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Thump
"Ugh! Why does this person have to be so heavy?" Cale lamented as he dragged a man twice his size behind him.
"Need help?" A deep voice asked in amusement.
Cale froze. Was he caught? Why now of all times?
He turned towards the source of the voice, while making sure to keep his face down. Even though he always properly disguised himself when he went out for his "night time activities", he knew that small details like height and body language could be just as incriminating as a full colour photo for some people. He would know, after all, he was one of those people. He just hoped that he didn't meet someone from the mafia….…
He didn't plan on dying at the tender age of sixteen.
The black clad figure was a head taller than him, and wore an eye catching silver mask. Standing behind him was a black haired teenager who didn't look a day older than sixteen. He carried a full grown man—a dead body— on his shoulder.
Cale's pupils constricted. This was the Mafia King. The teenager behind him who didn't even bother to hide his face was Choi Han, the infamous right hand of the Mafia King.
Today was not his day. First, he got detention for sleeping in class, then he got an assassination mission to finish this pig like drug dealer who liked to take advantage of women and children. He had bombed the maths test today and he was sure he would do the same in his history test tomorrow.
And now, this .
'I have to escape from here first. Then I will lay low for some time and create a new identity so that nobody can find me.', he thought, trying to brainstorm ideas to escape this situation. He was at a disadvantage here.
"Well?"
What now?
Ah!
The Mafia King had asked him a question.
"...sure" Cale answered, trying to keep his tone light and casual. He had purposely changed his voice to make it high pitched.
The black haired king of the Underworld gestured his right hand man to pick up the body. The man or well, boy picked up the second dead body with ease and walked ahead as if he wasn't holding a burden more than thrice his weight.
It took less than half an hour to safely get rid of the corpses.
'Now comes the hard part', Cale thought to himself. He just hoped he could survive this encounter without injuries. After all, a leader of the mafia won't exactly cross paths with a 'normal' high school student, so he wasn't that worried about his identity being unraveled.
'Nyx', a famous mercenary who upholded justice by scamming, stealing and assassinating. Nobody knew who they were, but the popular consensus was that she was a young lady in her twenties who had never once failed the tasks she had taken. It wasn't easy to hire her. She was one of the best in this field, the cream of the crop.
This, combined with the fact that she always took tasks that targeted the scum of the society like rapists, murderers and corrupt politicians gave her the nickname of 'justice merc'. She was a dangerous enigma enshrouded in shadows, and the mysteries surrounding her were only second to the Mafia King himself.
Countless people had tried to figure out the mystery behind Nyx's identity , but all their efforts were in vain. It was as if she didn't exist in the world. People with an overly romantic imagination had started equating her to a fallen angel.
And that's exactly what Cale wanted. Why else would he expend so much of his energy and time to build an identity that never existed?
Yes. 'Nyx' was Cale's secret identity. He had deliberately made the people think that Nyx was a woman so that nobody connected the eldest trashy son of the CEO of Henituse conglomerate to a certain brown haired assassin cum mercenary.
"I never thought I'd be fortunate enough to meet the infamous Nyx during one of my routine walks", the mafia king sighed genially.
"........."
Cale couldn't help but remember the hulking corpse carried by Choi Han.
'...sure', he thought sarcastically, 'you probably brought that dead body from home because you were feeling lonely.'
He wracked his brain to find any information he had about the leader of the mafia. Little was known about this enigmatic man. Nobody, except his most trusted underlings, had seen his face. Well, nobody alive , at the very least. He always had a silver mask covering his face. His black hair and brown eyes were his only features visible. He was known to be ruthless, scheming and powerful. Due to his habit of working at night, people called him 'vampire' or more famously, 'the night prince'. Well, it was an apt nickname, after all, his enemies seldom lived long enough to see the light of the day.
Cale really hoped he wouldn't be counted as one of his enemies. You never know, one of the requirements to join the mafia is to have a few screws loose. He shuddered to think how mad the mafia king had to be to successfully garner the loyalty of his crazy subordinates.
"Well, I've heard a lot about you, Nyx. It's a pleasure to meet you." The mafia king smiled, looking more like a prince participating in a banquet than the king of the underworld who was out to kill his enemies.
"The pleasure is mine. After all, it's not everyday that people like us get to meet the king of the Underworld and his right hand man." Cale played along, nodding his head at Choi Han. The black haired boy remained silent and unresponsive.
'Well, how rude…..and scary', the poor red haired assassin thought to himself. He had to get out of here, right now. He didn't like to recklessly put himself in dangerous situations, and this situation was as close to a nightmare as it could get.
"I won't take too much of your time. Thank you for your help, but now I must go my way." Cale bowed, ready to jump away in case one of them attacked him.
