Vinique invited the siblings to sit down, and as soon as they were seated, someone came over with pastries. Ronnie had never seen them before. He didn't hesitate to grab a piece and stuff it into his mouth, eating the whole plate of pastries in no time.Yurina looked at his eating style and frowned slightly, she couldn't help but say, "Brother, why are you eating so fast? there's no one to steal it from you."
Ronnie swallowed, rolled up his cuff and wiped it on his mouth, looked up and smiled at her, "I'm finally full, it would be better if I had a drink."
When Yurina saw that he actually wiped his mouth with his cuff, a look of contempt immediately appeared on her face and she thought to herself, "Why is this kind of genius a bumpkin? it seems I'll have to train him properly in the future.”
Sitting on the other side of the table, Vinique heard Ronnie say he wanted a drink, she turned the watch on her wrist and said a few words. Not long after, three more people came in, each carrying two kinds of drinks on a tray. She turned to Ronnie and said, "Pick one you want!"
Ronnie hadn't expected so many kinds of drinks to show up at his whim and was a little flattered. He picked and finally chose a cup of coffee. Vinique asked after he finished his coffee, "Ronnie, where exactly have you been for the last ten years? why did you suddenly show up in Shire Town?"
Ronnie didn't really want to talk about it and thought about how to explain it. Alice, who was sitting next to him, took over, "We've been stuck on an island for the last few years, until last year."
"An island?" Yurina was intrigued to hear that it was on an island, "How do you live on an island? do you have to do everything yourself? if so, that would be so much fun!"
"Do you think it will be fun on the island?" Ronnie couldn't help but laugh bitterly.
"That's for sure! I'm bored out of my mind just being at home and school all day. My brother's even worse, he can't even go to school, he stays at home all day and is taught by his home teacher."
"Well, if there's a chance later, I'll take you to the island."
"Really? you're not lying?" Yurina asked excitedly, "when you say later, when exactly? It's that adults lie to children crap again, later means never," the more she said, the more she felt that her guess was right, and the more her anger grew.
"This ... I!" Ronnie was stunned for a moment, he had actually just made a casual remark and had no intention of actually taking anyone there. Being asked sharply, he was actually a bit at a loss for words, "I ... that ..."
Vinique could see that he was in a state of embarrassment and said with a smile, "Ronnie, if you are willing, we can go back to that island, my father has a yacht that can take us there.”
Yurina sniffed with joy and looked at Ronnie with expectant eyes, "Yes! you take us there." After a moment's pause, she seemed to think of something else and said with some discouragement, "But it's Dad's yacht only if he agrees."
Alice, also eager to get back to the island, helped out, "Ronnie, why don't we go back and see if we can get the 'Monta' out this time?"
"Alright! since everyone agrees, we'll go tomorrow," Ronnie finally nodded his head in agreement.
The four of them stood up at the same time, and with a click of her wristwatch, Vinique looked at it and said, "Then we're going to Dad's now," with that, she led the three to the back hall. Along the way, there was still a steady stream of people bending and bowing to the Vinique sisters. Ronnie's mind was racing, what exactly did this family do? why did they have so many servants? After seven turns, they arrived at a courtyard full of flowers and green trees, and the thing that caught people's attention the most was a large pool in the center of the courtyard. In the middle of the pool was a lifelike statue of the Holy Virgin with a smile between her eyebrows, her expression looking extremely serene and indifferent. Around her were four statues of knights, some holding shields and others carrying spears. What shocked Ronnie even more was that above these five statues was a white-headed sea eagle. As he tilted his head to look at it, a middle-aged man walked up to them, "Vinique, you brought your friends here, why don't you introduce them to me?"
"Dad!" As soon as she saw the middle aged man, Vinique tugged on his arm and pouted, "Dad, I'll introduce you," she pointed to Alice, "this beautiful young lady's name is Alice," and then she pointed at Ronnie, "this one called Ronnie is her brother."
"Oh! he's Ronnie?" the middle-aged man was stunned, then asked, "Is that the Ronnie from your school?"
"Yes, Dad! how did you know?" Vinique didn't expect her father to actually know Ronnie's name.
The middle-aged man didn't explain, in fact it was Professor De Silva who had mentioned Ronnie's name to him once, saying that he was a once-in-a-century genius, and that was how he remembered that person. He turned to Ronnie and introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Baron Flange, I'm glad to know you, I hope we can become friends.”
Hearing his introduction, Ronnie felt uncomfortable, he couldn't figure out where in his head this Baron had gotten so crazy that he wanted to befriend him as an equal. Baron Flange was nearly sixty years old, but he looked like he was only in his thirties. He had eleven children, the oldest being forty-one and the youngest only nine. The Baron's favorite thing in life was collecting, but instead of collecting antiques and art, he collected human genes, and he married six wives, white, yellow, brown, black, and one blonde and one redhead. These wives were different in looks and appearance. However, most of the offspring from their unions were good-looking, but with mediocre IQs. Now he wanted to raise the overall intelligence level of his family by marrying people with high IQs. All of his adult sons married highly educated women. Of course, his son couldn't possibly marry Ronnie, but he remembered that he wanted to save his family by marrying Ronnie through his own daughter in hopes of having a gifted child. Little did Ronnie know that he would become a stud in the eyes of Baron Flange.
Ronnie could only respond with an uneasy "Hello! Uncle Flange."
Vinique, however, guessed her father's thoughts and sighed in her heart, "It seems that this is God's will.”
Yurina waited impatiently at the side, "Sister, you're going to borrow the yacht from father, come on!"
Her words interrupted Vinique's thoughts, she could only smile bitterly and said to Flange, "Dad, can you lend me your yacht to go out for a few days?"
"The yacht! it's been driven away by Doyle and it might be three days before it comes back."
"Damn second brother, why does he always take your yacht?" Vinique said in exasperation.
Flange fries, "That's just not the right attitude, your second brother goes on business for the family, not for fun."
"Then can't you buy a few more yachts, with so many people in the family, when will it be my turn?"
"I'm only a baron now, the city-state regulations only allow me to have one yacht, if I were a marquis there wouldn't be so many restrictions," after saying that, Flange let out a long sigh.
"Dad, when are you going to become a marquis?"
"It's not easy, there are counts and viscounts between baron and marquis. Unless we have a genius like Ronnie in our family who can change the world," the father-daughter duo had moved away from Ronnie's trio as they spoke, as if afraid of being overheard.
"Dad, aren't you taking Ronnie too seriously? he doesn't seem all that great."
"I'll tell you what, we're going to have a party tonight and I'm going to invite some of my friends from the scientific community to quiz Ronnie on the spot. You go over and talk to them now, I'm going to go out and get ready." He made a point of saying goodbye to Ronnie before he left.
After he left, Ronnie immediately felt much more relaxed. Remembering her father's instructions, Vinique said to the siblings, "My father is having a banquet tonight, and he invited you to come," and suddenly lowered her head as she said, her expression shy and embarrassed, "Ronnie, have you been studying lately? my dad might want to quiz you tonight."
Ronnie was startled, "Test me! why would he test me? it's not a party, it's a test, I don't want to go."
"Just go!" Vinique took his hand and gave him a pitiful look, "Dad will blame me if you don't go."
"Ronnie, just help her, we're all here, we always have to listen to our master's arrangements," Alice persuaded from the side as well.
Normally, Ronnie is the one who listens to her sister the most, so when he heard her say the same thing, he could only sigh helplessly, "All right then."