9 Chapter 8

"Ugh…" a voice groans slowly.

"What happened?" another voice asked.

"Both of you fell asleep…" a third voice answered.

Hearing a third voice among them, the owners of the two first voices opened their eyes and in front of them, they saw their employer, Junior Xiong. Beaten and bruised, he sat in front of them with a disgruntled look on his face.

Behind him, they saw the scoundrel that they didn't expect to see again today, Roman Torchwick. Beside him, however, a beautiful woman with raven black hair stood nonchalantly. and she appeared to be exceptionally tired.

They also noticed that they are now in the private room of Junior's Club. They were sitting on the sofa and they were surrounded by people that had once tried to betray them, their employer and a total stranger.

"Melanie!" Miltia screamed at the top of her lungs, searching for her sister.

"Miltia!" Melanie calls out loudly.

Both of them towards each other and let out a huge sigh of relief. After their mother left them here, they only have each other to depend on. When it comes to both of their safety, they are always more vigilant.

"Sage!" a third voice interferes again.

Both of them then turn towards the owner of the voice and all they see is a towering white mask that only has two slits. They also noticed the situation that they are in, which was quite shocking to them. Both of them are in the embrace of the weirdo, again.

"You scoundrel!" Melanie said angrily.

"Let us go!" Miltia said with an annoyed tone.

Both of them struggled in Sage's grasp but once again, they were reminded that Sage's strength exceeded theirs by a significant margin. What irks the sisters even more is the fact that nobody in the room even offered them any help.

"Roman! You bastard! Help me!" Melanie calls out to Roman with anger.

Roman, after hearing Melanie calling out to his name finally noticed her situation. At first he didn't expect his employer to have a sister. Second, he didn't expect that his beautiful employer's sister would be such a lecherous figure.

"Sorry, Mel. Technically, she's my employer's sister. I can't do anything to help you." Roman said nonchalantly.

"Employer?" Miltia, who was tired from struggling, asked.

"Right! I almost forgot about that…" Roman said as he turned to Cinder.

"This woman here is Cinder Fall. My newest employer and the person that is confining both of you in her arms is her sister…" Roman said as he pointed at Sage.

Sage is now sitting nonchalantly between the two of them with her arms wrapped around both of the sisters' waists. Their bodies smashed into each other and both of the sisters can feel the coldness emanating from Sage's body.

Both Melanie and Miltia then turned their attention to the black haired woman. She seemed more rational, thus, they plan to appeal to her conscience. Sage, noticing the sisters gaze, can't help but chuckle a little.

"Cinder, right? Can't you tell your sister to back off? She's invading our personal space!" Melanie said haughtily.

"Yeah! It's annoying!" Miltia backs her sister up.

Hearing their 'plea', Cinder first looks at both of the women in Sage's arms then she looks back at Sage. She saw Sage's giddy face and Cinder felt an even greater burden fall onto her shoulders.

"You said that these girls are reliable? They don't seem that reliable…" Cinder asked Sage.

Both Melanie and Miltia were shocked by Cinder's attitude. She didn't help them and somehow, she started berating both of them right in front of their faces. Both of these sisters are obnoxious to a fault.

"They are useful, Sister. They just have a lot of pride right now." Sage said softly.

"Hey! Don't talk about us like we are not here!" Melanie said angrily.

"Yeah!" Miltia agreed with her sister.

Ignoring the sisters, Cinder turned toward Roman. Sage is far too irrational right now and she needs an honest opinion. That wuss, Junior, is clearly trying to dissociate himself from the situation which left Roman as her only source of rationality.

"Are they useful, at all?" Cinder asked Roman.

"They have skills but lack experience. Their specialty is espionage and assasination. They fell to the blonde earlier because they tried to face her head on…" Roman exposed the sisters.

Hearing their former friend, airing out their secrets like dirty laundry caused anger to well up from within both of the sisters. They didn't used to be as close as they used to be but to hear the guy that has been with them for almost a decade berating them is infuriating.

"Roman! You creep! I hope you die a painful death!" Melanie said angrily.

"Yeah!" Miltia agreed with her sister again.

"Then why did you hire them as bodyguards, Junior?" Sage suddenly asked, turning everyone's attention to her.

Junior, the target of her question, was suddenly brought out of his stupor. He was trying to ride the wave of the conversation by being invisible but somehow all attention is suddenly being funneled toward him with Sage's question.

"Hah…" Junior sigh.

"Junior! Shut up!" Melanie suddenly warns Junior.

"Yeah, Junior! Don't sell us out! You might be annoying but you are not a traitor!" Miltia, on the other hand, appealed to his conscience.

