ORGÁNOSI I: Broken Mask

ANTECEDENT: CHAPTER 38

ANTECEDENT: CHAPTER 38

BEING DROPPED off in the middle of nowhere, Claud was at a loss. He could see nothing but the endless expanse of grasses and trees stretching out before him, and in that moment of confusion, he called out for Love. "I'm here. Where is the house?" Claud asked the moment Love answered the call.

"Love just fell asleep. I'll pick you up." It was Atticus on the other line.

With a sharp click of his tongue, Claud expressed his displeasure. "Just tell me where it is. I can manage."

"No. You can't. Just stay put."

Then the call ended.

Claud let out a groan. He had just returned, and his irritation and annoyance towards Atticus, that messy man, had been reignited.

A full minute passed before Claud heard his name being called a few meters away.

"In here, De Vries!"

Turning around, Claud saw Atticus standing before a grassy area. Atticus looked out of place in there. Furrowing his brow in a grimace; he struggled with the weight of his luggage as he pulled it along. "Where did you come from?"

Atticus pushed the grassy area behind him that turned out to be a solid wall, and it moved like how a door would open.

Claud's lips parted. The gate was designed to look exactly like the tall grasses, so it was very well camouflaged. He underwent almost two years of intense training and had seen a lot of odd things, so frankly, he should no longer be taken aback by these things.

"Where's the boss?" Claud asked after he entered the gate and saw the cozy-looking house.

"Backyard. In the pool."

Leaving his luggage in the living room, Claud immediately went to look for Midnight, who was in the pool area. He immediately saw his boss swimming with such speed and skill in the pool that he immediately thought his boss was an Olympic swimmer participating in an important competition.

He planned to wait for his boss to finish swimming, but it seemed the boss saw him walked over to the pool and he stopped swimming.

"You're here." Midnight immediately left the pool and grabbed the towel to dry himself. "How's the training?"

The memories of the previous two years, filled with challenges and difficulties, flooded back to Claud, making him let out a weary sigh. "I think I've become more fucked up."

Midnight looked at Claud while drying his hair. The peacock outfit, Claud's signature attire before, was gone, replaced by a simple yet elegant combination of a clean white shirt and classic black trousers. "You survived it, though."

Claud shrugged his shoulders. "No sweat. It's just dead bodies and cleaning messes."

Midnight, impressed by Claud's nonchalance in the face of the dead bodies, couldn't help but raise his eyebrows in surprise. If his memory served him correctly, the first time he mentioned to Claud about dead bodies, his expression was full of fear and wariness.

"The chief of the cleaning crew department called me a week ago." Midnight wrapped the towel around his waist. "He wanted you to work for him instead, but he said you declined. You know that's a promotion, right? Working for me means being stuck, with no promotion whatsoever. I wouldn't have minded if you chose to work for him."

"I would." Claud's voice was steady and resolute. "I survived that horror house to be the head of your cleaning crew. I'm not going to work for anyone else."