Chapter 1105 (1/2)

Miranda Hamilton took a slow sip of the pale green tea as she surveyed the surrounding four individuals seated around her in the waiting room. Even now, her mind wanted to pull her forward toward the careful arrangement of politics that was coming. But the delicate touch of mint on her tongue was poignant enough to pull her attention away from her constant calculations and just regard the tea in the small burnt orange cup with obvious relish. Despite Zone 1’s rather uninspired lodging accommodations, at least they provided high-quality refreshment.

She took another sip and savored the flavor. Then she breathed deeply, flooding her sinuses with the refreshing scent of mint. It sent tingles through her sinuses in a way that meant that this tea wasn’t something originally grown on Earth. It was something far more powerful. Powerful enough to be memorable despite the high Endurance of individuals under the influence of the System.

It was a welcome break to feel almost human.

Only after allowing herself a brief respite from her true situation did Miranda open her eyes and raise her chin. And in that moment, she was Mrs. Hamilton once more.

“Why are they making us wait?” Ed grumbled, idly rubbing his elaborately oiled mustache as he scowled at the door. “Why don’t we just start with who all is already here? Maybe that way this fucked up ‘World Summit’ won’t just be a pile of bullshit.”

A small portion of the world powers meeting early is exactly what the hosts are trying to avoid, Mrs. Hamilton thought with amusement. But she didn’t disagree with the sentiment.

Mrs. Hamilton and Ed were seated in an elaborate tea room with the two representatives from Zone Eleven while they waited for the rest of the representatives to gather. They had been shepherded here very quickly, and likely the only reason that they had been put in the same room was the fact they arrived together.

On her way here, however, she hadn’t been idle. Mrs. Hamilton’s subtly spread mental threads covered almost the entirety of the garishly opulent hotel that housed this first-ever World Summit. So she could sense that the disparate government representatives were slowly converging on their location. Their wait would not be a long one.

Warlord, the leader of the strongest Village in his Zone and representative of Zone Eleven, rubbed his own beard. He glanced sideways at Mrs. Hamilton. “Certainly, waiting so long doesn’t reflect well on the organizer. But I think we can all admit that this can’t be an easy endeavor; gathering this group of divas has taken over a month.”

“I’m simply quite busy,” Mrs. Hamilton said with a wry smile. Warlord snorted.

Ed, seeing Warlord rubbing his own rugged beard, snorted dismissively to mock the man and fluffed his own mustache so it appeared almost double its original size. Meanwhile, Warlord’s swordswoman companion Melanie sighed mournfully and stared blankly at the wall.

Mrs. Hamilton and Warlord shared a short smile; it seemed that both had chosen the second representative from their respective Zones for the same reason rather blunt reason. Sometimes, it was safer to let short-tempered people draw the ire so the two of them could make more deft preparations in the background.

“It won’t be long now,” Mrs. Hamilton said shortly. Then her expression turned more serious as she received a message from the Donnyton expedition that had been sent to help with the monsters that were streaming out of the Epic Dungeon. After reading the message several times, she quickly sent a reply.

Are you sure?

Sam’s reply was so quick that Mrs. Hamilton knew that he must have begun sending it before she even sent her own reply. Alana still isn’t replying, but all air raids from the Dragons around Mount Olympus have ceased. We’ve sent a party to the summit and they found Dragon’s blood and several corpses. Not so many as there should be if there was a flat out fight… but it seems like at least one of the Three Disasters has been dealt with.

Mrs. Hamilton looked up. Based upon Warlord’s face, he had received a similar message.

“This frees up our hand a lot,” Warlord couldn’t prevent a wide grin from spreading across his face. “As long as we show the capability to take out one of the problems, we don’t come as beggars to the table.”

Melanie yawned and sat up. “Did something happen…?”

“Heh, some people possess leonine countenances whose facial hair requires more than a single hand, sir. Jealousy is quite unbecoming.” Ed continued to furiously stroke his mustache.

Blinking, Melanie’s focus shifted to Ed. Her lip curled up in disgust. “What…? Is there something wrong with you?”

“But ‘dealing with’ doesn’t necessarily mean dead,” Mrs. Hamilton said lightly. Yet she couldn’t forget the image that Mrs. Hamilton had briefly glimpsed while she had been looking at Alana’s back. Despite the horrible violence radiating out of the arena, that woman had moved to face Randidly in the challenge. Wings releasing blinding golden light spread wide and protected all of Donnyton from the monster that descended to teach them a lesson. Even if Alana had ultimately failed to rival Randidly in combat, that didn’t diminish the trust Mrs. Hamilton had in her.