Ignoring both Melanie and Miltia, Junior stared right into Sage's blue eyes that hid behind the narrow slits on her masks. He has been staring at them for a while and no matter what he does, those eyes scare the living light out of him.

'She doesn't even think of me as a human…' Junior thought inwardly

"I hired them because our families are friends. They didn't want to return to their family, so I took them in." Junior explained after pondering for a while.

"Junior! You bastard!" Melanie screams angrily while struggling in Sage's arms.

"Junior!" Miltia said with grievance in her voice.

While both Miltia and Melanie are blasting their mouths off, Sage just sits in her seat, observing Junior from his head and down to his toe. Sage can see why his father, Hei Xiong, continues to mock this man even though he is his son.

'He can't lie for shit…' Sage thought inwardly.

"Well, aren't you generous?" Sage asked with an implying tone.

The atmosphere then turned cold. Melanie and Miltia stopped running their mouths when the obnoxious weirdo turned quiet and serious all of a sudden. They didn't know what was happening and why Sage was asking Junior those questions.

"Junior, what is she talking about?" Melanie asked.

"Junior?" Miltia asked softly.

"What do you want, girl?" Junior asked Sage instead, ignoring the two sisters.

"The real reason as to why you accepted both of them into your little crime syndicate." Sage probed.

"And what good will it do for you, girl?" Junior asked Sage again.

"I can win over Miltia and Melanie." Sage said nonchalantly.

"What do you mean?" Melanie, who was confused, asked Sage.

"Stay quiet for now, Sweetie. I'll answer all your questions later, okay?" Sage said with a pampering tone in her voice.

"You!" Melanie said with anger in her voice again.

"..." Miltia, on the other hand, stayed completely silent, as if contemplating something.

Sage then looks at Cinder and gestured with her lips. She then mouthed the word one towards Cinder. Cinder understood her message which led to her opening her scroll. She then typed a few words in her scroll before she stopped and looked back at Sage.

"1 million lien." Sage said slowly but it was deafening to the people in the room.

"1…" Melanie said slowly.

"Million…" Miltia whispered slowly.

"Lien!!" Roman screamed at the top of his lungs.

Everybody then turned to look at him weirdly. Roman also realized his blunder and quickly recomposed himself. He, however, kept thinking back to the amount that Sage had uttered slowly and nonchalantly.

'I didn't know they were that rich! I should've asked for more!' Roman thought inwardly.

"How about my offer, Junior? 1 Million Lien for your simple confession." Sage asked Junior again, ignoring Roman's outburst.

Junior was silenced by Sage's offer. He needed that kind of money in order to rebuild the past glory of the Xiong family. With that money, he can buy all of his family's property back. He can also hire some new goons.

'But…' Junior thought inwardly.

"3 million lien…" Sage said suddenly after noticing Junior's reluctance.

Her offer, once again, dumbfounded all of the people in the room. To get a simple confession from the Junior, this girl was willing to spend 3 million lien. 1 million is already an outrageous offer but Sage somehow made it worse.

"Do you like us that much, creep?" a voice suddenly breaks the deafening silence.

Sage turns towards the owner of the voice. She sees Miltia, looking at her with a slight disgust in her eyes but also with a great curiosity in her eyes. Her words, however, cut deeper than any blade.

'She said it with such a cute and innocent face too…' Sage thought inwardly.

"Of course! Do you think I would spend 3 million lien on people that I don't like?" Sage asked Miltia.

For a split second, Sage saw a tenderness in Miltia's eyes. The tenderness was then replaced by disgust and anger but Sage can clearly see that it was not as bad as it used to be. She was becoming more tolerable for Miltia.

'It seems that rumors about Miltia having a tender heart are true after all…' Sage thought inwardly.

"Hmph!" Miltia turns her head away from Sage.

Turning her head back at Junior, Sage sees Junior trembling in her seat. Mind you, he was not trembling in fear but he was trembling in excitement. It seems that greediness runs rampant in the Xiong family.

"Girl, I…" Junior tried to speak but Sage cut him off with another offer.

"5 million lien. Take it or leave it!" Sage offered again.

"Deal!" Junior said resolutely after hearing Sage's warning.

"Are you crazy? 5 million lien for some information that is not true?" Melanie suddenly interrupts their dealings.

Ever since the bidding started, Melanie has been wrecking her brain, trying to find a solution to her predicament. She can already guess the answer that Junior is going to provide Sage with, after all, she is not that naive.

She just didn't expect for it to happen this fast and this abrupt. If everything goes to her plans, the Xiong family will be in her grasp in the next few years but Sage's presence has caused some major issues to her plans.