For a few seconds, the teen and the masked man looked at each other, and then he turned to flee get back home.
"Wait."
For the second time this night, Cale froze.
"Why don't you join us, Nyx? That way you'll have an organization backing you, and we'll have another strong assassin. It's a win-win for both of us. Don't worry, we won't force you to do anything you don't want to do."
So a recruitment was what this was. It wasn't a coincidence that he'd met the mafia king today.
".... I'll…..think about it." Cale replied.
'Never', he thought.
"Now if you'll excuse me…" He bowed again and fled, trying not to make it too obvious that he was running from them. He'd survive this night and never use the identity of 'Nyx' again, he promised himself.
"Interesting" The mafia king smiled coldly.
Choi Han felt a shred of sympathy for Nyx. He hoped she didn't encounter any more harrowing events other than meeting his boss for the next few days. That was the least he could do, after all, she was doomed to be investigated by the king of the Underworld, who owned the largest information network in the Country of Roan. There was no way she'd be able to keep her identity intact after being seen through by him.
"Cale, I want you to meet Alberu Crossman, the son of Zed Crossman and your distant cousin. You may have met him before, after all, he attends the same high school as you!" Deruth Henituse introduced the blond haired and blue eyed boy who looked like a prince straight out of a fairy tale.
'Ugh!'
Cale had an urge to close his eyes to escape the blinding light reflected off Alberu Crossman's bright blonde hair which seemed to be made of literal gold.
However, he gritted his teeth and gave them a smile that seemed more like a grimace.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Cale Henituse." He bit out with an overly polite tone.
It had been a long day for him. He didn't get to sleep at night, for he was too busy completely erasing the identity of Nyx. He couldn't take any chances, not with the Mafia trying to recruit his alternate identity. He was lucky enough to survive his meeting with the mafia king, but he won't be as lucky the next time. It was better for Nyx to die.
He'd thought he'd get a shut-eye after erasing the traces he left in the Underworld, but his hopes crashed into the ground with the knock on his bedroom door. It was Ron, his butler, who had brought lemonade for him.
Cale hated sour things, but he had no way to refuse Ron, lest he be found dead in a ditch somewhere. He won't be safe in his own house after pissing off this old butler.
This 'genial' old man was Ron Molan, the infamous ex gangster who used to rule over the Eastern country before the mafia organisation called Arm managed to wipe out his gang. He'd found that out when he first entered the underworld, after all, the Molans were notorious assassins. And boy had it been a shock.
After starting this wonderful day with sour lemonade, he had gone to school, only to bomb the history test. Cale had a photographic memory, but he couldn't remember things he never saw. His history textbook was one of them. Then he had to attend this really stuffy party which was basically just socializing with fake smiles and barbed complements.
Let's be clear here, Cale strictly hated parties, especially parties with socializing. The only reason he even attended this hellish banquet was because Deruth had been particularly disappointed in him these days and he feared that he'd be disowned at this rate.
Alberu Crossman gave a friendly smile, acting like the perfect son and heir to a successful tycoon. Zed Crossman was the richest businessman in the country and Alberu was his chosen heir.
Cale knew perfectly well that the boy two years his senior wasn't what he looked like. He had a sharp, devious mind and a rather ruthless personality. He was the kind of person who would smile at you while plotting your destruction.
In short, he was similar to Cale, and the red haired teen did not like that fact. After all, it was difficult to fool smart people.
"The pleasure is mine. I've heard a lot about you. You are famous in the school for being rather…….. free spirited. " The young heir continued smiling politely.
Hah!
'Free spirited' was a gross understatement. A trashy spoilt brat was what he was. And everybody present there was privy to this piece of information.
Cale Henituse was a trash of a b*stard who liked drinking and fooling around in gaming centres. He never applied himself to anything and frequently got into drunken fights. Nobody respected him and neither did he have any dignity. He had terrorized the staff of the clubs owned by the Henituse Conglomerate. He was still underage, but it was a somewhat open secret among the upper echelons of the society that he frequented the clubs and bars owned by his family.
Cale had more than a few reasons to act like this:
- He didn't have to bear the burdens of expectations. Neither did he have to try hard for anything.
- He didn't have to act good in front of society. At the same time, people were so busy judging his spoilt personality that they didn't pay attention to what he actually did.
- Nobody connected his secret identity to himself.
- He didn't have to bear the burden of inheriting and working in a conglomerate. God knew it was just too much work. He kinda felt guilty for shoving all of the responsibilities on his younger step-brother while enjoying the benefits that came with being born rich, but he couldn't dedicate his life to such a boring task. Not to mention he hated being the face of an organization or dealing with the media.
- He wanted a quiet, peaceful and easy life where he could slack off and do anything he wanted.
