Magic of Arteria Volume 1. Reunion Arc

Chapter Eight

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 After a few hours of driving, we soon passed the bridge connecting both islands; it was the spot where the sun’s radiance was brightest, the waters below the bridge were crystals; ferries of all sizes sailed, and people of all genders jogged.

 

As I waited for the cars in front of me to move, I looked at the girl beside me, Hikari, who was focused on the game she was playing, and asked. “How’s your game, are you winning already?”

 

The game she was playing was a game that rose to popularity two months ago, name Hubbler. It is a hub-based game with the main attraction being the ability to invent spacecraft and compete with other players online. The game relies heavily on mathematical statements, equations and is, in general, made for the smarter people, not children.

 

“Not yet…” she responded while shaking her head, her eyes were still glued to the game, building a classic spacecraft. The spacecraft she was building was one that was not tall, and not short, with a pointed nose and nine crystal waters engines.

 

The spacecraft looked identical to the spacecraft of the 2020s, the one which promised to bring people to Mars, but eventually fell to its demise after the founder’s death and lead the collapse of the technological advancement of humanity. Since then, not one person had attempted to enter space, and with the existence of mana, there was no actual need to move beyond.

 

The existence of mana had caused our planet to expand by a large percent, rejuvenating it while bringing the start of a new era; it also acted as another layer of defense for the planet, protecting it from unidentified flying objects and space debris.

 

Pressing the acceleration pedal slightly down, I inquired in a gentle tone. “Do you need any help?”.

 

“No… I can do it myself,” she responded with the voice of a rabbit, adorable and soft. Her eyes were filled with determination, a heart of steel; one can tell she was enjoying her game, from the smile on her face.

 

I smiled while looking at her with my right eye, supporting her inside my heart as I said. “You better quicken your pace then; we will arrive at our destination in a few minutes. If you need help, then don’t be afraid to ask me.”

 

After the short talk, the two of us entered awkward silence for some time before I asked several details about her, allowing me to know her more as she opened her heart. By asking for some of those details, I came to know her age, she was eight years old.

 

I was in disbelief from hearing her age, her height was shorter than most children of her age; the sheer effects of the events she had gone through as a child was immense, enough to impede her growth. The more we talked, the more I understood how much she had gone through.

 

All the incidents and events she had gone through had caused her to forget her own name; the only name she could remember of herself was either, “hey” and “you”. The treatment she received from the orphanage enraged me inside, my respect for the government had decreased once more.

 

I felt like meeting her was of fate; the deities protecting the country looked after us, the smile on my face grew wider as I released my right hand from the gearbox and patted her head as she continued on playing, mumbling in a soft voice. “You are in safe hands now, don’t worry…”

 

A few moments of driving led us in front of a modern building with walls made from both glass and white bricks. The building was a separate organization of the government, one not directly controlled by them that handles adoption and the likes.

 

Upon arriving, a man in a white business suit came out from the door. He walked towards us with a bright smile, the person was one of the several officials of the organization, a high-ranking one to be exact.

 

I looked at Hikari and said. “We have arrived already, Hikari.”

 

She looked around for several moments before nodding as she turned off the phone, handing it to me as I accepted it before kissing her on the forehead, patting her head as I said. “Good girl! don’t worry, we won’t take long.”

 

Turning off the engines and taking the key from the dashboard. I opened the door on my side as the man greeted me.

 

“Good morning, Mrs. Angelica!” he said with a salute, on his chest were several badges; the badge of dedication, and the badge of loyalty.

 

“Good morning to you, as well, Mr. Hans. It seems like I will have to trouble you today with some affairs I have.” I giggled before he shook in response.

 

“It’s an honor for us to serve one of the countries’ most revered person, Mrs. Angelica,” he replied while following me as I walked to the other side and grabbed Hikari from the passenger seat before he asked. “If it isn’t too much, do you mind if I ask, is that your daughter?”

 

His eyes were full of surprise, it was another one of the more normal reactions; I smiled at him while replying. “You could say, the affair I have today is about adopting this child, after all. It’s too troublesome going through the normal lines since rumors might spread before the actual announcement.”

 

“That is true, though I have to say… the two of you look too identical to one another, are you really sure that she isn’t your actual daughter?” the man joked as I chuckled. “I would love to have her as my actual, but I am still young for that and also, people should have already known I have no interest in men whatsoever.”

 

He shook his head as we entered through the building using the backdoor, it was a simple glossy white room with vases filled with wondrous, and lavish flowers; wide-screens, high definition televisions, and several comfortable sofas. It was a living room, to be exact.

 

“Let me ask once more, you wish to file for adoption, is that correct?” he asked as I placed Hikari on the sofa, sitting beside her as I nod in response, smiling with my arm being hugged by Hikari. “I’ll be back real quick then, let me get the papers required.”

 

After a few moments of waiting, he came out of the other room holding a folder-load of documents; all the documents were inside a brown, leather folder, placing all of them on the table in front of me, he spoke.

 

“Here are all the documents you have to fill up, we will handle the other needs such as a witness, and the rest. If nothing goes wrong, it should be a smooth and steady process, but in the case of something does fall apart, then I will contact you through the phone number provided.”

 

“From the looks of it, the girl shouldn’t have any remnant parent or guardian, is that correct? If that is the case, then we would require an orphanage of some kind to handle her part. Do you want me to search one qualified for you, or do you have one in mind?” he inquired.

