A bright sun light ray was going through a thin white curtain of a huge king sized soft bed and reaching the eyes of a black-haired guy who looked to be in his mid 20-th. He had very muscular built and looked like a professional bodybuilder. His bulging muscles were clearly visible because his body contained very small percentage of body fat but for some reason he didn't look attractive. On top of that, the average face made him even less attractive then your average John Doe would look. His height was just over 170 cm, which in combination with his muscular built made him look very short and too muscular.
His eyes area reacting to the light, started to squeeze, trying to reduce the intensity of the light. All of a sudden, the person started to turn and twitch as if his was seeing a nightmare.
"Old man, please order the retreat, you can't sacrifice yourself just for a possibility! If we lose you, it is the end!" – the man started to mumble in his dream. The volume started to turn on as he continued.
"Noooo. Run away from the light!" – he shouted while waking up with a rough breathing and sweating all over.
A few seconds later he calmed down and got out from the bed stretching out a bit. Covering his mouth with the left hand and scratching his bottom with the right, he walked towards a water tap and started to wash up his face.
"Oh man, every time I see my new reflection, more and more I think about having a face surgery! And what is wrong with this body, I haven't worked out a single time in tree months, but the muscles are not getting smaller at all, it even seems that my body is still getting bigger! With such a body, it will be difficult to pick up the pretty chicks!" – the muscular man of course was Evan in the third prince Juliuse's body. And as usually he did since he got to the world, he started his day complaining about his looks. Then to get himself to feel a bit better, he would play a few pranks on some innocent servant girls to get them to kiss his cheeks.
Evan has always been a thick skinned guy who didn't know how to feel ashamed. Therefore, the innocent and naïve girls became the pray for his pranks, but it didn't mean that he couldn't tell where the line lied. It was part of his personality which previously matched his looks and felt natural, therefore many people liked him because of it in his previous world and life. However, now looked very weird instead of natural.
Today was an important day. Today was the day when he get rid of the shackles of mentally retarded person and even catch some bastard thieves. Evan had set up the stage for a few months and now all he had to do was wait for the participants to come and perform the show. He could have done it earlier if not for the status of mentally retarded person.
**********************************************************************************************************
Armani Empo was a person with great wits and ability. When things come to earning money, he was the best in the Empire without the second. He was a person who could turn a single coin into a dozen, a dozen into a hundred, a hundred into a thousand. Exactly this ability of his lead him into his current position of the head of trading guild. In this aristocratic world where the status and power were everything, with just a status of a small noble and small personal strength he was able to reach the position among the highest echelons of the empire at the age of 56, whose actions now might have influence over the entire continent.
Currently, Armani Empo was within a dark filthy cell. He had a disgusted look on his face and was covering his body with his monster energy to keep away the bad smell from himself. This was the biggest jail of the capital of the Monster Empire and he was looking at a grey-headed middle-aged chained prisoner in his 50-th. He was wearing clothes that looked very expensive which at the moment were tattered and dirty. It was very clear from his looks that he spent at least a month in this cage.
"Rodney, Rodney, you can blame only yourself, who told you to come up with such a wonderful business idea!? You know better than anyone else that it is better not to keep the things that can bring you disaster if you can't protect it." – viciously smiling, Armani started to speak.
"Armani, we never had any grudges or hatred between us. I have always conducted my business according to the principles we set up together when we first established the trading guild and you know this as well. Why would you do this to me!? Because of some unproven business plan, I had!? I don't believe it, you are not a person who would turn against his friend because of some cash, what is it then, that was worth our friendship for over 25 years!?" – Rodney Claus was the name of the chained man, he was once a close friend with Armani, and now he was in this prison exactly because of this friend. Rodney's voice was weak but you could feel all of the disappointment and anger he was holding inside himself.
