"Riki-sama, are you all right?" Cal asked in such low volume that only Riki could heard him.
Riki raised his arms overhear robotically to let Cal to cuff him to the D-ring. He did not respond to Cal's question but Cal knew the answer from Riki's dispirited face.
Cal sighed quietly while securing the connected chains. "Riki-sama, for your own sake, please – I beg you not to challenge Iason-sama's authority anymore."
He then moved away from Riki's side and therefore Riki was left alone on the stage.
During their short and barely audible single-way conversations, the audiences were already prepared for the first show for the party night.
The pets quieted down while – unexpectedly – their masters, too. They all had their eyes locked on the mongrel.
Riki was no longer the wild beast from Ceres, who the elites recognized; what he was now was no more than a wounded beast tamed by its natural enemy – hunter.
Riki knew and understand more about Iason's hard limits and the consequences if he broke the hard limits. He knew how to please his master and plead for his forgiveness, to avoid punishments.
That was the biggest difference between the Riki first entered the circle of the upper-class and the Riki after almost four years of humiliation.
Ironically, Riki seemed to be the first one to notice the existence of his partners tonight.
There was a group of young male pets standing across the stage, right in front of Riki. The one standing in front of the group, Riki noticed, who was apparently the leader of the group, was a tall, slim, blonde young boy.
The young pets were not wearing full attire like Riki – in fact, Riki was the only pet in the room that wore full attire. The clothes they wore, if you insist that the cloth they were wearing was called clothes, only covered small parts of their body while exposing bigger parts of their skin to the air.
But they did not feel uncomfortable in it.
Riki started to feel anxious about this whole thing. He thought Iason would be the one doing this, not other pets. 'What are they going to do? Does Iason even approve to let the other touch me?'
Dimly, between his loud heartbeats, Riki heard the master of ceremony announced that the Free Party started now. The group of young pets practically threw themselves at Riki once cued.
Only the leader-like boy did not. He remained where he stood and sized Riki up thoroughly.
'Who is this guy? What's so great about him? He's nothing but a mongrel from the slum!' He snorted in his heart. Ostensibly he was still measuring Riki with his eyes with a curious expression on his face.
'I am the purebred pet. I am one of the rarest pet the academy bred and I survived. Isn't him the one to serve me? Why do I need to serve him instead?'
Then he remembered the pet's Furniture that came to meet his own Furniture, Aldo.
"Cal." Aldo and the other Furnitures in the waiting room greeted when Cal walked in hastily.
Cal nodded as reply and straight away address to Aldo. "You need to get F-169A ready. Iason-sama would want the party to start anytime now."
Aldo told him Cal was the master's room's Furniture, the one who was in charge of master's daily life and also the Chosen One's. Cal was somehow like the head of the Mink Residence's Furnitures.
'How can he be the Chosen One?' He asked, again and again. 'I will replace him and please Iason-sama. Now I'll just have to show Iason-sama what I am capable of.'
The blonde boy stepped near Riki.
(A/N: -cries- I dragged the story! This Free Party night is too long! oAo)