[Beverly Hills — Natasha's Mansion]
No matter from which angle one looked at it, Natasha's house was more akin to a minor castle than a house or apartment.
Even by Beverly Hills' standards, it was clear that the one living there was in the upper class of the upper class. The very top of the hierarchy.
It was a beautiful and picturesque house, seemingly straight out of one's dreams as one imagined the beauty within such a wonderful accommodation.
What they wouldn't know though, was that below this beautiful and enchanting house was a dreadful dungeon that held scenes that would only be found in one's most horrific nightmares. Even then, it might pale in comparison to the horrors of what transpires between these walls.
The most beautiful things in this world were generally also the most dreadful.
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Unlike what one might expect from stereotypes, the rooms in the dungeon of the mansion were not dirty nor were they stuffy or anything of the sort.
There was no way that Aleksandra would accept such an unsanitary place to exist in the house that she was taking care of as the head maid no less.
Rather, it was extremely clean and decorated entirely in white.
An incandescence so pure that it was almost blinding.
"I must say, it has been quite a while since I faced such a tough nut to crack. This is quite exciting, you know?"
Standing in front of a screen, Aleksandra commented as she observed the man nicknamed Smoker while he was imprisoned in the room of this dungeon of horrors.
Aleksandra had learned this long ago that the best form of torture was actually a mix of both physical and psychological trauma and she was currently on the phycological part.
Like how one would tenderize meat before cooking it, she was slowly weakening the mental defense of the man before starting the actual work.
From the inside, the room was absolutely white on all sides. It was even impossible to distinguish the door from the walls.
This alone gave a feeling that one was facing an endless desert of pure white. Staying alone in such a room for a few hours was already enough to make a few people feel like bashing their skulls against the pristine white walls.
But she didn't just stop there.
This was a special room that completely blocked all forms of sounds.
The inside of the room was so silent that the background noise measured was actually in the negative decibels.
The quieter the room, the more things one would hear. They would hear the beating of their hearts, sometimes even the movements of their lungs, and even the gurgling of their stomach, churning loudly on the inside.
After a while, you would become completely disoriented and even standing up would be a problem as sounds were a very important sense for movement and orientation.
All of this would compound with the presence of the pristine white room.
In the end, the room was slowly filled with a gas that would rob the ones within off their sense of touch.
You could hear nothing. See nothing. Feel nothing. Smell nothing and taste nothing.
The absolute perfect isolation.
"How long since he stopped moving?"
"Ten minutes."
"Oh? Very interesting."
Aleksandra mumbled. The man had already been staying there for nearly three hours.
To think that he was able to fight back the creeping feeling of insanity for two hours straight, Aleksandra had to recognize that the man called Smoker was truly different from the usual walking disappointment that role-played as mercenaries.
For reference, a normal human could only stay around forty-five minutes in a room that only robbed the sense of Sound.
For hunters, the time record was two hours.
Supernatural creatures fared even less inside such conditions because their senses were simply too sharp. For them, this wasn't just torture but an absolute monstrosity of the highest order.
During wars, using this room for torture was actually considered to be a crime by some sides.
Not that Aleksandra had much care for others' opinions.
"Anyway, did you do the background search on this one?"
"Indeed. They are a relatively famous group so it was easy to obtain all the information we needed."
"Hmmm…"
Aleksandra took the documents and briefly looked at the names and relevant information about each of the members.
"This one. He isn't part of the dead ones."
"Code name Transporter. He is a man who drank the blood of a gremlin and obtained the power to interfere with mechanical machines. He mainly uses it for driving as the powers he obtained were quite weak. This was the same for the girl codenamed Diary. Though her powers were quite interesting and diverse."
Aleksandra nodded. The blood of Celestial Supernatural creatures could indeed bring miraculous effects to the hunters.
Like how Siegfried obtained near invulnerability by bathing in the blood of the evil dragon, Fafnir.
But doing something like that was ill-advised. Most humans simply died when ingesting the blood of the Celestial creatures. They were called the Celestials for a reason, after all.
Those who survived generally only obtained weak powers for the pain, suffering, and near insanity they went through.
Because of that very reason, Bloodline-type hunters were extremely rare and limited in the Supernatural world. It was even frowned upon by some hunter factions.
She mused briefly with a frown etched on her mature face. The fact that a fish had escaped the net displeased Aleksandra greatly.
After all the wars she went through, she knew very well that even the smallest gears could cause an entire machine to halt when disjointed from the whole mechanism.
There was also the fact that they needed to know the identity of the person who hired those mercenaries to capture Natasha and brought about this situation.
"Very well. Keep that man in the room for one more hour. This should make him more amenable to further interrogation. Also, you two, prepare my tools. I will need to give this one some 'special' care it seems."
The maids shuddered on their spot when they heard her speak that ominous line.
They had all seen how sadistic Aleksandra could become when she started torturing the prisoners.
