Autumn.
One of the seasons that showed the inevitable change within nature. The green leaves sprouting on the tree branches slowly turned golden reminded people of the art of letting go – that the cycle of life was naturally a gain and loss.
This was one of the seasons I like.
Watching and walking around a park full of trees with leaves carrying a tint of yellow, that was what I usually did back when I was still a student.
But alas, since War of Throne, I couldn't leisurely watch the trees in the park. I only took a quick one-hour walk and I was already back in our base.
It was two days before both I and Haide planned to wreck another havoc between our members. And whether it's fortunate or unfortunate, my heat came right after I had just finished my survey on the same park we were going to use for our plan.
I could only shut myself in one of the classrooms of my base while waiting for my heat to recede. I know Haide was busy preparing our plan, if I disturbed him now, we wouldn't make it in time to execute it.
So I quietly curled up on a mattress I had laid out on the room and layered myself with thick blankets.
DING!
Until an anonymous message was sent to my phone, which caught my attention.
"What is this?"
It was a phone I used as my formal registered number under the government, so I often didn't think much about anonymous messages like this, but one glimpse of the context in the message and it made me open the message to carefully read it.
[I have proof that you and the white faction King are lovers.]
[IMG0273.jpg
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One file waiting to open….]
[If you don't want your secret to be exposed, come to this location : XXXX Street No.XX]
[And no, I'm not planning to expose this secret to your faction. Do you know how fragile trust is between the members of white faction? What do you think will happen if I expose all you and your lover's lies to those members?]
[You'd better come. Alone.]
"What a stupid idiot."
The first ever blackmail that actually matters finally came, and it came from someone who didn't know how to blackmail.
"Haa… I wonder what their plan is."
It's easy to recognize who the sender was considering they know the inside situation of the white faction members. And I felt like there's a hidden agenda between the sender with Haide judging from how they shifted the target of blackmailing not to Haide but to me.
Once I shared this information with Haide and dug deep enough, I might find who the perpetrator was, but it piqued my curiosity a bit to know what this idiot was going to say. After all, it was also partly my fault that this secret got leaked.
The problem was my heat.
"But I can't possibly give them the green light to expose our secret."
What Haide and I were afraid of wasn't the fact that we were lovers, but the fact that our plans all this time were orchestrated and that we had no plan to kill each other, meaning, if the members found out that they might not obtain their wishes, they might rebel and kill us.
After all, those who were selected as pawns had an intense desire to gain their wish. Even though they rejected it at first, as time went by, they would slowly be consumed by their crest's influence and would do anything to get what they want.
"That Haide, I told him to fix the trust between his members, didn't I?"
Now I had to deal with this mess because he didn't nurture a basic trust with his members.
Groaning, I peeled off the layers of blanket above my head and stood up – picking up my clothes and coat as I stumbled to the door.
After judging that I looked presentable enough, I dunked myself in pheromone blocker and pushed the classroom door open to go downstairs.
Even walking down the stairs already made me dizzy, but I didn't stop my steps and went past the second floor where my team gathered.
I could hear their laugh echoing across the corridor. Seemed like they were joking and having fun with each other.
A smile unconsciously bloomed on my face. Just the sound of their laugh already made my heart at peace.
'But this is a problem I can't share with them yet.'
I typed on my phone and continued my steps to go out of the building. Riding my motorcycle, I set my phone's map to the coordinates I received, and stepped on the gas as I gritted my teeth.
"Whatever this bastard wanted to say… It's better worth my time."
.
.
"Ha! I won! Give me your money Eliot!"
"How could you rob a child of their money? You're horrible Azazel."
"Hey don't say it like that! I feel bad now even though we are playing with fake money."
Laughter erupted in one of the classrooms on the second floor. The black faction members – currently gathered in a circle – were playing monopoly like their lives depended on it. Placing assets and trying their hardest to beat each other in the capitalist world portrayed in this game.
They were spending their time leisurely until the next plan from their King was announced. They were willing to put their trust in Yolan and waited for his decision.
DING!
"Hm? Cassius? What's wrong?"
The game came to a halt after Cassius suddenly stood up and looked at his phone – an ugly frown was plastered on his face.
Without answering Azazel's call, he threw whatever card he had in his hand and ran outside the room.
"Wait! Cassius!"
