(Black Serpents Guild Headquarters, En route to Guildmaster's Office, Floor 72)
The private lift music played quietly as it ascended, the blue floor indicator above the doors ticking upward at a steady pace.
Antonio stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes fixed on the polished metal doors as he spoke without turning.
"Before we go in," he said, voice lower than usual, "I'd like to ask you to excuse the Guildmaster's behavior. He's… dealing with some personal matters."
Leo arched an eyebrow at the odd disclaimer, but said nothing more than a curt nod.
*Ding.*
The lift doors slid open with a quiet hiss.
Leo stepped forward—and froze.
The office beyond was nothing like he had expected.
There, squatting barefoot on top of the reinforced desk like a beast perched, sat Monarch Dupravel Nuna, Guildmaster of the Black Serpents.
His ragged cloak hung off his shoulders like a loose animal hide, while his wild, matted hair fell around his face in greasy tangles. Between his teeth was the gnawed stump of what used to be a pencil—its splinters lining the corners of his cracked lips.
His eyes…. sunken, bloodshot, and twitching locked onto Leo the moment he appeared.
"Grrrr…"
The sound wasn't a greeting. It wasn't even speech. It was a low, guttural warning, half-growl, half-animal instinct.
Leo stiffened instinctively, every trained fiber in his body tightening, as his brain tried to reconcile the overwhelming presence of power that radiated from this... creature… with the image of a broken man.
But before he could react further, Antonio stepped forward sharply.
"Dupravel. Behave."
His tone cut through the room like a whip crack.
"This boy brought back the Origin Metal you wanted so badly. He's the one who completed your mission. He's the reason that this guild will probably not go to shit. So you better treat him with respect."
For a long, tense moment, Dupravel didn't move.
Then, with the clumsy grace of something feral remembering how to be human, he slid off the desk and dropped into his chair. His bones creaked. His posture remained hunched, but his breathing slowed.
As for the first time, he looked at Leo—not as a threat or a mere insect, but as a fellow human.
His eyes narrowed, focusing, searching, as he leaned forward and muttered—
"…You the one… who bring… my blood's ticket home?"
Leo stepped forward, keeping his expression calm, his hands relaxed by his sides.
"Yes," he said quietly. "I'm the one who brought it back."
Dupravel squinted, as if the words didn't quite register until they rolled around his head a few more seconds.
Then his eyes twitched.
"How you get past… crazy violet-eyed priest?" he asked, each word spoken like gravel grinding through his throat.
However, Leo didn't falter at the question.
"I was too weak for the priest to bother with killing me," he replied honestly, as a low, choking sound rumbled in Dupravel's throat—a noise that could have been laughter… or the start of another breakdown.
"See this–" he instructed, as he leaned back and began clawing at the folds of his robe until his hand found the tear in his chest-wrap.
"Ugh,"
With a slow grunt, he pulled the fabric aside, to reveal a gnarled, jagged scar that was nearly a foot long and ran diagonally across his ribcage, the flesh still faintly discolored with lingering curse marks.
"Crazy priest team up with silver hero… to slash my chest," he muttered, tapping the scar with a grim sort of pride. "I, barely survive."
Leo gave a slow nod.
There was no disbelief in his eyes, only understanding, as having faced the two himself, he knew exactly how powerful they really were.
Antonio, who had remained respectfully silent, stepped forward now and placed the block of Origin Metal onto the table between them.
It gave a low metallic thud as it touched the desk, as Dupravel's hand immediately snapped forward to grab it.
*Clutch*
Clutching it like a starving man clutching bread, the Guildmaster stared down at the origin metal block with wide, fevered eyes.
His fingers trembling, as his long, untrimmed nails scratched softly against its surface.
For a few seconds, the room was silent again, the gravity of the moment unbroken.
Until a few seconds later, when Dupravel finally looked up.
"Good job… kid," he croaked.
"I now forgive you for beating my son at the finals."
He turned his head just enough to nod toward Antonio.
"Reward him."
Leo bowed with practiced grace, his voice composed.
"I'm honored by your words, Guildmaster. And I accept the grace."
Antonio didn't speak, but the faint upward twitch of his lips was the closest thing to a smile Leo had seen from the man since they began talking.
Dupravel, meanwhile, continued to cradle the Origin Metal against his chest, rocking slightly in his chair like a lunatic soothing a child.
"I told you, Antonio," he mumbled, almost smugly. "This mission… not impossible. Ants like him… can complete it."
Antonio's smile widened just a touch more as he folded his arms.
"Perhaps you haven't gone completely senile after all, old friend, maybe you do have some brains left," he said under his breath, as Dupravel either didn't hear him, or chose not to respond.
Instead, he kept rocking the origin metal… as the madness in his eyes flickered like dying candlelight.
—----------
Leo was excused from Dupravel's office shortly after the origin metal was confirmed to be genuine, and as he made his way back through the guild headquarters, he still found it difficult to believe just how far the once enigmatic Monarch had fallen.
He had watched Dupravel during the Interstellar Circuits and knew firsthand how powerful and charismatic the man had once been.
But the version he encountered today was merely a shell of that legend.
'If I report this to the Cult… will they try to assassinate Dupravel?' Leo wondered, as he let out a dry chuckle at the thought.
Before parting, Antonio had informed him that whether he chose the gold reward or the item from the vault, he could collect either from the mission hall in two weeks, where the staff would already be briefed to expect him.
That gave him a two-week window to coordinate yet another heist—one that, in terms of difficulty, was far easier than his last. However, unlike the previous job where every element was under his control, this time he had to depend entirely on the Evil Cult to make the plan work, which was something that Leo did not feel confident about.
"I've held up my end of the bargain and found a legitimate opportunity to step inside the vault. I hope those idiots have held up their end as well and actually possess a viable method for me to steal the scroll they so desperately want.
If, after everything I've done and risked, I still fail to retrieve the scroll because of the cult's incompetence or poor planning, then there would be no bigger fool than me in this entire godforsaken universe," Leo concluded bitterly, as he shook his head and began walking back toward his apartment, from where he intended to contact Muiyan Faye without delay.