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Chapter 8 - Price

After hearing Arlan's request, Lia leaned back in her chair and sighed before looking at Leonard accusingly.

"What?" asked Leonard as he felt his daughter's stare.

"What?! you ask what?!"

Leonard covered his ears at Lia's high-pitched screams and Arlan turned his head to the side as if he had nothing to do with this conversation.

"Well, at the time it didn't seem like a bad idea to give it to him" Leonard replied, trying to give Lia a good excuse to calm down.

"Ahhh" Lia sighed tiredly and sank further into her chair.

She knew her father well enough to know what he was capable of and what his limits were. But to give Arlan something so precious and rare was something that crossed the line.

Arlan felt his hair stand on end when Lia looked at him, he understood that what they were talking about was very important and Lia was quite frustrated and angry.

"What do you know about the scales?" asked Lia.

Arlan was silent for a moment before he answered.

"Not much...just that they're pretty tough and that I get sick when I'm near one"

Arlan really didn't know much about them, only that every time he got close to one, his body weakened, and his head started to hurt. Even when he didn't take his medicine, he could hear that voice in his head. Something that made him crazy.

Lia understood that Arlan knew little about the scales, after all it was highly confidential information and not many knew about its existence.

She still wasn't ready to give it to him, but knowing that it was a possibility, Lia preferred to tell him about the scales so that Arlan would understand the responsibility that came with having one.

"Seven years ago, something happened on an island in the Pacific Ocean"

As soon as Lia mentioned that, Arlan shivered a little.

The last thing he remembered before being left in the dark was being on vacation with his family on a cruise in that very same Pacific Ocean. Days before what happened to him, they had landed on an island for sightseeing.

It was impossible that there was no connection between the scales and Arlan, even if he remembered nothing of what happened then.

"In the center of the island was a large dormant volcano, which was a good place for sightseeing. Everything seemed normal until one day the island began to tremble dangerously. The few towns on the island had too many landslides and too many deaths to count, everything was a mess"

As she spoke, Lia took out a medium-sized box and placed it on the table.

"But that wasn't all, there was a loud noise coming from the volcano. At first it was thought that it was the volcano's fault that it had stopped sleeping at some point"

Lia placed her fingerprint on an external slot of the box, and it made a faint sound before opening slightly.

"When the sound got louder, everyone unconsciously looked at the volcano"

Lia took out a piece of paper and handed it to Arlan.

Arlan took the paper and looked at it. There was a picture on the paper, a picture that made Arlan's back tingle.

At the top of the mountain was a huge arm sticking out of the volcano's fissure. The arm was all black and its fingers looked like claws with long, sharp nails.

The photo was quite blurry and the smoke coming out of the volcano made it difficult to see the small details. However, this photo was the final result after several modifications were made to improve its quality.

"This is what we call specimen 003"

Arlan didn't take his eyes off the photo, studying it completely.

Although very little of the strange arm was visible, it was enough to intrigue anyone who saw the photo.

Many would say that the photo had been doctored, but Arlan trusted Lia and Leonard, who remained silent during the explanation.

"Why specimen 003?" asked Arlan after he had fallen for the number.

Lia smiled slightly and explained.

"Specimen because they don't know what it is, even I haven't been able to see it. It's a world secret, something only the highest powers of the most influential societies know. Why 003? I'll leave to your imagination"

Arlan felt he had just gotten himself into a big mess if only the most important people in the world knew about this. Having this information was definitely a target on his back.

Even though he really wanted the scale, Arlan felt that it wasn't worth the price of knowing so much.

'On the other hand, if it's specimen 003, there must be 002 and 001... shit'

Arlan felt even more pressure after that deduction.

"Well, are you sure you want the scale?"

Lia put on a pair of gloves and took a black flake out of the box she had opened earlier. Then she placed it on the table and pulled it towards him.

Arlan felt his body weaken as it usually did when he was near the scale, but the pressure of the situation made him feel even worse.

'Should I do this?'

Arlan really wanted to create a weapon with the scale, not only was it his last and only option, but for some reason he felt strangely excited.

He swallowed saliva and moved his sweaty hand to the scale, but before he could touch it, Lia pushed it away and glared at him.

"But everything has a price."

Although Leonard had technically given it to her, Lia had inherited the company within the last year. So, ownership of the scales had passed from Leonard to her.

And Lia didn't care what promises her father had made, especially to someone like Arlan. Still, Lia was a smart woman and saw an opportunity.

Arlan looked at Lia cautiously and swallowed saliva.

"What do you want?"

Lia smiled and Arlan felt shivers run through his body.

"I want you to work for me and me alone"