Arc 6. A seemingly endless loss
Road to a Hero:
Three Chances in Another World
Chapter 26. A baby’s first contract
Sitting in a booth, in a soundproof room, over top of a criminal club are four strange people, Rupert Mongomery, and Gray.
Rupert: “Gray, these people around you are very, very important.”
Gray is silent, he’s scared, panicking that he could die at any second.
Rupert: “The Demi-human is known as the Duke of the Sea, the woman is Dorothy, the man with one working eye is Jimmy All, and the cloaked man is…sorry what’s your name again?”
The Sect member begins to clear his throat, causing everyone to feel grossed out when they hear it. The dry whistling sound, as if he’s been burned from the inside out, it’s toe-curling, to say the least. It gets even worse when he begins talking, the chard throat causes his voice to sound deep, but also like there is always something within his throat.
Smolder: “My..name…is Smoler…I represent the Sect of Anarchy, and I wish to bring…some sort..of an agreement…between our factions…”
Duke: “I agree, I assume that is why we are all here, though it seems the Red Baron is absent.”
Dorothy: “I guess he thinks he’s bigger than us.”
Jimmy: “I mean he’s good right? He’s running a monopoly on a drug we wish we could sell!”
Rupert puts a flintlock on the table, slamming it down, and causing everyone to quiet down.
Rupert: “This is a flintlock, a gun. The man who came up with this idea is named Arthur Williams, and he was put in the biggest prison in the world, by Gray here.”
They all quickly look at Gray, but look away just as fast.
Jimmy: “Gray? Gray Kyojin!? The Phantom Knight, you’re a living legend.”
Dorothy: “A fairly weak one.”
Rupert slams his hand on the table again, stopping all the chatter. Dorothy is about to get angry with Rupert, but Chester and Erosion enter the room, which gives her the incentive to stand down. They then walk up and sit with Rupert, the only man with any backup in the room.
Rupert: “Don’t be intimidated, I’m pretty sure Duke here can kill us all ten times over without a thought, I’m not the scary one here. Now, to get things going quickly, I’ll introduce you all to Gray, what you do that is. Gray, do you have anything to say before I do so?”
Gray’s mouth is dry, his eyes are dry, his heart is pounding, and he tries his hardest to hold his fear back.
Gray: “No, I’m okay.”
Rupert: “Good, now let’s get on with it. The Duke, the right-hand man of Black Beard, is a legend. The man who rules the seas, who’s been fighting the navy for years, captain of the Gravestone Pirates and the Black Beard Pirates, the king of the pirates. The Duke here is the king of sea trade, if you’re doing it he knows, if you wanna, you better make sure he knows, so keep that in mind.”
Gray looks over the cold Duke, being pushed down by the weight of his presence.
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Rupert: “Now, I don’t know much about our friend Smolder here, other than the fact he’s a representative of the Sect, I do know Jimmy. A soldier turned king, the king of Ravoria, in spirit at least. Nobody gets into Ravoria, nobody, it’s tighter locked than Tartarus, but he goes in and out like it’s child's play.”
Jimmy leans over, shaking Gray’s hand with a smile on his face.
Rupert: “And last but not least, Dorothy. Now, Gray, you should listen closely to this. She is planning on having a monopoly on Walgonia’s food trade. She wants to slowly own all the farmland, by force. To take control of the biggest food source in the world would make her so rich it’s unthinkable, and Walgonia’s your homefront. You’re a knight, a hero of Walgonia, a legend, and she’s right there. You could kill her, and we’d do nothing.”
Gray lets a single drop of sweat fall from his face, while Dorothy begins getting very angry.
Dorothy: “YOU WILL NOT TOUCH ME! NOBODY ELSE KNOWS ABOUT MY IDEA RUPERT! YOU CAN HAVE NONE OF IT IF YOU KILL ME!”
Rupert: “Look Dorothy, I’m a family man. Chester here, I found him right after his brother left. And you know his brother right? Kai? Iron Leg Kai, captain of the Iron Pirates. And Orson here, he’s a bear Demi-human, a strong man I’ve raised since he was eight years old. I care for all of you. I’ve known Jimmy for decades, traded with Duke for longer, and Smolder here is a part of one of the strongest factions in the world.”
