Three female servants of the Church prepared some pastry and drinks for everyone. They offered each of the people in the room a cup of tea. However, only Justin humbly declined the offer.
The girls in front of him looked beautiful outside that their beauties could captivate any man, but from the eyes of young Don, they were beast ready to kill him from behind.
If he let his guard down, he would meet the maker in no time.
The progress of the world was unreadable and unpredictable, and the people here especially the girls were all cynical. To fight it, he must remain on guard at all times.
Girls were the primarily dominating gender in Euroasia.
In this world, they had the right to build their own reversed harem, if and only if they desired. They could secretly do an affair within and outside of their domain, and the government would tolerate them even they got caught.
They would treat their male lovers as their collectibles and a pet. But fortunately, not all of them were like that. One out of ten in this generation was married to one man like Hermes' mother who stayed loyal to his father.
The women in this world were all disappointing. He wished to correct his mistake, however, it was already too late. They were no longer a program he could manipulate, and he could no longer change their behavior using the CSS codes as he used to.
All he had to do from now on was to study them all. He had to read the mood when he approached the characters, and mind his manners every time he conversed with them.
Unfair? Indeed. But that was how the law worked in here. It was a dream world for all feminists of his former world that almost ruined everything they touched.
He had no time for playing around since he already in the mud of danger.
The only way he could pluck every death flag, he should understand the concept of his surroundings, read the mood, and kept his eyes peeled. Additionally, he should be more cautious than ever because it's better to be cynical than to be found dead in the canal.
Consequently, he would do everything to his powers to prevent himself to die at the hands of one of twelve female playable characters in this reversed otome game. And that was the main objective of this mission.
He had also already encountered a different scenario that wasn't even part of the event, so technically speaking, he must adapt and remained calm every time and everywhere.
But still, his plan to exile himself to Amerigo was still in positive progress.
His plans were working properly. The first objective was to remove his name from the blacklist of the village, so he could safely depart from the place without enemies. Moreover, he wouldn't be able to meet the female protagonists and their upcoming troublemakers -lovers- who were the reason for the Holy war.
Thankfully, his trust rating of his client, Chief Zamor, increased and improved, and his people weren't thinking something dubious about him.
Getting the trust of one of the important figures in this world was one of his top priorities. Once he gained much information in this world, he must retain his relationship until he fully developed his main plan for the village without any backfire.
His true motive was to convert this village into a town, so he could get a large sum of money from his rival family, the Verdugo clan once he decided to sell it to them at a high price.
The more develop the place, the higher the price to pay. Like selling the newest phone with the incredibly detailed and the newest version of its side, he could potentially earn a lot of money from doing it.
It was a good investment and he won't regret it anyway.
Staying as the master and lord of this territory won't benefit him much. There's an upcoming tragic event that would lead to his own destruction and death, so he contemplated his fate in the utmost possible way.
He didn't care about the lives of the many since he still thought of them a bunch of NPC's he created. The war had been set in the beginning and no one could stop it including him. He could change the flow of his fate but destiny was undeniably still there to let it happen.
And, so, he decided to sell the titular of lordship to the Donna of the Verdugo clan since it was originally under their domain before the Archnemesis occupied it.
It's more like giving a fixed toy that you created for a good profit.
His lips lifted up when he realized it. 'What a great plan!' - he said inside of his mind.
He rested his arms on the armrest, waiting for Chief Zamor to speak.
By reading the mood of his employee, the Chief had finally talk.
"Mr. Aljen, I'm happy to see you again. It's really been an honor to see your present in person today. I know you have already met these two beautiful young ladies in person so let's skip with the introduction, okay. Today, I'm here as a bridge between you and our benefactor. She's the one who would want to use your skills to do this job." he said, smiling.
The young Don tilted his head in confusion and crossed his arms across his chest.
He said sarcastically, "Oh, a new benefactor? Well, I'm not sure why I should take the job, though. Hey, chief. Let me reminded you that I only took the job to save her life because I knew you won't betray my expectation. My service isn't free, you know that, so I want to clarify that I won't take any favors without a high price to take from that person."
Chief Zamor's face turned blue with cold sweat after he saw his terrifying gaze through his mask. He took a cough and he lowered his head in apology.
