<strong>Leveret Mansion, Egrein City;</strong>
Roughly 15 minutes after Mia read her daughter's message, atleast a dozen cars stopped before the mansion in a straight line and the President stepped out with all of her so-called Praetorian guards.
These special bodyguards are 32 in number and they always follow her to public places to prevent possible assassinations. All of them are Arcana Masters, highly trained in almost every type of weapon. Together combined, they can erect a special 8-star realm barrier around Mia in emergency situations.
With 12 of these 32 Arcana Masters being in the 6-star realm and the remaining 20 in the 5-star realm, one can say that she is quite intimidating to citizens.
And yet, people voted for her twice in a row.
Why?
It's because she has the best results in every policy her government implemented so far.
Anyway, 43-year-old Mia stormed into the Leveret Mansion while leaving her guards outside.
She saw her father and her daughter playing some sci-fi shooting game on the television, connected to a gaming console. Both of them were so engrossed in the game that they didn't even sense Mia's presence and continued to chat around.
"Seriously? Dad was into video games? I never knew that." Mia was a little bit taken aback but she kept her composure and called out to her daughter, "Sera."
Serestia and Wesley Leveret turned their heads to look at the source and were visibly surprised to see Mia standing there.
"Mom?" "Mia?"
"You arrived so fast," exclaimed Serestia in surprise. She further asked, "You aren't really in a busy meeting, are you?"
Mia didn't bother to answer her and directly came to the point, "Where did you see Azrael?"
Serestia answered, "At the whale island."
Mia then strode forward with heavy steps and grabbed Serestia's shoulders with a serious expression, "Are you sure that it is him? Or it is just one of those tricks of yours?"
"It is him. I'm sure of it." Serestia first appeared confident in her reply but after a second, she corrected herself, "Well, maybe, it can be his son who took the same name. He could be Azrael Junior as he doesn't seem to have changed a bit. He just looks like a 13 or 14-year-old kid. Even his voice didn't sound like an adult."
"I see…" Mia loosened her grip and nodded, "Okay, Sera, I need to leave. You can stay here for the night but make sure to get back to the academy by tomorrow. You have exams coming."
Without waiting for Serestia's reply, Mia kissed her forehead and said goodbye to her dad before leaving in hurry.
"But, mom…" Serestia tried to say something, but as her mom was already out of her sight, she threw away the controller in anger and complained "It's been more than two weeks since I last saw her. She didn't even ask me how I was doing."
Wesley couldn't help but look at his granddaughter in pity. As a former president, he knew the life that his daughter is going through.
Hence, he cannot criticize Mia and could only console his granddaughter, "Your mother's mind was preoccupied with other things, Sera. How about I take you to meet the research facility?"
"Ah, really?" Serestia's mood suddenly improved upon hearing the word research facility. "You are the best, grandpa. It's been a while since I saw Dr. Mac. Let's go right away."
Wesley shook his head with a smile, watching the joy on his granddaughter's face.
Little did they expect that they will encounter Mia within just a couple of hours after she left.
Both of them are at the underground research facility for different purposes and it goes without saying that Sera and Mia were surprised to see each other at the secret facility, which is the source of the robotic army and cutting-edge technology of Northern Qudour.
"Mia, didn't you have a meeting with the Southern Qudour's ambassador?" asked Wesley.
Mia shook her head, "I canceled the meeting, dad. Finding Azrael is more important now. What about you guys?"
"Nothing, Mom. We just came here to check if there are any interesting toys Dr. Mac developed lately." Serestia answered her before her attention was stolen by the 150-inch computer screen. She pointed at the live feed of a person on the corner of the screen, "Is that dad?"
"Eh?" Mia appeared to be startled by her daughter's remark and she immediately turned around to look at the screen with several live feeds of high-profile people running at the same time.
And in the corner of the screen, Serestia saw the guy in his early forties who was sparring with an 8-year-old kid. He was neither tall nor short. He was neither handsome nor ugly. He had his extremely common-looking face that one can find anyone in the Northern Qudour. However, this 5-star realm Arcana Master is still the current first gentleman of the Northern Qudour.
As Mia hurriedly switched off the live feed, Serestia narrowed her eyes, "I thought you only spy on high-profile targets. Mom, are you spying on dad on regular basis?"
Mia looked away and gave an excuse, "not really. Dr. Mac was already working on locating my friend, in the other room. So, I was just fooling around."
Serestia stared at her in silence. Clearly, she didn't believe her. At the same time, she wondered whether she was wrong in thinking that her parents were completely estranged from each other. If that's the case, then, should she try once again for a family vacation?
Unfortunately, that's not possible given how busy a President of a nation can be. So, atleast family dinner?
As the teenager was trying to think of a way to bring her parents together, Mia cleared her throat and changed the topic to hide her embarrassment, "Anyway, Sera, Dad, both of you can go and look around. In the meantime, I guess I will work remotely from this place. There are important files that I need to look at."
After sending them away, Mia turned on the live feed from their satellites once again, clicking on her husband's image for one last time. Looking at him engrossed in his job, she nodded with a smile, "I guess he is working hard."
She closed his live feed and continued with her work while wondering whether Azzy would use the portal point to travel to Gaia. As the Arcana World was located in another dimension and cannot be put under surveillance by any modern tech, Mia's only hope is for Azzy to get into the human world and gets captured on some CCTV.
Never in the world did she expect Azzy to be standing in the streets of Aclein City at the moment while Dr. Mac was searching his whereabouts in every other nation.
<strong>Evergreen Street, Aclein City; </strong>
Inside the compound of a century-old mansion, Azzy was staring at the grave that says the name Affea Snieca. He was filled with sadness, "If I had the power to change her fate, I would have traveled back in time once again to keep her alive. Alas, she died during childbirth. I cannot kill an innocent Aspen Night to keep her alive."
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