Book 6 Chapter 2.4 – Read
O’Brien’s return, for the entire Arthur Family, was a major event, which was why Borriello handed the task of cleaning up the battlefield to his subordinates, bringing only a few bodyguards with him to head back to the family’s encampment with O’Brien and Eileen. Along the way, Borriello only simply inquired about O’Brien’s experiences after his departure, and then spoke about the parliament’s internal war situation in detail. He didn’t bring up the matters between O’Brien and Eileen at all. O’Brien mentioned a thing or two occasionally, but even then, he only listened.
Among the truly great figures of the Blood Parliament, Eileen was also quite well known. This was partly due to her extraordinary combat strength, but it was also because of her elusive nature and bloody methods. In addition, she would often completely go out of control, during these periods of time, her combat strength would instead increase substantially. In one of the missions, Eileen suddenly disappeared, and not only did she completely wipe out the enemy, she also wiped out the eleven special forces ability users that were to carry out the mission with her, not a single person involved able to escape. When she was finally subdued, there were already no living humans within a range of ten kilometers. From then on, Bevulas had no choice but to place Eileen in a state of deep freeze, forcing her into an inactive state. Only when special missions needed to be carried out would she be revived for a short duration.
Borriello was familiar with this piece of history, but O’Brien wasn’t.
Two off-road vehicles moved through the wilderness one after the other, the one in the back seating Borriello, O’Brien, and Eileen, while the five guards rode in the front. The defensive strength seemed rather weak, but even if one surveyed the entire Blood Parliament, the number of powers who could successfully attack this fleet could be counted with one’s fingers.
However, in the smoke and dust, a beautiful figure was currently watching the off-road vehicle from the distance, her long black hair continuously fluttering in the wind.
“So strange, is it the seventh lamb or not?” The black-haired young lady frowned, muttering to herself.
Inside a manor closer to the front line that belonged to the Arthur Family, O’Brien was seated across from Borriello, focused on his father’s face. After separating for a year, Borriello clearly aged quite a bit. As the previous head of one of the three great influential families, the Arthur Family, because of O’Brien and Persephone, ultimately stood on the comparatively weaker empress’ side. In addition, under the recent extremely vile developments, the family’s strength surprisingly didn’t suffer such great losses, to the extent where they didn’t even suffer many large scale attacks from the chairman’s side. Behind the moderate outlook, as for just how much mental and physical efforts Borriello exerted, one could well imagine.
This was the Arthur Family’s front line command department. The room’s furnishing was extremely simple. Only from a few details, for example, the simple and unadorned tea set, as well as the rich fragrance of the black tea, would one see the backings of an influential family.
The father and son had reunited after a long period of separation, but there wasn’t any enthusiastic behavior, the room full of a heavy and serious atmosphere. Borriello looked carefully at the young man he hadn't seen since a year ago, shortly speaking about Eileen’s past history, and then waited for his decision. Through this type of seriousness and respect, Borriello acknowledged O’Brien’s maturity. Borriello believed that O’Brien should understand the importance and effects of this decision.
While waiting for O’Brien to emerge from his silence and deep thought, Borriello took a sip of tea, and then slowly said, “You do not need to overly consider other matters. At the very least, at least in our territory, the Arthur Family still doesn’t fear anyone.”
O’Brien understood his father’s meaning well, which was that the Arthur Family definitely had enough methods to keep Eileen in check, even if it was right here. Meanwhile, he also understood well the Eileen’s current strength was already far above what the records indicated. However, despite all of this, the problem still rested in just how great of a price the Arthur Family was willing to pay. Borriello, in reality, offered a choice to him, as well as a guarantee. This was, that if O’Brien was under any type of threat or in an unwilling situation, the Arthur Family could take out Eileen for him.
O’Brien raised his head, using his gray eyes that carried bits of green luster to look at Borriello, and then calmly and resolutely said, “Father, she is my woman.”
After exchanging a look with O’Brien, Borriello suddenly cracked open a grin, released a silent laugh, and then said, “Then from here on out, she is a member of the family!”
Outside the room, Eileen stood like a ghost. She nibbled softly on her lower lip, her expression changing greatly. When she heard the father and son in the room begin to discuss the family’s internal affairs, she immediately turned around to leave. Even though there were two guards standing at the other corner of the passage, they were completely unaware that she had previously came here.
When they gradually reached the end of their discussion of internal affairs, O’Brien hesitated for a bit, and then finally said, “Older sis, she… hasn’t returned after all this time?”
“There hasn’t been any information about her all this time.”
O’Brien released a long sigh, saying with a bitter smile, “It seems like older sis still isn’t willing to forgive me.”
Borriello said with tranquil and calm manner, “Phoney isn’t someone who would act impetuously because of something like this. For the sake of the family glory and fighting against the chairman, the Arthur Family has already made it clear that we have always viewed her as a member of the family. This is something she should understand. I believe that the reason she isn’t willing to return is due to another reason. I believe that you don’t need to worry too much about this matter, the most important thing right now, is to help the family make it peacefully through this war, and deliver our opponents a hard blow. As long as the Arthur Family stands tall and doesn’t collapse, no one dares to do anything to your older sister. Even if it is Bevulas, he can only play a few tricks in the background.”
After pausing for a moment, Borriello proudly said, “Moreover, how can a child of mine, Borriello, be so easily bullied?”
When he saw his father boast without any shame, O’Brien felt a wave of warmth. He smiled, and then said, “Older sis is the truly formidable one. Only recently did I understand how laughable many of the principles I had persisted with in my youth were, as well as understand a bit more about why she made some of the choices she made back then.”
