Nem took another, better look around the room while making his claws pop out of his fingers. There were multiple things he didn't get to see before due to the precarious position he had been in.
First, there was a nice and comfortable-looking armchair close to the small table in the middle of the room. It was very large, thick and high, a truly huge example of such a normal piece of furniture.
'Perhaps, it's because Big Kor is too large himself to fit in the normal stuff.' Nem thought while slowly cutting the rope with his ivory claws.
He moved on to a side of the room he couldn't see before, which was a rather small desk. It was also empty.
Nem made a strange expression.
'Is this guy for real ? No books on his shelf and nothing on his desk ? Is he even the boss of this organization ? Does he have no knowledge of what is going on in here ? There isn't even a single pen on this damn desk.' Nem was starting to feel truly embarrassed for him.
Sure, he wasn't one to care too much about paperwork himself, but he wasn't handling half a hundred young people with criminal tendencies, was he ?
'Well, I suppose people have different philosophies in life... This is fine too. I have no clues that suggest that Big Kor is not the real leader of this gang other than this, and I really think this room is his as well, so I just have to accept it I suppose.'
At this moment in his deliberations, Nem finally freed himself from the rope's embrace. He put his fingers on his chin, in intense thinking, and almost cut himself in the process.
After a while, Nem nodded. He had made his choice.
***
Kor Potra, who was better known as Big Kor, was currently moving his very large body through the doors of his headquarter, saluting the promising young men in his group. The movements of his fat body, which was more wide than tall, resembled a sort of hypnotic rhythmic dance. However, he really was only walking normally.
His last name, Potra, was obviously due to the fact that he was part of the Potra family, which had once a very powerful standing in the city of Lunhart. A couple of centuries ago, when this city wasn't yet invaded by the culture and people of the Red Empire, they were the local equivalent of a noble family, possessing tremendous power, status and wealth.
These days, not many even knew the name at all, but they still had a very decent sum of money... Or they should have, if Kor's father wasn't the worthless drunk, degenerate gambler and violent man that he was. Without going too much into the painful details, Kor had been exposed to all kinds and horrifying, stressful and dangerous experiences during his childhood, leaving a deep scar in his psyche.
Not only did he eat enough to be called a mental patient, but he also had quickly become a thug at a very early age. Taking advantage of his size and status, he vented all his troubles on the local kids around his neighborhood, until his father finally died in a ditch somewhere, leaving his son with no money and disproportionate tastes. Food, housing, job and prestige. He was used to all those things and more, the fact that the only real authority in his life that had been so overbearing suddenly ceased to exist didn't help to make Kor a better person.
He quickly became a more and more ruthless criminal : murder, theft, robbery, rape... The list was very long, and since he had the idea of moving to the southwest area, Kor was never caught by anyone other than fellow thugs who he surely didn't fear.
With pure violence and a certain degree of madness perfect to succeed in this kind of environment, Big Kor truly had found his way in life. He acquired great wealth, even more so since the Church of Peace contacted him for a partnership, but he never thought of going back to a more honest way of life.
His current existence was simply too pleasant, and he really didn't have any real concerns other than his compulsive desire to put down those weaker than him, like his father before him. This also extended to his sex life, where he enjoyed horribly tormenting those who couldn't defend themselves, physically and psychologically.
His tastes were no secret for his men, and they didn't stop at children... Anyways, when he came back from a classic extortion and maiming trip, Big Kor was in very high spirits, and therefore was walking like this unconsciously, mixing the traditional noble's demeanor from his childhood with one of an overweight criminal that he had cultivated for many years in such a fascinating way.
Suddenly, one of his man, passably drunk and probably high as well, hailed him :
"Hey, Big Boss, 'dis a nice day, eh ? Hic ! We're all well and ready fur toni't !"
Big Kor smiled and approached him from the side of his seat, then answered with a violent slap on his back, which made the man collide with the table and fall on the ground. Under the loud laughter of his men, Big Kor continued to walk happily and even took a sip of alcohol from a nearby cup.
