004 – He Was Just an Old Man
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September 18, 1998.

John Fritzer waited restlessly at the dinning table. He was not alone, but the company of his young and rebellious together could hardly ever amount to anything.

“You play video games all day. Why don’t you go outside and do something else?”

John said. Clearly talking to Frederica, but without addressing her directly.

Despite being a former isekai Hero, he was still a boomer and a dad.

Frederica gave him a half a millisecond glare. That was all the time she was willing to give her old man.

Her amber eyes spoke a thousand words. It was as if she was looking at walking garbage.

With a subtle grunt, she grabbed her white laptop and retreated to her room. She slammed the door shut.

“You raised her to be a cruel little mut, didn’t you?” Said Sofia, having taken John’s loneliness as an opportunity to materialize herself. “But anyway, master… I just finished setting up the magical barrier that you asked. What should we do next?”

Her last question sounded more like an invitation to have sex than anything else.

John looked down at his cheap mechanical watch. It was supposed to be a Rolex;

“9:00PM,” John said out loud. “I’ll just have another cup of coffee.”

Sofia pouted.

As John retreated to the kitchen, he felt comfortable knowing that he was an expert in selecting and grinding his coffee beans. If only parenting was as easy.

Suddenly, while he poured his favorite creamer into his cup, the magical alarm went off.

“Adrian!?”

John almost shouted. As he ran towards the door and opened it, only to be in shock. The kid at the door was not his son.

It was a pizza delivery guy.

John looked at him, confused. The delivery guy looked back at him, confused, too.

“I ordered pizza,” Frederica said.

“Why? I was planning to make dinner when your brother came home,” John responded.

“Dad, that piece of shit is probably out there fucking around with a girl.”

While the two argued. The pizza man just stood there.

“Sir, it would be $16.72.”

John paid him, then after grabbing the pizza box with huge hostility, he slammed the door shut.

Frederica was quick to deprive John of the burden of carrying to pizza box. Then fled to her room.

“She didn’t even ask if you wanted a slide,” Sofia said.

“Shut up,” John said. “How come you haven’t located my son. You said you could read mana signatures.”

“Yes, but… Your daughter outputs such a high quantity of mana that looking for any other signature while in her proximity is the equivalent of looking for a marble in a pond,” Sofia said. “However, if you allow me to materialize, I could track him down.”

John nodded.

After Sofia left the house. John went to the kitchen to retrieve his coffee cup.

Taking a sip made him cringe. The coffee had gone cold.

*****

Underneath a dark blue sky, Sofia ran from roof to roof, occasionally jumping across lamp posts.

It was selfish to use mana in such an irresponsible manner, but it felt so good.

After a few minutes of roaming the city, she was able to locate the source of mana that belonged to Adrian.

The place was really close. In fact, it was definitively within a walking distance.

But something felt wrong.

His mana signature was not quite alright. Was it because it was weaker than before? Or was Adrian in a state of mental distress? Sofia couldn’t tell.

When Sofia located the house, she felt a huge sense of dread.

There was nothing abnormal about the residency, some of the lights were even on. Yet, the sense of dread would not go away. Something evil lurked inside.

Should she force the door open? Or knock?

She could hear multiple voices inside. But they were not loud enough for her to tell them apart.

She opted for knocking. After all, if she made a scene, her master might not allow her to take a physical form again.

After a few seconds, the door opened, revealing an extremely dark hallway quite a few meters deep. At the end of the hallway, there was a light. It seemed like a kitchen.

Before she could take a better look, within the shadows, a pair of red menacing eyes grabbed her attention. Someone was at the door, their body was shrouded in darkness.

“Hey,” Sofia said, a bit shy at first. “Is Adrian here?”

“Why? Who are you? And what’s with the cosplay?”

The girl with the menacing eyes responded coldly, not even blinking once.

Sofia was about to respond, but there was a loud shout.

“Noooo don’t do that!” The person shouting said. It was Adrian.

With no time to lose, Sofia pushed the girl aside and lunged forward towards the kitchen.

Closing the distance with a mana enchanted dash, she heard the people in the kitchen laughing.

Upon reaching the kitchen’s entrance, Sofia froze. For a second, she felt a brief but intense killing intent that made her tremble on the spot.

This conflicted heavily with what was happening in the kitchen. Adrian and a geeky guy wearing glasses were playing cards.

“Sis, we have another guess?” The geeky boy asked.

“It seems that way,” the red-eyed girl replied.

Adrian, who had no idea what was going on, just smiled.

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