Katera

Chapter 18: Maria Meets Rico

Maria cried as she walked back inside her apartment.

"Why are you crying?" James asked as he saw her eyes pouring with tears.

Maria didn't respond, she kept weeping, tears running down her face. She ran into her room and shut the door behind her.

The next day Maria did not go to work, she called in sick due to being too depressed. She then decided to go on a walk and headed for Alinn Park. There, she sat down on a bench in silence.

Suddenly, she heard a deep male voice coming from behind her speak her name "Maria".

She hastily turned around and saw 3 men wearing black and red, she didn't recognize any of them. "Who are you?" she said in fear.

One of the men responded "Don't be afraid we're not here to hurt you." he said "My name is Rico, I'm sure you've heard of me."

"Rico? That name, I'm sure I've heard it somewhere before." she replied slightly confused.

"Probably from Adari, I presume?"

"Yes, but I can't say I know anything about you. Wait, you know Adari?" She questioned

"You mean he didn't tell you? I'm Adari's best friend." Rico lied while trying to act surprised.

Maria tilted her head to the side "Really? Then how come I've never seen you before." she questioned with curious look on her face.

"That's because we live in different cities."

"I guess that makes sense. What city would that be?"

"It's called Harmonia Város, or the City of Harmony, you should come and see it sometime."

"That sounds nice, wait, so does that mean you're enemies if Vér Városa too?"

"Yes. To be honest with you the only reason Adari hasn't attacked Vér Városa yet is because he knows they're much stronger and much more powerful than Katera and Harmonia Város combined. Especially their King, he is much more powerful than Adari is. So to be blatant, neither of our cities would stand a chance against them." gloated Rico "But that aside, Adari has told me so much about you, and so I really wanted to meet you. He even told me about your little shortcoming that occurred last night."

"Oh no, I bet everyone knows then, and now people are probably gossiping about me. I wish I had told him sooner. Now, I'll never get the chance."

"Never say never."

"I forgot to ask, who are your friends?"

"They are Aceur and Miruki."

"Nice to meet you both I'm Maria, if you don't already know. By the way Aceur, are you French? Your name kinda sounds French."

"Yes." Aceur responded

Maria looked down at her phone, which was in her hand. "I should probably get going."

"Before you do that, can you do me a favor?" Rico asked cunningly

"What's that?"

"If you happen to see Adari again, please don't tell him we had this little chat. He thought it wasn't the best idea for us to talk. I also don't want him drawing the wrong conclusion. After all, he does have a bit of a habit of jumping to conclusions without checking his facts. So can this be our little secret?

"Sure thing." With that being said Maria walked away.

Once Maria was out of earshot Rico began to speak again "Ugh, talking about Adari like that made me want to vomit."