24 Chapter 22: Legitimate Stealing
Chapter 22: Plan
In one of the hallways in the Ascension Society, were Bobby, Mordecai, and Vester who stood silently with diverse thought. Mordecai rested his elbows through which his forearms came out from the window. Vester laid slantingly on the wall and Bobby sat down, covering his face.
Few days ago they decided to participate in the Head of Scrolls mission. But now that envisioning was thoroughly shattered. In as much as Mordecai wanted to blame someone or something for the cause, it was nobody's fault. When they went ahead to ask for the requirements to participate in, they discovered the appraisal was to begin the next day! And here they were not having decided their next action.
It seemed so sudden to them. Mordecai tried to put the blame on Bobby for not enquiring about the operation in the first place. But Bobby fended the accusal with the fact that he wasn't even interested in participating in the first place so how would he have known if he didn't care?
When Mordecai looked at Vester's own side of the issue. He sighed: Vester was out of the picture. Being dead for those time passed, there was nothing Vester could do. As for himself, he had his excuse. He was suspended. So how would he know?
'Is there anything we could do?' asked Mordecai, gazing out through the window.
'You know there's nothing we could do.' replied Bobby after a lot of silence.
'This.. this.. all this is just, just–'
'It's no one's fault.' Bobby interjected Mordecai's speech.
Mordecai exhaled, 'We can't miss this year's Head of Scrolls. I can't believe I forgot.' he decided to face the party. 'We can't.'
Vester scratched his head. The appraisal, Head of Scrolls, was something he wasn't accustomed to. Being only in the Society now for almost a month some of the systems still looked complicated to him. According to Mordecai's explanation, the Head of Scrolls was an optional test taken by squires who are ScrollMasters and sometimes Mantrants who seek reverence in the eyes of their desired Kingdom Force. Taking this course gives you a jumpstart into any of the Kingdom Force you'd wish to Ascend in as a squire.
'It's impossible to get a start.' Bobby said. 'All starts have been given out. There's a total of 100 squires participating.'
'Only if we're to somehow double the start fees.' Mordecai said.
Bobby in confusion tilted his head, 'You talking about a bribe?'
'Maybe.'
Bobby shook his head, 'First, you can't bribe an official. And second, even if you could, you can't get enough amount of money to do so.'
'Mordecai might not be able to do so.' Vester said and paused, drawing the attention of Mordecai and Bobby. 'But I can.'
'What?' asked Bobby.
Mordecai pouted and caressed his chin. Waiting to hear whatever statement Vester had to make: if it would be of utmost importance.
'I have enough.' Vester smiled. Staring into Mordecai. Mordecai replied by smiling back at Vester. Bobby witnessed this insane action and questioned aggressively, 'You can't bribe the officials!'
Mordecai continued to caress his chin as he said, 'What if we bribe the starters?'
'Some of their future depends on this, why'd they sell it to you?'
'If they don't, we'll just take it.' Vester replied.
'Take it?!' Bobby blurted.
'And drop the money for them of course.' Vester continued.
'That's BRILLIANT!' Mordecai commented ecstatically.
'I cannot believe your compromise got to this.' said Bobby with widening eyes looking at Vester.
'I am doing this for us, Bobby.'
'How much do you plan on giving?'
'Hmhm…' Vester rubbed the back of his hair. 'What about 500 hundred green paper?'
Silence.
The two boys stared at Vester for some seconds. Bobby wanted to explode again and asked him how he acquired such an amount of money. But Mordecai was one step ahead... 'Perfect!'
'No!' denied Bobby.
'Yes Bobby, don't you know what's at stake if we don't get to be starters. No game. Tomorrow.' Mordecai replied.
'It's alright Bobby. We're doing this together as a team.' Vester spoke, in hope to placate Bobby.
Bobby sighed in disenchantment, why was it that no one listens to him?
**
'COME BACK HERE THIEF!!'
Pointing his pig-sized knife to a person who just stole something almost priceless to him. The disadvantage he had was this so-called thief happened to strike at night, where all the market people and citizens had kissed the night goodbye. Not just that, this thief wore a black nylon bag over his face that had perforated holes to provide breathing space and sight. For the man, this was totally unprofessional. It seemed like this person just decided one night to steal from him without proper planning. Even the way he intruded upon their house was crude. Anyone would've known he was being invaded.
