“You may wait here, sir and ladies.” The butler bowed and then walked away, leaving our small group to ourselves in a large receiving room.
Elaya, Astria, and Faeyna had been left at the mansion. The first two were setting up the wards and protection, while Faeyna was preparing a meal and making sure the house was clean after weeks of neglect. The other Deek had all but forgotten the property, and Faeyna hadn’t even managed to set up someone to keep the place dusted while we were gone. That meant that I was with Carmine, Lydia, Miki, and Garnet.
The head of the Tibult household, their father Lord Octavion Tibult, was on the border. He’d be heading to the marriage soon. As it turned out Otto was currently down there with him. Unfortunately, he was the Tibult who owed me the most, and he wasn’t here. That meant that the one I would have to deal with was Octius. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. The man was a bit much at times. However, he was a powerful general and smart person.
That was what I was thinking when the door suddenly burst open. A muscular woman suddenly stormed in. She was nearly as tall as an Osterian, but where someone like Alysia was lean and pretty, sure was a mass of muscles, like a pro-wrestler. Her eyes shot across the room and instantly landed on me.
“You, boy! Are you Deek Deekson?” her voice sounded filled with anger and it instantly left me worried.
She stormed across the room. Carmine even braced herself, preparing to pull out her shield before I held up my hand. That’s when the woman reached me. She grabbed me, and I was just about to use teleport when I suddenly was hugged against her beefy chest. Her arms squeezed, and I could feel my back pop as she gave me a bear hug, my feet a few inches from the ground. She finally let go of me and I stumbled a bit.
“Thank you for taking care of my stupid brothers.” She then bowed, her head nearly headbutting me in the process before I dived out of her way.
“Yes!” She stood back up. “As you can see, I took after my mom while my brothers took after my dad.”
“I am Octavia Tibult, at your service.” She did a curtsy, which was somehow worse than her bows.
At that moment, the door burst open and a haggard-looking Octius appeared. He had only applied half of his makeup, and his hair was a mess.
“Sister, I said I would get it!”
“Hmph! I wanted to meet the man my brothers speak so highly of. If he is a friend of the family, he should be a man worthy of it. If you weren’t busy putting all that crap on your face, then you would have been here before me!”
“Ahh… but… a guy’s got to look his best… right?” Octius cried weakly, no longer appearing so tough when put up against his overbearing sister.
Somehow, I was starting to understand Otto’s plight a bit better. His brother was a girly boy who wore makeup and revealing outfits, but his sister was a muscular beast of a woman who had no decorum and was like a bull in a china shop. With this muscular specimen as his main example of what a woman should be like, I was starting to understand why he favored muscle men!