The small tavern nestled on the corner of a rain-soaked street was bustling with laughter, lights, and music. Sounds danced in the air like swarms of golden sparks, and people clinked glasses with an ecstasy escaping a heavy reality. It was a forgotten paradise in the midst of London's winter, until the moment Ronny entered.
Traaaak...
The moment his shadow fell upon the threshold, the sounds dimmed as if someone had cut the music's wire at the root. Laughter stopped, eyes retreated in instinctive fear, as his dark aura clamped silence onto the place like a steel hand gripping fragile glass.
His gigantic body filled the entire doorway, his shoulders broad like two walls, his red hair reflecting under the lamp light like a living flame feeding on the quiet. Every step he took produced a creak from the wooden floorboards, and with each step, the patrons shrank further into their seats.
He finally sat down at the counter, placing his elbows on the table roughly, making the glasses tremble.
The worker looked up with clear confusion,gazing up at that mountain of muscle and asking in a hesitant voice:
"What... what would you like to drink, sir?"
Ronny smiled slowly, then turned his head towards Rat—the small gray rat sitting on his shoulder with a strange smile—and said in a heavy voice, as if pulling words from the depths of iron:
"Whatever drink gives you the taste of freedom..."
The worker didn't dare ask further and began preparing his drink with trembling hands. At that moment, the door opened again, and Edgar entered with steady steps, rain dripping from his red coat. As for Duncan, he remained outside, having read the sign hanging by the door:
"No Animals Allowed."
Duncan stood grumbling as he read it aloud:
"Rude! But no problem, this is no place for a royal person like me."
Inside, Edgar approached Ronny, pulling up a chair beside him, and asked with his customary coldness:
"What are you doing? We need to leave now."
Ronny raised his glass, took a long sip that made the muscles in his neck move like a serpent under the skin, then patted Edgar's head, saying with a strange inquiry:
"Can't you hear that sound? It points to something I've missed."
But Edgar paid no attention,while Ronny said with a slight smile,
"Don't worry,boy... We will go. And you will receive your mission payment."
He added with a tone tinged with nostalgia:
"Ah, the enthusiasm of beginnings... You know? I was once like you. A scrawny boy, looking for any way to make money—even if it meant selling himself or burying his dignity. But now..."
He paused for a moment, looked at the cracked ceiling, then said in a deeper tone:
"Freedom is the only thing worth striving for, boy. Freedom is more precious than money... and more dangerous than death."
Edgar remained silent, watching the man sip his drink under the patrons' unwavering stares. Some feared his size, others the strangeness of the scene—a massive man, half-naked in this bitter cold, with a rat roaming through his hair as if it were its home.
After a moment of silence, Ronny turned to him and suddenly asked, in a heavy voice and with a serious face unlike his previous tone:
"Who are you, boy?"
Edgar didn't understand the meaning behind the question, so he frowned slightly and said:
"What do you mean?"
Ronny repeated:
"I asked you... who are you?"
At that moment, "Rat" quickly intervened, his high-pitched voice cutting through the silence:
"Permission granted!"
At that, Ronny stopped speaking as if the rat's word was a military command. Edgar stared at him with mild astonishment, then gradually realized the truth.
Ronny suffers from memory loss.
And that rat,"Rat," wasn't just a companion animal... but his substitute memory, recording what he forgets and reminding him of what he must remember.
But despite this, the Organization didn't trust "Rat" due to his deceptive nature, which is why they sent Edgar to be a witness and aid on the mission.
Edgar sat down again and, with complete coldness, repeated the initial instructions word for word, in a dry, professional tone:
"Our mission is to escort you to the Organization via a specified route. The starting point is the prison, the endpoint is Big Ben. You are Ronny, nicknamed the Angry Steel."
Ronny gave a half-nod, like someone trying to grasp a thread in a perforated memory. But before he could speak, a voice came from the end of the tavern:
"Get your filthy rat out of here!"
The air froze.
All eyes turned towards the drunkard who had said it,laughing with his friends.
In one second, Ronny's expression changed. He gripped his glass with all his might, shattering it on the table, the sound of glass like thunder in the place.
Craaaaack.....
He stood up slowly, the creaking of the wooden floor beneath his feet seeming to cry for help, then advanced with heavy steps towards the source of the insult.
He said in a low but terrifying voice:
"Alright... I'll take him out."
Before the drunkard could understand what was meant, Ronny grabbed his neck with one hand, lifted him like a rag doll, and threw him out the door as one would toss a bag of trash.
Outside, Duncan shouted, retreating in fear:
"What in heaven's name is this?!"
The man fell unconscious in front of him. Duncan approached, glancing at him:
"I think people like us are not welcome here, my friend...."
Ronny returned inside with an eerie calm, sat down again, then said to Edgar curtly:
"Follow me."
He headed towards the back corridor of the tavern, to a wooden door marked "Please Do Not Enter."
He entered without hesitation,stood before the mirror inside the restroom, and said to the rat in a steady voice:
"Rat, bring it out."
The rat moved quickly through his thick hair, then pulled out from among the strands a silver bracelet exactly like Edgar's.
He handed it to Ronny,who smiled and said:
"This tavern... is haunted."
Then he looked at Edgar with gleaming eyes and added:
"And you are a good opponent. I want to test my muscles after a long stagnation... Come on, boy, take out your bracelet, and let's see if you deserve for me to accompany you."
Before Edgar could respond, Ronny placed the bracelet on his wrist—and his body vanished in a sudden purple flash, leaving behind a faint trace of smoke.
Edgar remained silent for seconds, looking at the spot where the man had been, then closed his eyes and breathed slowly.
One word echoed in his head,the word Ronny had said to him mockingly a moment before:
"Boy..."
That single word was enough to ignite his stubbornness.
He reached for his wrist,placed the bracelet with quiet determination, then said to himself:
"If I win... he will call me my master."
And the moment the bracelet touched his skin, the same purple light enveloped him, and he vanished from sight, leaving Duncan outside staring from afar at the streets of London, saying with worry not devoid of sarcasm:
"Oooh, London, you haven't changed, nor have your rules changed, but no matter... I still love you, my gloomy beloved. Perhaps one day you will accept my existence."