RD 2 Ch 6 (Patreon)

Chapter 6

I stopped with Cice and Simone in front of my grandfather’s small building. It was a narrow but deep two story building in what would be considered the lesser of the two residential islands.

Circe had taken us on a long winding path. I was fairly sure she was still testing me the whole time. Yet it was so casual, it was hard to be on guard.

I didn’t really know what to make of her interest or her questions. Most of the time I wasn’t exactly sure what she was testing me about or for. Other times it was so blatantly obvious that it had to be something else.

Or perhaps I was being paranoid. It is natural to be paranoid when a player with the ability to crush your girlfriend is holding her close while testing you.

But in the end, I never felt hostility from her.

Circe let go of Simone. “Any last questions for me Bran?”

“Two.” I glanced at my grandfather’s house with an odd feeling. “First, any tips on awakening my bloodline?”

“The guardian of the Heros Clan will visit each of your souls and untangle the Heros blood to find you something valuable. Just be respectful when it visits.” She nodded towards me. “The second?”

“Where is the Tartarus branch?” I asked.

She didn’t hesitate. “Not here. Why? Are you going to try and join them over me at this point? Here I thought we were getting along so well. To dump me already.”

I shook my head at her constant flirtation that was probably a tactic to throw me off balance. “No. I think something is wrong with Tartarus. I have my reasons.”

“Maybe you’ll trust me enough to tell me those reasons one day. For now, Tartarus’ location is one of our best kept secrets.” Circe said, obviously she knew, as one of the most powerful members of the clan.

“I understand. My mother wanted me to go that direction, however I have an uncannily bad feeling about it, like that’s a road that only leads to death or worse.”

Circe narrowed her eyes and gave me a critical look. I knew that she was also inspecting me again. Though hers was an advance inspection, it wasn’t enough for the talismans. “Careful, some members of the Clan would take that to be a threat. Don’t talk of it further.”

I nodded, taking her warning to heart. There was a reason I spoke to her on these matters. Given what I knew about her from my past life and what I had seen here, she was very capable and seemed to be genuinely interested in recruiting me in this life.

The tension evaporated from her body and another brilliant smile adorned her face. “Let me go in with you and apologize for taking you away for so long. Your mother must be worried. Eighteen year old boys can get in so much trouble.” She pushed open the door to my grandfather’s place to find him sitting with my mother at a table talking in hushed tones.

“Did y— Elder Circe.” My grandfather stumbled, realizing who had just entered. “It’s an honor to have you at my humble home.”

“It’s lovely. I just came here to deposit my charge.” She shooed Simone and I inside. “The wind seemed to have knocked his parachute astray and into my palace. I was about to go for a walk, so I gave him a tour and met his lovely little bride to be. The two of them have really made an impression on me.”

My grandfather rubbed his hands together and bowed several times to Circe. “I’m sorry for the trouble.”

“No trouble. I think I gained something from this exchange. Bran here is very promising.” She put both her hands on my arm. “It will be exciting to see the induction with him tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it. But for now I will leave so you can relax.” She flashed a rather fake smile at the room and turned to leave.

The place was quiet for a long moment as we all waited to make sure that she was gone.

“This is perfect!” The man who must be my grandfather with how much he resembled my mother, rushed to my side, suddenly happy to see me. “Odyssey is a wonderful branch, and to have the favor of Circe before your induction. Honey! Come out here and welcome our grandson and granddaughter.” He looked Simone up and down, a little hunger in his eyes.

I immediately wanted to gouge his eyes out.

He wasn’t very grandfatherly. He still looked like he was in his forties with a touch of gray sprinkled in his hair. The man also felt greasy.

A beautiful woman who looked like she might be my mother’s older sister came out from deeper in the house. “Who was the other guest? I heard another voice.” She asked.

“Elder Circe dropped them off. I guess they’ve been with her. The ungrateful brat.” My grandfather slapped his knee. “But it’s all okay. You’ll join Odyssey and the whole family will rise as part of that.”

I frowned and inspected both of them.

Neither of them were impressive. In fact, my mother was stronger than both of them. Their levels were decent, but with B rank bloodlines. It seemed they hadn’t done much else to raise their stats.

“What is it that you do for the clan grandfather?” I asked like a curious teen. “This is all so new.”

“Grandpa is a clerk now. I used to run some low level instances for my tithe. It was hard but honest work.” He slapped his chest. “When you get initiated, be sure to come to me for advice.”

I was unimpressed. Did he not even push himself? Sure it was work, fairly tedious work, but candidly he should have let the younger generation do those while he eventually worked himself up to higher ranked instances.

Heck, if this were my organization, I’d move him to pencil pusher just to get him out of the way and give a chance for someone more useful to run instances.

“You should listen to your grandfather.” My grandmother insisted. “We’ll take good care of you. Especially when you go to Odyssey, let us manage your things here so you can focus on the missions.”

My mother gave me a look as if to say ‘this is why I hate the clan.’ “Why don’t we let him rest? He’s been through a lot and though Circe was nice I’m sure he’s been far too tense going around with her.”

