As Zen rolled the food trolley with Bolt and Yelena in tow. He thought about the few ways he could react to seeing everyone in the guild again.
The first was to pretend that everything was alright and go back to that more playful atmosphere to lighten the serious mood. There was nothing wrong with lingering in the celebratory mood after their victory against Guild Carnage. However, his reaction that morning when Liu Feng woke him up was a little too strange for the Seer to overlook it.
The best option was to remain silent and not attract too much attention to himself. It usually worked while he was still working as a chef when he was a civilian. On good days, his boss would completely forget him and Zen remembered how he would share the stolen meat with Celine on days like that. It was a good solution if the situation allowed him to play a background character. Unfortunately, Zen had no idea his party members would allow him to remain a background character.
The last option Zen considered as he entered the lift was to spill the beans and be completely transparent. He figured that these mafia heirs and heiresses were like mirrors. They were taught to distrust only because other people were unworthy of their trust. Even among his party members, Zen could sense a division of interests. They simply grouped together for mutual benefits. However, there was no telling how they would treat each other after they left this academy grounds.
If their families ordered them to kill each other, Zen had a feeling that nobody in his party would hesitate to pull the trigger. It was family over allies, much less a nobody like him. They only kept him around because he was useful to them. It sucked, but that was the truth.
Being truthful and honest about what he saw and felt might benefit him in a situation as unfamiliar as this. Zen might look and behave like a lamb most of the time because he was a civilian in his previous life and a recluse. However, he was not naive. To survive, he would use his charms to buy powerful people over to his side to ensure the best path of survival, even if he had to manipulate certain things.
Honestly, he did not know how he managed to pull it off until now. He was a grown man in the body of a pre-puberty teen who might not understand what gravure magazines were. Some part of this personality was born from the meek Zen Taro, a gaming expert, while other aspects of this personality were faked from what he saw other children do when he was younger.
If his parents did not die so early, he might have this kind of personality too from leading a sheltered life. Zen sighed as he braced himself for demands for food as the lift door opened.
Strangely, nobody moved from their spot around his room that they voted to use as the guild’s meeting room and the party meeting room. Apart from Liu Feng, everyone else definitely saw him, but nobody made any indication to come over as Zen slowly wheeled the trolley over.
Bolt and Yelena spotted two familiar faces that were not part of Zen’s party. If Bolt recalled correctly, the teen with dark eye circles was the biggest contributor for tactical advice during the Egg Hunt. He knew this candidate, and Yelena was rather impressed at his strategy for collecting white eggs. The other one with the brown bowl hat beside him was a lad with a very unique ability. His personality remained to be judged as he was highly guarded. However, there was no mistaking. He was a man of his word.
Now, the real question lingered in the air. Why were they here? Surely, they weren’t here to crash the party meeting just for grub.
The serious look on Akiko and Sasha’s face only made Zen more nervous. Liu Feng appeared colder than Zen remembered him to be. If he was like a cool breeze on a normal day, he was a frosty blizzard at the moment. Even with unseeing eyes opened, he looked intimidating as he looked at the two guild members.
“You’re here,” Oritha yawned and eyed the food. “Can you let us in first? It’s not appropriate to be discussing such matters in the corridor.”
Nobody objected, and Zen unlocked the door before swatting Yelena’s hand hovering around the french toast. The invigilator pouted but waited for everyone to be ushered in before offering to help wheel the trolley. Bolt sighed and apologised on behalf of his fellow invigilator as Zen closed the door behind them.
The mood in the room was not the best for breakfast, but Zen tried to defuse the tense situation by serving up drinks. Yelena helped herself without reservations the same way Oritha did.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Liu Feng accepted the oolong tea with thanks at his lips, but the frostiness did not thaw as the two uninvited members of the guild stood around awkwardly.
“Back to topic,” Liu Feng placed his cup down with less grace than normal. “The both of you wish to make an oath of omerta?”
