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n“Excuse me… but who are you?” I asked, and I saw her lips purse and her eyes slightly water.

nAfter a few seconds of awkward and a touch of tense silence, Bella just looked at the floor after handing me my tea and said,

n“Bella. My name is Bella Wony. Nice to meet you,” She said before sitting down on a chair that was next to the head’s desk.

nShe just sat there, feeling a mix of emotions: anger, sadness, confusion.

nShe went through a lot in just a few mere seconds, and I could also tell the head of the family already didn’t like me.

n“So, why did you call us here? You could easily overwhelm and kill us if you wanted to, but you haven’t done that already, so you must have a reason,” I spoke up first while leaning forward in my chair.

n“That is correct. I called you here because I wanted to hire you all as a type of mercenaries?” The head replied as his gentle aura from before slowly shifted into a more serious one.

n“And why us? There are so many other stronger candidates for you to hire… and don’t play coy with me. I saw all of the hiring ads from all the big families… and you were one of them. There must be a reason as to why you picked us specifically,”

nThough, I already knew why they called us here… and it was more specifically for me, and they were just some tagalongs.

n“*sigh*… All of you, besides Orion and Bella, leave the room. I need to speak with them privately,”

nEverybody respected the head’s order and waited outside the room, causing the air within this enclosed space to tense even further.

n“First, let me get this straight. You were one of the attendees at the Meeting of Roses, right?”

nI gave him a long stare, but I knew it was useless because I’m sure he’s already figured out it was me, and he was just testing me.

n“Indeed, it was me,”

n“So then, you’re the one who killed my successor, right?” He asked, a pair of cold eyes stalking me like the king of the jungle.

n“Indeed it was me… Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve lost, or anybody else would’ve lost underneath pretty much every circumstance… but I just set it up for it to sway in my direction. It was unfortunate that he had to face me,” I said with a taunting smile.

n“He might’ve not been the best with the sword, but I must say, he was the best magic user in our entire family. You had a taste of his actual power near the end of the match… He only lost because he underestimated you, so think of yourself us lucky,”

nI scoffed at his answer while requesting for a bit more tea.

n“I got lucky? No, he got unlucky. I set up the match in my favor and planned to kill anybody I faced. He was unlucky that he faced a cheater,” I said as Bella poured me some more tea.

n“So you admit you cheated?”

n“Mmmmm… Now that I think about it. I didn’t cheat. How can you cheat if there were no rules, huh? Come on, tell me. I want to know,”

n“Man, I really hate you. Not only did you kill my successor, but you also managed to make everybody else at that meeting hate me. I just barely managed to escape with my life,”

n“Good for you,”

n“… Is that also how you ruined my grandchild’s life right here? A man as proficient in planning and manipulation like you wouldn’t mind if a child experiences hell for the sake of your benefit, right?”

nI stayed silent while sipping on my tea, waiting for something to happen.

nSuddenly, Bella stood up from her cushioned chair right beside the head of the family and walked over to me, standing with her belly just a mere inches from my face.

nI didn’t even look up at her as I waited for her speech.

n“I’ve made mistakes in my past, and you helped me change for the better. So, you may not believe me when I say this, but… I’m sorry, Orion. Please forgive my past self. I have reflected and appropriately atoned for my actions….” She said, and my eyes widened in shock as I looked up at Bella.

nShe had a confident and almost leader-like aura as she looked at me with a hint of respect.

nOut of all the things I predicted to happen… this was not one of them.

n“Oh man, you’re really **ing cool. I’m sorry about what I said earlier. I wanted to see if you’ve really changed,” I said as I scooted the chair back and stood up to meet Bella eye to eye.

nShe was pretty tall, maybe just an inch shorter than me.

n“What would I have done to fail your test?” Bella asked.

n“If you lashed out with anger and gave into my taunting. I would also like to apologize to you, the head of the Wony family. I was also testing you… because I don’t want to be working with incompetent people,” I said, and the head let out a loud laugh.

n“Boy, I think you’re too smart for your own good!” He shouted before getting out of his seat and placing his hand on Bella’s shoulders.

n“Hold on, can we discuss what we came here for first of all. I want to negotiate some conditions and our pay,”

n“Oh, that’s right,” The man chuckled before both of the Wony members sat down in their seats, and I let out a long sigh.

n“Alright, so you’ll hire us as mercenaries, but I’m sure what you want is my tactical planning and **, not our actual strength, so… am I right?”

n“You are right, but first we should let the others come back in,” The man replied, but I quickly stopped him.

n“No, they’ll just get in the way,”

n“HAHAHAHA! You really are amusing!”

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