Man at Arms

Chapter Twenty: Crossing the borders

CHAPTER TWENTY

Green water stretched out in front of me, lamenting. Her arms were climbing and crashing below the cliff where I stood as if trying to drag me down. The sun was high. The wind slapped my face and tugged at my button-down shirt as if urging me to just take it off. The wind seemed to be obsessed with me, and the ocean was acting like a bitch.

She does not welcome me here. She despises me for all of my troubles and sins as if she witnessed them. Maybe she saw me burying a man in the sand, drowning a man in the water, pissing in the sea, spitting on her, and even masturbating underwater.

I sneered at the Aegean Sea.

Nazi cleared his voice behind me. "May I ask, Sire, why are we nice to the Greeks?"

Tinalikuran ko ang nagrereklamong dagat at humarap kay Nazi. Hinawakan ko siya sa balikat.

"Because their Mussels are good."

He agreed. "Yes, Sire. Especially when you try it as a saganaki with a generous sprinkling of feta cheese." He wiggled his fingers in front of him as if sprinkling flavor. "But I like it too when you eat them fresh."

"With a squirt of lemon," I said, already hungry with the topic of food. "But we treat them kindly because they're nice to Bambina," I added to divert the mentions of food and also to state a fact.

"Yes, Sire."

Bumaling ako sakanya nang marinig sa tono nito na may kasunod pa ang sasabihin niya. Tumikhim ito at pinagsalikop ang mga kamay sa harapan.

"What is it?"

Umiling siya. "None, Sire. It no important."

I shook my head and walked past him, meeting a shitty prince in the middle of a clearing. Behind him were shiny black cars with polite and innocent-looking men. I snorted. In the corner of my eyes, my men gathered behind me, wearing their battle scars and ready to fight. I stood a good distance from the prince and pocketed my hands.

"Keep to your words, De Luca, or else I wouldn't hesitate to burn your city to the dust."

I snorted. This bloody prince truly believes he can out-devil me. If only I do not need his alliance, I'd show him how to be a monster and make him fear me.

"Come and burn!" I smirked, rubbing the piercing on my lower lip. "If you can."

He tsked and nodded to his butler, who followed him like a tail. Nazi, in the corner of my eye, scrutinized the man as if he were in competition with him. The prince's butler did the same, smirking to himself.

"The alliance will serve us both. I hope when I call for your aid, you will send aid at the right time," he said. It seems like the kid did his research first. That's good.

"Right time. Got it."

"And you can trust my words in return." He offered his hand, and I accepted it, sealing the alliance between us. One Crane down, more to go...

When the prince left with his men, I turned again to Nazi only to see him scowling at himself.

"I'm very sure of myself, I cook better than that butler of his."

So that's what's pissing him off. The prince's butler, whose name I never recall, is a competitor of Nazi. He must have sensed his skills for him to be sensible like this. The only person he let out skill him in the kitchen was Corazon, who was his trainer and master.

I ignored my overly dramatic friend and headed to the car, where Bambam held the door open for me. Nazi climbed into the driver's seat and roared the car to life, sending me to the next appointment, as he called it.