The Ancient Genes

Scarlet Mansion, Ocien.

'What the hell was that?' Max was definitely alarmed when he felt a faint hint of killing intent from Preston.

That certainly was surprising.

'Was it because of jealousy?'

It was possible. After all, the guy himself had said that he had been hearing Max's name all around.

"Everyone have a seat." Talia let them all have a seat, and then it was a small generic talk where people just pretended to be what they actually weren't. It was very common among nobles.

Max had seen it many times. They just tried to look good in front of each other. Just looking at Synthia right now, was enough to make Max's face twitch.

She really looked like a beautiful and well-mannered lady. But, he obviously knew that the truth was far from it. This girl was anything but what she was showing now.

On the other hand, Synthia's opinion of current Max wasn't much different from what he had of her.

"Well, you kids can talk for a while. I will take a leave now. If you need anything, you can just let the servants know." Talia stood up, and then turned around to leave.

But, her gaze fell on Max as she left. Their eyes had met for a second. It was obvious that she was looking forward to his work, which was to convince Erina to reject his engagement at all cost.

"How about you guys let us have some private time?" Preston asked with a smile, and Erina's brows contorted for a second. But, she eventually maintained that calm look on her face.

She was going to play along with it for a while. Her father had yet to say anything about this engagement, and from the recent revelations, she knew that it was impossible that they would allow this engagement.

Max looked at Erina as well. She had heard her thoughts, but even though she was confident that her father and family wouldn't allow it, he definitely had some dark thoughts about it. But, he didn't want to scare her and kept it to him.

It was just a possibility, but what if her family really went through this?

Talia was pushing the engagement only on the surface and wanted it to end in failure. You would obviously want the opposite of what your enemy wants.

Secondly, Erina could become an insider in the Storm Family. This thing was absolutely the one which scared Max the most. Two Ancient Families had fallen, it was not something that could be easily turned a blind eye to. The enemy had to be dealt with quickly.

And, this engagement could actually help them in it. A sacrifice was necessary though.

Thirdly, Talia and the Scarlet Lord…

Something didn't fit right in between these two.

Earlier, Max had thought that the Lord had just gone crazy for his second wife, but that was obviously not the case from the current situation. Then why did he marry Talia? There was pressure from the Storm family…

Max could accept that as well.

But, in normal condition, it would have been impossible for this pressure to work if the Lord had a healthy wife. Everyone would have objected to it. But, that wasn't the case.

This is where things didn't look good.

Erina's mother fell sick, and even the Ancient Family didn't have a cure.

There was no way that it was all just simple.

As for why Max thought like that?

Well, even if he accepted for once that Erina's mother's sickness was natural. In that case, why in the hell was the Scarlet Lord letting Talia do whatever she wanted? He married her, but didn't become her puppet, right?

There had to be something which was forcing him to become Talia's puppet.

Otherwise, it didn't make sense.

He could have easily suppressed Talia, if she was just married to him. What could have Talia possibly done if she had arrived in the Scarlet House as a new member and was suppressed by the Lord on all fronts.

But, that didn't happen…

Max could only see Erina's mother's illness as one of the reasons. That is what connected this whole situation, if not, then there had to be some other thing. But, something was there which was forcing the Scarlet Lord to submit to Talia.

And, if by chance, it really was Erina's mother, then Max didn't know what would happen ahead.

Synthia sat there with a frown on her face, "Did you see that jerk? What do you think?"

Erina and Preston had already left the place to walk around the mansion.

Max finally came out of his thoughts as he looked at Synthia, "He is obviously not a good guy. By the way, do you think he has any reason to have enough hostility towards me to the point where he wants me dead?"

"What? Why are you asking such a question?" Synthia asked in confusion, but still replied, "I mean, I can get that you don't like some person. But, directly having thoughts of killing a person at a first meeting….do you think it's normal?"

"Yes, it's not." Max nodded as his eye flashed with a strange light. He wanted to know the answer as well.

"How am I known around the Ancient families? That guy said I have quite the reputation." Max curiously asked.

"Yeah, a bad reputation." Synthia snorted.

"What? Why?" Max was taken back.

"What do you mean 'why'? You are a country bumpkin, foremost. Do not belong among us. Beat me up on the first day to assert dominance, which most people didn't take well. And, the Lords seem to favor you, and you go unpunished no matter what you do."

"I don't think there is a single fault of mine in any of those things." Max shook his head helplessly.

"I never said it was your fault. That is just how things are." Synthia shrugged.

Max, on the other hand, was now sure that Preston wasn't jealous of him. And, since he didn't like Synthia, he shouldn't hate him for kicking her butt. To be honest, he should be happy about that.

It seemed there was something that Max didn't know.

He would have to keep an eye on this guy.