SIS Book 4 Chapter 66: Stars and Mhmm

AN: Super long one for me. Yet another 3,000-word chapter. Also one I'm quite proud of, hope you enjoy it.

Daz frowned. "I would advise that you leave," he said in perfect Korean to the intruder of his and Madison's date. "I specifically asked the employees here to turn you away. If you wish to speak, wait until I am free."

He knew falsifying his status to say he was an ambassador would attract some attention but Daz never expected anyone to be so rude about it. Politics, to his understanding, was usually about backstabbing and subtle manipulation, not barging into a dinner date like a child.

"I'm not here for you," the Korean man responded. He turned to Madison and smiled charmingly. "May I have your name?"

Her expression didn't change even a little as she blankly stared at the man. Of course, that was because Madison physically couldn't express herself beyond her eyes, but he didn't know that.

'She's just like a sculpture,' the man thought. 'I wonder what's going through her mind?'

Madison tilted her head to the side a little. "Daz. What, say?"

The reaper chuckled softly as he leaned back into his chair. "Nothing important. I thought he was just a stupidly arrogant person looking to make a political friend. Let's just ignore him. I'm sure he'll leave sooner or later."

It was more than obvious what the man's intent was now after seeing him dismiss him and try to act nice with Madison. 'She truly is too beautiful for her own good. Still, I'm glad all of that beauty belongs to me and me alone.'

"Watch your mouth. You may be an important guest of United Korea but I'm an A-rank hunter. Were you under the impression that I didn't speak English?" the hunter asked rhetorically.

Desiring an answer to his question or not, Daz responded with a shrug. "She doesn't speak Korean. You're clearly too horny for your own good but as I said, we're on a date here. Say your piece, try to convince her of your superior manliness or whatever, get rejected, get angry like a child then get lost."

"What did you say to me, you little sh-"

"Look, I get it. She's an easy 10 out of 10. Trust me, I know. I've known for over a decade." Madison's face flushed a little and her eyes livened a bit upon hearing such praise from Daz. "I don't blame you for not being able to control yourself like some sort of sex-crazed animal."

'This arrogant little... I should show him exactly who he's dealing with...' the man said to himself mentally. 

Initially, the hunter had wanted to - as pointed out - show his dominance and win over the enchanting foreigner as he did with all the other women he ever set his eyes on.

Life was easy for him when the hunter system was added to United Korea. Who could rightly deny him a woman he desired? Perhaps only the president herself was beyond his reach he felt.

Hell, the lady he'd come here with tonight with for dinner actually had a B-ranked boyfriend but that didn't stop him for wooing her as easily as waking up in the morning - admittedly, a challenge for some people.

However, the more the weak and honestly insignificant dignitary spoke, the less and less he felt compelled to do something... stupid.

'I really want to hit him in the face but... that would be stupid. I am acting like an animal, aren't I?' he reflected. 'Is one drop-dead gorgeous foreigner really worth potentially offending the president? I'd rather not end up a smear on the road like the last guy who crossed her.'

It was no secret that President Ho Ran was the country's strongest hunter. Even he as an A-ranker couldn't hold a candle against her worth.

"... You're right," the hunter said as he bowed his head slightly. "I was being childish. I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry if I upset you by disturbing your date and I hope this doesn't reflect poorly on the relations between United Korea and your mother nation."

'I wasn't expecting that,' Daz thought. 'My persuasive powers are too strong, haha. I was absolutely expecting him to punch me. I kind of wanted him to, honestly. These guys that hit on Maddy without considering that she's already taken piss me the fuck off. Hmm... should I lie instead? Maybe that will provoke him.'

Daz shrugged. "The damage is already done. Honestly, even if you attacked me right now, nothing would change."

Temptation crossed the hunter's face before he shook his head and turned around. "Again, I apologise for my actions. I will personally explain my rude actions to my guild and we'll try our best to make up for my stupidity tonight."

After saying that and bowing once again, the hunter left the room, greatly relieving the pianist just sitting in the corner sweating her ass off as she plied her trade.

Madison pouted with her eyes. "Why, provoke?"

Daz smiled slightly. "He was pissing me off. You should know by now that every time someone tries to covet you despite you clearly having less than zero interest in them, I get the strong desire to beat the tar out of them."

Madison looked concerned. "Last, time, fight, spit."

"Right, Steven did spit on my face that one time before we met again and he died... But still, kicking the shit out of him was cathartic. I almost hoped Idris would be a repeat of that. Shame he was polite, huh?" Daz wasn't a violent person by nature, however, most people tended to enjoy the feeling of winning a fight.

It was a sad reality about humans but it was still the truth. If anything, Daz embraced that side of himself even more since Davido seemed to like acting unconfrontational, instead choosing to hire people to do his dirty work for him.

