Three young women and a large man shared a table in the private room of a restaurant. Among them, the blond young girl clenched her hands tightly on her lap, staring down at the wooden patterns before her.
Savahn felt like she was walking on pins and needles. This had to be the oddest family dynamic she had ever been apart of. Miel hadn't even asked her about who she was or what she was doing here. After Yuri casually introduced her, that was the end of it and he hadn't said a single word to her. In fact, he barely nodded—something she almost missed because she found it difficult to look him in the eye.
The father was expressionless. The daughter was expressionless. The adoptive daughter was expressionless.
This sort of family almost made her thankful that her own didn't have to step into the oddity of this world. Even if she had to be alone because of it, at least she and them would never reach a point where this was how they interacted…
Finally, a waitress came into with large amounts of food. A bit of the pressure Savahn felt was finally alleviated because someone with a normal smile and expressions had come. Unfortunately, seemingly sensing the atmosphere, the waitress didn't dare to stay long and practically bolted away, holding up the hem of her skirt.
Things only became worse after the food came. What once was an atmosphere of silence became filled with gnawing, cracking and chewing. If Savahn closed her eyes, she would have thought that she was sitting amidst a pack of wolves.
To Savahn's right, Yuri elegantly cut apart her food with a fork and knife. However, across from her, the father and daughter pair seemed to be fighting to the death.
Their elbows clashed every so often, causing resounding booms to reverberate through the air. It sounded almost like claps of thunder every time they struck. And yet, they continued to bite at the piles of meat and bone as though nothing had happened.
Savahn had never known that Aina could eat so much. But, even if she could eat so much… How had she suddenly become a barbarian? It was as though any womanly elegance she had had in the past completely vanished.
If Savahn didn't know better, she would have felt that Aina's hair and irises were slowly tinging red as though she was becoming more and more of a Brazinger with every passing moment. She really had no idea how to process all of this.
It took several more orders and another hour before the father-daughter pair finally stopped eating.
By some miracle, their clothes, hands and faces were completely stainless of food. Even though Savahn had watched from start to end, she had no idea how they had accomplished it at all.
Then… As though nothing had happened at all, Miel began to speak. His voice sounded like smooth stones slowly grinding against one another. But, his word choice was short and succinct. It was as though he didn't want to waste a single breath more than he had to.
"I am a vassal of the Viola family. The reason that I've called you here is because I now have enough capital and cachet to not fear direct action from the Brazinger family. Your growth here will be faster. Use the resources well. I give you ten years."
With that, Miel vanished.
No… He didn't vanish, he simply moved too fast for them all to register.
His words, though, left far too much information out. It was all so vague and open ended that it was difficult to draw any solid conclusions from anything, and it said even less about how he had managed to carve a path from Earth to become a vassal of such an important family within the Sixth Dimension.
However, rather than looking toward where her father had left, Aina simply looked toward Yuri. For as long as Aina had known her, Yuri had always been the interpreter of her father. In a lot of ways, one would think that Yuri understood more about him than she did as his biological daughter.
Still, she seemed unmoved by this as she waited for a deeper explanation. Luckily, Yuri didn't disappoint.
"At these Higher Dimensions, it's impossible to find a powerful family without the backing of an even larger family. Adoptive father has become respected and useful enough to the Viola family that they won't casually get rid of him for some benefits. At the same time, the Viola family has enough backing from higher places that targeted their assets would be something one would need to think twice or thrice about.
"Though adoptive father used the term vassal, he is more important than this. It could be said that he is an integral part of the Viola family's combat prowess. We can take advantage of this to grow beneath their umbrella.
"Under the proper circumstances, it may become possible to gain a chance from the backers of the Viola family to take a look at the Seventh Dimension and gain even more benefits, but this will be difficult and the Viola family will not casually give such benefits to outsiders.
"The only way to circumvent these barriers is by doing as father did and become more useful than they could possibly ignore. But, it will be difficult because even adoptive father has not had a chance to look at the Seventh Dimension. He has always been passed up not due to his lack of skill, but rather due to the fact the Viola family Elders don't want to use their few opportunities on an outsider."
Savahn looked from Aina to Yuri and back again a few times. She was very much confused.
Brazinger family? Wasn't that Aina's last name? So she hated her family?
Alright, she could accept that. But, the problem was why did it take a Sixth Dimensional family with backing from the Seventh Dimension to finally make it safe for Aina's father to bring her here?
Wasn't the Brazinger family from Earth? Weren't there protections for lower worlds from higher ones? What was going on…?
"Ho… How strong is the Brazinger family…?" Savahn finally managed to ask.
Aina and Yuri looked over toward her together.
"We don't know."
The answer left Savahn speechless.