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Madam Ruth, a mini-boss who runs a prostitution operation in the Northern District of Karanberg city for the Twilight Syndicate. Her job is a Crow.
Among the five categories of mini-bosses, Crows are very influential and have a lot of connections mainly due to their job as keepers. Crows pick expensive things and store them as trophies thus the Crows of the Syndicate keep ledgers, documents, and records as well as loads of cash.
Madam Ruth wasn't the most important or the most capable Crow in the flock but she was doing all she could to solidify her place and grow her wings wider.
Understanding that was crucial to the part Leon was about to play next.
The moment he took up the letter hidden in the flat cap, he disappeared from the murder scene he fabricated and jumped to the rooftops. There, he found a secure location and read the message without unsealing it.
How?
He used the spell [Read] of course.
Understanding many things about the situation at hand, Leon decided to act based on it and his next step was to hurry back to the Honey Saloon.
He made himself very visible this time when he arrived at the saloon on top of a roof. He jumped from one roof to the other making sure that he was seen by at least Jordi and a few customers. The moment he jumped down, he stumbled and started running towards the saloon.
"Leo, what's wrong?" Jordi tried to stop him but Leon kept going.
"Later, I'll tell you later."
As he passed the saloon's hall, he climbed the stairs real quick despite knowing how upset Ruth gets when he or Jordi climb up. Even Jessica tried to stop him but he was just fast and headed directly to Ruth's door.
"Madam! Madam! Something important." He spoke, shaky and worried with a pale complexion as he was drenched in a cold sweat.
"Leo, wait."
Jessica went behind him but Leon knocked on the door again. At that moment, Ruth opened the door with a demonic glare on her face almost wanting to tear Leon to shreds.
"I said you don't get up here!" She shouted right from the start.
"I am sorry, Madam. He won't come up ever again." Jessica wanted to grab Leon away but he didn't budge.
"Madam, I found this." He handed the flat cap to Ruth.
She took it, looked at it, glared at Leon then threw it at his face.
"What's with this dirty thing you dumb fool. You want to sleep in the street tonight?" She shouted.
"No, Madam." Leon showed the cap again to Ruth, this time showing her the letter tied inside.
He did take that letter out for a reason and showed it like it was. At first, Ruth frowned then immediately remembered what that is.
"This… how do you have it?"
It was a scary thought that the message she entrusted to a Rabbit just a while ago would arrive back in the hands of a Rat no less. She snatched it right away and dragged Leon from his shirt's collar inside.
"You two, out."
She even shouted at two girls who were apparently in her room sleeping on top of each other in a frozen state. She was like giving them some sort of business guidance or whatever. The two of them ran outside and closed the door allowing Leon to spot Jessica and Jordi standing outside before it was shut by the iron-faced Ruth.
She walked across the room in her sleeping dress as she took the message of the cap and checked it.
"You didn't peek inside?" She asked Leon in contempt.
"N- No, Madam." Leon replied in a fearful manner as he kept his eyes to the floor but momentarily taking sneak peeks at Ruth.
Ruth put the message on a table nearby then walked to Leon glaring at him. In an instant, she held him from the neck by her two hands and struggled while looking at her with fearful eyes.
"I know Todd was old for being a Rabbit but how did you get your hands on this! Speak now!" Ruth shouted in anger.
"Ack… sorry… madam!" Leon started choking and having it hard to speak causing Ruth to grab him with one hand and hit him with the other.
"Speak!"
"He… he was dead, Madam!" Leon said.
"Dead? Who killed him." She asked.
"I don't know, Madam… I was in the market… I saw him fighting some other guy… He was jumped on and stabbed then his friends hit the other guy but they got stabbed too…" Leon was panicking all over the place trying to tell a story yet it caused her to be more irritated.
"Focus!" She spoke sternly and snapped fingers at her face as she let go of him.
"I… I am sorry." Leon apologized.
"Now, tell me what happened slowly." She said.
"Alright." He touched his neck and breathed roughly, "I saw this man here in the saloon and I just understood that he is on a job for the Madam. I didn't even butt in. After he left this morning, I went to the market for some errands. The market near the big street where there is a café and that strange building."
"Yes, I know it. Keep going." Ruth nodded.
"Ah, there was some sort of fight happening in a side street where I was going to buy some stuff for myself. There, I saw that exact same man from this morning and another two chasing someone. They got into an alleyway and I didn't see them come out. I didn't even try to look but I saw a hat on the ground… that cap… and I recognized it as the one that man wore. There was that paper tide inside of it and it had the perfume Madam uses."
"That's it? What about Todd?" She asked.
"I… I tried to look deeper into the Alley and… I saw all… all four men…" Leon then covered his mouth, "It was so scary."
"What?"
"All four of them… they were dead!" Leon said in a face that couldn't believe what it saw, "I saw other men checking on the man Mr. Todd was chasing but once they felt my presence… I don't know, I just ran… I kept running away from the streets."
Ruth narrowed her eyes and looked at Leon. It was true that he looked like a mess as if he ran around the city twice.
"And you managed to escape those who chased you?" She asked.
"Yes. They lost me after running two streets." He confirmed.
"Not possible. Unless you know their streets better than them, you would have been held by their dogs." She looked at him with disbelief.
"Yes, that's why I ran on the rooftops and didn't get down until I was close to the Saloon." Leon said.
"Rooftops?"
"Yes, Madam."
Ruth looked at Leon trying to assess him and couldn't quite put her hand on what was amiss. His story is solid but running on Roofs? This felt strange to her but it wasn't unheard of. The only problem is that these things require a lot of skill that is very rarely found in the streets.
