Chapter 1

Kian Astor, an unfamiliar name to the public yet someone a powerful family fears. He was someone shunned upon, ignored and thrown away. Being an illegitimate child of a powerful family, his father found him a disgrace and refused to acknowledge him. Kian was someone who's faced many misfortunes in life and someone who had to fend for themselves. Working multiple degrading jobs for food, many sleepless nights for a scholarship and many stays in the hospital as he watched his mother slowly die.

In the present, he was living alone with no support from anyone. Working many different jobs such as cashiers, waiters, tutor and so on as compared to what he used to do before.

Was he overworked? Yes. But is he managing?.. yes somehow. After his mother died in his arms, that's when he knew he wanted to save people. So that's what he was doing, he was in his 3rd year of college studying premed in chemistry in one of the top universities.

Kian was known to be kind, responsible, and approachable. He had many friends and almost everyone wanted to be close to him.

He was your typical kind and smart pretty boy and that was also how the girls in his class would label him as.

He was in his last class, taking notes and listening when a teacher knocked on the door, calling for him and he was excused. He goes over to the teacher "Kian, there will be a guest lecturer after class, do you mind getting some papers for me? Bring it to the big classroom down the hall" she says, instructing him where and what papers to get before Kian headed over to get them.

Kian went over to get the papers, making sure he got everything before heading back. Classes should be done by now and students started to enter the big classroom, looking amused and some girls blushing at the sight of the guest lecturer. The teacher from earlier had also entered and briefed the man while checking the time as she waits for Kian.

Just as it was scheduled to start, Kian arrived, slowly entering and walking over to the teacher, handing her the papers "sorry for the delay".

The teacher simply smiled. "No no it's alright, thank you Kian. Mr. Fell, here you go. If you need anymore assistance you may call for me, I'll be seated with my class" she walks off along with Kian. Kian took a look at the man, looking him and and down.

Arsen Fell, he came from a long line of aristocrats and naturally inherited the family business.

He seemed to be tired, contrary to how he might appear, he honestly didn't look like he wanted to be here but then again it wouldn't have looked good for him to decline speaking at his alma mater. Especially when this man's corporate offices were less than a mile from the place. It would have been damaging to his carefully curated reputation. Kian could tell he put meticulous effort into putting himself together in the mornings, as even this late into the afternoon his three piece-suit was pristinely pressed. His hair, a deep brown, was styled in an artfully casual-yet-professional way that would take a solid forty minutes to achieve. Kian had thought the man would look better if it was messed up. Kian managed to notice the look of impatience in the man's face earlier when he handed the syllabus.

Seeing that, Kian resisted the urge to scoff. He seemed too perfect to be true. Too pleasing to the eye and trying too hard to be perfect. He hated people like that.

He went over to sit beside his friend, Arno, who had asked him what he was called for in which Kian simply answered them. Kian was pretty well known in school. People may say he was even friends with everyone and the teachers evidently favored him too.

Eventually, everyone turned their heads as the man began.

~~

Arsen was getting rapidly caught up to speed on what he frankly thought was a terrible lesson plan. But he couldn't let that show. He'd signed the contract, after all, and if there was no way out of it he might as well at least complete it with some modicum of grace. A student who looked vaguely familiar, though Weiss couldn't put his finger on why, delivered the hardcopies of the lesson plan.

"Thank you," he said warmly, though it didn't quite reach his eyes.

When the clock hand hit the hour Arsen began the lecture, a dramatized retelling of the founding story of his family's most well known company, the Fell Corporation.

The lecture series was evidently supposed to cover how they had established, developed, then grown their business into the well known business empire that it was currently known as. Throughout the lecture his eyes drifted towards that somewhat familiar face, still not quite able to place it.

"Alright, well, I'll be returning for lecture two weeks from today, same time, same place. Once again, I am not a professor, please call me Arsen. Anyone have questions?"

