-Vol 5: A New Life-
-A hundred-year-old family’s fall(2)-
“I must inform this matter to the old master. She wasn’t thinking straight at all. I am afraid she will invite unwanted troubles to the family.” Muttering to himself, the old man paced out of the room and went outside. Since he was just a servant, he had no right to talk directly with the family head. He could only go there himself and talk to the head in person.
The main house of Kawakuchi was located in Ibaraki, a massive mansion built from the accumulation of two generations of hard work. In reality, many families that emerged after the great destruction, all have the same history. Though they weren’t weak, their roots weren't firm either. Especially in the current day and age, where strength matters above all else. If they have a magic user with a bright future as an opponent, they will suffer a huge backlash.
From what he heard, the opponent this time was a magic skill user whose information was classified by the DCB’s head office. Didn’t that mean the government was on the side of this person? If they did something irreversible to that person, they would be finished. Despite their family having a century of background, they still didn’t have a magic skill user on their side. In such a situation, if that young man has to pressure the government, their days would be numbered.
Even the government will support that magic skill user than them. This is the cruelty of the current generation. As a loyal subject who was born and raised in this family, he couldn’t afford to let such a danger befall on this house. He must alert the head clerk of the family and see the master as soon as possible.
Starting his bike, he drove out of the mansion and hurried along to the main branch. Just as he passed a hundred meters from the mansion, a black-cloaked person stopped him by standing on his way.
“Hey! Who are you? Why are you standing in my way?” the old butler angrily asked the cloaked person. He thought it was a beggar that came to cause trouble or some scammer that would extort money from him. Their number has increased these few years.
The cloaked man’s whole body was covered from head to toe, not a single skin could be seen. Even their face was covered with a piece of black cloth. If not for the rags, the old butler would have suspected this person to be a ninja. The person didn’t say anything in reply and rustled around his chest before retrieving a handgun and pointed it to the old man's head.
“Hey! What's the big idea? Who are you? Help! Help! I am being murdered here! Help!” though he was hundreds of meters away from the mansion’s main gate, there was still no sight of any market or populated area here. Only a silent road and trees to the side. To assassinate someone, this was the best location.
The cloaked person didn’t mind him shouting loudly and fired his gun twice. The first bullet penetrated the old man’s head, the other bullet went through his heart. Two bullets hit its mark perfectly, killing him in an instant. After finishing his job, the cloaked man slammed his hand to the ground, a deep trench formed, swallowing him and his bike whole before returning to how it was before. Not a mark was left on the spot, even the concrete road returned to how it was before.
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The cloaked person checked around their surrounding for a few more seconds before blinking out of existence, as if they teleported. Not long after the person left, a shadow came out of one of the trees wearing a maid outfit and threw a glance towards where the cloaked person left. Then she spat on the ground, the same place where the old butler was just buried and walked away towards the mansion.
XXX
After spending an entire evening with Ellie, Kenshin brought an exhausted Axel into his home to sleep. The name Axel was given to the boy by Ellie and approved by Mrs Yui. Kenshin also found the name very cool, so they all unanimously agreed to call him that. Mrs Yui had a special preference towards western names, and Ellie seemed to have taken that thing to a few steps further, giving a fantasial name to the boy.
Kenshin sweated a little when he remembered the mother and daughter’s passions towards western fantasy culture. They even made him pose a few times holding his sword and wearing armours. Even now a huge photograph of him standing like a crusader while holding a long sword in his hand was hanging on one of the walls of Ellie’s room.
She claimed that he looked cool while standing like that and that’s why she hung that photo while blushing like a shy princess. Since it stroked Kenshin’s ego a lot, he never complained about it.
“Sigh! What a weird pair.” Sighing a little, he looked at the sleeping boy wearing a girl’s one-piece dress and sweated again. After releasing another sigh, he placed the boy in the bed and left himself to sleep on the couch.
“Dammit! Why I must sleep on the couch in my own home?” and drifted off to sleep.
XXX
That night, in another location far away from Mito a huge event occurred. In Fukushima, the lady in kimono and the muscled man both stood in front of DCB’s main branch with a complicated face.
“You sure the trail ends here?” the muscled man said with a frown marring his face.
“Yes! I am sure. I never failed in my life.” the lady in kimono also frowned and said.
“Do you think he was captured by these people? If so, then our whole organisation would be implicated.”
“I don’t think so. Don’t forget that child couldn’t even speak and behave like a human. Nothing except a few suspicions would rose. But even that was not acceptable. We must find him before they even suspect anything.” The lady in kimono frowned again while speaking gravely.
She was indeed correct. Since the boy can't speak or act like a human, no problem would occur for their organisation, but if suspicion arouses, their days would be miserable. Not to mention their boss, even the clients who were behind their organization would give them endless troubles. Even their lives could be lost. They couldn’t take the risk.
Those rich men were very keen on remaining hidden, they could go any length to keep their secret a secret.
“Looks like we have to do it anyway. They must have kept him in a tightly sealed room, my detection wasn’t responding due to that. Let's go and search everywhere before we found it. you go and attract their attention while I go and search everywhere.” Lady in Kimono ordered and vanished into shadows.
“Huh! Who are you ordering around? Why would I go and attract their attention…te…you are already gone! Damn this bitch! Always angering me to no end! Godammit!!” the muscled man shouted in frustration and dashed towards the front gate of the office with his body blazing in blue energy.