The less like his father he could be, the better Daz felt.

"... Okay. No, happy, but, happy, for, me," Madison grumbled as she shovelled some food into her mouth with her fork.

Both she and Daz didn't want the event to get in the way of their fun or affect them any further as they enjoyed their meal, so they both moved past it.

After they were finished with desert Daz reached over the table and held Madison's hand as he stood up. "Would you care for a dance?"

Blood rushed to Madison's cheeks despite her stony expression. She nodded her head firmly and said, "Mmm! Would, love!"

She used her free hand to scoop up Mr Barrier and she then placed the fuzzy blue creature on the table. "Stay."

Daz chuckled. "It isn't a dog. Hey, Mr Barrier, can you use your barrier to create a beautiful dancefloor for us? Someone as powerful as you should be able to change the design of your only skill, right?"

The furball jiggled a bit then a barrier both appeared and stretched out from the centre of the room, startling the musician.

The barrier kept expanding and passed through Daz, Madison and the musician until it was the same shape as the room itself. It then shifted in appearance making everything look like... space. Stars littered the floor, the walls and the roof.

Suns, planets and comets could be seen off in the distance. Everything was... dazzlingly beautiful.

The pianist had no idea what was going on. She'd met some powerful hunters before but this was strange even for her. Thankfully, her piano was still visible and unaffected by whatever was going on so she decided to not mind the changes and instead play a romantic song for the room's guests. She was a professional, after all.

"Dance, Daz?" Madison asked with a tilt of her head as she put one hand on Daz's shoulder and let him intertwine one of his with her other.

Daz smiled a little as he put his free hand on her hip and held her close as they started to slowly move in rhythm with the music. "Of course. I may never have taken any lessons before the world ended and I may not have any dancing-oriented skills but I have enough Dexterity and Agility to wing it somehow."

Madison nodded softly as she leaned into his embrace, resting her head on his shoulder as they moved across the stars. "See... This, nice..."

"It is, isn't it?" Daz asked in return. "If only we could do stuff like this every day... As monotonous as I feel that would become, with you I'm sure I'd enjoy every minute of it."

Madison blushed as she closed her eyes. "Daz, charmer..."

"Haha, blame my Charisma for that one," Daz chuckled.

Madison sighed softly as she moved in rhythm along with Daz's steps. 'This is so romantic... He looks so handsome, Mr Barrier made the room so pretty and he's dancing carefully to make sure I don't trip up... Ah... I love him so much...'

Daz's entire focus was on Madison as he let his body move almost by instinct. 'She smells great. Is it just me or does she look prettier than normal too? It must be my emotions playing tricks on me... I'm not exactly opposed to this...'

The couple danced and danced with enamoured with one another until finally, the pianist ended the song of adoration, longing and connection she'd been creating on the fly for the past 20-minutes.

'Wow. What a mood,' the pianist thought to herself. 'Kids these days... I think even if I wasn't using a few skills there I'd have invented that song regardless! If only all of our VIP guests were like these two...'

She felt inspired by the pure relationship the two of them seemed to share. The man was confident and leading but not overbearing, the woman was calm and stone-faced but her body language and occasional mumblings gave credence to her total trust and absolute feelings in her partner.

'Ah... I'm so jealous! 32 and still single even though I'm beautiful too! When will a handsome oppa sweep me off my feet?' the pianist cried to herself.

Meanwhile, Mr Barrier recalled his barrier since the dancing seemed to have ended. He happily allowed Madison to place him on her head again when she and Daz returned to the table.

"Well, that was lovely. Thank you, Madison, for being such a great dance partner," Daz teased playfully as he held his arm out.

Madison pouted with her eyes as she grabbed the offered limb and replied, "I, bad, dance. Barely, kept, up, thanks, sword, training."

"It's all in the footwork," Daz responded before turning to the pianist. "And thank you too. That song was lovely. I'll likely never forget it for my entire life. What was it called?"

'Urg, why is his slight smile so alluring! He's only a 6 out of 10! Control yourself, woman! He's easily 10-years younger than you!' the pianist screamed internally before smiling sweetly. "I haven't named it yet. Your dancing left me in awe and I kind of made it on the spot."

"Ah. You're very talented. Well, if you ever get around to naming it, please, let Ho Ran know to pass it on to me in some capacity. Let her know her grandson wants it to commemorate this evening," Daz said then immediately left the VIP room.

The pianist sat on her stool in shock. "G-Grandson?"

***

Daz and Madison quickly found themselves at the counter where one paid for their meal.

"Sir, madam, we are deeply sorry for the disturbance you experienced during your private dinner," the lead hostess said apologetically with her head bowed. "Please, consider tonight's meal on us. Also, here are two tokens for another free meal here. They don't expire so use them whenever if convenient for you."

