Okumura Syndicate

Chapter 78: Too occupied to listen

It was the next day, and Vox's advice kept playing in Aster's head "I think you might need another opinion, but I too think that book has meaning.". The boy had been pondering all night, wondering who to tell, the best choice for starters would be a non judgemental, yet high ranking member of the syndicate, leaving him with only one choice. He needed to inform Rou.

The mansion appeared differently to yesterday, since he went to bed earlier, he didn't get to see everyone decorating the entire building for the auction, and even now, the soldiers and servants were still not finished. "Aster! You missed all the work!", shouted someone from behind. It was Demitris, his hands were blistered from all the work, having been assigned heavy lifting.

"I should've been decorating the tables in the dining hall, but since you never showed up, Rou gave me another job. I've been up since midnight clearing the ballroom of debris, but my body certainly wasn't built for this." Aster asked Demitris a question "You say Rou assigned you this job. Where is he now?". Demitris sighed, "To be honest I've been afraid to talk to him over the last two weeks, so I'm not one hundred percent sure, but I think he's in his room.", informed Demitris.

"Thanks Demitris, I'll help you when I can.", Aster exclaimed before rushing off. As he was leaving Demitris shook his head at his disorganised manner, "Bit late for that, but thanks!", he yelled back. Aster headed up the stairs to the caporegime quarters looking for Rou, when suddenly a curdling scream was heard from one of the bedrooms. Aster decided to investigate while remembering which room was Rou's. As he reached the door, another scream was heard from inside the room. What on Earth was happening?

Aster knocked on the door in confusion, "Enter.", declared a quivering voice. As the black haired boy entered the room, he found Rou lying down with a bare chest on his bed, with a servant gentleman sat either side of him. Both servants were holding pots of beeswax and gathering it on the man's chest, letting it go tacky, and then pulling it off with force. "So Eddie's taking this auction mad seriously then?", remarked Aster.

"Indeed, each of the high ranking members are spending the entire day on their appearance on Edward's orders, especially the capos. It's his way of-", Rou screamed again before continuing. "Showing us off.", he informed. Aster looked in disgust at the servants, "Such a rich bastard, all that money that we work for, and he spends it on showing off. Bloody typical...", he mumbled.

"So anyway, what did you want to tell me?", asked Rou politely. Aster took a deep breath, "I went through Edward's stuff, right?". Rou was trying to listen, but kept getting distracted by his chest hair being ripped off him. Aster carried on, "I found something incredibly suspect in his drawer.". Rou was nodding along, listening through the pain of being waxed. "There was a book about my old clan, and judging by the title, I think that they intended for me to come to this world only to be tortured like I do."

Rou screamed again from the beeswax before responding to his soldier bluntly, "I see.". Aster was confused at such a neutral reaction from such a good friend, "Were you not listening? I think Edward has a plan revolving around my arrival!". Due to Aster's comments having bad timing, Rou didn't have a clue, being too focused on getting his chest waxed, "Huh?", he answered.

"Just forget it.", Aster exclaimed, offended by Rou's lack of attention, he left the room frustrated and slammed the door behind him. A single tear fell from the boy's eye, his mind trying to rationalise the situation. "The auction's ruining everything, getting in the way of so much. I bet Edward made it massive just to spite me.", thought the black haired boy. Meanwhile, Rou had no idea what just happened, "Aster? Was that important? I'm sorry if it was!", he called out, but his soldier had already left.

The auction was tomorrow, and Aster was prepared to find out what it was about. Maybe be can get answers during the auction? Or maybe he'd just get more angry at the sheer ignorance of his superiors. Either way, he knew it was important and whatever happens would impact the rest of his time in the syndicate.