"I am so, so sorry, Sir," the young servant with an attractively proportioned face apologized for maybe the 3rd time. It was starting to be an annoyance. The servant ought to have started apologizing for apologizing. "Master Orpheus is hurrying here as we speak, I assure you."

The man stood up from his rather comfortable chair, walked up to the windowsill of the oversized and decorated room, and observed the cobweb in its corner. The servant's voice rose, but the man gestured for him to shut up. Then he touched the cobweb with a finger before opening his mouth and touching his finger to the inside of his cheek. He turned back, wiping his finger on his clean but wrinkled suit. "My beard, though only a stubble, turned gray in the past few years. My hair, though having maintained its black color and textured look, is thinning." He raised his brows at the servant as he walked towards him. "Do you know why that is?"

"Y— you're aging, Sir. Gracefully, if I might add," the servant answered, staying still as a brick wall.

Orpheus'd had them trained well—or conditioned.

"Yes, it seems so, doesn't it?" the man asked, his voice deep as he looked down at the servant with hard eyes that wrinkled slightly on the sides. The servant didn't budge.

"Sir—" the servant started as they stood at a distance uncomfortable for him.

"Just call me Uzbec," the man said.

The servant seemed to notice that Uzbec didn't breathe at all. His breath was all that filled the air when nobody was talking. Then the servant held his breath as well. It became deadly silent. That's when Uzbec saw it. As he peered into the servant's eyes, they started to quiver from fear.

Uzbec's lips curved up slightly in a wry manner and exhaled sharply. The servant shuddered and stumbled back, almost falling over his own feet. When he regained his balance, he stood up straight as a nail, an apology on his lips.

"Fetch him. Now," Uzbec said, nudging his head at the door. "I know he's in the building. As regrettable it is to remove him from being neck deep in young, beautiful whores, I'm afraid my patience for assertions of dominance has depleted with age."

"I was told—"

His words faded as Uzbec tweaked his expression, drawing a line with his lips and bringing his eyelids down to his pupils and making his right eyelid twitch.

The servant fled the room with a flurry of stutters.

After the door closed, Uzbec spun on his heels, his expression returning to normal in a split second. He then walked over and flopped back onto his armchair. 'It seems I have yet to lose my edge,' he thought.

Only minutes later, the doors opened and a man in a bathrobe, accompanied by 3 guards with full-black masks entered.

"Uzbec, the old and trusty," the man in the bathrobe announced with his arms wide. The man had smooth skin like bronze and a face handsome like those of the descended gods of old.

"I am but forty years of age, Orpheus," Uzbec said with a squinting smile as he waved a hand. "You too will soon be this current age of mine. What will happen to you then?"

"My women love me for my personality, I assure you," Orpheus answered making his way to shake hands with Uzbec.

Uzbec gave a laugh and stood up, shaking hands with the man before they both retreated to armchairs with a long glass table of delicacies in between.

A certain atmosphere enveloped the room.

Uzbec shattered it immediately. "I assume your whores will stay the same age, though."

The guards some meters behind Orpheus seemed to get hostile, but Orpheus raised a hand to stop them. Even then, his face had dropped.

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Uzbec waited patiently.

Orpheus seemed about to engage in serious conversation, only to burst into laughter. "Ah, a double meaning!" He clapped his hands. "How clever! Can you believe it?" He asked, turning to his guards. "He meant that even though I age, my whores stay young and beautiful because I replace them for young ones. But also because I kill them before they age!" He laughed some more after explaining it to his guards who showed little to no reaction.

Uzbec only observed Orpheus' act.

Orpheus wiped tears from his eyes before calming himself. He looked at Uzbec's expression. "Oh, I understand you may not approve of my practices, but it is truly not mine to control. The Supreme of Nexus can't have children," he said with a nonchalant shrug.

"You could refrain from intercourse," Uzbec suggested.

Orpheus raised his brows before looking around and beginning to smile before laughing once again. "Oh, Uzbec, you never change." He took a delicacy from the table and swallowed it whole. "Always going after people, even in retirement."

