“Speaking of which, how was the haul this time? You must've made a fortune, huh?”
“Ha, a haul?”
The scarred man sneered, shooting Zev a sidelong glance.
“Why don't you ask him?”
Somewhat surprised, the one-eyed man looked at the scarred man, then back to Zev, and said in astonishment, “No way.”
“You screwed up—”
Zev's expression soured. “It was an accident!”
“An accident, you say? Hehehe!”
The one-eyed man clearly didn't believe him. He chuckled mockingly and said, “No wonder the Boss sent me a message telling you to report to headquarters the moment you returned to the city. I was wondering what kind of great achievement you had accomplished that the Boss wanted to reward you in person. Turns out, it was this kind of 'achievement'!”
Hearing this, Zev's eyes widened. His face went pale, and his legs began to tremble.
“No... No way. You're joking with me, right?”
“Heh!” the one-eyed man sneered disdainfully. “To use his words from earlier, when have you ever seen me joke about the Boss?”
Upon hearing this, Zev collapsed directly to the floor.
“The... The Boss isn't really going to kill me, is he?!”
“Hehehe!” The scarred man gloated with a laugh. “Don't worry. You still owe the organization money, so the Boss wouldn't bear to kill you. At most, he'll just skin you alive! Hahaha!”
Hearing this, the one-eyed man also burst into laughter.
For a moment, the room was filled with laughter, save for Zev, who sat on the floor with a face full of despair.
Seeing that Zev was taking forever to recover, the one-eyed man spoke up, “Alright, how long are you going to sit there? My place isn't a confessional. News of your return has probably already reached the Boss's ears. Are you sure you want to keep sitting there?”
Upon hearing this, Zev was instantly startled and leaped up from the floor.
“I'm leaving right now! I'm heading to headquarters!”
With that, he rushed out of the room in a frantic panic.
After leaving the three-story building, Zev turned a few corners and hopped onto a cargo carriage.
“To the docks!”
In his anxiety, Zev did not notice that after he boarded the carriage, a mass of moving shadow slid along the surrounding darkness and entered underneath the vehicle.
“Moo—!”
With a low grunt from the beast pulling the carriage, the vehicle began to move.
After traveling through various streets and alleys for over forty minutes, the carriage reached a wide canal. Following the waterway for another few minutes, a dock piled high with cargo and lined with docked boats came into view.
Upon arriving at his destination, Zev hurriedly leaped off the carriage and entered the docks. After twisting and turning through the harbor area, he arrived before the side door of a large warehouse. He paused before the door, took a few deep breaths as if psyching himself up, and pushed his way inside...
Bang!
Shortly after the side door closed, a patch of shadow drifted into a nearby dark corner.
The shadow liquefied, and Shulim's figure slowly emerged from it. She looked at the warehouse before her, her expression remaining entirely stoic.
“...Found it.”
...
Inside the warehouse.
With an anxious look on his face, Zev made his way through the dim, indoor passageway.
Before long, he reached an inconspicuous corner and knocked on the wall in a specific rhythm.
Rumble!
A stone door slowly slid open, revealing a new passageway in front of him.
Taking a deep breath at the entrance, Zev stepped inside.
Rumble!
Not long after he walked in, the stone door behind him closed again, turning back into a seamless wall with no visible trace of a door from the outside.
No one noticed that a shadow was currently seeping through the gap and into the passage...
“Yo, Zev, you actually made it back?!”
“Haha! I heard you made a total fool of yourself this time!”
“Tsk, damn it. I bet he would run away. I can't believe I lost that bet...”
The underground space was far larger than it appeared from the surface, and quite a few people were gathered there at the moment.
Seeing Zev appear, they all began to jeer and mock him.
“Damn it... those bastards!”
Zev cursed under his breath, his expression souring even further.
Before long, he arrived in front of the Boss's room.
The guards at the door didn't even ask any questions when they saw it was him; they simply opened the door.
This scene made Zev's mood drop even lower.
Bang!
The heavy thud of the door closing behind him cut off Zev's last sliver of hope of escaping.
Steeling himself, he walked into the center of the room and lowered his head.
“B-Boss Silabein, you summoned me?”
Flip, flip...
No one answered him in the massive room. Only the sound of Silabein flipping through documents broke the silence.
“...”
A long time passed, until Zev was breaking out in a cold sweat and on the verge of collapsing.
Silabein finally stopped reviewing the files. He casually tossed the documents onto the red-lacquered, gold-trimmed wooden desk before him, looking at Zev with an indifferent expression.
“Zev.”
“Yes!”
Shivering, Zev dropped to his knees immediately, frantically kowtowing and apologizing.
“I'm sorry, Boss! I am terribly sorry!”
Silabein remained completely unfazed.
“If saying sorry worked, our organization would be running a charity.”
“I heard you were defeated by a student from Manacos? If it were a teacher, fine, but a student? I entrusted you with such a heavy responsibility, and this is how you perform?”
“I... I...”
Zev stammered in fear, barely able to form words.
“B-Boss, you don't understand! That girl was incredibly bizarre. She is definitely no ordinary student!”
“Hmph. Whether she's ordinary or not, I will naturally send someone to deal with her later. As for you—”
“You are relieved of your duties for now. Hand over all the little toys you have left, disclose all of your key communication channels, and then take a trip to the Dark Prison.”
Zev's pupils shrank in terror. He was going to strip him of every last bit of value!
No, none of that mattered right now. What was important was—
Zev slowly raised his head, trembling.
“B-Boss... I still owe the organization money... If... If I go into the Dark Prison, wouldn't there be no one to repay the debt...?”
“Oh, you mean that?”
Silabein stroked his chin.
“It is rare for you to be so considerate of the organization. Rest assured, your interest will continue to accumulate while you are in the Dark Prison. Once you get out, you can pay it back slowly.”
Hearing this, Zev's vision went black, and he nearly collapsed.
“What? Do you seem to have a different opinion?”
“No, no, no!”
Zev shook his head frantically.
“No! No opinions!”
“Since you have no objections, off you go. Take these ten months to reflect on your actions.”
Zev, who had just claimed he had no objections, felt his legs go weak again.
Ten... Ten months?!
Will I even be able to make it out alive...?
Utterly disheartened, Zev left Silabein's room. Although he held some leverage, he was stripped of everything without any resistance when actually facing the Boss. He simply had no choice. The disparity in their power was far too vast. If he had tried to negotiate using his leverage as a threat in the dog-eat-dog underworld, it would only have brought about a fate worse than death.
Even so, going into the Dark Prison meant only a slim chance of survival...
Rate on N.U.
