Stella

A/n: Fun fact, Any Team 6 member breakthroughs to another level, all of them will do the same. Examples like Vanoss have recently broken through to Rank 3 while the others were still at Rank 2, when Vanoss breakthroughs to that rank, the others do the same, even if any of them didn't do much effort.

It was like they were all connected in one.

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Current Level: Lv.15

Current Rank: Rank 2

Current Rank: F–

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"So gud!"

Gracie's eyes were shining while she ate the food on the table like an agressive beast. She ravished the food as though she had not eaten in months.

"Dear God, your not joking about her having such apetite," Delirious said as he widen his eyes, surprised how a girl with a small body ate a whole table filled with food.

Today, Moo had prepared meatballs with patacones and cream cheese. The meatballs had been made using the meat of a <G+> rank Magic Beast and cheese that Delirious bought from the market, and Moo's cooking had given it the perfect texture.

In less than two minutes, most of the food in the table the three were supposed to eat were all gone. Surprisingly, Gracie, the little cat girl, had eaten as much food than all of them.

The group was astonished by the petite girl's appetite. Basically wondered where she went all the food she ate.

The girl indeed emptied the food on the table but that doesn't mean the three didn't get a bit of a meal.

By the time Delirious and Basically began to eat Moo's cooking, they all immediately widened their eyes.

"Holy shit, Moo. Your food is pretty good, probably even Gordon Ramsay will be damned." Delirious stared at Brock who is wearing an apron and a spatula with sparkling eyes. "Where the hell did you learn to cook like that?"

"I learned that a bit from my wife." Brock smiled in pride. Seeing the three in front of him gave their admiration, he could not help but soften his expression a little bit.

"You sure are fortunate, man." Delirious sighed in envy. "Unfortunately, I don't even know how to cook, I only rely on my wife to do it. Would you teach me how!"

Moo smiled but remained silent.

So, once they finished eating, Gracie began to rest with her stomach full, seeing this, Marcel and Delirious nodded at each other before leaning forward towards the girl and began to ask questions to her with serious looks on their face.

" ( •w•) ( •_•) "

"Where do you come from?"

"Where did you live?"

"Do you have any close relatives?"

"Are you a spy?"

"Guys, I think you are scaring her."

Seeing the two were bombarding Gracie with questions, Brock immediately stop the two from going any further.

Looking at the girl, she seems nervous surrounded by two men asking her a lot of questions that seem to make her feel uncomfortable.

"What about just asking questions one by one."

""Fine…"" Delirious and Basically both agreed.

Smiling, Brock then turn his gaze at Gracie and said, "Now can you please politely answer my two idiot's questions, Gracie."

 " 😐🙂 Okie."

As she accepted, she started to talk about herself of her past. She said that she once lived with her older sister who took care of her. Their parents had died when she was a child, so her older sister was like her mother, before she lost herself in the woods and got captured by Slave Traders for a few weeks. And what made them surprised is that she lives in a city called Karen? Kalen? Calrem? It is obvious she was trying to say Kalren which they were currently on.

And that's not the only surprise part, the way she mentioned her abduction was like she didn't even experience it, if she says that to others, they might not believe her on how calm she was, which made the three more suspicious.

Back to mentioning her sister. The name of her older sister was Stella. Gracie said that her sister was very cool and powerful and that she would introduce her to the three one day once she met her once again.

While they were talking, someone knocked on the door...

"Huh? What could that be?" Marcel said. He then stood up and walked towards the door.

But then, Gracie grabbed his new shirt with a nervous expression.

" 🙁 Don't go."

"Huh?"

"...I don't wanna go with them."

Seeing her expression, the other two frowned.

"Gracie?"

"Please.... no... bad guys."

"Is anything wrong?" Delirious furrowed his brows.

Moo fell into thoughts. He then smiled at Gracie confidently before going as he passed at Basically, headed towards the door himself.

"Don't worry, let's see who it is. And if it's not safe, I will not let them take you away."

Gracie stared at Moo and the others and nodded. She then stood up and followed behind him, but she was still grabbing Marcel's shirt.

Delirious then followed after them.

*Shing*

The three took out their swords as they were ready what's in the other side.

