6 A Not So Festive Outing

A boy sat alone behind the desk in a dimly lit manor. A mansion which was normally lively with the buzz of maids, butlers and civil officials had gone completely silent at just the early hour of 4:00 pm, a whole 4 hours earlier than work hours in this mansion come to an end. On the contrary, loud voices, soothing music could be heard from Luna city which was now sprawled with decorations, all the way to the office in the mansion. Yes, the reason for this absence of people is the international holiday. A holiday celebrated on the 30th of June in the imperial calendar. The day to commemorate the victory of the 'Legion of Heroes' over the defeat of the 'Council of Titans', a group of 6 demon lords.

Now why do you ask that I, Maximus Stone, am sitting alone in my office on an auspicious day such as this? Well to put simply, I have no interest in celebrations nor do I want to stand in the crowds. Will this reflect badly on the Stone family as the governors of Luna city? They should, but I played the 'I'm sick' card and stayed back. My dear little sister Nicole was burning red when she could not accompany her dear brother to the festival, but she compromised for going with Emilia and Sebastian. Since Emilia has showed up, at least her brother complex seems to have gone down as she can compromise to play with Emilia instead. The downside is that when she sticks to me, she doesn't let go for at least the next 72 hours. Hence, the reason why I hesitate to announce the end of her brother complex.

That aside, I should tell right now, its been 4 years since I met Emilia and that means I am now 13 years old. Later this year, I will attend an academy for the required compulsory education. I plan to take advantage of the fact that no matter who or how talented someone is they need to attend any such academy for at least 4 years. This means I can be away from the tedious work of governing Luna city and focus on expanding my organization, as well as launching attacks against the order.

Oh right, in these past 4 years, Emilia has gone around and recruited many people afflicted by demonic synergy into our fold. Nearly all of them want to fight beside us. Is it the purity of children minds that makes them think like this? Well besides that, they have been discarded by their families and gained new hope when they were saved. So this way they do good for the world while gaining a new family. I consider it a win-win since I never forced them to join and told Emilia the same. I felt bad for letting her do this work but I took care of Luna city affairs in this period of time. Now we are a sufficiently big group of individuals to be referred to as an organization. Speaking of which, the name of the organisation we have come up with is 'Hell's Gate', at the very least temporarily. Emilia has also gotten very strong over this period. My plan is to expand Hell's Gate's strength in as many ways as possible, for example increasing monetary power, by the time I attend the academy. Once this is done, we will take the fight to the order.

Besides Emilia, there are also two more people she recruited noteworthy of being officers or people who I intend to give a high degree autonomous power over the organization in the future. They are two elven girls named Aurora and Omega. That's right elves. Elves as well as many other creatures that you expect to see in fantasy worlds exist here. Except that this world, 'Nova' is predominantly human dominated.

Aurora and Omega were acquaintances in a distant elven country, not close enough to be called friends. But they were diagnosed with demonic synergy around the same time and were thrown out by their families, only to be saved by Emilia. Its interesting to note that Aurora was an eleven princess. This just goes to show that to most of the nobility and royalty anywhere around the world, reputation is more important than their own familial relationships. In other words, they are willing to abandon their own flesh and blood to save face. Also just to be sure, higher nobilities alter the memories of the common populace as well, which is evident as the elven people forgot their popular and loving princess.

Anyway, as of now, both Aurora and Omega know of my identity. Besides them I want to have 2 more people in the future to join me and hold an equal amount of authority in the future. All the members of hell's gate know that next to me, these 3 individuals and later probably 2 more, are next in amount of power they hold.

Another interesting thing to know is that the members of hell's gate have started referring to me by the alias 'Hades sama'. Yes, as in the greek god of the underworld, the ruler of death and yes I do feel its kinda embarrassing but the members of the organization think of it as cool and befitting their almighty leader. Seriously, what stories have Emilia, Aurora and Omega told everyone about me to install such deep seated loyalty in them. Worse is the fact that even those 3 believe me to be some unfathomable existence with unparalleled intellect. Its true that nobody knows about my past reincarnations, but my maturity and intellect mostly comes from my past lives. Pretty much all I am actually good for is fighting, that is considering what I have achieved only in this life, without bringing the knowledge of my past lives into account. I need to work harder to maintain this 'image' that they have of their leader otherwise everything we have worked for will go down the drain in mere minutes. Hah, its tiring being an organisation head, and I am complaining before its even completely formed.

