Chapter 219 In-laws 1
Everyone obliged and began slicing their cuts of meat that looked synthesized from the best molecules in the universe, eating regally. Beatrice displayed surprisingly lady-like manners while Dante had obviously been to more than one restaurant and had basic table etiquette.
This surprised Augeus because as far as he knew, Dante was a stray that Beatrice had found. He had no idea about two universes or Dante's origins, so he could only wonder where Dante had gotten his etiquette lessons from.
"As I said, it'd be difficult for me to find disappointment in you, young Dante. Your accolades and achievements within this short period of time since we signed you on have shocked not only me, but the entire civilized universe who cares to know." Augeus began explaining after sipping his red wine and placing his fork down after taking a few bites.
"This includes not only the Ten Great Pure Human Clans, but the Five Corporations, the Twenty Factions, and the Prime Human Council itself. Especially the Prime Human Council; they have sent us letters of summons for you about 3 times so far in the past 6 months." Augeus added with a pointed look.
Dante's expression became serious. He already knew the entire social and legal layout of the universe months ago, so he knew about the clans, corps, and factions. They were the ones he always danced around carefully because getting entangled with them could lead to big trouble.
They were also the reason that despite Beatrice's heckling and haggling, he had not used his powers and specialties to establish his own faction in the Eternal Universe because he simply did not have enough capital to compete with these powers easily.
But the Prime Human Council was another beast altogether. It was the legitimate ruler of the universe and the fount of governance, legality, and politics in the civilized world. If they said A, you dare not fucking say B unless you were a pure human, and even then, the best you could say was A and a half.
Summons from them were not something one could just say 'uhh, I'm busy so next time,' as that would lead to punitive actions ten times out of ten. So for Augeus to tell him this and for Dante to not have felt the ramifications of not heeding it, it meant that someone else had shouldered the problem for him.
Augeus saw Dante's look and knew that he understood, so he sliced a piece of beef and smiled thinly. "Do not look at me; there's no way I would take the trouble that would come from such things for you as a clan head, even if you are Beatrice's partner, at least prior to meeting you and understanding what kind of person you are."
Dante then glanced at Beatrice who was quietly eating while staring into her plate as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Dante understood immediately that the only person with enough individual martial power to make even the Prime Human Council hesitate was Beatrice or the headmistress, and Dante doubted Lara would go that far for his sake.
As for why Beatrice would do so, clearly Augeus was baffled while Aunt Zest seemed interested. However, Dante knew why, and it was simply because he could not afford the risk of appearing in front of so many high echelon players given his threat to their benefits as well as his dubious origin.
There were superpower users who could read minds and detect lies in the council; obviously they would sic them on Dante. If they managed to pry from his mouth that he was from an alternate universe, then things would get messy.
This would only be a problem until Dante entered the Zero Gate and left his quantum marker in here. Then he was effectively done with the Eternal Universe and could do as he wished because even if they made him public enemy number 1, he could live his life out in the home universe and then pop into both Zero Gates using quantum markers when the time was ripe.
Heh, imagine how furious the Eternal Universe upper echelons would be if they always lost all 10 fruits to Dante for so many years going forward. The martial power of the entire universe would drop severely in time, allowing Dante the chance to invade.
But for all that to happen, Dante needed time, and Beatrice bought him that time to develop that he needed. This made him feel grateful, but also a bit worried because she should have told him about this earlier.
Anyway, here and now was not the time to pursue accountability. Dante simply nodded to Augeus to show he understood while Augeus smiled and continued.
"Do you know? When Beatrice first found you, she took an executive decision in the details of your contract and officially attached you to our clan. She even betrothed herself to you without telling me, all of which caused an uproar."
Dante was stunned and glanced at Beatrice who had lowered her head even further and was almost nose to nose with the food on her plate as she ate hurriedly.
"Personally, I don't care. Ever since my lovely Portia passed, I've given her the freedom to do whatever she wants with her life, and due to her great achievements, power, and bloodline, she is the strongest force in our entire clan."
"Previously, Portia alone was the one who propped us up as number 1 of the Ten Great Pure Human Clans due to her senselessly overwhelming power, but after she left, we quickly began to fall. Properties, planets, and entire corporations we opened were being sieged on all fronts, and the clan went through many tough years."
"Luckily for us, my sweet Bea displayed striking similarity to her mother in that she is one of the few in the universe to have three superpowers that perfectly complement each other and allow for near limitless growth, though Bea's is not fully awakened."
"Soon, her power grew beyond what many could handle, and she took back the place we had among the pure human clans, as well as became the new stabilizing force for us." Augeus paused to take a sip of wine.
Dante now understood why Louisa and co had such horrified expressions when Beatrice introduced herself. It was likely that everyone carved a piece of the pie that was the weakened Portinari Clan at the time, including pure human clans.
To get it all back, Beatrice must have beaten everyone black and blue, including fellow pure humans. This was why they were scared but not to the point of hatred because whether it was for political reasons or her personal xenophobia, Beatrice definitely would not be as heavy-handed to pure humans.
Lady of Genocides, huh? No wonder those news articles had very strange ways of describing her actions, putting it as revenge for her mother's killing rather than sheer brutality. How could they openly say that she was getting back what her family already owned and that they had refused to spit out the meat in their mouth, leading to a violent resolution to the problem?
Dante also understood why Beatrice had the power to single-handedly appoint him as Vice-Admiral as well as get him such favorable terms in his contract back then. Everything was backed by her own power, which was the eternal truth of the universe!
"Many in the clan protested her actions back then. While many understand that she is the stabilizing power, that doesn't mean that she could give up clan assets on a whim without telling anybody."
Augeus's lips twitched as he continued. "After all, the 300 Etrans per week she promised you is about 10% of the clan's total income per week from various businesses universe-wide. The villa on earth she gave you actually was supposed to be given to another clan member who had done an excellent job in business but was seized by Beatrice for you."
"As for the Eternal Academy, that slot was being contested for by the young ones of the clan and was also seized by Beatrice for you." Augeus revealed as he couldn't help but glance at his daughter speechlessly.
Dante felt weary inside. He knew his babe was a tyrant who did not consider anything weaker than herself, but he had no idea she was merciless to even her own affiliated family members.
The sad part was that apart from the money, everything else had little meaning to Dante. He hadn't stepped into that villa since it was bought, and he was planning to make the Eternal Academy go from an 'is' to a 'was' the moment he became strong enough.
"Wait, why was the betrothal a problem though?" Dante clued into something based on what Augeus said earlier.
Augeus smiled appreciatively. "Ours is the main branch of the clan, but there are millions of side branches out there who craved to join us. Beatrice is my only daughter so whoever marries her gets a free ticket to become a main clan member and bring his side branch up along with him."
"Imagine how furious the young men were to find that it wasn't any of them, noble young masters bred and raised with the highest quality, but some stray she found outside that would get the honor? How could those fools not protest?" Augeus stated with a sneer.
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