When Moo opened the door, what he first saw was two muscular, serious-looking men outside.

"Good afternoon, young man. We are searching for our missing young miss who was lost for the past few weeks. We got reports you found her?"

"Young miss?" Moo was slightly startled.

"Yes, miss Gracie. We were once her personal bodyguards, were here for the missing girl that was abducted 2 weeks ago by slave traders and we've been looking for her for a long time. Fortunately, you people finally found her and then we need to take her back."

He then looked at Gracie behind Moo.

Meanwhile, Basically wrinkled his brows. Something was wrong here.

Her personal bodyguards? Then how did they lose her in the first place? Basically was able to tell that the two men were both Rank 2 practitioners.

Moreover, they took so long to find her for the past few weeks. What kind of bodyguards are they?

The men did not seem to feel the three's wariness. One of them took a step forward and tried to grab Gracie.

Gracie paled in fear. But at that moment, Moo grabbed the man's wrist.

"You don't look like her personal bodyguards."

The man frowned. "Young man, we just want to do our work. Are you planning to make things difficult for us?"

Instantly, a sense of threat surged out from the two men. Mana and killing intent pressed against Moo, proof that they had killed before.

However—

"Wow, is that what you call killing intent? What a disappointment." Delirious snorted.

Instantly, the two men's killing intent was erased.

At the same time, both Moo, Marcel, and Delirious released his own pressure. Fighting against their enemies and killing them in this world, they begin to develop some skills.

And also, Delirious, compared to the two his killing intent was another level, with that kind of intent, it nearly suffocated the two men.

"So... who the hell are you?" Moo said in a serious tone. The three's killing intent and Delirious' bloodthirstiness attacked the two men, causing their expressions to pale.

The men looked at each other. They saw the wariness in their eyes and realized they had kicked a steel bar this time.

However, they could not leave the girl here, or their two bosses would definitely punish them by death.

But when they were about to take out their weapons, an ice-cold voice came from outside.

"Stop."

Then, a girl suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind the two men. The girl's ice-cold gaze froze the two men completely, and even the three suddenly felt a cold chill.

But then, the girl behind Moo smiled brightly.

"Big sister!" Gracie pushed Moo out of the way, rushed and jumped to the girl's arms.

The girl's expression turned to a surprise look before turning to softened, for a split second there was a single tear coming out of her eyes before it instantly disappeared. She hugged the petite cat girl and smiled gently. 

"Gracie, it's been that long is it? What did you do this time?"

"Nothing. The two bad men want to took me away 😛 " Gracie said while looking at the two frozen men.

The girl frowned. She looked at them with the coldest gaze that was able to surpass Delirious' bloodthirsty aura.

"Explain, what is happening?"

The two men trembled. Under the girl's threatening gaze, one of them forced himself to talk.

"M-Miss, we found your m-missing sister. W-We only just wanted to b-bring her back.

"By taking her forcibly? Do you even know how much she has been traumatized for the past few weeks!? Do you have any idea what does Slave Traders do to their slaves!?!? Next time take her politely or you'll die by hundreds of blades of mine!"

The two men were paralyzed in fright. "W-We were just following orders."

Her expression was full of killing intent. She was looking at the two men as though she wanted to murder them brutally.

But in the end, she sighed and waved her hand.

"Get lost, I don't want to kill in front of my sister."

"Y-Yes, t-thank you very much."

The two men did not care for their image. They bowed at Gracie's sister in fear and ran away.

Once the men were away, Gracie's sister turned towards the three.

"You are... Basically and Delirious, right?"

"We meet again, Miss Stella…" Marcel said with gentle smile.

"Who?" Delirious asked in confusion, since when Marcel met this chick?

"Ignore him. So you three know each other?" Moo asked.

"Of course we did. But... I never imagine you were Gracie's sister."

Gracie's sister was someone the two knew. To be exact, they met her earlier today, the one when they and Herald talked.

Yes, she was the mysterious bodyguard behind Herald's sister.

Pale skin, Silver hair, and red eyes, together with faint killing intent and an elusive presence. Basically could not forget someone like her easily... except for Delirious who has no clue who she is.

Meanwhile on Gracie, she looks between her sister and the three with a look similar to something familiar for the readers.

