One look at the answer sheet revealed everything I needed to know; memorizing it would've proven too difficult on such short notice, so I focused on what kind of information was purposefully omitted.
In the list of questions, many were related to the new artifacts; some talked about the weapon, but many seemed involved regarding performances, weight, consumption of energy, and such.
Among the answers there were a few similarities: there were no promises, no overselling, no direct comparison to other artifacts, and most important of all, all the answers were very vague.
How much energy do these new kinds of weapons consume to use their power? Depends, but could be comparable to a demonic ability.
How durable are they? It depends.
This is easy; I can easily improvise so long as I follow those rules.
I arrogantly thought as I looked back at Leo.
Leo, in the meantime, was happily chatting with the son of the mayor, happily discussing hobbies and whatnot.
I can't believe we have to pretend to be on friendly terms with this piece of work; they should be grateful to us. We have closed an eye to their degeneracy and even decided to use their remote fucking town to host such a large tournament.
And they even dared to ask for us to act in friendly terms with them, in public at the very least.
There is only one possible reason for all of this… they must be in big trouble; there is no other explanation.
And they want to use our name to scare off any potential enemy.
I didn't have enough time to reread the entire script when we arrived at our location.
In front of a large statue that depicted my mother proudly standing on top of an impaled, nine-headed, demon corpse.
Strangely enough, out of the whole family, just me and Leo were present, along with a lot of loud celebrities I had never seen before.
In front of the red carpet, they flaunted their extravagant dresses; they basked in the cheers of the people and the spotlight given to them by the many reporters. One by one, they would talk to the camera for a few minutes, do a couple of poses, and fuck off somewhere else.
These people… I can't believe it.
There were simply so many of them, to the point there was a line in front of the statue.
Isn't all of this a bit much for a stupid fucking statue? It's not much; it doesn't really have all that value. It's a piece of rock that will eventually become worthless.
Eventually someone came to open our door and lead us towards the large podium where most of the attention was.
Leo had a whole speech prepared beforehand, talking about this being a step forward for everyone and the beginning of a new era.
It was probably referring to the fact that I had broken the curse of the seventh generation, partially at the very least, being the eighth generation of the Jittermeist family and the seventh of the Lumine.
How our partnership with this absurdly useless family was the beginning of a long partnership with the mayor's family and whatnot.
I saw a lot of eyes pointed at me; some of the cameras were taking sneaky peeks at me.
"Do you have anything you wish to add?" One of the many journalists asked me after Leo was finished with his speech.
He was the only one who spoke to me; all the others were flooding Leo with questions. Then the whole town square fell silent; everybody turned quiet to listen to my answer.
I wonder why the mayor himself isn't here yet. Why did he just leave here with only his son? This doesn't look all too good for him.
I remained silent for a while, immersed in my own thoughts, unbothered by the many reporters all around us.
I only noticed that the focus had now shifted onto me when he sent a small flaming spark to tingle me on the back of my neck.
Too much time had passed to ask the reporter to repeat his question, so I simply came up with something on the fly that may have lived up to the reputation my family was known for.
"There isn't much to add; I also hope for a smooth and friendly collaboration between families who share the same values and goals." I said, reading from the teleprompter.
"What about the many noble families who once served under your family?" Another voice asked.
Huh? Is this guy serious? Is he really asking about that in public?
"Unfortunately we no longer shared either values or goals." I replied before Leo could take over the questions.
That was the perfect follow-up question, and I felt glad that the reporter asked that, as I did not approve of the son of the mayor, and if the son was like this, the father couldn't have been much better.
A small veiled threat aimed at the few allies we had left.
Stay in line and nothing will happen to you; if you don't keep your affairs in check, you will end up just like the rest of them.
The group of journalists then ignited with fervor as they sent a barrage of follow-up questions my way; one after the other, they all asked me, in some way or form, to say out loud what I meant or asked what happened during that day when many of the most prominent noble families fell.
There wasn't much to tell; everybody knew the facts. Their incompetence was their downfall. They were supposed to be our shield; we allowed them entry on the surface, and we gave them lands, authority, money, and power.
What we asked in return was fairly simple, yet they didn't perform their duties, allowing a bunch of intruders to kidnap me.
And so, my mother personally executed them and retrieved all we ever gave to them.
It was a simple story but a common one that happens throughout the Fracture.
Allies that stab you in the back—to make sure that doesn't happen again, you exterminate everyone involved. It's a powerful message to send, terrifying even, because even if they all collected together to fight back against my mother, they would've still lost.
I didn't agree with the idea of massacring all of them, but there was nothing I could do; they were all dead before I was returned back to my family. There was nothing I could've done about it.
Some of them were truly rotten; some were just unlucky enough to have trusted the wrong people and got dragged into the mess because of one simple mistake.
My mother shouldn't have killed the ones that weren't directly involved in this; it was an unnecessary slaughter and only made us look like a family of lunatics.
It perfectly fits the image the Fracture painted of my family, a family of tyrants.
But I had to guess. If we lose that title… what would we have left?
The Jittermeist family right now only had 2 members, me and my mother; the Luminese had five: my father, my uncle, and my three cousins.
"Luca?" A faint voice called out my name in the distance.
So much so for being the most powerful family. I still couldn't find anything regarding the deaths of the rest of the family; all I know is that up until three hundred years ago, the Jittermeist had up to five hundred members, and the Lumine had over a thousand.
"Luca?" Another voice called out to me.
Then something happened, and now we're the only ones left.
The curse of the seventh generation—if there's anything, then that must be it.
"Lucifer? Are you okay?" Leo asked me.
When I returned to my senses, I was standing in front of the large stand; many microphones were pointed at me, and the attention of everyone was on me once more.
When was the last time you called me by my real name?
"Sorry, I… I must've been too exhausted… where were we again?" I asked them.
Look at me, losing my mind on such useless negative thoughts. Sorry for worrying you; I'll stop worrying now.
I cleared my throat, then proceeded to answer the incoming barrage of questions as instructed by the crumpled sheet of paper I was shown earlier.
For some reason the teleprompter didn't seem to work; all it was showing was a black screen, so I improvised a little, and thankfully no important information was revealed to the public.
The rest of the interview went without a hitch. I was asked a few questions regarding my interests that were off script, so I ignored all of those and kept my answers short and vague.
Afterwards, we cut the red tape and were forced to sit through some sort of meet and greet.
I was forced to sit down and shake the hands of all of those pathetic celebrities; none of them were sincere; all of them couldn't wait for all of this farce to be over, and the feeling was mutual.
The people invited were no names; I had never seen them before nor heard of them or their accomplishments. They all looked like hollow creatures that resembled humans.
The whole event lasted around three to four hours, and once everything was over, we returned to the luxurious limousine.
"I'm beat… I think I've done enough for today." I complained as I threw myself against the comfy chairs and lay down on my belly.
"We've still got a lot left." Leo reminded me with his usual cheerful attitude.
I can't; I really can't. I'm dying over here; that was enough public me for a whole year.
"How long does this event last?" I asked him.
"The tournament? If we count everything, like special matches and all, it's about a month," he replied.
"What?!" I yelled out in disbelief.
"I want to die." I added as I buried my head on the comfortable seat.
"Don't be so pessimistic; I'm sure you'll like it. Probably." Leo tried to cheerfully lighten my mood.
I fucking hate this.