After Mr.Gold rested enough, he was healed enough to be able to walk by himself.

“Let’s go,” he told his students as Elma helped him stand up.

He wanted to rest a bit more, but he could see the hurried look on Lin’s face. He was sure that she couldn’t wait to deliver him upstairs and then run back to her beloved… It’s nice to be young.

The group quickly began heading to Victor’s instruction. He had told them the way he came through so that they could quickly reach the next stairway.

The trip was uneventful for the first 15 Minutes when the murals-filled walls around them became empty containing strange glowing symbols! It was as if everything became dimmer.

Mr. Gold quickly ordered them to prepare for an attack that never came… Only a strong wind blew, and strangely enough, turned off all of their torches.

They drowned in darkness.

“What is going on?” Elma asked.

“I don’t know… be careful… “ Mr.Gold said as he took out a glowing sword, that shed enough light to barely illuminate a few feet around him.

“Come stand next to me…” He said making the two girls quickly hurry to his side…

“Tristan, you too!” he said…. No one replied… “Tristan?”

“An HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.”

A bone-chilling scream sounded as all the torches that had been off earlier sprung back to life. The corridors were normal again, but Tristan was missing!

“Stay vigilant and follow me! ” Mr.Gold said as he ran following the scream’s direction. It was close and he found it a minute later.

The scream came from behind a bloodied door. The only door in this entire corridor!

He could hear the voice of someone wailing in pain from the room behind it, it was Tristan’s voice.

“Hang on!” Mr.Gold screamed as tried to open it, but it didn’t budge! He quickly began hammering it with his sword that didn’t even scratch the stubborn door.

“Lin… You try it!” Mr.Gold said he had witnessed Lin’s power before.

“Yes…” she said as she used all of her strength to push against the door, but only managed to make it shake a little.

“Again!”

“Yes…” Lin attacked the poor door again this time with more resolve… It still refused to budge.

“Together!” Mr.Gold said as he and Elma began to help Lin. The door began to move little by little as the voice from inside disappeared. The next moment the door swung open by itself, making them fall to the ground. Elma could only blush as she felt Mr.Gold’s hand grab her from her waist and support her. Lin didn't need any help as she quickly adjusted her stance by herself.

Inside there was no enemy. Just Tristan, who was hanging on the wall with a big splash of red on the wall behind him originating from the spot his crotch should have been…. His blood was still dripping from the hole that was dug there and pooling on the ground.

“Tristan!” Mr.Gold yelled, as he carefully inspected the room… It was empty… There was no trace of the assailant!

“Tristan!” Mr gold yelled again without approaching Tristan, who was already dead.

“What kind of monster would do this?” Elma shivered as she stepped back and carefully looked around as she held her mouth with her left hand. She was about to puke.

“The Nutcracker!” Lin whispered as she hid her smile, acting as if she was feeling nausea too… Victor definitely did this because Tristan was looking at her improperly and this made her strangely pleased! It meant that Victor really considered her his own!

…..

Despite the fact that Joseph was one of the richest guys in town, he had never seen a treasure like this before. It was a perfect fist-sized golden egg without any imperfections or traces of machining!

He completely ignored the baffled look of his stupid daughter and her friends as run to grab it from the hands of the little girl who was showing it around.

"Where did you get this from?" He asked the shy girl who shrank back in fear.

She didn't answer, but his spoiled daughter did.

"Daddy! Lara was showing us this egg, saying that it was pure gold! She is obviously lying!" his daughter said.

Joseph said nothing as he inspected the egg… It was as if a true egg turned to gold! He knocked on it twice to hear its ring.

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He frowned and looked at the girl, Lara. She was one of his stupid daughter’s friends. She bought a home for a sleepover today under the pretense of getting to know each other. But he knew that she just wanted to show off her wealth!... No, His wealth. It was not hers!

This little brat was slowly growing up to be a slut like her snobbish mother!

Finishing inspecting the egg, he looked at Lara who was about to cry. He realized that he acted a bit rashly earlier and that he might have scared the little girl. He could only sigh and kneel beside her.

"Sorry, I was a little emotional,” he said, “Where did you get this child?" Joseph asked softly. He had just finished inspecting the egg and it was really pure flawless gold! It was definitely the work of a Master artisan. As a master antique dealer, he could tell.

"Ah… my esteemed brother gave it to me…" Lara said shyly after gathering up her courage, making Joseph sigh, and ponder why couldn't he have a cute daughter like this. His wife only gave birth to three goblins!

Of course, he was totally oblivious to the smaller girl standing behind observing him with an active mobile phone in her pocket … If he did do anything to Lara, a faithful group of 12 ferocious Chickens would make sure that he would not live to know who he offended.

