’ I’ll keep an eye on her for now and call the Monarch Guild to be on standby. If she’s telling the truth, then the guild members will be ready to welcome Jason once he arrives, and if she’s actually an enemy, then the guild members will be close enough to intervene.’
Juliet headed over to the side to make her call while Mira and Stella continued speaking. Stella told Mira that she had already taken care of the prince’s apartment and that she could also take care of the cooking.
Mira was surprised to hear this, and Mira could only wonder where Jason had met a woman like this! Was this one of the people Jason met while he was on his journey? Mira told Stella not to worry about anything, but Mira was surprised when Stella insisted! Stella said that she was the servant of the Marc household, so it was only right that she took care of these things! Stella couldn’t stand aside and allow the King’s wife to work instead! Mira just chuckled slightly at Stella’s extreme declaration, and Mira told Stella that she could help her in the kitchen if she wanted to! Stella’s face lit up, and she began heading towards the kitchen with Mira as Mira asked.
"So, how did you meet Jason? I don’t think you’re from Earth, are you?"
Stella’s face lit up in pride once she heard this question, and Stella began to explain the origin of her meeting with Jason as she followed Mira towards the back!
...
Although the atmosphere in the Marc household was one of celebration and excitement, things were very different in the rest of the world! At that moment, the news of Jason’s arrival on Earth was spreading like wildfire across all the major news stations, guilds, and organisations in the entire world!
In the Gaia headquarters in America, Fredrica, the head of Gaia operations, was in the middle of a meeting when she got the call from one of her associates! Fredrica’s face had been squeezed into a frown when she first picked up the call, but the longer she listened to what the man was saying, the quicker her expression changed from angry to shocked, and at the end of the call, she had a frantic expression on her face as she quickly told everyone in the room that the meeting was over!
"Get me through to Director Cersei! Right now!"
Fredrica was already running through the hallway while struggling to put on her coat as she shouted this, and one of Fredrica’s assistants immediately began to dial the number! Fredrica couldn’t believe that Jason was already on his way back! They didn’t even have any time to prepare! Fredrica had been hearing about the things Jason did across the Primordial Expanse from many of the interworld travelers who had come to this world! Gaia had continued their work to intercept the interworld travellers, and Cersei made it their number one priority to interrogate those interworld travellers so that they could figure out what Jason was doing! But some of the things that they had been hearing about Jason over the past few months just didn’t make any sense to them! Stories about Jason liberating worlds from enslavement and defeating giant beasts that could destroy entire worlds! It was so outlandish that Fredrica started to think that these fucking travellers were lying to her!
But Fredrica knew that they weren’t lying! All the interworld travellers had said the same things about Jason, and if Fredrica was to take their words seriously, that would mean that Jason was no longer the same SSS Rank that left this world a few months ago! Jason was now something completely different! Something they couldn’t even begin to understand! They couldn’t let someone like that return to Earth without putting the proper precautions in place!
"Ma’am! We have Director Cersei!"
The assistant who had been calling Cersei handed Fredrica a phone, and Fredrica immediately grabbed it and called out!
"Sir, this is Fredrica. Did you hear the news?"
[Yes, I have. It just arrived at my table. Honestly, it’s quite shocking, but I suppose it was bound to happen eventually. Fredrica, execute the containment protocol. Ensure no media personnel or journalists can get through and block all superhuman interaction with Jason Marc. Do not antagonize him, and do not limit his movement, but as he is right now, just the mana he releases unconsciously would probably be a danger to those around him. So until we know his magicule reading and we are sure there is no danger, ensure the public is kept away. I’m currently finalising a contract in Russia, I’ll be in America in five minutes.]
"Yes, sir!"
Fredrica answered quickly, and the call went dead before Fredrica burst out into a large courtyard that had multiple helicopters and cars standing by with thousands of Gaia agents waiting for her! Fredrica shouted!
"I want every man on the ground this instant! This is not a drill! Jason Marc is returning, and we are executing the Containment Protocol! Ensure no member of the public makes contact! Keep the journalists away and block the SMD’s interference! Do not hinder his movements and make sure you keep a reasonable distance at all times! Move, now!"
"YES, MA’AM!"
Every agent there saluted before they quickly began to move towards their vehicles to carry out their orders! The agents were wearing fully armored kits with magically enhanced Kevlar outfits with tough boots and thick helmets! Every single fabric they were putting on had been crafted to block out excess mana from reaching their body, and this outfit had been specially made so that any agent who went close to Jason wouldn’t be affected too much by his mana! Anyone who saw the agents now would think that they were on their way to fight a fucking war, and they would never think that the agents were wearing all of this just to secure a perimeter around one man!
Fredrica quickly put on a pair of gloves as she began heading towards her own helicopter, and she joined her hands together as she felt a vibration travel through them.
’Stop shaking. It’s just one man. It’s just one man! You don’t need to be scared.’
Fredrica repeated these words in her head as she forced her hands to stop shaking, and she nodded to the helicopter driver and told them to take off! Fredrica knew that it was just one man that they were about to meet. But when that one man was Jason Marc, could anyone really blame her for being scared? The stories that Fredrica had heard about Jason over the past few months painted a picture of a legendary hero in Fredrica’s head, and that image was so different from the image of the simple man who had left Earth all those months ago that Fredrica really didn’t know what to expect when she finally meets Jason!
....
At the SMD headquarters in Riverdale, there was a mad rush of agents moving across the building’s floors as they got ready to escort the Director of the SMD to meet with Jason Marc! The news about Jason’s return to Earth had spread through the agency like wildfire! It had started with just one agent receiving a phone call from one of the people who had been at the restaurant when Stella spoke to Mira! But that person had been so shocked that they quickly posted what they heard on a group chat, and things had only spiralled from there until every single person in the agency somehow knew what was happening!