318 Chapter 318: Return to Southampton City

"After checking this city out over the last couple of days, well…there really doesn't seem to be anything special about it…"

"Yeah, but it's definitely a lot more crowded and bustling than Jing Tian City."

"Wait, wait, wait." I was gaping at my friends, looking utterly confused. "Did we just do a timeskip? Seriously? We transitioned from the train scene right to a few days later? Did you just skip our exploration and semi-vacation in Southampton City?"

"Who cares about that?" Craig Carlson replied flippantly. "The readers want to proceed straight to the tournament already."

"Ah, screw you guys. Is this the result of the web comic adaptation of Battle Frenzy? Why even have that entire plot point of having a couple of days off in Southampton if you were going to do a timeskip? Whatever. I'm going back in time. See you guys later."

"Huh? What?" Theodore Hammond was gaping at me, but I didn't care. Instead, I waved my hand, ripped open a space-time portal, and stepped through it to return to an event that just took place yesterday.

"…did he just go back to the past?" Sheila Scarlet asked in disbelief, but I never got to hear the responses from the rest of my friends because the portal closed up. If this was a comic adaptation, I would kicked my way out of the panel to jump into another. As it was, I might as well leave that display to their imaginations. Long live Deadpool!

Ignoring the weird timeskip employed by the story that this story was based on, I acted naturally when speaking to Dong Fang Yue Chu in our hotel room. As the tournament event hadn't officially begun yet, we had to look for our own accommodations first, and our team captain Harrison Reed had booked several rooms in this hotel.

"What's going on? Did you just walk through a rip in the space-time fabric and travel back in time?" Yue Chu was gaping at me. Okay, so much for acting naturally and ignoring the timeskip. Fortunately, before I could explain anything, my smartphone rang, the ringtone being the opening song of an anime.

"Hello?"

"Ah, Richard?" A familiar face appeared on the holographic screen when I swiped the green icon of the video call. I was unable to conceal my surprise when I saw the other party. Cecilia, on the other hand, waved at me with a bright smile. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, indeed it has. What's up?"

"Oh, I heard that your team has just arrived in Southampton City. I was wondering if we could meet up today or tomorrow, before the tournament begins."

"Huh? What for?"

Cecilia smiled mischievously. "It's a secret. You'll find out when you get there."

"…okay." I honestly didn't want to play games, but there was no reason for me to reject her invitation. My friends had decided to split up and explore whatever places that interested them. The girls wanted to go shopping, the guys wanted to go to a gaming arcade or the hobby districts (think Akihibara) or visit the football stadium where Southampton Football Club was playing against Manchester United Football Club later in the evening. I planned to rush back to watch that, but honestly I couldn't care less. I was a Blackburn Rovers Football Club fan, and I would prefer to go to Ewood Park instead. Unfortunately, that was in another city.

"I'll send you the address through email. Let me know what's the most convenient time for you. See you then!"

"Roger that." I waited for her to hang up, and then tapped the screen the moment I received a notification that I had just gotten an email from her. I planned to arrange it as soon as possible, so that I could return in time and join Craig and the others to watch the football game. For my own amusement, I was going to wear my favorite Blackburn Rovers jersey, which was blue and white and had a red rose adorned across the left breast (the club badge).

"Let me see, let me see!" Yue Chu was being a busybody as usual, and he was rushing to take a good look at my email, ignoring the rules of privacy. His mouth dropped when he saw the location specified in the email. "The Royal Flower Garden Hotel?! She's inviting you to such a fancy place?!"

"No, it's the Stuart Hotel," I corrected as I smacked the back of his head. "You've been reading too much Battle Frenzy. It's the new hotel that her uncle, Stewart Stuart, opened a few months ago."

Readers probably forgot about him, so I might as well remind them that he (and the hotel) first appeared in Chapter 52. Not that they would care or bother revisiting that chapter. Stewart Stuart wasn't a major character anyway.

"It's the same thing," Yue Chu replied, waving my words away. No, it was not…but, there was no point arguing with him. "You need to get dressed for the event, bro!"

Obviously I wasn't going to wear my Blackburn Rovers jersey to such a formal place, but there was no way in hell I was going to wear some formal, stiff suit to the place either.

"My uniform will suffice," I replied dismissively.

"No, it wouldn't!" Yue Chu practically howled. "You're meeting a lady in such a high-class location! You can't simply show up in your school uniform!"

"Watch me."

"Are you an idiot?!" Yue Chu was actually weeping tears as he buried his face in his palm. "Look, the both of you haven't seen each other in half a year. I'm sure she at last has some feelings for you if she took the initiative to reach out to you and arrange a date…"

"It's not a date."

"Don't be dense!"

"You're the one over-thinking this. This is not some stupid harem story where every single girl falls for me just because I'm the protagonist, or because I walk on two legs." Plus Anastasia would literally assassinate Cecilia if that was the case. "Anyway, I'll see you later."

I had already sent the email and noted Cecilia's insant reply. So we would be meeting in an hour.

"CHANGE YOUR ATTIRE! At least put on a suit and a tie! Don't wear your damned uniform there!"

"Fine, fine." it took me less than ten minutes to change into a formal suit, and I didn't bother with a blazer, but at least I had the tacky penguin necktie. Yue Chu's jaw dropped when he saw the tie, but I didn't give him a chance to object. "See you, bro."

"Wait, wait! Make sure you know the rules! Remember to tip when they provide some service to you!"

"Yeah, gotcha."

