(Aiden's POV)
"I'll meet you there as soon as I take care of a few things. It shouldn't take more than an hour" Leopold said as he got into his car.
"Sure Dad. Pretty sure Ivelia and Ivar wouldn't mind waiting for an hour" Flynn replied while throwing the keys of the other car to me.
"You two stay safe! Drive safely and responsibly Aiden" Anna said as she got into Leopold's car.
"We will!" I replied to her as I got into the other car Flynn and I were going to use.
Today, after about two weeks since we signed the contract, we were finally going to introduce Ivar and Ivelia to our Dad and discuss a bunch of things regarding how we were planning to market it and also split the profits.
We both drove out of the gates, my Dad taking a left turn while I took a right turn as we both headed to our different destinations.
I kept driving for about twenty minutes before we finally got to the outskirts of the city to which I promptly headed over to the familiar store with a sign post above it.
On getting to store, something immediately felt off from a distance.
Sure it might've been early noon on a weekend but Ivar and Ivelia would never have a closed sign placed in front of their store, coupled with the fact that the door seemed slightly ajar.
I could see Flynn making a similar expression to mine.
I parked the car nearby and we both got down and made our way to the store. As soon as I opened the doors to the shop, the scene that greeted me immediately caused my mood to change.
I was angry right now. I was ridiculously pissed right now.
In front of both me and Flynn were broken racks, shattered glasses of vials with their contents all over the ground, the side windows had been completely shattered, various herbs had been trampled upon, the shelves had been toppled over, marks, cracks and stains of blood could be seen around the walls and on the wooden floors, and in the midst of it all was Ivar in a pool of blood.
Flynn immediately rushed over to him and took his pulse.
It was evident that a recent scuffle had taken place here as the smell of the spilled potions and blood intermingled and permeated the air, leaving behind an indescribable smell.
Every single potion had been destroyed and whoever did it purposely wanted to ensure that Ivar couldn't heal himself.
"He's alive"
The moment Flynn said that, a bit of my anger subsided and I took a deep breath of air, after which I then took a potion out of my storage ring.
I quickly walked over to Ivar and emptied the entire content of the vial into his mouth while Flynn propped his head.
His injuries, especially the deep gash on his back began to heal at an insanely fast speed to the naked eye.
'Their healing potion really is amazing' I thought to myself as I watched the injuries heal and Ivar twitch his hands before he finally opened his eyes.
The moment Ivar opened his eyes, he immediately sprung up while shouting.
"Ivelia! That bastard! That fucking bastard! He fucking took her! I need to save her even if it costs me my life!"
"Ivar!"
It took Flynn's call to make Ivar realize that we were both around.
"Aiden? Flynn?" Ivar said, confusion evident in his eyes as he did so.
"Yes, and for your information, you're not hallucinating" Flynn replied and assured Ivar he wasn't seeing things.
"I know you're disoriented Ivar so I won't force you to calm down, but you need to explain what's going on. First off, who's HE?" I said to Ivar.
"And where did he take Ivelia to?" Flynn followed up.
Ivar looked at both of us with panic in his eyes for a few seconds, after which he then took a deep breath to calm himself a bit.
He then asked both of us.
"Short story or long story? Which would you like to hear?"
"Short. Considering Ivelia needs our help, we don't have time to waste" Flynn said.
"His name is Corneo" Ivar began.
"He's a loan shark and also the head of a small time dark guild, the Python guild, that's been terrorizing us for as long as I can remember"
"Our Dad took a loan from him with the intent to repay it but unfortunately, he kicked the bucket not long after it happened. Ivelia and I were left to take care of ourselves from a very young age and Corneo saw it as an opportunity to exploit our predicament.
"He ensured that all the profits that we made from the store went to his pockets and left just enough to keep us alive and sustain ourselves."
Ivar paused for a bit, complex emotions present in his eyes before he immediately continued.
"We owe him a debt of 1,000,000CR. Well our Dad did and now it's our burden to bear"
"Recently, he noticed that we'd been paying him more than we usually did and he came to question us about it thinking we'd been keeping funds from him"
"We tried to reason with him but that bastard wasn't even planning to listen in the first place"
"But that's not even the worst part" Ivar said while gritting his teeth in anger and curling his hands into a fist as he continued.
