Prune immediately changed his attitude once he saw those checks.
"Excuse me sir, please wait. I must have been mistaken. Please let me handle that money," Prune said while rubbing his hands together.
Caesar nodded his head and smiled. He knew that no matter what he looked like, money would always speak for him. He then looked at Prune with a smile and said, "lead the way."
Prune had a superficial smile while leading Caesar towards a booth. It was small and isolated from the rest—Prune didn't want his colleagues to see him working with this greasy kid.
"Please hand me that money," Prune said, with his eyes focused on the violet checks in Caesar's hands. He wanted to get that valuable piece of paper away from Caesar's dirty hands as fast as possible.
But Caesar was in no rush. "Do you serve refreshments here? I'm feeling kind of parched," he said with a smile.
Prune's face froze. It was a common teaching for bank tellers like him to serve refreshments to their customers. This was the custom that every employee would have to learn once they work in this bank.
He didn't think that this kid knew that. The worst of all was that he couldn't reject Caesar's words. If he did, then he might lose those violet checks to other banks.
"O-of course. But we ran out of apple and orange juices. Would water be alright?" Prune asked.
From the booth next to them a few feet away, Caesar could see an office woman being served freshly squeezed orange juice, meaning that Prune was lying about the juices being out of stock. He just didn't want to waste it on Caesar.
Nevertheless, Caesar nodded with a smile. Then, he leaned back on his chair and put his foot up in the booth like he was on a beach. He seemed really comfortable.
Prune's professional smile twitched. He turned away from Caesar before he cursed him out and committed acts of violence against him.
"I'll be right back," Prune said, walking away.
He went back into the office and took out a glass cup. Then, he went over and walked past the jug of water that they were supposed to be serving to the customers.
Instead, he went directly to the bathroom and used the water from the toilet to serve it to Caesar. He laughed as he was scooping out the water, feeling that it was only deserving of a kid like Caesar to drink this.
After that, he went back and served the water to Caesar with a genuine smile. He could already see the look in Caesar's face as he drank dirty sewer water. He probably drank dirtier water than this so he should be grateful, Prune thought.
But contrary to his expectations, Caesar just put down the glass right next to him, with no plans to drink it right now.
"I th-thought you were thirsty?"
"I changed my mind. I want to do business now."
Prune was annoyed, but he was nonetheless relieved that he now had the chance to get the checks. He sat down in his seat and displayed a professional look.
"Please hand me those checks for confirmation," Prune said with both of his hands out and ready to receive the money.
But Caesar didn't give it to him yet. "I want to first open a bank account," he said.
Anger veins popped up in Prune's forehead, but he still went through the questioning. "Okey, do you have the proper identification? Birth certificate?"
Caesar shook his head. "I don't have any of those. I'm an orphan."
"Then, we can't issue a new bank account for you. This is our policy."
Caesar wasn't bothered by this and just smiled. "There's no need for that, right? You can just create a new file for my identification."
The reason why the banks needed his identification was to copy its contents and save them in their own files. They don't really need to ascertain if the identification papers were authentic because that would be a hassle.
What Caesar was talking about was to bypass those identification papers. Essentially, he would just have to create an identity inside the bank's system, and then he would be eligible to have a bank account.
Prune was surprised that a kid like Caesar knew about that.
"We only do that for our VIP customers. That only works if your identity is already verified, but I don't know you. I don't know if you're a criminal." Prime said, shrugging his shoulders.
Prune could pull some strings and be able to make Caesar a bank account, but he didn't want his reputation to be tarnished.
"Can't you make me a VIP? After all, I am entrusting this bank with a lot of money," Caesar said.
Prune bit his lips. He was conflicted on what to do since his reputation was on the line. If he helped out Caesar, then his colleagues and this bank itself would think less of him. But if he turned down Caesar, he would go to another bank.
"What are you waiting for? This is 600,000 Parou. And I know that bank tellers like you will get 18,000 Parou in commission. That's 3% of my money, right?"
Once again, Prune was shocked. It was true that bank tellers would get a commission of 3% based on the money that a customer brought in for the first time. 3% of 600,000 was 18,000, so Prune would get P18,000 for this transaction.
"What if I give you 5%, then?" Caesar asked with a devilish smile.
With Caesar's words, his mind already decided to set up a bank account for him. With 5%, Prune would get a whopping 30,000 Parou in just one transaction!
"Okay! I'll do it!" Prune said, and he immediately went to work with the papers that he needed to fill out. He gave the initial paperwork to Caesar for him to fill out, then he stamped it with an official approval stamp that made it authentic.
After a few minutes, Caesar finally set up his own bank account and was given his own account book.
"Now that that's done. Those checks…" Prune asked.
Then, Caesar smiled. "You know what, I don't trust you yet. You could take this check and just report it as stolen. Then, you would get 50% of this money as a reward, right? That's this bank's policy."
Prune opened his mouth tor a few seconds and closed it. "What do you want me to do?"
Caesar smiled and looked at the full glass of water right next to him. He smiled and pointed at it. "I want you to drink this for me."
Prune's eyes bulged wide. This was the water that he had gotten from the toilet. He thought that Caesar would drink it, but he didn't take even one sip. Now, he was being commanded to drink this dirty water to prove his faith.
"W-why? It's just water," Prune stalled. He was sweating while trying to think of a way to not drink this water.
"I know it's just water but look at you. You're sweating. I'm doing you a favor to drink something. It's just water, right? Or did you do something…"
"Okay! Okay! I'll drink it," Prune said. He took the glass of water with his hands shaking. With all the courage and concentration he had, Prune drank the dirty toilet water in one gulp.
"Haaa….haaa..there. I drank it," he said, fighting the urge to vomit.
"Good," Caesar said. As a reward, he finally gave the checks to Prune.
Prune received the checks as if it were being handed it to him by the heavens. He caught it carefully, with no intention of dirtying it. He even used gloves to handle the violet checks.
Once it was firmly in his hands, Prune started laughing.
"HAHAHAHA..HAHAHAHAHA! I can't believe you're that stupid! I actually forgot about that policy about stolen checks. Thank you for reminding me! Now, I get 50% percent of this money while you get nothing!"
Prune laughed with his complete victory over this little kid. Who would be that stupid to tell your enemy your weakness? As expected of a kid who didn't have an education.
Despite the situation, Caesar stayed calm with a slight smile on his face. Would he really be that stupid?
"Manager! Manager! I found this stolen check! This guy stole it from a rich VIP!" Prune immediately rattled to his superior.
A huge commotion broke out inside the bank with the bank tellers gossiping with each other and looking at Caesar. They all instantly believed Prune after seeing Caesar's outfit.
Soon enough, a man with too much gel in his hair came in and broke up the commotion. As soon as he arrived, all the bank tellers stopped snooping around and went back to their booths.
"Sir Sammon! I'm sorry for the commotion. I didn't think the owner of the bank would be disturbed like this!" Prune immediately took a 90 degree bow towards sir Sammon.
Sammon took one look at Caesar and scoffed. "What is this dirty little thing doing in my bank?" he asked Prune.
Prune couldn't speak, not with the pressure directly on him. He was about to start explaining himself when he felt a hand on his shoulders.
"Oh I see that you've found my missing checks," Sammon said as he picked up the six violet checks that were on the booth.