Bruno
1319 Words
Bruno Homez was a prideful man.
He took great pride in his job, his bulky salary, and his abilities.
As one of the ‘Watchers’ of the Dark Angel Guild, he specialized in ensuring all their workers were compliant with the regulations.
No employee could escape the watchful gaze of their Guild thanks to people like him.
Those who owed them money, but tried to run away, were hunted down and forced to continue working.
Of course… not after some punishment was meted out to them.
Once they had been rightfully punished just once, the workers never again defied them.
Bruno took great pride in the fact that he was one of the best in his field.
And one of his targets was Seth Forsyte.
‘I thought he was going to kill himself today, but apparently not. Looks like he’s stronger than I expected.’
That was the first thought he had when he saw Seth walking down the street.
However, beyond that, he was absolutely miffed.
‘Look at this i***t! He’s supposed to be at work, yet he’s strolling around and smiling like all is well!’
Usually, he would only make contact with his targets in the night, but he just couldn’t stand the silly expression on Seth’s handsome—youthful—face.
That’s right… Bruno was a prideful man, but he had one major insecurity.
How old he looked.
‘It’s not my fault! It’s genetics!’
That was what he often told himself, and the many who addressed his oddly aged appearance.
However, he knew it was all Cope.
Nothing he said changed the fact that he looked like an old man, despite being in the prime of his life.
He had always looked this way—even since he was in elementary school.
Back then, people actually thought he was the teacher when he entered the classroom for the first time.
The same thing happened in High School!
‘Why…? Why me?!’
No matter how many times Bruno asked this question, he received no answer
The worst part was that his ‘old man’ look wasn’t even the ‘Hot’ kind.
He was ugly.
Wearing glasses made him look a bit better, but that didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t very attractive.
That was precisely why Seth pissed him off.
‘Know your place, VERMIN!’
He wished men like Seth would just die—which was why he allowed the suicide.
But now… now he was just pissed to see the same guy walking.
Still… STILL…
… Nothing was more insulting than Seth having the audacity to address his aged appearance.
Once Bruno heard that, he snapped.
‘f**k you, Seth! I’m going to teach you a lesson!’
As he slowly approached Seth, his fists clenched as he gritted his teeth.
‘Men like you don’t deserve to live! I’m going to wish you were dead!’
‘Watchers’ tortured deserters who tried to escape the reach of the Guild. Now that Seth was skipping work, Bruno now had the perfect excuse to give his superiors.
He had never felt so happy.
‘The things I’m going to do to you, Seth Forsyte…’ He narrowed his eyes as he took in the young man’s full features.
Bruno would start with the face. By bashing his face against concrete multiple times, he would make sure to restructure Seth’s entire facade.
‘Then his teeth… his nose… maybe I’ll even pluck out an eye! I’ll shave off all that amazing hair too!’
Bruno’s graying hair was already falling off, so it pained him to see Seth in his glory.
‘Hehehe… HAHAAHAHA! I can’t wai—!’
“Don’t take another step. I sense harmful intent from you.”
Seth’s voice echoed as he raised his hand forward, gesturing to Bruno to stop.
“I don’t want to harm humans. At least, not if I can help it.”
Bruno heard this and chuckled within himself.
‘I see he’s finally gone crazy. The crippling debt and despairing life he’s stuck in must have broken his mind.’
Yes… what else would explain the fact that he was missing work so casually?
And why he would talk to daringly at him—a Watcher!
“You’re out of your mind. Perhaps once I’m done with you, I’ll finally put you out of your misery…”
At this point, there was no one around them any longer.
It almost felt like everyone present had vanished all of a sudden.
This was because people naturally knew to avoid conflicts such as this—conflict involving a Guild.
“Don’t I owe you guys some money or something? I’m yet to fully compensate for the loss the Guild suffered, right? Wouldn’t killing me upset your boss? Or am I missing some details here?”
The moment Seth said these things, Bruno chuckled.
Since he was going to kill him anyway, Bruno decided it was no big deal to let the cat out of the bag.
In fact, he wanted to see just what kind of expression Seth would give when he was faced with the truth.
“What loss? The entire scam? Haha… that was all a lie.”
For a moment, silence ensued between the two.
However, Seth broke it with a small, but deep voice.
“… What?”
“You heard me right! The entire scam was manufactured by the Guild. Haha! The Guild scammed you of the Guild’s funds! There was no loss at all!”
Seth’s face slowly morphed as he began to realize what was happening.
“So you were behind all of it…?”
“Yep! That’s right! But do you know why?” Bruno laughed, taunting Seth as he drew closer.
“To get as close to free labor as you can get. To circumvent the minimum wage laws, you orchestrated scenarios where you employees ended up in debt to you. And so, you can get away with paying them peanuts while saving cost…”
As Serb analyzed this, Bruno was surprised. He didn’t peg the young man as someone who knew dirty tactics well.
“Hahaha! You’re smarter than I expected! I wonder why it took you this long, and you still didn’t figure out you were being used!”
Bruno could see a slight frown on Seth’s face. He was happy to see the man he was about to kill look so upset.
‘I expected more of despair, but this is fine too! I’ll maKe sure to push him to the very brink of despondency before ending his life.’
Bruno finally stood face-to-face with Seth, leaving just a few inches of distance between the two of them.
“Look at you… you poor thing. Gonna cry?”
In response to Bruno’s taunts, Seth looked him straight in the eye and did the opposite.
“Nah! All my tears dried up a long time ago.”
Seth was smiling.
“It’s just a bit upsetting that you all caused my life to go so awry that I had to kill myself and suffer the hands of those demons…”
Bruno didn’t understand what Seth meant by demons, but he was surprised to see that the young man hadn’t broken down yet.
“Hehe! You really have gone crazy!”
“Crazy?” Seth’s grin widened as he looked straight into Bruno’s eyes.
“You don’t know what crazy truly means.”
Bruno took one more step forward and puffed out his chest so he could look a lot more intimidating.
“Why don’t you show me?”
In response to this, Seth took a step forward. His gaze was calm, and his red eyes were strangely cold.
‘Were his eyes always like that…?’ Bruno asked himself.
However, before any further thought could be made, Seth placed his hand on Bruno’s shoulder and gave his response.
“I’m about to.”
- Writer
