A white limousine came as the guard rushed to open the door. The limousine slowly stopped before me as the black window receded, showing the face of a white haired man in his early 30s. He wore a neat three-piece white suit, and black framed glasses that shaded his blue eyes with a tinge of darkness.
I believe he was Yemir Rothrak, the eldest son of the eldest son.
The most promising of all the grandchildren of Armeas, the one called the genius of a generation.
"You are Mikael, right? Little Daniel's friend?" He asked, recognising me even though meeting me for the first time.
A bit surprising, amazing even.
"Yes," I answered politely.
"What has many keys but cannot open a door?" He asked.
It was a sudden question. I paused, observing his serious expression before going back to his words. And then I realised it was a riddle, a pretty simple one too.
"A piano," I answered.
A slight tilt of my head, and confusion mixed in with abrupt weirdness.
I had many questions.
How does he know my name? Is he close with Daniel? Why was he asking that riddle out of the blue? Was it some kind of a test? Is he okay in the head?
But I kept my silence as I saw him smiling slightly and then opening the door of the limo before getting further inside the car. Even though he did not give any signal, I moved into the car sitting beside him, before closing the door.
"You answered his stupid riddles so easily?!" As the car took off, an excited voice came from the back seat, my eyes traced another white haired guy, in his mid-20s sitting there with a slightly amused look.
"I am Niel Rothrak by the way," he introduced himself.
The younger brother of Yemir.
"Mikael," I did too.
"She is Lisa. Though she doesn't talk much and is generally unapproachable, she is quite a softy" Niel added, pointing to the white haired girl beside him.
Lisa Rothrak, the sole child of the second son of Armeas.
There was a rumour that she was excellent at computers, almost compared to the best of the people in the entire country. And being a hacker myself, I was curious to see how much she compared to me.
Lisa glared at Niel before ignoring us altogether.
I wish I could do that too! I just came here to observe Daniel and see how he is doing!
"So, Mikael. Here to check up on Daniel?" Niel asked curiously, to which I nodded. But Niel smirked before adding,
"Too bad you can't meet him right now. He is playing [Arcadia Online]. Though, on that note, why aren't you playing that too? I heard that Daniel went to extra lengths just to get you a brand new headset. Aren't you gonna play with him and respect his hard work?"
Daniel did?
I was a bit surprised.
"I mean, I did play the entire day but since all the villagers went to sleep, there was literally nothing more to do. And hunting the monsters at night wasn't exactly the best choice either so I decided to take a small break," I answered honestly.
In a way, it was advice too.
Grinding within the world of Arcadia during the night was at least 10 times harder than day. All the villagers or town folks were asleep, and the monsters being nocturnal were naturally more dangerous.
There were also increased amounts of crimes like burglary and robbery during the nights which the newbie players could hardly deal with.
It is something that most people would realise within the first week anyway.
Even though I thought that, the trio looked at me surprised. Their eyes seemed genuinely impressed with my words.
"That is a really good point. Given it's an almost realistic fantasy world, it is totally possible. Why didn't we think of that?!" Niel spoke out. He then looked at me with a bright smile before adding,
"What's your in-game ID? Let's be friends when we meet!"
My mind raced as I wondered how to answer that. Since I didn't want anyone in the real world to know about my name, I had to avoid this somehow but how should I go about it?
"Sir, we have reached!"
The driver spoke as he parked the car outside the mansion. The doors all opened by themselves before Niel, Yemir and Lisa got out, followed by me, who observed them having a totally different behaviour than before.
They were serious.
Even Niel was!
As for the reason for that? It was the old guy standing in front of the main door of the mansion, an old white haired man with a heavy aura surrounding him.
Though old, his muscles were still faring well, making him look at least 20-30 years younger. He didn't look frail at all.
Wearing the three-piece suit similar to Niel and Yemir's he also had a white cane in his hand. An additional well-trimmed beard and moustache, suited his personality well.
He was Armeas Rothrak, grandfather of Daniel, and the current head of the Rothrak Family.
"Yemir Rothrak greets the Patriarch!"
"Niel Rothrak greets the Patriarch!"
"Lisa Rothrak greets the Patriarch!"
The old man politely nodded before asking,
"What goes up and down but never moves?"
Another riddle.
Is it a genetic defect?
"Stairs," Yemir answered, making Armeas smile a bit before looking at the two other children.
"What has to be broken before it can be used?" He asked again.
A silence hung in the air as both Lisa and Niel stood there without uttering any words.
Niel was making a weird expression, while Lisa… her face getting red with embarrassment.
Was she embarrassed because she couldn't answer? Doubt so. It was more probably because of the antics of this old man here…
"Tch! You kids are no fun," the gramps clicked his tongue before turning to me as he spoke in a high voice,
"Hey Shorty, can you solve the riddle?"
Shorty?
I pretended to think for a few seconds before answering," An egg?"
And the frown he had, turned into a smile before he laughed out loud and then commanded the butler by his side,
"Excellent! You may enter the house. Sebas, treat him as our guest!"
The butler bowed politely without any words while Armeas looked at his three grandkids and continued,
"Go have some rest. You lot must be tired from all the travelling. I'll be seeing you at dinner again."
Armeas then walked into the same limo from which we came and took off from there without speaking any additional words.
He is a lot easy going than I thought, huh?
"Stupid old man and his riddles! God, I hate this place!" Lisa spoke before barging in, while Yemir looked at me for a few seconds before going in as well.
Lastly Niel, he stood there giving me a thumbs up adding,
"That was cool. Good job keeping up with the weirdness of the family till now, haha! Still, it didn't seem like Little Daniel told you much about the family though… should I give you a tour?"
I pondered for a few seconds before nodding.
It was the exact thing that I came for so I suppose, it all worked out well?
"All right! But first! Let me then take you to our dojo! I want to see if you can fight as good as you think!" He added, 3 times more enthusiastic than before.
Or perhaps not?