Chương 31: Chapter 30. An Even Longer Day, Part One

The plan was simple. Creep around the wharfs until she found the ship that the Reissi's receive their shipment from. Somehow their boss, Arturo Reissi, had managed to secure one of the prime spots for receiving. He had a warehouse right next to a dock that made the process remarkably quick and easy. Arturo's main source of income was Desire, which was as of right now, exclusive to Dynarus. It was unknown to Ariesa who'd been first to make the drug, but she did know that Arturo was essentially the sole creator now.

Most [Kingpins] were required to go about their shady dealings in the… Well, in the shade. Dynarus wasn't exactly a hub for those of pristine morals, but even still, to be so openly brazen about it was ridiculous. At least it was in Ariesa's precious [Princess] eyes.

"Just another thing about this cities realities that I've been oblivious to…" she grumbled under her breath. Her mind returned back to the plan for the night. Once she'd located their shipment, she'd sneak inside the warehouse and see exactly what Arturo was doing. He was involved in the obvious and generic crime dealings, but not to the degree to warrant this sudden level of success. There was something else going on and Plank had asked her to find out what.

After Ariesa had informed Plank on what she'd witnessed in the deal between Crez and Lavish Suit, he'd been busy digging for information on the guy. They'd known it was a Reissi man, but narrowing down who had been tricky. In the end, Plank had flipped a low-level grunt to give him the information he needed. Mr. Lavish Suit was a man within the Reissi family that wasn't seen all too often. He worked alone and was rarely seen at the Reissi manor, and when he was he'd show up out of no where and often quite moody.

As a result, people within the organization started calling him Haunt. A name that he was aware of and didn't make any attempt at clearing apparently. Even though there was nothing on the man's identity, Plank was able to uncover from his informant an important bit of his schedule. This informant used to accompany Haunt on the days the Reissi's would receive new shipments. As to what the shipments were… the informant said he had no idea and would rather die than find out.

It was most likely just raw resources, though, like the oozefish scales that were important for the drugs hallucinogenic effect. Ariesa had been surprised when Plank had asked her to perform this job. She didn't think that he had all that much faith in her yet. Then again, if there was one thing that she excelled at then it was being undetected. Generally speaking of course.

"Alright, I'm here. Let's get this over with," Oscar said as he entered the Burrow's first floor.

"About time, I was thinking I'd have to leave you behind."

"Is it too late for that?"

"Yeah, it's too late for that. You're stuck with me and you're going to be a good little bodyguard for me, aren't you?"

"Already planning on being caught, huh? Makes sense given how badly you fucked up robbing me." Ariesa stomped her foot in outrage.

"You just got lucky! It'd been a long day and I made one little mistake!"

"If I recall correctly… you said earlier that today had been a long day as well. I'm dying to see what a short day looks like for you." She felt herself blush at being called out. Oscar hadn't seemed so… snippy earlier. That wasn't fair, she liked bullying boys, not being bullied herself. Not that she'd had all too many options to do so growing up as a [Princess]… Ariesa didn't say anything in response, instead opting to be the bigger woman.

She climbed out of the burrow and once Oscar had done the same, she told him the plan.

"Sounds easy enough. So why did I have to come?" Oscar asked.

"Bruno asked Plank to give you some more training while he waited for a response or something. Plank didn't want to do that so he stuck you with me. But apparently you're pretty decent at fighting, so I wasn't too mad about it. Not that my plan is going to end poorly..." That was a lie. She'd been furious at being forced to lug around someone like him. He seemed like a nice enough boy, but this was a stealth mission. What did he know about being stealthy?

"And aren't you worried that I might blow your cover?"

"Yes."

"So do you have an idea for how to fit me into this operation?"

"Not really."

"Right, so I'm just going to… follow you the whole time?"

"…Yeah."

"This is doomed."

"…Yeah." Ariesa and Oscar walked the remainder of the distance in complete silence. In truth she'd been planning on how to use him in this operation. It was just that she didn't feel too confident in any plans she'd thought of. She'd just have to trust that however Bruno sold the boy's abilities that it was convincing enough for her to be stuck with him.

