Harker waited for his buddy to wake up. He had prompted him up on the bed and fanned him despite the already cool air conditioner.
It was really unlike Roland to just faint like this. Yet the panic must have gotten to him when he didn't see his best friend behind the door.
Eventually, his eyes opened. He looked at Harker like he was some kind of alien, then blinked once more.
"Wait…."
He reached out to Harker's chin. "No beard…."
Roland looked at the clothes and sniffed about. Harker was so dumbfounded by his reaction. So much that he wasn't able to push Roland back when he sniffed at him like a dog looking for treats behind a cabinet.
"You do smell Harker-y….. Though there's the smell of the clothes that haven't been washed for days and cigarettes ...." Roland thought.
"Bro, it's really me. Chill out, hah!" Harker chuckled. "This is the shapeshifting skill I told you about."
"I know that, but…. Wow. It's much different when seeing it in person." Roland said. "I know for a fact that I have not taken any questionable substances this morning. But I just… Wow. Just wow. You changed your appearance so fast."
"Right? Pretty handy when you wanna play a prank on a bad professor or somethin'." Harker joked a bit to lighten his friend's mood.
Roland still looked a bit frazzled. "So my friend really is a shapeshifter…. And he's fighting demons and saving mermaids now for…. What reason, exactly?"
"Well, they're generally bad people and capture innocents, ruining their lives. That kind of stuff. Just think of it like superheroes, they save people 'cause of justice and stuff." Harker explained in a lackluster manner.
Roland snorted. "You are NOT a superhero, Harker. You don't have that mentality. There has to be another, more Harker-y reason."
Harker made a face. "You really don't believe I'd just start doing heroic stuff and fighting bad guys once I get powers?"
Roland shook his head. "Nope. I'd believe more if you use the powers to pull pranks on Professor Seward while she's sleeping, like you said. But going into danger to save others…. It just isn't like you, Hark. Though it is possible that it became your secondary goal after seeing all the bad things the Xi family had done to their victims."
Harker sighed. Roland was his best friend after all, he knew Harker so well and could read him like a book.
So, Harker relented to telling him about the Shards. But not about Yan or Quan Zhi, since that stuff is too complicated and still vague for him.
"Alright…. I'm collecting these Shards to become human again. It's a classic tale, like The Tiny Mermaid. Not the Pissney version, the real one where the mermaid has to kill the prince to not die from the agreement and become a mermaid again."
Harker explained, showing Miss Lovette's Shard necklace. "This is one half of those Shards. Mr. Xi has the other half as a ring. There's 13 of them that I have to get to be human and maybe cure my family's illnesses to have a better life."
"Oh, so it's a wishing star situation? You collect all the Shards, you get a wish?" Roland asked.
"Basically."
His blond friend rubbed his chin. "This stuff sounds downright crazy…. But I believe you. That's more likely to be your reason other than being a 'hero of justice'."
Roland picked up his luggage and opened it. "Here is the Tiger's Eye ring that my father sent as a gift for Mr. Xi. If we could get him to wear it instead of the Shard ring, and take it off… Then we could swipe it."
"Yeah, stealing the Shard is easy." Harker nodded.
Roland hummed in agreement. "Mn. But saving those mermaids would be difficult. Do you know how many there are?"
Harker frowned. "I don't know how many, exactly. Possibly hundreds of them."
"We would need more allies than ourselves then." Roland said. "We also have to think of where these mermaids will go once they escape. We can't rush, we have to completely assess all the information before we act."
He leaned back on the bedpost and covered his face. "Just like earlier. Damn…. I almost killed my best friend. I'm so sorry about that kick."
Harker shook his head. "Nah, it's nothin'. I've developed more endurance after becomin' a demon lord. And I don't believe you would have shot that gun."
"I would, actually. If I learned that old man did anything to you." Roland said.
Harker chuckled. "Hah! That's a good one!"
Roland raised an eyebrow at him.
Harker's eyes widened. "You're joking, right? You, Roland Faust, who can't even kill your father that you so hated… Would kill a stranger in cold blood just for me?"
Roland did not answer. Instead, he took out a notepad and wrote things down.
"We have to ship them back to where they came from." He wrote the word 'SHIPMENT' and underlined it. "That's the end goal. They can't stay in this foreign country for too long, especially with many technological advancements that could affect their escape. So we need to bring them to ship. That's our end goal."
Harker knew he was changing the topic, but decided to drop it too.
He really could have worded things out better. He just hoped he didn't upset Roland that much.
"Right… They came from the South China Sea." Harker told him. "I think that we could use the company's own shipping ferries to get them back there. They have so many all across the globe."
"Yes. You mentioned that because of the electroshock devices in the merfolk's stomachs, there's an electromagnetic interference that disables CCTV cameras." Roland said.
He suggested: "What we could do is bribe some of the workers. Then, we start shipping some merfolk bit by bit each day. We ship them inside trucks that bring pearls to ferries. I heard from Mr. Xi that they usually take the route to Los Angeles, at the Santa Monica Pier."
Roland continued writing down all the details and his possible contacts.
He continued: "We also have the advantage of the birthday party. Mr. Xi will be busy with preparations. And he'll have less security in the factory to focus more on guarding himself and the guests."
"How busy would he be? It's just a birthday bash." Harker thought out loud.
Roland made a face. "He's a billionaire, Hark. These kinds of things take months to prepare. I heard he's going to have a grand party in a villa that was built between his company's corporate building and the factory. Guests would also start to come and meet with him 2 weeks before the party."
He looked at Harker sternly. "I would be one of them. You have to be careful when I'm away. Don't do anything without discussing it with me."
"Roger that." Harker nodded.
Then, he brought up another important phase to their plan. "And how do we get away with… Y'know, muderin' him?"
Roland made an apologetic face. "I know you won't like this idea, because Mr. Xi would not be the only casualty. But we have no choice if we want both the authorities and his men off our case. It's the only way."
Harker frowned. "And that would be?"
Roland drew something that looked like a mushroom cloud on his notepad.
"We bomb the place. At his own birthday party."
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A/N: Chapter 51 will be locked in Premium, so there's 10 chapters left for free. You can unlock these chapters to support me as an author here or use Fast Passes that you gain through rewards and daily log-in. Thanks for reading so far!