Hans walked towards the elevator, not even regarding the two people seated beside him as he passed.
Kenta followed him into the lift, while the woman rushed inside the door, and went into the room, worried that sothing might’ve happened to her dear uncle after feeling the mana previously.
She found the white haired man crying on his sheets.
It wasn’t unusual for her to see the red blood stain them.
But it was the first ti in her life she saw them drenched in tears.
"Master?!"
She rushed over to support him with her arms.
"What has that prick done to you?!
What did he say?!
I’ll go and give him the lesson he deserves!"
The woman impugned her smooth sword’s hilt, and gave her back to the man, walking towards where Hans had just gone.
"The truth" said a hoarse and feeble voice coming from behind.
"He told the truth, don’t get riled up, he’s innocent, more than what I have ever been"
Hans was obviously pissed, no, furious would’ve been a better way to describe his gaze, that all the workers they t on the way avoided.
Kenta, following right behind him, obviously also noticed it, and decided to try and calm him down.
"Hans, what did you co here for in the first place?
Oh that’s right! reading, how about we go and read a few books."
The other side didn’t reply and Kenta was really in the mood to talk, so he decided to try to raise Hans’s morale once again.
"Oh, now that I think about it, you sly fox, when did you get to know such a beautiful woman? Have you two perhap-"
"Kenta, shut that mouth before I turn off your entire body, forever"
"Ye~yessir"
After that, he remained quiet.
Even if Hans’s main objective were the books in the library of this place, he was really not in the right mood to read, it would’ve taken him more than twice the ti he would usually spend just to read a book.
And he wasn’t even confident in understanding the book’s content right now.
’I’ll co here another ti’ though Hans.
They weren’t back at the hotel even thirty minutes after taking a taxi, the streets of Manhattan were as busy as always, so even travelling such short distances could prove quite ti and patience consuming.
Hans paid for the taxi, and decided to walk back by foot, together with Kenta, who followed him blindly.
They had about five hours before the start of the eting with the other association mbers, so they decided to make the most out of it by doing nothing and eating at the nearest fast food they could find.
Even after all that, Hans’ mood was still sour.
When the ti ca for them to start making their ways towards the association, they avoided taking a cab, and decided to walk all the way there, even if it took almost half an hour.
However, with the cold of the winter and their physical fitness being far from that of ordinary people, not even a drop of sweat could be seen on their skins when they arrived.
Dressed in a black and white suit, with an elegant dark blue tie, they entered the fancy glass building.
He had only been there once; twice counting this ti, and this place was already starting to annoy him.
So waiters accompanied them to a spacious and luxurious dining room, where many of the present guests were enjoying various types of snacks and food, while chatting with as many people as they could, to create so connection here and there.
In difficult tis like those, a single powerful connection would’ve been more than enough to save soone’s life.
The small talk continued through the whole evening , but as the ti to start the first eting approached, people begun speaking, eating, and drinking less.
They all watched around themselves, to look around for potential new allies or dangerous individuals.
Among them, stood out the most Los Angels representative.
She was a well dressed woman, with a beautiful stunning body, and a srising face.
Her fla red pupils created an extre and harmonious contrast with her white skin, that was shown between the fabrics of her revealing black dress.
Even if it once was the third biggest city in the US, after the disaster, Chicago was barely ranked within the top ten, and the representative from their side had always barely been eligible for the position, standing just above the lowest tier of A-rank.
However, other association branch leaders had reached way higher levels, like both the LA and the NY ones, being just below the threshold to break the shackles tying them down to S-rank.
When ranked in the entire world, they both could probably be in the hundreds.
And Hans soon had the chance to et the second person.
While everyone was quiet, a man bashed through the door, he wasn’t so tall, and his muscular build made him almost wider than taller, resembling the image Hans had created in his head of a dwarf.
His brown moustache was in colour with his hairs and his thick ssy beard.
Even while holding a serious face, he looked like a friendly person.
He walked all the way to the centre of the hall, greeted by anyone he passed by.
And when in the middle, he started giving his initial speech.
"Mh. Mh, test, test!"
The choice of words was strange, since he wasn’t holding a microphone, but instead talking with his own voice.
Not just a normal voice however, the sound was amplified at least twentyfold, and even a shockwave was created just by his words.
If a normal person would have attended the eting, they probably would’ve frozen in fear, if not fainted.
However, the people present in that hall were anything but normal.
Even faced with the incredible display of power by his aura infused words, most of the representatives, including Hans, remained emotionless.
Only so of the people accompanying the branch leaders struggled, and brought their hands up, covering their ears.
"We have wasted enough ti with this useless yap, it’s ti to get to work!
I’ll et you all at the secondary hall in thirty minutes!"
Even if not affected by the aura, Hans was shocked by the unstable personality shown by the association Arican main branch leader.
’What is he? A crazy dwarf?"
Thought the young man while keeping up his facade.
Slowly, the guests started leaving, accompanied by the various waiters towards the eting place, Hans also started walking following the general direction of the crowd.
They arrived inside of an incredibly spacious and wide room, there was just a single black marble round table, with exactly 107 seats around it, and a single spot in the middle, connected to the outside with a small passage in the table, resembling a radius.
Everyone took place in their assigned spots.
Everyone’s seat was the sa, apart for the one where the short man who had previously spoken to the crowd was sitting on.
It was not only slightly higher to aid him in reaching the table with his hands, but it was also fancier, having a touch of gold in the back, right above the man’s head.
It was also perfectly opposite to the corridor leading to the middle of the table, making it the sole position that dived the seats in two perfect halves.
It was a really simple design, but it also made an excellent job at underlining the difference in status between that man and the others present in the room.
A round table was especially designed to enable everyone to see all the other mbers.
Seated on the seats were all the branch leaders of the most important cities in Arica, the assistants didn’t have a spot, and were kept standing right behind their leader’s chairs.
Now that he could clearly see it, there were many people.
Every single person sitting in that hall could be classified amongst the best thousands awakeneds rankings in Arica.
’Huh?’ Sothing picked Hans’s attention.
There was a strange occurrence, one of the seats was empty.
As the clock hands pointed 18:30 the eting had officially started, and with the seat still empty, the murmurings rose up.
"Hey, soone’s not attending"
"Yeah, do you know who it could be?"
"Wait! I don’t see that monster"
"Oh! You’re right, I haven’t seen him at all today"
"Could it be that he’s the one missing?"
"I don’t know, let’s hope it’s him"
"Yeah, he caused such a fuss last year"
"Well, at least we got a new table"
"Hehe"
Who were they talking about? A monster? If it was a monster for the standards of this room then it was a real anomaly.
Hans felt cut off, not knowing what the others were talking about.
But as the silence beca more and more distant, the short, bearded man’s voice took over once again.
"Don’t waste this precious ti with useless whispers, from now on, I Callahan Quinn, in the na of the New York association branch leader, announce the start of this etin-
The man speech was cut off. As the door was slamd open by the gentle hand of soone.
"Excuse my lateness, I had to finish my workout"
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