Ordinary members only know me by the title 'Hades' and not as Maximus Stone, which works in my favour. The lesser people to know, lesser the danger. I don't know when hell's gate comes up on the order's hit list and is recognised as a threat, but when they do, they will probably target 'Hades' instead of Maximus Stone. But what makes being called 'Hades' interesting is the fact that upto some extent, greek mythology does exist in this world. This means that like me, someone in the distant past probably came here from Earth as well and spread some of knowledge and beliefs of Earth.

That's enough thinking for now. I am finally alone and without anything to do, so I should treasure this moment of silence from work and my sister, by yawwwnn...sleeping. And thus I closed my eyes, embracing the peace and quiet.

Or not.

The door slammed open as Emilia rushed in, panting and...scared? Emilia is pretty strong if I do say so myself. What could cause her to be afraid?

"Max...sama...fast...come fast.."

"Calm down, Emilia. What happened?"

She finally calmed down and said-

"I'm sorry for showing such an unpleasant sight Max sama. But there's something that requires your utmost concern right. Nicole sama has been abducted...!"

*******************

Max sama opened his eyes in disbelief.

"I am very sorry, Max sama. To allow this to happen after you left Nicole sama in my care." I apologized, a drop of sweat trickling down my face.

"Huhh...Do you know who the perpetrator is? And where is Sebastian?"

"We do not know exactly who did this, be we believe it to be the order. As for Sebastian san, he left the festival much earlier as he was feeling unwell. Once again let me apologize for letting this happen on my watch." I bowed down to express my apology.

"You don't have to apologise as you are not at fault. If anyone is at fault, it is me. If I had gone with her this would not have happened." Max sama's eyes narrowed in seriousness and felt devoid of life. He then took out his contacts, exposing his heterochromatic eyes.

But what Max sama said hurt me. I know he did not mean it that way, but his statement can also be interpreted as saying that I am incapable of performing a task to his expectations. In fact, I wanted to interpret it that way and face the consequences.

"I assume that no one else knows about this matter. If yes, then keep it that way. We can't raise alertness and cause a ruckus about this matter, especially on a public event." He had regained his composure and was already planning the course of action to take. And look at me, wallowing in my own mistakes.

"Yes, I thought so and did not mention this matter to anyone. Although I did mobilise hell's gate to look into the matter and expand our area of search. I believe the enemy is using some sort of a cloaking and illusion magic. Even I, with a high mana capacity did not notice miss Nicole's disappearance until a few moments after the deed was done, much less the security detail present there." I gave my analysis of the situation.

"I see. So that is the caliber of the enemy is it. If they have enough power to bypass yours and fool you, we may very well be dealing with a high ranking official of the order. I also have reason to believe this may be an inside job considering how smoothly the operation went. Luckily you did not loose all leads and mobilised the necessary support. This proves that you can be my secretary and later my second in command after the organisation is completely set-up, as you took the correct course of action despite your error."

What? Why is Max sama still placing his trust in me after my fatal mistake that might cause the loss of his sister? I don't deserve this treatment...

"I understand what you are thinking right now. You are not wrong. But we are playing with a power which has lurked around since hundreds of years back. Resolve yourself to face such events in the future. After all, anyone can make mistakes. Even me. What's important is what you do after you commit a mistake instead of dwelling on it. So prove to me and every other member now that you are worthy of being second only in power to me."

I felt a teardrop trickle down my cheeks, but I wiped it off. Right, what Max sama says is completely right. I can't feel dejected here. I will make amends with my own actions.

"I shall not let down your expectations and deliver the appropriate result." I shouted with my resolve.

"Good. Now, we don't have much time before they start erasing their tracks. Emilia gather information regarding the whereabout of their location or at least all possible locations within 4 hours. Give Aurora command of on site investigations and inform Omega to research who the mastermind behind this operation is and also what are their numbers." Giving the orders he stood up.

"I understand. I will try to get the information as early as possible."

As I started to leave, I heard Max sama sighing and saying "not so festive is it..." or something akin to that. I shut the door and immediately got to work.