Artificial

Chapter 11

We got home around midnight and breakfast the next day me and Penny dropped our report.
"Well it's been decided, Seth Thompson, I'm officially putting you on the payroll and assigning you a codename, congratulations." Leon and Anton give me a smile and Brandon returns to his office. "Congratulations rookie, now you get your own room and access to higher floors." Higher floors?
I was under the impression that this was a type of home of some sort not a office. "So what are on the higher floors?" Anton waste no time retreating to his room. "Oh you know, a library, storage room, more guests rooms, a office incase we get more workers, and a portal to the Demon Council." I guess now that I'm officially apart of their rag tag family I should ask about this Demon Council.

"What's the Demon Council?"
Leon pulls up a chair to explain this whole thing.
"The Demon Council is a system made by the Artificial Demons to maintain law among our kind,
basically they limit our activities and try to keep us low profile that way we're not constantly eating humans and out right taking over countries,
they basically get us to stay in the human law's good graces,
on paper the Demon Council doesn't exist to humans,
to the eight tribes scatterd over the world though the Demon Council is the law.
The Tribes have their own laws and regulations but the Demon Council is above them all.
Tribes or little groups like ours can't do anything unless we first get permission from the Demon Council and let me tell you, they're something we don't fuck with. In terms of raw power if they wanted to, they could take over the world."
It was bit difficult to soak in all this information but when I did that brought up another.

"So The Church organization basically made firearms and swords to combat our kind because they don't want us to take over the world?"
Leon nods,
I sigh, the classic black and white scenario, the Demon Council wants to be left alone, humanity sees us as monsters and tries to wipe out our kind,
all the boxes are checked for tipical shonen jump protagonist,
check.
"Now I feel like were a tipical anime protagonist."
I get a mmhmm from Leon,
Anton returns back to the table and slides me a ID with my picture on it with a giant E next to my name.
"What's this?" I asked as I look at it front and back.

"It's your ID and that E next to tour name is your rank." Rank? I looked at Anton confused. "E rank is the weakest rank the Demon Council assignes everyone when they first join, to move your rank up they hold a tournament once every few months or so, they put all E ranks from all Tribes and small groups like ours and make them fight in colosseum, last man standing gets the next rank."

I see, makes sense I guess. "So how high does the rank system go?"
I stuff my ID in my wallet.
"Up to S rank, anything higher puts you on the same power level as the ten council members,
and even then the number one on the council has a rank of triple S class.
Trust me they don't give out ranks any higher then S unless they want you on the council."

SSS class, man imagining their power, it's difficult to actually imagine but those guys must be real monsters to be in a league of their own,
if going up to S is our limit cap and Leon said a low rank could easily take over a country.
Oh God these guys are uber strong! Brandon comes out of the upstairs room and hands me a purple colored black domino opera mask,
I can tell it was custom made just for my head so I put it on and it covers 3/4ths of my head.
"That's your mask to protect your identity from cameras as well as Exorcist higher ups, we've been pretty relaxed about enforcing masks but now that we're in the End Game of the great war,
the council wants us wearing them,
also I gave them a call and they've assigned you your code name.
Phantom Reaper, hell they even created your own mask."

Dang that's a awsome sounding name, Phantom Reaper.
"Thanks." Brandon hands me multiple papers stapled together and gets me to sighn my signature on all twenty two pages, of course I sighned,
read through them all and it's not a contract where I sighn away my soul,
just a simple buisness contract between me and the Demon Council,
I get paid every Friday on the Friday and my pay is roughly speaking $12,000,000 a week! My eyes get huge,
holy damn that's a lot!
"How do they get their hands on this money?!"
Brandon tugs at his suit collar and has a bit of a troll face.
"They create it using a creation rune, they can litterally make anything and make it as real as they want it to be, so that money you'll be getting is basically untraceable." I love this place already!
Money, power, status,
I can't stop harping about how much I got what I wanted and then some!

This is paradise for someone like me! Paradise! And once this dang war is over, I'll have so much cash I'll be living on easy street for the rest of my life!
I could own mansions all over the world, as many swords,
daggers and guns as I wanted!
As many cars as I wanted!
The whole nine yards in the palm of my hands!
"Sold, you already sold me the car and the car lot now you just struck gold and oil for me. Whatever needs done I'm your man." Brandon smiles. "Well aren't we going to be a over achiever. I like you kid, welcome to the family."

Brandon tells me to swing by his office after everyone's eaten breakfast,
so I did and he hands me a key.
"Key to your room, you get the one upstairs. Also scan your ID going up the stairs."
I give him a confused nod,
and leave his office,
I look for a set of automatic doors,
pull out my ID and put it to the scanner, I hear a beep then walk upstairs, taking in my surroundings,
the stairs and 1st floor was coverd in brown fuzzy ruggs.
The atmosphere was more home like, the sun coming in through the two windows, I stick my key into the first room on the left and unlock it,
there was a king sized bed,
a small tv with front row view thanks to the bed, a night stand with a lamp, a alarm clock, thankfully it works despite how old looking it looks, and finally a walk in closet, it was old and dusty.

Dust everywhere no clothes,
no nothing,
just a empty space and a big mirror built into the wall, as beautiful as this place is, I feel a sense of loneliness,
I start hanging up my clothes and folding them, sticking them in dresser doors, I put my mercenary attire and signature black trench coat one door and something white cought my eye,
a old black and white photo of Brandon,
and a woman with a very big belly, from the looks she was pregnant and he looks the same as ever.
The back of the photo was dated 1820 to 1847,
it also had written in small hand writing his greatest love and his biggest regret.

I take the photo and I put it by the lamp, now that I know why this place seems so lonely,
my mind plays scenarios in which I imagine Brandon with a family in this place,
a little girl running around saying daddy, Brandon playing with his little girl. "Nice little room you got here."
My mind comes back to reality as I look at Penny standing at the door.
"Y-Yeah, it's nice."
Penny welcomes herself into my closet, marching to the beat of her own drum like always.
"Mmmm this closet could use more life, and you're constantly reusing the same attire. You need more clothes!"
She walks out. "Huh?"
I asked. "We're going shopping!"
She blurts out,
next thing I know she's taking my hand and we're going downstairs, this woman, there's never a dull moment with her.