The best things in life were never easy, and as long as he helped reclaim Rendo's position as young master, he could use his family's power to not only get things done for him, but also propel his own future organization further.
The benefits were tempting enough, so Minos quickly began formulating a plan to renew Rendo's appreciation for the art of talisman making.
"Stop writing for a second, you'll go nowhere like this." Minos said, as Rendo attempted to start his second talisman making attempt.
"What else am I supposed to do? See, I told you I was useless…" Rendo said with a low voice.
"That's your problem, you've already convinced yourself you're a hopeless cause. We need to build up your confidence before anything else." Minos said as he thought about what to do. Suddenly, an idea came to mind, and he couldn't help but ask Rendo a question.
"Rendo, have you ever been in love?"
"W-what do you mean? What does that have to do with anything?" Rendo said, pulling back with a red face.
"Oh it has everything to do with this. Come with me, we're starting stage one of my 'Making Rendo A Talisman Master' plan." Minos said with a slightly evil grin, that caused chills to go down Rendo's spine.
Before Rendo could argue some more, Minos already left the room. Hopeless, he could only follow him out and hope for the best.
The two soon entered the streets, and under Minos's direction, it didn't take long for them to come to a shady establishment that had a few women standing out front.
"Hey handsome, why don't you come join us? There's plenty of fun things to do inside." One of the ladies said as she slightly tugged at Minos's collar.
"Hands off the robe lady, this is premium Ice Arachnid Silk. A single strand is worth a year of your salary." Minos said, as he slapped away the ladies hand.
The young woman couldn't help but be slightly shocked, feeling Minos's aura, and quickly pulled back as she apologized.
"Whatever, I'll forgive it this time given you didn't know any better." Minos said as he entered the building with a straight back and confident strut.
Rendo was completely shocked at this point. He had no idea what Minos was doing, and why he was suddenly acting like a new person. Minos noticed Rendo's shock, and couldn't help but reprimand.
"What are you doing frozen over there? Common, let's go."
"Ri-right!" Rendo said as he ran in after Minos.
As Minos entered inside, he couldn't help but look around with eyes filled with arrogance. The young woman who he had warned earlier also followed in behind him, and quickly ran up to the middle-aged woman in charge.
She whispered a few words into the older lady's ear, causing her face to slightly change. Soon her face morphed once more into a large smile, and she quickly came up to Minos and Rendo.
"Welcome young masters, what can we do for you today."
"I'd say give us your best girls, but if they're anything like this place, their quality must be horrible." Minos said with arrogance, as he was about to leave.
The older lady noticed this, and quickly ran in front of Minos to stop him. In her mind, Minos was a wealthy young master, the best type when it came to earning money.
"This young gentleman, don't be so quick to judge. I promise our girls are the best within the entire country!"
"Entire country?" Minos couldn't help but laugh as he heard that, but soon continued "You must've never left this small city, but given your confidence, me and my friend will give things a chance. Quickly arrange your best room for us."
"Right away sir!" The older lady said, as she began to scream commands to the young women around her.
Soon under the lead of two beautiful young women, Minos and Rendo entered a large private room on the second floor.
The room was quite luxurious, at least far better than the first floor. Minos sat back in a large padded seat comfortably, while Rendo was still slightly shaking, completely confused as to what the hell was even happening right now.
Minos took the large cigar offered by the young woman, and started puffing away at it with deep inhales.
Rendo was slightly annoyed at Minos's complete comfort, and couldn't help but come up to him and whisper in his ear.
"What the hell are we doing! I thought you were going to help me build up confidence. What does any of this have to do with confidence!"
Minos didn't answer right away, instead holding the cigar smoke deep in his lungs for a couple seconds.
"Let me ask you, what is confidence?" Minos said as he exhaled the smoke, having the beautiful young women behind him massage his shoulders.
"What kind of stupid question is that?" Rendo said, getting even more annoyed.
"What? You don't have an answer?" Minos smirked.
"Of course I do. Confidence is faith in your own skills. When you do something right so many times, you no longer doubt you can fail." Rendo answered with his heart.
Minos took another deep puff of his cigar, much to Rendo's ever increasing irritation. He was about to storm about, but before he could, Minos suddenly spoke.
"You're only half right, but what happens when you don't have confidence about something?" Minos questioned.
"You keep doing it until you succeed, and once you succeed enough, confidence will come naturally."
"Ahh, is that so? But what happens if you never succeed?"
Rendo suddenly froze and seemed to realize the problem with his own definition. In fact, he himself has fallen into this loophole, where constant failure has destroyed his confidence, and lack of confidence makes him even more prone to defeat.
"You must've already realized by now your problem. You've got the cart before the horse, sometimes you just have to have confidence, regardless of whether its real or not." Minos said.
"The truth is, the ultimate expression of confidence is lying! Lying until not only you yourself believe in your lie, but the entire world does too. Of course, by that point, it isn't a lie anymore." Minos said as he laughed.
Minos suddenly turned to the young woman massaging him and told her to stop for a second. She was a bit confused, but quickly agreed to Minos's command.
"Let me ask you a question, beautiful. Who am I?" Minos suddenly asked the young lady.
She froze, not really knowing how to answer, but quickly came up with something based on the way Minos had previously acted.
"Of course you're a young master from a powerful family!" She said with a wide smile, trying to please Minos.
Minos couldn't help but laugh loudly as she said this. He suddenly turned to Rendo once more and said.
"Do you understand? Who I am has never mattered, it's who I pretend to be. So from now on Rendo, you're no longer the little run-away young master, instead, you're Butto the genius talisman maker, the one with no peers. Do you understand?"
Rendo was completely caught off guard by this sudden turn of events, but deep inside, he couldn't help but feel his blood slightly boil over the picture Minos had painted for him.
"Wait a second, can I not be called Butto?" Rendo suddenly interjected.
"The name doesn't matter Butto, rather, it's the soul it carries. So don't pay too much attention to the details. Come join me, this cigar has your name on it" Minos smiled as he offered.
Rendo's face went slightly black over the stupid name Minos gave him, but seeing as how he wouldn't relent, he had to just accept it.
"Quick, get me and my brother your best alcohol. We are getting wasted tonight." Minos said rambunctiously.
Rendo, or should I say Butto, was still a little uncomfortable with this arrangement, but under the intoxication of alcohol, he quickly loosened up, and soon started acting even crazier than Minos.
"YEAH, THIS NIGHT WILL NEVER END" Rendo said as he screamed out at the top of his lungs, running around the room.
Minos laughed as he watched his excitement, the two young ladies who accompanied him trying to hold back their laughter.
…
The night was soon over, and Rendo woke up the next morning clutching his aching head, completely blank on what had happened yesterday.
As he slowly shifted his body on the bed, soon noticing a young woman on his side. He couldn't help but scream as he rolled off the bed and smacked into the floor.
"Up so early?" Minos smiled as he opened the door soon after hearing Rendo's screams.
"What the hell happened last night? Where am I?" Rendo asked. Before Minos could answer, Rendo felt the memories slowly come back bit by bit, causing his face to go completely red.
As a young master of a prestigious family, his behavior was always strictly monitored. He was forced to take classes on conduct and etiquette, such that he wouldn't do anything shameful and ruin the family's reputation.
So recalling everything that happened yesterday nearly made steam shoot out of his ears in shame.
"What are you so concerned about? The one who made an ass of himself was Butto, but you're Rendo, so what do you have to do with him?" Minos said.