And that is why he fanned the exaggerated rumors about his personality. So far, his plan was coming along nicely. Nobody had an inkling of the fact that he wasn't how he seemed to be. Everybody had given up on him, and that's what he wanted.
"I didn't know that the student council president knew about me. I feel so fortunate to have grabbed the attention of the star of our school! " Cale answered with a stupid and awed expression, behaving exactly like other students who fawned over the shining school prince. Inside his mind, he smiled spitefully. The council president wasn't the only person who could piss others off with sickly sweet words and polite behaviour.
Alberu's smile suddenly became a bit more fixed and polite, as if he knew that Cale was deliberately mocking him.
He probably did.
"........I was merely concerned about my distant cousin. It's a pity that you haven't joined any of the after school clubs. Ah! There's an open spot in the acting club. I could provide you with a reccomendation letter. You won't have to go to the auditions. After all, we both know you'll fit right in." Alberu retorted with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, seemingly unfazed to Cale's mockery.
"It's such a good thing that you're getting along so well. Cale doesn't have many friends his age. I hope you can guide him in the future." Deruth, bless his soul, couldn't see the invisible fight the two teens were having. He probably saw this as a friendly talk between a senior and a junior. Cale couldn't fault him, after all, for everybody except him and Alberu, it probably was a friendly talk.
As he stood there, bored with the pleasantries, he observed the blond heir.
His eyes and words felt overly familiar. It somehow reminded Cale of the mafia king he'd met last night. Now that he thought about it, even their voice and heights were similar.
He suddenly froze, as a terrifying thought came to his mind.
'No. It's not like every person with similar height and voice is the mafia king! Besides the mafia king had black hair and dark brown eyes.', a voice in his head said.
'Sure…... not! Did you forget? You use wigs when you go as Nyx too… if you weren't allergic to lenses, you'd have used coloured lenses too.' another voice piped up, shattering his hopes.
'No no no no' yet another voice chanted inside his head, utterly horrified. He couldn't believe that he had such bad luck.
"Alberu! There you are! I've been searching for you everywhere !" A black haired beautiful lady came to stand near the blond haired boy in his late teens.
Cale fought hard to stop himself from gasping or showing any other reaction. It was 'dark elf princess' Tasha, the ace of the mafia. She was famous for killing her victims in the most beautiful, clean and stylish way possible. The way she fought looked like a dangerous dance. There was only one person outside mafia who had seen her face and lived , though that may be because Tasha hadn't known that her identity had been revealed. And that person was now standing in front of her, trying to keep his emotions under control.
"This is my maternal aunt Tasha. She's……" As Alberu introduced his aunt, Cale surreptitiously glanced around the room, trying to find more members of the Mafia that he had somehow missed. He found two more high level mercenaries and one merchant who worked for the black market.
There was no way Alberu wasn't connected to mafia now. He was the unseen and mysterious leader of the mafia.
Cale kept a straight face, as if his brain cells hadn't just started a rebellion inside his head. He suddenly felt like screaming and throwing a tantrum. Why did he have to come across all kinds of dangerous secrets when he wasn't even interested?
'Do you want to sacrifice yourself?' A voice inside his head piped up.
'Of course not! ' He thought to himself. 'I'll have to act like my ususal self. For now, nobody has any idea about who I am beneath my guise as a spoilt brat. I just have to survive till the end of this godforsaken banquet.'
He couldn't leave the party like this, or somebody as observant as Alberu would notice that something was wrong with him. It would be better to stay in this party for a little longer.
"I'm a bit hungry. You see, I am a growing boy. I'll be going now." He rudely interrupted their conversation and swaggered to the dining hall without looking back. Years of acting like a b*astard were ingrained in him. He won't derail from his road just because of a 'little' shock.
For the rest of the party, he acted in his usual fashion, making sure that it wasn't too exaggerated. Every now and then, he'd feel a pair of eyes observing him, but he gave no indication of having noticed that he was being stared at. He dedicatedly chewed his food, even though he couldn't taste it due to the stress and adrenaline pumping in his veins.
Finally, the party came to an end and the guests started leaving one by one. The Crossman family was one of the first to go, but sadly, that didn't end Cale's suffering.
"You're invited to my graduation party. Please do come." Alberu threw this bombshell of an invitation at Cale without any warning before he left.
The slacker teen felt like crying and laughing at the same time. So much for surviving this party.
"I don't like parties." He replied to this invitation.
"And yet, here we are. Don't refuse your hyung. I'll be waiting."
And without so much as a by your leave or even rest in peace , Alberu Crossman left the party with a satisfied smile on his face.
"I'll remember this. Don't think that you won. If I didn't make you regret your choice then I have no right to be called a trashy brat." Cale seethed as he unwillingly accepted this challenge.
He would definitely win this time.