“Hero” saves “Beauty” chapter 5

AUTHOR: Rose

…

This time around he didn’t have any of those ‘dreams’ and had a peaceful sleep.

 

By the time he woke up, it was already past noon, and the room was empty.

 

He got out of the bed, went to the washroom, freshened up, and stepped out of Maeve’s room for lunch.

 

Right now Aurel felt all refreshed and empowered to carry on his day. 

 

And with this positive attitude, he entered the dining room to see a familiar face. Oh… it’s that person from yesterday by sister’s side.

 

He smiled and greeted the other: “Hello there, Mr….” he raised his eyebrows, he didn’t know the other’s name.

 

“Royce, Royce Dawson. Nice to meet you, Aurel, I will be your personal assistant from today as per your sister’s request.” Lance introduced himself with a simple smile and deep eyes.

 

Aurel’s eyes flashed for a second, he greeted the other with a smile: “Nice to meet you too, Royce, since you are here, have a seat?” He said as he sat on the chair.

 

Lance didn’t show any polite pretense, so he didn’t hesitate to sit down at the table with the other: “Thanks, a pleasure to have a meal with you.”

 

The doors to the room slid open and Riae walked in with four AI servants by her side pushing four serving carts that held numerous dishes.

 

Aurel glanced at them and turned to Lance as he tried to break the ice: “So, tell me, Royce, how did you meet my sister?”

 

Lance smiled and said: “Your sister once helped me and I’m indebted to her. The moment she found out your plight she contacted me for assistance, and here I am now” he laughed and continued “Lounging in your house.” 

 

Though all I said isn’t the truth, I didn’t lie either. 

 

Aurel nodded as he listened to Lance, thanking the AI servants for plating the dishes on the table. He picked up the fork, using the knife he started cutting the meat: “Slightly charred steak with BBQ sauce and mushroom cream sauce, Moroccan Chicken, Honey garlic chicken breast, spicy paneer tikka, and chicken kebab, and for carbs, flatbread.” he introduced the dishes.

 

“All authentic” he added after a slight pause.

 

Lance looked at the food: “Impressive, authentic dishes are hard to come by these days and are only available in S-star restaurants.” 

 

Aurel pierced his fork into the cut steak: “There is nothing to write home about, enjoy your meal.” he said and put the piece in his mouth.

Lance looked at the dishes as he picked up his fork and knife: “Will we be able to finish these many dishes?”

 

Aurel who was chewing his food covered his mouth with his hand and said: “Don’t worry I’m here” and continued to stuff his mouth with food like a hamster.

 

Seeing Aurel eat his food with such enthusiasm he didn’t have the heart to disturb him, feeling the happiness of a doctor looking at his cheerful patient, he ate his food with much delight.

 

They quickly finished their food and left the dining room.

 

“Ahem, can I pick your brain for a moment?” Aurel asked Lance as they walked in the corridor.

 

Lance raised his eyebrows and professionally smiled: “I am at your service, young master.”

 

Aurel eyed Lance with a meaningful smile. Then opened his mouth to speak.

 

 

“I want to know who Noah Lan, Levi Rivera, and Gwen Taylor were to me. And another person…Elijah Xu too.” He stopped and looked at Lance who was deep in thought: “It’s fine, I’ll give you some time to get it done. Till then I’ll be in my room watching the Z2 live stream. After that, you must accompany me somewhere important”

 

Lance looked at Aurel’s shining eyes. This fellow is up to something…He nodded in agreement. 

 

Aurel was pleased: “Anything else you have?”

 

Lance positioned his glasses and gazed at Aurel: “Next time…make sure to not skip your breakfast.” 

 

He grinned as he continued: “It’s bad for your health.” 

 

Aurel blinked twice at Lance and walked away laughing. Lance looked at his retreating back and left to carry on with his work.

…

 

As soon as Aurel entered his room, Prince swiftly pounced on him, making him fall backward. He used his right hand to support himself using the wall, and rubbed Prince’s fur coat with the other: “Oh dear! You little fatty! I would have been squished like a pancake because of you!”

 

The ‘little fatty’ happily barked in response, and as if mocking him he put even more weight on him. He chuckled lowly: “You are such a devil! Okok, now get up, don’t you want to see your idol?” 

 

As soon as Prince heard the last word his ears perked up cutely. He jumped off of Aurel and rushed to the bed wagging his tail, then looked at Aurel with starry eyes.

 

Aurel adjusted his posture and walked towards the bed. He hugged prince, then lay near the headboard

 

He didn’t even do anything, Prince tapped his fleshy paws on a thin black band in his hand. A projection appeared before him and Prince. His AIsyst opened. 

 

He didn’t even need to search as the interface was filled with everyone chatting about the Z2 festival.

 

He opened the live stream. The Z2 festival took place in the capital, Meliora. The place was decorated with all kinds of gems and lights. It was spring, all the plants were flourishing with vitality, filled with flowers that sparkled with the colors of the rainbow. It looked like a picturesque fantasy. 

 

He patted Prince and pointed at the projection: “Wanna go there?” Being the intelligent dog he is, Prince nodded excitedly.

 

Aurel swiped his hand in front of the projection. Four columns of numerous gadgets were shown before him. He tapped twice at the first gadget in the left-most column.

