Sylvia had discussed the mana crystal mines with Arthur. He was shocked by her announcement. Even Amelia was shocked by what she heard. Asher was not here as he was training, so he heard about it from Sylvie.
“So, that’s why he left those guards there,” Amelia thought.
The twins were just listening and acting as per the mood around the table because they did not know the value of this mine. But they thought it must be an expensive thing if they were so surprised by it.
“And you are telling me he defeated the E-Rank boss himself?” Arthur asked Amelia, who was eating her dinner.
“Yeah, as per Emmy,” Amelia spoke.
“I already warned him to be more careful next time,” Sylvie spoke.
“Wait, why–I mean, good job,” Arthur almost slipped up. He mistook Asher as a battle freak, so he was a bit happy.
“Of course he is so talented, just like me,” Arthur made a smug face in his mind but did not speak it out loud. He knew that Sylvie would not be happy about it.
“But I am surprised you let him off with 30% of the mine,” Arthur said.
“Hmph, he would have gotten sad if his own mother bullied him,” Sylvie spoke in her childish manner.
Livia chuckled, seeing Sylvie like this, and even Lucas was smiling, seeing her. Amelia, who knew the nature of her mother, just shook her head.
They discussed a few more things as the dinner continued. Nathan had already left and gone back for guild-related work.
Two days later, Asher was coming out of his training, and he saw Emmy, who was waiting for him outside.
“Young Master, that person has arrived in Soran,” Emmy spoke.
“What’s the location?” Asher removed his gear and put it back in his storage ring.
“We have kept him in the Villa under the Greville name that was gifted to you some years ago,” Emmy said as there was nobody present, so she could discuss it openly.
“I will get ready, arrange the car but don’t take any security with us,” Asher told Emmy.
“Okay, Young Master,” Emmy accepted his request.
In a big villa that was a bit far from the center of Soran, some men wearing black masks could be seen patrolling and making sure no intruder could enter.
“Ugh,” Tom regained his consciousness but he felt like somebody put so much weight on his head.
“Where am I?” Tom couldn’t properly open his eyes, but he tried to make sense out of his surroundings.
“Ugh, what happened?” Tom squinted his eyes as he looked around to find himself in a white room. He was tied down to a chair.
“What day is it?” Tom looked around for some clue.
The last thing he remembered was speaking to his sister and meeting some strange men, and now he was in this situation.
“HEY, IS ANYBODY HERE?” He shouted, but nobody answered him. He had no sense of time, and he could not make sense out of this situation.
“Hello! Why am I here?!” Tom kept shouting, but he stopped when he got no response.
ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm
*Click*
He heard a sound and saw a teenager with black hair and sharp crimson-red eyes coming out with a woman with brown hair following him. “Who are you guys?” Tom hurriedly asked.
“Calm down, your name is Tom Gylip, right?” Asher spoke.
“Yeah, but tell me-” Tom was speaking, but Asher’s cold gaze intimidated him.
“It would be better if you let me do the talking, Tom Gylip,” Asher’s aura was quite intimidating these days, and even Emmy could notice it.
Asher knew about it, so he also skipped eating together with his family for the past few days by telling them he was busy training.
“Emmy, go out,” Asher turned and looked towards her.
“Uh- Okay as you wish, Young Master,” Emmy agreed and left the room.
The room they were in was protected by soundproofing runes, so nobody could hear what was happening inside.
“Let’s introduce ourselves first,” Asher sat down on an empty chair that was present in front of Tom.
“Tom Gylip, age 22, a tech enthusiast looking for a job,” Asher read out from the information he was reading from the hologram of his watch.
“Poor background, rejected by the World Association three times, no capabilities as a hunter,” Asher finished and looked towards Tom, who was silently staring at him.
“What do you want from me?” Tom looked Asher dead in the eyes and asked.
“I know you have the capabilities of a capable hacker, and I want you to do work on certain things for me,” Asher spoke.
“I don’t know what you think of me, but I am a normal software developer, and I have no skills for the things you need me for,” Tom tried to reason with Asher.
Even in the report that Asher had gotten from the information guild, there was no mention of Tom having any skills for the work Asher was probably asking from him.
