Chapter 15: Ch 15: ColdSteel and Crew
(Warning: long ass chapter alert)
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Third-Person's POV
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The Myers duo hailed a cab to their apartment and sat on it. They didn't say a word to each other while they traveled. It was night time already when they reached their apartment complex. They hurriedly ascended the stairs and got into their house.
As soon as the door closed, Silia hugged her dad tightly and started weeping. Derick spent a lot of time trying to calm her down.
She was different from Melena. Unlike Melena, Silia had a sweet and happy early childhood and clearly knew what she had lost.
Silia looked up at her father while still in a hug.
"Dad, this is all real, right? They're not joking with us, right?"
Derick also had his doubts, but he had to reassure his daughter's tiny little heart.
"Don't worry, Silia, Richard is a good guy. You have seen his family. No trickster or scammer could have such a lovely family dynamic."
He knew she was just putting on an act of maturity. She started acting that way after her mother passed away. Derick had his guesses. His daughter probably did it to not trouble him and to escape from all her emotions. He knew that she was a fragile soul inside and was worried that she might get comfortable with her persona and just might embrace it completely. Becoming an emotionless husk from his originally sweet daughter.
Silia nodded and stuffed her head back into her father's embrace. Some time passed like that and Silia finally became stable.
"Dad, you said that he was just a good friend yesterday. Did you lie to me? I don't recall you having a powerful friend. If you did, then we wouldn't have been here for so long."
Derick had sweat dripping from his back at that.
"Hey, hey, Silia honey, you know I never keep things from you. Yesterday, Richard told me that he'd do something about our situation. I didn't completely believe it as he was just a stranger to me, so I didn't tell you. If it didn't work, then all your hopes would go down the drain."
"So you did lie to me. Yesterday, you told me he was your good friend, now he is a stranger…I'll forgive you today. By the way, how did you even meet this 'stranger'?"
And so Derick narrated exactly word-to-word what happened yesterday and this morning. Silia showed a dumbfounded expression when she found out that Richard was with his little son when he went to talk to Klein.
"Isn't he taking all of this too easy? Who even brings his little child into a meeting with gang members?! And who meets a gang member in the first place?!"
"I was also at a loss when I saw that, but that's their own business, honey. His son seemed quite intelligent honestly, especially his performance today…. It was freaky how he knew every nook and cranny about the ancient site."
"Yeah… he does seem to have a good head. He talks quite maturely too. Anyway, now what?"
"I had already sent our information to Richard in the cab… now we jus-"
*RING* *RING*
His phone started ringing with an unknown caller.
"Hello, this is Derick. Who is calling?"
"It's Klein."
"Klein, you…"
Silia heard the name from her father and put the phone on loud so she could hear as well.
"I'll keep it short, pack up your bags, you'll be out of here the day after tomorrow. After that, it's none of my business. That guy Richard had paid a really hefty price to release you guys, so don't do anything stupid or suspicious and just quietly get ready. Remember, the departure is at night, the day after tomorrow. I'll call you when I get to your place. You better not be late. *BEEP*"
"....*SIGH*...."
"So it was all true dad! We're really leaving!"
"Yes, cupcake, we ARE leaving."
The father and daughter shared a hug again.
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Felix's POV
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Dad was in contact with both Klein and Derick to make the escape as seamless as possible. Derick had asked Dad about 'what price he paid' and Dad just dodged the question entirely. This was our plan to make him indebted to us as naturally as possible. It seemed like Klein had done a great job at emphasizing the 'price' we had 'paid'.
Dad bought the Myers family their tickets. When he asked for their destination, they chose Ertonville, our city. The hiring of the duo was basically set in stone now.
Dad also had explanations to give Mom, too. I dumped all the responsibility on him. It was not a petty revenge. If Mom got to know that I was involved as well, then the whole matter would be blown out of proportion. I heard 'ouches' from inside my parents' room. It seemed like the matter was settled somewhat 'peacefully'.
It was Saturday today, so we invited the Myers family to go for breakfast and lunch together. We had breakfast together and headed for the Museums in the city. There were four of them and we visited them all. It was probably the last time the Myers duo would step into this city, so they also enjoyed the Museum visits to the fullest.
The whole time I could see Derick asking Dad something secretly and Dad always shaking his head in reply. Derick was a bit too persistent. In the end Dad 'relented' and said.
"Man, you are really persistent. I won't take anything monetary from you. That's my own bottomline. I need you to respect it. Just do a helluva job when I make you my general supervisor. You have the experience of backing it up."
