Shaelyn had left the Aeolus House quite some time ago. She was unpunished because Zayn was alive back then. In fact, his sheer might have compelled them to pander to her. Though, now that he was gone, the Aeolus House’s attitude had taken a complete turn. They demanded that she returned to them, with each invitation increasingly forceful. Currently, every order that came was accompanied by an expert fighter.And the expert presently on duty was Sebastian Hobbes.Just the thought of Zayn’s face made stifling her tears impossible. A week had passed since his purported death, and Shaelyn still could not believe it. Zayn Larson—the only man who she had fallen in love with at first sight, and the only man who inspired her to devote herself to love unconditionally—was dead!It was so unfair! She never even got to see him in his final moments before death.She could not believe it to be the truth. She just could not!However, reality was unkind to idealists. It could not care less about
Two days passed in relative peace.Everything seemed to have returned to its course. Zayn had vanished as suddenly as he had appeared. The discussion his arrival had brought up gradually died down after a week.Words of Zayn’s being alive had gotten out since Luke Jones’s super eventful fiftieth birthday party, but predictably, not many believed it. Compare the rumor with news from legitimate superior class fighters and their testimonies, most would rather give more weight to the latter than to words of tycoons with zero experience in fighting.Felix had kept mum about Zayn’s apparent survival too, but instead of because he was above thriving in gossip and intrigue, it was more because he was too wary of the consequences. Zayn might not have warned him to keep his mouth shut, be it explicitly or implicitly, but he at least had enough wits about him for an educated guess. Besides, he had a feeling that Zayn’s return, once known, would shatter this relative peace. It was calm before t
Zayn had made the leap from the fourth tier of the superior class to perfect class! In other words—he was now on equal terms with Ezra Sword!More importantly, he exhausted only half of the energy stored in the Ambrosia Fruit to get there. He still had half of the supply left to be fused with his own, and finally used the boost to fight and overwhelm Ezra!He balled his hand into fist. His fingers crunched, making sounds not unlike metals grinding against one another. To hear something so dangerously puissant coming out of a man’s curling his fingers had got to be the stuff of nightmares, especially when one could imagine the force a fist like that could deliver. Not even a superior class tier-4 fighter would be able to receive a punch from him.Even fighters like Taio or Caspian would find themselves falling to their knees after receiving a punch like that. Hell, they might even suffer internal damage, too.Zayn could sense the roaring power thrashing through his veins. The fact t
Behind Luke stood battalions that were composed of hundreds. They stared at him and put their hands to their forehead in the stance of a salute, before shouting in unison, “We welcome your return, Mr. Larson!”Zayn was used to all the pomp, so he was rather unfazed. He was also aware that Luke’s idea of doing something so dramatic was simply to convey his loyalty and obeisance.He nodded slightly. “Thank you all for your sacrifice.”It was Luke who quickly replied, “Oh, the pleasure’s all ours, sir” while hundreds of his underlings shook their heads as they wore overt looks of adulation on their faces.Luke closed in on Luke and asked in a hushed whisper, “Did you manage to achieve a breakthrough, sir?”“Yeah,” Zayn admitted.Luke’s heart raced. Zayn was now a perfect class fighter! He had reached a legendary state of power—the kind that people of yore would have crowned as the height of the demigods! A person of such power was standing right in front of him as his superior. It f
Luke could not help but shake in his boots. He tried again without the hesitant pauses. “Okay, so I’ve heard that the Aeolus House and Hydrocure United are going to form an alliance through matrimony. The woman who was offered as the bride appears to be Miss Turner…?”His voice faltered into a whisper as the color drained from his face. How could he not when Zayn’s expression turned this frosty in the span of seconds? It felt like the air around him had gelled just by being in proximity! Terrified, Luke found his breathing becoming a little hitched.He was right; Zayn was enraged. Glaring at Luke, he asked steelily, “This Miss Turner you speak of—are you telling me it’s Shaelyn Peach?”“Y-Yes?”Luke knew all about Zayn and Shaelyn’s relationship. When he first met Zayn, Shaelyn was the one who had accompanied him, but now, the Aeolus House had decided to deploy Shaelyn as a chip for a political marriage. What would that make Zayn, who was Shaelyn’s actual partner?!Zayn had been e
It was a spacious room decked with one of the most luxurious furnishings. Every corner of the room oozed the spirit of pomp and wealth, which complemented the beautiful figure resting in its center like the mantelpiece.Raven locks, smooth as silk, were fashioned into an elegant bun barring a profile as fair as first snow. Below her neck, the woman’s figure curved and arched to form a silhouette so bewitching a man could snap his neck just to gawk.Right now, she was dressed in a bridal gown, its pearly whiteness radiating a holy glow that only brought the woman’s beauty, femininity, and grace out in full force. She looked positively immaculate—an angel on Earth.Today was the biggest day of her life.However, there was no sign of visible emotion on those delicate, doll-like features of hers—no smiles, no happiness, no bliss. She simply stared ahead, stone-faced, as though her soul had left her body a millenia ago, and all that remained of her was a beautiful husk.Perhaps “stone-
Upon hearing that, the middle-aged woman’s body shook ferociously as she looked at Shaelyn’s pale yet sorrowful face. It was as if she had already lost her soul and all that remained inside her body was just her instinct. The middle-aged woman had been acquainted with Shaelyn for a very long time, yet it was her first time seeing Shaelyn being so hopeless!She had experienced breakups and a divorce besides having encountered countless people who had gone through the same tumultuous relationships too. Nevertheless, she had never seen anyone who behaved like Shaelyn. It was as if Shaelyn had already lost all meaning of life, and just the act of living was a torment to her. She could fully see that Shaelyn was not feigning it. Moreover, she sensed Shaelyn’s agony and sorrow that affected her deeply as well. “Shaelyn…” she opened her mouth and called out softly. She wanted to say something to console Shaelyn but found that she was incapable of uttering anything. She stopped trying t
This time, he made the decision to form a marriage alliance with Hydrocure United because he believed that the Aeolos House would certainly be able to expand even further with the alliance!As for Shaelyn, she was but a chess piece that he gave up as a sacrifice. He thought highly of Shaelyn in the past and cultivated her to become talented just so he could make her a tool for a marriage alliance one day. When Zayn had been very powerful before this, he had sent Shaelyn to seduce Zayn without the slightest hesitation. Alas, Zayn was now dead. Therefore, he could only offer Shaelyn to someone else. Jesiah used to think highly of Zayn in the past and was determined to rope him over to his side. However, Mia Walker’s appearance at that time had forced them to take sides. They chose not to take Zayn’s side and ended up offending him. Shaelyn’s relationship with Zayn helped to resolve the enmity afterward, but Jesiah knew that the relationship between the Aeolos House and Zayn could