Chapter 06: The Scheme

"Mrs. Hailey... do you want to know the reason behind Mrs. Aella's death?"

"..."

An imperturbable incessant silence descended upon the area. The male voice from the other side rushed into her ears, paralyzing her with an unforeseen ripple of shock, and mild interest. Profoundly engulfed in the contemporaneous stillness, she gulped down her saliva, petrified, not uttering a single word.

Letting out an exhale loosely, she reinforced her hold on her smartphone, composing herself for the time being.

She asked, obscuring her surprise with a sliver of courtesy in her tone, "Yes, I do. May I know who's this... speaking?"

As though the outlandish person from the opposing side had anticipated such an answer from the outset, he responded with an on-the-spot answer.

"I'm Ben Mateo, one of Aella's trustworthy subordinates, or more accurately, her closest male friend." He spoke, followed by a succession of brief, consecutive, shallow pants, "if you don't believe me, feel free to contact your assistant to dig into my data. I'm sure that's a piece of cake for you." His voice was somewhat exhausted, as he spoke so.

Being in this line of work for quite a while now and having experienced and heard of numerous such occurrences, she could vividly picture a scene of the man desperately trying to get away from someone in her mind.

'Aella's closest male friend huh? Hmm... I do recall her saying that there was a dude named Ben or something being her closest male buddy. Maybe that's him.'

"You sure are well informed. Mr. Ben. Well, let's not beat around the bush anymore, shall we? What do you require of me?" She asked, tapping the red button installed on her tabletop.

"Protection. I want protection from Scarlet Justice. No — to be specific. I. Want. Protection. From. You."

'As expected.' She thought.

"Umm? And what do I receive in exchange? Remember you're striking a bargain with me right now, so choose your words carefully."

"Information. You'll ge—"

"Information regarding the killer of Aella, correct? Let's just say that you really know the murderer of Aella, but how'll you ensure that the information is credible? Even worse, how'll you establish your legitimacy as 'Ben Mateo'?"

"Mrs. Hailey, you shouldn't be concerned about such trivial stuff. I've prepared all evidence, I need, to prove my reliability. Once you look over your emails, you'll find all the necessary corroborating evidence including my identity as Ben Mateo."

"Impressive, doncha think? Who exactly do you need to be protected from?" She asked, standing up from her couch, with a whiff of bloodlust and delight, "allow me to rephrase it for ya. WHO exactly was that motherfucker who killed Aella?"

Hailey had gone to comfort Aella after her brother's untimely death, and there was no way she could have committed suicide without discovering her brother's adversary, thus she'd long felt that something was off with her passing. Her surmises were further cemented when sundry news outlets and television programs reported that the plurality of hunters believed it to be a premeditated murder. She hoped there was sufficient proof to identify the perpetrator, but alas there wasn't any.

But, now, given the chance to find the murderer, she couldn't be any less happy.

The mere prospect of being able to find the killer of her one trustworthy friend, if he was in fact right, gave rise to a brand-new, delightful sensation inside her thoughts.

"Abner Greyson." With a drawn-out breath, he answered.

Hearing the sudden familiar name from his mouth, her face suddenly showed an abrupt disruption. In little time at all, her eyes went tenaciously irate. She questioned, her tone being icy and hostile, "Pardon me, but... can you please repeat that name?

"Abner Greyson. The killer of Aella is none other than the Guild Leader of Dark Domination, the topmost guild in the totality of Area 19."

Having confirmed that she wasn't just hearing things, Hailey gritted her teeth in rage.

'Abner, you underhanded bastard!'

Since they initially established their guilds and weren't exceptionally well-liked by the general populace, Hailey and Abner had been at odds.

A guild would need to accept the paperwork detailing the newly-appeared Dungeon's or Labyrinth's raiding privileges using a specified sum of cash before being granted authorization to raid that distinctive Dungeon or Labyrinth, by the rules and restrictions outlined by NHO. The privileges would, however, belong to the competing guild if any of the raid party members were to pass away as a consequence of an internal or external occurrence.

As a direct consequence, the preponderance of the guilds made every endeavor to procure as many rights over the dungeons as they could, subsequently growing in prominence. Though being in varied areas, Dark Domination and Scarlet Justice shared the same objectives as several other guilds i.e. to grow in power.

Their animosity had begun when Scarlet Justice won the rights to a dungeon, situated on the borders of the two areas, way back in time. Dark Domination had competed with them for the privilege to raid [The Lair of the Phoenix], an A- dungeon when Scarlet Justice was still a novice guild within the realm of hunters. From that point forth, disputes over these issues periodically erupted between Dark Domination and Scarlet Justice.

They eventually became so antagonistic to one another that, granted the occasion, they would intimidate the inferior guild members of each other's guilds, sometimes even forcing them to join their guild annulling their contract with Scarlet Justice. It alternated between Scarlet Justice and Dark Domination every time and both the guilds faced consecutive damages.

