108 Chapter 108
Hound was a busy man these days. There was a time when he was struggling. Struggling to meet his ends. Struggling to keep his faith in the organization. Struggling to find a reason as to why live on.
He had no decent work to support himself. He was part of an organization which was on it's last legs, there was no way it could support him financially. He had joined the organization because he truly believed in the cause. Shouldn't everyone be equal? Why did the mages recieve better treatments. They had the first right over every decision made and every resource found. Why was it that way? It wasn't just the hot bloodedness of his youth which had encouraged him to join.
But over the years he had seen a lot. I his early 40s now, he had seen 20 years of turmoil in the organization. It had gone from bad to worse. You could question him on why he wasn't working to improve the situation? Of course people at the top differed on opinions. There was no one leader who could lead.
Hound was never the type to lead. He knew that. What he was good at was following orders. He never craved for power himself.
When he had lost all hopes and wondering why he was continuing the way he did, when he was inching that close to bring everything to an end, he had met him. The new boss. He had changed everything. Even how he viewed the world.
Now, hound didn't have the time to even think of why he thought the way he did previously.
There was always people to recruit, carry out instructions from the boss to every unit and make sure they were all striving for the common goal.
Of course there were some who in their high of suddenly gained power went off the path they were supposed to walk.
One such incident was near blossom city. A new recruit had turned rogue. He had thought he was better off alone now that he was strong. Little did he know that all he was about to do was get himself killed. Which he did at the hands of a young mage.
He had rather found the boy interesting, but he never thought he could successfully recruit him. There was just something about him which ticked hound off. He had always been the one to go with his instincts, now he did it even more. He had still left a hook in him. Maybe future would hold something different.
One thing the boss made sure was to spend the stones they collected. He said "the time you waste on the road is time wasted on the road. Nothing else." Hound had never used spatial gates before.
He was worried that a lot of questions would be asked of people who were willing to use gates of mage association and the families. But no, all they cared for was whether or not you paid.
It was funny how they operated using their enemy's infrastructure. No one had believed it to succeed, but it worked with relative ease. Of course you would have to pretend to be rich enough to afford it. He never tried to pass off as a mage. Now that would be risky.
Yes, they called themselves mages, but were they really? Mages needed life long training and discipline. But they? They did it on instinct alone. It wasn't the same as the boss described his use of magic.
But he was happy with what he had. He was finally making a difference.
Today he was there to make a report.
Their new boss was really different. Unlike the previous bosses, who were all currently dead, he didn't really prefer a big or a luxurious accommodation. He liked the small indescript places. He was particular about the cleanliness though. He was particular about how he dressed or how he ate. It showed perhaps he had once enjoyed a life of luxury.
It was him who had refunded their organization to wake up.
After going through two gates at two different cities, hound was sure he wasn't followed. Only then he went on to meet his boss. He couldn't forgive himself if he somehow was responsible for his boss to get caught.
After drifting through alleys and ducking under numerous clotheslines he had finally approached the house the boss was currently at.
He knocked on the door. A harsh voice came from the inside.
"Who does the mage association works for? " it was a question which you needed to answer before you were allowed to get inside. He didn't get the logic behind the whole thing, what if it was infact mage association knocking at their door. What could they possibly do?
"They work for no one. " Was the answer to the question. It didnt matter why for hound. He did what he was asked to.
The door opened and a brute of a man welcomed him.
"Hound " he said. Although he said in good will, it sounded like he hated him for ages. It wasnt Jupiter's fault though. He always sounded like that.
"Jupiter." Hound replied in the same single word sentence.
"Boss is waiting for you. " Jupiter sent him in directly. If it was anyone else, Jupiter would have made sure they were carrying any hidden weapons or similar things. But no one did it with Hound. They knew if they couldn't trust him, they could trust no one.
Hound went towards the inside of the simple house. Boss was reading a book. You didn't disturb him while he read. The boss soon finished and inserted a bookmark before he closed his book.
It was queue for hound to begin.
"Our work went as planned. It was what you said. The families really didn't bother much till you kidnapped only the people from their smaller branches. The ransom paid for them also made it worthwhile."
" Another thing we noticed, the young lords of the house, when they left home usually carried quite a lot of stones on them. Whether it was a show of status or something else, we made decent profit. "
" Our recruitment is high now since we could actually pay our recruits. That's always a good motivation for some people."
" As for our other plan, the success rate had increased, but actually getting our hands on the nucleus... It's getting difficult. Mage association is starting to poke their noses at things. " Hound was a little grim with that last Info.
" Don't worry about the association. I will make sure they won't find the time to poke into things they shouldnt. " The boss didn't react to the previous things Hound said. He was sure about those things and things went as planned.
"Anything else you want to add Hound? " boss always knew when hound had something else to say but hesitated.
"I don't know if it's coincidence or what, but do you remember the incident when one of our men went rogue and a mage from the association killed him?"
The boss signalled him to proceed indicating he remembered it well.
"He once again came across one of our another attempt. A kidnapping this time. If it was within a city he lived, I would have understood the coincidence, but this was in the middle of a vast grassland. No one was even in the vicinity of our Target when we made the attempt."
" But the boy was a space mage. A young one. He tried to save our Target. But he was too inexperienced and didnt have a battle mage for support, so we did succeed in the end. "
" What I dont understand is was that he knew to follow the carriage? Is there a mole in our association? Or a mere conincidence. "
Hound went silent after saying his piece.
His boss was silent as well. He thought for a while before replying.
"You have mentioned before that you talked to the boy. If he wasn't too sympathetic to our cause, but was willing to hear you out. If he really was working for the association against us, he would have reported you then. "
" What we have in hand is nothing but a trick of fate. As for moles, if you doubt too much, you will start seeing them everywhere. "
"Take a few days off. Come to me before you leave. I have further instructions for you. "
" Yess boss. "
With that the boss opened his book, signalling it was time for hound to leave.
As he watched Hound leave, he did wonder if their were moles. A organization of this size was bound to have a few. But they for sure won't report to a young mage. A space mage at that.
A young space mage, interesting.