 

“Chosen, headset NO25, please enter the number and click accept” The digital voice of the AIsyst guided him.

 

He entered the number ‘2’ in the blank given and clicked on accept. The projection flashed a light on his hand and two black earpiece-like headsets appeared on his palm.

 

He configured one of the headsets to fit Prince and connected him to the live stream, then put on his headsets to join Prince in the stream.

 

A blue screen-like projection appeared and covered their eyes. VR started, he lay back to relax on the bed.

 

His virtual character entered the stream with a golden puppy by its side.

 

His character was dressed charmingly in a dark trench coat, a simple white T-shirt, and casual black slim-fit pencil pants which were tucked in long lace boots. 

 

His face now looked young and fresh, with two beautiful dark almond eyes, a straight nose, and thin lips. He wasn’t that handsome, just a little over average, simple and pleasing to the eye.

 

This was the actual him, the way he looked before…

 

He turned to look at his surroundings, there were many virtual characters crowded here. He touched the AIsyst on the character, a blue screen appeared before him with multiple types of settings on it.

 

He changed perspective to invisible and the crowd of users went transparent. The golden pup beside him wagged its tail joyfully and went around him in circles. He patted its head and then turned to look at the dias. 

 

The Dias was huge and was separated into three layers, the top one being 500m alone. The others were one bigger than the other making the dias stretch up to 3 kilometers.

 

The first layer is for the royal family and the Coherent Alliance which consists of 10 members: the Rai, Shroff, Xu, Rivera, Taylor, Lan, Deol, Diaz, Mu, and the Lyon Families.

 

The second layer was for the affluent families of Zen who hold a considerable amount of power in the society while the third was for the other invited people. 

 

The Z2 festival is one of the biggest celebrations not only on Zen but also on Zerg. Standing as the proof of the accord between the planets, the Z2 festival is highly revered by both. 

 

The dias was already filled with people, and the members of the coherent alliance had already arrived. Aurel immediately spotted his sister within the crowd. 

 

Today, she was attired in an Ivory-colored Turtleneck top paired with wine-colored slim High-waisted button front pants and high-heeled boots.

 

She put on rose gold hoop earrings, and her hair was tied up high into a ponytail. 

 

His sister never put makeup on, just a dark lip gloss finished her look. Her skin tone was darker than usual people, and she had quite fierce features, coupled with her aloof and aggressive aura of a General, normal people usually avoided her and she stood out from the crowd in a unique way. This was the charming aspect about her that he loves.

 

His eyes turned gentle as he looked at her, then he slowly withdrew his gaze. He turned to scrutinize the others and soon spotted an acquaintance.

 

He couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows in amusement. Oh? Alexsus…

 

He scanned the people near Alexsus and spotter a well-known figure, Leon Mu, So you are from the Mu family huh? Interesting.

 

When he met Alexsus for the first time, he didn’t just look familiar, as he observed the other he found that he was different than what he seemed on the outside.

 

It piqued his interest, he thought he could look into this person later on but didn’t expect to meet him so soon, and what a coincidence that he is Leon Mu’s genius eldest son, Alexsus Mu.

 

He patted Prince’s furry back and pointed at Alexsus: “Come, let’s get a closer look”

 

Prince happily dashed towards Alexsus, jumping through all the humans in the way.

 

This is an advantage of VR, the characters being virtual can go anywhere as long as it’s captured by the camera, and because they are virtual characters they pass through all objects which are not virtual.

 

Looking at Prince jumping through people’s heads while sticking out his floppy tongue with glee, Aurel stifled in laughter and followed him.

 

Prince who got to Alexsus faster than Aurel fooled around by jumping through Alexsus, turning around, and jumping through him again. A game he never gets bored of.

 

Aurel looked at the little fool who was amusing himself and shook his head helplessly with a smile. He then turned to look at Alexsus, Alexsus was smiling and talking to a man beside him, his complexion was much paler than before.

 

There was slight redness at the tips of his eyes, it added to his beauty but Aurel looked at the other seriously. Under Alexsus’ eyes, there was faint darkness too. 

 

He felt a little worried, I didn’t hurt him that hard, right? He looked at Alexsus’ right shoulder, it looks quite fine, it shouldn’t hurt too much…or…did something else happen?

 

As he was thinking, a large hand covered Alexsus’ shoulder. He immediately looked at the person. His heart involuntary thumped, the person looked ravishingly handsome, giving off an aloof aura.

 

He doesn’t know why, but this person made him feel a bit uneasy. And this uneasiness made him even more excited…he truly stood up for the name given to him when he was young, “A little trouble lover”.

 

There was a flash of mischief in his eyes, he gave the man another look before turning to Alexsus. His face was still as pale as before, just a thin layer of sweat formed on his forehead. His lips were pursed together tightly, forming a line.

 

Alexsus turned to the man beside him: “Elijah, I don’t feel good, I’ll be back in a bit.” and slowly retreated from Elijah’s arms. Elijah’s eyes flashed for a moment and he asked with concern: “Really? I’ll wait for you, be careful.” 

 

Looking at the ‘concern’ in Elijah’s eyes, Alexsus forced a smile that looked as normal as it can ever be: “Mn” 

 

They separated.

 

Aurel looked at them both and smirked: “Life is filled with surprises, truly exciting.” There was a cunning glint in his eyes.

~~~