"We need to get on top of the watchtower. Can you manage?" Ariesa asked as they arrived at a shady spot in the wharf.

"Should be easy enough, yeah," he responded and then immediately began to climb up with ease. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings." Stop, you idiot! There's a—" she had been shout whispering to alert him of the [Guard] that was stationed above, but he poked his head up and gave her a questioning look. Ariesa climbed up the watchtower herself and found that it was empty. Which was… odd.

[Guard] presence in the lower city was essentially nonexistent per her father's orders, but the wharf was an exception. Tons and tons of actual goods flowed through here, so to leave it unguarded was abnormal.

"How much trade does Dynarus do via boat?" Oscar asked. She wondered why he'd asked that at first, but then she saw that the entire place was empty.

"Um… a lot. I don't see anyone, not even Haunt and his people." They both continued to watch a whole lot of nothing for a solid forty minutes or so until finally a boat arrived. It wasn't a large boat, but still a decently large enough one to carry a good bit of cargo. As the boat tethered itself to the dock, the warehouse that was adjacent swung open its wide doors.

"Is that them?" Oscar asked as a group of ten stalked out of the warehouse.

"[Sneak a Peek]," Ariesa said. The skill enhanced her vision, allowing her to zoom in further beyond what her regular eyes could see. To her side she heard Oscar snicker.

"What kind of perverted-ass skill name is that?" he asked after another brief laugh. Ariesa ignored him and continued to observe. No doubt that the man in the middle was Haunt. He had the same suit on and everything. Someone on the boat disembarked and greeted him. Haunt just stared at him until finally pulling out another briefcase out of his dimensional storage skill.

"Do you have a route planned for getting inside the warehouse?" Oscar asked, now back to being serious.

"We should figure a way in before it gets too dark."

"Okay, yeah, let's go," Ariesa said and shut off her skill. She wanted to watch more of the exchange but there wasn't going to be a whole lot she could gleam from this far. They climbed down and sneaked around behind the other warehouses until reaching the one Haunt had emerged from. There was stairs in the back that led to a back door. Oscar opted for that to be their entrance, but Ariesa knew better.

"Get on top of the roof. There's a window that we can climb down from that'll give us a nice spot up above in the rafters," she said and activated [Sticky Fingers]. Plank had given her this bit of information.

"Uh… let me try something," Oscar said.

"[Malleable Shadow: Essence of Ladder]." Ariesa finished climbing up and looked down to see a long, black, wispy ladder lean against the warehouse. Oscar began to climb up but it wasn't long enough to reach the roof. Once he'd reached the end of his ladder, he just looked up at her. She didn't want to lie down on the dirty roof, but she did to give him a hand and pull him up the short remainder.

"What kind of skill was that?" she asked him once he was up. Oscar didn't answer and instead approached the window that was on the roof.

"Do we drop in now or wait?"

"Now, before they get back," Ariesa said and opened up the window. The interior of the warehouse was dark, but she thought she could see the platform that was below her in the rafters. Ariesa plopped down with a dull thud and prayed that there was no one else inside. After a second Oscar followed with an even louder thud. It was perfect timing because right after, Haunt and his goons walked back in. Two large crates were being pushed in. Once the crates had been fully pushed inside, they closed the warehouse doors.

"Open and count it," Haunt commanded, his voice echoing.

"After it's counted, divvy the pills up for the churches. District Five is going to be receiving a large quantity than the others for the time being. Here, follow Arturo's instructions."

"Why do we even have to put up with this farce of receiving pills that were made here in... Sorry, sir," one of the Reissi grunts mumbled." It's just pills? No way, that's too simple…" Ariesa whispered to Oscar. When he didn't say anything, she saw him staring wide-eyed at Haunt." What is it? Do you know him?"" Another one?" he said, his tone incredulous.

What the fuck were the odds of this? Oscar had thought he was pretty unique, but nope. Twice in one day he'd seen someone like him. There was no doubt that this Haunt guy was corrupted just like Oz. Except there seemed to be a key difference between the two: for whatever reason, Haunt seemed unable to detect his presence. Something about his corruption seemed more... he couldn't place it. There was just something different about this guy." Ari, we need to go now," he whisper to her.