Running downstairs, he shouted a name in a rush, "Yolan!"
The others, hearing the urgency of his voice, also moved on their feet – chasing after Cassius.
Once they stepped outside the building, they spotted Cassius on the road, standing while looking around in panic.
"Cassius! What's wrong?! What happened to Yolan?!"
Seeing his member's worried expression, Cassius clicked his tongue, "He left alone, possibly to a dangerous place."
Looking at his phone screen, he continued, "[If I'm not back within an hour, find me in this location.] He only messages me in this format if he goes somewhere dangerous."
"Haa… That King of ours, he always goes on his own. Why can't he share his plan to us so we can stop worrying about him?" Ornil sighed, which made others nod in exasperation.
They all thought of their King as a troublemaker child who couldn't even sit still for one day.
"Let's chase after him. Who cares about that one-hour limit? We'll back him up if needed." Azazel, with a resolute gaze in her eyes, offered to her team.
The others silently nodded. Riding their motorcycle, Cassius led them to chase after their King.
.
.
The coordinate I got pointed to was a ruined factory located near the beach.
I had to admit, while the sender sucked at masking his identity, their preparation for this trap was definitely professional enough to warrant a clap from me. If I were still a newbie, I would definitely not notice.
The shadows hiding behind the walls and the signs of their rushed erased footsteps on the dirt below, they were meticulous enough to bring at least a few people as a precaution.
'Eleven? Twelve people?'
I assessed my surroundings and their possible location before I took a deep breath and stepped inside.
My head was dizzy and my body screamed in pain every time I took a step forward, but I put on my flattest expression as I confronted the perpetrator of this mess.
A man in his 30s, dressed in black shirt, black pants and bullet vest on top. Just one glance at his face and the sniper rifle on his side, I knew who this person was.
He was the sniper defying Haide's order, Pietro Perez.
"You actually come alone. Do you realize you have just stepped inside a trap?"
Pietro held out a USB drive, which I assumed contained a copy of my pictures with Haide that he used to blackmail me.
Seeing me staying silent, Pietro frowned, "It seems like you don't have a sense of urgency either, you know what will happen if this secret goes out right?"
I didn't answer, instead I glanced to my right as something caught my attention. The sweet scent of omegas was subtly wafting from behind the wall, the scent I had once smelled when I confronted the white faction members.
Its presence was thin because of pheromone blocker, but since my second life, the only scent I could smell was that of omegas so my sense of smell heightened, there's no way I could be wrong.
It made me rack my brain.
What if the people here were people Pietro hired together with his faction members? If that's the case, wouldn't obtaining the USB in his hand be actually pointless?
The others in his faction might have already known what my relationship with Haide was if they were willing to defy their King and gather here.
So what's their real purpose in making me come here and delaying things?
"You want to make me a bait to lure Haide here don't you?"
Pietro's eyes widened and a laugh soon followed, "Haha! I take back what I said, you're actually not naïve but stupid. If you can deduce that and you still come here, you're just beyond stupid."
I shrugged, "Well, what can I do? I'm a lovestruck man trying my best to protect my lover's dignity in front of his faction members."
"So you do acknowledge Haide is your lover." Pietro said as he stared at me, a slight wariness in his eyes.
"Our relationship is busted anyway, might as well confirm it to ease your other members' curiosity am I right?" I openly glanced around in front of Pietro, taunting the other members and tried to rile them up.
Because their target was Haide, there was only one choice I could make here :
Trying to escape, lure them out of here, and not delay things until Haide actually came.
My heat was still going and I knew I was in disadvantage because I came here alone, but I was always confident in my ability to survive. Gritting my teeth while enduring my heat as we were attacked was already a norm for me since my previous life. So this one's easy.
My hand twitched as I set my sense of reflexes to the max, intending to grab Cecily the moment they made a move.
That was until a low baritone voice, so familiar to me, made me turn my head around.
[Halt.]
There he was, shoulder length ash grey hair swayed as he took a step forward, fury oozing from his blood red eyes, bloodlust leaking from his whole being. The crest on his hand glowed and groans came from Pietro and the others behind the wall.
With a smirk on his face, he locked his gaze on Pietro, "You guys are quite bold huh?"
My prediction was wrong, Haide arrived sooner than I would expect.
And that was a grand mistake we both would regret.