38 Dropped out from High School!? (3)

"Good afternoon, Uncle Richard."

Lucien greeted the middle-aged man in front of him. The man was very muscular. He also wore a fitting shirt showing his bulging muscles. He was a European with blond hair and blue eyes. With a long scar on his cheek, he looked ferocious and terrifying.

'The same grade A villain's face…' thought Lucien inappropriately.

This guy was Lucien's uncle, Richard Haynes. Although Lucien called him an uncle, he was not blood-related with his father, Stevan. However, they were really close.

From what Lucien knew, either his dad or this uncle was the boss of the 'workplace' his dad was working under.

"Long time no see, Lucien! You have grown so much taller!" Richard's voice was very loud. It made Lucien thought if he installed a speaker in his vocal cord. At least, Richard was very friendly and Lucien really liked him.

There were two black-suited men followed Richard out of the limousines. One of them stood at the front door of the house while the other one walked around as a guard.

"Woah, you have become fatter too! You better exercise, Lucien, or else no girls will like you," said Richard, pointed at Lucien's cheeks.

As his cheeks received the most beating, Lucien's face was still swollen, causing his uncle to misunderstand. Richard was a bit of an air-headed as well. No normal people would mistake the bruises as fats.

"I'm not fat, Uncle. I got beaten up by my girlfriend!"

"Hoh, you have a girlfriend? Moreover, she can pig-face you, Mister Hikari Hero?" asked Richard teasingly. It wasn't weird for him to know Lucien's identity since he and his dad never held any secrets. Perhaps the reason he came this time was that of this topic.

Since Lucien was too lazy to retort about the name anymore, he wordlessly led Richard to the living room.

There were many delicious-looking Japanese cuisines on the table. Kathlene really cooked a big meal this time to welcome Richard. She had been researching Japanese food since they settled here so her dishes were improving days by days.

"How was your trip, Richard?" smiled Stevan.

"Japan really lives to its reputation! There are many earthquakes here. I also encountered one just before reaching your house, Steve!" said Richard as he sat on the table.

Stevan smiled sheepishly, glancing at his son. Lucien could only blink innocently.

"Aww, this should be your daughter, right?" asked Richard excitedly, seeing a little girl in Kathlene's arm. He was already captivated by Lala's charm.

"Lala-chan, this is your uncle," said Kathlene.

"Hai...Unncal!"

"Aw, so cute! Let your uncle hug you, Lala-chan." Richard stretched his muscular arms to her.

Lucien frowned a bit seeing the scene. 'This uncle…'

"Heh, Richard. You are too scary. Lala won't like y- What the heck!?" Stevan's eyes popped out as he saw Lala laughed happily in Richard's embrace.

"How!? How can Lala likes such a scary monster like you!?" exclaimed Stevan.

Lucien also spat out the water he was drinking in astonish.

"Come here, Lala-chan. Let your dad carry you."

However, when he approached Lala, her mouth turned into an upturned 'U' shape again. Her big eyes glistened with tears.

Stevan could only sit back on his seat silently. He looked like he was going to cry.

Seeing how pitiful his dad was, Lucien patted him on the shoulder.

"Son…" Stevan was touched.

"Come on, Steve, don't be sad. Here, your daughter." Richard gave him Lala.

"Richard…" He felt touched again at his best friend.

"Buuuu..naoo…"

However, Lala started to cry when she came close to Stevan. She even hugged Richard's biceps tight.

Stevan's hands stopped in midair as Richard could only pull Lala back.

"Don't cry, dad. You're already this old. It's creepy." Lucien consoled his dad when he saw a drop of tears falling from his eye.

After a while, Kathlene brought out the last dish from the kitchen. Alicia also came down from the second floor after properly dressed.

Richard was stunned at her beauty for a second before regaining his composure. Well, he didn't care about women as he was impotent. His little brother wouldn't stand up no matter how hard he tried.

After a simple introduction, the meal started. Alicia quickly ate to her fill and left the table with Lala. She knew that the fours had their private matters to talk so she brought Lala to play together on the second floor.

Lucien smiled at his considerate girlfriend. Although he and his family wouldn't mind her staying, Richard wouldn't be fully at ease with her presence.

"Ahem, Lucien." Richard started the conversation after he swallowed a sushi. "I and your dad have been hiding something from you. Now that you have already grown up, we think it's time for you to know."

"Is it the fact that you guys are working for a dark organization?" Lucien ate a spoonful all salmon.

"Woah, Steve, did you tell him already?" Richard turned to Stevan in surprise.

"Nope, I didn't tell him. He figured it out by himself. My son is clever, right?" said Stevan proudly.

"Well, dad, you like to place the folders with 'TOP SECRET' stamp in your bedside cupboard. Moreover, I once headed to the company you told me you were working at to surprise you, but it turned out to be fake. I also found a large stack of money under your bed when you said we are a poor family. Behind the posters on your wall were also bags of white powders. At first, I thought it was flour. I only knew that they were drugs after a few years. Well, since you've never taken drugs, I didn't point it out. So, how do you expect me not to know?'