'Huh. Grandmother didn't foot the bill, she only got us through the door?' Daz thought as he nodded. "It's fine. I can't exactly expect normal people to stop a person stronger than them. That would be suicide. I do appreciate you trying though."

Daz took the offered tokens from her and thought, 'I should give one of these to Vanessa and convince her to go on a date with Rose. Maybe I should also try to crush the thoughts that Rose is only a little sister to her. Not now or even in a few years, but eventually, when Rose is old enough I'd like for them to have a chance together. Well, assuming Vanessa is open to a same-sex relationship.'

"Thank you for understanding, sir," the main hostess said with sincerity. Too often did they get chewed out when slight mishaps occurred, sadly. Such was the life of customer service, she felt. Apocalypse or not, some things never changed.

"No problem, also, the pianist. Whatever you're paying her isn't enough," Daz said seriously.

"A-Ah, I see. I'm glad she satisfied your musical needs," the hostess said in surprise. "We'll certainly take your feedback into consideration."

"Great." He and Madison then thanked the hostess and left the restaurant.

Daz took the lead again by summoning his Ridomochi Final Model. "Bukchon Hanok Village is a bit of a walk away so instead of going on foot, let's rest our legs and have a nice drive there, shall we?"

Madison nodded and smiled with her eyes. "Mmm, let's."

Daz really didn't want to have to deal with more hunters today than he already had so while his car was a bit conspicuous, so long as he stayed hovering above the roads he figured he'd fine as opposed to blasting through the sky at Mach-4 to arrive in less than a second.

Thankfully, the drive went perfectly uncontested and without issue except for Madison almost falling asleep.

'She's far too weak against the comfort of this car,' Daz thought as he helped her out and then stored the vehicle.

Madison wiped her eyes a bit groggily but they soon opened wide upon seeing the sights before her.

All around her lay buildings that seemed... ancient and heavily eastern in design. Lanterns lit the cobbled roads and alleyways weaved left and right between each and every small yet enchanting building.

The roads turned in strange ways and all of the people should could see were wearing one-piece clothing that was unfamiliar to her but which reminded her of the Japanese kimono.

She'd seen those online a few times but whatever the people here were wearing was just slightly different enough for her to notice it wasn't the same.

"Where?" she asked softly.

Daz grinned subtly. "This is Bukchon Hanok Village. It's a place that existed before the system came. From my understanding, it's a 600-year-old village that's been preserved and now acts as a tourist hotspot. Or, at least, used to act a tourist hotspot. There's a rift in the centre but the rest of it is like it used to be."

"Pretty..." Madison marvelled before she tilted her head. "Rift?"

"A dungeon, pretty much," Daz said dismissively as he took Madison's hand into his own. "Come on, follow me. There's somewhere I want to show you."

Madison neither resisted nor hesitated. She was utterly sucked into the ambient environment of this place and she felt herself getting excited at what Daz wanted her to see. She could almost hear her heart beating in her chest.

The pair walked through backstreet after backstreet, passed humble store after humble store and they even said hello to a few people that were casually meandering about or resting in the area.

About 20-minutes had passed until Daz finally let go of Madison's hand and gestured around himself. "Isn't this spot great? Rose recommended it to me."

Madison looked about and could only nod in agreement. The two of them were on a long traditional Korena bridge that crossed the river. There was a simple pagoda in the centre of this bridge which was vacant save for them.

The structure was supported by several heavily carved wooden pillars, each of which seemed to show a story of a different hero. It was wide and spacious and was... soothing to the soul, Madison felt.

On one side of the pagoda could be seen the bright and bustling nightlife of the city, Seoul, on the other side only the lantern-lit village was visible along with distance fields in the background.

Madison approached the handrail and pressed herself up against it as she leaned out, stared at the small but lively and dazzling Bukchon Hanok Village. "So, nice, here..."

Daz approached behind her and looked over her as he put his palms atop hers. "Yeah, it is."

Silence reigned for a short while until Daz said, "I don't think I'd have ever been able to appreciate all of this without you."

"Hmm?" Madison tilted her head back into his chest and peered up at his emotionless face in wonder.

"I never really knew what it meant to be loved or to love for a very long time. I knew the definitions, of course, but to experience it for myself? It was always... muted behind my emotional seal. When that finally broke down and disappeared I realised how much I actually care about you, Maddy. Both you and Rose," Daz said.

He smiled a little and closed his eyes and he chose to simply breathe in, savouring the atmosphere. "Life feels... full, but only with you in it."

He looked down again at Madison who was still glancing up at him and he said, "I've decided to take up Crowthorne as my official last name... I was wondering if you'd like to take it up with me?"

Madison was no fool. She knew exactly what Daz was implying with that question. Her eyes immediately became wet with tears as she mumbled, "Mhmm."