A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol 3, page 10
“Hey, Alex?”
“Y-yes?”
“Do you really hate your grandpa?”
The question dumped a bucket of cold water over his head. Alex was silent for a moment. What kind of question was that? Of course he hated his grandfather. That man had ignored him and his family because he didn’t like Alex’s dad. How could he not hate a man like that?
“Why do you ask?”
Gabrielle leaned further back and looked up. The sudden movement made her large, buoyant breasts bounce on the water before they floated once more. Since they were in an open-air bath, the dome loomed over them, a semi-transparent crystalline structure that let them see the outside.
Nicolas’ hot spring was located behind his mansion, overlooking a bluff, which offered a view of Mars Homespring Resort.
“Your grandpa… he feels really bad about what happened between him and your parents,” she said. “He told me that he’s always regretted it, and that he’s been trying to make amends.”
Alex struggled to keep his annoyance out of his tone. “So what? Should I just forgive him for ignoring his family? Should I forgive him for not being around? Maybe I should just go, ‘oh! Don’t worry, Grandpa! Sure, my mom and dad are dead because you weren’t around to help us, but that’s okay! It’s not a big deal.’ Don’t you get it? My parents are dead, but he might have been able to save them if he had just not ignored us, if he had only been there. There’s no way I can forgive him.”
“Where are you going, Alex?” Gabrielle asked as he stood up and waded out of the hot spring.
Alex grunted. “I’m finished bathing, so I’m getting out.”
“B-but what about taking a bath with me?”
“I don’t feel like bathing anymore.”
Alex left the hot spring, entering the changing room, where he dried off and got dressed. He shivered in agony as the crisis suit crawled up his skin. It still hurt like nothing he’d ever experienced before, but he was getting better about not screaming like a sissy.
I guess Gabrielle can’t calibrate the suit until she does something about those seals around my core and brain.
He put his civilian clothes on over his suit, black jeans and a T-shirt, and then made his way down the hall toward his bedroom. It wasn’t until he was halfway there that Alex felt guilt slam into him with the subtlety of a destroyer-class cruiser trying to land on a one hundred-meter-wide bull’s eye.
Gabrielle was only trying to help me. Why did I get so angry at her?
It wasn’t like him to get angry at someone who was only concerned about him, but bringing up his grandfather seemed to have riled him up more than he thought possible. Perhaps it was because, in the end, he knew the truth. Even if his grandfather had been there when his parents had been killed, he couldn’t have… couldn’t…
W-wait. Killed? Were they killed? I thought they died in a fire. What is…
Alex grimaced when pain exploded inside of his head. He stumbled into the wall, leaning against it to keep himself from falling. Pressing a hand to his face, Alex shunted aside the pain, his teeth grit as he waited for it to subside. The pain eventually passed…
… However, the guilt refused to leave.
2
If Alice was capable of deadpanning any more than she already was, she would have done so in a heartbeat.
“Could you tell me why we’re ditching school and traveling all the way to Mars Homespring Resort?” Alice asked.
Jasmine’s laugh somehow seemed irritable. “Oh ho ho ho ho! I’ve already told you, Alice. We are traveling there to disrupt Alexander and that trollop—I mean, and Gabrielle’s vacation. Oh ho ho ho ho! I cannot stand the idea of that trollop spending another second with my Alexander!”
“You say that, but you can barely even talk to him whenever you two are together.”
Alice felt a sense of resignation. There was just no stopping Jasmine when she got like this.
Instead of focusing on her love-struck friend, she studied their surroundings, noting the lavish interior, complete with black leather seating, ornately-crafted tables, and a refrigerator. There were cooling vents underneath their feet. Several veins ran along the ceiling, a mere decorative feature, glowing a warm yellow. Like all of the appliances, toys, and gadgets that Jasmine had at her disposal, the shuttle that was taking them to Mars Homespring Resort epitomized the term “luxurious.”