"Oh, really!… Do you know how much it is worth? Didn’t your brother tell you to keep it safe?" he asked, wondering whether this girl had taken her family's heirloom to brag! He didn’t suspect that she stole it from somewhere. His daughter’s school was one of the best in the country and only elite students could get admission. He had to bribe half of the city to get his stupid daughter in.

" Ah…. Not really… …. Isn't it just gold? It shouldn't be that expensive..." She asked as she cutely tilted her head. She had a lot of golden toys at her home in the family archipelago. Even the dogs there had golden chewing bones! “My brother just said that he didn’t like it because it didn’t vibrate and that I should take it and play with it!” she added defending herself.

“Stop lying!” Joseph's daughter exclaimed. She heard Lara at school brag about her super big brother and his mansion, so she invited her here to show her what real wealth meant. She didn’t expect this girl to be so shameless and show off with a golden egg! “Eggs don’t vibrate!” she added as she crossed her arms knowingly. Her friends nodded as she glared at Lara who was now pouting.

“....” Joseph really wanted to correct his daughter that her sentence was not entirely correct and that vibrating eggs do exist. In fact, her mother had a couple of pink ones in her secret drawer.

In the end, he chose to remain silent. He didn’t want to corrupt those noble little girls who were waiting for his answer.

“Ah… Stephany, don’t be rude!” He finally scolded before turning back to Lara, did she just say that this was ‘just gold’ how fuckin rich was she?

“What does your brother do for a living?” he quickly asked Lara, changing the awkward subject.

“Ah…” Lara thought for a second…” I don’t really know. Esteemed brother is always out of the house bringing new girls every now and then…” She pondered making Joseph frown, “Oh… Miss Aria did say that he has this company, Horizons Media! She wanted me to appear in the new movie they were doing!”

“What? Horizons media?” he frowned, he was not knowledgeable about media companies but he heard about Horizons media before… he was invited to a party that they sponsored a while ago, but didn't go because he didn’t think it was worth it. Maybe that was a mistake?

“What about your father?” he asked.

“Esteemed father is always busy… I don’t really know but he travels a lot and has a lot of wives…” she said, she really had no idea what Theodore did.

“Wives? What is your father’s name?” he finally asked.

“Ah…” Lara got nervous as she didn’t dare to say it causally, but finally, under her classmates' questioning eyes she uttered it. “My esteemed father is called Theodore Von… No… Theodore White…” she corrected herself after remembering that Victor told her to use the fake name outside.

“Hsssssssssssssss” Joseph gasped, Theodore white was a name he knew… DAMN IT

He quickly headed to the window and looked outside. Sure they were there, 3 black White-Stead vans with burly men in them waiting… Damn, the girl whom his snobbish daughter was planning to bully was a princess from the White family. Sh*T that was close. He almost lost his head!

“Oh… I heard of your father…. He is a great businessman ” He said as he turned back while trying hard to calm his shaking legs… “But… Little girl, you shouldn’t go around showing off your wealth like this… there are bad people in this world!” He calmly advised as he walked to Lara and gave her back her golden egg then carefully patted her little head. His life was more important.

“Daddy! But…” Stephany, who didn’t anticipate her father to act like this, wanted to say something, but only got a smack to the back of her stupid head.

“Stephany. Lara is a really good girl, she would never lie!” he scolded, “You will be good friends from now on! Now apologize to her!” he ordered. If his stupid daughter really managed to befriend Lara he would have struck gold!... No, as Lara said, gold was not that precious. Then, what would have he struck?… He quickly took out his phone and began to check precious metals prices as his daughter turned to face Lara.

“... I am sorry…” Stephney spat unwillingly. She didn’t dare to disobey her snobbish father.

“It’s ok!” Lara said with a sweet smile. She never held grudges, that’s what her mother taught her to do!

“Is your brother really the head of Horizons media?” Another girl who was silent until now asked as stars twinkled in her eyes. She was knowledgeable about movies.

“Yes! Last time he was with Miss Mira Elven and he introduced her to esteemed mother as his girlfriend!” she said, making the girls gasp. They finally realized that Lara's esteemed brother was a really big guy. They all knew and love Mira.

“Really? Are you telling the truth?” Stephany asked skeptically. She didn’t want to recognize her defeat.

“Yes!” Lara nodded and took out her phone and began to show her friends the selfies she got with Mira that day.

Joseph silently nodded as he glanced at the phone casually… wait!

“Hssssss,” he gasped, “Miss. Lara…. That purple-headed youth….?” he asked suddenly.

“Ah… That’s my esteemed brother! He is the coolest in the entire world!” Lara said proudly, as El in the back nodded.

“He is very handsome…” Stephany, who was completely entranced, said as she looked at Victor’s photo. She finally conceded!

That guy is too fucking hot! She had decided, from now on, Lara was her sister-in-law!

“...” Joseph just stood there in shock… Wasn’t this guy the pervert Grandma’s boy who was in the news lately?