"Lucien Vlad, hmm…and you are saying you want to open your own psychiatry clinic? But I don't see any valid degrees or licenses. How can I just approve your application? Is this a joke? Were you trying to waste my time all along?" The forty-year-old man behind the desk said with a dark frown as if he would eat up Lucien alive for wasting his precious time.
"Look, dude, don't try to play the fool with me. I specifically came to you after hearing that you give out fake licenses to so many idiots out there. I am sure I know one or two things more than those idiots. Now how much do you need?" Viktor asked with furrowed brows as he sat on the chair with one of his legs on top of the other.
The man harrumphed as he twisted his large mustache, "Hmph, alright. It will cost you 100,000 dollars."
Viktor tightened his grip on the armrest as he asked with a narrowed gaze, "What did you just say? 100,000? Are you asking me for a dowry for marrying your mother?"
"You!!" The man almost jumped out of his seat after hearing such a humiliating insult and pointed his finger at Lucien with enraged eyes.
He then explained with gritted teeth, "You are just a nobody I don't even know without anybody to vouch for you. How the hell do I know that you are not some cop in disguise trying to out me? So I can only quote the price that would compensate for the risk I am taking here. Do you understand? This is the only paying gig I have."
Viktor scoffed, "Risk? If I was a cop, I would have busted your ass and dropped you in some rotten jail already. Now…while I am still nice, better sell it to me for 100 bucks. It's just a piece of paper you are giving me, not some gold bar, right?"
The man's expression turned into a shocked one as he could hardly believe his ears.
100 dollars? Did this guy hit his head, or is he really trying to waste my time?
"Get the fuck out, you bastard! I will give you my underwear for 100 dollars, hmph!" The man finally lost it since the number 100 just made him feel like shit.
Viktor saw how this man was too greedy and decided to do it his own way as he got up and grabbed the man's collar, who was unable to shake him off surprisingly, not even one bit, "Listen here you punk. You don't play nice, then I don't play nice. Now, look at my eyes and tell me…how much were you going to ask me to get that license?"
The man's expression relaxed and turned into a blank one as he replied languidly while looking at Lucien's crimson eyes, "I…I think I was going to ask you 100 bucks…for the license. Please forgive this little man for the earlier confusion. I was probably drunk…"
Viktor smiled as he let go of his collar, "Good. Now I heard that you give away buildings for rent as well. How about…"
Not long after, Viktor walked out with a satisfied smile after paying 200 dollars in total for setting up his own clinic, a small price for having fun. He could have gotten all this for free if he wanted, but he felt that having money in his hand and not spending it felt unsatisfying.
"Taya must be happy to know that I found three part-time jobs. I guess for now, this is fine…" Viktor mumbled to himself before returning home.
He had changed into his Dorian identity, and not soon after, he was asking a doubt to Sayana, "Do you know how to recover the photos I had in my old phone?"
Viktor was still feeling bummed out about losing all the photos and wanted to see if he could recover those lost pieces of art.
Sayana immediately said with a smile, "Ah, of course, there must be since I remember activating cloud save on your previous phone. It should be available on the cloud. Can I see your phone?"
The two were sitting on a large sofa in the living hall of the first floor.
Viktor was jubilant to hear that not all hope was lost and said as he unlocked his phone and gave it to her, "Sure. Here you go."
Viktor closely was observing the screen since he wanted to learn how she does this stuff so that later on, he could do it himself.
"So since you have a koogle account, any devices which you sign in with this account have the ability to sync and save your contacts, messages, and photos. So…it should be available in the Photos app. Let's take that and see…" Sayana said as she nudged her specs.
Viktor suddenly realized something as he saw her move her finger over to the photos app and asked, "Uh…does that app load the photos here, on the laptop screen?"
She clicked the icon of the photo app as she nodded, "Of course, it will. Even if you took the photos on your previous phone and since it got uploaded to the cloud, it will be visible here as well."
'Fuck!' Viktor inwardly panicked as he realized the huge blunder he was going to commit, and the page had already started loading. The recovery process of the photos in his mind was quite different from what he just learned now.
"Oh my god!" Viktor quickly pretended to be startled by something but fell over Sayana as she accidentally dropped the phone on the mat.
"Ah!" Sayana was startled as well when Dorian suddenly fell over her, making her back fall onto the sofa in a lying-down position with Dorian atop her.
Both their faces were in close proximity as they unconsciously stared at each other's faces. Seeing her light green eyes that were the same as Umilia's, Viktor remembered about the fact that she was artificially created from Umilia's DNA and also the fact that she had a dormant Odic Heart.
He again felt pity for her, remembering these things because of which he no longer had any motives for teasing her or any plans of fooling around with her, especially since Umilia was no longer just a maid to him.
Sayana saw his glimmering dark brown eyes that seemed vast and infinite like a galaxy. It was as if these eyes held lots of secrets, making her feel like she was getting pulled into it.
Viktor then pushed away his thoughts when he realized that her soft body was pushing against his and quickly got up as he cleared his throat and picked up his phone, "I am sorry….I just a large bug, and it kind of spooked me…" Viktor said with an awkward chuckle while not getting any better excuse.
Sayana also came out of her daze as she got up with a slightly red face and said with an awkward smile, "It's fine. It must have been a really big bug, hehe," Sayana found it cute to see such a side to Dorian since not all boys her age would admit getting scared of a bug, even if some of them were.
"I think I got the hang of it. My photos have been recovered. You are really a helpful friend," Viktor happily said while inwardly feeling relieved since Sayana was this close to seeing the forbidden arts of her mother, and he would have gotten busted.. After that, everything would be a complete disaster, and he wouldn't even know how to face Umilia.