"We need to go back and tell Bruno. This isn't a man we want to fuck with. If he discovers us…" He trailed off as a bang hit the warehouse's door. Another two bangs followed until finally Haunt went and opened up the wide doors. The people from the boat were standing in front of a clearly annoyed Haunt.

"What is it?" Haunt asked with immense irritation laced in his words.

"You know we can only clear the wharf for— oh… I didn't know you would be in attendance today." Someone new stepped in from the middle of boat people. This person was tall and lanky. They were wearing an outfit of all black with a white mask completely covering their face. Whoever this person was, Haunt was giving them an immense amount of respect. Or at least, more than he'd given the other people.

"It's been nine months since the subject escaped. What progress have you made on finding him?" The masked figure said, their voice warbled rendering it impossible to distinguish gender.

"We've searched… but nothing's turned up. Like I said last time, it's likely that he's dead already. He was amongst the earliest group and all of them ended up dead. There's no reason to believe him to have been any different. Especially considering what she did with that viper." The masked person reached forward and slapped Haunt across his cheek, the sound ringing loud throughout the warehouse.

"And like I said last time… I'm under explicit commands to ensure nothing goes wrong that might hinder his plans." Haunt began to visibly shake. Given how his goons started to nervously back up, Oscar believed that violent outbursts were common from this man. The people from the boat had already left, which left the masked person alone to be calm in the face of Haunt's increasing anger.

"Go on, get angry if you'd wish. Kill me and he will deny you your next dose. You're a valuable experiment yourself, but don't kid yourself for one moment that he wouldn't destroy you for your insolence."

"Look, O—" Another slap spun Haunt's head to the side." Don't say my name, you cretin." The masked person cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders before speaking again.

"I know that the subject is likely dead, but he requires some sort of answer. Give me something of value next time and I'll relay it to him. It can be a lie, but it has to be believable."

"Understood… s ir," Haunt said, spitting the words out like they were poison.

"Good, Mr. Maveon. I'm glad we have an understanding." Maveon's hands twitched and a second later, he roared at the man. And it was a genuine roar like what a lion would do, only narrowly avoiding being cringe as the man sounded truly feral.

"You say my name? Do you know what you've done? What if they know about my connections?"

"Oh, did I make a mistake? Apologies," the man said casually.

"Do calm yourself, it's not as if any of these men actually know who you really are. And even if they did... who cares?"

"No. These men's blood is on your hands," Maveon said and snapped a finger evoking a jumbled cry of pain before he then swiped his hands in a wide arc around him. To his side, Ari gasped. Oscar personally couldn't find it in him to gasp. He couldn't do anything but stare in horror. One-by-one, all nine Reissi men fell to the ground. Many heads tumbled to the ground, but not every man died from an even cut. Some were cleaved from their lower shoulder up to half of their face.

Maveon's motion had been so uneven that some men had to suffer more than others. One man—the one that had been at the end of the arc—suffered from only having the top of his shoulder being cut off. He fell to the ground, alive but struggling from the pain. Maveon approached him and stomped his face, squashing his head like it were nothing but a water balloon.

"Was that necessary?" The masked person said.

"Well, if you're going to kill anyone then don't leave the unwanted guests up in the rafters." Oscar didn't fully process that it was them that was the unwanted guests. It wasn't until Ari stood up in a frantic panic that he realized they were in danger. Ari quickly climbed up through the window. He tried to do the same, but as he jumped up and latched onto the window's edge, the walkway that they'd been standing on suddenly collapsed." Fuck! Pick me up!" he shouted at Ari as he dangled on the window."

Who the fuck dares intrude on me?" Maveon roared.

"Run if you want, but I will catch you!" Ari helped him up moments before he felt a thud land right below him. The ceiling crumbled and plummeted to the ground from where it was struck. Oscar and Ari didn't think and jumped off the ceiling. Adrenaline fueled him as he ran, making him oblivious to the pain from the jump. He didn't need to wonder on when Maveon intended to catch them as he could hear the destruction from behind as they ran.

Their raging pursuer was loud and demanding, each attack sounding like the drums of war. And despite their best efforts to flee, the music was getting louder.