"I am no longer retired."

"Oh, yes. Did not work out, did it?" Silence. "Oh, did I strike a nerve? I am quite sorry. I mourn with you. When I lost my family, I was devastated as well."

When he killed them, that was. And he wasn't devastated. Uzbec was sure he had been too busy swimming in the fortune he inherited to mourn. The man understood nothing of love. Or pain. Uzbec would've killed him for the sake of it if he had the chance. The sentiment was one shared by all. That was why Orpheus occupied the position of the most protected man in the world. In recent times, it had become even more extreme. To the point of paranoia.

"But to the heart of the matter, you truly are a gifted man. Just look at what you did to poor Adreno. Out of all my best attendants he has proved himself to be the most unwavering. I thought him to be steel, that boy. Then you come in and Adreno comes out shivering and stuttering like a little rat." He looked to his guards. "You saw it, yes? Fascinating. Truly fascinating what you can do to a person without even touching them, Uzbec. Tell me, is it practice or talent?"

Uzbec leaned forward to take a delicacy from the table before leaning back and crossing his legs. "Enough chatter. What is your commission?"

"Oh, but we were just getting to the interesting things. You know so much about me, but resist all inquiry to yourself. It is downright unfair, I dare say." Orpheus laughed at his use of the word. "But seriously, I can hardly take you seriously on your critiques of my sexual conduct if you shut me out so entirely. Who knows what kind of secrets you're hiding beneath that dark shell? Maybe you're not back from retirement for wealth as you say you are. Could it be that you derive pleasure from your work?" Orpheus finished his speech with a dramatic gasp.

"I see now that my time is being wasted on the merit of old relations. I will take my leave now." Uzbec said, standing up from his seat and going to exit the room.

Then there was a crash of glass shattering. Uzbec turned to see the magnificent table shattered on the floor.

"Oh, my. My hand must have slipped." Orpheus shook his head. "Well, now that I have your attention, might we talk about the commission?"

The man truly was too proud for an honest plea, so he had to resort to such childish tricks.

Uzbec raised his brows, tucking his arms behind him. "Well?"

Orpheus put a leg over another and laid back. "The liveD. You have heard the name, yes?"

"The new folk tale?"

"Exactly. But it is much more than that. They have been targeting different bases of Nexus and wiping them out and at speeds that seem impossible."

"They? Isn't the folk tale of one man?"

"Tch, of course, it is about one man. It makes for a better story. But no one person could wipe out my reinforced bases full of elite combatants like the liveD has. In addition, I have witnesses saying they saw multiple individuals fleeing the scenes."

"So your offer is?"

"Twenty thousand gold for you to identify and eliminate this organization. Are you willing?"

"I am," Uzbec responded with a nonchalant tilt of his head. Then something occurred to him. "But why are you devoting such attention to a relatively small matter? Is there something special I should know of this liveD?"

Orpheus popped his neck. "What do you mean?"

"Does it have to do with your relationship with the king? He has resources enough for such a thing. I think you would've considered that by now."

Orpheus snorted a laugh. "You suspect your king first?"

"I have no king," Uzbec said with a disgusted furrowing of his brows. "Borders do not touch me."

Orpheus grinned amusedly and gestured in Uzbec's direction with one hand before. "Oh, how I have missed you." Then his face went straight and he spoke in a formal monotone. "It's not a ploy of the king. That I am sure of. Our relations may be sour, but he can't get rid of me. Nexus is this country's true backbone."

It was true enough that the king would've gotten on the offensive earlier if he had any intention to. The amount he was secretly in debt to the man was ludicrous.

"A ploy by Numen then," Uzbec pried.

"No, I don't think so. Too slow for Numen. Gadreel works fast. I hear his overtaking was quite spectacular." Orpheus waved his hand. Then he rolled his eyes around the room and landed on Uzbec. "If it is Numen, however, you'll be out of work."

"Why is that?"

He showed a mischievous smile. "Because my plans for Numen are already in motion."