 

I took out my phone and scrolled through the hundreds of messages before finding Ansel’s message, on it were several lists of orphanages that were taken over within the few hours that passed by. He and the company had worked at sonic speed, which lifted my mood.

 

“Here, feel free to pick any of them,” I passed the phone to him as he looked over it, scanning through every single one of them and listing each one on a sheet of paper. His handwriting looked like that of a doctor, as to not waste time, I took the documents and scanned through it.

 

“You can fill up some of the documents that require your input, they should be marked with a star on the top-right corner,” he said as I nodded, scanning through each one and filling up the documents with a star on the top-right corner.

 

The details I filled up were my name, financial status, address, and some other more which only took me about several dozens of minutes. There were about eighty-six documents in total, and only eighteen required my input.

 

After filling up every single one of them, I handed the folder back to him as he scanned through every one of them once more before nodding as he handed my phone back to me while saying. “Everything looks fine, in normal cases, we would require a court hearing for this, but after the last time you entered the court.”

 

“It seems like no one is willing to handle your cases, the sheer pressure your name and family brings is enough to overwhelm the judges, though, in the case of when one is willing to handle, then I hope you can allocate some time of your schedule to come,” he said.

 

“Don’t worry. I will come if needed, after all, this is an important matter to me,” I said while smiling. “Is this all that is needed, because if so, then I will be taking her to a nice shopping spree today.”

 

“That should be all, you are free to take custody of the girl, after all, it is close to impossible for anything to happen to her when the person in question is the revered Queen of Asia, someone who could even make the President and Federal Agencies tremble,” he laughed.

 

Shrugging off his words, I took Hikari on my arms; she had her eyes closed, snoring softly. It seems like the time we took was longer than I had expected, though it felt like a minute for me. My meetings with many officials in the past would take one entire afternoon at most.

 

I left the building and headed back inside the car where I placed Hikari on the passenger seat, tightened her seatbelt before closing the door ever so gently, making sure she doesn’t wake up before walking to the driver’s seat as I started the engines.

 

Having forgotten to set the engine settings to silent, the loud roars of it entered the car, surprising Hikari as she looked around with her eyes wide open.

 

“You can sleep if you want, dear,” I patted her head with a smile, she shook her head in response. “I am not tired…I am just sleepy…”

 

I wanted to laugh at her response, the two were the same words. She was basically admitting she was tired and sleepy. I took out my phone and handed it to her while saying. “Is that so, then you can enjoy playing my phone while we drive to the mall. It should take an hour to reach there, you can sleep if you feel like doing so.”

 

She shook her head while taking my phone, unlocking it as she searched for the game she was playing awhile back, resuming her game session as she mumbled with a pout. “I am not sleepy…”

 

I smiled looking at her adorable pouting face, after looking at her for some time, I refocused my attention on what was in front of me, pressing the acceleration pedal with my foot as I drove down the tiny hill, passing the bridge after some time.

 

The area around us was surreal, it was one of the few parts in the country which has the best landscape, one protected by the environmental division of the government. The landscape around us was filled with greenery, it was almost like a garden with flowers of beauty.

 

It was called by many as the “Fields of Life” because of how lively the area was, a place for foreign people, and local people to take pictures and also have picnics on, despite being far away from the capital, with its closest city being an hour away.

 

The city closest to here was the City of Friendship, one of the several cities I have poured billions onto for its development, it holds many of my companies’ headquarters with exception of the larger groups such as the Avantgarden and the Angelina Group.

 

It was the city that had the most potential, back then, it was only a tiny city, home to about 10,000 people which was a tiny scale compared to its current population: 82,000,000 people in millions of homes.

 

Ranked eighteen on my revenue, it earned me about 128,750,000 Talis a day, which is equivalent to 3 billion Talis a month which is a large amount but still falls in comparison to the Avantgarden, and Angelina Group which raises the most money in a month.

 

After an hour of driving, a large city filled with iconic skyscrapers of different shapes, and several large bridges and tiny islands came to sight from the distance, the most technologically advanced city in the country was only a few minutes away.

 

“We’ll arrive at the mall soon, which one do you want to go first? Want to stop by a restaurant, or go shopping?” I asked while waiting on a traffic light as a loud growl reverberated around the passenger seat.

 

“Restaurant it is, then…” I chuckled while looking at Hikari on the rearview mirror, she was hiding her face in embarrassment; a cute rabbit who jumped on a hole. After some time of waiting, the traffic light had turned green, I pressed down on the acceleration pedal once more, driving towards one of the restaurants I know.

 

It was a restaurant with the highest rating in the world, the last time I ate on it was a few months ago, and the review I had was… “absolute delicacy.”, I only handed two words on my review, but it was enough to show how much I loved it.

 

Just remembering the beef, they provided was enough to make my stomach growl, their carbonara was the absolute best one I have tried in my lifetime, though slightly below Alina’s cooking which is considered the crown.

 

After a few moments of driving, we arrived outside a large mansion. The mansion was filled with luxury, cars parked outside were of high-class, ranging from Lamborghinis to Bugatti, every single one of them was eye-catching.

 

The mansion stood by a hill, showing us the magnificent view of the city, and the oceans near it. The people entering the mansion were dressed in magnificent dresses designed by many of the great artists in the world.