Having read the two pressing messages alongside sending his reply to his guild leader, Alex steps onto the small platform in his player room, intending to leave the Realm for now.
“1337... transport me home,” Alex orders, already thinking about his penthouse suite, desperate to enter his balcony and just relax.
[Acknowledged. Please enjoy yourself.]
Immediately, Alex vanishes and appears in his own bedroom.
“The fuck are you even saying? Acknowledged my ass...” Alex mumbles, 1337’s choice of words somehow irking him.
Now wearing the set of clothes he wore when he last left the real world, comfortable pajamas, Alex casually leaves the bedroom and walks into his living room, the sun shining into it, making it appear warm and bright.
He yawns loudly and stretches himself as he looks around, only to see Benezia sitting on his large sofa. Surprisingly, she has lost her blue skin colour and looks like a human woman, her tentacle-like crests replaced by black hair. It’s clearly her, but just those two details significantly change her appearance, making her look like a stern and strict lady, especially since she kept her dress, which is clearly not suited for daily life and really makes her stick out like a sore thumb.
Why does she look different? That usually isn’t the case. The Realm only does that to hide their identit—
“Alex?” a familiar voice calls from the side.
He then turns towards the left and sees his mother with a vacuum cleaner in her hand, while Menchi awkwardly stands in the background with Tereza, and Jewel lazes around on the kitchen counter, using Zetsu to hide herself.
“...”
“...”
“No...” Alex replies vaguely in his native tongue, undecided what he should say, or even how to start.
Shit...
Jewel! Help me out here. What did the others talk to her about?
Welcome Back, Soulmate! ❤️
Forget the greeting, what the fuck is going on? Why is she even here?
To clean! Since she is Soulmate’s mother, Princess Jewel won’t complain that she got rid of her favourite webs.
... Cleaning usually means removing such things as cobwebs. Wait... didn’t you say you don’t like spinning webs? Anyway, help out now, stop fucking around, please!
Princess Jewel dislikes it, but she still has certain instincts she needs to explore from time to time. Soulmate’s mother wondered where you were. If it’s related to business, or if your newfound money is tempting you to make bad decisions. She is also unsure who Benezia is, who looks absolutely hilarious. Princess Jewel can’t stop laughing, looking at her.
I think she looks surprisingly normal... but never mind.
Upon hearing Jewel’s comments, Benezia glares at Jewel, causing the spider to shrink back a little, startled.
Speaking in German, Alex’s mother approaches him and eyes him from top to bottom. “No? What do you mean No? Were you sleeping? Weird, I thought I checked out the bedroom already... I guess I didn’t see you.”
Alex awkwardly hugs her. “Thank you for... cleaning, but I thought I told you that I hired someone for that.”
Did I even give her a spare key? I don’t remember doing that...
“Where were you? You more or less left without a real explanation. You said you might be gone for a while, that’s all,” she asks.
“I was... away on business,” Alex explains, choosing to remain vague.
“What business?” his mother inquires, not letting it go.
“...”
“International business,” Alex blurts out, and immediately regrets how stupid that sounds.
“...”
Thinking hard for a moment, his mother can’t help but remain doubtful. “This is all a little weird. You’ve been weird for a long time now, and now you even have guests over while you are wearing sloppy pajamas. Look, your guest is wearing a dress, and you’re wearing something like that. This is embarrassing! Now get dressed already.”
The fuck, Benezia’s dress is more unsuitable for hanging out than my Pijama.
“Fine...” Alex says, quickly returning to his bedroom and dressing himself, choosing to wear jeans and a shirt, the first thing he finds in his wardrobe.
Quickly returning, Alex does his best to act cool, but the moment he steps back in, he is bombarded with dozens of questions.
“So you see, I’m with this Indian guy who is rich as fuck, I think I mentioned him already, and he likes my insight into German and European markets. I told you that already.”
“Language!” his mother interjects, looking embarrassed.
“Anyway, I told you that I need to travel a lot. I mentioned that I’ll probably be gone as well, didn’t I? You never listen to me. I told you that so many times. You don’t really care about my work, do you? You just want the money, huh?!” Alex asks, trying to gaslight his mother.
Enraged at Alex’s obvious attempt at manipulation, she presses her hands onto his shoulders while staring him in the eyes.
Thanks to his PHY, he doesn’t feel any pain, but he still cringes internally.
“I’m sorry, that was silly,” he instantly admits. “Anyway... please sit down, let’s talk. Maybe you can join us for dinner.”
“Dinner? It’s still 10 AM,” his mother says, raising an eyebrow.
“I guess so...” Alex admits, totally confused by the time. “Lunch then... or maybe a late breakfast.”
“I brought some groceries with me,” she says. “But honestly... I am feeling a little out of place. Now there are three girls—no, I guess I can’t call them girls, at least not one of them—with you. What is up with that?”
“I told you, they are friends and business partners. And since I have the bedrooms available, and since we have important business together, it makes sense to let them live here when they are visiting,” Alex explains. “This is the modern way, trust me.”
“I am a little doubtful about that, but sometimes reality is weird in that way. I don’t want to annoy you... you seem okay, and that’s the only thing I really care about,” she replies, smiling softly.
“Just join us for a while,” Alex says. “Sorry, they can’t speak the language, except for Tereza, whom you already know. Honestly, it might be faster for you to learn English, especially since you no longer need to work.”
“To be honest, I’d love to taste Menchi’s cooking,” she admits, looking a little embarrassed.
“Gladly!” Menchi yells from behind.
