Being greeted by Daphne and not greeting her first made Orion's heart full of hope. Not the hope that Daphne would be his - he was sure this was going to happen, whether she liked or not, because their parents were desperately trying to marry her. The hope filling Orion' soul  up was of a different type, was that the young girl could be a different kind of woman, not the one who accepted every order without questioning and was specialized in sucking the pleasure out of a man's erection. Orion had already a harem full of women of that kind and what sparkled his appetite for the young Daphne was exactly the expectation that she was different.<br/><br/>Kneeling before her once more, after taking the other rose from his lapel, Orion stretched his calloused hands and held Daphne's fingers firmly. With his eyes smiling as if he were a young teenager seeing passion for the first time - Orion had no difficulty in roleplaying that for the first time, since his life never allowed him the luxury of a teenager's love -, he said.<br/><br/><strong>"I was enjoying the accommodations very much in the company of Eirene, but I was forced to leave her behind as your shining presence entered this house"</strong>, Orion grinned with satisfaction, leaving out the word Mistress deliberately, because he had no Master, let alone a Mistress. He was a free man. As she held the rose, the tradesman rose slowly, wondering whether the eyes laid upon Daphne, by far the prettiest female in the party, were exclusively masculine or whether females or more specifically one female's pair of eyes were looking at his Daphne.<br/><br/>Indeed, the display of romanticism stroke everyone's attention in the party. Even though his eyes were solely interested in Daphne's soft semblance, with the corner of his eyes Orion could see the sheer satisfaction in her parents' wide smile. For a brief moment, he realized the relieved expression in them, as if they were thinking to themselves that Daphne could not say no to a man like Orion. That was the sign he needed to move on.<br/><br/><strong>"Why don't you finish showing me the accommodations? I bet you have quite a good knowledge about the house"</strong>.<br/><br/>In no time, his right arm engulfed Daphne's left one, dragging her away from the door. By then, Eirene was no longer standing in the same place as before. Where was she? Orion was hunting two women, not only Daphne, even though he believed none of them suspected of hisreal intentions. Shortly after, Orion and Daphne reached a small group, in which he recognized one of his old bullies. Agamemnon continued quite the same: strong, but short, he was the kind always popular among girls and boys, holding his cup of wine as if he did not care about the people nxt to him. Fearing him no longer, Orion's scientific curiosity required the Alexandrian tradesman to stop by and engage in a conversation after a brief introduction.<br/><br/><strong>"I see Daphne has finally found a good man. Everyone thought no man was good enough for her"</strong>, Agamemnon spoke with a hidden sarcasm, raising one glass to offer Orion a toast in a clear display of vulgarity towards the female gender. Taken by surprise, Orion saw nothing had changed in the bastard. Luckily, he had no glass of wine, so Agamemnon was saved from being wetted by the red liquid. To show his respect for Daphne, he held her hand strongly, unaware whether she had understood the indirect meaning of Agamemnon's offense. He did not care about Agamemnon' words, but he worried about how his Daphne could have.<br/><br/>To his greatest surprise, Agamemnon was not over.<br/><br/><strong>"Since Socrates' times, this city has been contaminated with the pernicious influence of those advocating against the natural order, specially among women"</strong>, Agamemnon spoke pretending to be academic.<strong>"This has been the cause of Athens'  decadence"</strong>, he concluded.<br/><br/><strong>"Allow me to disagree. The cause of this city's dismal situation cannot be laid upon what goes on between four walls. The quality of the public men, the men like you, is far worse than in Pericles' times!"</strong>, Orion spoke calmly.<strong>"Hypocrisy has been the rule. See your case. When in the academia, you were always more interested in boys than in girls. I suspect this is the source of the bad days in this city. The Romans have actually spared the city from a worse fate"</strong>, he added fearlessly of whatever Agamemnon could do to him.