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(Back to the execution room. Back in the chapter where Mark collapsed)
Back to the current situation.
Xin sighed in relief. It seemed his adoptive daughter, Eliza had done a great job at the job he asked of her. In reality, he couldn't trust anyone in the world for this job. Not even Vladimir for this job due to the risk of failure or betrayal.
He winced for a moment as the rifle wounds in his abdomen throbbed.
If not for Quana's scream, he would've been dead by now. He survived only because his body was stronger than that of an average human due to those scientific experiments that were run on him. If he had passed the final one... perhaps he would have been even stronger than the current him.
They didn't even heal him to prepare him for his execution.
Even Incas, as savage and uncivilized as they were, used to feed their prisoners the best of foods, make them drink the most lavish and expensive drinks, give them the best of rooms, and make them wear the most extravagant of clothing before they were taken for priests to cut out their hearts and present it to their gods.
Where are my human rights? This is why I say the system the world works on is no good.
Somehow, Vladimir probably would've found a way to somehow mess it up. Maybe nuking the wrong city. Nuking the empty sea maybe and kill a lot of fish, wasting potential food? He's dumb enough to bomb the prison he was on by accident.
Well, adding that he was the one that had raped and assassinated his wife while using the others as a scapegoat, if Vladimir was somehow to find out, he would no doubt get bombed by Vladimir in a fit of rage.
That... would not be a pleasant way to die. Not at all.
Vladimir was associated with emotions more than his other subordinates because he had something Xin had banned to all his subordinates from; a family.
To walk besides him, he ordered his arms dealing company members to take the lives of their own family members.
Now many might wonder, why is this necessary? Isn't this exaggeratedly cruel?
He needed tools, and tools didn't have a word to say. If his subordinates were to somehow get blackmailed using their lovers, parents, or children, they would no doubt betray him for the safety of their family members.
Not only by eliminating their family members could he decrease the likelihood of betrayal due to blackmail and focus more on lesser threats like greed.
Nice, right?
But that wasn't the only reason. By taking the lives of their own family members, he would guarantee their loyalty. For they killed their family members to be part of his family members!
That way he hit two birds with a stone, correct?
Wrong.
He hit three birds with a stone.
After they killed their families, he ordered each and everyone of them to come meet him directly.
Why?
To see their reactions.
He judged who was a talented killer by birth, who reacted the most, who reacted the least, through body language, posture, speech, eye contact, word choice, etc.
That way he could keep an eye on those that are suspected for betrayal more, who are more loyal, and treat them accordingly trough subliminal persuasion.
This proves that they are cold blooded, that they could never return to the path of the so called 'human warmth' once again. The guilt would eat the alive if they dared to.
Now, why did he get caught on purpose? Perhaps he had a grandiose plan put in place by doing this?
Again, wrong.
It was because.....
It looked fun? I am quite interested to see the thing people fear so much. The thing they call... death. What makes them fear it so much? Hm....
... Is what a certain insane young man who was swinging his legs while looking at the white ceiling bored thought.
Now comes an important question. Why does he trust Eliza?
The answer is; he doesn't.
It is more like he found her more loyal towards him than the others. Unlike his other members who he picked up while they were either in their youth, at the end of their high school years or others as adults, Eliza was raised by him.
But here comes a weird idea, how? Isn't Eliza older than Xin?
Ahem, ahem. That is true. But who is to say I can't raise someone older than me? She really is a handful of work...
His memories drifted back to the day met her on a mountain.
Well, more accurately when he found a certain woman buried under snow after an avalanche. What was he doing there that day?
* *
He was still 10 at that time but had the mindset of a business man. Ignoring the first 8 years of his life, after he was picked up by Quana, he began to copy her mindset at first like a computer would to a program, regardless if it was a reflective DLL injection Payload or a normal text file.
He created a secret underground vault filled with gold he had embezzled near the modern mansion he lived at with Quana along with her other subordinates.
As a chuunbyou during his early years, he imagined himself being an evil overlord with lots of money wrecking destruction everywhere. Well, it wasn't like his thoughts were too different from reality later on in his life.
In his spare time, he sometimes went to torture a few citizens here and there. Well, when he was caught though, he would be scolded by Quana for leaving the mansion without permission in the dead of the night, and be forced to do 100 squats with his hands behind his head as punishment.
She didn't really care much about the poor souls that lived for the purpose of being a playtoy of 'experiments for humanity' according to him.
