For a moment, Fredrick sat there, lost in thought, as he tried to come up with a polite way of asking the very question I had heard bouncing around his mind, using my telepathy skill.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour, he cleared his throat, took another sip of particle water, and asked.
"What has brought you here, Lord Xipher? I understand you are a busy man and always have multiple plans in place, but it’s a bit strange for you to make an appearance here after having been in London not long ago."
’Tsk, fucking Stillwater and their stupid information channels, it seems the Inspector has a leak in his group, and they handed over the info to the highest bidder.’
"Quite interesting of you to ask, considering how I have left but a single person alive who has seen me, a young returner by the name of Calvin." Tilting my head to the side, I exerted a slight amount of pressure on Fredrick, causing him to sweat more fiercely for a second before drawing my power back.
"Cultural Hubs, I will not give you my full plans, but I shall give you a taste. I am in search of those who I either had gripes with from the Origin Timeline…ah, yes, I forgot not everyone uses that phrase; well, I call the future; we came from the Origin Timeline. Do take care to spread that terminology around; it would please me greatly heh….as I was saying…"
"Cultural Hubs or locations where multiple people from different nationalities have a high likelihood of interacting are on my current radar; London, Syndey, Los Angeles, New York, I have visited them all, and because of such attractions as Didney World and Galactic Studios, I decided to come here in search of returners, more precisely as I stated those I had animosity with at some point."
"While on my little venture, I, like you, decided to swing by a few card shops since I need copious funds for my operations and plans, but loe and behold, as I arrived at not one but three shops, I received a story about a suited young man with his bodyguards coincidentally dropping large sums of money to take all their inventory."
"Thus, upon realizing your identity by way of my Talent and scanning the memories of those you came in contact with, I decided to lay this little trap so that I could judge the singular Colt child I hadn’t come in contact with before myself."
"You are quite the elusive one, Fredrick Colt; I find it quite funny how, of all the potential chances I had to interact with you in the Origin Timeline, we never once met face to face; how was I to pass up this opportunity?"
Reaching forward, I lifted my own glass and filled it with Particle water before lifting the glass to my mask and taking a sip. Since I had been wearing similar articles for many years, I, of course, had a method that would allow me to drink and eat without taking off the mask, and in this case, a small straw-sized hole appeared where my mouth was allowing for the intake of fluids.
"It wasn’t intentional, I assure you, Lord Xipher; we just never appear to have been on the same battlefield simultaneously…"Trying to think back to all the times he could have potentially come in contact with me, Fredrick racked his brain but came up empty.
Like all his siblings, he had gotten the same sermons and classes about dealing with me. Even though he was fully briefed on the do’s and don’ts of dealing with me, he had always counted his lucky stars, having never been forced into a situation like he presently was; however, with risk comes opportunity. If there was one thing his father had always told him, it was that Xipher was the kind of man who would willingly offer up any information for a price or a valid reason to do so.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
Five questions were the common consensus when it came to me; I would ALWAYS answer at the maximum five questions that were presented during sitdowns like this one, and Fredrick knew it; I could see it in his eyes and, well….read it in his thoughts, but the issue he was having was that he didn’t know WHICH questions to ask.
Having already burned one in asking me why I was here, he knew he had to play his cards right; that way, he could bring back valuable information from me to his organization, more so his father.
In my defense, this whole Genie act was fun for me, and so long as I got my questions answered, I had no problem answering a few of my own.
Although I’m not really sure why I started this little routine, I had always found it both entertaining and interesting watching those on the other side of the table squirm while attempting to come up with proper questions to ask me on the fly.
Funny enough, Erik Colt was the only one to make it to all five before making me bored and causing me to cut off the conversation and go on my way.
’Tell me something interesting, little pony,’ I thought while smiling under my mask, which showed in my eyes.
"I see…that makes a lot of sense; my father had a similar idea, but since we lack manpower at present, we can’t post people at every big gathering point to look for other Returners."
’Noted. I also noted that this pony didn’t have any aversion to me using the phrase Returner or Origin Timeline; then again, Arkadia calls us returners, so that’s valid, I guess.’
"Lord Xipher, I noticed you said that you were collecting the cards to garner future funds; if there is anything you need, I’m sure Stillwater would be more than happy to help you out, be it financially or logistically." Hiding the excitement, I could read through his thoughts, Fredrick asked.
’What a roundabout way of asking what I need money for, what a crafty little pony I have here before me.’