“Three times you have cleared the World Association passing criteria and have gotten rejected in the interview,” Asher’s words made Tom’s face go pale.
“But if you look at this carefully, each time your profile was selected from the database despite getting rejected previously,” Asher continued.
“Not so weird if you ask me, but strangely after your last attempt, World Association, for the first time, faced a spyware threat in their system, but luckily for them, they managed to stop it.”
Tom’s heart rate was going up. Sweat was forming on his forehead, and his hands were shaking.
“The common public might not know about that spyware attack, but the upper echelon was aware of it. Although World Association is still finding the culprit, the traces were carefully erased,” Asher stopped.
“I-I don’t know what you are talking about,” Tom knew that Asher’s claim could not be proven.
‘I deleted everything, nobody can trace it back to me,’ he spoke in his mind.
“I will repeat it again, so don’t waste my time. You will work for me from now on,” Asher’s indifferent attitude and his cold gaze made Tom feel intimidated by him.
“What will I benefit from working with you?” Tom decided to negotiate with Asher.
“Hah,” Asher breathed out and stared back at Tom.
“Do you think I am ‘asking’ you to work for me?” Asher said.
Tom could feel that the atmosphere around him was getting a bit cold.
“Sara Gylip, single mother working miscellaneous jobs to raise funds for her son, and her only brother, Tom Gylip, trying to get into World Association for their world-class medical facilities,” Asher kept speaking.
“Time it took me to bring you to Soran was a couple of days, and trust me, for me to kill someone, all I need is a few hours,” Asher’s indifferent eyes made Tom shiver.
“I will do it!” Tom shouted. “I will do whatever you want, just leave Sara alone.” Tom’s eyes were almost tearing up.
He did not know how Asher managed to find out his secret. He had indeed made a spyware, but his limited resources did not allow him to do any damage to the World Association. He did all this because he was full of anger towards the policies of the World Association of not allowing people like him, who did not have any talent for becoming a hunter.
But after doing this, he was scared that he might get killed or arrested, so he decided to bury his past and find a normal job to support his sister. He desperately needed the medical facilities of the World Association because that was his only option to cure his nephew, but not being a hunter and getting rejected as an employee, he was at his lowest. He needed large funds, and he had no way of securing them.
“Let’s not do anything illegal from now on,” Tom decided from that moment that he would not misuse his talent as a hacker because the risk was too large, and he had no backing to support him.
And he knew that carelessly going around speaking of his skills might attract many shady organizations that hired people like him. He knew that some of those organizations or rich families killed others after using them to make sure there were no loose ends.
Asher clicked on his watch, and Emmy came in with a tablet in her hands.
“Sign the contract and make sure you read all of the terms. And of course, no negotiations will be allowed,” Asher got up and left Tom, who was thinking what has he done so bad to deserve to be treated like this.
“Sniff I have to sign it, right?” Tom looked at Emmy, who was confused about why a grown man was tearing up like this.
“Yeah,” Emmy gave him the contract.
Tom took the tablet and started reading the terms, and as he kept reading, his eyes went wide with shock.
“I will get this much money?” Tom knew what amount people like him would get if they worked for them, but the amount Asher offered him was ten times that.
“Yes, and we will fly your family to Soran and handle their treatment,” Emmy meant that Asher would sponsor both the hospital facilities and keep watch over them just in case Tom got any funny ideas against him.
“Okay, I will sign it!” Tom hurriedly signed the contract, confirming his information and completing the required paperwork.
Asher was outside, talking with one of the black-masked men.
“This might be a bit risky, Young Master,” the black-masked man said.
“Don’t worry, just inform me if anything related to it happens, but don’t let Grandmother know about it,” Asher spoke.
“Um, I can’t promise the Guildmaster would not know about it,” the black-masked man scratched his head.
“Don’t create a mission for my request, just pass me any information related to it,” Asher said and left the man.
“Strange, meeting Tom should have given me some fate points,” Asher said to himself as he sat in his car.
[The host does not have enough authority, but encountering something significant enough to impact your destiny can earn you fate points.]