Back to topic.
That day he was digging in the snow using a shovel to find the vault that was buried underground.
He was really pissed off that day because of the avalanche that made it impossible to find anything.
He wanted to add another bag of cash he had got from swindling a rich businessman in a casino by tricking him into buying a gemstone that he had labeled as 'very rare'.
The business man, thinking the kid was naïve, decided to buy it while laughing inwardly at his intelligence and shrewdness, before mindlessly signing the contract he was presented by the kid.
I mean, how many people would think a kid would be so shrewd as to add hidden clauses?
Anyways, the business man who later brought a specialist, discovered the gemstone it was fake and sued the boy, who in turn showed the contract, and cried, demanding mental compensation for his mental health.
Well, that was the small story of this heavy bag of money.
He was able to sneak in somehow to the casino without the notice of the security personnel.
If he was caught, he would be kicked out due to his young age.
Well, he forgot to mention it was an illegal casino run by an underworld overlord.
Anyways, he was shoveling the snow, when he found a strand of red in the snow. Thinking it could be some rare material like one of those crystal threads he had heard about, he continued shoveling excitedly, only to find something round and large in skin color popping out from the snow.
Boing.
Intrigued, he touched it with the shovel a few times only to find it bouncing like jelly would.
Wait, jelly?
With an 'oooh' and 'aaah' he continued touching the thing for a few minutes before he felt something small protruding and hardening under it. Because of the wet snow, the color was visible and it was...
Red. No, maybe dark pinkish?
Wearing his heavy fur oversized jacket, he continued touching the thing interested before he stood up and decided to continued digging to find out what the material was. So, he shoved the shovel right beside what he thought was the 'rare material'.
But as expected, he felt his shovel bounce the moment he shoveled besides the 'rare material'.
He was about to try again when he heard something like a pained groan. The only thought that dominated his head at that moment was...
Did rocks feel pain too? So Quana lied to me... ? I got to ask her later about it.
He continued a few times trying to dig up the same spot, but every time his shovel bounced up. Frustrated, he stomped on the snow at the area.
That was the moment he heard something akin to a low pained gasp and a head popped out of the snow, to reveal a beauty of a red head.
Well, Xin had shoveled around 5 meters deep, so, yeah?
Of course, although she was very beautiful, staying with Quana almost numbed his sense of appreciation.
It finally hit him that the 'rare material' was the same that was on Quana's chest and gasped.
Disappointed, he picked up his shovel and bag of money, and was about to walk away with his bag of gold, thinking he had wasted his time saving a human.
However, he was stopped by the desperate voice of the woman who coughed out the snow, looking feverish.
"Please w-wait, save me! If you do, I'll do anything for you even! Even chores! I'm really good at cooking too."
At that time, Xin had turned back to her and looked at her disinterestedly until a thought came up his head, making his eyes sparkle.
She can dig for me the vault every time I need to. If she decides to betray me, I can cut off her tongue and sell her! Hehehe.... I am a genius! Quana will surely accept it if I pout to her, and get on my knees, while spouting how much I love her. As a bonus... I'll look at her with upturned eyes as well.
"Hahaha!" He started laughing evilly like a villain he had seen on tv, his eyes glinting with a flash of excitement.
I can even use her as a scapegoat when Quana asks me where I go every night! I'll just tell her that red-head takes me a to a playhouse or something. That way she can carry the punishment for me!
The woman who was still in a daze, shivered out of nowhere as she felt an ominous premonition about what to come.
Why do I have this bad feeling.. ? Should I just have stayed burried instead?
That was the first time he met Eliza and 'raised her'.
(A/N: For those confused who Quana is, it is a nickname for Quetzalpétatl, Ekidna's older sister. Although she works as an official judge as a cover, in reality she is one of the strongest people of the underworld in the world. Ekidna was raised far from Quana's manor under her orders for those wondering why she wasn't familiar with Xin.)
That day he had to convince Quana using all the logic in the world to keep his first pet.
Although she was initially weirded out for taking a human as a pet instead of a dog or cat, she accepted in the end.
**
Remembering these memories, Xin blinked and sighed. Not in sadness or regret, but just... sighed because he was bored.
Time to deal with the present situation. She must feel really guilty by this period of time for pretty much selling me out. I wonder what good show she'll put up?
He looked back where Mark had dropped the phone and passed out.
Jacob was still panicking and trying to wake him up with no success.