5:30:45 PM

Hermes and Zairena were struggled to carry in their shoulders weak Kurosaki's body. The young man was sweating a lot not because of the burden he was carrying but being wary to the person beside him.

Is he that man? The Kurosaki I knew from the original world? Is he? Damn it, but looking at his current state and face, he looks definitely not him, I suppose.

“Is… there…. something... wrong?” Kurosaki noticed his glance and asked.

“No, just forget about it.”

“Aah, I… see...” Kurosaki looked down in disappointment.

“Don’t speak too much. You’re just making hard for yourself. Until you finally recover, I want to hear your story right away. It appears you being in a shitty state during your time in that cell.” Hermes immediately talked.

“A-”

“I said don’t talk. You said you want to serve me, right? Then follow my order, damn it. Don’t disobey it, got it!”

Kurosaki covered his mouth and nodded, making Zairena laughed while covering her lips as well.

“Seriously, it’s not funny, you know.” Hermes clicked his tongue and continued to walk.

As they approached the next door, Hermes noticed the sound of footsteps coming in towards the left side.

“Quickly, there’s a group coming in this direction. We need to hide immediately.” Hermes and the others went to the corner against the wall to make their presence disappeared.

Between the four shadows of huge men, there was a lime haired handsome man with a mole under his left eye. Although the place was underground and lighted by torch in every corner, his hairstyle and segway of fashion had overwhelmed the place. In his white suit showing his sense of dignity and pride, no one except himself could be proud in his overdaring face. It was none other than Matheus Dante.

“Hmm…,” he suddenly stopped. He sensed something behind the wall. “Is there someone there?” he explicitly asked. His men pulled out their guns, stepped forward and formed a box defense position to protect their boss’ life.

Shit! Hermes and the others started to get nervous. Everyone covered their mouth and held their breath, leaning against the wall deeper than before.

“Ooh, playing hide and seek. I know you’re all in there. Show yourselves.” he raised his hands, “You piece of shits. I’ll give you guys 10 seconds to reveal your faces or else,” he patted the shoulder of his bodyguard in his left side. “You will die miserably. Here’s come the start of the coundown.” he raised his index. “One!”

“Damn it, what should we do, sir?” Kurosaki asked, struggling to stand still. “We won’t survive against that man.”

“Who the heck is this guy anyway?” Hermes murmured, “Seriously, is he some kind of bigshot in this place?”

“Two!”

“Mr. Aljen, ” Zairena pulled his sleeves.

“What? Huh?” Hermes noticed in her weird behavior. Her face was someone saw a big crisis and her whole body was trembling in fear. The person he thought very brave was now in this kind of pace. Why she’s so scared about this man?

“Three!”

“Mr. Aljen, we must escape. Escape is an option. Our last option.”

“What the heck?” he said in low tune. “You’re afraid of this one?” he pointed his thumb to Matheus who’s almost 10 meters away from them.

“Sir. Aljen, that is Mat- Mat- Mat-”

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“Four!”

“Mat- Mat- Mat- what?” he asked in low tune. “Math, as in math?”

“That’s Matheus Dante. The Underboss of the Verdugo family.” Kurosaki finished her sentence.

The name rang a bell in Hermes. In his world, Matheus was very popular among the cult of Japanese girls society. He was ranked 4th most male character according to the Kadokawa poll. A lot of products made with his image such as dolls, paper covers and also some doujin mangas. Some BL (Boy’s love) fans made a lot of fanfiction about him.

It’s very cringed. Lewdest and disgusting part he almost remembered.

He only knew he’s also an asshole and nothing’s good in beating this guy. He could be powerful than him but for Hermes, he could be easily dealt with.

“Aah, so that was him, huh. There’s nothing to fear at that guy anyway.”

"Five!"

When he said those words, everyone stared at him in confusion. He should be scared like but somehow his words decreased the tension.

“Oh well, let’s try it.”

“Mr. Aljen!”

"Six!"

“Sir, please”

“Sir. Aljen!”

Everyone tried to pull him back when he wanted to show himself to the mob. He resisted but they covered his mouth.

“Ten.... seriously?” Matheus became irritated. “Show yourselves or you’ll be dead.” He gave his men a signal to move towards the other side.

His men pulled down their guns when they saw nothing. Matheus became clueless as in he couldn’t believe he didn’t see anyone anyone. He turned around and put his right arm under his chin. Did he just mistakenly sense a powerful aura and other weak presence of the others? He just face palmed and ordered his men to move forward. This is the first time he had a mistake of sensing something.

Where did the crew of Hermes went to? How did they disappear in their sensor?

That was what Hermes wanted to answer too.

He found himself covered in darkness. He couldn’t see anything but his face felt something smooth. Smoother than a cotton pillow and as he sniffed the sense, it smelled so nice.

“Kyu~”

The familiar voice made him to feel embarrassed and quickly pushed himself away from the smooth object. He clearly saw now the view of the room and the wonderful thing his face touched.

“I’m so sorry,” he immediately bowed his head and kneeled for apology. “I didn’t intend to touch your chest!”

Zairena tilted her head in clueless state. “Fufu~, you don’t need to. It is an accident, Mr. Aljen. You don’t need to-”

“I’m so sorry!” he repeatedly bowed his head.

“Please.” Zairena raised her hand and asked him to stop. Her face started to blush in embarrassment, as well. “It’s alright. You need to raise your head and forget about it.”

“Certainly.” he immediately returned to his usual self. “Where’s Kurosaki and the little girl?”

“I’m here.” Wendy raised her hand while picking up the torch.

“I’m here, as well. Still kicking.” Kurosaki replied, smiling in good pace. He was leaning his back against the wall while resting his lower body in the ground.

“Good to see you guys alive. Now, this is totally unexpected. Is anyone knows how the fuck did we get in this kind of room?”

The room was full of old sentiments of ancient society. It had a painted ceiling where a man taking a fruit of red apple from the green tee. The room was enlightened by their torch.

“I don’t know. No idea.”

“Me too.” Wendy replied, rolling her eyes in fear. She immediately went to Zairena who was removing some dust from her skirt.

“Oh, I know.” she raised her right hand.

“Oh, that’s a good thing to hear. Now explain.” Hermes asked, he leaned his back and right foot against the wall and folded his arm ,waiting for her explanation.

“This tunnel has a lot of secret chambers. We luckily pressed something that triggered its system to pull us in. That’s the reason why we here.” she said, smiling at everyone.

“Eeh? Seriously, we got ourselves a plot armor now?”

“Plat armor?”

“Flat armor~?”

“Fat amor?”

Hermes face palmed and clearly ignored them. He presumed that the plot armor setting for the heroine, Zairena, had been activated. It saved them from the catastrophe. They might be an extra but it’s clearly might be one of the reason how they managed to escape the captivity from the enemies.

“Just forget what I said. Now, how can we escape in this chamber then?” Hermes quickly changed the topic and proceeded to the next question.

“There is a secret key to reopen the door.”

“Oooh, that’s good. Now, let’s find it then. What would be the shape and exact image of the key then, Ms. Zairena?” he asked.

“It might be in a shape of the wall. Similar to that.” she pointed her index finger to the wall.

“Alright, everyone. Let’s find the key and get our asses out of here.”

“Yes, sir!” his companion agreed and replied in unison.