"Hmph! I am Miss Sage, and my sister is Miss Zoë. You may tell us apart simply by our accents, but if that's not enough, simply ask, until you get the hang of it. No more of this Ma'am nonsense! Now, taste this." I held out a spoon, dipped in my nearly-finished stew.

"Wow! That's kinda like Mama Mia's stew! Bit tangier, though, like something's..."

"Mm. It's not finished. You'll take me to this Mama Mia, as well. I must see if she does cook Siciliano... or if she's a ..." I muttered dangerously.

"Sage, Italy doesn't here. She can't be Sicilian." Zoë said logically.

I paused. "Hmm... Vero... ah well. I'm hungry anyway. Boy, are you hungry?"

"No, I ate-"

"Okay, sit down, I feed you." I ignored his answer, and plopped a bowl down in front of him.

"Uhm... thank you, Miss Sage."

"Hmph... now where did you get those bruises, boy? And what is this Ares Familia? A Cult?" I asked suspiciously.

"Oh! No, no, it's my Family! Ares is our Patriarch." He attempted to explain.

"Oh?" My voice dropped dangerously, and I leaned closer to him. "?"

"Uh, I-I don't know that word!" He said shakily.

I huffed softly. "Jesus, St. Joseph and Lady Mary, boy! ! !" I snapped at him.

"Oh! Right! Yeah, I mean yes miss Sage. That's what it is. The Familia's."

I hummed. "Good. Now, your Family, who is Don, the Capo?"

"Don... Capo?"

"!" I snapped again, louder.

"Oh, that is Ares, he's the head of the family." He leaned back.

"Ahhh, I see, the Capo is named Ares... and my son? Whose Family is he in? What is his job?" I asked, pouring stew into his bowl.

"Uhm... he's a Mid-Level guy, right now... he mostly, from my understanding at least, does small contracts, and runs with Johnny, like when they took this place over... and that's where I got my bruises. Your son is a very... capable, man." He explained again.

I sniffed derisively. "Hmph. My son, a mid-level bruiser in the Family, non, this will not do. Who does he have to fight to get to the top of this Family, hmm? You say you are Level 2, what Level is my son?"

"Also Level Two, though he just got there... no one has ever gotten up here that fast... it's actually kinda scary. The number of people he took down to get there, in such a short time..." the giant of a man huffed, then grinned. "He's a bit of a Monster, actually."

"How many? And taken down, did he kill them?" I hummed, tapping my cheek.

"About 100, 120, and Not that I know of, but a lot, jeez, of them are crippled for life." He answered.

"Hmph..." I spoke aside to Zoë in Italian. "It seems my son is gaining rank within the Mafia, sister... should I encourage him? seems to me that there's many competing families... Safer to be in the biggest and strongest Family than to be alone..."

She hummed. "Sì, I agree. What rank, would you say, my nephew's Familia is in the city?"

"The Loki Familia? Number one, I'd say, in raw power, money, and influence... maybe tied with the Freya and Hephaestus Familia's, but Hephaestus Familia is mostly craftsmen, Neutral in conflicts... So tied for first, I guess." He answered after some thought.

I huffed, annoyed at the prospect that he may have chosen a weak family. "Of course. My son knows where the chips are best placed, sì? No need to question. And this Loki, who is he? Is he a very bad man, or simply a Don?"

"Loki? She's alright, I guess... but scary when she's angry." He shivered.

"Oh? Why? Is she cruel?" Zoë asked.

"Cruel? You could say that, I guess... she's like a dragon, I think. Leave her alone and stay out of her way, you're fine... but poke her..." He let his voice trail off.

"Mm. Good. I will meet this woman, then." I nodded, making a decision. I had many meetings to go to...

"Uhm... try not to piss her off? I won't be able to help you, physically, if she decides she wants you dead." He warned me.

"Oh? Physically, so there's someone there that's stronger than you?" I raised an eyebrow.

"She's got Finn The Brave. He's the only Level 8 in the city. The , probably. sane tangles with a Lvl 8... he's not just than me. He is above me, and even your son." He shivered.

"Hmm... Level 8... I suppose that's a very large jump? And this isn't about rank anymore... do these levels also decide your combat abilities?" Zoë asked.

"The other way around. The higher the rank, the stronger, faster... everything! A Level 3 is a Top-Class Adventurer... anything past that is just a Monster." He shivered again.

I hummed. "So how does one gain... Levels? Is it a matter of training? Must you defeat people with higher levels to prove you are a higher level?"

"Sort of... basically, we adventurers are given Exelia, a Magic thing, every time we complete a task or fight someone." He nodded.

"Like Experience Points in a game." Zoë hummed.

"Your stew is getting cold. Eat, boy." I said, leaning back to think. He dove in, devouring the stew in moments, and grinned, carrying his bowl to the sink.

"It was delicious, Miss Sage." He nodded, sitting back down.

I hummed softly. "So my son... he reached this Level Two, which is... difficult?"

"Let's put this into perspective for you. A few years ago, Bell Cranel, the , reached Level 2 in a month and a half, and the entire city was out to get him, because we thought he cheated."

"Is that possible?" Zoë asked.

He sighed. "No, but we thought it might be for a moment. Anyway; he reaches Level Two in a matter of 6 weeks. Your son did it in ."

