Chapter 444: "Welcome"

"The sky was so cool! There were only white clouds up there. I had seen it on the internet, but I had never experienced it before!" Stella acted excited while walking out of the plane.

They came with a private jet from the Dexerteeth family since Floyd was insistent about it.

Ellia just nodded, having flown so many times overseas.

"It was amazing, but it got boring fast." Katarina nodded casually.

"Well, are we going back the same way?" Auric asked the flight attendant.

"Yes, sir. We’ve been instructed to wait for you here."

"Well, I originally planned to stay here for a week, so..."

The flight attendant smiled sweetly. "Of course, sir. We’ve been notified about your schedule. Please enjoy your trip."

"Thank you. See you in a week." Auric nodded calmly and finally came out of the plane. He squinted slightly as the sunlight entered his eyes. "Well, let’s have some fun."

Auric lowered his gaze and found a woman with a car waiting for their group.

The woman was wearing a tight, black T-shirt with short jeans coupled with black stockings. Since the temperature was quite cold, she was adding a long unbuttoned white coat.

Auric noticed that there was a gun hidden on her back. There was still some energy left in it, so he could single it out right away.

Song Xue’s track record was impressive. It was no wonder why she became one of the seven rising stars, but her beauty was not losing to anyone he had actually brought.

She looked cold like Ellia, but graceful enough to behave like a noble lady.

As soon as Auric landed, she politely placed her hand on her chest before politely bowing. "Welcome to China. My name is Song Xue. I will be here to make sure you’re able to enjoy your trip here. You can ask me anything you want."

Auric stepped forward and extended his hand. "Thank you for welcoming us."

"I’ve heard about the new rising star, Auric Elfe. The picture doesn’t do you justice. You are much more handsome in real life." She smiled.

"When a beautiful woman like you flatters me, it makes me almost lost for words." Auric smiled.

Song Xue noticed the meaning behind his words. It was quite surprising that Auric was the one to attack first.

Her suspicions were confirmed when Auric started introducing the others. "These are..."

"Yes, I know all of them. The richest woman under twenty, Ellia Stroph Astler. The strongest Rank 4 in the Europe Training Program, Katarina Vasilyevna. The unsung hero of Esfrata, Mr. Mathias Relesha, and his granddaughter, Maya Relesha. I just never thought that the record for Rank 5 would be broken. I guess leaving Dermania is the correct choice, Miss Gloria. I’m sorry, you go by the name Stella now."

"..." Stella was taken aback, but it was to be expected from one of the top families. Their information network was thorough.

Then again, it wasn’t hard for people to figure out that Stella was actually Gloria. After all, Gloria was missing and known to be close to Auric.

Although Gloria’s face had changed, their relationship was more than enough to reach that conclusion. Of course, her element couldn’t change.

Still, as long as Gloria didn’t openly admit she was Gloria, it wouldn’t really matter.

"Impressive." Auric smiled. "I heard that you are good at guns. Looking at you right now, it’s really hard to suppress my desire to have a little spar."

"Hehe." She covered her mouth while giving a little chuckle. "You could ask me for a date."

Auric saw her energy flowing. It was really impressive. Her element was lightning comparable to Maya’s. In other words, the rating of her lightning element was 4.9.

However, what impressed him wasn’t the strength of her lightning. It was the flowing energy in her body. It was robust and faster.

He assumed it had something to do with her breathing technique that boosted her explosive power.

This kind of technique would usually be one of the guarded techniques of the family. While it was quite good, Auric wasn’t exactly enticed by it. It had a good explosive technique, but Auric wanted stability since he had multiple elements.

However, he wanted to copy her element since it was the strongest element he had seen.

"I shouldn’t keep you here for too long. Let’s bring you to the hotel first." Song Xue tilted her body, gesturing for them to follow her to the limousine prepared for them.

"I’ll stick around since I have free time until the day after tomorrow." Ellia intruded, not caring about Song Xue.

"Of course." Auric smiled and entered the car first.

On the road, Auric couldn’t help but look outside the window. It wasn’t exactly that different from Esfrata’s capital city, but he wondered if there were any differences that could be spotted from here.

"May I know your itinerary?" Song Xue asked politely.

Katarina handed over the paper. "This is the list of places we’re going to visit."

Song Xue took a look at the names. "I see that you are planning to go out of the city and head to the mountain range near Guilin. That’s a very beautiful place to visit. Are you going to visit our university as well?"

"Is there a problem? I didn’t join Kallarnos University, so I’m quite curious about universities around the world." Auric asked.

"No, not a problem. It was my alma mater, so I could lead you there. They’d love to see you in action." Song Xue nodded calmly.

"Also, you seem to be interested in the ruins. I’ve heard about you finding so many artifacts."

Auric nodded. "I want to see if the ruins here are any different. It’s quite interesting after all."

"Of course. Generally, it’s the same, but I can give you access to the ruins. However, if you happen to get any artifacts, we will buy everything at the market price."

