14 Answers I

"I…" Ash hesitated in answering again. He now remembered, back then, in the heat of the moment, he had promised his life away to the mafia boss.

"Are you thinking of backing out of this promise?" The room immediately got colder as Jovia asked the question.

"No, no! Ah!" Ash quickly replied. The wound on his back ripped slightly again.

"Good," Hearing that, Jovia turned around and left towards the door. Before he left, he continued, "Nurse yourself back to health first. We will talk more later."

Ash was in the room by himself again. A whirlwind of thoughts bombarded him. What was he to do now? Nexus would surely find out eventually that he had failed this mission. By then, someone would be coming after him. Worse, they may even come for his friends…

In the twenty odd years of living in this world, Ash had never been this conflicted before. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. When the two oppositions have the same interest, the one doing the deed would only be able to please one of them. It was a slippery road to traverse on and yet now, there was nothing much the young man could do, but wait.

Ash closed his eyes, leaving behind the worries for another day. Experienced in real life combat and psychologically precarious situations, the young man could basically sleep in any condition to preserve and recovery energy. He had deemed the time spent worrying would do him no good and so, getting his health back to tip top shape was priority.

Besides, there wasn't much he could do at this point.

For the next three days, Ash laid in bed, ate, showered and then slept. The gripping sharp pain gradually disappeared as the young man was soon able to walk without grimacing. As promised with Jovia, Ash headed out of the room once he was healthy enough. Not to his surprise, there was a bodyguard standing outside, keeping watch over Ash.

"Where are you heading?" The bodyguard asked with a stern voice.

"Jovia Tabola asked to see me." Ash didn't really mind it as he replied straightforwardly.

"Follow me." The bodyguard did not question further and started to guid Ash around the building.

As Ash was in the room for the past four days, he did not get to have an inkling on where he was. There was a window to look out from, but from his view, the young man could not really get a proper view on the size of the building. There were only a wide expanse of evergreen forest outside the window.

When Ash walked along the hallway outside his room, he finally realised the sheer magnitude of the home he had stayed in. Just the hallway, it stretched across 50 meters in length from his room. On every side, there was a door that led to another room. Not only that, there was approximately six floors, not taking into account the possibility of a basement. The one central stairway had a custom-made carpet with intricate designs on it. The hard wood hand rails had detailed carvings too. Ash slid his hand along the well-finished rails as he climbed down the steps. Throughout the walk, he marvelled at the entire architecture of the house.

This was definitely comparable to the white house in Country A, maybe even better. Just getting to Jovia's office, took the pair 3 minutes of walking. The mafia boss's room was obviously different from the others. There were two bodyguards standing on the sides of the door. The door itself was made of age old dark oak that had a nice graining pattern over it.

There was a tablet screen on the side that showed the current availability of the boss. There was a status symbol to show if he was busy at the moment. Coincidentally, he was free now.

Knocking on the door, the bodyguard did the introduction for Ash. "Boss, Ash Vicars left the room and is seeking your presence."

"Let him in." There was an intercom microphone set up outside the room too. Jovia's voice sounded clearly.

"Would you like for Terry and John to be in the room?" The bodyguard asked. Terry and John were the two bodyguards outside the room.

"It is alright."

With that, the bodyguard named Terry, opened the door for Ash. The young man entered the lion's den without a hint of nervousness. Sitting by his table, wearing round silver glasses, the handsome mafia boss was in the midst of reading something on his tablet. When Ash was directly opposite his desk, Jovia placed down his tablet and took off his glasses, revealing his clear blue eyes.

"Take a seat." Ash obliged. "How may I help you?"

The mafia boss gave an open ended question that the young man was not hoping for. The situation now seemed as if it was Ash that wanted to seek Jovia's guidance. Regardless, there were questions that needed answers.

"I have two questions for you. If you can answer my question, I will gladly follow and obey your orders." Ash proposed.

��Oh?" Jovia's eyebrow raised. There was sourness in his reply. "And what makes you think that you are currently not under my disposal?"

"A sword that was rushed for completion using the best materials in the world, may not necessarily be sturdier than a simple wooden sword that had been intricately carved to perfection."

"Alright, let me hear the questions." Hearing the young man's words, Jovia let in to his proposal.

"One, why did you choose to give me, someone who tried to assassinate you, a chance serve you? You would never know when I might go rogue and stab you in the neck."

The question asked by Ash was burning in his head for the longest of time. There had never been a scenario in his head where by the mafia boss would kindly accept him as his underling. Hell, who would ever hire the person that attempted to kill you once.