155 Behind The Scenes 2

When Gio brought down his cup of tea, a part of his hand made contact with the tabletop, the coldness from its surface transferring a bit to his skin. Outside, it was already dark and silent. The silhouettes of the other buildings and billboards were barely visible from the window. Up in the sky, bright stars twinkled softly.

Inside the room though, the conversation between the two had long proceeded, and it was nowhere near the peacefulness of the scenery outside. It got to the point where Gio's face could only be as cold as the person sitting in front of him, if not colder, after all his efforts to make the current situation as pleasant as possible went down the drain.

The two simply looked to be in the middle of a war negotiation.

Perhaps this could only be a given if the two people facing off were both cherishing the same person above all others.

One was a father who ran off to hide his worsening mental condition but still loved his daughter enough to not easily give her away to any 'random' man. Right now, he was barely suppressing all the madness and destructive desires within him in order to hold the most proper conversation he could for the sake of his daughter.

The other party was precisely the random man who had already mentally vowed to always be with the said girl.

With eyes that rivaled the coldness of Sofony's father, Gio politely asked, "I'm sorry, Sir. I understand your point and reason. But may I refuse your offer? I can guarantee you that I'm someone who's not easy to kill. Not even by you. So you can stop worrying about me."

"Right," replied the other man without any emotion in his voice. Gio did not miss out his killing intent though, which precisely what made him so perfunctory in front of this person.

Playing with the temperature of his tea, sometimes causing the surface of the porcelain cup to have additional glistening layers on it, Fred snorted,

"You are."

"Don't test me, young man. I'm barely stopping myself from tearing this whole building down with you. You're not impressing me by saying you're a non-host who can stay by a host's side without dying. Where are you even getting your guts, huh? Do you really want to die?"

At the end of the speech of the middle-aged man who seemingly ran off in the middle of experimentation, his tone was already so sarcastic he could even rival Sofony's AI.

Gio had hardly restrained himself from glaring at the doctor. "Sir, you're not getting my point. I have the capability to back up my words."

"Oh? What made you think so? Your little knowledge about the immoral system and how you are still not hunted down by it? Good for you. Your ego and imagination are as vast as the universe, probably only one level away from the vastness of humanity's ever so famous trait, stupidity. I wonder if it means your brain is slightly tilting to the creative side. Ah, wait, I'm recalling whether it's the right brain or left brain."

"It's the right hemisphere, Sir, but actually, both the left and right brain contribute to intuition, creativity, logic, and analysis," Gio politely replied unsmilingly.

The soon-to-be full-fledged mad scientist of the abandoned convalescence center who was still, unfortunately, learning the basics of biology and anatomy, glared at the man. He was very displeased by Gio's unwanted interjection.

"Are you deaf? I told you to wait for me to recall it! You didn't hear me? This is why I'm saying you're no good! You're just so, no, good! What kind of man are you that you keep disrespecting those older than you? Who raised you to be like this? See if I don't kill him without his body intact!"

"Conrad Albarez," Gio unhesitatingly replied, as if he knew that the man before him would shut up if he brought that name up.

His guess didn't let him down. Finally, this slightly oddball middle-aged man who kept throwing unreasonable remarks and questions at him since more than twenty minutes ago closed his mouth for a short while.

Gio would not admit that he felt satisfaction in his heart for finally shutting Fred Mendez up who began to be so wary of him ever since he told him that he knew who he was.

That did not last more than a dozen seconds though. Without forgetting to give him dirty looks, Fred harshly rebuked him,

"Really disrespectful! A disgrace! In C Empire's words, you're a damned white-eyed wolf! I can't believe you are raised by him! You made me so speechless that you can call the person you should be respecting the most by his name, and without honorific or any salutation at that!"

"So preposterous!"

"Because people like you exist that many from the older generations are dying of heartaches and heart attacks!

"You should die! Atone for your sins and commit suicide!"

"..."

Even though Gio had already claimed many lives and earned the wrath, envy, and other complicated emotions from others, this was the very first time that he'd been conscious of himself, wondering just how that simple mistaken made Fred look at him as he was the greatest failure of the whole humanity.

For the last twenty minutes that passed, how many times had this man made him at a loss for words?

Why was it so hard to communicate with him?

Gio who hardly knew about Fred from his 'memories' was finding this current talk annoying since he didn't know that Fred was a real madman in the flesh, maybe it was due to the other man putting efforts in keeping himself in check. Without him knowing, the reason Fred only set up the meeting today was to get enough calmness through the sessions. Were it not for that, Fred would have surely done already what he threatened to do earlier, wreaking havoc in the place with reckless abandon. Destroying her daughter's current home while at it.

"Sir, let's just change the topic and put closure to what you have asked earlier since my answer is already given. If I may ask, when are you planning to reveal yourself to her?"

With eyes bulging out of sockets, Fred cocked his head to the side, never stopping his glaring, "And when the hell did I give you permission to ask about that, huh? Did you also ask for my consent to switch topics? No? We're going back to my proposal then and you're not allowed to change the damn topic without giving me the answer I've been waiting for damn thirty minutes!"

Hiding his distaste, face serious, Gio asked, "What makes you think I'll agree to separate from her?"

"What makes you hard to understand that you're not immortal, huh? Bloody hell, I hate this stupid conversation. It's always like this every time I'm talking with Albarez-surnamed people!" The man angrily stood up. "I'm leaving! Why am I even talking it out with you when I can just make it happen? Bye, stupid lad! You're now dead to me! And I mean it!"

Gio stupidly and blankly stared at the empty space where Fred Mendez had been just a second ago. In a blink of an eye, the man vanished, leaving no trace, momentarily catching the owner of the unit dumbfounded.

His shock did not last for more than three seconds though. His face donning a grim expression as he thought, 'So this is teleportation, huh?'

Shortly after, his face darkened more when he remembered what the man said. Not the part where the man swore to not let him change topics but teleported away the very next second.

'He couldn't kill me.'

However, he didn't dare assume that Fred was only saying blind threats, barking without biting. With knowledge of what people like Fred could do, he didn't dare relax. Standing up from his seat, Gio took four strides towards the center table and picked up the phone lying there. There was something which had just crossed his mind that he planned to confirm through his information team.

One of the shopping malls he owned at Jasper City was attacked by a bomber, and Sofony mentioned to him what kind of person had the tendency to do something like this.

'That kid is called Leo Jones, right?

In his memories, that person, later on, seemed to be revealed as that man's followers.

'So he's planning to 'kill' me through this?'

On the screen of his phone, his assistant's name was already flashing even without him dialing the number... and he was having a feeling it was not only about the recently bombed Ever Victorious owned property.

...

...

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