Volume 2 Episode 42

The Lindon private jet landed on the Nubian airport a few hours later.

Lin and the rest got out of the airplane, and were escorted by a team of special forces who were already waiting for them at the airport. A large and muscular man wearing a tux stood in front of the team of soldiers, and stepped forward to introduce himself to Lin.

"Mister Lin, the Sultan would like you to know that he feels absolutely delighted in having a chance to finally meet you."

Contrary to his figure which made him look more like someone who would let his fists do the talking, the man smiled sweetly and spoke in a calm manner. He shook Lin's hand and expressed the Sultan's gratitude on his behalf.

"Well then, you might want to let the Sultan know that the feeling is mutual, Mr…?"

"Philip. Philip Hassan."

Philip smiled brightly, and shook Lin's hand once again. Lin nodded his head and smiled in response.

"Nice to meet you Philip. I would love to talk more but I feel like we should get going now, wouldn't you agree?"

Lin cut straight to the chase, and Philip grinned at the youngster. He then snapped his fingers, and the group of soldiers broke into two units and moved to the sides, forming a pathway for them. Philip moved out of the way as well, and bowed as he showed them the way.

"If you would follow me."

Lin and the rest followed Philip, who led them to two black cars, which drove off soon after they got in. Lin and Charles got in the first one, while Eric and Jason took the other.

The car moved swiftly across the long and vast highway of Emmerich city which had weirdly little to no traffic. After all, one would wonder why one of the most populated cities in all of Nubia which should hypothetically be sprawling with numerous people would actually feel so deserted.

Lin moved his gaze towards Philip, who smiled as if he had realised what he was thinking about. 

"You are curious about why there are hardly any vehicles on the road in the daytime, am I right?"

Lin was silent, and Philip took his silence as a confirmation of his question. He looked out of the car's window out onto the empty road and answered.

"Prior to your arrival, the Sultan declared a complete curfew of the city in response to concerns about the possibility of a radiation-releasing nuclear accident at the Nicholai Nuclear Research Facility, right here in Emmerich City."

Lin looked confusedly at Philip as he continued speaking.

"If you're wondering whether it's safe to travel in a city where a possible radioactive leakage may have occurred, then I would urge you to keep calm."

He moved closer to Lin and whispered slowly.

"There are no radioactive leaks. It never happened. The whole thing was arranged to make sure his guest, which is you, arrived at the destination at the exact time that he intended, without losing even a single second."

"So you're telling me that the Sultan did all of that, just so he could impress his guest, which is in this case, me?"

Lin asked instantly, his eyes widened with surprise and shock, and Philip nodded enthusiastically at his question.

"Our lord cares a bit too much when it comes to impressing his possible future colleagues. Some say that it's overkill, but we see it differently."

Philip once again smiled, showing his white teeth to Lin as he spoke in awe of his master's actions as if they were magnificent in his eyes. Lin raised his eyebrows, as he thought about how it was possible for someone to be so blindly devoted to a person, so much so that they fail to recognise the absurdity of the other person's actions.

"The Sultan sure is different from others, huh?"

Philip nodded at Lin, ending the conversation with that as the vehicle raced towards the Sultan's palace on the empty highway.

The travel from the airport to the Sultan's residence took a little over thirty minutes, with the empty highway helping them reach their destination even quicker.

Lin and the rest were escorted outside of the vehicles, with Philip leading them to the inside of the palace, as they finally reached the main room. A man wearing a white tux stood in the middle of the room, looking out of the large window, viewing the giant fountain outside the palace. He then took a sip out of the whiskey from the glass he was holding, and continued watching the fountain.

"That fountain that's outside.." The man suddenly started speaking, and pointed at the fountain that he had been watching for a while. It seemed he was talking to his guest, and Lin walked closer to view the fountain he was talking about.

The fountain was extremely large, around the size of a two storey building. Although that would be considered by some to be ridiculously large in terms of size, in reality, it felt a little too small within the giant palace surrounding it. Nevertheless, the fountain did look like it was almost meant to be there, looking beautiful and majestic.