With half lidded eyes, Kian listened to the lesson. He wasn't exactly interested on the topic but still somewhat listened and catching on what he says. Other students however paid close attention, having been given a once in a life time opportunity to listen to him as some if not most may even be idolizing him.

As the lecture was coming to a close, at the mention of if there were any questions, many raised their hands and would get up and ask when called. They mostly raised some problems and asked for advice and tips and on what credibility they take in to hire and so on.

After a few have raised their questions, Kian also raised his hand. He was called and so he stood up. However that may have been a grave mistake.

"If I may, sir, which company would you say rivals your own?"

The first handful of questions were easy enough and Arsen fielded them without having to think about them very much. Arsen took a moment before he answered the question to process how he should handle it. Should he just give a line about how wonderful his myriad of competitors, no matter how big or small, were? It was a tempting cop out, but Arsen was verging on tired. He was in no mood to blow ingratiating smoke up anyone's ass. So instead he leaned in to the question. "Of course, the marketplace is always evolving and I would hardly say we're the top dog. In today's economy, ranking information changes constantly, but we most frequently trade places with the Elrod Group. As many of you know, we serve fairly similar markets and products but healthy competition is what drives innovation in any industry. Does that help?"

As Arsen was answering the question, Kian's close friend, Arno glances at the male beside him as if checking on him. With that, Kian nods "I see, only healthy competition." He briefly repeats what the man said before smiling and continuing "Yes, thank you for answering my curiosity" he starts, "however, as of now, the Elrod group has been in number 1 for some time now. I hear the Fell corporation is struggling to have higher marketing? What can you say that the Elrod group has that you don't?" He smiles a little innocently as Arno turns to look at him again with a confused look but Kian ignored it and kept eye contact with Arsen.

Arsen smiled warmly, willing himself not to react. He would have done anything to be able to leave right then and there, or to be allowed to say the real answer, which was that the Fell group had the vast majority of its business in the criminal underworld so of course they were never going to be able to compete. They needed to keep their financial picture under wraps.

"Well, if I knew, Fell Co. probably would've taken that spot, right?" he said amiably. He paused. It would've been smart to stop there, but this student was making this feel awfully confrontational. "I suppose keeping several mistresses keeps their CEO highly motivated."

At his first answer, Kian lets out a small nod, understanding his point. He was about to speak again when Arsen continued and this time, Kian was the one trying not to react. However, he was visibly shaken and Arno's gaze immediately went to look away at the tension.

Kian could only stay silent for a bit after that statement before composing himself. "Well, I guess so. Why don't you try doing the same?" And with that the teacher got in between them, coughing awkwardly to ease the tension. "I think we should stop there, apologies but please refrain from making controversial statements" she says before calling for another student.

Kian sat down with a neutral expression, looking as if he wasn't bothered by the events however Arno gently nudged at him "why'd you do that" his friend whispers and Kian looks at him, smiling "I was curious"

By the time the teacher interjected Arsen was still managing to maintain his public persona and only chuckled politely at Kian's answer. However, his nails were digging into his palms so that he didn't do what he wanted to do and throw something, but the teacher interjected and spared both he and the student from further spectacle. "I'm clearly new to this," he said with a self-deprecating chuckle. "I'll try not to make things too interesting in the future." He only had it in him to field a handful of more questions before he had to call it a day. "I'm afraid that's all the time I have today, feel free to email your professor with any further questions or write them down for next time. Have a good evening, everyone."

He didn't linger in the classroom for even a moment because he needed a drink, now. Who the hell was that kid? Was he some sort of plant from Elrod? He called his driver once he hit the hallway, booking it towards the exit. "Javi, I'll be out in about two minutes. Take me directly to The Parlor," he instructed. The Parlor was one of the many unregistered businesses that Fell company sponsored behind the scenes. A mixture of a bar and a backhouse brothel just shady enough that he didn't need to worry about keeping up appearances, since the only ones frequenting it were themselves in the underground business.