"Mia," Espeth fondly stroking at her newly bought purebred female Pet's cheek, spoke at her lovingly. "Why don't you go and get yourself some food, hmm?"
"Yes, Espeth-sama." Young F-168A obeyed and took her leave quickly.
"Isn't she lovely?" Espeth, the only female member among the thirteen Blondies, spoke while her eyes followed her pet until she was beside the table full with snacks.
Espeth was not only the female Blondie, she was also the Blondie who owned most of the rarest breeds of pets. Even Hillber, always the biggest buyer at the semi-annually held auction, could not overpower her collection of pets.
"I'm sure she is." Raoul agreed absent-mindedly as his eyes roamed the great room, desperate to find Iason's figure at somewhere.
Iason's new pets were already here; but he himself was nowhere in sight - late, which was unusual for such discipline person like him.
Raoul prayed hard to Jupiter that everything was fine - that Iason was only just held back by his impressive amount of paper works but not anything startling.
"If I remember correctly," Hillber immediately recalled the details of F-168A. "She is the well-educated purebred with a younger twin brother, am I right?"
"Yes, Hillber," Espeth replied proudly. "I was smart enough to read through the brochure in advance, and I found out that there was a pet on sale in that session - female and well-educated and have a sibling! - a very rare pet. She was the only female in that session…and so I figured that she was the one, and I bought her." She purred.
"Did you buy her brother as well, then?" Alifairs could not suppress his curiosity. "I believe that her brother was also on sale for the past auction?"
Unexpectedly, the goddess sighed. "He was. But the problem was," she paused, eyes narrowed, watching F-168A drank her fourth glasses of wine. "Iason bought him before the auction. His code was not in the brochure."
"Iason?" A few of the listening Blondies cried out loud simultaneously in disbelief.
Iason had not showed any interest in the docile academy-bred pets since he brought Riki into his cage four and a half year back. He showing up at the auction unexpectedly last month was already unforeseen by the other Blondies.
He buying one of the academy-bred rare pet was the shock of everyone else's life.
"He did not tell a single soul about his noble pet!" Even Orphe, who was always calm as a millpond like Iason, exclaimed in distrust. "Did he, Raoul?" He asked, to Raoul, who was general known as the intimate friend of divine Iason.
"No," Raoul muttered distractedly. At the same moment, chatters between pets died into a quietness that was so still until you could hear a pin drop. "Speak of the devil and he doth appear."
Iason was standing at the entrance of the room, looking divinely unreachable - as usual. He was wearing his usual choice of clothing for these occasions with his white cloak on.
Behind him was Cal, somehow looking small by his merciless master's side. He squirmed uneasily under the crowd's blazing stares.
And beside Iason was Riki.