Dorothy slams her hands on the table again, screaming with pride-filled rage.
Dorothy: “SO IF WE’RE FAMILY WHY WOULD YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT LOSING THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY IN THE WORLD!”
Rupert: “Calm down.”
Dorothy: “DON’T YOU DARE TELL ME THAT!”
She begins gritting her teeth, seemingly creating a grand tension between the two. But Rupert pays no mind to it, just taking a puff of his cigar, making her even angrier.
Rupert: “You’re family, but I want Gray to be family. And Walgonia belongs to its Hero.”
Dorothy’s eyes widened, not because of anger, but because of fear. She goes to run away, but Rupert picks up the flintlock and shoots her right in the head before she can even stand. Nobody else even flinches, but Gray is in shock. Bits of her skull, her brain, and buckets of blood are splattered everywhere, but the Duke waves his hand, causing it all to blow against the wall and chattering of the teeth, sweating from the brow, shaking of the hands, all symptoms of fear that Gray’s showing. But he never screams, not until he looks at his lap, finding Dorothy’s eye, and the sight causes him to yell. Rupert chuckles and Jimmy breaks into a fit of laughter, but Gray is horrified.
Rupert: “Now that that’s out of the way, Gray I wanted to ask you something, and then depending on your answer you can go home.”
Gray, frozen in shock, is unresponsive.
Rupert: “Gray!”
Rupert’s yell causes Gray to snap out of such fear, snapping him back into his mind.
Gray: “YES!? Yes…”
Rupert: “I want you to be a part of our family. And I thought we were working towards it, you even went to the Ever-forest for me to stop the Baron, and I was told you did.”
Rupert's words confuse Gray, since the only way Rupert would think this is because Julius told him.
Rupert: “And sadly, either you lied or I was lied to. Because you never found it, you found the Revolutionaries.”
Gray goes to defend his actions, but Rupert waves his hand, stopping him.
Rupert: “It’s alright. But if you don’t want to be on our radar, if you want Walgonia off limits, if you want whatever the hell you want, you need to do one thing for me. Just you and your friends don’t need to learn it, one quick job.”
Gray gulps clench his fist and bite his lip before he answers, but eventually, he does.
Gray: “Hit me.”
Rupert: “An Old man, Chezera, he’s a slaver. He runs a Demi-human slave trade, and he works for the Baron.”
Rupert pulls out another weapon, placing down a covered danger with jewels engraved on the hilt. And on the top of the hilt is a feather, the Montgomery family crest.
Rupert: “I want you to wear what you’re wearing right now, use this blade, and assassinate him.”
Gray stands up, shocked by his claim.
Gray: “WHAT!? I hate killing! I’m not going to go assassinate some guy.”
Rupert finishes his cigar, throwing it on the ground.
Rupert: “Okay, let the drool live. Let his empire grow, let children be tortured, and be killed by one of the men you see here today.”
Gray goes to defend himself, but he can’t, so he sits back down. Jimmy pats Gray on the back, trying to hype him up.
Jimmy: “Come on man! This is a good deal! Do it, 'cause I don’t wanna get yah killed!”
Chester takes a puff of his cigarette and then decides to put it in his thoughts.
Chester: “Come on dude, take the deal. It’s quick and easy.”
Gray begins staring into his lap, then looks at Smolder, and then at the splatter of blood that used to be Dorothy.
Gray: “I…I…I’ll do it.”
Rupert: “Great. Chezera leaves for Hilten, a town an hour away from here, on Friday. I’ll get you set up, so meet me here in two weeks, on Saturday.”
Gray: “Okay.”
Rupert pats Orson's leg, causing Orson to shake, due to the fact he was sleeping, angering Rupert.
Orson: “Sorry boss.”
Orson motions for Gray to get up, so Gray does so.
Jimmy: “See yeah guy!”
Jimmy pats Gray’s back and waves goodbye as he leaves, watching as Orson walks him out of the room. Orson is silent the whole way out, struggling to walk through the large and loud crowd of people, then once Gray gets to the exit, he walks out without saying anything. He looks at the dagger and stares at it longingly. Still, in shock from Dorothy’s sudden as well as graphic death, he swallows the fear and begins walking back to the cottage, rubbing his earring the whole way there.
End of Chapter Twenty-six