Chapter 19: First step?

Yesterday was an insane night. After all the drama that took place, we returned to the mansion where I was allowed to rest and get my injuries treated by Sasha. Although in immense pain, I still slept like a log that night.

I found out that Velaris is the son of the man who owns this entire criminal syndicate. He is also among one of the greatest crime leaders in the crime world.

"So this means Velaris is the heir to this criminal organization?" I asked them when we were still in the car.

"He is but his father won't be making him his successor." Maurin replies. "Vel's lost his favor. He says Vel's too soft and weak, HA." He laughs at Velaris.

"Weak? Isn't Velaris literally the strongest soldier in the organization?" I ask, surprised.

"But apparently, that isn't enough for our father." Velaris remarks in spite. "He will be leaving everything to Maurin."

"What the?! Why, though? Wait, are you two brothers?!" My imagination runs wild.

"We aren't related by blood. But Velaris's father brought me in when I was a child and raised me as his own." Maurin clears my confusion. "We might not be related by blood but I'm basically the favorite child." He smirks proudly. "And you can call us the prince of the Underworld!"

"Princes." Velaris corrects.

"What?"

"The plural of prince is princes."

"No it's not! Princess is female. We are men so it's 'prince'." Maurin disagrees.

"I'm saying the plural of prince is 'princes' with one 's' and the plural of princess is 'princesses'. Get your words straight man, it's annoying." Velaris argues back.

"Will you two shut up? How can you argue about something so ridiculous?" I interrupt, annoyed at their childishness.

"Yea, Vel! Stop being childish. Let's just call ourselves kings instead."

Maurin proposes casually. And Velaris and I both give him the side eye. He's the one being childish.

"A moment of silence, please, for this poor soul's intelligence." Velaris exclaims dramatically while pointing at Maurin and I almost blurt out laughing, almost, but I held back. Although I'm sure they both saw me snicker a little.

***

The next day…

I wake exhausted and in pain from the previous night and the first thing I'm told is that Maurin wants to see me.

"Great! Not how I wanna start my morning."

I go to Maurin's office where he greets me with a big and wide smile, clearly excited to see me.

"I've called you here to pay you for a job well done!" He grins and hands me a pretty little black bag.

"What's this?" I opened it to find a huge amount of money inside.

"It's $8000 dollars. Your payment for the assassination Mayonnaise dude." I look at him shocked. "I told you I keep my word right?! And I always make sure to give my people their well deserved payment." He claps his hands and says, "Well, this is your first step forward in your goal I guess…You seem really surprised."

"Of course I am! It's $8000!"

"Well, you've got money now. Use it however you'd like. Oh but lemme remind you, you won't be able to set free your slave friends with that money, in case that's what you were thinking. That money's never gonna be enough for that."

He reminds me of my helplessness and I wonder how much it actually takes to buy out slaves.

"Alright then, if there's nothing else I'll take my leave."

I return to my room and I'm basically free for the rest of the day, except for my evening training session with Velaris, all I do is sit around and wait for orders. I place the pretty bag of money on the table and wonder what I should do with so much money. In the past I would have taken all my friends out to have a wonderful meal but I can't do that anymore.

"Oh right! I could use this to buy some food and other stuff and send them to sclavus urbs. It's winter and the days and nights are gonna get unbearably cold. I should buy some blankets." I tell myself. But how can I send this to the slave district? Will I even be allowed to leave this mansion? Maurin did say I could do anything with this money other than free slaves. Perhaps I should talk to him. After all, I'll need some sort of special permission if I'm gonna send something to my friends.

***

During the evening training session with Velaris…

He's teaching me some close combat fighting. He's really harsh when it comes to training. These guys have no mercy whatsoever, I'd hoped the training would be less straining considering my arm is in terrible condition but it was foolish of me. He clearly couldn't care less.

He tells me to come at him, attack him and when I get closer, he grabs hold of my left arm, throws me over his shoulder and I fall hard on the foam mattress we use for training.

"AUGH! Hah!" I gasp in pain and the shock of falling so suddenly. "Ouch! Hey…I know we're training but can't you go a bit easier? You'll render my arm so useless, we're gonna have to amputate it!"

"It isn't the time to take things easy! You're weak! You were lucky you weren't killed this time but you need to be fully prepared and be able to fight perfectly next time you find yourself in such a situation."

He says as he stands there in the sunlight.

