Broken Earth: Unveiling the Secrets of the Worlds

Baited

Xerxes and Rupert walks out of the portal and sees a few people crowding outside the portal  like they are expecting for something to happen, but when they saw Xerxes figure unscathed, dread took over their faces.

‘Heh~ they really are expecting me to die with just that? Must have felt really bad after seeing me alive and well. Xerxes thinks to himself as he tries not to make eye contact with Rupert who also feels the same.

The man along with the carriage loaded with the things that they brought for the commissions came out last with the man slightly smudged with blood. He even takes a glance at the people outside the portal and glares at them and then follows behind Xerxes.

“I see that you have arrived master. It is just as you said. That person tries to poison them but thankfully you gave already seen it coming.” Ramirez said as Cynthia runs out of the door and begs Xerxes to hire a proper cook. “Please boss, we need to hire a proper cook! We have been farting and making funny sounds in the bathroom all these days!”

Xerxes feels sorry that they all have to suffer because of it but blames it all to the cook. ‘I may have overdid it with the altered ingredients since I don’t have much time because she might catch me those times.’ He smiles bitterly and told everyone that it was the cook’s fault and Bianca is innocent.

“Don’t worry everyone, let me just alter the ingredients and everything will turn out alright.” Xerxes said while Britt continues making noises inside the bathroom. “DANG IT! I WILL NEVER EAT TOO MUCH AGAIN.” Xerxes can hear him screaming inside the bathroom so Xerxes asked if he is okay but everyone shake their heads. “He is definitely not okay boss. He is the last person you want to be saying okay when he ate too much of everything that Bianca made.” Berto said with a pitiful expression.

“Well, I guess he learned his lessons. Were there anything new the entire time we left?” Xerxes ask the group but they shook their heads except Cynthia. “I heard some noises in the back like someone trying to enter one of your rooms and its midnight so I disregarded it since the noise disappeared a minute later.” She said with a trembling tone but Xerxes brushes her worries off.

“Nah! It might just be a cat trying to get snacks. There is no need to worry about it.” Xerxes turns to Ramirez knowing that he can be clumsy at times. ‘It was probably Ramirez trying to get inside his room. But I think I need to compliment him, hiding his presence from the others completely is not an easy task. Well, except for when Cynthia noticed the noises though.’ Xerxes smiles as he glance at the rest of the group.

“Pretty sure all of you know what to do right? Please deliver the word that their commissions are already done. And tell them to carry some horses or carriages with them. I will talk to them about some things.” Without the group knowing that Xerxes and the two met some kind of trouble, Berto and Ramirez who volunteers to go after getting a three days worth of rest left the shop.

Xerxes then readies his short version of flintlock and Rupert hands him a handful of bullets. “Rupert. I want you to guard my office later okay?” Xerxes lets out hideous smile and Rupert immediately understands what he means. “Certainly.” The rest of the employees are trying to make up for the strange glances that the two made but could not come up with anything. Their attention then turns to the flintlock after getting nothing from the glances.

“I’m pretty curious about that thing boss. What does it do?” Britt ask first being the only person that is not shy to ask anything. “Oh this? These is a really dangerous thing. Someone like you will not like this at all, Samantha gets a first row seat when I used this so you can ask her what she saw.” Britt then turns to Samantha but the only answer he received is. “It all went kaboom! Bang! And the man’s hand is no longer usable.” Britt stares at her blankly before thanking her wonderful explanation.

‘I did not understand a thing though. Britt walks slowly on the sides when Bianca unexpectedly understood what Samantha said. “Woah! Isn’t that really dangerous?!” Bianca exclaims as the rest of the people inside the shop turns to her in shock. ‘What the hell? Did she actually understand what Samantha said?!’ is what on everyone’s mind after hearing her yell like that. Even Britt is surprised about it and he wants to ask his sister about the details when the two got carried off and talk with each other using strange noises.

