Pablo walked away leaving the burning room behind.
The matchbox he threw inside the room created a huge inferno and Pablo started running.
He ran at full speed and arrived outside the house.
"Boss!" Flashy's shout came and Pablo looked around.
"Where are you?" Pablo shouted back. He couldn't see Flashy.
"I am here!" Flashy shouted again and Pablo finally saw him.
He was standing very far away from the house. Just near the boundary wall of the city.
'At least he didn't jump back to the slums.' Pablo thought and walked a little further away from the house.
After that, he waved his hand at Flashy, calling him over to himself.
"Are you sure?" Flashy asked.
Pablo showed a thumbs up.
"He isn't dead so it must be fine." Flashy used his own logic as he bent his legs and launched himself in the air.
THUMP!
He landed in front of Pablo and gazed at the house.
As soon as he did that, his mouth went agape.
"It's on fire! Those bastards burnt our house."
The whole house was on fire, black smoke rising from it. Flashy couldn't see the fire from where he was standing before but when he came closer, he fumed with anger.
"I hope their bodies rot. I hope whoever burnt our house dies like a dog. Whoever burnt our house their mother is a whor-"
"It was me who did that." Pablo revealed before Flashy could abuse more.
"Oh." Flashy stopped his ultimate abuse.
"I don't mean any of that, Boss. Don't worry. Your mom is good." He took his words back.
'Actually, my mother was really a prostitute. The mother of this Void Grief that is.'
Pablo didn't really mind Flashy's abuses as he had been abused many times. Flashy's level of curses was poetry for him.
"But Boss, what was all that? The gold coins? The soldiers? How did they know about the murder? What were they after exactly? And where are they now?" Flashy asked questions burning inside his chest.
Pablo sighed. "Those five soldiers were a group. They were the same thieves who robbed and murdered the family living here."
"What!?"
"What!?"
Flashy and Cupid both exclaimed at the reveal.
"How did you even come to such a conclusion?" Cupid asked.
"Boss, there were four thieves and these soldiers were five. Why do you think that?" Flashy asked.
"Those five soldiers knew someone was murdered here yesterday. I don't think thieves would tell some soldiers that they had robbed a house. And apart from that, I saw something else that made me sure."
"And that was?" Flashy was all ears. Cupid was the same.
And Pablo satisfied their curiosity by saying…
"Their footprints."
"Really? You saw them?" Flashy didn't see the footprints at all.
"It was me who welcomed them from the door. My eyes went to the floor and the footprints of the four soldiers were the same as the four thieves. The same shoe pattern. That was a clear giveaway."
"Wow. They were careless, it seems." Flashy commented.
"More like overconfidence. I am sure they didn't think of me as someone who could do them any harm."
"But I don't get one thing. If they were the same thieves why did they come back to the house? And were they really the soldiers?" Flashy asked one more question and Cupid wanted to ask this as well.
Pablo sighed. 'I am surrounded by kids.'
"Mind your la-"
"Everyone wants some extra money, Flashy. They do robbery in their free time and after doing that, they take control over the house they looted. They must have done this many times. They wanted to do the same with this house as well but this time, they met me. And the result is in front of you. Ashes. Whoever comes in contact with me… burns."
"Um. I am safe, right?" Flashy asked. He had no intention of burning.
"It's good you can't touch me." Cupid said something as well.
"Hmm." Pablo gave a vague response and Flashy accepted it as a yes. Cupid was ignored.
After that, they watched the burning house and now it was almost wrecked.
Stones crumbled down, black smoke was all over the place and by all that, other people finally began to gather around it.
Women, men and some kids surrounded the burning house.
"How did this happen?"
"Someone call the soldiers!"
"The Vantiv house is on fire."
"Is someone alive?"
"What even caused such a fire?"
"Did they anger the Count?"
"I heard he was late on paying taxes."
They all roamed their heads around, they watched the house burning down, they shouted for help. Some of them even put buckets of water on the fire. But none of them went close to the house.
Pablo watched them with his hands crossed in front of his chest. No worries on his face. He was far away from the crowd.
"But Boss, how did you even cause such a fire?" Flashy asked.
"Glory matches." Pablo answered. He used the same word that Jorim used.
"Glory matches?" Flashy's eyes went wide. "How did you even find them? They are expensive as hell. You could have sold them to someone and become a billionaire instantly."
'What?' Pablo didn't know that.
"Why are they so expensive?" He asked.
"Why? The result is in front of you. They can burn down an entire house. Normal matches make fire but it is nowhere near the level of Glory matches. When a glory match is lit, the air itself helps the fire to spread. Where do you even find them?" Flashy revealed.
"In the mine I used to work." Pablo said. Although, it was Void Grief who found them.
Pablo then glanced at Cupid. 'Did you know about Glory matches?'
"No. I just know that the air here helps fire to spread fast. Didn't know it was only the case with those matches."
'You are useless.'
"Hey, don't sa-"
Pablo ignored Cupid.
"Do you still have some matches left?" Flashy asked.
"No. I used the whole box. I didn't want to take any risks."
Flashy shook his head. "What a waste."
"Forget about them. Let's leave." Pablo started walking. He didn't really regret losing the matches.
"What about this house? And are you sure those soldiers are dead? And there are people surrounding the house. What if they extinguish the fire?" Flashy asked some rapid questions.
"Forget about the house and the soldiers are dead." Pablo answered while walking. "They had axes but fire treats everyone equally. I was waiting for some movement in the fire but there was nothing. Even if someone is alive, they would be useless. And about the people, only three buckets of water were poured since they saw the house on fire. And most of the people didn't even bother to come and see. And the people you are seeing around the house…"
Pablo spared a glance at the crowd and saw their eyes filled with calmness in front of the burning house. Pablo had met such people.
"They just want to watch the world burn."
Pablo turned his head away and walked past the burning house.
Flashy and Cupid followed him.
"Where are you going now?" Flashy asked.
"That depends on your answer." Pablo replied.
Flashy frowned. "My answer? What do you mean?"
"Well, it's you who will tell me the place where I want to go next." Pablo answered and Flashy still didn't understand.
But before he could ask further, Pablo finally revealed what he wanted..
"It's time to get my Ego."