"You two — I know you are there. Just come out already. You came looking for Hem Decker; here I am."
Rui and Lucas, though sweating kept there breathing and slowly opened the cabinet.
The cramped wood smelled of rust and old oil. In that confined dark, their breaths sounded like small drums, steadying themselves against the pounding in their chests. They pushed the cabinet door, blades and axes clinking; a slice of cold light cut their faces as they stepped free.
"Now, sit. Let's talk."
Rui and Lucas' eyes were sharp, fixed on his face.
He gestured to a sofa that sat oddly pristine amid the ruin, like a throne on which a monster might rest. The cushions were untouched, the fabric unnaturally clean, as if the mansion itself obeyed an old etiquette. Rui and Lucas slipped onto the sofa, eyes unblinking, every muscle coiled.
"Now," Hem Decker said, "you probably came here to take or kill me, because I'm the so-called head of the underground crime empire."
"Yes, we are," Rui said coldly. "Either you come with us or we will take you — dead or alive."
"Sure, I will come with you. But where will you take me?"
"Huh — prison, of course. Where else? And to investigate you there."
"About what?" he replied.
"About the crimes you have committed."
"And what are the crimes I have committed?"
"Selling illegal weapons to nations, and also operating the biggest human-trafficking organization in the world right now."
"If you think so," Hem Decker replied chillingly, "go ahead and investigate. Why wait for prison? I promise no harm will be done to you while you are here in the depths of the underground. And of course, after you investigate you can take me to prison. So go ahead — ask whatever you want."
''Then tell me the truth," Rui said, his voice trembling between anger and disbelief. "Are you the real mastermind behind all of this? Because I'm ninety-nine percent sure you are. You have a mansion so big in Hell, and you live here as if it's heaven. All I've heard so far is your name — that you're the head, and..
He stopped mid-sentence. His words caught in his throat.
"And what?" Hem Decker questioned, his eyes wide yet bright, his words soft.
"And yet that one percent is enough for me to come here, to see if it is really the truth."
"Haaa—hahaha," Hem Decker laughed hysterically, tears filling his eyes. "Sure. I will answer your question. For starters, I'm the most evil person in the world. Because of me, tens of thousands of people died, and I even —" he chuckled through tears — "I even killed my wife. But I…" His voice shook and cracked as he cried. "I'm not the evil you are looking for. No — I'm not the head of anything.
"I'll tell you everything. Everything you want to know, everything you need to know, my king (Rui Yamazaki)."
"Long before I was… I was the king of Roma — a nation, though small in numbers and resources, built with pride and morals. I was the king of that place.
"But one day, crisis came to my nation — to my land. Rain didn't fall for months. Rivers dried. The water we had left was gone. We were starving. Everyone — rich or poor — was equal in suffering.
"In that time, one man dressed all in black — his hat long and black, yet his clothes long and white. He had a scarf over his face, but his eyes were both blue. He came to me in the royal chamber. No guard was able to stop him from entering; I had ordered it, myself too exhausted for any of this: 'Don't let him come.' The man walked to me. He said not a word, but gave me a note. I looked down at my hand, and when I looked back up, in an instant he was gone — nowhere near the royal castle. I read the note; it said, 'Sell — sell this land to me, and I will make it peaceful once again, and will give you the life of heaven. Everything will be solved.' I read it and fell to my knees, because I knew it wasn't a bluff, and yet I was not sure. So I… I tore the note into pieces.
"But my nation fell into even more crisis. No nation was willing to help because everyone was having the same problem. This time became known as the Great Darkness. Koha helped, but their aid was also filled with problems; the resources Koha sent were not enough, and distribution was a mess. Hunger grew so much that one person was willing to kill another to feed his family. I saw my people — whom I promised to protect — kill each other.
"And one night while I was in bed, I spoke to my wife. She told me not to worry, but I told her — yes, I told her — about the offer. She replied, 'If it is for the good of the people, then what is the harm of accepting?'
"I thought the same. What harm could there be? Only that I would not be king anymore — which was fine with me if it was for my people and family. I knew, somewhere, that something was wrong, but what worse could happen? So I called and accepted the offer. Suddenly the winds stopped, and then he appeared in front of my eyes — though my wife couldn't see him. He told me not to worry anymore. He did — he really did.
"Next day, when I woke beside my wife, I tried to wake her up, but she didn't. I tried twice, thrice, multiple times. My heart stopped; my eyes fell. I shouted, 'Help! Help! Heeeellllppp!' but no one came. I grabbed her in my arms and ran toward the medic to save her, but all I saw was dead bodies: royal guards dead, advisers dead, soldiers dead, medics dead. My eleven-year-old son and my three-year-old daughter — dead. I ran outside with her in my arms, and all I saw was a red sky, hot earth, air so hot it hurt my skin. People were barely alive; children were eating their pets, and parents were eating… I fell to my knees, I fell unconscious, and the next thing I saw was a mansion.
"Yes — you heard it right. The land, the Hell you walk in right now is…" Hem Decker sighed in grief and sorrow, "…my nation, Roma."
"Then your great-grandfather, Aqua — whom people also named Speranza del Mar (Hope of the Sea) — saw my broken nation and came to me. He told me to leave it to him, that he would save it, revive it, and make it a part of Velvet. I got a bit carried away. The point is: no, I'm not who you are looking for. In these 120 years of mine, all kinds of allegations have been raised, but I answered none of them. Yet I saw in your eyes the hope, the peace I wanted to give, and the king I wanted to be. Kid, you are going to be a great king. Keep your eyes shining, your words polite, your hands calm, and your heart soft. Study your people and your nation."
Rui, shocked, his eyes wide opened his mouth aswell. Somewhere in his eyes was sorrow. In a shaking, trembling voice, almost like ashamed, he said, "I… I'm sorry… but you have to still come with us."
"Kid," Hem Decker smiled, "haven't I told you? I can't go anywhere. Even if I try to cross the wall, it will always bring me back here. Do you think I haven't tried? Do you think I live here by choice? If you don't believe me, I will come with you and you will see with your own eyes."
Lucas thought to himself, There is still something wrong.
Rui got up and said, "Okay — you will walk with us at least till the wall."
Meanwhile, Yami and his army were marching toward the man they had been looking for — Hem Decker.
"I'm coming for you, bastard," Yami said, grinding his teeth. "I will kill you."
Rui and Lucas, with Hem Decker, left the mansion.