689 RECIPE FOR REGRET
Yagi looked at Shi with a solemn expression on his face.
Of course, he could deduce from the card that the invitation ca from the owner of Anarkh. Despite his investigations, he did not know much about the organisational structure of the casino and its related businesses.
However, he knew the entire enterprise had been struggling due to negligence. Apart from the normal managent, no one seed to be in the position of CEO or chairman. If there was, he would have found out and negotiated a deal.
Unfortunately, the card in his hand indicated he was wrong. Anarkh had an active owner, it seed.
“Where did you get this?” Yagi asked Shi.
Shi shrugged lightly. “From the attendants at the door.”
Yagi was suspicious. “Why did they not bring it in directly to ?”
Shi did not look uncomfortable with the obvious distrust and slight accusation. “I told them not to disturb you.”
“Do you know the aning of this?” Yagi did not probe further.
.....
“It is an invitation from the owner,” Shi answered rhetorically before taking out a similar envelope with a card from his pocket. He showed Yagi the simple word ‘Shi’ on the envelope. Yagi could guess it was the sa invitation.
“Interesting,” Yagi remarked. “What do you make of all this?”
Shi looked at the screen. In the arena, the escape room with the ‘dead’ contestant was no longer in play, so the screen only showed the remaining two rooms. The female contestant looked like she was close to solving the mystery of the keys, but she was already labouring for breath.
It would not be too long before she collapsed from the poison unless she found the keys first. The other contestant was not struggling to move around too much. It seed like his tolerance for the poison was higher.
Or perhaps, he had learned to control his breath and heart rate.
The urgent motions of the female contestant were likely to compromise her chance of winning. The faster she moved and breathed, the more likely her blood would beco saturated with poison, accelerating her collapse and death.
“I think we might find ourselves prey to soone worse than the child-eating witch.” Shi finally responded to the question.
Yagi looked at the card again and silently agreed with the statent. He had heard stories about the original owner of Anarkh. No one in Tokyo knew him, but his deeds were whispered in the shadows. His thods and ans were fit for hell.
Yagi did not know what awaited him, but he could imagine the exhibition was not going to be a tea party. But, he was not soone who backed away from a challenge. Not to ntion, he had spent the first few months looking for the elusive owner of Anarkh.
It would be foolish to back away from this opportunity just because of the potential danger.
His lips turned up into a smile. “It looks like we are going to have a little fun tonight after all.”
Shi was also quite interested. Despite his status as CEO, he did not know the heir of Yuan Haoran. He was curious about the identity of the person who would go to the trouble of becoming invisible to the caras.
But more importantly, he was curious about what kind of person could earn the respect of the Demon King and cause his most loyal subject to submit so thoroughly.
At around the sa ti Shi returned, two similar black envelopes were delivered to the room with the Shio siblings on a silver tray by an attendant in a crisp black uniform. Each envelope had a na printed in golden letters: Shio Inei and Shio Emi.
The two picked up their respective envelopes and thanked the attendant. The beautiful woman bowed with more respect than they had received earlier in the evening and then she left the room. The brother and sister looked at each other in confusion.
Without wasting ti, they opened the envelopes to reveal the contents. The embossed card inside was identical to the one sent to Yagi, with the sa knife motif and words.
|You are invited to a special exhibition following The Great Escape. J.|
The two were confused despite the succinct ssage. It was like they understood the individual words, but the entirety of the sentence was unclear.
“Do you know what this is?” Emi asked with furrowed brows.
Inei was not unfamiliar with the strange habits of the rich and evil, but he did not know the aning of the invitation. His fingers felt the outline of the beautiful knives in the card design and looked at the cursive J at the bottom of the car.
He was silent as he contemplated.
Inei was aware of the rumours of the new boss, just like everyone else in the circle. But this person who had taken over Yuan Haoran’s empire was a little too secretive. But more than that, Inei knew the boss was coming to Tokyo.
It was the reason he travelled from Kyoto ahead of ti and found tickets to attend The Great Escape. He wanted to find out more, so he could prepare for a future eting. However, he did not consider the possibility of the boss arriving on the sa night.
The more he thought about it, the more he believed his theory was right. His beautiful eyes lit up with excitent as he realised that he would have a chance to et the boss earlier than he thought. Perhaps, he was the beloved child of heaven.
“Brother, what do you think of this?” Emi asked again.
“I think the boss I was telling you about is in Anarkh tonight!” Inei said.
“But why would he invite us to a private exhibition?” Emi asked.
“I don’t know.” Inei sobered up and looked at Emi. “Emi, I think it would be best if you do not attend. The new boss is soone chosen by Yuan Haoran. They are probably not going to be sunshine and rainbows.”
Inei understood the dark side of wealth. Indeed, the love of money was the root of all evil. Those who lavished in too much wealth would eventually fall into depravity. They would push the limits of laws and morality.
He did not want his little sister to beco a part of that darkness.
“You are thinking too much.” Emi rolled her eyes and laughed. “It is just an exhibition. What are they going to do? Kill us by making us look at whatever they have in store even harder?”
“Emi…” Inei wanted to tell her it could not be that simple. It was never that simple!
“Don’t be such a worrywart.” Emi retorted. “We ca to have fun tonight, and you have the bonus of accomplishing your goal. Let us just go with the flow.”
Inei did not say anything else although he was still worried.
Unfortunately, before the night ended, both would regret their choices. Emi, for what she said, and Inei, for what he did not say.
Reviews
All reviews (0)