"Mr. Aljen, I know you're going to say that. But this person has personally wanted to hire you for this job. To be honest, she's here with us." he jested.
The face of Hermes turned pale and dead inside. His eyes turned at the person he's pointing at with cold sweat.
"For real?" He spouted, unintentionally.
The Priestess of Neue Fiona, Venus Aphrodite, nodded with glee.
"Yes, my lov-, Mr. Aljen. For real. I asked our chief to be the bridge between us. I'm too shy to ask you in person so I have to use some connections to initiate it. I sent you a lot of letters to ask you, personally, but I didn't receive any replies that led me to do this. I'm sorry. Well, I do understand your current position as a merchant from another country. But, to be honest, I'm so worried that you're a hardworking man and you're too busy nowadays. I know you're having a hard time scheduling yourself, but please don't overdo it and take a good rest, okay." she explained.
"What?" Hermes' mouth trembled.
To be honest, he's too scared to reply when he received it from her. He wished he could reply to ask her to stop, but a sea of letters came into his office before he could do that for the past four days. It was like she's using her messenger with a strong internet connection.
"I'm so sorry, Ms. Aphrodite. I wished to reply to your heartful request but I got some business to take care of, so I failed to send you one. Please forgive me for that." he lowered his head.
'Fuckin' moron. I need to be polite in front of everyone. I want to scold her for disturbing my quiet life. Shit, I have to act nice so I won't increase her affection rate.' his thought.
Her cheeks blushed in glee.
"Oh, my. You don't have to do that. Uh, eh, umm, let us now return to our topic, sir," she said, politely.
Hermes raised up his face and he replied, "Of course. Now, where we were again?"
"Ah, the mission. Please, sir. I really want your help this time. I was so thankful that you saved me back then, so I knew you're the only one I could trust for this request. Please do me a favor. I will make sure to pay you for your service." she simpered, convincingly in the eyes of the others.
Hermes gulped when he saw her smile. It was very effective for the weak and simp people, but not to his side, he's already used to this kind of situation because that's how he got deceived by his junior when she asked him a favor too. Behind that mask, there's a bad side within that no one could find out except you already experienced to see it in person through your experiences.
One of the servants gave the young Don a sealed document. It had nothing suspicious, but the heart icon in the middle with his name written gave him a cold sweat.
He let his servant removed the seal and read the content first before him.
With confirmation and approval from his Consigliere, the young Don read the pages one by one until the last page. It took him for thirty-four minutes to contemplate the whole summary of the reports.
"Second Root?" Hermes asked, glaring.
He returned it back to his servant to hold it for him.
"Yes, the second root. There's a lot of reports about the kidnapping incident happening right now. After the fall of the Handdog gang, we have found out that there's another group of illegal organization that is residing inside of our village. We don't know yet where is exactly the base of the criminals, however, I can guarantee that they are here within the village. Since they are hiding and blending with the public, we can't trace their bases, to be honest. But these documents found inside the abandoned base of the Handdog gang show the confidential link to the name of the hideous organization." The Priestess explained briefly.
Hermes hung his head to contemplate it further, "The second root, hmm."
The second root wasn't part of the program in this world. All he could think about that there's something fishy going on within here, but to think the situation was worse than he expected, he couldn't hide his frustration to end this event.
'Those people are ruining the plot of my game. I won't let them do as they pleased. But to think, a new opportunity arrived without delay. I'm going to make them regret until the end of their days.' - his thoughts.
"Hmm, also, ever since that night, I began to investigate every citizen that emigrate to our island."
According to the reports, a female orphan had disappeared last night, and the next morning, he found had found in the river as a corpse. She's brutality murdered by piercing her heart with a dagger.
Her servant handed him a paper, showing the results of her investigation.
"By looking at this paper, there's a possibility that they couldn't recognize it as a report but a survey instead, right?" he presumed.
"Well, we can call my investigation as a survey to cover up this operation. I don't want to let them think that all of the immigrants has been investigated because of this crime. Come to think of it, have you ever wonder why this place has become a trend for these people? The Neue Fiona village ain't that rich and safe to live as an inhabitant environment for the people, but why these people decided to hail in this type of place?" the Priestess Aphrodite asked, looking at his face seriously.