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"Ya know each other? Great! Big sister, this is my new friends! Mr. Brock is da one saves me!"

Stella looked at the three, one is Moo, she put a suspicious expression on her face as she squinted her eyes.

However, when Gracie finished explaining how they met, her wariness decreased.

"Is it so?" Skyler sighed. She then bowed at the three gratefully. "Thank you very much for finding my sister. She has been weak since she was a child, always walks around blindly, and she faints sometimes. Fortunately, you were there to help her, or I don't know what I would have done if something happened to her."

"Don't worry about it." Moo waved his hand smiling. "In fact, it was fun being with her.

"That is good." Skyler nodded. She then bowed once more and grabbed Gracie's hand. "Well, it's time to go back home. Many thanks."

"Bye! 👋😊 "

"Gracie…"

"Okay." The little neko smiled and followed her sister unwillingly. Before leaving, though, she turned around and smiled at the stupefied group.

"Such a strange pair of sisters…" Delirious commented when they were gone.

"I will miss Gracie very much. She kinda remind me of my daughter back then…" Moo said with a pleasant smile. "I wonder what is the problem with the two men, though."

"Don't know." Basically shrugged in response before turning his gaze on Brock's direction. "Moo, why would you let her go? Are you worried her sister might do something suspicious?"

"There is nothing to worry there, Marcel. I've already placed a hidden camera on her dress to see what's happening. If something happens, I've already put a device that teleports me to her location immediately.

"How the hell did you get that type of technology?"

"Did you already forget? Terroriser has a system of some sort, he gave me some device he downloaded or something."

"I see."

"Uh, guys, are you wondering something?" Delirious suddenly says between the two.

"Wondering what?" Marcel asked.

"Did you guys not notice? Gracie is a neko. What about that maid? Both of them were sisters."

"And, so? Is there any problem for us?"

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"Gracie, you are causing me trouble for too long again." Stella was angry as she and her little sister walked back to their home. By the time they arrived inside, she took off her maid cap revealing her cat ears just like her sister.

[IMAGES]

(A/n: I keep seeing this photo for the past few days, including on Discord. It was like its trying to make me put it in this chapter so I just did.)

"Why did you escape Count Liam's surveillance? Now look at what you are getting."

"Sorry, big sister, I don't like them. They are bad people, I don't like that you work with them." She said with a sorrowful tone.

"You know our circumstances, what can I do?"

"...Sorry. I know you are doing it for me, and yet…"

"...It's not your fault, Gracie. It's my duty as your elder sister." Stella sighed and looked at Gracie gently. "But look at the troubles you caused. You were abducted by Slave Traders! Fortunately, you were saved by one of these strangers, or I fear something could have happened to you."

"You don't have to worry about that, big sister. They are one of the next Seven Apotheosis."

"Ah? The what?" Stella was startled. 

"Yes, the one in my dreams!"Gracie seemed very excited. "These three are one of the seven, they are finally here sister, they came to save the world, they can even save us!"

"Again with that?" Stella had a headache. "I told you that dreams are not real."

"Mine are!" Gracie retorted with an anxious face. "You know it, sister, I can see things nobody else can! They are the next heroes since a thousand years ago!"

Stella was startled, she fear that if this continues, her sister will definitely might going to a mental hospital and will cause her even more problems, "Stop it, Gracie. Don't cause more problems."

Gracie's expression turned serious. "Big Sister, are you not tired of this? I don't like this life, sister. I don't like what you do... And now, one of the heroes is here. They are our only hope…"

Stella shook her head. "Silly fool. None of them can't help us, nobody can't help us. Stop talking about it, or if someone hears you, we will be in trouble. Even worse, you will get them in troubles."

Gracie fell silent. She looked at the ground and sighed. "You know I'm right sister. My dreams are true. You have been saved more than once thanks to them…"

"That was a coincidence." The neko maid shook her head.

Her sister was someone very special. Stella knew it, her sister was different from others.

But... she was cursed.

She hated it. She hated her powerlessness to protect her sister. She hated the fact she had to serve the people she most hated to protect her loved one.

But she knew better than anyone that this was the only way.

Changing fate was not so easy.

And heroes were not real.