73 Tug of War

"I'm serious, if you have any plans today, cancel them immediately! Don't go anywhere I'm sending someone to come get you."

Arius breathed out and then pursed his lips. "I'm not at home right now."

"..." Pierre took a moment to process this anwser. "Send me the address or coordinates, please."

"Yup'." Arius immediately hung up after saying so, and then turned to Asrael. "You need to leave without me, something came up."

Asrael glanced at Arius and then got into one of the black vans with Lufti as he spoke. "Let's go."

Arius had at some point developed a certain degree of understanding with Asrael. They didn't ask for explanations when it came to certain aspects. Things such as Arius's connections had nothing to do with Asrael, and Chrysanthemum's inner workings would never be disrupted by Arius.

Arius sat down on the porch stairs as he  texted Pierre, and after spending about a minute or two alone, he began to feel less 'alone'. What did Asrael say it was? Instinct? Perhaps that actually was an ability that came with his immortality.

Arius raised his head to look around for anything suspicious. The feeling that there was someone else there wasn't exactly a bad feeling, but it still jostled Arius's nerves.

He didn't see anything, so he stood up to take a look. He walked a lap around the house with nothing suspicious standing out, so in the end he could only sit back down. There was definitely nothing inside the house, since they had practically turned the place upside down to find the dogs.

Arius noticed how the boards creaked as he sat down, and as he payed attention, he could even hear the wind. His suspicions grew more with every second that he couldn't find the culprit.

"...!" Arius was scared witless when he felt something tug on his jeans. Though the only movement he made was to straighten his back, making it seem as if he only momentarily lost his cool.

When the amount of strength being used finally registered in his mind, he also heard the slight vexation of a small creature. Looking down, Arius could see the edge of his jeans being stretched until under the wooden porch.

"Having a fun game of tug of war?" Arius spoke softly, and a faint smile crept onto his lips. He moved slowly as he reached under the porch and grabbed something furry. It struggled a bit and released the jeans, completely unwilling to be picked up.

Arius's first impression could be summed up into one word; Cute! He didn't know the breed, but it was definitely a small dog, and a young one at that. Arius tossed all his worries to the wind as he spoke to the puppy with a higher pitch. "Hello there little guy-oh-! girl! You're a cute little girl!"

No matter how long Arius had lived, it would always be impossible not to adore such lovable creatures. Arius couldn't guess what breed she was, she had bent ears that weren't droopy, and she was mostly white except for the parts that were vaguely tan around her ears, back and tail. So cute, her eyes looked like honey!

Arius almost cried when she started wagging her tail that curved upward, it was too much! He hugged her close to his chest as she calmed down from the adrenaline of being captured. He could feel it at that point, how skinny she was, and his resent towards Ben skyrocketed. He was lucky that the little cutie didn't seem to have any fractures or sicknesses.

How was it possible that she was so much cuter than the other dogs?! If she ever died... ah. That's right... eventually he would no longer have her around. Then again... if he could simply give her the best life until her death, that would be the best outcome.

So, it was decided, and this time, David isn't around to scold him! That's right, Arius lost his cool around every small cute creature!

It's common knowledge to David that allowing Arius to keep a pet would only end badly. It wasn't like Arius hadn't tried to keep a pet before, but it had ended with Arius becoming too distracted and almost signing his entire business away. David wasn't around when it happened, but he heard the story.