With extreme ease, Laurent parried the inexperienced genius’s attempt at attacking him and calmly responded,

“I hold no malice towards your family, do you really think I would inform you and your mom beforehand about the murder attempt and still put my life at risk to stall for time, all just to have unkind intentions towards your family?”

“That doesn’t explain all the information you have on us, no one outside of my mom and dad even knows of her condition. How do you expect me to still trust you after that? And what about that thing you said about my uncle? Do you have any proof? Would that not be an attempt at driving a wedge between our family if you don’t have any concrete evidence to back you up?”

The doubt was valid, he couldn’t retort. But help came in time.

“Leave him alone already Lorcan.”

With enough respect, Lorcan stopped his attacks and turned to face his mom who was walking down the stairs, his sister probably already safely tucked in the bed. Her constant lack of energy made it almost crippling for her to do anything even though she had no disease or an actually crippled organ.

“We don’t know how he knows of these things and what he would do with them but today he has at least saved us and the least we can do is to not repay gratitude with enmity. Leave him alone, we’ll investigate it from our ends.”

Despite the anger and distrust still visible in his eyes, Lorcan backed away and stood near his mother.

After the little interlude, Laurent just smiled and put his hands up, simultaneously dragging his feet across the blood stained floor towards the exit. Near the end, he said,

“By the way, Nathan Hawthorne has died, be careful of Nash, he might come after the business since he failed to kill you both. If I were you, I would start preparing immediately.”

Then without waiting, he left the mansion. He was here to only collect a potential favor and a teammate, not to keep listening to his bullshit and getting doubted.

*****

“Shit! You good for nothing bastards, couldn’t even kill a woman and a defenseless child? I even bought all the guards for you and jammed her outgoing calls, all you had to do was just go and slit her throat. How hard was it?”

“Sir, the woman seemed to have already gotten news of our arrival, thus had made ample preparations. There were even two helpers by her side, both of which had high combat prowess, possibly higher than even me.”

A middle aged man with slick black hair sitting on a custom made chair narrowed his eyes as he listened to the leader of the goons he had hired to clear the obstacles in his road.

‘Someone intervened? No, only the government knows about this and they gave me their full support. A traitor in the government?’

His left hand resting on the armrest lifted and descended with a fist as a blunt sound resounded within the study room, filled with an impressive amount of books and flies, lined up neatly in wooden shelves emanating mild earthy scent.

With a dissatisfied grunt, Nash simply waved his hand. Intentions understood, the leader bowed and left the study room.

“Ah, who could it be? Can’t think of anyone, but I’ll have to tell this to the government. Someone has a way of getting inside information.”

Nash bent backwards and opened the uppermost drawer of his desk, taking out a sponge ball from under it, he began squeezing in his hand after closing back the drawer.

It was getting annoying. He didn’t even get the crystal near the corpse of his brother. The deal he made with the government might not go through this way. If he had succeeded in dealing with Samantha and her daughter, he could have easily directly asked for help in exchange for the non existent crystal he would make up. But now with them being alive, the takeover just got difficult and a lot of legal matters would crop up.

The crystal didn’t matter to him, the government could have it for all he cared. The business was more important to him, he could finally have his hands on the family inheritance he was denied. As for the reason he wasn’t given a part of it? He of course ignored it.

“I have no choice”

Picking up the telephone near him, he dialed a number to the office of the government department he was a part of, a familiar aged voice laced with authority entered his ears as soon as the call was picked up after two rings.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“What took you so long?”

“Nathan died in a car accident. Taking care of the legal matters took longer than I thought.”

“Car accident? I told you not to kill him, do you think everyone is stupid to not uncover that?”

“I had no hand in this, you can check it. He was already dead before I arrived at the scene.”

“What happened to the one who crashed into him? Did he find anything weird about Nathan? Anyone who has awareness about the news knows about him. Most important of all, did you get the crystal?”

“No, the truck driver who crashed into him is dead too. And yea, I got the crystal.”

“Send it here as soon as possible. We can’t afford to lose it again.”

“Send it?”

As a figure of authority in the government, Salazar immediately picked on the intent behind Nash’s tone. As expected, he was a tough nut to crack, just like his now dead brother.

“What do you want?”

“Hawthorne’s entire business.”

“I assume you did the work then?”

“No, Nathan’s wife is still alive, someone outside got the news and sent someone to protect her.”

“Are you saying we’ll sabotage ourselves by leaking the information?”

“Of course not, but if it is indeed not you, just help me take over their business.”

“Bullshit. This involves a lot of legal crap I am not willing to go through. Do you think the government can’t take the crystal back from you?”

“Nathan was caught because he isn’t in the government, he didn’t have ample preparations to run and had no idea about the inside information. Do you really think I am him?”

“...”

“Do I get the business?”

“You won’t have a place in government after that.”

“You think I’ll want the post after getting my hands on that big empire of a business?”

“You are talking a lot today.”

“Gotta get the work done.”

“You are playing a very dangerous game.”

“The business is worth it.”

“You’ll regret it Nash.”

“You need to stop with the bullshit.”

“...”

“We’ll need to remove Cordelia out of the way, it would be easier then.”

“Does that mean you accept?”

“The crystal is important. If you still don’t hand it over to the government after it helps you, I can assure you hundred percent that even the Hawthorne’s empire won’t be able to save you. I am dead serious this time.”

“Don’t worry, I am not stupid.”

“Hope so.”

******

‘Everything makes sense now.’

Laurent felt like his head was finally clearing up. At least according to him, the pieces were put in the right places and were finally connecting.

‘So, ignoring the fact that he somehow got information about how the planetary core can heal his daughter, Nathan was able to steal the crystal from the clutches of the government and just as he was going home, he died from a car accident. I assume the driver was Raymond, he probably took the crystal, no wait. He doesn’t look like the type to do that, poor guy was even crying that he killed him. Could it be that Nathan didn’t completely die, but instead entrusted the crystal to Raymond, and told him to give it to the Hawthorne? Maybe he was on his deathbed when he gave the crystal? No other way he gave away a thing he worked so far to give to his daughter to a stranger. But then if Raymond was able to bring the crystal back home, why was he in a coma?’

Just when he thought that things were clearing, more questions popped up. It annoyed him, but in a corner of his heart, he was also relieved that he was finally in the know of what was happening, it would allow him to prevent any disasters and properly lead his world to the top of the rankings.

Laurent lifted his hand and read the watch,

‘It’s almost time, I didn’t even realize how the day went.’

Yes. It was time.

Just seconds after a familiar ding resounded in his head as the interface appeared in front of him.

[World teleport is off cooldown. Initiate transfer?]

‘No. Give me some time’

With a mental command to the interface, Laurent increased his speed and ran over to his apartment. The time halted, sure, but if under unforeseen circumstances he was injured or had a change of appearance while coming back, it would be difficult to explain a person suddenly doing that instantly in daylight under the eyes of several people. Yep, better have a secluded area.

Taking a last left turn which would lead to his society, Laurent caught sight of Silver from the corner of his eyes and instantly a bulb lit up in his head. He didn’t act anything out of ordinary though, just gave a nod to Silver, who didn’t seem to have even noticed him. But ignoring that, he kept running and entered his room, and shortly after, initiated the transfer. He should do all the thinking later.

Just like the last time, everything in the surroundings were put on an absolute halt, his vision captured the sight of the hands of his wall clock immediately stopping, before everything lost colors, becoming gray, hazy, indistinct, before it all stopped again, the process reverse, things began having distinct contours, just this time, the colors were and shapes were different.

Yes, he was back in the World Of Fallen Deity.