After acquiring what he came here for, Merik decided to leave the secret room and with him, he brought Albert’s piece of paper with him.

  Seeing it was still attached to the original file, it seemed that Landon had yet to learn about this, nonetheless, Merik decided to keep it to himself, for now.

  He pulled the lever on the wall, which revealed the exit back to the office. Before he left, he solemnly glanced back at the countless reports carrying invaluably precious information that could help him deal with his future endeavors.

  Telling himself he would come back here again, Merik left the office room in its placid, unperturbed state.

  Just as he reached his desk, he saw Lenny rushing into their office, in the same manner just a week ago.

  Alarmingly drenched in sweats, his curly hairs were stuck to his face and slightly covering the scattered freckles and while panting like an old man on his deathbed, he still yelled loud enough for the whole garrison to hear.

  “...order. Head Captain’s order! He asked me to bring backups for him. He... pants he said it’s extremely important. Every available officer on duty is to join him immediately!”

  Merik realized what was happening at once and tried to leave the office with an indifferent expression. Lenny noticed him and instantly called out to him.

  “Merik, are you available at the moment? Landon asked...”

  “I know. I’m sorry to disappoint you but I’m rather busy at the moment. I have a case to follow. Could you call the others? Please?”

  “Umm...alright.”

  It seemed that several thoughts formed in Lenny’s mind after Merik’s “necessary” persuasion, but he nonetheless decided to let Merik go. Or maybe just he didn’t want to confront Merik... possibly.

  Pleasantly taken back a little, he gently tapped Lenny’s shoulder in a grateful manner and casually left the building.

  After all, he really wasn’t available, was he? He needed to find his “friend” and the guy should be where he’s usually at.

  Merik looked back at how Lenny managing and saw that he finally got his backups.

  It was Davies with a bandage on his nose, who was at the same time, intensely frowning and another one was slender Allen with a gentle smile.

  At least, Allen was there.

  Merik wished good luck for them and headed straight to the bar.

  ________________________________________________________________________

  He didn’t like going to these pubs, not even a tiny bit. And yet, here he was – a drunken, deafening sea of untended lust, desire and addiction.

  Merik indifferently fared through the men who were minding their own business but, at the same time, he couldn’t help but to just put several bullets into their flared, disgustingly red noses.

  And the overwhelming laughters.

  The place itself wasn’t half bad – it was properly decorated with right amount of lights and furniture. All in all, it was a rather popular place.

  To Merik’s luck, it seemed today was a lot more stuffed than usual for unknown reasons.

  Merik’s eyes kept darting left and right, in search of the guy but to no avail.

  He swallowed the frustrations and continued looking, and after a while, Merik finally found the man he was looking for.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  In the center of a dense crowd, the man in question was playing a game of poker against several people and with such huge and glaring smile on his face, one could see that he was extremely confident in his hand.

  The charming man had a brown scruffy hair that fell onto his ears and possessed a pair of smiling eyes that seemed to ridicule whatever or whomever he laid his eyes upon. He was wearing a buttoned off black shirt combined with white jeans – both of which were similarly shriveled. Furthermore, his dim attire seemed to further compliment his inhumanely pale skin tone that almost rivaled an untainted, white paper.

  His hand was resting on the back of his chair and with a sudden upward tilt of his head, he taunted his grumpy opponents. Whenever he grinned, the two sharp canines further implemented his arrogant behavior.

  Merik decided to just let the spectacle unfold.

  “Now, now, don’t be shy. Go for it. Fold it. Bid it. Whatever. The stakes aren’t low, gentlemen. I know you are here to get your debts back, but I will admit I wouldn’t gladly risk my beloved manor and my precious flute if I’m not confident enough. So, gentlemen, you must know that your current situation is... not... good. Not only will I get my debts repaid, but I shall also receive a fortune – big enough to buy a lot of lands! Maybe, I will even buy yours!”