Lin studied the fountain a bit more before the man continued his words from earlier.

".. I had it made after I arranged a meeting with Jafar Ashraf, a wealthy businessman who was interested in developing chains of shopping centres all across the country. I wanted him to know that I was fully committed to making sure I give it my all in honor of the project, so that he would do the same."

The man took another sip out of the glass and clicked his tongue.

"Unfortunately, the project that was supposed to have taken only three years was stretched to five years with no sort of advancement in the process. Jafar showed me multiple data charts and whatnot on why there was a delay in the project, but I didn't buy any of it. In the end, the project was killed off and I lost billions of dollars for almost nothing."

He then turned around and placed his glass in the table in front of him, and smiled at Lin and Eric, who both nodded their heads in respect. He nodded back to show courtesy, and walked back to the window and stared at the fountain once more.

"Some of my friends told me that I should just get rid of the fountain, as it would only remind me of the mistakes I made because of my choices and the billions lost as a result of it. But I still didn't remove it. Not because I love it or anything. No, I kept it because I believe that no matter what the result of my choice might be, whether it'd be a jackpot or a disaster, in the end it doesn't matter as long as you don't regret making that choice.

You see, I would love to die knowing that I didn't have a single regret in my life. But unfortunately, life doesn't work that way, and you would always end up with some form of regret no matter who you might be. So I chose the next best thing; to not regret over the results of the choices I made, and save those regrets only for situations in which I would be completely helpless. Now, I'm not saying that I have absolutely adhered to that belief. Human emotions aren't exactly controllable. But I usually try my best to live my life according to those rules."

The man walked towards Lin, grabbed his hand and shook it.

"A pleasure to meet you Mr. Lin. I heard you are the new head of the Lindon business as of recently."

Lin smiled and shook his hands. He then proceeded to introduce himself in a calm manner.

"Greetings to your majesty. As you said, I am in fact the new head of the Lindons, due to some, 'interesting' situations to put it kindly. And I would like to put out your majesty's concerns as I will not hinder the previous business agreement in any way, and shall continue as planned."

Lin finished explaining and saw the man's face light up almost immediately. He then laughed loudly, surprising both Lin and Eric. 

"Wonderful! I truly didn't know what I was expecting from a teenager of a wealthy family who completely took over another powerful family under what could only be described as unexplainable circumstances. You truly are out of this world, and I absolutely respect you for it. I would really love to talk with you a bit more, how about you join me at lunch?"

Lin nodded at the Sultan's proposal, and bowed to show respect once again. The Sultan grinned at the young boy in front of him and walked towards Philip, who was standing near the door. He then looked at his watch and opened his mouth.

"Philip, if I remember correctly, I did tell you to bring our guests exactly in under thirty minutes, right?"

The atmosphere in the room suddenly got a lot colder. Philip, who was usually calm, was now sweating profusely.

"W-We had some difficulties in uh, managing the time, but I assure you, we did in fact try our very bes-"

He couldn't continue his words as a group of men came from outside and grabbed Philip as he tried to resist. One of the men then took out a dagger and stood in front of the still struggling Philip, and sliced his neck slowly and carefully, as blood started splashing all over the place. They stopped holding him down, and his body twitched on the ground for a little bit, before it finally stopped.

Lin watched as the motionless body of Philip as it was dragged out of the room by the group of assassins. He then turned his gaze towards the Sultan, who once again smiled at him as if he didn't even witness a person being murdered.

"Like I said, I cannot always adhere to the belief to live without regretting my choices. It's in times like these that I find 'other' methods to completely purge my regrets."

He then pointed at the fountain once again, and Lin looked outside to see the group of assassins dumping the body of Philip into it, as it sunk down into the water.

"One day I shall indeed learn to live without regretting any of the choices I make. Until then, a few Jafars and Philips under the water doesn't seem like such a bad compromise, wouldn't you agree?"

The Sultan walked outside the main room, with Lin and Eric following close behind him.

The water beneath the fountain was once again dyed in red.