The Culprit
2208 Words
Jasper is about to enter the airlock but I stop him. “Wait.”
He smirks at me then attempts to run away. I'm faster to grasp him with my powers, halting from taking one more step. The few demigods inside the bar are looking at him, flying across the room back to our table. I make him sit on his chair. He smiles there, looking at the table like a child that's been caught for being naughty.
“You said you had the money,” I remind him.
“I was about... to get it,” he obviously lies.
“You were planning to leave the payments to me? A parentless and homeless child?”
“No,” he shakes off making a face that suggests my notion was ridiculous. “I would never do that.”
“You were about to do it. Don't toy with me. Pay them now.”
The waitress is near our table. I assume she heard our conversation just now. She's alarmed of course, for serving penniless customers unable to pay for what they served. He slowly taps his pockets and not a single coin is jingling from it.
“I knew it,” I sigh in disappointment.
“I told you, it's outside,” he pushes.
Rubbing my eyebrows, I ask the lady, “How much was that?”
“One thousand and thirty.”
“Oh...,” he reacts, realizing its expensiveness. “Are today's drinks happen to be free?”
“No, sir,” she says. “and we have no plan of doing so.”
“The truth is we don't have money with us right now,” he reasons. I let him do the talking since he's the one who let us into this conundrum. I won't let him escape. “Can we pay it later?”
She frowns at him. “We'll call the Advanced Division to apprehend you and-” Oh, crap, she saw my face. I look to the side to hide it but it's too late. “Lord Leonide?” she asks.
I just sigh before removing my hood. The other demigods start to look at me with disgust, fear, and anger. But her reaction is different because she's surprised.
“You're quite famous now, aren't you?” Jasper whispers to me.
I let him be and listen to what the waitress says, “M... My lord!” she exclaims, bowing down in fear. The demigods exit the bar and the bartender has his hand on his anti-demigod rifle under the pub table. Did I put up a scary face or something? Oh, that's right, I'm a rabid animal for them.
“Please, we mean you no harm,” says the waitress. “Th... the drink is on the house. We beg you to... to leave.”
None of that offends me. She should stop fearing me but it's a drag to say something or to explain so I stand up from my seat and leave. As we pass by, the operator of the airlock leans away from me, fearing that I might gnaw his throat or hurt him in any way. They fear me—quite the contrary of my goal to be respected. I don't belong here.
Outside under our masks, I talk to Jasper once more before he leaves. It's dusk now. We act as if we never talked in that shack. “See you again, Leo,” he says, walking away.
Then he disappears among the crowd. To my surprise, he can hide his presence from me. He joins Darius as the people I can't track. Then a familiar presence of someone is behind me.
That person taps my shoulder and says, “I need your help, kid.”
-
*
Upon arriving, Seok walks at a fast pace, followed by the men under his command, and are tasked to keep him safe. He walks to where Narada is and he nods to his men. Narada is sitting on the floor with his daughter when suddenly, they apprehend him, shackling him with inactivated Olympian Steel.
“What's going on?!” asks Juliet, seeing his father chuckling a little while being taken away.
Seok stays to explain, “I'm sorry to tell you that your father is an ally of Dragunov.”
“What?!!” she reacts. “He would never be!”
Mila and the other Seaters of Olympus Mons gather around. None of them have an idea of what exactly is going on. They listen to know more. Mila holds Juliet's hand beside her. The remaining House Leaders gather there too.
“Explain to me, how is he an ally of Dragunov, my lord?” asks Juliet.
“Since all of you are the Seaters of Olympus Mons, then you have the right to know this matter. First of all, your father was the first to produce the information about the existence of the Masked League. The source of his information is still unknown to me or anyone to this day. He reasons it is from the rumors in a bar in the East. I'm the secretary of Olympus and so I know the lists of the men under his command. Upon asking them one by one, none of them confessed. I used my power to make them tell the truth but none of them talked about the Masked League in the East.”
Narada laughs so hard that his cackle makes everyone feel spikes in their throats when swallowing.
Even with his submission, his daughter says, “How's that enough to-”
“Then we move on to the minutes before the Apocalypse happened. That time, I intercepted his message to your mother. He said, ‘I bet that the Realm will go to hell soon.’ After that, the attack on Olympus Mons started.”
Juliet reasons, “He predicted it as he usually does!”
“The best way to hide the lies is embedding some truths in it, Juliet. Your father is very aware of that.”
Narada nods many times, still laughing endlessly like it is his last laugh. “Right... right...,” he says. His daughter runs out of things to say to defend him as he clearly agrees with what Seok says.
“Also, Narada is as clever as me and Lady Hilde. She was right to say in that brief meeting of ours in that ER that one of us might be the culprit. The plan to strategically hide the bombs under populous cities and the Demigod Fortresses require heavy gamble, extensive secretive logistics, and planning. Trapping King Rai in Venus, and making Lady Xue, the rest of the Olympus forces, and Lord Enzo arrive late is part of his plan. This bought him time to let Dragunov do what he wants. Narada is capable of that—we all know that. His downside is his failure to contain his excitement, giving away his motives. This led me and Lady Hilde to assume he's the one who's behind all of this. Then there's another strange thing that happened. I heard Dragunov brought him here, right?”
