10 The Second Odyssey(4)
Standing on top of his residence that was the tallest building in the town, Al watched, grinning, as a flood of people flowed in different directions, like a river being split to make the best use of it.
'Good luck starting a revolution now, hero. A month is all I have. What do I care if all the money in the vault is emptied by the time I leave? I really don't know how others don't think of this…'
He imagined the hero cursing him and complaining that he wasn't playing to the rules, but according to him, rules were just doors waiting to be broken into. Behind each was a treasure waiting for the one bold enough to claim it, and right now, he felt like the boldest of them all.
He was so happy with the results that a deep laugh burst forth from his lips. It echoed over the roof, washing over the gang of underlings behind him who flinched in response, and shied away.
Turning around, he noticed this and said "Isn't it beautiful? Don't you all want to go join them, too?"
Three out of the ten present took the bait.
"If…if that's okay with you, boss!"
"Yes! Definitely! What if all the wine is gone?"
"And what if all the women are too exhausted later?"
Without giving them an answer, he just stared.
The silence between them seemed to grow louder and louder until it was too deafening to bear. Those who hadn't spoken all slunk away from these three, understanding that they had sealed their fate, and slowly, this dawned on them, too.
"Sorry, boss! I don't wanna go!"
"Yes, I just want to stay here!"
"Yeah…pschhh. Who cares about wine or women? All I care about is being with the boss!"
That last line almost made Al stumble. It could be construed in a different way, but remembering that this was stereotypical medieval England, he put away the thought and said, "I'm docking a month's pay for the three of you. This is only because I'm a good mood. If that wasn't the case…"
He let the sentence stretch, and as the words drifted in the air, the three fell to their knees and began to blabber hastily constructed apologies. Waving his hand to stop them, he looked to the others and said, "The four closest to the door can go and enjoy the women and wine that I've commandeered for the mayor's pleasure before making the announcement. Enjoy. But when you're done… come back with renewed focus and energy. When you do, the other three will take your place. Only these three will remain by my side, unchanged, day and night, until they collapse. Understood?"
The faces of the four who would be leaving lit up like Christmas trees. They nodded excitedly, and in barely a second, they were gone.
The three who would be going later looked in their direction wistfully, but after that, they turned to Al and came closer. From this move, he could tell that he had achieved his goal.
'Those four will go tell the others about how gracious I am… and these three will be more attentive than ever while they stand guard. After all, if I'm gone, won't everything I've done disappear, too? Even when the others return, they will maintain the same alertness. I've made my guards better… but is it enough?'
He had no answer for the question, so he shrugged and put it aside. He had done the best he could, and from the clichéd actions of the hero he had seen so far, he suspected that he might not have too much to fear.
He wondered whether he was too happy with what he had done, but he shrugged away this thought, too. After all, why not take pride in his ideas? When they had come to him, it had even felt as if this was his calling in life… and it was a feeling he still cherished. The same had happened during the first odyssey, too, so all the doubts that he had had before about whether this was the path for him had vanished, leaving behind excitement for the future and the zeal to excel in each and every one of his odysseys.
He turned back to the town and gazed at the townsfolk engaging in debauchery. It was a beautiful sight. Like others at his age, Al was well-read in the topic of the pleasure of the flesh. But where other teenagers perused the internet that still stood strong after the descent of the gods, all of his material was from the books that had been his life. That wasn't to say that he hadn't seen images of what they had been talking about… but his background had made it so that something embarrassing happened every time he came face-to-face with the topic that was most interesting to most his age, at least before those beings had descended from the skies.
The moment he entered the second floor of his residence, the exact thing he had been thinking about happened.
The mayor's residence was a large two-story building built with stone, for the most part. It was one of the oldest structures in the entire town, dating back a hundred years, at least, if the books he had read a few hours ago were to be believed. Each floor was large enough for a hundred people to stand in. Meant for audiences, the bottom floor was open, whereas the top was for him to reside on. Multiple rooms had been built out of wood, and just now, he had come upon one of them whose door was ajar.
Inside, two men could be seen taking pleasure from a woman. She was completely naked; her plump breasts were being squashed by the greedy hands of one of the men on whom she lay, and the other who was behind her was avidly humping away, oblivious about the fact that his boss was standing a few feet away. The woman was at least forty years old. There were stretch marks on her stomach typical to childbirth, and her flesh sagged here and there. The make-up on her face was cheap, but none of these things stopped the two from engaging in the task that many in the town had definitely lost themselves in by now.
Al had frozen, completely, and if the others could see his face, they would have marveled about how it went as red as a tomato. At the same time, his eyes popped, and his lips flapped against each other noiselessly. It was almost as if half of him wanted to keep looking while the other half was disgusted and wanted to turn away, and this fight between the two left him unmoving.
The same had happened during the first odyssey, too, when he had set one of the traps for the hero. It had almost made him lose the cool persona he had donned, but thankfully, just like then, the mask came to his rescue. No one knew that underneath it, he was just an awkward 18-year-old fascinated by this new world he felt he had learned so much about but never experienced, and so, they interpreted the silence in their own way.
Interrupting the squeals of the three, one of the underlings behind him coughed. He clearly wanted to let them know that they had forgotten to close the door, and as soon as they understood that they had an audience, the two men stopped what they were doing.
The woman laughed, though, and said, "Come join us! I would like to show my thanks for doubling the pay for all of us, my lord…"
She blew a kiss in his direction, and it was too much for Al to bear. Knowing that he did not want to stay and find out the next stage of his embarrassment, he abruptly turned around, and after mumbling that he still needed a way to bring the woman of the town to his side, he shot off in the direction of his study.