"Alright….. you can count on me."
Derick had already decided to work for Dad. Dad had made some temporary housing arrangements on the call for Derick and his family. When they arrive in Ertonville, they'll be directly sent to their temporary apartment by our driver there.
After the museum visits, we had lunch and then we headed back to our places.
Our next flight was today at night, so we couldn't keep the 'Myers duo' company tomorrow. It was for their best as well, as having more people with them will only make their escape harder. We had already bid farewell to the Myers duo after lunch.
Our next flight was to "Foskya". The name might have already spoiled it but the small country had snow throughout the year, even in the summers. It was a really cold place to live. Only those with good resilience could live there.
Our next target was there as well. His in-game name was "ColdSteel" and he was a legendary tanker. Like Silia, his 'talent' was never confirmed, but it was speculated to be 'SSS' Rank. He didn't join a guild or make one but enjoyed the game with his crew "ColdThunder". He and his crew were people that every 'Earthling' and 'Etherian' looked up to. He was the one who defended all of us in the initial invasion by 'Them' without asking for anything but a pact for peace. Unfortunately, he and his crew succumbed, but gave some hope to humanity as they left the world.
His name was Geralt Yopnoph. I only knew that he worked as an electrician and maintenance supervisor at a ski resort in Skylan. By the time this info was released, Geralt had already hired firms to secure his remaining information.
The next few recruitments were nothing dangerous like the Myers duo case. The worst one was just a guy who was in an orphanage in Yormino, the same place that Tri-Scar Clan tried to usurp. The rest were just living simple lives like 'ColdSteel's' case.
We had already sent our souvenir collection home through a VIP shipping company. Our driver would pick the cargo up and store it in a warehouse at Dad's company.
The family had already prepared for the cold climate there. We went to the airport with our jackets in our hand luggage and took the flight.
It was a long flight, a connecting one at that… Mom seemed like she was pissed off, but didn't say anything because Melena seemed really excited about it. Dad also knew that she could be pissed off, so he had already booked a luxury resort there to avoid any hassle.
After our first flight, we went to a hotel to stay the night and then took our final flight.
We landed in the city of "Skylan" in the evening. It was our target's place and also a great tourist city. There were mountains everywhere here, thick and dense sheets of snow covered them like a dress. Making it perfect for skiing. The only downside was that this place didn't have any natural hot springs, that could've made it perfect.
I had bad memories from this kind of environment, but I shoved them back as much as I could.
'Everything is fine now. This is not a place to survive but a place to enjoy with my family.'
We wore our jackets as soon as our plane boarded and headed to our resort in a taxi.
The resort had a big lawn which was covered with thick snow. It had a giant indoor jacuzzi. It also had a big fireplace in the living room, giving the resort a rustic look. We would've jumped right in if we weren't so tired by the flight. We waited for the food caterers to come in and had our lunch. After that, we quickly changed our clothes and went to sleep.
Dad and I woke up at night while others were still sleeping. We were waiting for Derick to call us. Finally, after some wait, Derick's number rang.
"Hello, Derick, is everything fine? Did that bastard Klein do the job right?"
"Yeah, we just arrived in the waiting lounge of the airport. I can't thank you enough for what you have done for me and my daughter."
"Enough of the gratitude, just arrive at Ertonville safely. My driver will pick you up so don't worry. Say hello to little Silia for my family. Take some rest now, safe travels Derick."
"Safe travels to you too, goodbye *BEEP*"
Dad and I heaved a sigh and went back to sleep again, this time for reals.
We had slept quite early, so we woke up as soon as the sun had started rising. The caterers would come up with the food a bit later, so we had time to play on the lawn.
Mom and I teamed up against Dad and Melena. We had made snow walls on both sides and let the 'snowball wars' begin.
Mom and Dad, both were responsible for making the snowballs and we kids threw them. Needless to say, I wrecked them hard, though I mostly threw the snowballs at Dad.
Melena was surprisingly a good shot as well and hit Mom quite a few times. I barely dodged a few of her shots because Mom was flailing about, blocking my escape path.
Overall, we had tons of fun and laughter could be heard throughout the resort. After we were tired of the snowball fight, we all teamed up to make a snowman.
By the time we were done with the snowman, food caterers had arrived with steaming hot breakfast. We had our fill and finally headed to the ski resort.
