As Gerald got to his feet to have a look at Yaakov, everyone found themselves looking at Stetson—who had surprisingly stood up as well—as he said, “Ah, Mr. Waddys! I send my father’s regards on his behalf!”
Yaakov himself simply walked up to Stetson with a joyous face, not even bothering about the other people as he patted Stetson firmly on the shoulder while saying, “You’ve grown a lot more outstanding over the years, Stetson! I hope you’ll demonstrate your extraordinary talent again during this year’s underground festival!”
After exchanging pleasantries with Stetson for a while, the other men in the crowd began introducing themselves as well. However, it was quite obvious that Yaakov wasn’t as enthusiastic toward them since none of them were as important as Stetson in his eyes.
As for Xyrielle, after realizing that Gerald wasn’t planning to introduce himself, she found herself feeling pitiful for him. After all, the other men were definitely far more exceptional compared to Gerald. While Xyrielle had no doubts that he could very well share a world with his own circle of friends, he truly didn’t belong in the same world the guests here were in…
With that, she found herself growing slightly compassionate as she thought, ‘I wonder if it really was a good idea to have invited him over to my birthday party… Well, there’s no use crying about it now that he’s already here!’
Finalizing her thoughts, she then took the initiative to introduce Gerald by saying, “Allow me to introduce these two to you, dad! This is Gerald Crawford, and the one next to him is his friend, Perla Sherwin! They saved me this afternoon!”
While Xyrielle had only introduced Gerald to him out of pity, Yaakov couldn’t help but get slightly angered when he heard that. After all, to him, this was her way of trying to get friendly with Gerald.
As a hint of contempt was reflected in his eyes, Yaakov casually said, “So you’re Gerald! Tell me, where do you currently live? And what possessions does your family hold? Actually, what kind of capabilities do you even have?”
Staring wide-eyed as her dad bombarded Gerald with questions, Xyrielle found herself asking, “Dad? What on earth are you doing?!”
‘Dad, why are you doing this…?’ Xyrielle thought to herself as everyone turned to look at Gerald.
By that point, Perla realized that Yaakov had already been planning on targeting her master, even before they met. After all, it was pretty clear that the way Yaakov saw it, Stetson had been the one who had taken action and saved Xyrielle. That wasn’t really a surprise since Xyrielle had been treating Stetson as the outstanding person who had beaten up the demonic bull, seemingly disregarding the fact that he had also run away.
Upon summarizing the situation in her head, the now annoyed Perla coldly said, “I’ll have you know that my master is currently the guest of honor in my family, and he has a multitude of capabilities! Which one do you propose he should show for you to gawk in admiration?”
Upon hearing that rebuke, everyone present instantly became stupefied.
Yaakov himself was so enraged by her statement that he burst into laughter before snapping, “Your family? Which family do you even belong to?!”
“The Sherwin family from Jenna State!” retorted Perla unyieldingly.
Hearing that, a few executives—who had been standing behind Yaakov—moved closer to him before whispering a few things into his ear.
Following that, Yaakov then nodded with a bitter smile before saying, “…I see! So, you’re Terrance’s granddaughter! From what I’ve been told, your family attempted to participate in the underground festival this afternoon, correct? However, you were rejected, no?”
Not expecting Yaakov to actually say such things, Perla found her rage building even more as Yaakov smiled subtly before adding, “Speaking of that incident, I do wonder if you only saved my daughter today to gain access to the party… Were you hoping to get another chance of obtaining an admission ticket or something?”
“…You… What did you just say…?!” growled the deeply infuriated Perla.
‘You’re a famous and mighty master, are you not? How could you go targeting us like this from the very start?!’
Xyrielle herself hadn’t expected her father—who had always maintained a serious façade—to say such a thing in front of so many people.
Just as things arrived at a stalemate, Yaakov’s cold laughter broke the awkward silence.
“There’s no need to be that angry, Miss Sherwin! I was just joking around! Look, you said that Gerald has several capabilities, correct? Well, you should know that I love capable people the most!” said Yaakov before turning around to look at Mr. Babel.
“With that said, invite him to the backyard, Mr. Babel! I’ll be heading on first, and you do know that I have some things to consult you about, Gerald!” scoffed Yaakov as he briefly glanced at Gerald before walking off to the backyard, his arms still against his back...