"Is Miss Cherry okay?"
Ethan asked, and Cherry shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.
"Did I witness that scene? I'm fine. Wipend Young Master was already a well-known scumbag in society. And I didn’t get a close look at the wound either. Lucky for my mental health."
Cherry shrugged again, as if to emphasize she was fine. Ethan gazed at her with a faintly blurred expression, almost as if pitying her stoic demeanor.
The more Harrison listened to her words, the heavier his heart grew. The thought that such a significant event had occurred in Cherry's life without his knowledge struck him hard.
"The noble title Chairman Sinclair cleared debts for... I vaguely remember that. So, that happened."
Harrison’s voice grew somber, and Nox raised an eyebrow as if surprised.
"I thought you knew everything about Miss Cherry and Sinclair. Is there something even you don’t know, Counselor?"
"Ah, back then Harrison was busy preparing for his wedding with Isabella," Cherry interjected, offering an explanation.
At Cherry's words, Harrison and Nox both fell silent simultaneously, as if a button had been pressed. Cherry, however, paid no mind to their silence and turned her attention back to Charlie.
"So, does that guy actually hold some sort of power in Kintner? He’s always been like that. Acting political despite having nothing."
"He won’t stop. Elle is... a terrifying person," Charlie cautiously offered his honest opinion, not because he was watching Cherry’s reaction but because Elle genuinely scared him.
"A lunatic who has power to back his madness is terrifying indeed," Cherry added, elaborating further. "I heard that before he came down to Kintner, he did a short stint in the military."
At this, Harrison furrowed his brows slightly.
"Miss, come to think of it, it must have been five years ago, around the time I was preparing for my wedding. Why are you so well-informed about that man? You didn’t stay in contact, did you?"
"Oh, come on. Do you think I’m crazy? Why would I keep in touch with that psychopath? That guy was nothing but a pathetic loser. He had such an inferiority complex because Sinclair outshone the Vernons."
"Then how did you hear about him?"
"Now, that’s something I’m curious about too," Nox chimed in, echoing Harrison's question.
Ethan joined in, agreeing with a nod. Cherry shot Ethan a bewildered look that screamed, "Why are you piling on?" But Ethan’s expression remained steadfast.
Seeing everyone’s gazes fixed on her with similar curiosity, Ethan shrugged his shoulders.
"Isn’t it natural to wonder? Just pure curiosity, that’s all."
"He reached out to me first. Said he wanted to meet after a long time."
"Definitely a lunatic."
"A certified lunatic."
"No doubt about it," Ethan, Nox, and Vanilla muttered in succession at Cherry’s reply.
Charlie felt baffled. Even the people reacting so vehemently in front of him didn’t seem entirely normal in his eyes.
Well, Elle is garbage, Charlie thought.
The difference was clear to Charlie: dealing with these slightly unhinged individuals versus a downright irredeemable piece of trash like Elle. He settled on that conclusion for now.
"Hey, given how things stand, what do you think Elle might do next?" Harrison asked Charlie.
"Most likely, Elle won’t give up so easily," Charlie replied.
Cherry nodded emphatically.
"Exactly. That psycho won’t stop. We need a contingency plan."
Cherry’s resolute words resonated with Harrison, who found himself in full agreement.
And so, after sending Charlie off, they began a serious discussion about their next steps.
*****
Kintner, 32 Novan Street, Sinclair Hotel.
On the top floor of the towering five-story hotel sat Elle, the leader of the Kintner survival camp.
A polished wooden pipe with elegant curves hung from his crimson lips. Staring out the window, Elle exhaled a long stream of smoke, filling the room with a hazy cloud.
His jet-black hair swayed lightly around his shoulders, and a bright red earring dangling from one ear swung with the movement. His equally crimson eyes were fixed intently on the view outside.
The door opened.
"Sir Elle."
Tide, Elle's right-hand man, entered the room and greeted him. Elle finally turned his back to face him.
"What happened with the Brunel scouting party?"
"We've lost contact."
Elle exhaled another plume of smoke from his pipe. Tide, watching the room fill with smoke, sighed and moved to open the window.
"What should we do?"
"I don’t get it. How could they fail to take over a tiny village like Brunel? I sent fifteen people, didn’t I? And they were well-armed, too."
"...I find it puzzling as well."
Of course, neither of them could have anticipated that the scouting party would encounter a highly trained group of soldiers masquerading as royal troops, nor that Cherry and her group held dominance over the Brunel area.
"Who was the leader again?"
"Frank Alto."
"Didn’t he have a brother stationed here?"
"Yes. His health has always been poor, so he was excluded from the scouting and reconnaissance teams."
"Draft him. We’ll use him as bait."
Following Elle’s orders, Tide bowed his head and left the room. Elle glanced at the nearly burnt-out tobacco in his pipe and released one final puff of smoke.
Hoo.
With the pipe still in his mouth, he turned back to the window.
Outside, monstrous creatures roamed the streets, their howls echoing through the air.
Kintner was slightly larger than Brunel but still a small city. Its flat terrain, devoid of mountains or hills, made it impossible to completely clear the area of roaming monsters.
Before the chaos, Elle had been a man chased by debt, driven to Kintner, where he dabbled in all sorts of illegal activities—smuggling drugs, weapons, and other unsavory dealings. Then, he had witnessed the end of the world.
Seeing the city descend into anarchy, he realized this was his chance.
"I can start over."
With society's collapse, he saw the perfect opportunity to cast off the shackles of debt and rise as the ruler he had always aspired to be.
To secure power amidst the chaos, the first thing he needed was a "safe haven." The Sinclair Hotel caught his eye.
Using his smuggled weapons, he gathered allies to seize the hotel. He succeeded, turning it into a base and assembling those who would serve as the foundation for his new kingdom.
But it wasn’t enough. One hotel couldn’t satisfy his ambitions.
Building a new kingdom—that was Elle’s ultimate goal.
Yet the failure to take even a small village like Brunel spoke volumes about the inadequacy of his forces. He needed to intensify their training.
"Useless fools."
Follow curr𝒆nt nov𝒆ls on fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com.
Clicking his tongue, Elle reached for a glass of scotch on the table and took a swig.
This time, he needed to capture Brunel's survivors for real. He was severely lacking manpower to use as slaves.
"The age of old nobles and bourgeoisie is over, Charlie. I’ll give you power, so bring me Brunel. Show me your worth."
Those words he had spoken to Charlie Green weren’t empty.
Born a noble with the name Vernonham, Elle had grown up treated as less than the bourgeoisie.
He hated weakness—his impoverished and powerless Vernonham family, and Cherry Sinclair, who had nothing but her family name to her credit.
"The pathetic Cherry Sinclair who once looked down on me, Vernonham trash..."
Recalling his past, Elle clicked his tongue again, irritated. Cherry Sinclair and the nobles were all the same—boasting about the privileges they were lucky enough to be born with.
But the world had changed. Now, it was a world where power could be seized through one’s own abilities alone.
"My time has come."
Elle thought with certainty, convinced that this new world belonged to him.