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Chapter 300: Eosin Bozkovich
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“Please, say it.”
“Ahahaha… to think that you, boy, are able to put me into suspense in this manner… fine, then. On my word, if this information is something tangible and is to my liking, then you are given three more months to do whatever you want.”
“Okay. I’ve recorded it.”
AG narrowed his eyes and Rex felt his senses tingling with warning. “Whatever. So what’s your so called H-Class Immortal secret?”
On the prompt, Rex pulled out a panel window and flicked it to AG. In it was a map of a mountain passage.
A map of Alexandria’s single mountain peak!
“Isn’t this map very simple?” After checking the map on the pane window AG frowned at Rex.
But Rex dismissed it. “It’s because finding the place is not hard. It’s getting into the place is the hard part.”
“What do you mean?”
“At the top of Alexandria’s mountain peak is an old temple and inside that temple is a keeper. If you seek that person without proper reason, then you are not going to be able to meet him. But if you, say, have a specific purpose in the temple, then you can meet the keeper.”
It was a pretext to a mystifying adventure and if it was told to anybody else, they may think that this is something worthy to go after…. It was the smell of a Quest!
“I am starting to hate your riddling attempt to buy me into your trap, Mister Kingsley. Do I look like I want to be catered to your story?”
No. AG was frowning and his smile has long gone ever since Rex’s introduction.
“What I’m saying is… the keeper of that Temple is an Immortal and unless you have something he is interested in or if you are seeking him because of a quest, then you can see him. I found it only by chance and learned of his secret, in secret (lie). I did not seek him with a quest but I exchanged a few stories with him (another lie). He knows about me but he refuses to tell me what he knows.”
AG fell silent and then checked the map and then looked at Rex.
“So what interests him? No. What’s his name?”
“He did not tell me.” Rex shook his head, wishing that his bluff was working. “All I know is that he is guarding and preventing something that threatens the Continent of Tiara and that he was someone connected to some ancient empire in there (lie).”
Of course Rex was already aware who Gabriel is but for the sake of protecting his identity as Siva and not tracing where AG’s agents found the information about himself, he had to provide the most limited but helpful information he can give as much as possible.
AG chuckled, then shook his head, “This is not helping at all, Mister Kingsley. I need something to hold on to… something that will interest him and allow me to have an audience with him.”
Rex thought for a moment, both his index on the bridge of his nose, eyes closed, calmly breathing.
After a while, he said, “A keyword.”
“Keyword?” AG was also puzzled.
Rex nodded, and his expression became serious.
“I remember him sighing something about a War.”
AG’s ears were pricked. In the long history of Terroa, there were only a handful of events that interests him.
Some of these few interesting ‘info’ was all about war and their reasons and aftermaths, the people who waged it, and the people involved.
And the one war that has him very interested is the war that happened in Terroa, 56-years ago.
“Tell me.” AG’s voice became sinister and cold.
Rex could feel that he had really pricked the tiger’s ear now. There was no backing out now or he will be eaten on the wrong side of the fence.
“War of the Braves.” He slowly uttered.
AG smiled.
Rex saw the change on AG’s expression as the man stood up and was about to turn his back on him when he spoke, “Until I make sure that this is something really worth it, I will send you a prompt notification.”
Rex felt that it was an unfair exchange. What if it was successful but he chose not to send the notif?
Shit.
I didn’t expect this. I should’ve thought about it…!!
“Don’t worry, Mister Kingsley. I am a man of my word. If there are any open weaknesses that I have on my enemies, then it is the fact that I am a man who keeps his word.”
It was a declaration of his humanity, as rare and as impossible as it may seem. Augustus Laniary had just admitted his personality.
How it came to Rex was his own problem but AG was telling the truth. He was a man of his word.
AG was prompt with business matters. He was prompt with time. He was prompt with promises, and he was prompt with his plan.
He was strict to everything, even to himself, and when he sets his eyes on something, he will invest on it and will do his best to get it his way.
Faust said before that he knew AG’s dark side but of all the bad things he said abut AG, he also said in utter surety that AG was a man of his word. If he says he will collect his profit from you, or if he says that he wants you dead, it will all happen.