"I can’t keep any of it?" Auric asked with a smile, as if he was teasing her.

"I’ll do my best to convince them to let you keep several of them."

"Well, that’s good enough." Auric nodded with a serious expression.

"As for the research facilities... I don’t think there will be any problems except for one place. I don’t think you can visit Shen Medical Research. It’s a joint facility of the government and the Shen family. Even if I help you with it, the Shen family won’t likely grant you access to it."

"It’s understandable. We’ll try to reach out to them as well, so it’ll be fine if we still can’t go there." Auric nodded.

"Well, I can help you with the rest of the places listed here."

Katarina nodded before warning Auric. "Also, don’t go around. Do you know how exhausted I was whenever you asked me to visit a place?"

"Ahaha. I can’t help it. Those places are interesting." Auric chuckled.

"If you’d like to visit any other places, please tell me about them. I will try to help you get approved." Song Xue smiled. This was also her chance not only to learn about Auric but also to limit access for other people. She could just say that a certain facility only allowed two or three visitors.

Auric wouldn’t be allowed to go there if he had to go alone, especially since Mathias was here. Nevertheless, with fewer people around, she could play a trick or two.

"Can I?" Auric looked a bit excited.

Katarina covered her eyes while shaking her head helplessly.

Song Xue didn’t realize that both of them were just acting to lower Song Xue’s guard so that she didn’t know that one of the surprise visits was actually Auric’s real goal.

Of course, Song Xue would definitely analyze all the places he visited, but it didn’t matter. The true goal was completely hidden.

Auric was there to just observe everything with his eyes.

"We’ve arrived. I guess I can’t convince you to go to another hotel." Song Xue smiled apologetically.

"It’s my hotel. There’s no need to go anywhere else. I can give them the room for free." Ellia harrumphed.

"Certainly. This is my number. If you’d like to go somewhere, please send me a message. I will get the car ready." Song Xue gave Auric her business card.

"Will do." Auric nodded.

"I heard that your Chinese is good. Do you perhaps want me to speak to you in Chinese?" Song Xue asked with a big smile.

"I think I’m good enough at listening and reading. I’m just not good at speaking." Auric shook his head.

"I understand. If you need any help, please tell me about it."

"Got it. Thanks."

"All right. Here you go. The cards." Ellia gave the cards to everyone in case they wanted to go somewhere. "The presidential suite. In fact, Esfrata’s president, Thomas Relippe, has once stayed there. You won’t be disappointed."

Auric accepted the card and nodded.

While going up in the elevator, Mathias told them about their room arrangement. "By the way, you girl is the host, you should get a room for yourself. Then, Maya will be with Auric in the main bedroom, while Stella is in the front room. Katarina will take the middle room, while I have the back room."

"Excuse me?" Ellia frowned, trying to protest.

"Security details. I’m at the back so that if there are any threats coming from outside the hotel, I will be able to see them first. Meanwhile, my granddaughter is the second strongest here, so she will be able to ensure his safety. Katarina will be nearby to provide firepower. Stella is taking the front room. So what’s wrong?"

Ellia opened her mouth as if she was trying to argue, but she realized Mathias had set this up. Even if she argued with him, Mathias would simply say that they had agreed to follow his arrangement.

Maya was just shaking her head embarrassedly. It was more than obvious.

Auric just scratched the back of his head, but it wasn’t like he could do anything about it.

It was an arrangement that they had agreed upon before coming here, so they really had no way of rejecting it.

In the end, Ellia just sighed and didn’t argue further since there was no chance of winning.

As expected of the hotel where the president once stayed, it was luxurious but comfortable enough to feel like home.

"I will check for bugs." Maya sighed.

"Me too." Katarina agreed.

In the end, both of them entered first to ensure that no one sneaked inside to plant any bugs.

However, what Maya didn’t expect was what she found in the main bedroom. There was a reason why Mathias didn’t even stop them. Instead, he secretly smiled.

When Maya reached the main bedroom, there was actually a basket that looked like it contained a few items to welcome the guests.

What she didn’t expect was the fact that the content of this basket had been replaced.

There were actually six ’suspicious’ packages with a written note on them.

"Russian Roulette. One of them is safe. I have punctured the rest with needles. Good luck."

There were a lot of questions on her mind.

If this was what they were playing, wasn’t it supposed to be one punctured, and the rest were safe?

Even without the notes, she knew who was actually behind this.

No, more importantly, how in the world did he actually do something like this?

Her grandfather came with them on the same plane. Ellia wouldn’t likely give them the cards first, especially to Mathias or the Relesha family so that the room would be completely sealed until they came in.

There wasn’t supposed to be any time where Mathias could enter the room, but for some reason, he had prepared for something like this.

No, in the first place, why would he play around with something like this? What would happen if Auric saw this? The embarrassment would be unimaginable.

That was also why something suddenly clicked. It was exactly the reason he did it.

"You son of a b—"