6 A Pride of Lions

The design standard for the Hong Enterprise Hotel lobby had been one of withholding no reservations. Perhaps the architect feared not being able to take his or her money with them to the grave, that it was all spent to lavishly decorate this entrance. From floor to ceiling, a height of about 12 meters, everything was a smooth polished marble with gold-brown etchings and engravings adorning the support columns and balconies.

Pools of reflected light danced across the floor like caustics atop the water's surface, shining from the wall mounted lanterns and ceiling chandeliers. Given the strong lighting it would always feel like daytime inside this lobby, so whether you wanted refreshments or liquor, a cafe and a bar were both present to entertain the guests. If you feared sleep, visit the cafe. If you desired daytime drinking, no one would be able to tell the time of day underneath these bright white lights.

Kiran and Ga Eun were waiting for Yan Yan, who had gone out ahead to prepare the car. According to Ga Eun, she had a fashion designer friend who owned her own fashion boutique not too far from the hotel. She could provide them with appropriate attire for the banquet on such short notice.

"Here, Royal Husband. This is for you." Ga Eun began to speak as she unfastened a necklace from her nape. She had a sterling silver ring on this necklace, which she took off and handed to Kiran.

"This is?" Kiran spoke, as he examined the ring in the palm of his hand.

"You don't recognize it? It's your wedding ring."

"Sorry, I really...I forgot."

"That's okay. I kept it for you, because it's too valuable to wear it when you can't protect it."

"It's just a silver ring. No one would steal it from a comatose man, surely?" Kiran asked as he turned away from the ring in his hand to look at Ga Eun.

"It's a storage ring. A set, together with my own ring. Your Bei clan really went all out for this marriage, at least when they initially expected me to be marrying your cousin." Ga Eun lowered her voice to almost a whisper, as she leaned in towards Kiran, afraid of letting out such an important secret about a rare treasure.

"You mean, this was originally meant for Lucas? Then how did we still end up with two storage rings, when these things are so insanely valuable?" Kiran remembered that even in the 4 Guardian families and the Imperial family, there were a limited amount of storage rings to be found.

The value of the ring came from the fact that each individual ring came with its own small pocket dimension and their manufacturing required the use of a Particle accelerator to create a state of Quantum entanglement within a portable artefact. The chances of success during this process were absurdly low.

"The rice was already cooked. Even if they didn't want to, they still needed to keep up appearances." Ga Eun replied, matter-of-factly.

"Ga Eun. I need to ask, but do you hate the fact that you were forced to marry me? And then there's everything you went through these last two years..." Kiran began to ruminate as he asked Hong Ga Eun a burning question that had been bothering him.

The beautiful Hotel CEO was silent for a moment, before she shook her head firmly and with conviction as her only response, before a smile bloomed on her face. And that was good enough for Kiran, as the two then exited the hotel before boarding a business class sedan and driving away, with Yan Yan at the wheel.

---

At the boutique, the trio only spent a short time before choosing their evening wear. That is to say, Kiran was able to choose a Navy blue tuxedo that he liked and tried it on in under fifteen minutes. The ladies, on the other hand, spent nearly an hour and forty five minutes trying on different evening dresses until they were finally satisfied.

Yan Yan opted for a light, silver sequinned and sleeveless floor length evening dress with a deep and plunging neckline. She really did seem to be partial to revealing clothes, but she was elegant and gorgeous and pulled off the look rather well.

Ga Eun, perhaps to compliment and match her husband, had chosen a strapless, voluminous, inky navy blue and floor length ball gown. It had many cascading ruffles and multiple under-layers and the decorative beaded patterns shone like stars in the night sky. She was the definition of regal beauty.

Had Kiran harboured any complaints about the amount of time the women were spending, all such thoughts were immediately banished the moment he saw them walk out of the changing rooms. If his augmented reality or cheat system had come included with a screen shot feature, this was the moment he thought he would've liked to preserve. Once everything was done and all bills paid by Liu Yan Yan, the three made their way back to the car to depart. Unfortunately, not all good things are made to last.

As they were walking through the outdoor parking lot, Kiran noticed a flash of red dot out across his mini map. Their number was exactly eleven, no more or less. This was the first ever example of the map showing any other colour besides his gold and the blue that denoted everyone else. Since Kiran had been a seasoned gamer in his previous life, he naturally knew what red represented better than anyone - enemies.

Since he could see them, this most likely wasn't a random event encounter, but these antagonists were starting to circle behind them as if to surrounded them. Kiran immediately took all of the packages they had bought, including the one's being carried by his wife and her secretary, and urged them on to increase their pace to the parked car.

"Ms. Liu, we're being followed by someone. If we get to the car quickly, do you think you can lose them?" Whilst passing by Yan Yan, he whispered a warning to her.

"We've noticed them since the hotel, Your Majesty." came Yan Yan's response as she smiled whilst covering her mouth.

"Why do you think we took so long in the boutique, Royal Husband, if not to cause them to lose their patience?" Ga Eun added as she ran a hand through her long hair, whilst maintaining a calm and composed expression.

"You've got to be kidding me! Do you guys know how close I actually came to complaining about your tardiness to you two?" he moaned in exasperation.

"You would've regretted it immediately." the two women responded at the exact same time with a very laconic air and finality to their words.

Kiran couldn't help marvelling at how efficient and well coordinated these two women were. Even without a cheat system to aide them, they were skilful enough in counter tracking to detect enemies well in advanced. He, on the other hand, could only detect them only once the assailants had become hostile and this was on the condition the system assisted him. Even now, he still couldn't see or sense the enemy visually, beyond their presence on the map, but it seemed Yan Yan and Ga Eun knew exactly where they were lurking.

"Gaja, Yan-er." Ga Eun announced once they'd arrived inside the car. As if a fire had been lit, the car sped off under Yan Yan's control and the pursuers all frantically scrambled to give chase in their own vehicles.

Alas, pity these eleven men and women, for they were the true prey of these two Lionesses.