Chapter 330: A Meticulously Manicured Morning of Measured Magnificence
‘Huh…I just realized something mildly fucked up.’
=What’s up milord?=
‘I have created two kaijin out of the concentrated desires of two leaders who used to be in opposition of my clan… is this slavery with extra steps?’
<=Not exactly, this was brought up before.=>
‘It was?’
‘THAT IS BAD OUT OF CONTEXT!’
________________________________________________
One fine morning, Zhen Clan estate…
“Damn, you’d think having your age reversed would help with some of this paperwork, but no. Work sucks no matter the age I guess,” Zhen Shi grumbled while overlooking over some business documents.
As patriarch, it was his job to make sure the clan was running smoothly and that all of the business matters that was beyond the scope of his sons were taken care of. Unfortunately, he didn’t really have the mindset for that kind of thing.
“Someone tried to short change us for a recent butcher job…still need to organize the return trip to the main clan…and figure out the arrangements for our resident Raijin Hippo…dammit Moka, why did you have to be a traitor?,” Zhen Shi cursed as he realized just how much a pain in the ass all of this new paperwork was going to be.
It had been several weeks since the Zhen Clan had to put the axe, in more ways than one, to the former head butler and Zhen Shi’s right hand man, Moka. Evidently, they had grown complacent over the decades as they left a lot of the busy works in his traitorous yet capable hands.
Loyalty is hard to find, competency is harder.
“Buuugh, I need help…”
Zhen Shi let out a groan as laid his head upon the desk out of stress. He was so caught up in the action, that he failed to notice his eldest son open the door with a confused look on his face.
“Uh…Father? Are you okay?”
“Huh? Zhen Long?,” Yeah…sorta…just a lot of work,” Zhen Shi answered as he sat back up at his desk, “what’s up?”
“Well…this is going to sound weird…but did you send Xiao Liu out on a task out in the middle of the night, last night?”
“Huh?”
A genuine look of confusion appeared on Zhen Shi’s face as he had no idea what his eldest son was talking about.
“No…why?”
“Uhhh…you know what? It’s just easier to show you.”
“Okay…”
Following Zhen Long’s lead, Zhen Shi exited the office and followed him to the front courtyard.
‘What the fuck did that kid bring this time,’ Zhen Shi asked himself, remembering… everything else prior to now.
‘First a World Class art, then a sixth tier beast core and then…whatever he did to me. What the fuck is he going to bring to my front door now?’
________________________________________________
“Hey, what the fuck guys? You two were supposed to be at the arena an hour a…go…whoa… who are the beauties?”
“We don’t know. They just sorta…appeared when we got here…”
“Wait, what?”
“She means that these three were already sitting here in the courtyard as we were passing through.”
“Ah, okay…are they friends of one of the elders? Suitors? They look like bloodliners.”
“We don’t know, but they’re very pretty.”
“Huh…”
In the Zhen Clan’s front courtyard, a crowd had gathered in the halls as the presence of three strangers captured their attention.
Around a small table, three distinctly different yet beautiful women were sitting and playing chess. Well to be more precise, two of the women were playing chess while the third was sitting rather uncomfortably, as if the clothes she was wearing weren’t fitting right despite being perfectly tailored for her.
The assumption for the time being was that the red-headed one was a young lady of some repute, while the two older looking ones were her attendants, maybe her tutors.
“That red haired one is surprisingly pale, yet surprisingly toned…the fuck have they been feeding her?”
“Have they just been playing chess this whole time?”
“Yes.”
“And y’all just been staring this whole time?”
“They’re very pretty.”
“Fair enough.”
The first lady was a woman in a black and white, lace ladened dress with flowery designs, curly dark hair, clear blue eyes and unusually pale skin. What made her features stand out however was the usage of red make-up around her eyes and on her fingertips.
“Bishop to G-6.”
Despite her masterfully manicured appearance however, the on-lookers felt as if they were staring at the human embodiment of a storm, waiting to explode.
“Using a bishop to take a pawn? How perfectly violent.”
“You would know about perfection.” [Spider-whore.]
“Of course.” [Lacey bitch.]