"Okay, so he halved the record, very nice... so?"

"The record before them was . In the 5 years after she made that record, no one had ever gotten to Ais Wallenstein's Record. But they both smashed right through that barrier in what felt like moments." He shook his head.

I hummed again, and stirred my stew. "So it's a very big deal?"

"All of the... Capi's?" He looked at Zoë.

"Capo's." She nodded.

"Right, all the Capo's of all the Familia's had a big meeting to discuss if Loki was cheating, to take back the Record from Hestia, her rival. I don't know how it turned out, yet, no one does... but he turned all 120 of his opponents into frogs and snakes after he beat them, and that was in his first two weeks as an adventurer. Like I said. Your son? He's Scary."

I smiled. "Interesting... so he can use magic?"

"Yeah... can't you? All Elves can use magic." He asked, curious.

"Hmm, no, I don't know any spells, ." I chuckled.

"Oh... okay."

"OTTO!!! OOTTTTOOOOO!!!" A small boy streaked into the room, slamming into Otto. "Otto didja hear?!?" He grinned excitedly.

"What's this, Hector? You can't come in here, you know that! You aren't supposed to come to the Red Light District! Your sister will be mad at me if she knew!" He scolded the boy firmly.

The kid just grinned. "And that's why you won't tell her! Anyways, Didja Hear?!?!? The Cult of The Immortal just got wiped out at the God's Conference!! OBLITERATED!!! The <> killed them all!! All at once! They say he used a lightning spell, and BANG!" He began excitedly recounting events he'd clearly not seen for himself.

Otto covered the kids mouth, rubbing his apparently sensitive ears. "Okay, Hector. I'm going to let you talk. But! If your voice comes above twenty decibels, I'm going to gag you. Okay? Now, calmly, explain what happened,-no, first, who told you this?"

He released the small child's mouth slowly.

He took a deep breath. "Okay, so, I was delivering my parcels, like every other day, but today I had to deliver to Lady Ishtar, (who, by the way, might be the sexiest woman on the planet,) and she was talking to Lord Hermes about it, and I gave her the parcel, and she touched my cheek, which was awesome,-"

"Okay skip to the story, I've got it, but don't ever deliver to her again, she'd snap you in half if she thought you were perving out on her." He sighed.

"Okay, well, she said that during the conference to decide the names of the recent Level Up's, 200 Level 1's, 10 Lvl 2's, and 6 Lvl 3's attacked the building! But Ottar <> and Dorian <> were there to stop them! But Dorian wanted the fight all to himself, so he made Ottar cover the Door, you know, the Lvl 7 Ottar? I delivered a package to him once, he's actually pretty cool,-"

"Focus." Otto hummed.

"Oh, right, okay. So, he makes Ottar cover the Door, and then charges in, and starts beating the shit out of-"

THWACK!

I blinked. "Whoops. Sorry. Habit. Mother instincts." I rubbed the boy's back hair into place.

"Oh no, you were a second ahead of me. Hector, continue, but cuss again and your sister and I will have a talk that you will regret." He glared at him.

"Sniff. Fine. Anyway! So Dorian beats the snot out of them, all 200 Lvl 1's, but one gets past him, and cuts his clothes, which makes Dorian go BERSERK!-"

Otto stiffed a spoonful of stew in Hector's mouth. "Chew and swallow. I said I'd gag you, I didn't say for how long. Now keep your voice down." He said simply.

Hector chewed for a moment, and then swallowed. "Okay! So, he goes berserk, and throws lightning at the guy, frying him to a crisp! Then he says 'go back down the Shit hole you crawled out of, you bastards!' And WHAM-"

Another spoonful, and a smack.

"Owe! Stop that! That was a direct quote! Geez... anyway, so he fries almost all of them, except for the Level 3's-"

"Wait, the Level Two's were taken out as well?" Otto hummed.

"Oh yeah. All of them. The Level Three's weren't hurt though. Anyway, so Dorian just charges them, knowing they're stronger than him, and rips the Half-Orc's leg into like six pieces, then kicks his neck, and Wham! He's dead!" He grinned.

"And the others? There were 6, how did he survive? Did Ottar interfere?" Otto asked.

"He didn't even have to! The other Level Three's ran like little wimps before Dorian even turned around, but one stupid Level Two stuck around and tries to cut Dorian's head off! So, Dorian rips out his heart like it's nothing, and then stomps on his skull, before ripping apart all of their bodies, to make sure they stayed dead." He crossed his arms, happy with his story.

I hummed. "I see... this Cult of Immortals... typical crazy mooks?"

"Mook? Uh, well, they're crazy, I guess. But they've got some seriously crazy strong people, so they're hard to get rid of." Otto shrugged.

I nodded and patted the seat next to him. "Sit, boy. You're hungry, yes?" I set a bowl in front of him, and filled it with stew.

"Thanks, Lady! I'm Hector, Otto is married to my sister. Who are you?" He asked, and started scarfing down the stew.

I smiled. "I'm Sage Dorian. Xavier is my son." I said simply, and smirked at his reaction.

He gasped, his spoon falling out of his hand into his stew, and I laughed softly. "Eat, boy. No one leaves my kitchen hungry. Zoë?" I slid a bowl across to her.

She smiled and ate it at a reasonable pace, nodding. "Tastes good, sis. Any salt over there?"