One thing Juliet had been very right about was that Marina had become very close with Luis Albert. Some even gossiped about a possible romance. Jacob, instead, didn’t snoop in on whatever they had going on. He was just happy the man had someone close to him who made sure he would eat and sleep.

Unlike what many would think, Marina was much stronger than Luis Albert. She kept training, but she also went out with food teams and recon teams to kill Demonic Beasts and explore the surrounding territory.

Right now, she was at the 2nd level of the Mantis realm in both Qi and Mana. Her talent was at the 7th level, but no one had matched her dedication.

“Marina scares me a bit,” Jacob said.

“Me too,” Juliet added.

Juliet was now at the Intermediate Great Stage of the Mantis realm. Her cultivation had soared thanks to the insights she had gained while fighting in Fort Mountain. Only Helena’s was ahead of her, at the 7th level of the Mantis realm in both Qi and Mana.

However, Helena’s cultivation was starting to slow down since she had not yet mastered any useful insight to use as a foundation. Juliet, instead, had gotten access to the vision into Jacob’s past, now participating in his secret; and that had profoundly changed her.

Jacob saw a man come running toward him while he was on his way to Luis Albert.

“Uhm, who is that again…” he wondered aloud.

“That’s Geneva’s husband, Jake. He said multiple times he wanted to talk to you this week.”

“Oh,” Jacob grimaced. His past self would have immediately run away, but he knew what the guy was coming to talk to him about.

“Jacob! Juliet!” the man came sprinting without breaking a sweat. Such was the power of cultivation.

“Hi!” Jacob smiled toward the man.

“I’m sorry to disturb you. I know you are both very busy, but can we talk for a second?”

Jacob was not a good person. He knew he was a terrible listener and probably even worse at giving general advice to people, but he nodded. He had to change for the better in this new life. He couldn’t be the same sorry piece of crap he had been in his past one. But, strong or not, he didn’t matter as long as he became a decent person.

“Sure, what’s the matter?” Jacob asked.

The man looked around to make sure no one could overhear their conversation.

“It’s… Geneva,” the man forced the words out of his mouth.

Geneva’s husband was a tall man, probably nearing one-ninety centimeters, and towering above Jacob.

Jacob, in fact, wondered how uncomfortable the poor bastard had to be while talking to a scrawny, short, and not-that-good-looking fifteen-year-old.

“I’m sure that Jacob can help you,” Juliet said while taking an elbow to her soulmate's ribs.

“Sure,” Jacob said, wheezing.

“It’s just that…” the man was struggling to find the words.

“Listen, would you be more comfortable if we sat down? Unfortunately, the pub is closed off, but I have the key. We can also drink something,” Jacob offered.

“Oh, that would be amazing!” the man lit up.

Jacob had done something quite bad with the alcohol reserves of the city… He had stolen all the alcohol – and cigarettes – with the excuse that he would need it for his Alchemical concoctions.

Well, he did need some alcohol here and there in the concoctions, maybe once a week for some special brew. But mostly, it was a fuel he was using to work better during the evening. Nothing like a light buzz to get the creativity going.

To highlight his thoughts, Jacob lit a cigarette and started smoking while they were going to the closed pub.

“You have cigarettes? Weren’t they taken away by someone? Oh, and sorry, I didn’t introduce myself; I’m Andrew.”

“Well, Andrew, this guy stole everyone’s cigarettes, and he smokes them all by himself,” Juliet said while pointing to Jacob.

The smokers of St. Peter hadn’t liked the disappearance of the cigarettes but had slowly started forgetting about it.

Andrew, as fate wanted, was one of such smokers.

“What? Really?” he said with wide eyes.

“Well, Andrew, you need help with Geneva, right?” Jacob said without blinking.

“Uhm, yeah…”

Andrew got silent after that, dropping the matter of the thief of cigarettes.

Jacob winked at him, happy of the quick understanding they had reached without even speaking. He opened up the pub rolling shutter and got inside, making his way to a bottle of Rhum.

“So, what’s up?” Jacob poured two glasses for the man and himself.

“Geneva’s… she—”

Andrew took a full swig and tried again.

“Ahhh, that’s the stuff… She has been focused on fighting and fighting and fighting. It’s not even about the training. First, she goes out in the middle of the night to fight off Demonic Beasts. Then, she wants me to spar with her and forces me to train all day! I don’t understand what’s happening!”

Andrew was more than desperate. His loving wife had suddenly become a fighting demon, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. He had never been the fighting type, but he still went to forage food. However, he only reached the 7th stage of the Cockroach realm so far in Qi and the 6th stage of the Cockroach realm in Mana. His talent was at the 5th level, and his interest in cultivation was not that great.

“People change during the apocalypse,” Jacob started, “in general, after brushing death, even in our past normal world, people would make life-changing decisions. For example, maybe one day your wife would have become an MMA fighter if the apocalypse didn’t happen.”

“But I don’t know who she is anymore! So I have even come to you to ask for help!”

Andrew realized the offense behind his word a second too late.

“I’m sorry! I just meant that you are young and all, but she always refers to you as if you can move mountains or something!”

Getting between husband and wife, one of the smartest moves a man can pull off.

Jacob sat down and did what he had to do.

He shut up and started to listen to the man whine and get drunk for almost an hour. Luis Albert hadn’t given him an hour to meet him, and Jacob used the loose planning to take care of this man.

Toward the end, Jacob just said.

“Listen, I think your wife loves you, and you love her. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so desperate to ‘fix things. Try to accept what she got and find yourself something to do too. We will start working on crafting in a week. Weapons, armor, all kind of sh*t.”

Jacob took out another cigarette and lit it up. It was probably the 20th he had been desperately using to make the time go faster.

“I’ll send for you as soon as we start making things if you want. But you have to give Geneva time to adapt. She’s discovering something that’s making her feel useful and good. Share the joy with her, don’t fight it. I mean, maybe fight her if she wants to, but just try to get into it. She will calm down a bit at some point, but that’s now who your wife is. You have to accept it and move on, build on top of that.”

Andrew ended up crying and hugging Jacob, telling him how good of a kid he was and that if he ever needed someone to beat up some bullies, he would be there. The poor man went home stumbling completely drunk. Hopefully, their chat would help him smooth things over with his wife.

“You sounded wise there,” Juliet said. She had been on the stool next to Jacob’s all that time.

Jacob took another puff from the cigarette and nodded.

“That’s right, kid, you brats have to listen to your elders to become wiser—”

Jacob jumped out of the seat before Juliet could punch him again, and they raced off to Luis Albert’s office.