In fact, only a few people knew of this trait of the mysterious AG, and even fewer are even so bold as to use this weakness against him.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
You can even say that it was his creed as a man.
Rex could feel the sincerity on AG’s voice and as much as he wanted to say his piece, he knew that he had already committed the mistake and so he could only stay quiet and trust on AG.
The video call ended and Rex slumps his body on the sofa, letting out a long sigh as he massaged his nose bridge with his left hand.
He gazed at the ball with the Real@D function and covered it with a pillow.
Rex opened the door and waved his hand to open the curtains, walking towards the bench in the garden as he sat there, staring at the flowers and the plants at the edge of the lawn.
These were all planted by Manang Fe, and the stone steps that led to the gates were all there before the lawn was even put here.
“Relaxing, huh…” Rex pondered over the things that AG told him. It was indeed true that he was quite relaxed here.
Rex inhaled deep and tried to meditate out of just pure and honest boredom.
After taking note of the date and time, he closed his eyes and effortfully erased all other thoughts.
He can’t sleep and also, he wanted to enter that peaceful state he once felt when he first tried to use this ‘meditation’ thingy.
“Just what is the purpose of this thing?” he tried to ask this question to the twins but he received a vague reply of ‘for martial arts’ and so, he just gave up on it and just tried to enter that state.
It was like an addictive drug.
That peaceful state, if he had to call it, is like the so called Nirvana where ‘there is no worries’ and you can look at everything that happened to your day in a third person’s perspective to study it and to scrutinize what is wrong to be corrected and what is right to be kept.
Unknowingly, Rex, again, entered a mysterious state of not caring with anything else around him.
His posture was straight in the bench, but he was really relaxed and he wasn’t even feeling tired.
He could only feel that there was a heat in his body and he tried to control it to spread in every corner and muscle fiber of his being.
Time flowed unbeknownst to him, and only when he felt something hit his left foot that he opened his eyes and became shocked.
It was already bright outside and there were the regular noise of the city.
“AGAIN?!!”
He pulled out a window and checked the date and time, discovering that it was indeed the next day!
“8AM?!! Shit. I wasted an entire night here.” Rex was just about to stand up when he kicked a box, if you call a package wrapped in orange tape and was made sure that it was sealed shut by the tape a box, then yes, it was on his foot and he kicked it when he stood up. “Hm?”
Rex picked up the package and then turned his back to the gate when he stopped as he heard a grumbling Manang Fe.
“Hmp. That bastard. Let’s see if I ever see his face again, I won’t bash him with my spatula. Oh, you’re early…”
“No. I actually just woke up.” Rex didn’t know how to answer that statement properly. “Anyways, why are you cursing early in the morning?”
“Ah, some crazy guy bumped into me and almost spoiled my groceries. Crazy bastard. I wonder why his relatives never brought him to the proper center.”
“Oh? What’s that on your hand?”
Rex approached the Manang and took the bag of groceries with one hand as well as received the ID card that Manang was holding.
“It was something the crazy guy dropped. I tried to call him out but he only ran faster. I will tell him to the police when I get the chance today.”
While she was talking, the two of them were already in the house. Rex looked at the ID and saw only the words [Eosin Bozkovich], the name on the ID; a seemingly random set of numbers that seem like its ID Card Serial Number; a large [Level-04] below the name; and at the back were the chip and what seemed to the man’s company name, [WYVERN-OS].
“This might be his Company ID.” Rex said and handed the ID back at the Manang. “It’s better to keep it for now, Manang. Because if the guy lives in this neighborhood, it would be easier for you to find him…. no, wait, now that I take a look at it…”
Rex, who was in the middle of arranging the items on the table, stopped and took a closer look at the ID-Card in his fingers.
The make was of a solid metal, the chip was laser embedded on the body of the ID-Card, and there was also no picture of the personnel.
“Wyvern-OS?” he found that the company name of the guy sounded weird.