Tracer did not back down. “Yes. We wish to make an oath of omerta to Zen.”
The room fell silent, and Yelena, who was enjoying her second stick of french toast, stopped chewing. Her eyes trained on the only two teens in the room who weren’t seated.
Zen almost dropped the flask when he heard that. There were so many people present. Was it wise to say that?
The grip on Liu Feng’s cup increased but relaxed after a minute. The Seer closed his eyes again, and Zen felt some of that frostiness melt. Yet, the Chinese assassin had his guard up more than usual.
“Why?” he asked. As Zen’s sworn brother and somewhat guardian, Liu Feng couldn’t let anyone swear fealty to his charge.
Tracer looked at the others in the room uncomfortably. He trusted the Gambler enough to let him in on some more interesting information that he was certain he Seer and Death Princess would know by now. However, he wasn’t sure if the Russian Sniper and the Amazonian, who joined only recently, were trustworthy enough to know it yet, even if they were in Zen’s party.
“This game can only be cleared by him,” Gambler stepped up to help the Tracer, who was overthinking again.
Ever since they started working together, he spent most of his time with this insomniac and picked up some of his partner’s habits.
Liu Feng sipped his tea. Did these people know…?
“How will an oath benefit my man? Your families are not as influential as the Lau Triad. An omerta is for life.”
At this, Tracer stepped up. This was what he expected to be asked. The Seer was not the second in command of his family, after all. His older brother might be more outstanding as a mafia family leader, but the Seer’s leadership skills as a proxy are nothing to sneeze at. He was cold and calculating when he had to be, even if he had a more whimsical nature.
Zen did not know what was going on until Oritha knocked a flask over, much to Sasha’s chagrin. That was the last flask of coffee, and to diffuse the tension on the other side of the room, Zen suggested that Oritha helped clean up while Sasha accompanied him to the kitchen to make a new batch. He should probably make something simple for the guild members who turned up with the shocking proposal too.
Liu Feng requested macaroni soup as he was ‘sick of eating boring bread’, and Zen obliged. He couldn’t refuse. It was part of their omerta.
When the two least likely people left, the atmosphere changed again, and it was a battlefield.
“You know about the true candidates?” Liu Feng tested, and the two who proposed the omerta did not disappoint.
“I suspected something as much,” the Tracer admitted. “However, I’m surprised that you let the Amazonian stay.”
Oritha laughed. “Zen is not the only true candidate around. If I know there was a much nicer candidate, I would have offered myself as a sword earlier than the Seer could offer himself as a shield.”
Hearing how Oritha already knew about the existence of true candidates in this game and its purpose, Tracer shared a glance with the Gambler. Could it be…?
They had no time to think or discuss when Liu Feng and Akiko stood up and approached the invigilators.
“Since there are invigilators present, won’t you help us facilitate the omerta ritual?” Akiko asked. “I’m assuming they approached us and not Zen directly because it isn’t an equal omerta like the one Liu Feng made.”
Indeed, there were several kinds of oaths involving the omerta. There was an equal omerta, much like the one Liu Feng did. There was an omerta with a master and slave dynamic while others bound two organisations and their generations.
“Let’s get over and down with this before Zen returns,” Bolt suggested, and everyone got in position.
Yelena watched from the side, chewing on french toast sticks while wondering why everyone was throwing in their lot with this civilian gamer so early into the game. There was still time to consider, but a small voice at the back of Yelena’s mind told her that there would be no better candidate to die for in this hell hole.
With the members of Godly Food Party acting as witnesses to their oath, Bolt officialised it and wished them luck.
“Charlie “Gambler” Cain and Remi “Tracer” Whittingham, please do your best to survive to the last round if not for your sake, then at least for his sake.”
Getting down on one knee, both teens lowered their heads and placed a hand over their hearts in a solemn promise to assist Zen in becoming the next Godfather.
>>Xxx Destiny Aitsuji xxX<<
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