Just fifteen minutes later, Menchi—using various meats and fish from the One Piece world—puts together a few dishes with quick, practiced movements, instantly coming up with a few quick, yet delicious dishes.
“This is incredible...” Alex’s mother remarks, touching her mouth after taking the first bite, almost as if she has to confirm it’s real.
“Only the best, it’s from... Dubai,” Alex lies.
“Dubai? Does Dubai produce meat and fish that way?” his mother questions him, clearly not convinced. “Is this delivered by plane?”
Shit...
“Maybe? They are rich, I don’t know,” Alex says. “Not as if I have to pay for it. It’s all paid for with the company’s credit card and that new food delivery service.”
“I see... I heard they have this super expensive chocolate as well, so it must be true,” his mother reasons, nodding slowly.
Dubai chocolate fucking sucks....
She then asks Alex to politely greet and thank Benezia and thank Menchi for the food.
A relaxed early lunch later, she leaves, carrying a large box of food for Alex’s father, smiling wildly. “Visit us soon, okay?”
“Sure... I’ll see you soon...” Alex says.
As soon as the door closes, he sighs.
“Damn, that was awkward,” Alex immediately complains.
Princess Jewel does not like that she has to hide. It’s unbecoming of her.
“You realize that this awkward situation is one of your own making?” Benezia asks him. “Despite not understanding your language, I can tell that you lied the entire time and made things up as you went along. You are stacking lies on top of lies. Sooner or later, you’ll arrive at a point where everything you built will collapse. Usually, these situations are quite painful. I’d recommend letting the truth speak now, before the situation worsens.”
“Not like I can tell her the truth, can I?” Alex asks, shrugging. “But maybe you are right. I should carefully find out the limits of what I can tell my family and then stick with the version closest to the truth... but we have other problems. Huge problems. In fact, I’d say we are royally fucked.”
Princess Jewel may be royal, but not fucked.
Ignoring Jewel, Alex then throws himself face-first onto the couch, with Jewel immediately following him and throwing herself onto his back.
❤️
“What happened?” Tereza asks, walking up to him, sitting on top of him as well.
“Is it that bad?” Menchi adds, sitting next to her, wrapping her arm around Tereza’s neck.
“I swear, if you three don’t get off immediately, I’ll go batshit crazy. This is actually serious,” he mumbles into the couch.
Why is Princess Jewel included? This must be a terrible mistake, Soulmate!
“Oh come on,” Tereza says, giggling. “Can’t be that bad? I mean, I even got an S rank for our mission, I’m so happy! I think we did really well.”
“I believe I have an idea what your problem is related to,” Benezia says, standing in front of him.
Twisting his head to the side, Alex stares at her.
“I am not aware of this human ritual. If you want me to partake, you need to slide a little to the side so I can sit down as well,” she notes, looking curiously at Alex and then Menchi and Tereza.
I’d better not comment... that might actually be hot if she’s doin—not the right time!
Wriggling on the couch, Alex forcefully shakes off Menchi and Tereza. They jump off and land on another sofa, with only Jewel fighting her hardest to stay on top of his back, unwilling to give up her place.
With the additional weight gone, Alex sits down cross-legged, Jewel slowly climbing onto his head again, settling in as if she owns the spot.
“Anyway, it’s quite serious,” Alex repeats himself, yet again.
“Did you receive a message? Maybe one threatening you?” Benezia guesses, sitting down on the sofa as well.
“Yes... from the leader of the Seekers himself. That Samir guy who looks straight out of Prince of Persia... who, regretfully, looks kinda cool and tough. I’d rather he looked like a weak pushover.”
“His looks aside,” Tereza says, shaking her head, “what did he tell you?”
Alex immediately relays the message to the others. “In short, he threatened me to contact him, forbade me from trading any spoils I may have obtained from his guild members...”
“So nothing unexpected,” Menchi states, seemingly unbothered.
“Of course it’s unexpected. They wanted to kill us! It’s fucking unreasonable and stupid. I’m the victim. I should message him and demand compensation. It was self-defense, self-defense, I tell you. Even if it wasn’t, that’s the Realm... it may sound harsh, but tough luck. Those fuckers deserved it, though. They wanted to kill us. Now that we are back... I never asked... what happened to the other Seeker members?”
“I took two of them down,” Tereza explains. “They were pretty tough. Of course, Jewel helped... in fact, I believe she pissed them off so much while fighting that they made careless errors and died full of regret... it’s quite the tragedy.”
Princess Jewel objects. She only states the truth!
“How?!” Alex wonders, blinking.
Princess Jewel did most of the work. She could take down an endless number of Peasants.
“Hehe, she was helpful, I’ll give her that... if it weren’t for her constant weird memes or quotes that I can’t recognize...” Tereza laments. “Anyway, with that, I got two more Bloody Chests. Already opened them and found some FC, Soul Crystals, and two trash items to shard. You don’t need to give me anything of your loot, I profited a lot already.”
“You’ll still get a cut later down the line, but this isn’t the issue. Of course, the Seekers are pissed. Samir called them one of their promising teams, so obviously, they’ve groomed them for a long time. They had a lot of good equipment as well. They even had two incredibly rare Greed Island cards. They must have received them from stronger members, because I can’t imagine players in our level range earning them themselves. They’re worth a fortune, especially that leave card.”
“Let’s discuss this... calmly... and rationally,” Benezia orders, looking at Alex. “Is that acceptable?”
“Yes,”
Mommy.
Alex replies, a little annoyed.
