Richard opened his eyes only to see the face of the young witch looking down on him with a smile.

"Morning sleepy head, need some help dealing with your wood?"

Ignoring her false flag attempts at seduction, Richard raised his body up and as he asked.

"Time and date?"

Seeing that her actions had no effect on him, Cindy rolled her eyes as she answered him with a pout-

"A few hours after we got to the junkyard, not that long actually"

Her words made Richard pause, he thought for a moment before rubbing his eyes as he asked with a sigh in his voice.

"Please don’t tell me we teleported, if we did, what about the container? My bike?"

His voice was calm but Cindy could feel the slight panic in his tone. She wanted to tease him a bit but the Goddess came out to answer him first.

<I’ve brought them all to the backyard, of course, the filth remained in the junkyard>

Realizing that her attempts at teasing Richard were snuffed out, Cindy decided to add in a bombshell that would rock him instead.

"By filth, she meant the dead bodies of the FBI agents that were waiting in ambush- not the dirt that clung to the container. Though the container is spotless"

Cindy’s follow up left Richard even more speechless than he already was.

From a ghost asking him to take care of their daughter to the revelation of his secret stash being tracked down and then to the fact that those agents who traced him were now dead...

"From a framed man to an actual criminal... and here I thought losing my wealth overnight was shocking"

He breathed an exasperated sigh while letting out his real feelings. Richard stopped holding back, after all, he only had the young college witch and the prideful goddess on his side now-

Or... are they really on his side?

<You can trust Cindy, she even went as far as to use Alchemy to transform one of the men to look like you.>

"The blood type and genes don’t match but through pure facial recognition, fingerprints and body shape- so long as they don’t do a DNA test, you are A-okay!"

The young witch gave him a thumbs up while imitating the "tehe" pose of an anime character. Her animated gestures confused Richard’s mind as his first impressions of her were... well, far from the image she now presented.

But pushing away all those stray thoughts, Richard looked over the whole situation and asked.

"So Damien Dixon is now confirmed dead"

"After they dig out his body"

"Why not leave it out in the open?"

"Realism!"

"..."

Hearing a witch who treated teleportation as a "normal thing" claim an action to be done for "realism"... it was surreal to say the least.

While Richard was still trying to get a handle of his own chaotic thoughts, Cindy immediately leaned into him. She pushed her face as close to his as she could and asked.

"So? What about the brass knuckles? Didja put it under your control?"

Her question refocused his mind, the reason why he was now in the situation he was in is because of the artifact pulling him into that weird "mental space".

"Not yet... I still need to finish some... regrets"

<What did the old couple ask you to do?>

"Old couple?"

The Goddess asked with full awareness of what was inside, maybe she even knew of the conversation he had with the couple.

Thinking along those lines, Richard stole a glance at the Goddess and a word popped up in his mind-

<I don’t mind giving it to you>

The words of the Goddess confirmed that she still was able to read his mind but her answer made Richard unable to respond.

Was she giving him the "okay" to use that word or was it a bait?

He didn’t know so he pushed that back for now as he gave Cindy a rundown.

The Goddess likely knew everything already so only Cindy had to be kept up to speed about the current situation.

"So we need to go to New York, help Kyla Bell get back on her feet and only then would you be able to use the artifact"

"Yes"

"How about I get one suitcase filled with 100 dollar bills, brainwash Kyla Bell into accepting it and leave her"

"That’s going to do more harm than good"

Cindy gave a suggestion that any detached bastard would. She ignored the problems brought about by her actions and focused on accomplishing her task.

<It’s the college mentality, even you submitted essays about pizza for an english class>

The Goddess, like always, read through Richard’s thoughts as she gave her comments aloud.

"At least those were doing nothing more than adding onto the stack of papers on my professor’s desk! This is a life we’re talking about! Not some mid term paper that would, at worst hold you back a few units"

In response to his words though, Cindy was the one who refuted him as she showed a heavily offended look as she shot back at Richard-

"Getting held back a few units is life changing!"

But Richard did not let the young witch get to him as he shot back at her with-

"Shut up you fake college student!"

The meaning behind his words were obvious and Cindy had now way to refute him so she went with the classic-

"Tehe~"

As the three way argument was heating up, the news report on the TV that was still turned on somehow flashed and what was reported made Richard focus-

[Just in! Former Tech-Billionaire, now infamous sex offender Damien Dixon was found dead at a junkyard outside XXX city! Authorities claim that they heard the sound of gunfire and the FBI confirmed that plain clothes officers that were tailing Damien were lured into a trap. Out of the 15 officers sent to catch Damien, 14 died and only 1 survived. It’s said that Damien Dixon used a chemical weapon in the junkyard and tried to bury the dead agents in trash only to get caught in the collapse...]

"That was quick"

Richard commented as he watched the blurred out body of "Damien Dixon" appear on screen.

It should have ended there but-

"That’s not him! I know Damien... he won’t do something as crazy as that! He’ll make others do it! Like that time with the data center..."

Andrea appeared once more on the television, her crocodile tears were as plentiful as ever but the shit she spewed out of her mouth was just-

"She really loves you huh?"

Cindy commented with a teasing tone which received a confused look from Richard. The young witch, though, only grinned as she pointed at Andrea.

"She’s asking for a DNA test for proper confirmation, the face is clearly visible, I made sure that it won’t get mangled up. It’s a perfect 1 to 1 copy but she somehow saw through the fake. What else could this be except true love?"

Richard wanted to say something but stopped himself.

He knew that it was weird... he knew but-

<Don’t jump to conclusions, at worst, this Andrea might end up being nothing more than a bait>

"What?"

Richard turned to the Goddess, asking for clarification on her words.

<You think Merlin’s blood is worthless but to others- it’s a powerful medium, at worst, a tonic. You’d be surprised at how twisted the mystical world your ancestor created is>

More exposition that left too much to the imagination.

Already familiar with her style, Richard did not push for too much, instead, he simply asked the Goddess.

"Andrea was a bait? Why didn’t they do something before? Why wait until yesterday? Why now?"

Even if Richard accepted the possibility, it was still hard to believe. After all, he’s been with Andrea for such a long time. They could have done this ages ago, hell, they could have destroyed him in college!

Why wait?

Why wait for Richard- no, for Damien Dixon to become a billionaire?

His questions were not all spoken out aloud but the implications were obvious.

But, the one to answer him was not the Goddess but Cindy.

"If discovering Merlin’s descendant was so easy, then Einstein wouldn’t have become a famous scientist, other notable figures would not have come to power or rose in prominence. Merlin was a powerful mage but he was more famous as a clairvoyant. He would NOT leave his descendants to become experimental subjects"

The young witch spoke with a tone that was mature, like she was a completely different person. This left Richard speechless once more as he stared at Cindy with a weird look in his eyes.

"What?", Cindy asked while giving Richard a rather sassy look.

"I like this better"

Was all Richard said and Cindy smirked, maintaining her current air as she shot back him-

"So that’s what you want, come here, let mommy deal with your worries", her voice went deep, it was like a Vtuber with an ear piercing screech suddenly making that "mommy voice".

But unlike the virtual entertainers, Cindy was real and she even patted her thighs offering them up for Richard.

Unlike last night, the air had gotten a bit warmer and CIndy had already changed from pants to a pair of dolphin shorts.

The combination of dolphin shorts that showed glimpses of her underwear and the oversized hoodie gave a deeply alluring vibe and as she spoke with her deep sultry voice-

<Go on, by the looks of it, we might need to abandon this house soon>

Unfortunately, the moment was cut short as the Goddess’ words snapped the two idiots back to reality.