Unlike Alice, who sat slouched in her seat, Jasmine was pacing back and forth across the room. She was biting her thumbnail and wore a frustrated expression. Alice could almost see the circuits running through her friend’s head as they sparked with irritation.
“I bet you anything that trollop is currently trying seduce Alexander even now,” she said, grumbling to herself. “Oh ho ho ho ho! She’s probably trying to use those enormous breasts of hers to turn him into her slave!”
Against her will, Alice conjured an image of how Gabrielle might seduce Alex…
Gabrielle was sitting on a bed, her back pressed against the headboard, surrounded by heart-shaped pillows. She wore nothing. Her entire body was laid bare. However, strands of long, silver hair covered her breasts, and the velvety sheets pulled between her legs kept Alex from getting an eyeful of her most sacred place. Her wings flapped and her ears wiggled as she extended a single index finger and gestured for him to come over.
“Alex… come here, big boy. Why don’t you take this chance to fondle these puppies?” Gabrielle placed a hand underneath her breasts and hefted them up.
Alex’s eyes flashed. “BOOBIES!”
He pounced on top of Gabrielle.
“Oh, Alex!” she cried as flower petals swirled around them and obscured the erotic illusion.
Alice shook her head. She couldn’t see that happening.
“I think you’re being paranoid,” she told Jasmine.
“Oh ho?! How could you say that? You should be worried, too. This is your brother that we are talking about here. Are you not concerned about what will happen between those two? She might have already gotten him into her bed!”
“Somehow… I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that,” Alice said dryly.
Gabrielle was the most naive person she had ever met. She thought nothing of showering with others, walked around naked like it wasn’t a big deal, and constantly asked both her and Alex to take baths with her. Apparently, she thought baths were more fun when they were taken with other people. That wasn’t the kind of girl who would try to seduce someone. Alice didn’t even think Gabrielle knew what the word “seduce” meant.
“Not worry? Have you not seen that trollop? She has… her breasts are… they’re huge! Oh ho! There is no way that I, the Queen of Good Conscience, can allow such a woman to remain by Alexander’s side. He is a noble and honest man, but men have always been swayed by women with ample bosoms.”
“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Alice admitted. Gabrielle might not have known what to do with her assets, but Alex had certainly spent plenty of time staring at them.
The perv…
“Exactly. Men are base creatures. Oh ho ho ho! And while I do not deny that Alexander is a cut above the rest, truly an exemplary gentleman, even he is not immune to the wiles of women. That is why I, the Queen of Feminine Wiles, cannot in good conscience leave him to that trollop! Oh ho ho ho ho!”
If it weren’t for how troublesome doing so would have been, Alice would have slammed her head against the glasteel windows. Jasmine was a nice girl. She really was. She looked out for her friends, stuck up for people who were bullied, and even owned her own maid café, which she worked at part-time so she wouldn’t have to rely on her parents’ money. However, the girl had a terrible habit of getting worked up over the littlest of things.
Alice still remembered when Jasmine had seen Alex and Selene hanging out. This was before Gabrielle had come into the picture. She’d been dragged all across Mars City, spying on the pair until Jasmine had been satisfied that nothing was happening between the two.
“Mistress,” Madison called from the front. “We’re coming up on Mars Homespring Resort.”
“Excellent! Floor it, Madison! I would like us to be there within the next fifteen seconds! Oh ho ho ho!”
“Yes, Mistress.”
As the shuttle picked up speed, Alice sighed.
This is going to be troublesome, I just know it.
3
Alex needed to apologize to Gabrielle, but he didn’t know how to do it. Sure, he could just go up to her and say, “I’m sorry.” Gabrielle would likely accept his apology with a smile and forget all about it. However, Alex would not be satisfied with that.
That was why he went to Jessica for help.
“You want me to tell you how to apologize to Gabrielle?” Jessica asked as if seeking clarification, a single, perfectly manicured eyebrow raised.
