"I stole it out of the treasury." Oliver said with a plain look, as if his sentence had no particular weight than a stroll in the garden.
The rest of the heirs couldn't help but stare at Oliver with their mouths hanging open.
Stealing from the treasury of one of the four families, regardless of whether it was their own, wasn't easy in the least. The reason was simple, it was more than just theirs, it belonged to the entire family, the subordinates, the branching clans and many more subsidiaries. Thus making it highly protected even from the closest of clan members.
In fact, if Valerio wanted to get something from his family's treasury, he'd have to exchange for it like the rest of the family!
"It's called [Heaven's Pan]." Oliver elaborated, "It's a supposed legendary artefact that's supposed to grow with the user, it's a growth-type artifact. I don't know much about its uses, but according to the pedestal I took it from, it's great for cooking."
Valerio couldn't help but ask, "Did you say you took this from a pedestal?"
"Yeah."
Oliver had never been one to place importance on much, but this time, it was too much!
Valerio looked next to him at Aurora, who was looking at him with the same incredulous expression, he gazed to his other side. Same expression on Lucius' face! He shifted his gaze in front to the twins sitting next to Oliver, just to see them looking at Oliver as if they had found a ghost.
The reason no one seemed to be able to believe Oliver was because pedestals themselves were 6th Plane artifacts!
How had he casually taken this pan?
As Valerio was thinking of refusing the gift somehow, Oliver spoke again.
"Take it, it's been in my family for generations, no one ever used it, it's better with you than in that dusty, old treasury."
Valerio, though speechless, came to a compromise. It would only be rude to reject Oliver now.
"Thank you man." Valerio swept his gaze over his closest friends as he praised, "I will get all of you even better birthday presents for your 18ths," he chuckled, "the bar is quite high."
"Okay but guys, can we agree to not use pedestal treasures for the next birthdays? I don't think our treasury has enough." proposed Felix with a sheepish smile on his face.
"I second that." Oliver raised his hand, earning him questioning looks.
Aurora and the rest responded with a nod, prompting Felix to release a breath of relief.
Just a he was about to ask one of them to store his presents in his void ring, the familiar voice of his dad interrupted.
"Valerio."
Valerio swept his head to the right, peeking over Felix's shoulder to see Maximus gesturing to him to come over. Seeing it wasn't too urgent, he asked Aurora to store his presents anyway.
As soon as she was done, he quickly excused himself and left for the adults' table, which sounded ridiculous; they were all almost 18. But in reality, all of their parents were at least tens of thousands of years old, so maybe the 17-year-olds could be regarded as teenagers.
"Yes, father." Valerio had a curious look on his face as he looked at Maximus.
"Clarence's asking about Aurora, have you guys started dating yet?" Though Maximus seemed to be redirecting Clarence's words, Valerio couldn't help but notice a small glimmer of interest in his eyes.
Valerio let out a chuckle as he couldn't help but glance over Clarence and Serena as he met his father's eyes, "Nothing's happened, we're just friends, though I am 18 now. Who knows what the future holds?"
Maximus and Clarence's eyes met as the former grinned and the latter smiled. Maximus and Clarence moved on to clink their glasses together, downing the ridiculously alcoholic Vulu in one go. Vulu was a highly alcoholic beverage made from 6th Plane materials. It was fair to assume that the 4 families wouldn't make it to bed tonight.
Valerio barely had time to settle into his seat when a deafening sound assaulted his ears, threatening to rupture his eardrums. He looked up instinctively, spotting a massive matte black starship cutting through the atmosphere. The sleek, angular ship dwarfed the others that had arrived for the gathering, its wings stretching for kilometres like the ominous wings of a predator.
Before Valerio could fully process the sight, a voice—grating and mocking—boomed across the plaza.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? The great families having a drink together?" The laughter that followed was sharp and filled with contempt. Valerio's eyes scanned the skies, but he couldn't pinpoint the speaker's location. He shifted his gaze to the adults' table.
Maximus was already standing, his eyes locked on the starship. His calm demeanour was a stark contrast to the tension that filled the air.
"It's the Orions," he said quietly, though his words carried the weight of an enmity that transcended time.
At once, the four families rose to their feet, a palpable rage igniting around them. Vermillious and Veronica erupted in flames, runes danced around Vincent and Maria. The air around Clarence started becoming brighter as if he were a lamp. Serena pressed a hand to his back, imbuing vitality into him. Only Maximus and Isadora seemed to remain composed, though a dark mist, laden with the stench of alcohol, began to leak from the family heads, pooling around them like a poisonous fog. Some of the adults closed their eyes in deep concentration, while others glared at the intruding ship.
A figure emerged high above them, his presence swallowing the plaza as though the very air bowed under the weight of his aura. Then, abruptly, the tension snapped as he broke into laughter. It was a cruel, mocking sound that only lasted a few seconds, yet it seemed to stretch for an eternity, echoing in the eerie silence that followed
"To think you'd dare have heirs."
"Is that why you all ran to this pathetic corner of the universe?" the man sneered, as he spoke like spitting out bile, as if the very act of entertaining talking to the 4 families was a show of mercy.
"You cowards. You even abandoned your own race for this?" He gestured to the manor and the gathering with a dismissive wave. "To play house?"
The man sighed dramatically, his smile twisted and unsettling. "Happiness."
The man's speech slowed, and he began to ponder over the word, as if he had long forgotten its concept and could only reminisce, and yet that only made him angrier. To use such a word towards these vermin, even if negatively, was too much of a mercy.
"It never lasts long, does it?"
Then his gaze shifted to the heirs.