The sunlight highlighting his gorgeous features. His hair tied in a bun, now ruffled and messed up, just like how he always does when he's training.

And after a sigh, he says, "Besides, your arm might be hurt badly but it isn't bad enough to need amputation. And this could serve as training to build up pain tolerance."

"Yea." I say, cause he was right. I need to get stronger. And then I sit straight and ask him hoping I'll get acknowledged for my efforts, "But do you not think I'm getting better at all this fighting thing?"

"Better?!" He scoffs and chuckles. "Your skills are on par with a blindfolded chicken playing hopscotch!"

"What the!? Are you seriously saying I'm no better than a chicken?!" I let go and slam back on the foam mattress.

Once again it was foolish of me to ask such a question. But I still had something more I wanted to ask. I decided to ask Velaris instead of Maurin cause he's somewhat easier to talk to.

"Hey…um…I received my payment for the assassination…And Maurin said I could do whatever I want with it. So I was wondering if I wanted to go to the market and buy some stuff to give to my friends in sclavus urbs, would I be allowed to?"

He looks my way as he bandages his hands up for boxing. He's slightly surprised I asked him something like this.

"Well if you get permission from Maurin, you can. Since Maurin is the one who has authority over all the affairs concerning sclavus urbs and anything related to it. But it depends what it is that you want to send."

"It's nothing much, just bread and stuff, like some blankets, perhaps."

"The guards there aren't gonna like slaves enjoying comfort."

"But they are humans too! And the slaves too feel hungry and cold!" I end up raising my voice slightly at him.

He looks at me with those dark eyes that make me feel like untold stories lie in them. I thought he'd get angry at me for raising my voice at him, just like other people here do but he doesn't. His gaze is strange, it's almost gentle. His eyes were so deep I could stare into them forever.

And he simply says,

"I'm aware they're human too. So if you wanna do something for them. We can talk to Maurin about it and he'll probably allow it."

'We' he said…This means he's willing to help me help the slaves. I know I shouldn't have any expectations or any sort of hope from these criminals but I sometimes feel Velaris might not be all that bad.

The next day, we went to talk to Maurin about it.

"And why should I allow that?" He replied coldly. "I am in charge of the slave district and I think they're living well enough. There's no need to spoil them." He smirks.

Well enough? Living well enough? How dare he?!

"Winter is approaching more fiercely and they might not survive. They barely have any food, or clothing! Besides, you told me to do whatever I want with my money. And this is what I want to do!"

"And what do I get out of this? It's actually gonna look bad for me if I allow this. They'll say I've grown softer on the slaves."

I don't really know how to respond…cause in their eyes, spending money on slaves was a waste.

"You'd get better workers. If they have better living conditions. They'll work better." He doesn't seem satisfied with my answer.

"And you'll have a favor to hold over my head.

Listen, I'm…I'm not asking for something unreasonable. Just please, do this for me and I'll..I'll be of great use to you."

He contemplates it and finally agrees. It seems he only wanted to see me flustered.

I visited the city market with Sasha that evening. It was a beautiful and vibrant city. Quite the opposite of sclavus urbs. The city was thriving and bustling with people. Everything and everyone seemed to be luxurious and living quite happily. Unaware or perhaps uncaring of the atrocities slaves live in just a little distance away from this pretty city.

We bought the things we needed, bread, blankets and other bare necessities. I came across pretty trinkets in the stalls of the market, it reminded me of the vintage shop we visited during the college trip. They also had pretty keychains and unique daggers. Old me would have definitely bought them. But I didn't. Sasha told me to buy something for myself.

"After all, you earned this money. You should reward yourself."

But I didn't really want anything.

***

We visited sclavus urbs the next day. I was excited to meet my friends after quite some time. But I was also scared. I basically left the town against their wishes. I kinda abandoned them in that hellhole. I wonder if they'd be happy to see me. But I was also scared because Velaris and Maurin were accompanying me and they weren't really welcome by the slaves. Maurin said he had some matters to attend to there.

And I think everyone would hate to see that I'm working with the ones who made us love this nightmare. I might be considered a traitor.

Coming back to sclavus urbs for a little while with some supplies to help everyone live a little bit better was gonna be my first step in creating a difference...but I messed up.

And my fears eventually proved true. Although they were originally happy to see me. I ended up doing something crazy there. Something that truly made them feel betrayed. I did something even I wouldn't have imagined I'd do. I was faced with a serious choice.

And I chose Maurin over my friends.