Then she decided.
"Go to your room. Don't get out till I say so." Madam Ruth said.
"This early?" Leon felt weird as he asked.
"You do what I say. Understood?" She shouted.
"Yes. Right away."
Leon walked out of her room and saw Jordi still standing in the stairway but Jessica returned behind the bar. Many eyes followed him as he went down and only Jordi walked behind him. Madam Ruth, on the other hand, called for Jessica and gave her a series of instructions.
Meanwhile, Leon returned to the shack behind the saloon and simply lied on his bed, as for Jordi, he chased after him.
"What happened? Where did you go?"
Leon looked at Jordi with a pale yet calm face.
"I saw something in the market…"
Leon didn't tell Jordi the long version and kept most of the details to himself yet he made sure that Jordi knew that he got into trouble, got chased, and managed to escape by running on the roof. The reason for telling him was to at least get a feeling of the situation since Jordi has more street experience than him in these parts.
Jordi couldn't believe what he heard and was clearly going to spread rumors in the saloon. If the rumor spreads between the workers, many of them will view Leo as trustworthy enough and if Ruth wanted to underpay him in his reward, she will have to think twice for her reputation as well.
Jordi indeed took the information Leon fed him and ran back to Jessica and Molly. The other Rats heard what Leon did and so did the dogs.
An hour passed and Leon got wind that Ruth left the saloon with some of her Dogs but she also sent a couple of them to watch Leon's shack while he was in there.
So far, nothing out of the ordinary happened and Leon only sat in the room reading one of the other books he has.
This has been exciting indeed. It took him back to simpler times when a mission was assigned, a package was acquired and a target was eliminated.
Between lying around and reading, Leon was bored out of his mind and sat straight looking at his hand.
"Ring, show up or whatever." He called.
On his right hand's ring finger, a ring indeed showed up. The ring made of gold and marvelous craftsmanship gave a hue of golden luster that would captivate the eyes and charm the souls even though the design was simply that of a cobra biting its own tail.
"So… you won't say anything to me?" Leon asked, "I have been struggling like this because of you. I can't take you off and no one other than me can see you. And you even gave me all that power and potential… should I be worried?"
His words fell on deaf metal as the Ring didn't even show a hint of a response. Rather, the ring was just doing what Leon says showing up and going away.
"At this point, I should be at least thankful that you're not trying to take over this body or turn me into a freak that keeps screaming Precious!" Leon laughed but he was too tired of finding no single clue to the ring that he just made it disappear while sighing.
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[Ring of Relife]
The Ring that passes the inheritance of an ancient Pharaoh.
- Stage 1 (Inheritance): Proof of Death.
- Stage 2 (???): ???
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The only proof he has is this thing from the reading of the Ring. All it says is that the ring passed some Pharaoh's inheritance to him and the first stage confirmed that Death passed the inheritance.
There is a second stage that may give him more clues on the nature of the [Ring of Horus] but the more he thinks about it, the more he finds it illogical and disturbingly misleading.
In other words, this Ring wasn't meant for him since he has no clue on what to do. What was the myth about this Ring again?
The Myth of Isis and Osiris, he knows it well. Osiris was the King of Egypt and the brother of Isis, Set, and Nephthys. While Osiris married Isis and Set married Nephthys, Osiris grew more popular in the south causing his brother Set to envy him. When Nephthys cheated on Set with Osiris, this was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Set murdered Osiris. Many accounts describe the murder in many savage and brutal ways but the most popular one was that Set cult Osiris into more than 70 pieces and scattered them across the land. Isis and Nephthys gathered them back and put Osiris together then Isis sort of mated with him and became pregnant yet Set showed up again and killed Osiris one last time for good. It was said that Horus, Osiris' son grew up hidden in the Nile Delta where the trees were thick enough to hide him from Set and when he was old enough, he revolted against Set and overthrew him.
[A/N: The part up there is from the Myth of Isis and Osiris. The part afterwards is me mixing stuff from the Myth and my own narrative.]
But that isn't the main story regarding the Ring of Horus. The story was that when Isis was trying to resurrect Osiris, she had to steal the power of the Sun God, Ra, and make an Artifact with it. This Artifact was a crown made of feathers known as the Atef Crown or the Crown of Osiris which gave him the Lordship of the Underworld. Moreover, she created her famous wings, the Wings of Isis, and created something for her son Horus that looked like a ring. This last part wasn't really popular but some papyrus stated that these three Artifacts were made so that the King and his Queen and Prince rule the next world together.
"If this was meant for its wearer to reincarnate as a Prince then Leon was a busted choice. Where can I get my refund?"
He held his head where his hair started to finally grow after the rough shave he had that day. He may be lost in a different world but to access its resources and get information, he needs to climb the ladder up in this Syndicate and figure out what to do next. He won't be able to accomplish anything on his own no matter which angle he looks from and if Madam Ruth has a good head on her shoulders, she will see his value to be more than just a Rat.
If she doesn't, he already knows what's in the letter and can sell that information to the Rival Boss she is competing against. Of course things will be messy if he took it that way thus it is merely a Plan C, not even B.
Position, Money, Power, Ability, and Support. Those are the things he needs now and Support is the most crucial.
If things go well…
*Knock knock knock*
"Leo, the Madam is calling for you."
As the one who knocked on the door was one of the dogs and didn't just break in, the situation seemed to be escalating well.
He stood up and fixed his clothes.
"Coming!"
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