"Hahaha," laughed his dad dryly.

"Damn it, Steve. You are so stupid." Richard facepalmed.

"Hey, you muscle head! Don't call me stupid. It was my home so I was too careless!"

"Dad, Uncle Richard, I didn't dig into it since I didn't care about it that much. There are still many things I don't know about. So, how dark is you guys' organization. It's not something like a secret organization under government, right?" Lucien asked curiously. Now that his dad was ready to talk about it, he wanted to get some more information.

He also held a bit of expectation that his dad's organization could be something cool like an assassin group. There were also many novels that the protagonists who came from the dark organizations. Most of them were stupid and unrealistic as the protagonists always became righteous even after working for the so-called dark organization for years.

The authors just wanted the protagonists' origin to sound cool. They didn't care much about the real personalities of the people of the dark. Still, Lucien carried the fantasy in his head.

'Umm, if my life really based on the novel, dad's organization main job should be killing rich guys, fighting the other gangs and stealing treasures, right?'

"Um, son. Our organization does everything that is considered illegal and evil. Ours is literally a crime organization. There are drugs dealing, weapon trafficking, terrorizing, opening casinos, assassinating and etcetera. Moreover, our organization is very big and worldwide, you know? We have eyes and ears in almost every country. You can go to the base later if you want to know more," said Stevan calmly.

"Woah, we are that big?" It was Richard who exclaimed instead of Lucien.

"You muscle head. You don't even know the scale of your own organization!" Stevan scolded him.

"What, your own?" Lucien was confused, "Don't tell me, Uncle Richard is-"

"Right," nodded Stevan, "Your uncle is the head of the organization. Well, there are actually twelve heads but you know? Your uncle is the biggest. He is the founder while I, your father, is the vice-head."

He continued, "Since your uncle always likes to fight in the front line and leaves me all the paper works, he knows almost nothing."

"Hahaha," laughed Richard loudly. "It's because I trust you, Steve!"

"Dad, why don't you just usurp the throne?" smiled Lucien mischievously.

"Hey, hey!"

"Well, son, I will leave it to you. Richard is impotent after all. He doesn't any descendants."

"Hey!!!" yelled Richard. "But well, Lucien, just tell me if you want my seat. I can concede it anytime."

"Hahh, you guys aren't joking about this whole dark world-wide organization, right? How can any organization in this world survive with Uncle Richard as a head." sighed Lucien. He started to doubt the conversation.

"Son, although this guy is air-headed, his fighting power is a real deal. With just him standing in the meeting next to me, no one dares to reject anything I say. So it runs quite smoothly, you know?"

Although he seemed like an air-headed person as well, Lucien knew that his dad was actually very clever and careful, especially when dealing with people.

"But dad, you don't seem to be busy at all in my eyes."

"Heh heh, son, you gotta know how to manage your employees, you know? Work them to the death! Moreover, I have quite a few good assistants."

Lucien thought of the beautiful woman he met by chance while looking for dad.

Years ago when he went to his dad's fake workplace, that woman quickly called his dad and told him that his son had visited. That company was, of course, owned by the organization and everyone there were its members.

His dad quickly rushed to the company to see Lucien. It seemed like he really wanted to maintain the fiasco that he was a normal office worker. While Lucien was waiting with a food box for his dad, that beautiful woman accompanied him.

She was very nice to him. Although there were mountains of papers on her desk, she still accompanied him, afraid that he would get bored. However, Lucien didn't like her so much because of the way she looked at his dad. She even begged him to call her mother.

At that time, Lucien wondered for a while if his dad was cheating. Lucien then threw away that thought after thinking of how submissive his dad was to his mom.

'Her name is… um, Bella? Let's tease him a bit.'

"Is sister Bella your assistant too? She seems very close to you, dad."

Clank!

Lucien turned to look at the source of the noise and found that his mom who was washing the dishes dropped a plate.

"Darling?" A word left Kathlene's mouth, lowering the temperature by dozens of degrees. The air became even colder than when Alicia was angry.

'W-Was mom the one who influenced my Alicia?'

"S-Son, what have you done!?" Stevan held his head with a paled face. "D-Dear, calm down first! Our son was joking!"

"Alright, can we talk a bit?" Kathlene said as she turned off the faucet. One could see the veins on her hands.

'How is that alright!' Stevan was screaming in his heart.

'Damn, what have I done…' Lucien was shocked as his dad was being dragged by his mom to the second floor.

"Kath and Steve were still lively as usual," nodded Richard. He was a bit jealous because he didn't have any girlfriend.

"Let's go, Lucien." Richard stood up.

"Hm?" Lucien tilted his head.

"There should be a training room in this house, right?"

"Uh-huh," nodded Lucien.

Richard then grinned widely, "Let's have a spar, Lucien. Actually, this is the reason I came here after your dad told me you are the Hikari Hero."

Quak!

With a flex of his muscles, his shirt was torn into pieces. The burning spirits could be seen in both of his eyes.

"Let's go, Lucien. Show me what you've got!"