"That fucking pedophile! He's always been leering at Ivelia with lust for a year now and I'm sure he had just been looking for a reason to get into her pants. I tried to fight back when he forcefully tried to take her but…" Ivar paused again before completing his statement.
"…he always has a high B-ranker bodyguard with him called Kai so there wasn't really much I could do. He used the knife I tried to use to attack him against me, hence the injury on my back"
"It's all my fault! If only I was stronger!" Ivar said, pain in his voice as he smashed his fist against the wooden floor.
'No, it's not. It's our fault. If we never approached you guys, this wouldn't even have happened in the first place' I inwardly thought to myself.
I could see that Flynn was also thinking about the same thing.
A butterfly effect occurred because we approached the twins.
'But this isn't the time to be worried about that' I said to myself.
"Now that we've heard the cause of all this, do you have any idea where their hideout is?" I asked.
"I do. We usually bring a batch of potions to him every once in a while. That's also how I got to know about Kai's ranking. I overheard it from the members of their guild"
As soon as Ivar responded, Flynn immediately began to tap his smartwatch.
"What are you planning to do?" Ivar asked after which he continued.
"I know we need to save Ivelia as soon as possible from that scum but now that I've calmed down, I'm realizing just how outnumbered we would be even if we went. They're a literal dark guild even if they are just a really small time one"
Flynn finally stopped tapping his smartwatch after which he asked Ivar question.
"Say Ivar, can you make explosive potions? Both small ones and another one that would really cause a relatively big explosion"
"I can" Ivar responded.
"How long would it take for you to make a batch of ten to fifteen small explosive potions and two or three big ones?" Flynn asked another question
"About twenty minutes. Why are you asking for that? What are you planning to do with it?" Ivar responded again.
Flynn now had a very devilish look on his face as he said.
"We're going to draw them out, and then we're going to barbecue them"
I began to shake my head while massaging my forehead the moment I heard his words.
My brother may be a harmless individual most of the time, but when the people he considers precious to him are attacked, he has a really sadistic way of punishing them. It's always been a thing for him even when we were kids.
"Haaa… What are you planning to do now Flynn? Time's already running out" I said, my voice laced with a sense of urgency.
After I did, Flynn began to explain his plans to both me and Ivar.
Ivar just looked at Flynn with a bit of fear after he was done explaining. He also made a mental note not to piss him off.
"Yes, this might just work. Even if we can't take care of most of them, we should be able to at least take half of them down" I said after listening to his plan.
"Aiden. I'm relying on you to take down that high B-rank bodyguard. Think you can do that?"
"Who do you think I am?" I said while giving a slight smile.
"Okay. I'm counting on you bro. Ivar?" Flynn said to me after which he then called to Ivar.
"Yeah" Ivar responded.
"What type of magic do you use?" Flynn asked.
"[Earth Series]" Ivar replied.
Usually, people weren't so quick to reveal the type of magic they use but Ivar trusted Aiden and Flynn enough.
He considered them his friends and both brothers felt exactly the same way. In fact, Ivelia and Ivar were the only friends their age Flynn and Aiden had.
"That's fantastic" Flynn said as he began to give Ivar a few more instructions in addition to the previous plan he made.
"Okay Flynn. I really hope this works" Ivar said.
"It will. Fret not youngling" Flynn said while tapping Ivar's shoulder.
"Says the youngling himself" I snorted.
Ivar gave a slight chuckle before he immediately changed his demeanor to a serious one.
"I'll go brew the potions now" he said as he immediately began to pick a few leaves and some vials that still had some fluids in them off of the ground.
I moved over to Flynn as said in a voice audible only to him.
"You purposely said that to put him at ease, didn't you?"
"Well he needs to be at his calmest for our plan to work" Flynn replied before he then continued.
"Aiden"
"Yeah?"
"I'm going to make them suffer"
"I know"
Just like me, I knew Flynn had been just as angry as I was, maybe even angrier when he came into the shop and saw the scene in front of him but he had purposely been suppressing it to maintain rationality.
"Let's hope all goes according to plan" I said, determination evident in my eyes as I squeezed my fists.