“That’s fair.” My grandfather rubbed his chin. “Come give your old pappy a hug and promise you’ll be a good boy for the family.” He held out his arms.

I went up to him, this time being even more careful about my strength. I was slightly reluctant to hug the man.

He wrapped his arms around me and slapped my back a few times. “Solid boy. You’ll do great tomorrow. Get some rest.”

“Thanks. I think the jet lag is catching up with me.” I blinked slowly and yawned. “See you all tomorrow.”

My grandfather smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. Meanwhile through the whole exchange my grandmother just stood to the side.

“So, Elle, tell us about what you’ve been up to. We haven’t had a chance to talk in a long time. You aren’t like the boy. A little jet lag won’t bother you.” He didn’t let her escape.

I took Simone and slipped further back into the house. The master bedroom was obvious, and then so was my mother’s. It was filled with sharp swords and a suit of armor. There was another room with a stack of towels laid on it and I guessed that one was mine. It was far enough away from the conversation that I couldn’t hear a thing when I closed the door.

Most of the building was solid stone with plenty of plush rugs to make walking on it bearable. The door had been made out of a thick wood. It felt like we were closed off from the world when it closed, but I was too cautious to rely on that sort of assumption.

Pulling out talismans, I warded the door with one that would create a bright flash if torn and then several more wards to mute sound.

“I don’t like him.” Simone rubbed her arms and jumped into mine, dragging me down to the bed.

“Me neither.” I agreed. “More reason to take up Circe’s offer. Pretty sure we’d get put up on her island.”

“Do you trust her?” Simone asked, wrapping herself around me and kissing my neck.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “We’re talking about another woman. A very dangerous one at that.”

“She’s hot though. So fucking hot.” Her eyes flashed with an idea and her form rippled to become Circe. “Don’t tell me you didn’t think about it. What those lips would feel like wrapped around your cock.”

“Aren’t I supposed to be the horny one?” I asked as Simone pulled down my pants.

“Nope. God, men are so dense sometimes. Women are far hornier than them, at least the good ones are.” She cupped me in my boxers and massaged it with a few kisses. “I’ve missed you. So, Circe.” She tried to keep me talking while she looked like the woman.

“Tricky, old, but honorable.” I said, giving her a short assessment as she pulled my member out and wrapped her lips around me for a moment.

“Yes? She didn’t see through the illusion with a skill, just her experience.” Simone dragged a rough tongue along the base and circled the head a few times before sucking gently on the tip. “Very different impression than your mother gave.”

“She’d still send us to unknown dangers. Anytime you send someone to an instance, there’s a decent amount of unknown.” Fuck, I grabbed Simone’s horns, knowing where they were even without seeing them on the illusion and pulled her lips down over me.

Simone spoke, but her mouth was full as I pulled her down deeper.

“That’s what you get for teasing me.” I had to admit, thrusting into an illusion of Circe felt good. It felt like I had the advantage for now. “All fucking day she teased me.”

Simone hummed and swallowed me down her throat. The woman knew how to work me quickly.

I didn’t last long, pumping my seed down her throat.

Simone came up, letting the illusion fade as she wiped some spit off her lips and pulled herself up to snuggle me as the little spoon. “I needed that. After the plane ride with your mother and then that old witch, I needed some of you.”

I hugged her soft body to me. “Yeah. I get it. This whole trip is going to be filled with tension. Circe doesn’t seem to have bad motives, but she’s had a lot of practice hiding her real intentions.”

“What did your Soul Gaze tell us?”

“That she could crush me even as I am now. Even with Last Stand, I’d only match her lowest stats.” I had known there would be old monsters here, but I hadn’t expected my first steps onto the island to be in the hands of one of them already.

“Then as usual the plan is to get stronger?” Simone asked.

“That’s always the plan.” I kissed her. “I’ll do the initiation tomorrow and then they’ll stuff us all in a low level, high grade instance.”

“Are you going to be an SS rank class now?” Simone asked.

I groaned. “I think I have to be. Help me make a few new ones?” I’d need to redo some of the talismans that I had already made. Not only did I need one for level one, but a smattering of others that pretended to be various levels to account for what I’d need to look like after the instance. “You’ll be okay staying with my mother during this?”

“Don’t have much of an option. If it gets bad, I’ll go find Circe. Worst case she’ll just hold me pseudo hostage while she waits for you.” Simone shrugged. “Besides, I’m pregnant with a little Heros and have an SS rank bloodline. They should be fairly careful with me based on what your mother has told us.”

I nodded, still not loving the idea of leaving her on her own.

But it was the next step. It felt like running away from Circe was going to cause more problems than it would solve. She had me in her sights. Running felt like it would just invite her to chase.

“Well, there is that.” I dragged Simone off of me and rolled her on her back. “I seem to recall there was a set price for your help with the talismans.”

“There was.” She hooked her legs behind me and pulled herself up to kiss me, this time with more passion. “Want Circe to beg for you? Might be a little cathartic.”

“No, I want my Simone, because I’m going to miss her for the next few days.” I peeled off her black dress and pressed her back to the bed. “She should know just how much I care for her to tide her over.”