We would be in the city for quite a few days, so Dad and I didn't rush to go find 'ColdSteel'. We had great fun while skiing, all of them fell frequently except for me. I didn't let go of the opportunity and laughed my ass off at them. Melena was a good sport too and didn't sulk at my teasing, but laughed alongside me.
I whizzed through the obstacles and made a high jump from one ramp to the other, earning me applause from my family and the others around.
While I was scratching my head in embarrassment, Melena tapped my shoulders.
"Hey Fel, teach me that too…"
"Alright, let's go to the chairlifts and go a bit higher."
Melena nodded, and we told our parents of our plans. In the end, we all went on the chairlift and landed at the midpoint of the mountain. There weren't many obstacles up here, just a thick, dense sheet of snow steeply covering the mountain. Perfect for practice.
I practiced with Melena as we slowly moved down the mountain. By the end, she became quite adept at it and could confidently do some tricks. The whole time Mom and Dad were being lovey-dovey behind the scenes, but us kids mutually agreed to just ignore them.
We were all very tired as we reached the bottom and took a rest in the ski resort's living area.
There, I found someone. He was not Geralt, but one of his crew members. His in-game name was "RestingGoat" funnily enough. He had a dark green worker's uniform on and was going behind the bar counter, probably to fix or clean something.
I signaled Dad and pointed towards 'RestingGoat'.
"Honey, I'll get some hot chocolate for all of us. Fel, come with me."
"Hey, tell him to not add any sugar to mine."
"Okay."
We made our way to the counter and ordered our drinks. 'RestingGoat' was behind the counter, crouched down, fixing a switchboard.
'RestingGoat' was skillful but not a strong player. Every player's limit was already decided by their 'Bloodline' talent. Although the limit could be broken with some luck and a lot of hard work, it was only by half a rank or one whole rank if lady luck really took a liking to you. This gave me confidence to compel him without any repercussions. He wouldn't find out, even in the future.
'When we approach you, you won't get annoyed but attentively have a conversation with us.'
Dad started his thing with his practiced slick tongue.
"Man, you really are a hard worker. It's really hard to find good employees who don't slack off."
'RestingGoat' turned his head and looked at us.
"Well thank you, name's Roger, by the way."
He seemed like a very easy-going guy, just the kind that I liked the most for 'Compelling', second only to drunk ones.
"My name's Richard and this is my son Felix. Say, do you want to work for me? I promise the conditions will not disappoint you."
I also 'Compelled'.
'You don't get irked by the sudden offer and think positively of it.'
But I telepathically noticed hesitation in his mind. I didn't brute force 'Compel' and let the conversation cook.
"Erm, I really appreciate your offer, but I really like to work with my brothers. Please don't find me rude."
"Not at all. It's very understandable. Do your 'brothers' also have the same work ethic as you? If they do, then I can hire them all as well."
"They do! If I can convince them, then I promise they'll not disappoint you. But it all depends on them, so please don't put your hopes up."
"Great! Here, take my card. I'm not a startup company owner, so you can rest assured that you'll have a stable work life. Talk to your 'brothers' about it."
As dad gave his card to Roger, I felt the bartender getting irked by our conversation. I silently used 'Compel' on him to cool down.
"Hmm, your company is in Lantir. It might be difficult to convince them to leave the country, but I'll try."
"No problem. As I said, I'll give conditions that you won't find anywhere else. That includes family benefits if they have one. Just contact me if you have any queries, we can set up a meeting if need be. I'll be visiting this resort for the next few days, so there's no rush."
"Alright, I'll tell them word to word what you said."
"Alright, I won't disturb your work anymore. Have a nice day."
"Yeah, great day to you as well. Here this is my number."
They exchanged contacts and Roger busied himself with his work again. Our hot chocolates were already ready and waiting for us to pick them up. We went to the family and took some rest there while drinking our hot chocolates. Then we headed back to our resort.
In the resort, we decided to fully use all the facilities provided and had some family jacuzzi time together. Dad and I were in our trunks, and Mom and Melena were in their bathing suits they had bought when they were still in Ertonville.
Thankfully, Mom and Dad didn't go lovey-dovey this time, and we had great fun relaxing and joking around.
The day ended, and we went to sleep.
The next day, we went to the ski resort again and had some fun there. Melena was at her 100% this time and had already practiced with me yesterday. We both took to the obstacles and raced each other. I intentionally made some mistakes and let her win for a change. Some time later, we were all tired and made our way to the living area again.
