phoenix and took her to the lab.
The lab was special as well, having a giant tree in the middle of the room. And held tightly into that tree's branches was an unconscious body that was kept gently.
Chen looked up at the branched with a determined expression.
"Don't worry Mother. You will be brought back to life soon. I will make sure you are back with me again."
The unconscious phoenix did not know that she would never be able to open her eyes again after this day.
She knew that she had made a promise to come back for someone and the loneliness of not being able to fulfill her promise haunted her.
......…..
"Kill it. Kill the human who dared to trespass."
"Kill the human, avenge our kids."
A group of tied-up humans shivered as they looked at the buff woman surrounding them. They accidentally ventured into the jungle and killed off a rabbit because they were hungry.
Little did they know that it would be their last mistake.
"You all dared to come into our jungle and eat one of our kins? We ought to have you eaten alive for this. Don't you agree, our dear queen?"
They all looked up at the queen, waiting for her to decide. And then she brought her hand down which indicated that she was going to show any mercy,