I quickly made my exit before Yue Chu could ramble on about proper social etiquette or whatever. Waving my farewell, I followed the directions that Google Map provided, and made my way toward Stuart Hotel. Since I had been there once before, it was easy for me to find it again. I might have a terrible sense of direction, but I tended to remember the route once I familiarized myself with the place.

The hotel attendant at the front of the hotel bowed his head slightly when he caught sight of me approaching.

"Good afternoon," he greeted with a polite smile. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I have an appointment with someone here," I replied, returning the courtesy. "I'm supposed to meet, uh, Miss Cecilia Stuart."

"!!!"

Immediately, all the staff inside the hotel jolted up in shock, cold sweat pouring down their faces.

"It's a guest of the Stuart family! Go take care of him, hurry!"

"Uh…"

Dudes…aren't you guys overreacting? Who the hell cares?

"Please forgive our rudeness!" A middle-aged staff with a fancy mustache, who probably was the manager, rushed forward and bowed frantically. "This way, please! Miss Stuart has reserved a private room for your meeting, Distinguished Guest!"

…say what? Distinguished Guest? What the fuck was this bullshit? They were getting so overly formal that I was getting crept out. I had never been treated like a VIP before, and I honestly thought I never wanted to be treated as such again.

Repressing my unease, I followed them toward a relatively extravagant ballroom on the second floor. The heck? Cecilia booked an entire reception room for our meeting?! And that was my reaction even before I stepped through the opulent doors.

My amazement increased several fold after I stepped through the ridiculously expensive mahogany double doors. They had a golden chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and dozens of portraits hanging on the luxuriously furnished walls. This wasn't the first time I had seen such indulgence, however – I was immediately reminded of my earlier visit to the now demolished Stuart Corporation Building a few months ago.

Welcome to the world of the rich, I thought cynically to myself again. Bloody hell, I could think of a thousand different ways to better spend such an enormous sum of money…though, admittedly, I would waste a good chunk of that cash buying several Forge World Titans so that I could play Apocalypse games.

"You're finally here, Richard."

Cecilia was seated in one of those massive, opulently decorated, but comfortable couches in the center of the room, calmly sipping from her cup of tea. I bowed my head slightly.

"It's been a while, Miss Cecilia."

When she beckoned me over to take a seat, I approached warily, feeling a little nervous and intimidated by the whole…rich and powerful thing. Dude, this entire room alone was probably worth five times the price of my dad's house.

"What's up? Why did you call me?"

"Big Brother Richard!"

Adrian popped his head up and waved at me. Pushing himself off the couch, he excitedly ran toward me.

"It really has been a while!"

"Oh, yeah, hey, Adrian. How have you been?"

Cecilia watched the exchange in amusement, before taking another sip from her small teacup.

"When Adrian heard that you were coming, he pestered me to arrange a meeting with you. And he begged to join the discussion."

"I see." Actually, I didn't. "What discussion?"

"No need to be so nervous." This time, it was another voice, from the opposite couch. As this particular fancy and huge chair was facing away from me, I couldn't see the occupant, but I found the voice oddly familiar. Yet, I couldn't place my finger on who it belonged to. Fortunately, I wasn't kept in suspense for too long, because I was already on my way there, with Adrian in tow. Reaching the super-long couch in the middle, I turned around.

"Miss Kureha." I cocked my head politely.

Kureha Franklin tilted her head in return, and beamed. "As I said, no need to be so formal. We're all friends here. Come, have a seat."

"Yeah!" Adrian didn't need any further invitation and plopped down on the couch in the same fashion that kids did. I nodded and took a seat beside him.

"If I remember correctly, you prefer Eastern Tea, right?" Cecilia lowered her teacup and gestured for one of the hotel staff. He nodded and produced a tray, upon which an oriental teapot and small China cups lay.

With a flourish, he poured steaming green tea into my cup and gently placed it in front of me. I nodded my thanks.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

The staff nodded back, and withdrew. I noticed that Adrian was drinking some sort of frappe cappuccino, topped with lots of cream. I didn't know they served that in such a high-end hotel.

"How did you know that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at Cecilia, before accepting the cup of green tea.

"You're always drinking green tea," Adrian pointed out. Oh, right. I hung out a lot with him, so he roughly knew my tastes, especially since I treated him to drinks most of the time whenever I went to get my own.

"Yeah, thanks." I sipped the tea, and then almost jolted upright the moment my tongue buzzed pleasantly. "Holy c…! This tea is delicious!"

Both Kureha and Cecilia giggled when they saw my reaction. They both were obviously thinking that I hadn't seen much of the world or something. So what? It wasn't as if I was from a wealthy or powerful family, so what were they expecting?

Speaking of which…

"Why have you called me here today?" I asked, glancing from one of them to the other. The both of them exchanged glances.

"First, allow me to apologize for some trouble that I may have caused." Cecilia lowered her head, much to my surprise. I raised both of my hands frantically and shook my head.

"What trouble? I didn't get into any trouble…I think."

"Apparently some idiot tried to hire Assassins to kill you," Adrian explained as he sucked on his straw. He grinned. "He completely failed, and his parents were so horrified they sent him for counseling at a psychiatric ward."

"Thanks to his stupidity, he was forced to pull out of the tournament," Kureha muttered.

I stared at them blankly. At that time, I had no idea what they were talking about, and it was only after I ran into Zhao Zi Jun that I was able to build the whole picture.

"Well, honestly, that's not the main reason why we called you here today," Kureha continued, and she sent Cecilia a glance. The black-haired beauty nodded her head and straightened up.

"We're actually here to offer you a high-tier mission," she revealed with a smile. "Considering your experience in fighting the professional killers of the Assassin Guild, we thought that you would be the one who is most appropriate for the job."