"First, let me introduce our new member. He's rather special, so I hope everyone will treat him well." Amber introduced Jiu Ming to several Evening Primrose members who had arrived. Compared to her expression, their reactions were generally cold, as though she had said nothing at all.
Amber did not seem to care much about the members' attitudes either.
"Hey, hey, your authority doesn't seem all that high," Jiu Ming said under his breath.
The Contractor members who had looked at Jiu Ming once and then withdrawn their gazes turned back to him because of that remark. One of them, a white teenage boy with heterochromatic eyes holding a cup of hot milk, stared at Jiu Ming for quite a while. "Amber, who is he? You actually brought him here yourself?"
For some reason, he seemed hostile toward Jiu Ming. The corner of Jiu Ming's mouth twitched slightly. Were Contractors all this strange? Hostile toward someone they had just met? The others might have been indifferent, but they had not reacted like this.
"Someone quite important," Amber replied with a soft smile. The moment she said that, Jiu Ming felt the heterochromatic boy's hostility toward him deepen. It really came out of nowhere.
"Hello. My name is Maki." A shadow briefly crossed his expression before he nodded and extended a hand to Jiu Ming.
"Jiu Ming."
A handshake... After withdrawing his hand, Jiu Ming looked at his sleeve. He did not know whether it had been intentional or not, but at the instant they shook hands, Maki had brushed against his sleeve.
"All right. Since he's a new member Amber brought in, there's nothing more to say." A somewhat plump man with brown hair spoke in a low voice. "Don't you need to rest? There's still some time until dawn."