We scouted the place but didn't find Roger. Dad wanted to call him but didn't. They would think that he was desperate and become suspicious of him. We still had time, so there wasn't any rush.
We speculated that they probably wanted to check our reactions if they didn't respond to us. After all, getting a job offer on the fly was pretty suspicious in and of itself.
We sat with our family and drank hot chocolate together. After some rest, we made our way to our resort.
Some time had passed since we returned to the resort. We were relaxing and watching tv near the live fireplace. Then suddenly, Dad's phone rang.
"Hello, is this Roger speaking?"
"Mr. Richard, it is indeed me. I'm sorry I couldn't contact you this evening. Something came up."
"It's alright, so… why did you call me? Did you make up your mind?"
"About that… Mr. Richard, if you don't mind, can you have a meeting with us?"
"I can, but let me be straight. I want your final decision after the meeting ends. There shouldn't be dilly-dallying around. I have already given you my card with my company name. Your brothers can research it to make an informed decision. Is that clear?"
"Yes, I'll tell my brothers about it."
"Alright, do you have any time and place in mind for the meeting?"
"Anytime is fine, though I would really appreciate it if it was after 5 PM. I'll send you the meeting location."
"5 it is then. Have a good day Roger."
"Good day to you too."
*BEEP*
"Richard, at least go to a different room when talking business with other people!"
"Hehe, sorry darling, I was a bit too excited to notice it."
"Humph!"
Dad just wanted me to listen to the conversation, and it backfired on him. I didn't tell him that I wanted to listen to the conversation. It had nothing to do with me. I was just an innocent bystander…
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The next day, we went to a skating rink rather than the ski resort.
Just like the ski resort, they all fell quite a bit while I made fun of them. They all got the hang of it eventually and started to waddle on the ice. They could only stop themselves from falling and nothing else. I had to slowly teach all three of them and they finally started to actually skate.
Unfortunately, our session time was already up by then and Dad had to go to a meeting too. We made a promise to come back here tomorrow.
Dad and I traveled to the agreed place, which was a bar with some private spaces. I had to compel the security guard and the bartenders to let me in. After that little debacle, we met up with a crew of 13 people. I saw Geralt there too. He was a large man with gray eyes and salt and pepper hair, even though he looked like he was in his early thirties.
Like anybody who had witnessed his deeds, I also had deep respect for him. We Earthlings did a lot of fucked up things to the Etherians in the game. We only saw them as NPCs and were unafraid because of our undying nature. The more radical Etherians got popular because of that and when the world converged, the situation was already beyond diplomacy.
It was only when 'They' invaded that we have a temporary ceasefire. And it was when 'ColdSteel' and his crew defended against 'Them' that we finally opened up a way for diplomacy.
Geralt and his 12 'brothers' stood up and greeted us. Roger was there as well.
I subtly 'compel' them all to look positively towards my Dad's offer. And in Geralt's case, I didn't at all. From what I could read telepathically, Geralt seemed to care a lot about his 'brothers'. If they all agreed, then he would naturally do so as well. There was no need to take risks with a future legendary player.
The negotiations started, and it was a relief to know that they were all single right now. Even the most romantic ones in them (which I could tell through my telepathic ability) were single right now.
It took a lot of time to negotiate. Dad hinted at them about his new projects as well. This assured them a stable working environment with lots of work.
Dad had a neutral attitude towards them throughout the whole negotiations. That kept the brothers on edge and they thought that dad could easily find others if the negotiations didn't go well.
The 'brothers' finally agreed and Geralt sighed and agreed along with them. They mutually agreed that Dad had to send them the contracts after he arrives back in Ertonville for it to be official. The negotiations were completed, so we had a little normal chat with them to celebrate.
They all drank the local beer here and celebrated their new employment. I had to enviously look at them and drink my tomato juice.
It turned out that all 13 of them were from the same orphanage and stuck with each other throughout the duration of the orphanage. The mystery about them calling each other 'brothers' was solved.
Geralt wasn't much of a talker. It seemed like we could only win over his heart slowly and by treating his brothers right.
The celebrations ended after an hour or so, and we left for our resort.
Four days passed with us just enjoying what Skylan had to offer and we got ready to leave after a week-long stay here.
(A/N: Yet another long ass chapter, but this time it was intentional.
I figured that I didn't wanna skip the slice-of-life stuff, but didn't want the chapter to only be about it. I just made it long enough to serve the best of both worlds.
Leave a power stone if you like my content, it's free .....and…
Thank You all for reading this chapter!!! )
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