‘I can’t, I can’t take a step into that abyss.’ Britt thinks to himself and thought that his sister might have lost it. “Well, people have different wavelengths but to think that Bianca is the same wavelength as Samantha, that’s a shocker.” Xerxes says to himself when all of the sudden Ramirez and Berto arrived right after he finished preparing everything.

Xerxes then gives Rupert a signal and he immediately grabs a pouch full of silver and hands them to the others. “Go and treat yourselves to something nice or whatever. Use this money however you like.” Rupert said as Britt them immediately grabs the pouch. “Are you sure we can spend it however we like?” Britt ask as Rupert nods his head. “Just as I said.” After Rupert’s confirmation, Britt grabs the others to give themselves a treat. But except for him, the others are worried why they would give them such a large sum of money and let them enjoy and have fun when all they did was sit back in the shop and eat. Rupert sees their reaction and just smiles. ‘You kids might not be ready for this yet, you should just enjoy yourselves. Leave this to us adults.’ Rupert says to himself as he closes the shop when every single commissioner arrived.

“Please come inside, the master is waiting for all of you to arrive.” Ramirez said with a respectful tone and greets them with a bow. “This is like when my boss wants to fire someone from work. The atmosphere is really identical.” One of the commissioners jokingly said as Ramirez assures him that it’s just a procedure they do from now on. ‘Firing huh? It pretty much feels the same after all. But to think our mission ended up in a complete failure, still we got the things we asked for. A few lives lost is nothing.’ One of the commissioners who wears a hood thinks to himself as he enters the room and sees Xerxes’s smiling face. ‘This face, I want to mess it up myself.’ He thinks to himself as he greets Xerxes with a humble bow.

“Now that everyone is here, Lets start the procedure.” Xerxes says with a gentle smile and Rupert close the door, he hints Ramirez that everything is done. The latter nods his head and keep watch in front of the shop. “First of all, I want to congratulate you all for our successful expedition. We have completed everything and they are getting loaded to your carts and carriages as we speak. I want the payment to be done right away but before that, there is one thing that I want to know-“ Before Xerxes could finish talking. One of the commissioners raise his hand. “We did not have this kind of procedure in our last commission.”

Xerxes gladly answered him. “That is because we added this just a while ago as one of our new rules. So please rest assured, Mr. – uhm- Willy? Yeah Willy, rest assured Mr. Willy, this is all for the safety of everybody.” Xerxes explains as most of the commissioners understands the goal of the procedure. “As I was saying before I can receive the payment. I want to know if there are any of you affiliated with the groups that also runs an expedition company? You see, a group of people waited to ambush as for who knows what but luckily we survived their ambush. We hired a person to look after our carriage and horse while we are away and to think that they would also harm that person, and now he is seriously injured.” Xerxes said as all the commissioners express their disbelief and anger.

“That’s just not right at all.” “They should all just die!” “How cowardly! Are they even human?! If they want to make a living then they should just dive inside the portal themselves instead of robbing people risking their lives for their work!” Mr. Willy yells after hearing what Xerxes said. He then silenced everyone and make it seem like there is no way to recognize the culprit since it would be really hard to find them. “Maybe they are not in your group, but I am just making sure. Can everyone of you take off your gloves and place it in front of you?” Xerxes ask them and most of the commissioners then did not hesitate to take their own gloves except for two commissioners.

‘He will try and investigate if we have the same ring as Lory but unfortunately for you, my ring is custom made and I can take it off whenever I like it.’ The commissioner thinks to himself as he takes off his gloves and left the ring inside. “How about you Mr. Willy? Are you not going to take off your gloves?” Xerxes ask as he is the only one to have taken his gloves off. “My hands are not a good sight so can I keep it on?”  Xerxes looks at him and then looks at the others before making a decision. When everyone has no objection, Xerxes lets him keep his gloves on.

“ Now then, this is the ring that one of the attackers have when they attacked us. It such a nice ring but to think that it represents such a dark organization, it’s a waste.” Xerxes said as he place the ring on the table so that everyone can see. And as expected none of them had the ‘surprised reaction’ that he wanted. “Looking at your hands, none of your rings resemble this one so I guess we are fine here. Now everyone, we are going to proceed with the payment, but before that.”