Alex nodded. “Yes.”
“Have you tried telling her that you’re sorry?”
“That’s not good enough.” Alex ran a hand through his bangs as he tried to elucidate on what he was feeling. “I want to do more than just tell her that I’m sorry. I want my apology to be… I don’t know, more sincere… or something.”
Jessica stared at him for several seconds. Alex tried not to squirm under her surprisingly sharp gaze. He felt like a single-celled organism being observed under a microscope.
Finally, she sighed. “Why don’t you explain what happened from the beginning?”
“Gabrielle had gone into the hot spring while I was taking a bath.”
The eyebrow raised again. “You went into the hot spring together?”
“D-don’t look at me like that!” Alex placed his hands over his cheeks. “I was already in the bath. She entered afterward and wouldn’t leave even though I told her it was inappropriate.”
Jessica didn’t look like she believed him, but she didn’t argue. She gestured for him to continue. “What happened next?”
“After that she started talking about… a subject that I’m not too fond of. I got angry at her for bringing it up, yelled at her, and left.”
… A moment of silence passed between them.
“And?” Jessica prompted after he stopped speaking.
“What do you mean ‘and?’ There is no and. That’s what happened.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Jessica looked like someone who was trying not to blow her top off. “Alex, if that’s all that happened, then the only thing you need to do is sincerely apologize to her.”
“That’s why I told you, I’m trying to figure out the best way to do that,” Alex said, frustration lacing his tone. “But I want to do more than just apologize. I want to show her how sorry I am, not just tell her.”
“Ah…” Jessica seemed to finally understand his intentions. Her eyes lit up with a speculative gleam. “Now I see what you’re trying to accomplish. You want to do something nice for her in order to show her that you’re sorry rather than merely saying ‘I’m sorry.’”
“That’s it exactly.”
Alex waited as Jessica went into what he could only assume was her version of “deep thinking.” With her hips cocked at an angle, one hand underneath her chin and the other supporting her elbow, it certainly looked like she was deep in thought. After several seconds of contemplative humming, Jessica nodded and focused on him again.
“I think I know just the thing that you can do to apologize.”
He perked up. “Really?”
“Oh, yes.” Jessica smiled. “Just the thing.”
For some reason that Alex couldn’t understand, a shiver crawled up his spine.
4
Gabrielle was sitting on her bed. The decoder in her hands was spinning through several symbols, occasionally stopping when it looked like it had found a match. It was almost done. She only had four symbols left, and then the symbols that were wrapped around Alex’s brain and core would be decoded. She’d still have to send this to Ariel to make sure it was correct, but the hard part would be done.
She hoped.
It was a good thing that the decoder process was automatic because her heart currently wasn’t invested in her work.
She had made Alex upset again. Although she had promised herself that she would no longer upset him, it appeared as if she hadn’t been able to keep that promise. Gabrielle had wanted to help Alex so badly, to repay him for everything that he had done for her. However, it looked like she was only making matters worse.
What am I going to do now? Should I apologize?
Gabrielle stared blankly at Mr. Decoder. Symbols flashed across the screen, but she didn’t see them. She barely even noticed the soft ding! that alerted her to the decoding process being finished. Sighing with a heavy heart, Gabrielle flopped backwards onto the bed.
Bringing up Nicolas had probably not been a good idea, but she had wanted to help Alex reconcile with his grandpa. She still wanted them to make up. Alex had told her that family was important, so she wanted him to be on good terms with his family.
A knock at her door made Gabrielle sit back up.
“Gabby?” a familiar voice said. “It’s me. I wanted to talk to you about something. Can I come in?”
Gabrielle nearly fell off her bed in her excitement. “Yes! Come in! The door’s unlocked.”
The door slid open and Alex entered the room. Beaming, Gabrielle didn’t hesitate to grab his hand and pull him over to the bed. They sat down together, close enough that their thighs were touching. Gabrielle liked being in physical contact with Alex. It made her feel warm.