  The man laughed sarcastically and taunted his three opponents to which he was responded with unsavory curses and grunts. Though he didn’t seem to mind.

  “Curse all you want, gentlemen, for all I care. All I'm thinking right now is what to do after this little game of ours. To be honest, I don’t like a lot of stuffs. I could buy clothes that I don’t like, eat foods that I won’t probably like... but drinking with the ladies... hmm... that’s something I will happily indulge myself to! After all, with... this, I can do whatever the hell I want!”

  With such provocation, the unbearable man gave a wink to a group of girls that were staring at him and the beautiful ladies giggled with a blush.

  While the men in grey uniforms were drenched in sweats, he smiled and continued,

  “Come on, now, gents. I don’t have all day. Let’s get on with it, shall we? Don’t worry, I will at least pay you something back to make sure you wives won’t be mad. After all, I’m not one to bring ladies tears. Still, no? Alright. Yours truly shall graciously take the honor of showing you first, gentlemen, my winning cards.”

  With unshakable confidence, he flipped the cards in his hand onto the table with a loud bang.

  Bang.

  The whole bar went dead silent, and every single gaze was attracted to the charming man and his overbearing actions.

  While smiling dazzlingly with closed eyes, he was bathed in a spotlight from the protruding ray of afterglow – similarly basking in his own moment.

  Because throughout heaven and earth, he alone was unstoppable.

  The first to break his silence of victory was one of the opposing men in grey uniforms. With a confused frown, he said,

  “Umm, wait. Isn’t my card bigger than yours?”

  “Huh?”

  The entire crowd shook their heads and looked at the table. Indeed, it really was bigger than the charming man’s cards!

  “Mine is bigger, too.”

  “Haha, mine, too.”

  “Huh?! How... how...?”

  The man’s smiling eyes widened for several degrees and speechlessly stared at the cards on the table. With sudden realization, his mouth widened as well.

  Everyone in the pub was similarly shocked beyond words before slowly shaking their heads in disdain and started muttering disappointed curses under their breath.

  Even the beautiful ladies were looking at him with weirdly scrunched noses.

  Merik broke out into laughter.

  Finally, the drenched men could smile and wipe the sweats off their foreheads and started laughing manically with a sense of relief.

  “Oh, Soran, Soran, you never learn, do you? You are still the same big mouth, lousy, idiotic and pathetic loser who doesn’t know his own place. You don’t know how to gamble and yet, you keep challenging us and lost all your family’s wealth in the process.”

  The man called Soran was still dazed in his place, unable to close his mouth while staring at the cards. He seemed to be mumbling under his breath.

  “Bu... b... but... ho... how?”

  The three men collected the bets from the table, and the bald man in the middle held the flute in his hand and started spinning it around.

  “Soran, you bastard. You really live up to your name, the Bastard of Bloodworth, a living disgrace to your name. You should have been content, gambling away your money but to think you would just throw away your family’s manor. All for what? By the Light, I wonder what your ancestors would be thinking in their graves.”

  The man relentlessly continued:

  “Even though you keep talking big, in the end, you are still you, huh? Don’t worry, Soran. I will give your precious flute back to you. Consider it a favor. After all, I, Barron Dennis, is one generous and big-hearted person. And without your family’s manor, you’re pretty much spent, right? Since all you have left is your... little flute and your infamous title. Aren’t you basically a homeless, now? Gosh, we should do this sometimes again, only that, you can’t anymore. Hahaha.”

  The bald man named Barron threw the flute back at Soran to which, he weakly caught with his right hand.

  Shortly after collecting their wins, the three men in grey uniforms left the table and the building, their laughter left as echoes through the hall.

  The crowd also similarly dispersed and all that’s left was dazed Soran holding a flute and Merik with an indifferent yet slightly disappointed expression, now staring at Soran, with his hands in pockets.

  The two men kept their gazes for a while before Soran smilingly broke the awkward silence with some words.

  “Got any change?”