To Live Again, For the First Time!

"What part do you not understand?" Emilin wanted him to clarify properly.

"Are we going to meet Master M in Phashi?" Xander was clearly puzzled, tilting his head to the side while looking at Emilin.

​​

"Of course not." Emilin looked at Xander as if she were looking at a moron.

\'You\'ve already met me here. What do you even mean by meeting me again in Phashi?\'

Not that Xander would know that...

"Then when are we doing the Master-disciple ceremony?"

"As soon as possible, within the week would be the best." Emilin nodded a little as if to agree with herself.

"But didn\'t you just say that Master M wasn\'t coming to Phashi?" Xander felt like he wasn\'t catching something here. A small frown appearing on his face when he realized that he was out of the loop.

"So what? I also said that I would be teaching you. And who said M wasn\'t going to Phashi?" Emilin felt like she was talking to a wall. 

She took a deep breath.

"Eh, you\'ll get it when we get there."

Xander pouted a little when he realized that there was no more room for discussion nor questions.

As for Emilin, she was quite sad too.

\'I wasn\'t prepared for your questions, ah!\'

\'You shouldn\'t catch me off guard like this. At least give me some more time to prepare if you are going to ask questions like these. It\'s basic courtesy, no?\'

Emilin finished her thick and fluffy stack of pancakes with store-bought whip cream and fresh strawberries, all of which Levi had bought earlier in the grocery stores that catered to those who woke up this early.

It wasn\'t too uncommon in these areas closer to the mountain range in White City.

They spent some more time coordinating their travels, finally deciding to go by plane after noting that there were tickets.

As for the visa, it was no trouble for Emilin, who had long applied for long term visas with just about every country available on Earth and much less for Xander, who had a special visa as a department head of an international medical organization

He had long gotten access to all nations that he may or may not have to head off to at a moment\'s notice.

It was part of the job.

Even if it was a nation that he truly had neglected, as long as he informed the country beforehand, even if it was an hour before he entered their borders, it was fine.

After all, this young department head was wildly known in the circles as unreliable when it came to such things. Those who knew him wouldn\'t find it too strange and Xander had a number of people from whom he could call in favours from.

That part he had learnt from M.

***

Back in the depths of the Hemafuji Mountain Range.

A blond man who was relatively short, and relatively of short stature made his way into the underground base.

He seemed rather bored, walking lazily into the base as four tired souls followed him from behind.

These four had just done a week\'s worth of monster training in 2 days and survived, it was no wonder they were so bulky.

As for the blond man, though his countenance was rather white, it was by no means pale, at least not in the same way the others were.

As for his physical appearance, he was only relatively short and rather lean as he was next to people who were nearly double his width and about half a head taller.

His bored eyes and lazy attitude changed in an instant the moment he met someone\'s gaze from across the room, his eyes widened and brightened at the same time, his back straightened and even his face flushed a little.

It was as if he had been brought to life all of a sudden.

"Brother Dios!"

Cenci made a B-line towards his Big Brother Dios running so quickly that the nearby people couldn\'t even make out his figure before he had already jumped on Dios, wrapping his legs around his waist and his arms around his neck.

Dios, who was already used to such behavior kept his deadpan face even after being embraced.

No, it was more like Cenci was hanging from Dios\'s neck, clinging on to him while fighting against gravity.

Dios was at least a head taller than Cenci, being muscular, but not in a bulky way that would affect his mobility. His dark hair perfectly contrasting against Cenci\'s blond hair.

Any bystander would find this scene rather picturesque. 

As for all the people in this establishment... they knew better than to have such naive thoughts.

No, actually, there was one group that was rather shook.

It was precisely the four people who had followed behind Cenci.

They previously pale faces had become even paler, as if they had just seen a ghost. But they would claim otherwise. It was worse than simply seeing a ghost.

They had just seen their cold face Captain Dios being embraced by that demon in disguise Captain Cenci. A horrifying scene indeed.