“What did you want to talk about?”
Alex was looking down. His cheeks were bright red. Gabrielle tilted her head when he said nothing. Was something wrong?
Looking down, Gabrielle couldn’t find anything wrong. She was holding his hands with both of hers because she liked how warm, large, and calloused his hands were. The only other thing of interest was the bed.
She looked back up at Alex. “Is something wrong?”
“N-no,” Alex stuttered. Then he took a deep breath. “I wanted to know if you’d be interested in going to the festival with me.”
“Festival?”
“Yeah. There’s a festival happening later tonight,” he explained. “They happen once every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”
Gabrielle had heard about festivals. Angelisia had them as well. They were apparently places where a lot of people congregated to have fun. She’d never been to one of them before, but the idea of going to one now, and with Alex of all people, made her giddy.
“I’d love to go to a festival!”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Alex breathed a sigh of relief.
“So am I,” a voice said from the doorway.
Alex’s head snapped up and his eyes widened. Gabrielle also looked at the door.
Jessica was standing there, wearing a grin that Gabrielle had seen a few times on people’s faces, mostly males. The woman looked really happy about something. On the other hand, for some reason, Alex’s eyes had grown wide and his body shuddered as though he’d seen something horrifying. Gabrielle wondered what that was all about.
“Oh! Jessica!” Gabrielle greeted the woman. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to take you two shopping,” Jessica said, her smile widening. “After all, you can’t go to a festival without a proper outfit.”
5
Jasmine and Alice wandered through the streets of Mars Homespring Resort. While nowhere near as large as Mars City, the resort dome still presented a space that was too large for two people to search for someone.
It had already been one hour since they’d set down, and she and Alice were… somewhere with a lot of people. The problem, Jasmine concluded, was that she didn’t know where anything was, and therefore, she couldn’t find Alexander.
I should have downloaded a map at the very least…
“You said that Alexander and that trollop that always hangs off him are with his grandfather?” Jasmine asked Alice.
Alice sighed. “Yes, Jasmine. Alex and Gabrielle are with our grandpa, Nicolas Ryker.”
Where had Jasmine heard that name before? Perhaps it was simply her imagination, but for some reason, the name Nicolas Ryker sounded really familiar—and not because this person was Alexander’s and Alice’s grandfather. She hadn’t known anything about their grandfather until now.
“Do you not know where he lives?”
“No…” Alice shook her head. “Alex and I have never really been involved with our grampa. I’ve talked with him through the comlink on occasion, but we’ve never been to his house, and we barely know anything about him.”
Frowning as a frustrating sensation settled in her chest and refused to leave, Jasmine held her wristband to her mouth, pressed a button, and spoke into it. “Madison, have you located Alexander?”
Her maid robot’s voice came back moments later, loud and clear: “Not yet, Mistress. I am currently scanning the area, though, and I should have a lock on his location soon—provided that he is within a fifty-kilometer range of my sensors.”
Jasmine nodded. Madison had the ability to hack into and track people by their wristband IDs. She didn’t know how it worked. Alexander had tried to explain it once, but she’d been too busy staring at his face to pay attention. He was very handsome when he was lecturing about something that he was passionate about.
“Hey, Jasmine?” Alice said as they continued walking.
Several people walked alongside them, tourists, Jasmine guessed. Scents from dozens of people mixed, assailing her nose, causing it to wrinkle. She did her best to ignore it. Some of those people had terrible body odor, though.
“Yes?”
“Why did you fall in love with my brother?”
Jasmine stopped walking. Alice stopped with her. She turned to regard her friend, trying to decide what she should say.
“I never told you about the event that made me first fall in love with Alexander, did I?” she asked. Alice shook her head. Jasmine hid her smile behind her hand. “Oh ho ho ho! Very well, then, Alice. Allow me to share with you a tale in which I, the Queen of Love, fell for Alexander.”