Now what infuriated him to the most was the size and height of this thief! His full knife was two-thirds of this thief's Bobby. To the butcher, the thief didn't just steal like a novice his appearance was that of a child.
The thief ran skillfully across the empty market. Flipping over market tables and flying into holes the butcher thought impossible to through so instead of getting to the roadblock he'd threw his hand holding his knife sideways, destroying whatever was blocking his path.
The chase was going on longer than he expected and after witnessing he was slowing down due to fatigue and the thief ran even faster he cursed at the thief in anger. 'You Bloody Thief!' then hurled his huge knife through the air, over to the thief.
It was as if time slowed down, the atmosphere took in a cold breath to see if this would be the end of the thief, but as if feeling the danger intuition from behind, the thief ran further a little bit then went down as he slid on his knees, making his body lie slantingly and giving the knife space to cut through on air.
Then again, as if time sped up, returning to its original speed, the thief rolled on his back after that lucky slide before getting to his feet and turning into the midnight breeze in speed.
Just like that. The butcher was amazed.
..
'They never listen.. now someone might just end up.. argh... I can't think 'bout it.'
This voice came behind a wall that seemed to be a fence to a well constructed wooden house. This environment wasn't exactly street like. The houses were closely connected to the extent it almost seemed like a maze. If you weren't tall enough and wasn't accustomed to this area you wouldn't notice the circles you've been moving around in for an hour.
Inside this wooden house were two individuals sitting opposite themselves at a dinner table having just a candle to illuminate the room.
'Eat up Hye.' one of the individuals was a teenage girl. On the table, only a bow of soup stood close to the boy why the girl had a bow of water.
The remaining individual sat faced down with trembling hands. How could he eat up when his sister had not eaten for almost two days. And here she was beseeching him to eat. Tears roll down his face. If it wasn't for the fact that he was crippled they wouldn't be in this situation. Even if he was just fourteen. It was still something. She had strived to pay for the Head of Scrolls so her little brother could participate as a starter. Not caring about herself.
He was angry. He had lost hope to become an Ascender ever since he lost the ability to walk. But yet every day his sister would tell him he could still make it. He'd just wish she would forget all this and decide to live like the ordinary people.
'I don't want to.' he managed to speak.
The sister wiped her own tears and replied as strong as she could, 'I've worked so hard for this. You have to eat.. tomorrow you'll show the world how strong you've become.' after that, she smiled.
The boy ignored her statement. He was still staring at the soup in anger when suddenly they heard a crash outside.
The girl hurriedly stood up and went outside after comforting her brother.
Just immediately after she left, the boy felt a tranquil breeze slid past his face. After that, the original silence continued. All of a sudden, he felt a foreign presence with him. When he carried his head up he saw the figure of a person in complete black wearing a black nylon bag with perforated holes for the eyes and nose but not any hole for the mouth. This person slowly took the golden disk on top of the table and dropped a brown paper bag.
The boy just sat quietly and watched the intruder. He knew what was in the paper bag. And for the disk, he could do away with it.
The intruder felt pity in his eyes. If he was able to speak he would apologize so instead he just bowed 90°. As the boy's sister came in closer he pretended to remain face down. In a second as she entered the boy raised his head up and in those few seconds, the intruder had disappeared.
..
'There's nowhere to run.'
In an open space, two people stood, grimacing at each other. One was in a black cloth and had a nylon bag to cover his disguise while the other was in a white padded armour denoting she was a core member of the Seraphim Hands. At one end was an open space and at the other end was a dead end.
'Give it back.' the young lady commanded with her left arm stretched out.
The intruder cursed at everything. Things weren't supposed to go this way. He was at a dead end. It was futile trying to break the wall so he went on his mettle. But it was also futile because the young lady reinforcement had arrived.
Fourteen guards stationed for battle at her back.
'Arrest him.' the young lady spoke to the guards.
The guards energetically brought forward their hands and manifested their rings three inches around their wrist. But then again, their ring suddenly went dim and disappeared. They looked at this intruder with grave solemnity. Dashing quickly to her front they guarded the young lady and took her further away.
But on their way out they all fell asleep on the ground.
