“I see the hawker found his easy prey.” I chuckled after sitting down next to her. Some random dude was sitting next to her but a single look from me was enough to make him scoot over.
“Oh, don’t even get me started. I love unhealthy arena food. It’s half the reason I’m here.” She replied while laughing.
“And what’s the other half?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not here to flirt with you. I didn’t even expect to speak with you.”
“Ah, now you’ve made me sad. I was looking forward to it. Why stop now?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very much annoyingly single. A strong, tall, and hopefully handsome Phenom would be the perfect boyfriend material. It’s just that I’m on strict orders by Aurelion not to seduce you.” She then scoffed, and murmured with a hint of frustration, “as if my attempts ever amounted to anything…”
I raised an eyebrow in surprise, “hmm? How come? Your dearest father seemed very interested in me up until now, to an annoying degree if I may say so.”
“He still is, or rather would’ve been…” She started with a jovial smile that told me all I needed to know. Something bad happened to her father and she reveled in it wholeheartedly. I still didn’t know why, but there was some extreme bad blood between the two, something about Aurelion holding something over her, which forced her to play along with his wishes.
She gulped down a good portion of her syrupy, extremely unhealthy-looking drink before giggling and explaining, “I don’t know how it started, my guess would be Lord Wrinkle having a talk with Lady Black Fang, but anyhow. The end result was Lady Raika – who in case you weren’t aware is a Veil Walker and Black Fang’s disciple – came to our little textile shop for a chat with Aurelion.
Thank the Goddess I was present to hear that. Lady Raika is now my spirit animal. She is one badass woman, let me tell you that much. She bluntly told Aurelion to, and I quote, “Stop trying to recruit Devil or I’ll bash your skull in.” That’s all she said before she turned around her heels and left, leaving behind an Aurelion who literally pissed his pants because she let out an immense amount of killing intent at him. It happened a month ago and he is still bedridden. He wakes up in the middle of the night screaming from the top of his lungs and begs Lady Raika – who I’m sure had long since forgotten about the existence of this loser as soon as she stepped out of our shop – for forgiveness.”
I couldn’t help but laugh along with her. Now I completely understood why she was having such a jovial mood. Although I didn’t know much about Raika, it was not hard to guess that she was a brash person who craved personal strength more than anything, which in turn made her very blunt.
“You didn’t tell me the other half of the reason for you being here.”
“It’s exciting, duh! Do you know how stressful my life is? I need my vacation days and there’s nothing better than watching the finals while ruining my health with trash food. Furthermore, I’m pretty sure I told you already, but this is a monumental event. From what I hear, this Phenom Trial has the biggest budget in the Consortium’s history – and this is one old-as-hell organization, so that’s a big deal!”
“And while you’re at it, you can scout yourself a perfect Phenom lover?”
She laughed at my question while shaking her head, “I appreciate the gesture, it’s very sweet of you to assume that I’m the dream girl of every man so I can just pick and choose whoever fancies my interest, but the sad reality is that I’d only ever spoken with you out of all candidates.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. I guess you’ll have to survive with only knowing me. If you want I can introduce you to Ambition, but I doubt she’s in the middle of searching for a girlfriend.”
“Hey, you never know!” She laughed at my joke and then let out a cute growl when I grabbed a handful of her popcorn and put it into my mouth after lifting my mask up ever so slightly. She leaned in to sneak the smallest of peeks, but I hit her cheek with a finger snap flick, earning myself some strong pouting as she caressed her rapidly reddening cheek with teary eyes.
“Ladies and gentlemen!! Welcome to the final round of the Phenom Trials!” A cheery shout reverberated across the arena grabbing my attention. I recognized the playful voice immediately and laid my eyes on the woman who walked into the center stage of the arena. She used a microphone-like artifact that transmitted her voice without having to raise it above normal conversation volume.
“My name is Vex with the title ‘Hexblade’ and for some reason only the Goddess herself knows, the Obsidian Circle Members decided that I was the most ideal candidate to be the host of this event.”
Her statement earned numerous gasps from the crowd, after all, to many of these people, a Veil Walker was but a legend. People like her didn’t come out into the limelight often. Furthermore, Vex had a very distinct personality and earned herself some wild rumors over the years, so I’m sure many people were curious about this odd woman in particular.
“Kya! Black Fang has amazing taste. All her disciples are certified bombshells.” Jasmine decreed once she laid her eyes on Vex. I had to agree, she was one beautiful woman.
“I’ll be brief. As you all should know, it will be a tournament. However, a certain somebody-“
She then coughed into her palms *khm!* “Black Fang” *khm!*
“-said that if she was going to be watching, then the event better be more memorable, so it’ll not be a normal tournament but one that’s spicy enough to make a 400-year-old- or was it 500? Maybe it’s already 600 by now… Anyhow, the tournament will be interesting enough to not make an ancient woman fall asleep out of pure boredom.”