[The previous day]
"Achim, I need your help with something..." Nathaniel said.
"Nathaniel?" Achim was pissed off by the fact that the young man called him this late, but he couldn't tell him so since it was clear that he had to keep up appearances for his future's sake.
"What is the problem? What happened? " The last sentence came out a little louder than intended as he felt angry again at how Nathaniel treated him like a servant. However, Nathaniel didn't notice his tone.
"I need your help to deal with someone..." Nathaniel said.
"Deal with someone? What do you mean?" Achim asked.
"I need to get rid of him."
There was a short moment of silence. It was clear Nathaniel wanted to kill someone, but he was stunned at how this kid could be so bold as to want to do something like that. He was a monster, even by Achim's standards, and he was a criminal. The young man then broke the silence, knowing he had to comply with Nathaniel's request, and eventually asked, "...and who are we speaking about here?"
"The guy that I talked to you about the other day," Nathaniel exclaimed angrily, recalling his defeat at Erik's hands.
"Ok, but why? What did happen?" Achim asked again.
"That's none of your business! Will you help me or not?!" Nathaniel asked with an almost threatening voice.
Achim hesitated for a moment, then nodded his head in agreement. He knew Nathaniel could be difficult to work with, but he also needed to deepen his relationship with him for his own sake. He sighed. "I can help you, but not directly. You should be aware that all the people older than fifteen years old are going to join the city's defenses. The others and I cannot refuse this order since it would lead to investigations on us with the possibility of messing up our entire organization."
"Fuck! So you can't come with me?" Nathaniel asked.
"No. But I can find some people willing to aid you under the right compensation..." Achim added.
"How much money will they need?"
"...It depends on what kind of job you give them, but they generally take on anything. There shouldn't be problems about this."
Nathaniel thought briefly before responding, "Alright, let's say one thousand new dollars per person... Is there anyone available for tomorrow?"
"There are at least five that come to mind. I will contact them as soon as we close the call and give you a response later. However, I must ask: are you sure you really want to do this? There might be consequences afterward."
"Yes," Nathaniel said. His rage was too high for him to let this matter go now. Erik humiliated him, which was probably the cause of his fracture with Natasha and Karl, and was the reason why he got kicked out of the Red Palace.
He was in a denial state, as he couldn't see how leading a stampede of thaids toward Erik and trying to kill him during the fight was the real reason why everything happened to him. He was so full of himself and firmly believed he was superior to everyone that he failed to recognize his own faults. In any case, killing Erik meant taking back control over his life in a weird and distorted way; Nathaniel didn't care anymore.
"All right, let me make a phone call; I will let you know later..." Achim said after another sigh.
After hanging up the phone, Nathaniel sat down and stared into space while thinking about the moment he would kill Erik. As long as he succeeded, nothing wrong could happen to him.
It was incredible how someone he deemed an ant only three months prior was able to flip his life so much.
[The day of the attack]
The following day, Nathaniel met these five people in an alley in the western district. They were all armed with daggers and knives, which made sense considering what they were going to do. However, they weren't using other kinds of weapons because, despite living in a world and a country where power reigns supreme, people couldn't walk around with weapons openly. However, they all had their brain crystal powers, and some of them could summon weapons.
The Red Palace students could because there was an agreement between the government and the institution, especially considering that these people would represent the country's future leaders and were usually important people.
The five underage kids looked at the young man with uncaring eyes as if they wanted to do their job and go home. They didn't care why Nathaniel was doing all this, nor who their target was; they only wanted the money.
That was understandable given their situation, being poor and having no prospects. Nathaniel had been made aware that most of those kids came from broken families or lived alone, without parents or siblings, and thus had to work hard to survive. For them, getting paid ten times more than usual was quite tempting.
Nathaniel approached them with arrogance; he felt superior to them in many ways and thought it was natural for these guys to work for him. However, he saw a determined look on their faces and knew these kids weren't new to murder. One of them, Luke, looked at Nathaniel with focus, ready to attack at the slightest sign of danger. It was true that he was going to work with him, but the man didn't look very sane from his point of view. He was right, as Nathaniel was crazy.
"So, what's the plan?" Luke asked. Nathaniel took a deep breath and explained the plan's details, hoping to convince them that he was trustworthy and that they could carry out the mission successfully. As he spoke, he noticed Luke's expression soften slightly, indicating that perhaps he was starting to gain his trust or that he trusted his plan.
"And then, we're going to have a nice chat with our target, and, well, you know what happens then..." Nathaniel replied.
"Who is the guy?" another guy asked.
"That's none of your business..." Luke was a little pissed off by the fact that Nathaniel didn't want to reveal who the target was, but this wasn't the first time this had happened to him, so he thought it was a normal occurrence. The only thing he needed to do was to follow the orders, carry out the mission and go home. However, they needed to at least know what he was capable of.
"Can you tell us at least what his brain crystal power is?" Luke asked again.
"He can sharpen things..."Nathaniel said, trying not to reveal too much information. He didn't want them to back away once they learned they had to kill the nation's only awakener and potentially be the target of a countrywide manhunt.
"Very dangerous, but not that powerful. This is viable..." Luke said.
However, he then turned to look at Nathaniel again. "Are you sure you want to do this?" one of them asked, looking at Nathaniel with curiosity.
"Of course!" Nathaniel answered immediately. "Don't ask these pointless questions!"
"Relax, I was just asking."
Nathaniel then pulled out the bag of cash he had prepared earlier and gave each of them five hundred new dollars, making sure to keep the rest for later. The kids counted the money in their hands; this was the highest amount of money they had ever received.
They looked at Nathaniel with grateful eyes and thanked him for his generosity, but the truth was that to do these kinds of jobs, assassins and goons usually asked for much more. They were naive, inexperienced, and very desperate to accept such a high-risk mission for this little amount of money.
"I will give you the rest later."
It was at that moment that a siren started ringing throughout the city. The thaids' attack had just started.
"Let's get this over with," Luke said. "The situation will worsen soon," he said, with uneasiness evident in his eyes.
The truth was that thanks to his father's contacts, Nathaniel already knew that the city was bound to be attacked today, as the militaries expected. This was the best chance to attack Erik since the city would be deserted.
The kids then left the alley and headed to the Red Palace. As Nathaniel predicted, there wasn't anyone around, as all the adults were preparing for the upcoming battle, and the other kids hid inside the shelters.
The Red Palace was the likely place where Erik was going to be. Since during the attacks on the city, the shelters were going to be open for anyone aside from their affiliation; the kids knew they could infiltrate the Red Palace's shelter and swiftly kill Erik. That was the plan Nathaniel came up with.
Ten minutes passed as they headed there, and then a loud noise shook the air. It was at that moment that the Yevyag??ts breached the eastern gate. The sound was so great that it could be heard from the other side of the city, where Nathaniel and the others were.
"What was that noise?" Someone asked.
"I don't know, but it doesn't look like something good." Another person replied. They both looked at each other, trying to figure out where the noise came from and what it could be, but they soon stopped, as they couldn't lose their concentration.
"Let's go faster; I don't want any unexpected situations to arise," Luke said. Nathaniel nodded, and with that, they started running at full speed toward the Red Palace. As they ran, Nathaniel could feel his adrenaline pumping, knowing that he was going to have his vengeance soon.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l