"Get off of me Cenci," Dios ordered in an ice-cold tone, befitting his nicely sculptured face.

"Don\'t wanna!" Cenci spoke in a stickily sweet voice as he lightly hit Dios\'s back with his fists.

"Stop acting cute and get a grip of yourself." Dios\'s voice didn\'t undulate as he placed his big cold hands under Cenci\'s armpits to lift him up into the air and off of him.

"What about that spy girl? What\'s the situation?" Cenci asked excitedly despite having been just treated like a kid.

"So you came here so quickly to ask about her?"

For the first time in the interaction, Dio\'s face soured by a degree.

Cenci, a self-proclaimed expert in Dios\'s face reading as of that instance, didn\'t fail to notice.

"Of course not, of course not! She\'s a side character, a side character. But I have to start the conversation somewhere right? Right?"

Cenci had a tendency to repeat himself when he was slightly nervous.

Dios coldly humphed. 

"There is no situation," Dios replied, leading Cenci to the meeting room before taking his seat.

Meanwhile, Cenci also sat on his own, rolling his chair in circles.

"Hm? How so." Cenci was hooked.

"She already left. Master Moulan has made his verdict. She\'s just an unlucky passerby he says," Dios was rather concise about the matter.

"He says? But that\'s not right. I couldn\'t have calculated the day\'s wrong." Cenci pondered.

"Is that why you arrived so early? To meet a stranger girl?" Dios\'s cross arms tightened their hold on each other.

"Oh, sweety don\'t be jealous now! I was just counting so that I could come back and see you sooner," Cenci pacified with his honey-sweet voice, but on his lips, a playful little smirk grew.

He smiled like the big bad wolf trying to convince little red riding hood that he was a good boy. Even if out of the two, he looked much more fitting to play the other part.

Dios gave him a cold stare as if to reject the notion of being sour, but his knitted brows didn\'t loosen.

"But this was out of my expectations... I missed the show." Cenci sighed and settled down on his seat, no longer spinning.

"You really didn\'t miss anything," Dios appeased when he saw Cenci\'s face, which simply shouted that he was down in the dumps.

"How about those new trainees?" Dios asked in a poor attempt to change the subject, but Cenci complied even after seeing through his intentions.

That was because he really wanted to vent about his pains.

"Where did you pick those people up from? The dumps?" Cenci pouted so much Dios thought that there was probably a bun stuffed in his mouth in order to keep that perfect form.

Dios didn\'t mind that Cenci had just insulted all of his new trainees, it was probably their fault anyway.

"I mean it\'s just terrible!" Cenci dramatically put the back of his palm to his forehead as he exclaimed.

"They aren\'t any better than a bundle of muscles, from top to bottom and their glutes are really nothing to look at either. Do you know how bored I was?"

"Whenever I tried small talk to alleviate the mood and the boredom, do you know what they did? They just sighed and panted at me! Aiyo, after a while they didn\'t even try to talk to me anymore. They clearly don\'t see me as their superior."

Cenci put the story into a spindle, he spun and spun until even the people who were originally characters of that story wouldn\'t realize that it was an event they took part in.

Even if they used the same materials to make the story, they would have gotten 2 varying products.

If those other four were here... they would definitely curse their Captain Cenci for defamation.

Only in their minds though.

They wouldn\'t dare do it out loud for fear of what could be.

"Is that so?" Dios asked as he lightly tapped his chin as if contemplating the matter, even though he clearly noticed the scheming glint in Cenci\'s eyes.

"Then how would you like to punish them?" 

Dios threw the bait.

"Brother Dios, since they are under your care, shouldn\'t you be the one to decide?" Cenci asked as if that were actually his will, but his eyes, the windows to his soul, betrayed his intentions perfectly.

His eyes were clearly smiling much more than just moments ago.

"Well I do have some ideas," Cenci softly said, as if he had just thought something up, after realizing that Dios wasn\'t saying anything else, even though he had been concocting such thoughts for days.

And so, Cenci gladly took the bait.