Ylla followed, "We have enough space for the new citizens but it would be hard for them to find a safe place to live in. There are the Dark Scily forest and the pirates from Malta that pestering the Eastern Scily borders for many years. I wonder why."
"That's the point there, ladies. Why? The question we couldn't understand at this moment ever since I took the position as the chief of this village." Chief Zamor added.
"Ms. Ylla, I do think we can interpret it as a strange thing," she's worried.
Ylla sighed, "Yes, Sis. Venus."
"So, what's the connection with the Second Root organization and the massive immigration of those people, hmm?" Hermes asked, gravely.
The ladies diverted their gaze at him.
"The Second Root is using the immigrants to send these sick people to spread disease," Ylla answered.
The Priestess added, "We can tell that there's an illegal distribution of drugs within the place. But we have no proof to prove it. We can't even found a sample to prove its existence."
"Drugs? A drugs for what?" Hermes tilted his head in confusion.
There's no way illegal drugs in this world would exist. Hermes wanted to ask for more about the organization, however, they added another headache in this meeting.
"Regarding to that, we aren't sure about this. But according to the last report of our spy, he mentioned to Ylla that there's a drug that could make a human turned into a monster. We have no solid evidence to show off. We can even speculate that there's a possibility of human trafficking in this place behind the shadows. There's also a possibility that the Pirates from Malta and the Second Root are involved of this criminal activity. But don't jump to the conclusion yet, sir. We can't connect these two factors yet, without a valid basis, there's no way we could judge them right away." Priestess Aphrodite explained properly.
Hermes gravely showed off his curiosity, "How many are we talking about? I'm talking about the people that disappeared and the people arrived in this place. Tell me."
"I can say is," she grabbed her chest tightly and she hesitated to answer first before she responded, "We can't tell the exact amount of the people here for the past few years. But I will give a simple and short summary, for every ten people that migrated here, only two came to the village hall to register their name."
"And, the rest?"
"The rest are... we can mark them as missing." her face couldn't hide her sadness. Ylla comforted her to ease her stress.
"What? It can't be," Hermes couldn't hide his shock.
"Yes. That's something too fishy."
Chief Zamor raised his hand before the young Don could follow up.
"Mr. Aljen, the village is no doubt developing further behind the others, but with your help, we are already getting closer to our vision - to become the next town in this divided nation. To tell you the truth, the required living space would reach its limit. The population density, the food, and environment requirements would need to be improved drastically. Thanks to your investment, our place has managed to decrease the deficit face value we had lost from the infrastructure and security budget."
"And, what's the connection with that thing to her request, huh? I know you're praising me too much, but can we take it aside for now?" Hermes asked.
"My Don," Justin moved closer and whispered, "Please calm yourself. Don't show any kind of emotion in front of these people. Show some sincere even you don't even care at all. Don't be affected by their emotion, stay strong. Zamor is trying to calm you too by giving you praise. That might be too hasty, I know. But, you need to stay focus on your objective. That way, you can come up with a good strategy against the forces of your enemies."
"I see, thanks," Hermes said.
"You're welcome, master," his servant stepped back in distance.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Aljen. I didn't intend to ruin the mood." Chief Zamor apologized.
Hermes sighed, "Nah, it's okay. By the way, I thought it was just one request, but to think is, this mission is a little bit difficult, ladies."
"I'm sorry. We didn't intend to involve you at first, sir. But you're only one we can rely on. Please don't back down now." Priestess begged.
Ylla nonchalantly questioned, "Yes, Mr. Aljen. I know we meet twice but to think you're going to leave us behind. Are you turning you back from us?"
"No, ladies. Calm down. I don't think he's going to do that. But, are you?" Chief Zamor asked.
Hermes pressed his palm on his forehead.
"Well, can we take a break for the time being? I'm so sorry about this. I know you guys are desperate but I'm the one who will do the job. If, if, only I accept the mission. Don't look at me like you're hoping for something from me in return. Please, I'm just a human like all of you, you know. I need to contemplate this first before I decide to help or not." He stood up from his chair, and he continued, "Chief, Ladies, please do understand my position right now. Give me a minute to decide."