Valerie blinked rapidly, her brain having to take a second to reboot after the shock of it all. She had been assaulted by her own robot, then knocked out and kidnapped, so she could be taken to this strange place in maybe-Asia, where people were using magic and had sources that shouldn’t have been possible.

And yet all he wanted to ask... was about her being at his house?

She just couldn’t understand the purpose or priorities of it all, nor how that course of action made any sense to anyone with even a sliver of sanity or rational thought. Yet here she was, and that’s what he was asking.

"Y-yes Sir, I was." She stuttered out an answer after a quick brain reboot, "Percy- I mean uh... You’re son invited me so we could go there and-"

"Practice your cultivation abilities?" He finished for her, before Valerie could even think about trying to come up with a lie. Although after everything she had seen and been through, it seemed a little pointless to try.

So she just nodded softly in response, "Yes sir. Although we just call it magic."

"Do you now? That’s a first. You know... For someone trying to play the weak fool, you certainly aren’t doing a very good job of it. I mean, not just anyone can get a score of 159, did you really think we wouldn’t notice that?

Or you cavorting around with my son in my own house? It might be just a vacation home, and I might not visit it often. But it is still my home. And I am the type of man that always knows what is going on in my home.

So why don’t you just do us both a favour, and stop with the frail, helpless girl act, because you have made it clear you are more than that. What family taught you? Was it McLean?"

"Sir, I have no idea who this McLean is. I uh... I learned the magic from a game and-"

WHAM!

Percival slammed his hand down onto the desk, making the desks contents jump up in fright while the desk itself shuddered and cracked, as a perfect hand print had been embedded into the wood.

"Don’t. A game? Is that what you think this is? A game?! I was already infuriated that you tried to go after my own son and pollute him with whatever it is you were feeding into his head, but now you sit there and continue to insult me?

I would think very carefully about your next words, before I show you what I do with those who insult me." Percival glowered, his eyes narrowing into a murderous stare that Valerie had no doubt in her mind he was willing to follow through on.

From where she was sitting, she could feel that he had a source. A tier 4 source, to be exact, and even if their techniques were strange and sloppy a slap like that across her head wouldn’t work out as well for her as it did for the table.

She stuttered and stammered over her words, her eyes darting back and forth as she tried her best to piece together a believable story. But what was she supposed to say to him?

She started a game and it gave her real magic? That she met someone from the future and he told her that the world was going to end? That she had no idea who this person was that everyone kept insisting that she knew, or that she had no idea why she was so much more powerful than his people?!

He made it painfully clear he wasn’t going to believe any of that, whether it was the truth or not, because it simply sounded ridiculous. So what was she supposed to do?

Just as the panic was beginning to set in, the door on the other side of the room swung open with a boom as the door slammed against the wall. Percival the fourth, her Percy, strolled through the door with a deep set scowl as he quickly scanned the room.

In his hand was a wooden training sword that was wreathed in the golden projection of his Providence.

His eyes scanned the room and relief flashed across his stupid, handsome face when he saw Valerie, only for the warmth to completely vanish when he saw his father across from her.

He frowned deeply, stumbling back a step, as he whipped his eyes between them, startled slightly both from his fathers presence and the murderous look in his eyes.

"Dad? What’s going on here? I thought that Valerie was-"

"Stay outside Percival," Percival the Third interrupted, not a hint of paternal warmth in his voice as he spared his son a single glance.

"This involves matters beyond you. I will speak to you when I am finished here." He muttered before locking his murderous stare on Valerie again as he started to stride towards her.

However Percy appeared in front of him, standing between the two of them, as he held that glowing sword up with its tip pointed directly at his own fathers throat.

"I don’t know what is going on here, what you are doing here or where here even is. But one thing I know for sure is, you are not touching her."

The glowing sword in Percy’s hand glowed brighter, solidifying more in his hand and growing a few inches, causing its tip to press against Percival’s throat enough to draw a trickle of blood.

Percival glanced down at the sword for a brief moment, not a single hint of concern in his eyes, before looking back up at his son and the crippled girl sitting behind him.

"You would strike down your own Father... for this girl?"

Percy’s hand trembled, and his breathing quivered as his body overflowed with adrenaline begging him to take action, as he was overwhelmed by an array of conflicting emotions.

But despite all of that, when he spoke his voice was perfectly level and filled with resolute conviction.

"I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to. But if you want to hurt her for any reason, then I will die before I let that happen.

So really the question isn’t if I will kill you. It’s if you are going to kill me just to hurt her."