Chapter 69: Oh, shit...

Zeph’s brother was tall and muscular, with long blond hair that went all the way down his back. He wore a tank top, probably to show off his muscles.

"Calm down," I said, putting my hands up to show I didn’t mean any harm, "he’s safe here with me. No need for all this aggression."

"All this aggression? You haven’t even seen me get aggressive yet, you bastard!"

He lunged at me with a clenched fist, aiming a punch straight at my face. Of course, I defended myself, but without using my skill.

I threw my forearm up to block the punch. I could feel tremendous force behind it, showing he wasn’t just built for show, he was powerful too.

It felt like the bone in my forearm rattled. For a second, I thought it was going to crack, but it held up. I stood my ground without taking a step back or letting on that I was in a lot of pain.

Zeph’s brother pulled his fist away from my forearm and looked at me with a bit of admiration.

"Impressive," he said, shaking his head, "you go to school with my little brother and you’re pretty damn strong. I didn’t think a student could take a punch from me. Honestly thought I was going to split you in half."

Honestly, if I were just an ordinary student, I probably would have been split in half...

He walked over to me and threw an arm around my neck, acting completely different now.

"Name’s Zack. Yeah, with a Z too. Don’t ask, I didn’t pick it."

Zack pulled me inside the house like I was part of the family. He even squeezed my bicep for a second.

"You’ve got some muscle here, but we can do better. Want to hit a brutal workout later? I’ll make that bicep explode."

His personality was pretty strange. I really didn’t know how to react. The guard followed us through the house, but didn’t say another word. Zack was the one showing everything off.

"This is the living room, that’s the dining room," he started saying, pointing at each room, "let me show you my private gym."

I was helpless, just having to follow him through the house and see everything he wanted to show me. On the way, I saw several staff members who lived in the mansion. Butlers and maids. A gardener, too.

The house was simply huge, filled with unique decorations like paintings that looked insanely expensive and full sets of medieval armor placed all over. It was a reality I wasn’t used to. Way beyond anything normal for me, since I used to live in an ugly warehouse where I saw rats all the time...

That gym he mentioned had everything. It was massive, even bigger than commercial gym chains across the country. Zack was clearly a workout freak... I knew for sure he wasn’t normal when a butler approached us during the tour. The butler had placed a protein shake on a silver platter.

"Sir, your protein shake is ready. Packed with 40 grams of protein."

Zack laughed as he grabbed the shake off the tray. "Thanks a lot. This is exactly what I needed."

He continued the mansion tour while sipping his protein shake. That family was crazy...

The vibe of the tour was pretty friendly. Sure, Zack had a weird personality, but he seemed like a good guy. I was sure Zeph probably liked him a lot.

But things changed as soon as their father showed up. He looked similar to Zack, but much more mature.

He was tall and muscular too, but the aura coming off his body was WAY stronger. Zack was already powerful, definitely an A-rank hunter, but his father? I was almost certain he was an S-rank hunter. The energy felt similar to what I felt around Lion Heart.

His father’s name was Zoen.

"Zack," Zoen said in an authoritative tone, "you’re giving a house tour, but you didn’t even ask him to show you where your brother is? What if he’s lying? What if your brother needs help Did you even stop to think about that?"

I kept quiet without saying a word. I couldn’t afford to piss off a hunter that strong.

Zoen shifted his gaze and stared right at me.

"Where is my son? The guard told me you have him inside your ability? Can you show me?"

I thought about whether it was a good idea to let Zoen into my pocket dimension, but decided against it. I still needed to trust him more.

"I’ll go talk to him and bring him out," I said, "but he’s hurt. Can you set up a place for him to lie down? He’s going to need something to heal his wounds too."

Zoen pulled something out of his pocket. "It’s a powerful healing potion. He’ll be good as new. Just bring him out for me and I’ll take care of the injuries."

I nodded. My cube was summoned and started floating beside me. Instantly, I vanished, stepping into the pocket dimension. Even from inside, I could see the surprised looks on Zoen and Zack’s faces.

"What a peculiar ability," Zoen muttered, "I’ve never seen anything like it before."

I headed over to the cabin to talk to Zeph.

"We’re inside your house," I said, "move your ass, your dad wants to see you. He already has a potion ready to heal you."

Zeph slowly got up from the bed.

"Come here," I said, "I need to touch you to send you out of here."

As soon as I placed my hand on his shoulder, both of us left the pocket dimension and reappeared back in the mansion.

Zoen was stunned, unable to believe I had actually pulled Zeph out from somewhere.

"Drink this, Zeph," Zoen said, handing him a potion filled with red liquid, "and how did you get so beaten up? Tell me everything that happened during this attack on the academy."

Zoen turned and looked at me again.

"Thank you for bringing my son back home. With all this shit going down, I was worried. Zack will show you to the living room where you can wait while I speak in private with my son."

He wanted to hear Zeph’s full story in private first, which was understandable.

I nodded and followed Zack to the living room.

The room had such high ceilings that I felt so... free. It was one of the things I liked most about these expensive mansions.

The couch was leather, a reddish burgundy color, and a huge chandelier hung right in the middle of the living room. On top of that, of course, was a fireplace that practically screamed wealth. Everything was decorated nicely with paintings, statues, and flower vases. I couldn’t see even a single speck of dust. Whoever was in charge of cleaning the mansion deserved some serious recognition.

Zack sat down next to me on the couch.

"You hungry?" he asked.

"Yeah, thirsty too," I replied.

He quickly waved over one of the butlers, who asked what I wanted to eat. I didn’t know what to say, so I just let the butler pick out something delicious.

"Man, tell me, what happened on the way here? I know it’s crazy out there. I saw some clips online and on TV, but I haven’t seen it in person yet. We’re staying here where it’s safe."

I gave him a rough rundown of what went down and what I saw along the way. Of course, I didn’t say anything about Balthazar or the fact that he stole an important key, or that Frederic, the academy principal, was helping the vampires. I decided to keep that to myself.

The rest? I told him. I saw no reason to hide the country’s current situation. Zack listened closely to every detail, his expression changing several times as I spoke.

"Things really are bad, holy shit. Not even half of this is on the internet. It’s worse than I thought."

I chilled in the living room, eating what the butler brought me. Rice with vegetables and grilled chicken. Something wasn’t right.

Zack noticed my expression and said, "I told him to cook that for you. A clean meal to build some muscle mass. We’re hitting a workout after this, you know that, right? Don’t even try to run."

This guy was completely crazy. But I couldn’t deny it, the food was really good. He even brought me a Coke Zero.

Zoen walked into the living room with Zeph by his side. I had no idea what Zeph had told him. Could he have said something to screw me over? After all, during our time at the academy, we didn’t get along at all.

"My son told me you two ended up fighting a few times at the academy, and that you even knocked him out a couple of times," Zoen said.

I felt the aura around his body flare up a bit. My heart instantly started racing.

’Oh, shit...’