บท 14: Jamie’s Offer

[No, I Am your father.]

*GASP!

"It couldn't be!"

Jamie exclaimed in both shock and disbelief, perhaps even more so than the hero of the movie who had just been told that the person who he saw as his greatest enemy, was his father.

And such was the scene that Davina met as she entered the Living Room of the Hotel Suite Jamie was in.

"To think his…*nom, nom*…teacher lied to him and…*nom* told him his father was *nom* dead."

With one glance at the screen, Davina instantly figured out who was responsible for getting Jamie to watch this—her twin brother.

They had arrived at the city of Swuyle, one of the fairly popular ones in the Ubra Region of the Neutral Continent, a Region under the control of the Human Race.

The group booked out the top three suites in one of the city's 5-star hotels, splitting themselves into three groups: Boys, Girls, and Jamie.

Well, the last one wasn't exactly a group per se, but there was no way that they were gonna make Jamie stay in the same suite as they did.

As for the costs? That wasn't a problem as the five of them were all from Clans who had seats in the Crimson Court—The Ruling Council of the Vampire Race, so money was not exactly a problem for them.

They planned to stay here for four days, and right now, they were already on the second day. The City was bustling and tourism was at an all-time high due to the New Year Festivities, and today, Jamie had decided to take a look at the city.

'And for some reason, he requested that David and I accompany him…'

Davina thought that to herself as she silently sat down on the side, waiting for the Hybrid who was stroking his now-shaven chin to finish his movie while surfing the internet on her phone.

"Very good movie. 8/10"

The man's voice snapped her attention back to him, looking up to see him holding the now-empty popcorn can upside down.

"An 8?"

"Yeah. There were a few things I didn't like."

Jamie held up the remote and turned down the volume of the ending theme as he spoke, but when he saw the image of a certain cyborg flashing past.

"Ah, best character for me.

Especially the part where he shut up that silly scientist who created that planet-busting weapon.

'The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.'

That's quite accurate, seeing as he was purported to be a being above transcendence."

By the time he was done speaking, the movie credits had ended and an ad was now playing on screen, the subject item being a game console.

"What's that?"

"A video game console."

"Game? I'd like to play one of those."

Zipping up the jacket of the tracksuit he was wearing, he turned towards Davina to ask if she and her brother were ready to leave, to which the girl gave a positive reply, but with a negative demeanour.

"…yeah…we're ready."

"Hmm?"

Tracing her darkened gaze, he saw she was staring out the window and instantly figured out the reason for her sudden low spirits.

"Oh, right. The Sun."

"The uncomfortable sensation under that light, and the feeling of having my power being drained from me…"

The girl shivered slightly as she rubbed her arms which now had goosebumps over them, showing how instinctively averse she was to the idea of going out in the daytime.

"Don't you guys have artifacts to counter these effects?"

"The artifacts we have only temporarily and partially deal with the weakening effects. Does not do anything about how uncomfortable we can get under the Sun."

"Oh…and how much power do you lose with it?"

"Unfortunately, 50%."

The Hybrid nodded to himself as he made way for the door, a tinge of disappointment in his eyes as he noted that the artifacts to deal with the sun's effects had only made a 10% increase since the last time he was awake, but when he considered it from the point of a Vampire, that 10% was quite a lot.

He stopped right in front of the door, thinking to himself for a moment before turning towards Davina.

His gaze made the girl step back subconsciously.

'Ah, it's that gaze again.'

Ever since the start, the girl felt that the way Jamie had been looking at her was quite strange.

Not that he gazed at her with lust or anything of the sort, it's just she felt that he was looking at her the way one would at a little pet that they found 'interesting' or 'amusing'.

"Do you want to become an Epic?"

"…what?"

It took her a moment to compute what he asked and infer the context, before finally reacting in surprise at the notion he implied.

"Well, obviously I want to. No way I wanna remain a Grandmaster forever. But that's not possible now as I only recently became a Superior Grandmaster.

It'd take a while before I can break through again."

"I can see that, and yet I still ask the same question."

Seeing how serious Jamie was, it didn't take the girl long to infer that the Hybrid had some means to allow her to reach the threshold for the Inferior stage of the Epic Realm within a far shorter time than normal.

Even so:

"May I ask why you're making this offer to me?"

"Hmm? Ah! This is the part where I'm supposed to tell you 'No particular reason' while secretly having some weirdly convoluted plot that actually concerns some hidden trait of yours heavily."

Jamie took his hand off the door handle and turned around fully, leaning back on the door as he continued.

"Is there some hidden trait about you that no one else but I have noticed? Not really.

I'm guessing you already know about what I noticed but just as one man's gold is another man's platinum, you see it as high value, while I see it as something two or three stages higher, and it might actually be the best trait you could possibly have.

Do I have any plans regarding this? None whatsoever. I have more important things to deal with, like finding my missing friends and meeting old companions again."

"…First off, I don't think that's how the saying went."

"Don't sweat the small stuff."

"Also, thanks for the honesty, I guess?"

"Does that make you want to accept my offer now?"

"…"

Davina paused after Jamie asked the question once more, her mind scanning through multiple possibilities in that instant.

"In the event that I do agree, how can this be made possible?"

Her curiosity towards the means Jamie could use to achieve this revealed itself, and the Hybrid only rose his right arm and spoke.

"Simple, you just have a drink."

"A drink?"

She alternated her gaze between his face and his outstretched wrist, instantly figuring out what he meant. But this brought a frown to her face as if the battle between Jamie and the Unnamed dragon was anything to go by—

"Isn't your blood poisonous?"