As for her opponent/counterpart, she was her opposite in more ways than one.
“Rook takes knight and your bishop is next.”
“Tsk! Of course you planned that.”
“Indeed.
In contrast to the first lady’s curly hair, hers was straight with perfectly cut bangs and styled in such a way that reminded someone of spider webs and fangs. That same asthethic applied to her clothes, which carried a purple motif with spider-web lacing. This paired nicely with her dark almost purple skin and pink eye color.
Despite having such a loud coloration though, the on-lookers had a feeling that every move she made and every feature of hers was precisely done in that manner.
Hell, it felt like the crowd gathered were standing where they were because she seemed it necessary for them to be there.
This did not escape the notice of her counterpart.
“It appears we’re gathering a crowd. Is this your doing?”
“Well can you blame them, Lacerage? We’re practically perfect in every way…well I am at least. Besides, how can we make an impact as instructed without a crowd?”
“Master said to make a good impression with his grandfather.”
“And what’s a better impression than an adoring crowd?”
“Severed heads of their enemies?”
“…”
“What?”
“Uhhh…hello?”
Before the two ladies could continue arguing however, the person they had been waiting on had finally arrived.
Zhen Shi was being led to the courtyard by his eldest son, Zhen Long, but took over the lead position once they had arrived to the courtyard proper.
Once they saw Patriarch Zhen Shi approaching, the two chess players immediately stopped and stood up from their seats, signalling for their third to stand up as well.
When the patriarch got close enough to their position, the three of them bowed in greeting.
“Honored to finally meet you, Patriarch Zhen Shi,” the pale lady and the purple lady said in perfect unison. As for the red headed one, she just mumbled a greeting.
Evidently, she was rather shy.
“Uh…hello,” Zhen Shi replied while also bowing,”um…I don’t mean to be rude but who are -”
“My name is Aranea,” the spider lady interjected.
“My name is Lucille,” the lace laddened lady followed-up.
“And this is Rianna,” Aranea and Lucille said in perfect unison again, “the three of us were brought here by your grandson because of a mutual…acquaintance of ours.”
“Of course it was my grandson…wait, acquaintance?,” Zhen Shi asked confused.
Aranea produced an envelope from her dress and handed it over to him in the most polite way possible.
“All the details are in here, sir.”
“We also brought gifts,” Lucille followed up again, producing two surprisingly large sealed jugs made of jade.
Zhen Shi looked over the envelope, using a bit of aether to scan it for anything unusual. All he found was that this was a perfectly ordinary letter, no more, no less.
Having confirmed it’s safety, Zhen Shi opened it up to take a look who this acquaintance was.
________________________________________________
Dear Patriarch Zhen,
Wassup?
If you’re reading this letter than that means my two servants have arrived at your compound safely and are ready to help deal with your day-to-day bullshit.
I heard from my disciple, Zhen Liu, that after you had to “axe” your previous right hand man that you’ve been having trouble filling in the position.
I also heard that y’all will be heading to the Roaring Tide continent soon and were worried about man/battle power.
So I figured I would kill two birds with one stone, and since I have vested interest in my apprentice not dying because of skulldigging shenanigans, I have sent Aranea and Lucille to assist.
Don’t worry about the way they look, they’re very capable assistants and are both at the Grandmaster rank, so they’ll be able to help cover the slack until your sons breakthrough.
I have also sent with them a gift to help facilitate that as well.
Sincerely,
The guy who shot you in the face.
P.S.
The two of them should have arrived with a girl named Rianna.
She is the daughter of a friend of mine who has passed.
Please take her under your wing, because I definitely can’t take her with me to the places I go.
Thanks.
________________________________________________
“What the fuck?”
Zhen Shi looked over the letter a few times, confused over the sheer casualness of it all, but as he did, his son Zhen Long was looking over the gifts that were brought over.
“So…what are in these jugs exactly?,” he asked Lucille, who was still holding the jugs.
“Sacred Beast Essence.”
“I see…wait, what?!”
“What?!”
That morning went from sleepy to suddenly booming, granted the one who caused such a stir, was currently sleeping in.
