The atmosphere on the remote hillside in the western city of Winter at that time was noisier than anywhere else. The thunderous gunfire seemed to compete with the roaring thunder and the incessant barking of hungry dogs.
"Finish it off!" ordered the man in the sleek, dark suit. Dirgan felt a cold dread as blood reached the tips of his feet. It seemed to ooze out uncontrollably from Erick's body. Erick, a police officer, had been caught spying while undercover at Zoger Company, a company masquerading as a major supplier of frozen food.
"Forgive me, sir," Erick stammered, his plea desperate and imperfect.
"There's no point in forgiving trash like you," Dirgan said in frustration. He switched rooms, leaving guards to drag away the weakened Erick. Dirgan sat on a single sofa, trying to calm himself. Five seconds later, a faint human echo sounded, Erick screamed when Dirgan's bodyguard burned him alive.
Dirgan was in a complete mess. His half-brother, Gerry, was constantly thwarting his supply lines. To make matters worse, his rare weapon had been stolen by Steven, his biological father.
Dirgan reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his cell phone. A message awaited him: his uncle, Reynard, had successfully thwarted an attempt to ship weapons that Dirgan intended to distribute abroad.
"Damn it..." Dirgan closed his eyes in frustration. He tried to imagine the beautiful face of his dead mother, Citra.
Steven had stabbed Citra dozens of times with a dagger, awakening the monstrous souls that had long resided within Dirgan. Dirgan sought revenge against the father he once idolized, who turned out to be as depraved as the devil.
These three â Gerry, Steven, and Reynard â were Dirgan's greatest enemies.
Not long after, a voice rang out, "Good evening, may I come in?"
Dirgan lazily looked up as a handsome twenty-five-year-old young man smiled, carrying a chocolate mint ice cream. Gio stepped closer to Dirgan."
"Go away, this isn't your place," Dirgan said, massaging his forehead. He tried to ignore his younger brother, Gio, who sat facing him. Dirgan had repeatedly instructed Gio to manage Zoger Company and stay away from this dangerous organization.
"Did the weapon shipment fail again? You could go bankrupt at this rate," Gio said. Dirgan noticed his younger brother reading a book with a dominant green cover. He decided to grab the ice cream to soothe his troubled mind.
"Argh, that policeman!" Dirgan growled, scooping large amounts of ice cream into his mouth. Gio watched his eldest brother's anger with a serious expression. He opened the next page of his book, trying to distract Dirgan.
"No need to think about it, Ellam will find a way to get his weapon back. Brother, do you believe in magic?"
"In the past, maybe, but not anymore. This is a different era."
"You're right..." Dirgan glanced at the book Gio was reading: "The Greatest Magic In This World." The title was cliché, and the cover depicting a Victorian-era kingdom seemed boring.
Without hesitation, Dirgan snatched the book from Gio's hands and smacked him on the head with it.
"Ow! Why did you hit me with such a thick book? It hurts!"
"Focus on management, not this childish nonsense. You need to be a shrewd businessman, not rely on selling weapons!" Dirgan said, throwing the book roughly onto the table.
"I didn't come here to argue. You haven't been home for two days, even though our house is just a few hundred meters away. Crystal asked me to bring you home."
"I know what you guys are planning. It's my birthday, and I don't want a celebration. I'm not going home."
"Crystal is expecting you. Our family ritual is important. Mother believed that wishes made while blowing out birthday candles would come true. So, let's make a wish." Gio pulled a candle from his pocket, smiling as he placed it on top of the ice cream bucket.
"Now I understand why you brought ice cream here in the middle of the night," Dirgan said, straightening up. His mother always hoped that they would continue this tradition of making a birthday wish, no matter what.
"Happy birthday, brother. Let's wish for the return of the lost weapon," Gio said.
"You said not to think about it." Gio chuckled as Dirgan struggled to decide on his wish. He then turned his attention back to Gio's green book on magic.
If magic existed, Dirgan would have easily defeated his three enemies.
"Come on⊠Come onâŠ" Gio urged.
"Give me magic⊠To destroy Father." Dirgan blew out the candle. Gio smiled; Dirgan's wish remained the same every year. He was obsessed with destroying his father.
"CaptainâŠ" Ellam called, entering the room. Ellam was Dirgan's trusted right-hand man and adopted brother.
"What did you get?"
"A hostage⊠I failed to retrieve the weapon but managed to intercept it during a transfer. We have them," he explained. Dirgan looked at Gio, who nodded to him. He took a deep breath and returned to Erick's execution room.
Dirgan confronted a bloated man in a blue uniform.
"Is this the hostage?" Dirgan asked incredulously.
"He's just the driver. I had no choice other than to bring him. He might report to Steven, and then Steven would send reinforcements to recover his belongings. I'm not in the mood for a game of cat and mouse. It's your birthday, and I need to get home early. Crystal is cooking."
"Ugh, I don't think I have a choice but to go home when she's already cooking. So, where is the hostage??" he asked.
Ellam whistled, and two of his men appeared, struggling to carry a woman wrapped in a thin, ivory-colored cloth that barely covered her thighs and chest.
At first glance, it seemed like she was wearing nothing at all.
Her hands were cuffed, and her head was covered with a black cloth up to her neck. Dirgan remained silent, observing the three of them enter. The woman walked with a limp, dragging her injured right leg. Even from a distance, Dirgan could see the deep cut on her upper thigh.
"She was a prostitute escort for Steven. But she was escorted by two heavily armed vehicles. That seemed unusual to me. If she were just a regular prostitute, the security wouldn't be so tight." This woman, who was picked up from Wisteria, was flown to Ringlight, where Steven was staying. In the morning, she was to be sent to a brothel in Venus, but she escaped into the Darkest Forest. She had been hiding with a local tribe for several months.
Dirgan nodded at Ellam's explanation of the woman's journey.
"From the forest, huh?" Dirgan asked, approaching her. He was fixated on her soft cheeks, marred by bluish bruises. The upper left side of her forehead looked as if it had been struck by a blunt object, and he could almost feel the throbbing pain in her frontal bone.
The woman flinched as Dirgan's fingers brushed against her neck, then gently moved her hair aside to examine a shoulder wound inflicted by a sharp, jagged object.
Based on the extent of her injuries, Dirgan concluded that she had been subjected to severe mistreatment by Steven.
Both Dirgan and Ellam were so engrossed in examining her that they failed to notice the two guards holding her beginning to look pale and lose consciousness.
The woman in front of Dirgan trembled as a small electric shock surged through her body. Her head felt heavy as the blindfold was removed.
She blinked several times, her eyes adjusting to the dim light of the room. The first thing she saw was a man with blood splattered on his face, raising an eyebrow. Dirgan observed her again, from head to toe. What was so special about this woman that his father had relentlessly pursued for months, even venturing deep into the forest?
Her toenails and fingernails were long and filthy, and her hair was oily, clearly unwashed for weeks. This didn't fit Steven's usual type; he preferred clean, pampered women.
Dirgan shuddered, a chill running down his spine as the woman in front of him let out a mysterious grin.
"DirganâŠ" she whispered.
"Do you know my name?" Dirgan asked hesitantly, a strange fear gripping him.
"I grant your request. I give you magic to kill your father."
To Be ContinuedâŠ