TRUUG! TRUUG! TRUUG! TRUUG!

The sound of a piece of wood sliding below the table occupies the entire room and the gloves of the last commissioner to take his gloves off move towards Xerxes. Everyone else gasp in awe after seeing a magic trick but the owner of the gloves froze in fear.

“But before that. Would you like to explain this Mr. Gunlin?” Xerxes ask as the rest of the commissioners turns to him. “What do you mean Mr. Xerxes, I can't understand? You want me to compliment your magic trick?” Xerxes clicks his tongue nastily. “Are you still going on with that charade? Please don’t make a fool out of me, since I know that you have this-“

CLANK!

A ring falls from one of the gloves and is identical to the one that Xerxes placed on the table first. Everyone else is surprise to see that one of them tries to kill the Xerxes but the commissioner still denies it. “You must have planted that yourself!” the commissioner cries in desperation while Xerxes on the other hand sits leisurely on his chair. “Ho~ that’s so bold of you to say that to my face but what if I tell you that I have a witness that you have that ring yourself? What would you say?” Xerxes asks and the commissioner abruptly replies to him. “Then bring that person here.” Xerxes shakes his head with a smile as Mr. Willy takes off everything that covers his face and hands.

“There is no need since he had been with us the entire time. I was thankful that none of you object when he begged not to take his gloves off otherwise this procedure is a lot shorter than it is now.” Xerxes said as the rage on the commissioner’s face show as it slowly reddens.

“You bastard! You set us up!” the commissioner yells as Mr. Will greets him “Long time no see, Artifal.” Mr. Willy turns our to be the very man that Xerxes hired to watch over their horse and carriage. “Kill this bastard!” the commissioner orders as one of the people beside Mr. Willy aims to stab him with a small knife but before he can do anything, Xerxes nails the person’s arm on the table using his significantly larger knife. “That would be problematic since I reassured him that his life would not be in danger.” Xerxes says coldly as the other commissioner tries to get out but finds out that the door is locked from the outside.

“Now then, please tell my why you were aiming for my head? I don’t want some useless and bullsh*t answers so yell me honestly.” Xerxes said to the commissioner but the commissioner proceeds to curse at Xerxes.

“You bastard! You will die soon- I’ll make sure of it!”

PSH! BANG!

TUG!

“I heard enough bullsh*t but thanks.” Xerxes said as he shoots the commissioner in the neck and blood spilled around the room as the other commissioners witness the gruesome death of one who tries to kill Xerxes, a perfect example for everyone that will try in the future.

After the Xerxes hears something from upstairs and has a hunch of what the sound was all about. Then the door opens with Rupert seeing that everything is done so he pulls the dead body and secretly load it inside the carriage that the commissioner brought himself. “Put this guy inside, they are partners for all we know.” Xerxes said as Ramirez kicks the wounded person in. “Please bring them back to your lair.” Xerxes says to the coachers he throws the rings. The moment the coacher sees the rings, he immediately left with the carriage.

After cleaning the room, Xerxes then proceeds to accept the payments in the lobby like any ordinary businesses are carried off. “I really apologize for that unsightly seen that you have to witness. I am not fond of killing people at all but when I learned that they are trying to kill me and my employees, I could not help myself.” Xerxes apologize as the commissioners fully understands his reason.

After all the payment and the goods are done packing, all the commissioners left with nothing but good impressions on Xerxes and how he tries to run his business but leaves with a horrifying experience. “Xerxes huh? He truly is different than what the rumors are telling us about him.” One of the commissioners who rides a carriage says the coacher. “Was there something wrong milady?” the coacher ask as the commissioner takes off the mask covering her face.

“None at all Truman.” The coacher then smiles and added. “With those kind of clothes, nobody would really mistake you for a woman.”  The coacher smiles as the commissioner added.

“Mr. Snow huh? You should have at least dyed your skin brown if you want to disguise as a man you know.” Xerxes says to himself as reviews the list of the commissioners that day.