Volume 2 Episode 41

The next day, as rays of sunlight shone through the open window, Lin Hamill woke up.

Glancing at the time, it was 6 in the morning. 

After quickly putting on some clothes and washing up, Lin injected himself with the prescribed painkillers once again. 

The pain had indeed been decreasing as the days went by, but it seems it might take a while for it to completely go away. Lin looked in the mirror at his reflection and let out a heavy sigh.

'Looks like I won't be able to completely utilise my powers in the final.'

He smiled bitterly, as he thought about the tournament which was supposed to end in a few days with him and Roger Rodriguez going at each other to decide the winner.

He didn't think he would be able to use his powers completely, which made him feel helpless. Nevertheless, he couldn't let it bother him too much. This wasn't the first time he had been in a big disadvantage and it surely wouldn't be his last. But he promised himself that he would win regardless of whether the odds were stacked against him or not.

The fight, although it might not be that important to him anymore as it was before, due to him gaining the Lindon family for resources, it still held meaning to him.

He wanted to prove to the old him, the Lin from before, who gave up without trying, that he too had a chance, even if that chance came with some supernatural entity showing him the path to do so in exchange for a favor.

It still was a chance. A chance to prove not to anyone else. But to himself. That he was better than what he had believed.

He completed his morning training session, and grabbed his breakfast. He was in the middle of eating his meal when he was interrupted by his smartphone ringing.

He quickly finished eating, grabbed the phone and placed it on his ears.

"Mr. Lindon."

"Mr. Hamill." 

The person on the other side of the call was Mr. Eric Lindon. Lin stood up from the couch and walked to the window, as he continued speaking to Eric.

"If you don't mind me asking, do you mind telling me where you currently are, Eric?"

"Of course I don't mind you asking Mr. Lin, but can I ask why before answering?"

Eric sounded to be in a good mode, as Lin massaged his forehead with his fingers.

"I just wanted to know whether the limousine outside my apartment is yours, Eric."

Lin looked out the window, and saw a large limousine parked in front of his apartment, and a man dressed in black guarding it.

"Oh you saw it? What do you think? I thought about what you said about you meeting us at the airport, and I figured why not just pick up the young master from his residence and skip the 'meeting at the airport' part altogether?"

Eric's enthusiastic voice creeped out Lin a bit, but in the end he did in fact chose to ride with Eric, as he had already arrived in front of his place and it would be just a waste of time to send them off.

The limousine started moving after Lin got on it, as it rushed to the airport. It took them only half an hour to reach their destination, and they both boarded the Lindon family's private jet along with Charles and Jason as their personal butlers.

The private jet took off a few minutes later, and they were soon up above the clouds, flying over the ocean.

Lin looked outside through the window, as nothing but white clouds came into view. The plane was high up in the air, and he could only see the sky and the clouds. The rest were not at all visible.

"Is this my goal? The top of the world?"

Lin whispered to himself quietly, and Eric, who thought he was talking to him, asked.

"I'm sorry, did you ask me something Mr. Lin?"

"No I didn't."

Lin quickly denied his claims, and Eric looked at him confusedly for a bit, but figured he must've heard wrong and let it go.

Lin turned around and grabbed one of the champagne glasses, swirled it around for a bit, and then moved his gaze at Eric.

"So what kind of a person is Mr. Tanten the Third? I would like to know who I'm meeting with, especially someone powerful. Wouldn't you agree Eric?"

Eric nodded and grabbed a glass of champagne as well. He then put the glass near his lips as he sipped the champagne, and placed it down afterwards.

"Mr. Tanten is, quite unique, to put it lightly."

Lin stared at Eric without moving his gaze, indicating him to expand on his words. Eric nodded and continued.

"You already know that Mr. Tanten is the Sultan of Nubia, a country with one of the fastest growing economies in the present day. Nubia might present to the outside world as a constitutional monarchy, with the Sultan not having significant powers when compared to the Parliament elected by the people, but the truth is far from what it looks like."

Eric poured another glass of champagne after finishing the first one, and Lin started drinking as well.

"The Sultan still very much controls the government. The ones who win the election are merely puppets for the monarch to continue his reign over the people without the retaliation from them. 

The Sultans have been doing it ever since they officially declared to include a government to support the people's needs and rights. It was all an act of course. They needed something to make the people believe. And they did. I mean, the people were not necessarily in dire need of freedom, but they did believe in the idea of a democracy. As long as it's present even if it's just in name, they'll fool themselves into believing it. 

After all, no one likes to work hard. What most people really wish for is to sit on their couch and watch television all day without going to work. But finding a job is necessary to sustain a family, so they do it. Which is why most people were satisfied with just the announcement and the statements of the Sultan, choosing not to look too much into it."

Eric burped in the middle of telling the story, and called the flight attendant over to ask for something to eat. The flight attendant nodded at his orders and looked over to Lin's seat to see if he wanted anything. Lin shook his head, indicating he didn't want any, and the flight attendant went ahead and brought back a large burger, which Eric had ordered.

Eric quickly dove into his meal, devouring it like an animal. He then opened his mouth in the middle of eating, to continue with his story.

"Our business deal with the government of Nubia began a few years ago, with us supplying them the refined Omega drugs after importing them from the Republic of Zaire. It was right around the time when they were in the middle of a huge dispute with Circassia. 

The issue was that the Circassians special ops had entered one of the territorial islands of Nubia without giving any prior notice to the Nubian government to arrest a criminal who had fled their country, which resulted in them arresting the special ops agent for a while.

Other issues with the Circassians also popped up, which even led to many believing that the two superpowers were about to head into war. But nothing happened even after a while, and the dispute was thought to be resolved in secret. Or maybe not."

Eric finished talking, and looked at Lin, who returned the gaze. They both had an idea as to why the Nubian government was importing the Omega drugs to their homeland through a third party company from Korea. It was likely that the imports and exports of the Sultan and the government was tracked by the Circassian secret service, so they needed an external source, which was where the Lindon family came in.

The Lindon family was an international brand consisting of games, smartphones, electronics and much more. They were already importing their products to various countries, and the government of Nubia was one of them. They just had to pay off a few people, but that was chump change compared to the profit they were making with these imports.

"You still didn't tell me what kind of a person Mr. Tanten is though."

Lin told Eric, who exclaimed loudly, and rubbed his head, embarrassed of his mistake. He then looked at his half eaten burger and replied.

"Mr. Tanten looks and acts like a nice guy. He even says that what he does is for the people and whatever choices he make is to protect his people. Now, I can't tell you of he actually believes that, but what i do know is this: He will absolutely make sure you are satisfied with everything. He will walk with you, he will show you around, he will explain anything for you. He will make sure you feel like there's absolutely nothing to be hostile about. And once you feel like you're at home-"

Eric took a big bite out of the burger, as some of the toppings burst out from the opposite end.

"He'll devour you. Because make no mistake; even if he actually do believe that what he's doing is right, he is still someone to be afraid of."