Working Out

Tartarus, Courtyard.

The sun shone brightly while the stern guard shouted loudly.

"Move your bodies! One, two, one, two…"

Following the rhythm, Elias stretched his arms and moved his body rhythmically according to the instructions.

All over the courtyard, every prisoner like him also stretched along and participated in the morning exercise.

While he exercised, his mind was thinking about the new prisoner from earlier.

Turning his head to his left, Elias called out to the inmate beside him. 

"Hey, you."

The inmate turned to look, adapting a surprised and terrified expression upon seeing his face.

'What's with that face? Am I really that terrifying?'

Elias mused to himself. There was just something amusing about a grown ass criminal expressing out right terror to a child.

"...Is there a problem?"

The inmate asked, cautiousness showing in his body movements. Apprehension.

"You mentioned that prisoner earlier. Bones King, his title? Tell me more about him in detail."

Elias ordered, leaving no room for rejection.

"Ah. You mean Bones King Garland…"

The inmate seemed to be hesitant for a moment before continuing.

"I came from the same town as he is in. Back then, everyone in the dark alleys and slums knew who he was. When I started engaging in crime, he was already quite infamous there…"

"Garland commands a gang called Bones. All those who Interacted with him thought he was a terrifying individual. Tyrannical and oppressive, that's the impression people got of him. Rumour has it that he's a subordinate of the Maseuchossi Family…"

Elias' ears perked up towards the end. 

Maseuchossi Family. It was one of the families that participated in the elimination of the Castellano family.

Deep inside him, he could feel an intense feeling of repulsion.

However, Elias ignored that and slightly narrowed his eyes.

Is it a coincidence? 

He had just arrived here a week ago, and now there's a new prisoner in cahoots with the five families.

No matter how he looked at it, it was suspicious. No, perhaps it was just his paranoia getting to him.

He was always a paranoid person.

Elias shook his head, deciding to not think about it any further. 

"Alright, one, two! one, two and three!"

The inmate gave a sigh of relief and slightly distanced away from him.

***

After an hour, the morning exercise finally stopped.

"Alright, that's it for today! Like usual, the courtyard can only be accessed until 12:00 PM!"

As the stern guard announced, the dozens of guards behind him retreated to the back in an orderly line.

Elias took a deep breath, feeling refreshed all over his body. The exercise took all the soreness out of his body.

And perhaps due to his body, he wasn't tired easily and could even go for an hour or two. 

As he waited for all the guards to move, he glanced at the courtyard. A lot of his fellow inmates were heading to their desired field.

He was trying to find Donato and the rest, and very quickly he found them. Coincidentally, they also saw him and made their way to him.

Soon, Donato and the rest arrived in front of him.

They bowed slightly before greeting.

"We greet the Don's successor."

"Drop the formalities. Where are you guys going?"

Elias asked while waving his hand in dismissal.

Donato and the rest looked at each other befor shaking their heads. Afterwards, Alexis spoke.

"We don't have any destination in mind, young master. Do you mind if we follow you?"

Thinking for a moment, Elias shook his head. There was no problem, he was just going to work out anyways.

"No. Let's go then."

After saying that, Elias moved to the northern area—the gym section while his five subordinates followed him.

After a few minutes of walking, Elias and the crew arrived at the gym section. 

It was filled with stench of steel and sweat while work-out equipment of moderately high quality were stationed.

Looking all over the field, there were already people that arrived before them. And likewise, the people turned to look at them before averting their eyes.

"Oh, we have new faces today."

Suddenly, a curious voice echoed in the gym section. Elias and his subordinates turned to look at where the voice came from.

"Hello there, newcomers. Ah... it's you people... the wiseguys from the Castellano Family."

A shirtless man with a huge, muscular body, radiating pure unfiltered testosterone approached them.

The man had a ferocious face with a strange, unfitting gentle smile. He radiated an aggressive air.

After seeing the man's appearance, Donato leaned to Elias before whispering quietly.

"That's Hugo Schneider, young master. A former C Ranker that killed his teammates in a dungeon expedition for an item. According to the prisoners here, he's the king of the gym, one of the prison bosses. When he's here, no one would dare to cause any sort of conflict…"

"However, there's no need to be wary. Taurus is superior to him in strength, so you can do as you wish young master. If you wish, we can put him down."

Although his voice was low, everyone here was a former ranker so they have a higher sense of hearing compared to ordinary people.

They naturally heard his words, causing Elias to look at Donato with a strange and funny look.

Whether Donato noticed or not, he didn't take it back and simply maintained a stoic and professional look.

Hugo's brows knitted into a frown.

Seeing that the atmosphere was tense, Elias nodded slowly and stared at Hugo with a small smile.

He reached out for a handshake.

"Hugo, right? The name is Elias Vito Castellano. Forget what my subordinate said earlier, he didn't mean it."

Hugo paused, narrowing his eyes. After a thinking for a moment, he shook the hand with a slight smile.

"It's forgiven then. I'm not a person that holds grudges, as long as you don't interfere with my business."

"I'm glad that you understand. But make no mistake, we're also people that don't hold grudges, as long as you don't interfere with our business."

While saying that, Elias tightened his hold on Hugo's hand and gave a knowing smile.

Hugo paused. He looked at Elias and towards his hand, tightly clenched like a prey under the wraps of a mantis.

The five subordinates near Elias narrowed their eyes while looking at Hugo, ready to act at any moment.

An unsettling air erupted as Elias and Hugo stared at each other.

However, the tense atmosphere quickly vanished as in the end, Hugo shook Elias hand and smiled.

"Perfect! We're similar people. Great men think alike, so they would say! I welcome you to my domain!"

"I'm glad you understand."

Elias smiled and retracted his hand.

If there was anything he learned from his life of crime:

Among wolves, you must not be a sheep. Even if you were a sheep, you must wear wolf-skin clothing.

Hugo looked at Elias calmly, his eyes hiding undecipherable thoughts. He shook his hand and took a step back.

"Okay then, I won't hold you back! If you need any help, feel free to talk to me in the back, dear friends."

After that saying that, he turned around and returned to where he came from.

Elias didn't stop him, looking at the man's back. From what he knew, there were four other territories here.

North, South, East and West.

Each of them all had their factions and prison bossess. But he didn't want to mingle with them at all.

He was going to escape in a month or so. There was no point in playing faction games with some bastards.

Besides, The Five Musketeers were stronger than any of those factions. There was no use mingling with the weak.

Elias approached a bench nearby.

To improve his strength, he needed to train with everything he had. It was his only choice if he wanted to live and escape this place.

And naturally, the best place to train himself physically was the gym every Daytime.

Elias glanced at the bench before laying on it. He raised his hand and held the dumbbells attached on the bench.

The metal was cold.

"Haa…"

One, two… Elias took in the heaviness and began his training, gradually immersing himself.