Chapter 60: A Good Name (Part 2)

Abgere: "Hah!"

Abgere sighs exasperatedly after having beaten Julius for 20 minutes straight.

Julius: "Getting tired, baby boy!?"

Julius sees that and uses the opportunity to mock him as best as he could.

Abgere: "Actually yes, you are no fun at all."

Abgere, however, responds in even more of a mocking tone.

Abgere: "After beating so many people in life, don't you feel ashamed of being unable to cry like they do?"

Julius, as hears that, thinks of a possibility.

Julius: "You can't be someone I tortured once, can you?"

He wonders in a low voice but before an answer comes, he says,

Julius: "No, you can't be. That must mean you are someone related to a person I once tortured."

He says, and, laughs. Laughs, laughs, and laughs. He realizes how stupid it is to try your hand at revenge. He realizes that retribution is a felony of a word. And therefore, he laughs at the person who is trying to gain some satisfaction from it.

Abgere: "Well, you are free to make-up whatever stories you want. Not that I am obligated to answer any of your queries."

He says in his usual, plain and calm voice as he continues,

Abgere: "By the way, you should know that focusing on those types of irrelevant things are what made you fall in this situation."

Julius: "Tsk!"

Even though he knows it is a taunt, Julius can't help but fall for it. It was when Julius was hitting his daughter for not showing proper hospitality to their 'guest', it was that time when Abgere had turned his leg into a target of magnet manipulation. And it was because of that that he had fallen victim to Abgere's attack before he could complete his own. That was already when he had lost.

Abgere: "Now then,"

He says and looks back at the teenage girl watching everything from afar with a grim and silent face.

Abgere: "Alexa, was it? You might want to try a hand here."

And so he says to Alexa taking her as well as the other two people in the house by surprise.

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Julius: "You might want to try a hand here."

And so he said to the son taking him as well as everyone else in the cell by surprise. It was already pretty suspicious that he told the Embers to bring the son there, but saying that was when he just went over their acceptance point.

"That's enough, sir! Stop!"

A young Ember shouted out for him to stop.

Julius: "Who the fuck was that!?"

He said in an irritated voice as he turned to where the voice came from. From there, an Ember stepped out and faced him with anger and contempt on his face.

Julius: "How long have you been here, sucker?"

Hearing that, the Ember looked in contempt as he swallowed everything he wanted to say and decided to answer him first.

Ember: "Two weeks, sir!"

Julius: "Oh!"

He found himself surprised that someone as inexperienced as him had the guts to step up like that,

Julius: "I'm impressed. I like bold and honest people like you, not cowards like these sewer rats!"

He said while pointing to the rest of the people there who were doing just as Julius wanted them to and not arguing at all.

Julius: "That said, you know, there is something in the world called power."

He looked down on the Ember, who was 2-3 inches shorter than him and continued,

Julius: "I can tell you are just a kid of, like, what? 15 years?"

The Ember nodded while he kept his boiling anger suppressed somehow.

Julius: "I see, that's nice. But you have yet to learn kid – only those who got power got the say. "

He said and turned away, but just as he did, realizing that Julius was doing, the Ember burst forth his anger,

Ember: "You fuck show! You don't know what you are talking about!"

With eyes-wide and mouth open, Julius looked at the youth with the vigor he could be jealous of and kept listening without any interruptions,

Ember: "You think you have power! You are nothing compared to Ozyllus, or Abyss, or even the Phoenix himself. You have nothing, you jackass. Stop acting so high and mighty just because you are a few steps ahead of me. I will reach you in such a short time you'll fall to your knees and beg for forgiveness when I teach you what humanity is."

He yelled everything at Julius' face and everyone around just kept gawking in astonishment. Julius himself, couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. And so, he said,

Julius: "I see."

He looked in surprise at the youth who was looking back in contempt. And then, from somewhere in the crowd, the sound of a whistle came.

Julius and the young Ember, both turned towards that whistler. The culprit, however, was just plainly eating a sandwich as he sat in the lobby outside the cell they were in. His face was not visible but he was an Ember too. But, just like the one who spoke up, there was something different about him. He didn't even bother to look back. And seeing that, Julius started laughing like a madman as he said,

Julius: "Man, I didn't know there were actually some fun people around here!"

