Chapter 33 – Two Tasks and a Date

"Good morning, Leo," Glottis greeted his big brother at breakfast with a wide smile, only to receive an angry frown in response. "Don't be like that, it's ok to lose sometimes," he told his brother in a smug tone that didn't make anything better.

"I don't buy this bullshit. How come a lazy ass like you suddenly turned into an expert martial artist?" Leo inquired. It was too weird, nobody becomes Bruce Lee overnight.

"What art? I just kicked you in the balls," the younger brother shrugged as though he won by luck.

"No, you didn't. You were beating me before that nasty kick, you didn't need it to win. You only did it in spite," Leo turned even angrier after saying it out loud. He spent a whole hour on the dojo's floor before a guard found him and gave him a pill.

"Potato potahto. Why are you here again? You've been going to work late quite often recently."

Leo was not supposed to be home when Glottis was up, certainly not after his bath. Since it happened twice within a week, Glottis found it weird.

"Hmph, you will come begging soon enough. For now, I have news for you. Your friend, Mike Teuto, moved to Golden High School. He made friends with a member of the Tenaris family who studies there, and he beat up one of our guards when he tried to stop the Tenaris boy from harassing Annie, your personal maid."

Glottis raised his eyes from his morning cereal when he heard the news. He liked his personal maid; hearing that she was harassed made him angry. As for Leo's threat, he completely disregarded it. He had never faced consequences before.

"Why is a Tenaris in our city?" Glottis asked in bewilderment. Although he was not involved in the family business, his parents still made sure he at least knew who the biggest families in their republic were.

"We are unsure. His family asked us if it was ok to send him here, and since they asked, we had no choice but to agree. After all, we do not actually own the city, we can't tell people not to live here. Bullying him after agreeing would make us look petty, so we just let him be," Leo explained the complicated politics.

"Now that he attacked us we can go after him, right?"

"We could, but Mother decided not to," Leo shrugged.

"Mom did? Why is she backing all my enemies lately?" Glottis frowned. He just hoped he wouldn't enter on her banging the Tenaris boy, too.

"She is not backing him. She said that you are ready to join the family, be truly part of it. She wants you to take care of the Tenaris boy, saying it's a different kind of challenge than defeating a cultivator with no background. Since you need both types of experience, those are your two tasks for the time being."

Leo got up from his chair, leaving the dishes behind for one of the servants to clean. He closed the button of his suit and walked away while opening his phone to check his emails.

"Wait, Leo, why are those two different tasks? They sound the same to me, get rid of a guy my age," Glottis did not like trouble at all. He preferred to reduce his number of tasks to one and let his family deal with the other.

"One is dealing with a cultivator with no background. It's a matter of strength and fighting. Of course, plans and ambushes are included. In this task, nobody would ask questions if Mike Teuto were to disappear. The other task is more delicate – A lot of people would ask questions if something happened to the Tenaris boy. Furthermore, he is a weakling, you can beat him up easily. The problem is that you can't do it in a place with witnesses, especially if you're going for the kill. Besides, you don't have to kill them – you just need to deal with them."

"Isn't dealing with them the same as killing them?"

"No, you just need to make sure they won't cause more trouble to our family. Killing is just one way. Anyway, I passed the orders, I'm off to work now."

"Fine, tell Mom I will do it," Glottis shouted after him.

"Tell her yourself."

Glottis sighed to himself. 'With great power comes great responsibility, indeed. I just became a cultivator and they already dump all their work on me,' he lamented, acting as though dealing with two teenagers was all his family had on its plate.

"Hey Kora, call Donny," he called to his virtual assistant.

"Calling Donny," the voice confirmed. As always, the thug answered before three rings passed.

"What's up, Glottis? I hope you are calling because you want to watch Candy Lust, I'm done sacrificing my cultivators for you. Recruitments have crushed after word came out my cultivators get roughed up," the deep voice complained as soon as he picked up the phone.

"Stop whining. Actually, since you mentioned it, when is Candy's next performance? We can discuss it while she dances," he said as he remembered the doll-like stripper. It would be safer to plan a murder face-to-face anyway.

"She will be here tomorrow night."

"Make her come today, tell her I'm coming to watch. Be there too, I have something important to discuss with you." Glottis knew she would come at the mention of his name.

"Hmm, I don't think she wants to come too often, she started managing a JustFans account, I heard she makes good money there plus she gets to work from home," Donny explained. Candy came less and less recently.

"You know her revenues double or triple when I'm around, depending on my tip," Glottis shrugged, unimpressed.

"Right, if she makes it swollen enough, she can make her profits five times bigger," Donny laughed, "Whatever, I will just get here that brunette from your class if she refuses. I will be waiting for you at nine today, see you, I have business to take care of."

The call ended and Glottis got up to leave when he suddenly understood.

'Wait, he means Zoey?' he cursed in his mind. After their phone call last night, he definitely didn't want to see her.

---

Sheela packed her books into her bag and left the class. The school day just ended, and she had an enjoyable day.

'It has been a peaceful day. Both those guys weren't at school to annoy me,' she thought to herself. She especially saw Mike as a hypocrite now. After the bad name he acquired spread at school, her opinion of him worsened, and his absence did not allow him to change her mind.

'I can't believe a guy entered my bathroom while I was showering and then self-proclaimed to be my protector from then on. He is the one I need protection from!'

She walked out of class, holding her bag on her shoulder. She was wearing a black skirt that reached ten centimeters above her knees and a long-sleeve white buttoned shirt that tightened on her chest before getting slimmer around her belly. It was a chill autumn day, so she also decided to wrap her long legs with translucent black tights underneath her skirt.

Just as she exited the building, her phone vibrated and started ringing. She fished it out of her bag and checked the screen, seeing an unknown number.

"Hello, who is this?" she answered after a short moment of hesitation. Sometimes she ignored numbers that weren't saved in her contacts, but she was in a good mood today. It was not going to last for much longer though, mainly because she swiped that green telephone icon to the right.

"Hello, Babe. It's me, Glottis, I thought to give you a call today and offer to pick you up from school." He spoke as though nothing happened, she had given him the right number all along.

'Wait, why does he have my number? I know he wasn't there when they handed the phone books…' she thought to herself, 'Could it be that I gave him the right number?' she started doubting herself.

"Sheela? I'm parking outside, come hang around with me," he reminded her he was still on the line.

"Oh, right, I… uh…" she thought for a moment, trying to come up with an excuse to reject, "I have today an appointment for the dental hygienist," she made up something. "He needs to clean my teeth, it has been nine months since my last visit."

"Oh really? What is his name? I will search his reviews online, maybe I can recommend a better one."

Her mind went blank for a moment at the unexpected question, "I… I forgot his name," she confessed. Since he said he would look him up, she did not want to make a name up, and for some bloody reason, she could not recall her real dentist name. "It's my first time there, so I don't remember his name…" she added.

"Oh, if you are not his regular patient there's nothing to worry about, I will just take you to my dentist after we are done, he will receive you any time, free of charge."

"Ah… okay…" she couldn't come up with another excuse fast enough. 'Who the hell is blatant enough to ask for the dentist's name?' she cursed after hanging up the phone.