They nod and Eleanna says, “Aurelia and I rescued him from Dragunov.”
“It was all an act,” says Seok. “Dragunov would've killed him on the spot where he caught him.”
“I heard he said he caught him in North Columba,” says Aurelia.
“Aurelia!” cries Juliet. “Everyone, my father is innocent!” No matter how much her tears are flowing, they're not enough to convince them.
Seok continues, “And I should tell everyone now that the last known location of Lady Hilde is in North Columba along with her escorts on their way to Asgard. Then Dragunov finished her.” With eyes glowing purple, he looks at Narada and asks, “You were there when she and her men are shot down from the sky, weren't you?”
Everyone feels almost afraid to breathe for they might not hear Narada's answer. So, they hold their breaths. He smirks and says, “I was there.”
This drops the guillotine that cuts Juliet's faith in him. “No...,” she mutters. Her knees give up. Hyeon and Mila hold her up.
“Juliet,” says Hyeon. “It's gonna be okay.”
“Nothing's gonna be okay,” she answers. “I failed.”
“No, you failed at nothing, Juliet!” Mila convinces her.
“If you'll excuse me,” nods Seok before turning to take Narada into custody.
“Hold on, Seok,” says someone from the corner of the shelter. Her voice is as strong as a mountain against any storm. Everyone suddenly feels their weight is getting heavier. Hilde stands and she removes the blanket around her.
“Lady Hilde?” asks Mila, recognizing her presence as she reveals it.
“You survived?” asks Seok, looking happy to see his ally again.
“Of course, I did. I don't plan to die that easily.” She glares at him.
“That's great. I'm glad to have you back. I'm going to take care of Narada now. We'll talk later.” He nods and turns to follow behind his men who are holding Narada—who until now is still laughing hard.
With pounding steps, she walks towards him. The people stay out of her way. She grabs Seok's shoulder and turns him around. “Let Narada go!” she shouts at his face.
After opening his eyes he asks with a less enthusiastic face, “Let him go? Why? He's a traitor.”
“You're the traitor, Seok.” She points her finger at his chest. Her eyes are flaming with wrath, glaring at him.
The Olympus Mons Seaters and the other deities around them are confused even more. The murmuring and gasping fill the air.
“I'm not,” he denies. “What makes you think that I'm the traitor instead of this man?” He gestures his hand to Narada—who is smiling and jesting at the moment.
“All of what you said against him are false! You were trying to trick me to go along with you to suspect Narada!”
“Lady Hilde,” he says as calmly as he can. “I never tricked you. I showed you the hint of my suspicion and we were right. Narada is the culprit.”
“You're blaming him to cover yourself! You already failed, now that Enzo, Lady Xue, and Lord Kazem have arrived! Your goal now is to cover yourself from suspicion by putting it all on Narada!”
“Please, as a Third Seater, stop producing this nonsense, Lady Hilde.”
“Before I went to the Taiyo Region with a fleet, in the War Room, you proposed to send a cargo ship to help feed the civilian population. Narada asked me to check that cargo ship you sent but I never listened. And I regret it. I let it slip by the blockade, believing that it wasn't something worth my attention. The truth is that is how Dragunov and his allies slip by the blockade! I noticed it myself, the ship made its way across the Serenic Ocean!”
“What?” asks Mila. She doesn't know what Hilde is talking about. “What cargo ship?” she asks Juliet—looks finer than earlier now that someone is defending her father.
“I don't know,” she answers.
“That's a far-fetched story, you have Lady Hilde,” Seok remarks.
“As well as yours!” she tosses back. “When I was shot down in the skies of North Columba, Narada is there because he predicted I'll get shot down! And that Dragunov will be there to finish me! He told me his bet: ‘I bet Seok is the culprit’. It makes sense because you're so sure in trying to convince everyone I was with you in framing him! I heard it from your mouth!”
“We know his predictions are inconsistent and we don't even know if he's telling the truth or maybe, Lady Hilde, you're his ally.” He sharpens his gaze at her.
With unmatched pride, she admits, “That's right, I'm his ally. I believe in what he says.”
“Then you're guilty as well.” He nods to his men around him. They begin to shackle her wrists. “Take both of them.”
“To where my lord?” asks Juliet. She is starting to cry again.
“Deep in the mountains.”
“For what?” she sobs, Mila holds her.
“Execution.”
Gasps flood the place. The hastiness of the decision is surprising them. It only took minutes of talking and the event moves to execution. None of them can stop Seok. His words of wisdom are always right. He saved them many times and he is doing it right now. Juliet tries to shake off the hands that are stopping her to go after them but she could not. All she could do is watch the last smirk of her father.
*
-
- Writer