'Not to mention, she knows that I'm playing dumb…' Melanie thought inwardly.

Right from the very second she laid eyes on Sage, Melanie already knows that the longer she associates with Sage, the worse her suffering is going to be. Her bitchy and dumb girl act can't fool trained eyes like Sage.

She was trying to delay the deal between Sage and Junior by interrupting them at a certain interval but she knows that Sage is closing in on them. Once Junior told his truth, both her and her sister will never be able to escape Sage's grasp.

"How do you know it's not true?" Sage asked Melanie.

"Well, you are basically bribing him with money! Even if he told the truth, both me and my sister wouldn't believe it because you are clearly coercing him!" Melanie said angrily.

"Then, how can I make you believe me?" Sage asked.

"Of course, you should…" Melanie suddenly stopped her words.

She then turns towards Sage and she can only see the shiny blue eyes looking at her as if she was a masterpiece. Melanie then realized her blunder. She was too absorbed in her pride to notice that Sage was baiting her into showing her intelligence.

"..." Melanie immediately became silent.

"I told you that they are useful, Sister." Sage said towards Cinder.

Cinder scoffed slowly. Cinder then starts inputting some numbers into her scroll and after a while, she turns her scroll towards the room. It shows the amount of 5 million lien, being transferred to Junior and the transaction would finalize as soon as Cinder hits the accept button.

"You answer, Junior?" Sage asked giddily.

"I accepted them as my bodyguard for insurance. To ensure 'Spider' never sinks it claws into Vale ever again. They are basically hostages." Junior said quickly after seeing the transaction in process.

"What…" Miltia said with shock in her voice.

"Tch!" Melanie clenches her teeth tightly.

"Very good, Junior! Sister, please proceed with the transaction!" Sage said happily.

"Are you sure? This information is not worth the 5 mil…" Cinder words were cut off.

She felt an enormous pressure bearing down on her and Cinder fell to the ground, kneeling and clenching her teeth. Both Roman and Junior also fell down to their knees, they were both trembling in fear as this is the first time they have ever experienced something like this.

Miltia and Melanie, on the other hand, were rooted to their place on the sofa even though Sage had finally released their waist from her hands. They could taste the fear in the air and they couldn't be more shocked to see the source of that fear.

"You dare disobey your Princess?" Sage asked Cinder with thousands of voices, echoing her words.

Sage is now standing in front of all of them with her hands behind her back, looking regal and dangerous. She looked at Cinder with anger in her eyes. She was mad at Cinder for questioning her decisions.

'I must have them…' Sage's inner Grimm thought.

The pressure just got heavier and Junior was the first one to slump onto the floor, unable to kneel any longer. Roman is like a dog, with all four limbs on the ground, he tried to stand up to the pressure but he was barely holding on to his consciousness.

Cinder, on the other hand, is still kneeling on the floor but she is quickly regretting her choice of words. She just didn't think it was worth it to spend 5 million lien on some information that can be extracted from a piece of wuss.

'Shit! I need to do something…' Cinder thought inwardly.

"My apology, Princess! I will never disobey you again! Please forgive me, Princess!" Cinder said quickly.

"Lies!" Sage said angrily.

"I swore on your mother's name, Princess! I swore!" Cinder said slowly, gritting her teeth in order to keep herself from biting her own tongue.

Sage watched Cinder, trembling as the last of Cinder's strength leaves her body. She stopped right before Cinder fainted, making sure that she is still conscious. Roman and Junior were also released from the pressure and both of them quickly fainted.

"You better keep your promise, Sister." Sage said solemnly towards Cinder.

"I… will…" Cinder said slowly.

Sage then turned her attention towards her two future partners. She didn't quite understand why she lost her temper just now but what has been done cannot be undone. She now has to face the consequences of her actions.

"You…" Melanie stutters as she looks at her with absolute fear.

"..." Miltia, on the other hand, was completely silent but her eyes that are filled with tears are telling enough to Sage.

'I guess it's better to rip the bandaid off early…' Sage sighed inwardly.

Sage then slowly removes her hood and her long and smooth white hair enters Melanie and Miltia's sight. She then brought her hands up to her and unlatched the leather that is tying the mask to her face.

What Melanie and Miltia sees next, causes even more fear to them. They saw Sage's face, with her striking blue pupil and black sclera. The veins around her eyes glowed blue with power. Both of them couldn't stop themselves from trembling.

"Hello, Melanie and Miltia. My name is Sage and…" Sage said slowly.

"I am the Princess of the Grimm."