They cast a glance of pity at the man imprisoned before leaving the room at a swift pace.
Once the two maids hastily left the scene, Aleksandra scratched her chin and mused by herself about her next steps.
When it came to the Celestial-type Bloodline Hunters, the best ones for the jobs were the Hunters who made contracts with Celestials themselves.
Adam wasn't an option as he was clearly too inexperienced as he had just awakened a week or two ago at most.
As such…
"Should I call the Hanekawa family?"
The Yakuza under the control of the Hanekawa family were concurrent with the werewolves Mafia.
But they could still call in for some favors if necessary.
In the end, Aleksandra merely shook her head to deny that possibility. She had long since stopped being the interim Alpha of the pack.
She would let the young pup decide once she gave him the information.
As for her— she would just have some little fun with breaking this tough man slowly but surely.
"Head Maid."
"Hmmm?"
Aleksandra was broken out of her malefic dream by the new maid who entered the room.
"Here are the documents you asked about Adam Gospel."
Aleksandra nodded and took them in her hands.
She had nothing against Adam and quite liked him, in fact. But she could not afford to let someone with a muddy past affect the life of her Lady.
This was the least she could do. There was a need for measures to be taken no matter who the person was and no matter how adoring she found them. In the supernatural world, nothing was set in stone.
At first, there was nothing special about his documents. Things went more or less according to her expectations of the charming young boy.
Adam was an intelligent young man highly ranked in his university. A little withdrawn but a good friend of Natasha's throughout the years they've been together.
But…
"Huh?"
When Aleksandra saw the photo of his mother…
Her mouth opened so wide, one could have put an egg inside it and still have some room.
Most people would not know this face as she was always clad in full body armor but Aleksandra was one of the few that actually managed to break her mask— an action she had immediately regretted doing.
She shuddered when repressed memories surfaced from the deepest part of her mind.
Her pupils dilated in fright for an instant as wounds that no longer existed started to ache in phantom pain.
"He is the son of that crazy bitch!?"
Her mind buzzed as she remembered that the Destroyer of the battlefield had vanished basically 20 or so years ago.
'So it was because she was pregnant?'
Aleksandra's hand shook a little before she took a deep breath and calmed herself down.
She was beginning to wonder if keeping Natasha close to Adam would be a curse or a blessing for them.
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When Adam woke up, he realized that he was sleeping on the Sofa next to Cecilia.
Looking at her face with her mouth open wide and her unseemly sleeping appearance, Adam shook his head before making sure to cover her properly with the shawl.
The sudden movement agitated her sleep a little but she soon went back to the land of dreams as though nothing happened.
'Thanks.'
Adam planted a kiss on his mother's head which made her giggle slightly before going back to her laid-back appearance.
Looking at her like this, it was hard to imagine how much wisdom she truly had and how much she cared for him while never asking for anything in return. That was just what it meant to be a mother it seemed…
Though…
"You are really a mess, you know that?"
He looked at the room and sighed. Food and drinks everywhere.
This would take the whole morning to finish cleaning.
'I need to prepare for school.'
Thankfully, he only had a class with Shuri, and that too on this afternoon so it was all good.
He opened the book of Genesis and took a look at his current stats.
『 Name: Adam Gospel
Affiliation: N/A
Alias: N/A
Race: Primogenitor
Age: 21
Weakness: Curse of Cain *Changing*
Acquired Power: Book of Genesis
Innate Authority: Origin
Unique Skill: The World.
Skills: Eyes of Truth, Parallel Thinking, Accelerated Perception, Silver Tongue.
Overall Combat Capability: C → B-
Remarks: You stopped being a grunt, congratulations. Though the road is still far. Keep working hard. 』
Adam frowned as he wondered who the hell was creating those condescending remarks about him. But then, he just chose to ignore it altogether.
He also briefly glanced at his stats and while none of his physical stats increased, he was happy to see that his Prana went from D to D+ at least. This would give him a boost in his future battles.
'Then again, what I need now is skill mastery rather than an increase in stats.'
He felt like once he had a certain control over his current skill set, he would become much much stronger. Stronger than he could even imagine himself to be…
As such, what he needed now—
'Give me a list of skills related to memory increase and memory retention.'
—Was to study his ass off.
*Edit" : Just received a comment and realized I made a mistake in a AN and missed a word. Cecilia/Adam will NOT go beyond son/mother relationship.
(AN: I received a castle recently and like I promised this means 3 bonus chapters.
I will send them before the end of next week.
Also, next month I will create a new privilege Tier for 18 chapters. This tier for the duration of March will be 99% discounted. This means once you pay a flat fee, you will not have to pay any more coins for chapters for this tier.
My goal is to reach at least 5k unlocks next month. A reminder but 5k unlock means a 8% rebate for the privilege tier and privilege chapters unlocked for all privilege readers.)