"Hahahaha, you have always been a smart fellow Rodney and to be honest it was a pleasure to work with you, however, there is always a but, we are merchants and we must use all the means available to increase our influence and economic power we hold even if it means we have to make sacrifices. Just so you know, from this single case, I can get more power than I got through out all of my hard work for more than 50 years. Guess what, you are the main contributor for it, therefore don't think I am doing this because of a grudge against you, instead I am very thankful to you! Don't you feel touched Rodney!?" – sarcastically replied Armani and then continued – "Your time will come pretty soon. You will be beheaded for treason against the imperial family and until then, you will be rotting in this cage. Your family will be despised and might even be chased out of the country if I don't help them. You know that there is no other way around it. Also you don't want to see your family being executed right in front of your very eyes, do you!? You will have to comply with my conditions, and I then will be generous enough to guarantee them a happy life with no worries. You know that I always keep my promises, and that I am very meticulous about every detail when I do so."
"ARRRRRMAAAAANIIII, if you touch a single hair from a single member of my family, I promise I'll bring you down with me. I know a lot of secrets of your shady deals that can be enough to execute you ten times over. I know with the kind of person you are, I am already as good as dead, but that doesn't mean I can't bring you down with me. For the sake of my family, I'll do everything you want, but even then, I'll turn into ghost and torment you until the end of your life." – Rodney said while gnashing his teeth.
"You are welcome to try, Rodney. Just follow my instructions. Hahahah…." – Armani started to laugh. He turned around and started to walk out of the cage. He continued to be in the laughing mood until he exited the place.
Everything within the area where Rodney was locked up turned deathly silent. The place was dark and only a single torch was lighting an area of few hundred square meters. Rodney had listless eyes and one look was enough to say that he was in a deep pain. His eyes were watery, and he looked like he might start to cry at any moment.
Rodney was blaming himself, because his greed was the reason he ended up in this place. Previously, when the third prince was alright, he had presented his new idea to him and Julius immediately promised to support them with a huge amount of money as a starting capital. But before they received the money, the prince got into an accident, lost his memory and became mentally retarded. The money never came, therefore the idea never came to be living. Rodney was desperate for money and therefore he asked for the help of his once best friend Armani. Armani convinced him to sell his company and then using that money as the foundation start his project. But it turned out it was a trap set up by Armani and he ended up in the jail. What Rodney didn't know was that the prince Julius had already signed a document to invest the money from his treasure cave into the Rodney's firm and as long as he had it, he would have gotten the promised financial support.
Armani on the other hand was full of excitement when he got out from the jail. There was a luxury carriage waiting for him and he got inside. One of his servants passed onto him an envelope with some documents inside. He looked over them one by one and couldn't help but happily comment – "Finally, the preparations are over, and soon we can get access to the third prince's treasure cave. Who could have guessed that he would be hiding such a dangerous thing in his treasure cave, as if he didn't care about it. I guess the saying "if you want to hide something, hide it in the most visible place" perfectly fits into here. A place where a usual accountant can get access to was holding something that could shake the entire foundation of the country."
When Armani thought that he looked over the documents he was expecting too see, he noticed that there was a piece of paper left. He skimmed the paper and couldn't help his growing suspicion.
"Why is he calling me to Julius's palace!? We have to make everything look like we don't have any connection to each other. If the imperial family finds out what we are after, they would probably eradicate our entire families starting with 9-th generation of relatives." – Armani knitted his eyebrows and thought for a long time. Trying to see through the intention of letter sender.
"Okay, I guess it might actually be helpful for the cover we are setting up. The matter he stated indeed is quite serious as well!" – Armani decide to accept the invitation from his comrade in the scam, who was the accountant if the third prince Julius.
He had to pool on a lot of strings to get this accomplice of his to the position of Julius's accountant. Armani was the brains of the entire scam and the accountant was the executor. The reason why he was working so hard and even betrayed one the people he respected the most was only to get for one of his people access to Julius's treasure cave to retrieve a certain something, which if he did and passed on to certain people, he would gain equal authority similar to the Emperor himself. The object contained a huge secret that might turn inside out the entire Monster Empire. Armani didn't know how but the power he was doing this for, got ahold of a piece of information like this.
Of course, the possibility that they would be discovered was very small since the Imperial Family probably didn't even suspect the existence of the object in the third prince's possession. The only person who knew it should be the prince himself and no one else. And what a coincidence, prince Julius lost his memory and is mentally retarded. He defenetively didn't remember about any of his treasures. Armani would be a fool to not use such an opportunity to increase his power and influence. Currently, he was in the upper echelons of the Empire, but if he could succeed with this job, he would be a person equal to the Emperor himself.