–––Narrator’s POV–––
After Lith left the office, the chubby man in blue suit lit up another cigar and taking a puff, he said with a smile,
“Did I just jinx this Relz Khiv? Just yesterday I thought about how long he may live and now here we are, a man just came and asked me for his details. What coincidence is this? Haha.
An Amethyst Card Holder going after a Gold Card Holder, this hasn’t happened in such a long time. The job of handling members with gold cards and above sure is interesting.”
…..
Walking out of the Nine Roses hotel, Lith muttered to himself while stretching his hands and neck,
“Now then, Poor Man’s district, is it? Neutral continent is supposed to be peaceful, but here I am, going on an assassination. The world sure is crazy.”
Lith stepped outside the hotel premises and took out his phone from his pocket. He looked online for a ride to the Poor Man’s district and found a list of options. He said, looking at them,
“Heh. Why would I order a cab here when there’re carriages available? Plus, I remember roaming the streets of Evernight with mom and sis in a carriage. It was so cool. But aw man, now that I look back, that’s the only time I’ve been on a carriage.
The next time I go back home, I am roaming with big sis and mom again in our carriage, hehe. Anyway, I should order now.”
Lith entered his location and destination and was then asked to pay using his phone.
“Oh wow, there’s an option for online payment too.” Lith said in amazement as he looked at the online payment options.
He took out his card from his ring and filled in the necessary details. It took just a few minutes to do so and finally he booked a carriage for himself.
A few minutes later, the carriage arrived and Lith hopped in. They then set off to Lith’s destination.
Poor man’s district, Kezro city.
Lith got off of his carriage near a restaurant which wasn’t too expensive nor too cheap and walked towards it without bothering to pay the carriage driver any money. Going into the restaurant, he sat in a window seat and ordered himself a cup of tea and a small cheesecake.
‘According to the details, the target should be here in a few minutes. I wonder how accurate the documents are.’ Lith thought to himself while sipping on his tea.
He had read the documents about this mission while he was travelling and also formulated a simple plan for the assassination.
‘I can’t carry out anything in the open. This is the Neutral Continent and fighting is prohibited here. Though in the Scelestus documents, it was said that the organization will handle the aftermath, I don’t know how trustworthy that organization is. It’s hard to trust an organization that harbors so many assassins.
I’ll just watch for now and act accordingly later. The target should be here any minute now.’ Lith thought to himself.
Just as he had thought, within a few minutes, the door of the restaurant opened and a lean man in a goatee and curly hair walked inside wearing high top boots, blue jeans, a black shirt with a brown jacket and a black fedora while holding a sword in his hand.
There were four more people behind him and they too, were carrying a weapon with them. The curly-haired man walked to the billing counter and said to the cashier,
“Lass, call your owner.”
The cashier nodded her head and sprinted to the kitchen of the hotel. Lith looked at this scene calmly and thought to himself,
‘Their dressing sense and overall style are so dumb. I wonder how people are taking these local goons seriously.’
Soon, a fat bald man wearing a white coat and gray pants with an apron on top of them walked out of the kitchen room and headed to the billing counter. He looked at the goons and said, turning to the curly-haired guy,
“Mokil, I won’t pay a single coin to you. Get lost.”
The curly-haired guy, Mokil, raised his sword a little and said playing with it to the owner,
“Fatty, people will misunderstand you if you put it like that. I am only here to take what rightfully is mine. I give you protection and you pay me for it. It’s a fair trade.”
The owner slammed his hands on the counter and said,
“Protection from who? We are in the Neutral Continent. Don’t bullshit me. You sent your own goons to my place and you’re asking me to pay to save me from those goons. Fuck your scam and fuck you. Go fuck yourself. I am not paying a single coin.”
“My, my, look at you screaming like a pig getting butchered. I haven’t even said anything to you.” Mokil said to the owner and touching the sword’s blade with his finger, he turned to a person beside him and asked,
“Korkas, have you ever wondered how sharp this blade is? I don’t know about you, but I always wonder about it. This sword never had the chance to get used. Hmm, do you want to see its power?”
“Yes, boss.” The person beside him said loudly, without thinking twice.
Mokil looked at the owner with narrowed eyes and said in a neutral tone with a creepy smile, “fatty, you said something about the Neutral Continent right? Do you know who my brother is? Kekeke, if you don’t, let me just tell you. He works directly under the supervisor of one of the council members.
Did you really think that the Neutral Continent is truly Neutral? Anyway, enough nonsense now. I’ll give you one minute to hand out 100 gold coins or just a measly amethyst coin, and I’ll let you free.”
“Fuck you.” The owner said and showed a middle finger to Mokil.
‘Oh wow, there’s a tradition of showing your middle finger over here too?’ Lith thought to himself as he looked at the scene a few meters away while sipping his tea.
Mokil held his fedora with one hand, sword in another, sighed and said, “good grief…”
BAM!
The owner was sent flying before Mokil even finished his words. The people present in the restaurant were shocked looking at such a scene. They thought it was just a minor conflict and the goon that came was just spouting false things.
However, him openly hitting a person here in Neutral Continent now showed that he may have something to back his words up. As he said before, he may actually have some big shot brother. This was what the people thought.
They all got up from their seats and were about to exit when Mokil snapped his fingers and shut the exit door. He looked at the customers of the restaurant and said with a creepy smile,
“You all had the chance to move out at the time I came. Yet you didn’t. It clearly shows that you bunch have no fear for your life. I understand though. Can’t blame you. This is the Neutral Continent and everybody lives their daily lives with their guard down.
Anyway, your time is up and so is your chance to go out. None of you can leave without paying 1 gold coin. Oh right, you can save yourself the trouble of paying and just make this fatty cough up an amethyst coin and we all will be gone. Kekeke.”
The people in the hotel all were in deep thoughts on what they could do. They were all of a low rank and didn’t have the strength to fight Mokil. Judging by how he sent the owner flying, Mokil must definitely be someone of rank 4 or above. This is what everyone thought.
A knight of rank 6 was the highest rank present in the Poor Man’s district. His job as the district’s overseer was to ensure that the district was always in order and free of conflict.
Everyone realized he must have been bought because Mokil had a gang and was openly looting a business. Nobody thought Mokil could be any higher than rank 6 because there was only one in the entire district.
Lith calmly looked at the scene unfolding in front of him. He wasn’t worried at all. Although he was a rank 2, his prowess rivaled a rank 5 and he could easily defeat a rank 4 if he wanted. Thus, he wasn’t worried much about it.
“C’mon. What are you all thinking? I really am a man of my words. None of ya’ll can leave until I either get 1 gold coin from everyone present or 1 amethyst coin from this fatty. Be quick.” Mokil yelled, looking at the crowd.
The crowd went into a discussion and after a few moments, a person stepped in front and said,
“Mr. Owner, you should pay him and let this matter close. Think about us, your loyal customers. We just wanted to have our lunch here, but see how everything turned out. We weren’t even at fault but were still dragged into this. Please do something.”
“Yes, Mr. Owner, please do something.” Another person stepped ahead and said to the owner, who was sitting with his back against the wall, his face bloodied.
“Yes, Mr. Owner, please do something!” Everyone said in unison to the wounded owner, without giving a care for his health.
Lith looked at the scene and sighed. People were just too selfish sometimes. But nothing can be done about it. When there’s a powerful person present, what the weak people could do was to band together like sheep and follow the orders of the powerful shepherd present.