He said as he slapped the Ember in front of him on his back.

Julius: "That said though, you'll need to grow up a little if you're here."

The Ember looked back in contempt but, looking at the name plate of the Ember attached to his clothes on his chest, Julius continued,

Julius: "Mr. Ro Garland, come back to me when you have actually done what you just claimed to do here."

He said in a calm voice as he looked down at Ro and ordered the rest of the crew to throw him out of the cell.

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Julius: "AAAAHHH!!!"

He shrieked in pain and said,

Julius: "Bitch! I'm gonna fucking kill you when I get out of here."

He threatens his own daughter as she beats him with a belt with tears and despair in her eyes.

Abgere: "Yeah, yeah,"

Abgere plainly says as he sits on the sofa and stares at that scene and,

Abgere: "That's what they were saying when you were beating them and or even making others beat them. That's what the prisoners were saying. Remind me how many of those did all that they threatened to do!"

He asks plainly, and Julius just smiles like a psychopath as he replies,

Julius: "Zero!"

He says quite satisfactorily and continues,

Julius: "The same isn't gonna happen here though. You know why? It's because I'm not the jailer here."

He says with a smile and Abgere, as he hears that, starts laughing like a villain. He laughs like a crazed evil asshole in a movie would. He laughs like that because he does not feel like laughing, but also does not want a single chance to mock Julius Rome go by.

Abgere: "What a joke!"

He remarks and,

Abgere: "Your level of cruelty that you seem to be so proud of was pretty underwhelming in my opinion."

He says, causing Julius' smile to disappear.

Abgere: "I mean, well, you just made people beat other people. That's so kind of you!"

He says, only half-sarcastically.

Abgere: "You should have, like, severed their arteries, severed their testicles, or something of that level."

He says mockingly and before a reply could come, he gently puts a hand on Alexa's head and asks,

Abgere: "Why did the belt stop moving?"

As Alexa hears so, she immediately starts swinging them again, and her father also starts cursing and yelling in pain, again.

Then Abgere, taking out a halter that his eyes fell on earlier, looks at Marissa in order to give it to her. Marissa frightfully steps back and denies it but,

Abgere: "Woman, who gave you the idea that this was a request?"

He says with a terrifying smile.

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Hearing the shouts of the man being hit by the belt and the cries of the kid being made to hit his own father, Ro stomped his feet on the ground. However, that was all he could do.

Ro: "That piece of shit!"

He said to himself but the Ember sitting next to the cell, eating a sandwich, told him,

Ember: "If you wanna kill him right now, I can help you."

Ro: "What!?"

Ember: "I'm serious. If you want this to stop, then you should kill him. I can help you with all that - is what I'm saying."

Ro was left dumbfounded by how calmly this man spoke something like that.

Ro: "W-who are you?"

He asked with a surprised face and,

Ember: "I'm the son of the bastard you just went and abused in front of everyone."

Ro: "W-W-What!?"

He couldn't even process what he had just heard.

Ember: "He doesn't know it though, obviously."

He said in a calm voice.

Ember: "He sleeps with whoever he wants, does whatever he want to do. If some women he slept with someday ends up giving birth to me, how is he supposed to know?"

He said in a calm voice, a terrifyingly calm voice.

Ember: "I am gonna kill him someday for sure!"

He said as he turned to the torture cell behind him and continued,

Ember: "Whether I do it with you right now, or I do with a mask on my face some other day, I am gonna do it for sure."

As he stared at the man who had surprised him more than the cruel torture inside the cell ever could, Ro asked,

Ro: "What's your name?"

Ember: "Name, huh?"

He said so as if he doesn't want to talk about it.

Ember: "I sold my name a long time ago. By this time, I have forgotten what it even was."

His face, for the first time, turned grim as he continued,

Ember: "I read somewhere that in the ancient language of psychics, there's a word which means 'dead'. I guess that word can be a good name for me."

He nodded to himself a couple of times and said,

Ember: "Yeah, that'd be a good name for me. Call me Abgere."

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