He pulled out a panel with his left hand and searched the name of the company, Wyvern-OS, and received searched results of Zero, a few redirect links, and a correction on the very top of the page.
“Wyvern…” he murmured the word and a few bits of memories flashed in his mind. “Wyverns are two legged Dragons where its legends originate on the western side of the world.”
As he murmured to himself, he thought of the two monsters that he saw back in Dragona, Rathalos and the Rathian.
That blonde Apollo chick was one of Hagrid’s henchmen, and she was the contractor of those two terrifying large monsters.
And then Rex looked the name, Eosin Bozkovich.
He searched the name and was shocked of what he discovered. His gasp was heard by the Manang and so the old lady peeked out from the kitchen while holding the spatula.
“Manang!” Rex cried and ran to her.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Manang Fe, is this the guy that bumped into you earlier?”
Rex showed him an enlarged picture of the Eosin Bozkovich and the Manang nodded and stared at him.
“You’re surprisingly fast at these kinds of things.”
Rex was startled, “It’s not that I am fast but it’s just that the guy is a really famous scientist.”
Although he said that, Rex’s expression seemed to tell her that there was something more to it. He was incredulous. He was looking at her as if she had just come out of a horror movie.
“If you continue to look at me like that, I will make you eat a crunchy scrambled egg.”
Rex came to his senses and then looked at the panel in his fingertips. “I’ll just be on the room.”
“Better.”
Manang Fe dismissed him and Rex made his own excuse to go to the room upstairs, carrying the ID-Card and the mysterious package.
One hand holding the ID-Card, the other looking at the panel in front of him, he read all of the open information about Eosin Bozkovich that was available in the net.
Name: Eosin Bozkovich
B-Day: December 15, 20XX
Died: January 27, 21XX
Career: Renowned Bio-Mechanical Engineer, a leading expert in Rocket Science, a Programmer that was recruited by the UNICORN as soon as he graduated in MIT. Earlier this year, he was called out to be dead in a plane crash that killed over a hundred other people in Philip Country. The UNICORN-PC Branch made a public vigil and many of his colleagues and other renowned personage in the Bio-Mechanical industry paid their respects before he was buried as a National Technological Hero.
Rex almost couldn’t believe what he was reading.
Eosin Bozkovich was supposed to be dead but just now, Manang Fe had bumped into him. If he tells her this, she would immediately…. er… well, she might actually just shrug it off.
But anyways, what’s more important is the fact that he was in the place where he was currently staying at and that it was connected to UNICORN.
Rex looked down at the ID, “He’s from UNICORN so…”
He turned his head to the NLD Console cabinet at the side of the bed and it just so happens that he also saw the package that woke him up this morning.
He almost gasped at the thought that entered his mind just then.
“It’s not a coincidence…” he murmured, doubtful.
He immediately picked up the package and came to the door. His hand had just reached the door on the room when he hesitated and stopped.
He then looked at the package in his hand and to the ID that he threw in the bed.
“It’s not a coincidence.” He murmured, convinced.
He came down and pulled the knives drawer, and before the Manang could even cry her protest, he was already running back to his own room.
Rex didn’t dare to bring the package downstairs in fear that there were cameras he was yet to sweep off around the place.
He picked up the package and then went to the bathroom, pulled the curtains to the shower, and studied the package with a knife in hand.
On one side of the pillow-shaped package, there wasn’t anything unusual. But on the other side is a single phrase that made Rex’s heart throb.
Beneath the orange tapes, two large thick-penned words were there.
[From Dad]
TiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiNNNGGGG!!!
“Argh!”
Rex felt a painful sting in his head that almost took all of his vision as the sudden prickling pain was so intense that he felt his head splitting.
But it was only for a short moment, like a sting of a fire ant that only lasted for a span of few pairs of seconds before dissipating.
It was indeed painful, but it was short lived.
When the pain subsided, a few vague but surreal visions resurfaced on his [memories].
It was a set of visions of the things that happened in the Genesis Chamber.
“I-It’s dad… it’s… it’s from dad!”
.
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After the darkness is the light.
Rex finally gets his father’s gift…!!
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