Shadow and Malikul escaped to the Underworld at dawn. Being a supportive lover, Malikul accompanied her even though he understood nothing of her action. Still, he wanted to be involved in everything she did.Malikul put the coordinate precisely at the cemetery where all of her siblings perished. The walk was somber and sad. Shadow’s body stiffed like wood. Wearing appropriate clothes and a shawl wrapped around her head.It was still much dark and the cemetery looked no less than a haunted house with massive space. From afar, a few volunteered religious people huddled together and smiled peacefully at both of them.All of them were wearing something called ‘turban’ and ‘kopiah’ on their heads with yassin and a thin prayer book secured in their hands. At a glance, it seemed that these people were just from the mosque, after fajr prayer.Shadow was honestly impressed by these people. Their faces looked so peaceful and the majority was filled with young men, destroying the stereotype tha
The event ended successfully. The leader ended the prayer by asking for forgiveness from the Almighty and repenting. By the time it ended, the sun had already risen to the horizon and the birds chirped harmonically in the air. “Thank you for everything.” Salam shook Malikul’s hand with a fresh face.“Thank you as well.” He said the same thing.Shadow simply bobbed her head at them all.Salam and his friends bid them farewell after dropping a bomb that they hadn’t expected.Apparently, this cemetery was casually visited by religious people to pray for those fallen warriors. Each one of them recited the warrior names that were etched on the massive wall, praying for them. And all of them were highly related to Shadow, their former emperor.Shadow constantly viewed them as a dense society. That was because their mental capacity was lower than Shadow's. Still, she had overseen something. They might be lacking in Shadow’s standard but the Underworld people were filled with talented people
Aidan was surprised to see five people residing in the room that was deemed sacred to everyone. Each one of them had zero interest in finding another room and crashed the room where the owner was nowhere in sight. “What are you doing here? As far as I know, this is my sister’s room.”“Our sister.” Five voices corrected him without looking at him. He was dumbstruck. These people really touched his nerves.“So, what are you doing here? What about the plan?”Tak!His eyes were placed on two people who were playing chess at the office desk.“Fret not, my ma– crown prince, everything is under control.” The gold-haired man placed his chess piece on the empty slot.“Damn son. He’s good.” The opponent who wore the nerd spectacle swore under his breath. “Yeah, still manageable.” He said loudly toward another person. Tak!He placed his piece as well.“Smart, smart.” The gold-haired’s eyes were shaken.“Smiley, Captain…” Suddenly his head was throbbing. “The deadline is in three weeks but why
“Hello?” Captain answered the call. “Oh, already? Well done. You did well.” He listened yet again. “Okay. Thanks for the hard work.” He stopped the call and placed his smartphone to the side.“What?” Hisoka, who was laying on his back on the floor, turned his head toward Captain.“My team’s report has arrived. They have successfully planted a seed of doubt in a few of the soldiers. Right now, the rumors are spreading like wildfire to the whole area. Soon, it would spread to another region.” Captain cracked his knuckles as he met yet a new contestant; Blue. “Eh? It’s only been two days since our working distribution.” Blue admired them even more. Mandrill was a group that committed to their teamwork. Their work ethic was commendable. Even Hisoka was shocked to see their efficiency.“They expect to work miracles. My teammates are capable enough to deal with cumbersome matters and resolve the problem in a day.”“I’d say… you are squishing your teammates dry.” Hisoka was quite uncomfort
“Check. Checkmate.”Blue’s jaw dropped as leaned forward with dramatic gazes.Just like that, Captain won the battle. He took his knight and waved it in the air. “But, Shadow wanted the best from me.”“So, what did she do to you? How can you outshine Blue? The literal king of schemes?”“Because if I lost, Shadow would never leave me be. She taught me everything. She reformed me, from head to toe. But, in this game, I am still lower than Psycho, though. I can never win against him.”Blue, who was upset at the start, immediately raised his hands. “I will not complain ever again. Psycho is literally the hidden gem. His mind… I can’t even fathom how his mind works.”“His uniqueness is the charm. I am grateful to have him as my teammate.”“Anyway, it’s your win.” Blue patted his shoulder and acknowledged his loss. “I’m not good enough to beat you.”“I thought Psycho is supposed to be in the genius team, or I am just tripping?” Smiley continued with his card game with Hisoka. “He is.”“But
Ajiad that shut his mouth at the back raised his hand which quickly gathered everyone’s attention.“Duke Ajiad, isn't it? Please speak your mind. I’ll listen to every word that you’ll say.” He smoothly changed the focus to the man at the back.Stepping forward, Ajiad used his business smile at Captain. “Thank you for your consideration. I want to ask one thing.”“Please.”He cleared his throat. “My intelligent agent has spoken to me. A threat seems to lurk around the kingdom around us, however, our kingdom is not their target. As far as I am concerned, we are still safe. Now, here is my concern. Why do we need to poke our nose at the wolf tribe?”Captain raised his brow, quite taken back by the question. “Don’t get me wrong. The wolf tribe is highly related to Albert and we all know that Albert is part of us. Nevertheless, I am not sure why we must protect the tribe.”“Excuse me?” Captain narrowed his eyes, his voice filled with disdain.Promptly, he raised both of his hands. The lea
Shadow stared reassuringly at Captain. “Furthermore, they are trained to be my substitutes if anything happens to me.”“Your substitute if something happens to you?” For some reason, Ibrahim hated that sentence so much.“The facilities are a brutal place for a mediocre kid. They'll die if they didn't perform. Unlike normal children, we are trained as mercenaries as early as 10 years old. Captain was included. The only difference was, he was hired by the government which later was betrayed by the said government.”Mercenary? A professional hitman that only listened to the order. What the...“Except Shadow, of course. She was five when she started the job.” Hisoka corrected any rising misinformation inside any of their brains. “She also became our leader as soon as she joined the field.”Yet another bitter truth that all of them had to swallow. “But what about him?” Yusuff gestured at Captain. “I don’t smell any mana inside him. Meaning that he didn’t have anything appropriate to prote
Black space. What is Black Space?The Black Space was the residence of the villagers along the south beach. The locals were so closed off and trusted no one, including the king. Ibrahim left them alone because they were so adamant to protect their own traditional nonsense. “Am I missing something here?” Ajiad was quite sure why they reacted that way. “My king?” He nudged Ibrahim’s shoulder.“Remember that time one of the locals took Aidan out of town during his visit time after the wolf ambushed them?” Yusuff asked. Hisoka smelled danger, his smile widened and became creepier. “Yes?” Ajiad nodded.“They had a run-in with some mercenary shit and later the T-Vir gang.”“You mean, was that the shoot-out in the small town?”“Yup, we couldn’t account for the sniper who took out one of the T-Vir. Sheriff Akhbar speculated that the sniper was from another outer threat and the man who shot some locals worked for T-Vir.” Ibrahim added.“I can smell bullshit from far away,” Hisoka squinted