Arc 3: Reconstruction
One day had passed.
Hundreds of people gathered around the Palace's grand balcony.
"Dude, I still don't get why the King has to give a speech. Does he really think that giving a grand speech is gonna fix everything that happened in the past three days? This country's falling apart," said a man to another in the crowd.
"Give him a chance, man. Let's see what he has to say," the other man responded.
King Midas came out, onto the Grand Balcony.
There was a mic placed in front of him.
"The people of Elandore. Men, women and children alike. In these dark days, we have been affected by destruction, despair and loss. But as always, we shall rise from the ashes again. We will rebuild what we once lost. We will rebuild the Sister Cities!".
The crowd erupted as Harry walked out onto the balcony.
He tightened his bright blue tie, fixed his hair and tapped the mic.
"Is this thing on?" Tap. Tap. Tap. "Oh it's on. Alright then," he smiled widely.
"Hello there people! You all probably already know who I am, so I won't waste time on introductions. I'm just gonna cut to the chase here.
I'm gonna be putting a large chunk of the profit Harry Corporation makes yearly, into the rebuilding of Aurelia. I've signed a deal with the Elandorian government to fund the reconstruction for at least the next five years.
The Aurelians will also get some benefits, such as the latest tech from Harry Co for free!"
The crowd cheered loudly.
"Free tech? I can finally get my hands on the new H-Phone 3!" yelled someone.
"What about us Aurumians? What are we getting?!" yelled another person.
"Why aren't we getting anything, Harry?!" yelled another.
Voices started screaming and shouting everywhere.
"Everyone stop yelling!" said Harry loudly.
The crowd went silent.
"That was quick. Anyways, I won't be giving anything for free to Aurumies because they don't need it. Wanna know why? Cause you guys were hardly touched by the Beast's rampage. Meanwhile Aurelia was almost entirely destroyed. The Elandorian government will cover the damages dealt to Aurumia, but I still have to make it up to Aurelia," he left the platform.
"Make up? Make up for what? I'm sure it wasn't your fault the Beast attacked us," said someone in the crowd.
Most of the crowd started agreeing to that.
"Harry. They deserve to know the truth," said King Midas to Harry who had left the platform.
"I'm not ready yet," he muttered.
Harry went back inside the palace.
He saw Kaito sitting on a red couch in there.
"It's not exactly fun to just sit in the 'Great' Aurum Palace doing nothing, you know," Harry air-quoted. "Why didn't you come out?"
"I didn't want to," replied Kaito.
"Why not? You had a big part in stopping the Beast. The people should know that." Harry suggested.
"I don't want the people to know, Harry."
"Imagine the news headline tomorrow, 'The Flame saves the day!'. That'd only be possible if you tell them about it." said Harry.
"I'm not doing this for fame or recognition. I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart. I genuinely want to help people. I don't want to be a celebrity."
Harry shrugged. "Suit yourself."
A short while later, King Midas came back.
"King Midas. What are we going to do about Helix Foundation?" asked Kaito.
"For the meanwhile, nothing." he replied.
"Why's that?" questioned Kaito.
"Yesterday when-"
"Let me tell you why, Kaito," Harry cut off King Midas.
"It's because of Midas's poorly elected fool of a government.
Yesterday our genius King, thought that it would be a great idea to send EIA agents to one of the Helix Foundation facilities to investigate or potentially arrest them.
But guess what? Somebody, most likely a traitor, had already tipped them off about this. So when the agents went there, the facility blew up. So did every other facility of theirs.
And remember, these are the same people King Midas handed over the Beast to-"
"ENOUGH!" King Midas's voice thundered.
Harry flinched.
"I will not tolerate such blatant disrespect from a 15 year old boy. Don't forget your place," King Midas raised his voice.
"Alright, okay," replied Harry.
"Didn't know the King had such a fragile ego," said Harry under his breath.
"You said something?"
"Nope."
"Anyways, I have bodycam footage of the EIA agents. Maybe we could get something from that," King Midas suggested.
"Maybe," said Kaito.
Harry played the footage on the TV in front of them.
The footage showed two agents going in the facility.
A bunch of trucks were going out of the facility.
At the entrance a guard stopped them.
"ID please," he said.
"We're with the EIA. Move aside," they said pushing the guard to the side.
When they started moving inside the guard went back to his booth and picked up a telephone.
"They're here," he said. "You all have already evacuated right? So just trigger the explosion."
He put the phone back down.
The agents were about to enter the facility.
BOOM.
The entire five story building exploded from the inside out.
They were hurt a bit but not too bad.
"Get that guard. Quick!" said one of the agents.
The guard started running away but they tackled him to the ground.
"Tell us what you know!" said an agent.
"Never!" replied the guard.
"Let's just take him in for questioning," suggested the other agent.
"Fine," replied the agent hitting the guard with a tranquilizer.
The footage ended.
"Harry, play the interrogation footage," ordered King Midas.
"Why would he confess to anything? The interrogation doesn't matter," replied Harry.
"Everyone confesses under torture. Now play the footage," replied King Midas.
Harry played the footage.
It showed the guard beaten up and strapped to a chair in an interrogation room.
"Willing to talk now or should I break something inside of you?" said the interrogator.
"N-No I-I'll talk. Just d-don't hurt me anymore please," pleaded the guard.
"Fine. Start talking."
"Some days ago, the day the Beast f-first attacked I mean. We initiated the Sunset Protocol," said the guard.
"The Sunset Protocol?" asked the interrogator.
"B-Basically, we've had this calendar r-right. And when it was supposed to reach the year 1000, w-we were supposed initiate the Sunset Protocol. I-It's when the world is supposed to end and our s-supreme leader will arrive."
"Who's the supreme leader?" asked the interrogator.
"We c-call him Hexagone."
"Explains the weird hexagons all over your facilities. And what kind of a name is Hexagone? So what, are you all a part of a cult or something?" questioned the interrogator.
"I-It's complicated. But the supreme leader will return. I'm sure of it."
"Oh really? When will that happen?" the interrogator asked him mockingly.
"You'll see. In a few months, he'll return. You have no idea what's coming."