Cassius was living through a nightmare. As happened often these days, he had gone to bed late after spending his evening in the company of wine and smoke. Late in the night he received a notification of a fire alert in their Kyrothratix manufacturing facility.
By the time Cassius reached the facility, the entire two acre warehouse had been burned down to the ground. His eyes, red-rimmed and glistening with unshed tears, darted between the flames and the faces of the emergency responders, who worked tirelessly to contain the damage. Their efforts, though valiant, seemed futile in the face of the all-consuming fire.
"What... What happened? How could this have happened?" he asked, the words barely coherent through the choking cloud of smoke that filled the air. The assistants who had accompanied him gaped in astonishment at the sprawling smoldering ruins in front of them.
The lead investigator from the Protectorate was the first one to break the silence. Offering a handkerchief for the tears that threatened to spill from the man's eyes, she offered, "Sir, we're still investigating the cause of the fire. But we'll do everything in our power to help you through this," she assured him, her voice filled with sympathy and concern.
Cassius's shoulders slumped, and he leaned against a nearby wall, his world crumbling around him. They had already been struggling to get their finances under control. But this spectacle of destruction of his father's life's work completely eliminated any possibility of Emerald Crust ever recovering. He could only stand and watch as the last of the flames consumed the refinery that was a critical step of their manufacturing pipeline.
The eight hours of discussions and exploration that followed, only led up to the conclusion that the entire infrastructure that had been worth millions of sols just a day before, had withered to dust with practically nothing that remained salvageable. None of the analysts who investigated the remains had anything promising to report.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
After this devastating ordeal, Cassius hadn't thought that anything could be a more frustrating experience. But he was proven wrong by the fat bureaucrat now sitting in front of him.
“What do you mean our insurance claim is ineligible?” He barked at the rotund man, whose attention seemed fixed on a burger, a mountain of decadence occupying the plate in front of him.
This man, Horace, was the designated representative of Schadensabwehr Versicherung, the insurance processing company their family had relied on for generations. And his face was a portrait of unabashed gluttony.
"We sent you an email three days back, seeking some specific clarifications about the safety processes. Since we did not receive the said clarifications, we would have to decline from further processing your claims at this point."
Even while he spoke, his eyes kept darting back to the plate where a stack of six patties, a mountain of melted cheese, a mound of crispy bacon, and a lake of creamy mayo were nestled between two oversized buns.
"This is ridiculous." Cassius exploded, as he recalled this request. "Those clarifications would have taken us several weeks worth of work. We were planning to take them up in Q4. Nowhere in your mail did it say that it may result in suspension of claim processing in the meanwhile."
"Of course it did. You should see the footnote on Appendix XIV." Horace had already given in to the temptation. A small trail of cheese dripped from the corner of his lip onto his gray suit, its fabric stretched tight against his bulging waistline.
"This is pure fraud. You should be shut down for this." Cassius slammed his fist on the desk.
"Please Sir, stay calm. I am just doing my job." Horace wiped his lips with a kerchief that looked like it should have been tossed into the laundry pile a decade ago. "If you have any complaints, I am sure our legal team will be happy to assist you further. Our grievance redressal system is very efficient."
He picked up the burger again and took the next bite, eyes closing as he savored the taste.