Chapter 132 - I Want To Hire You.

The next morning, Wilson and Charlie were in a hospital in Major Street, Tiger City. After the match and potion splurging, as soon as Wilson's case had stabilized, Charlie boarded a super fast hovercar that he had hired from who-knows-where and sped through the night to arrive at the most expensive hospital in the Tiger City by morning.

Wilson was admitted and Charlie sat by his side, watching him while skimming through the news on his new projection wristwatch.

The doorknob twisted. Charlie looked at the door, then at Wilson and finally at the time on his watch. It was not yet time for the doctor's checkup. He stood up, alarmed. A gun appeared in his left hand and a knife in his right.

The door slowly opened. Charlie's finger was ready to squeeze the trigger when he saw the face of the woman that entered. Immediately, the gun and knife disappeared. His serious, slightly bloodthirsty countenance changed to that of reverence.

"Mrs Silvia." He greeted with a deep bow.

"Oh, Charleston. You don't have to bend that much." Silvia greeted. "How's my son?"

"He will be in perfect health in time for the start of the competition." Charlie responded.

He stepped aside and held the chair as Silvia sat down.

She looked at Wilson's pale face and noticed the slight rise and fall of his chest caused by his shallow breathing. The worry on her face was bare for anyone to see. In fact, if Charlie had dared to look at her closely enough, he would have noticed the tears that threatened to stream down her face. Luckily or not, he did not notice the tears, neither did she weep.

She said nothing. She merely sat there and watched her only son as he slept. The memories came back like a flood. The indignant expression Wilson had when he chose to defy her for the first time in pursuit of his dream. The time she had approached Agnes while she was still pregnant only for the witch to try to kill her. She remembered the unbridled wails of the Village Chief when he heard that his son had been murdered and her own personal worries when she heard that Wilson was on the run for murder and rape.

She remembered the pain she felt when a woman she paid to help her son escape the Abyss had stricken her son as if she wanted him dead. She vividly remembered the hurt and amount of worries she felt when her son went completely off the grid and how relieved she was when Ruthless returned with the news that the boy had escaped, only for the relief to be shortlived by the fact that he most likely didn't survive jumping out halfway through an active teleportation.

She did not understand the exact details but she understood enough to know that the space-time fabric must have ripped through him.

She remembered the time she visited Tiger City for help from her older cousin who now ruled over the city. She remembered the time she was in the same military captain's room as Wilson, and how much she had to stop herself from hugging him unrestrainedly and how much she bawled her eyes out later on, knowing he had survived a risky move like that and then, the one-eyes beast's attack after that.

Her poor baby! He had gone through too much in the time span of a year and a few months. All his innocence was gone. At least his body was still intact. She squeezed his hand. Wilson smiled a little in his sleep.

While thought after thought went through her head, Charlie stood still, straight as a pole. He didn't even dare to breathe heavily. He did his best to appear inexistent so as not to disturb Silvia's long awaited reunion with her son. Albeit, this was not quite the way she had imagined it would be. He remembered how she visibly panicked when he reported to her.

As he reminisced on the day he came across Mrs Silvia, Charlie unconsciously sighed.

****************

The night after Charlie met with Dash and Wilson for the first time was when he first met with Mrs Silvia.

She met with him while he was slowly walking through an alley. He could have sworn no one would recognize him. She proved him wrong.

"You really underestimate the power of magical tech a little too much." She said. "With technology, you can't hide as long as we have a sample of your blood and your father's. And with magic, we could just straight up call up your father's ghost and ask him for directions. Or we could be more sophisticated and go to the house that you used to live in and trace you from there. Now, you mix magic and technology and tell me who we can't find."

"Who are you?"

"I want to hire you."

"Like this? Right here?"

"Yes."

"No!" Charlie said and turned around to walk away. But Silvia had all the chips.

"I will clear your father's name."

Charlie immediately stopped. He turned around to look at her again. She didn't strike him as someone suspicious, but one could never be too sure.

"What job is so important that you are willing to go to such lengths in return?" He asked.

"I want you to protect my son."

"Protect your son?" Charlie asked.

"Yes!"

Protection didn't seem like a job that was too hard. But the law of equivalent exchange...

"What do you mean by protect exactly?"

"Keep him safe. Not too safe. It is enough as long as he isn't dead, maimed or gruesomely tortured."

"Tortured? From who?"

"Mostly going to be people you can handle. I will take care of all the bastards controlling things in the background."

"Why does he need protection?"

"Because he was too naive."

"You sure we shouldn't talk about this in a better, more business-like environment?"

"I can't be seen. Not yet."

"And in return, you are going to clear my father's name?"

"Yes."

"How can I be sure you're telling the truth?"

"You'll just have to trust me on that. It's your choice."

"How do you intend to clear his name?"

"The same way it was roiled in the mud. Do we have a deal?"

"Add some money to it. I will need to buy a couple defensive items and they don't come cheap."

"That's no problem. It will be sent as soon as we finalize this deal. Anything else?"

"Yes. Better weapons too. The exclusive, very dangerous kinds."

"It will be transferred in a ring into your account as well. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal."

"Good."

And immediately, Charlie received a message from his bank telling him he now had some couple millions patiently waiting for him to spend and an expensive spatial ring as well.

Charlie's jaw dropped. This... The rich truly live in a world of their own.

"This son of yours. Who's he?"

******************

Charlie chuckled after Silvia left. She left the way she seemed to love doing. Just outright disappear as if she was never there. He didn't know how she did it. From what he knew, that was definitely not an ability, but magic didn't quite feel the same way either. Maybe it was a talisman. Or perhaps she or someone else had done something special to herself like the aristocrats families were rumored to have done in order to make themselves more powerful. Was that possibly an exclusive use of magical tech?

He looked at Wilson who now slept with a smile on his face.

Who knew when whatever the blood had done had been programmed into his body. The rich truly live in a world of their own. Who knows maybe they have something inside him right now that would kill him if he had the wrong kinds of thoughts. It could be and he would never know.

"How scary." He muttered and shivered.