Date- 2 April 2321
Time- 16:12
Location- Sky Blossom City, Southern Watch’s temporary military base.
With some restrictions, Cortney was free to live her life but as a Tao Physique and contractor of Blood Supreme, her new life was not going to be as free as the old one. After all, with great power comes great restrictions. Cortney was a walking talking nuclear bomb, Bloodette alone had the strength to massacre an entire district with her command over the Blood rule. The Royal family would be a fool if they didn’t monitor someone with that much power.
If my guess were correct, the royal family must have already set plans in motion to make sure that they could manipulate Cortney into feeling a sense of belonging to the Southern region, of course, they had Clown Mask in their custody but using that card would only cause Cortney to grow hostile towards the southern royal family and the southern region. I don’t know what they have planned but I am rooting for them because I don’t want to be in a situation where I have to choose between Cortney or the southern Royal family.
“I want to meet my mother,” Cortney asked staring right into Anna’s eye.
“…” Anna didn’t reply to Cortney immediately, rather she stared right back at Cortney intimidatingly, honest to god if not for Bloodette lending her power to Cortney right now she would have fallen to her knees.
“Wow, little girl you have guts. To be in a stare-down match with the southern emperor, now that should go on your resume. The rumors were indeed true all Tao physiques are indeed monstrous talents.” Seeing the atmosphere turn heavy Cole tried to lighten up the mood by talking nonsense. Which only irked Anna, at this point he might as well have said that the southern emperor couldn’t intimidate a little girl. But his praise for Cortney was not wrong, after all, if you consider a summon card as the part of the card apprentices strength then Bloodette was part of Cortney’s strength.
“Shut up, you damn fatty,” Anna yelled at Cole and finally stopped intimidating Cortney.
“I want to see my mother,” panting Cortney gasped for air as soon as Anna’s pressure on her disappeared but still she stubbornly asked Anna to let her meet her mother. Despite her flaws, Cortney loved her mother. And knowing that Clown Mask was cooperating with the Royal family in exchange for her freedom, she wanted to meet Clown Mask and have a heart-to-heart talk with her. Which was long due.
“Listen here, little girl. I think you don’t understand your situation, you are in the custody of southern watch, you do as we tell you to do not the other way around.” Anna did not want to compromise with Cortney.
“Anna, what seems to be the problem here? Both the mother and daughter are cooperating and yet why do you try to shorten the leash on them.” I knew what Anna was trying to do, she was trying to set the nature of this deal. That she was in charge and not the other way around. If she lets Cortney have her way right now then in the future it will become even harder for them to control Cortney.
But what Anna did not understand was that Cortney was the kind of person who responds to love, but if you try to suppress her she will struggle twice as harder. The way to control her was not to cage her like an Animal and use a wipe when she didn’t follow the rules but to shower her with love and trust, Cortney would melt like butter and stay loyal to the hand that came to her in the aid in time of need. Cortney was not a wild beast but a human with the most humane heart I have seen. Therefore when I saw Anna was going about it the wrong way, I had no choice but to intervene. This was because I knew this was heading in the direction where at some point I would have to choose between Anna and Cortney.
“Wyatt, this the protocol,” Anna argued. I was happy that Anna did not plainly ask me not to intervene in the southern watch’s business.
“Anna, screw protocol. Look at her, do you really want to be so heartless?” pointing at the desperate Cortney, I stared into Anna’s eye and added, “Trust me on this. Cortney is the most honest and loyal person I have met. It would be best for all of us if you use the ‘give and take’ method rather than ‘the carrot and the stick’ method.”
“What do you mean by all of us?” Anna asked skeptically.
“Cortney is my friend. I don’t to be in a position where I have to choose between you or her. So please I am begging you not to let this small argument grow to that point.” I laid out what I was worried about. Both Anna and Cortney were important people to me, I didn’t want to choose sides.
“Southern Emperor please, I just want to meet my mother,” Cortney begged Anna. For Cortney who always thought that her mother did not care much about her, the new revelation about the Clown Mask’s cooperation with the royal family had come as a huge surprise to her.
“…” Anna felt the desperateness in Cortney’s voice. As someone who was brought up by a single mother had a clear understanding of how important Clown Mask is to Cortney but the interest of the royal family came first before her compassion for Cortney. Anna wanted to steel her heart and reject Cortney ruthlessly but then her young lover’s words came to her mind, ‘I don’t want to choose between you two.’ Anna didn’t want to test her luck and wasn’t confident that her young lover would side with her if she were to wrong his friend in the name of the interest of the royal family. Therefore she decided to agree with Cortney’s demand, “Fine.”
…