They grew so watchful of one another that they would employ assassins to eliminate the party members of the opposing guild in an attempt to seize over that guild's rights themselves.

Even though the two Guild Leaders had a significant degree of enmity and loathing for one another, they didn't possess the guts to strike a high-ranking member of their guild because doing so would have signaled the advent of a full-scale war.

But, with the ill-timed demise of Aella, which Hailey presumed was inaugurated by them, the invisible embankment that deterred the two guilds from igniting a full-scale conflict was razed to the ground.

"Do you even understand the gravity of your prior utterances? You know you'll be immediately killed if your words are proven incorrect." She said to him, releasing tremendous proportions of bloodlust, shooting shivers down his spine.

However, instead of stammering like any other, he solidified his mentality, piling ounces of courage, and responded with striking clarity in his voice, "I do. I really do. I already told you where I sent the evidence, didn't I?"

Once he said so, she instantly grew subdued, albeit only somewhat, as she spoke, "Indeed, you did inform me that. But. I want to verify it once more. Are you inclined to acknowledge culpability for your deeds? Are. You. Ready. To. Face. Your. Death. If. Necessary?"

"I am. I'll take all conceivable measures to exact justice on my friend. Everything. And, if any of the information I sent turned out to be incorrect, I'll gladly accept my death." He proclaimed, sounding as adamant as he humanly managed.

She felt as though those heavy, determined words resonated inside her ears, continuously — without halt, prompting her to partially but believe him even if it was for a tiny amount.

"Very well, then. We have a deal now." Lightly sighing, she said, "now tell me. Where are you? Dark Dominion is presently aggressively pursuing you, I guess."

"Haha. As expected of the Guild Leader of Scarlet Justice. You sure predicted it right. I've already sent you my current coordinates; on your phone that is."

"Fine. I'm sending help within a few minutes. And. Remember this, don't try anything funny, you see." She threatened before directly hanging up.

—

—

—

"Hahaha... she's sure hot-headed, my Lord." Laughing, Ben turned toward the figure shrouded in the room's shadowy nooks.

With his perfectly coiffed azure hair and breathtaking amethyst eyes, Ben resembled those hunter superstars nowadays.

"Certainly. But, it only worked in our favor, didn't it?" Replied the figure, stepping out of the darkness by degrees, unveiling his out-of-sight face. The rays beamed upon his body, revealing him... as none other than Amon himself.

"Yeah, you're correct, my Lord. Speaking of, has my acting skills evolved by any bit since previously? I mean, umm, did I perform well today, my Lord?" He questioned him, scratching his temple and casting a slave-like gaze at Amon.

"Kind of, I guess. In any case, I think you should strive to incorporate deeper emotions into it even if your acting skills have substantially risen since previously." He answered, inching closer to a pillar adjacent to the lighting source, reclining his backside upon it, and crossing his arms.

"Thank you, for your advice—"

"No need." He interrupted, cutting his sentence off, "now that they're on their way here, have you considered how to handle the issue?

"Indeed, my Lord. I'll be performing something that falls within my acting umbrella. And I earnestly wish that my efforts will satisfy your standards." He stated, kneeling in a bow before Amon.

"Okay, well then. Good luck." With a foreboding and somewhat menacing smirk, he nodded, muttering.

"Oh, hold on. I forgot something. Something really important. Take this." Having remembered something out of the blue, he added while presenting Ben with a black pill on his right palm, "Swallow this."

Casting a quick glance at the opaque, crystalline, ball of nothing but pure voidness, he executed Amon's commands without a second's thought and swallowed the pill in one swift motion.

In addition to having absolutely little flavor, the pill had no odor at all, making it, to a fault, mysterious.

Amon observed Ben scrutinously, watching him like a hawk, until he was to a certain extent, certain that Ben had swallowed the pill, fully.

Having confirmed it shortly, he stated, "'The Deadman's Switch', or more appropriately, 'The Suicide Pill' is a very uncommon pill considering how challenging and hazardous it's to obtain in today's world. It's a special-grade pill that can be exclusively acquired after completing the quest of slaying the Crimson Lynxs in the dungeons beneath the Great Guscokin Gorge. And. You know what, you just swallowed it."

"If there is even the slightest possibility of a hitch surfacing in my plans, owing to you...it'll instantly destabilize all of your Mana veins and meridians for good, even potentially killing you. But don't worry too much about it. If you follow my instructions thoroughly and do your part, this pill will aid you in incorporating a fair bit of mana into your Mana pool and... even bolstering your Qi by two folds. To sum it up, it's a double-edged sword, so, use it wisely. Slave."

"As you command, my Lord." He answered, unaffected by the fact that he'd just now brought about his demise.

'Hmm, the [Eternal Enslaving Technique] is still effective even in this world. Great.'

"Good luck, this might be the last time I'll be seeing you, I guess. Farewell."

Amon waved his hands. His body soon swiveled into black fumes, evaporating into nowhere.

"...Thank you, my Lord," Ben repeated those words, scarcely above a whisper.

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