There were a few plants around Lunhart that could have a debilitating effect if ingested enough. Those "drugs" were all-natural and therefore had not that much success with the poor people. Still a few individuals could be found addicted to the feeling.
At this moment, a more sober but still red-faced middle-aged man came from behind Big Kor and whispered into his ear, loud enough to be heard under the noise :
"Big Boss, I heard Matt left a lil' gift for ya in your room. A good one too !" He punctuated his phrase with a salacious smile before leaving. He didn't want to get knocked out by his boss's wild display of affection after all.
"Oh..." Big Kor's face changed from a normal smile to an intoxicated expression. He was already anticipating it, and even though that it was rather likely that he would have a lot of such "gifts" early tomorrow, the final comment made him too curious.
With only a small hesitation, Big Kor started to head to his room. There was still a few hours before the move on the underground refuge, and he hadn't even made a speech to his men. Big Kor was never too good with speeches, ever since his father kept asking him to articulate more when he spoke too softly and to shut the fuck up when he didn't.
'A bit of relaxation will do me good...' He thought.
He arrived in front of his closed door, and decided to push it open slowly, to put fear inside his victim's heart. It was a subconscious behavior for Big Kor at this point, and he only looked inside when the door was fully open, but didn't see anything at first glance.
Not really bothered by it, Big Kor shut the door slowly as well, before turning back to the room. The first strange thing he saw was his small table, the one with the armchair in front of it. Long gashes and furrows extended everywhere on the previously pricey varnished wood, like a wild animal had scratched it relentlessly for a while.
Even eerier, the scratch marks seemed to form deformed words in various sizes and shapes, like a message left by an insane man in a frenzy. The words were written like the person writing them was sitting on the armchair, or at least in this direction, and after looking around the room and finding nobody whatsoever, Big Kor decided to relieve his tired legs and sit as well in order to read.
The outside of his personal room was still echoing with the wild celebration of his men, making the silence inside give off a very strange atmosphere, like a completely different world. Big Kor was honestly a bit unsettled by it, and it made him think of the numerous ghost stories he heard in Lunhart. Big Kor had never really thought about it too much, neither believing it nor rejecting the idea completely. He just avoided the places where those legends took place, since if that was true, his powerful physique wouldn't help him survive ghost, who were well known to be spectral entities.
His bad feeling intensified when he read the words on the table.
"You will be damned for all eternity in a prison of fire and pain."
"We are all around you at every moment of every day."
"We know what you did."
"The only rest for you is suffering."
All kinds of curses and threats were written on the small table, and Big Kor discovered that most scratch marks were actually forming words and sentences with each other. For someone on the outside, those sentences could be said to lack imagination and be unsettling at best, but for Big Kor, looking at his own table in his own room and the relentless threats on it, it really gave him the chills.
Cold sweat started to run down his back, mixing with the ordinary sweat from moving his large frame into such hot weather.
Suddenly, Big Kor's pendant, which was given to him by the Church of Peace, started to glow, bringing him to a more concrete reality, while also making him more scared at the same time. He could remember what Carl, this scary and insufferable young man, said when he gave it to him.
"This is a powerful and rare artifact containing the power of the God of Peace, it will protect you when someone tries to assassinate you by making the perpetrator lost in thought. Use the time when it glows to identify the assassin and kill him, as well as everybody that saw your pendant."
This explanation was naturally punctuated with various threats in case Big Kor decided to sell the artifact of run away with it on his own, as well as the clarification that it didn't really belong to him, but was simply a part of their contract.
When he understood that the glow meant that somebody was attempting on his life, Big Kor hurriedly stood up and looked around his room, without moving.
He then started shouting wild threats to make himself more courageous, but still couldn't see anyone in the room. The walls seemed to close in on Big Kor's body, making him think of ghosts all other again, and he decided to shout some more.