The old iron door creaked open, and a wave of warm air rushed out to meet Van, making him pause for just a moment.
The outside of the building looked worn-out and ancient, but the interior was unexpectedly elegant, as if it had all been carefully designed.
Above, he could see higher walkways circling the room. There was clearly much more hidden on the upper levels.
Led by a tattooed man, Van passed through a refurbished hallway and entered the room at the very end.
"Heh. Quite the setup."
The moment the door opened, the first thing he saw was a room full of thick-necked bruisers with ugly faces and all kinds of weapons in their hands.
As Van stepped in, they all turned to stare at him with the same aggressive, hostile look, clearly hoping to intimidate him.
Unfortunately for them, it barely worked.
Van's expression did not change. He walked straight past the stares and fixed his eyes on Silco, seated in the middle of the room.
Silco sat calmly behind an ornate desk carved with fine patterns, leisurely smoking a cigar.
"You fought a Shimmer monster one-on-one," Silco said, slowly exhaling a ring of smoke. Then he pointed at the chair in front of the desk. "Sit."
Van walked straight to the desk and dropped into the chair without the slightest hesitation, despite the murderous glares all around him.
"Shimmer? So that's what the drug is called?"
"That's right. Funny enough, you had a hand in its creation too."
"Me?"
Van frowned, puzzled, and waved some of the smoke away from his face.
"Singed said you were talented."
Van gave a dry laugh. "That explains how something that terrifying ended up in your hands."
He remembered that name.
To be more exact, Singed had once been something like a teacher to him. They had spent some time together in the past.
"Terrifying?" Silco's damaged eye seemed to flicker strangely as he looked at Van. "No. I think it's beautiful."
Then he watched him quietly and asked, "So tell me, Torvan. What exactly do you want?"
Looking at Silco's face, Van instinctively clenched his fist, then slowly let it relax.
"Where's Vi?"
"I'd like to know that too."
"...And Powder's in your hands?"
"She's called Jinx now."
Jinx?
Disaster. Bad luck. That was not a good name.
Van drew in a long breath and slowly let it out.
"I want to make a deal with you. But first, you let Powder go. And as for Vi... no matter what state she's in now, you stay away from her from here on out—"
"No."
Silco cut him off before he could even finish.
"She will not be used as a bargaining chip," he said. Then he lowered his crossed leg, leaned forward slightly, and locked his eyes onto the young man across from him. "And before you start making demands of someone else, shouldn't you first think about what you're actually worth?"
Under Silco's stare, Van gritted his teeth and forced the words out.
"I can... work for you."
"Not a bad offer. As it happens, large-scale Shimmer production is about to become a priority."
"No... that stuff..."
Van hesitated, then shook his head.
"The reason I parted ways with the doctor in the first place was because of his research. I may not fully understand Shimmer, but I know that feeling. I can't be wrong about it."
"So?"
"So... I can never touch that kind of research again. At the very least, I can't repeat the same mistake."
"That makes things difficult. What use do I have for you, then?"
"You don't understand. The doctor was trying to interfere with the boundary between life and death—"
"I respected Vander," Silco said flatly, cutting in again. "He held himself to impossible standards and chained himself down with rules that should never have existed in the first place. That's why I parted ways with him."
As if he had suddenly lost interest, Silco did not let Van continue. He flicked a glance at a huge man standing nearby, completely ignoring the way Van's gaze was turning colder by the second.
The big man immediately understood. He stepped over to Van, grabbed him by the shoulder, and tried to drag him away.
But the moment he put real strength into it, he realized Van had barely moved at all. At most, his upper body had shifted slightly.
The brute frowned and tried to force it harder.
Then pain shot through his forearm.
It felt as though some heavy machine from a factory had clamped around it. A moment later, his neck tightened, his feet left the floor, and the entire room flipped upside down before his eyes as he was thrown helplessly into the air.
"Then smash him!"
Boom!
The man hit the desk upside down in front of Silco, headfirst.
The heavy hardwood desk exploded like it was made of paper, scattering into wreckage across the floor.
With the man's weight added to Van's monstrous strength, the impact shook the whole room.
After the crash, everyone stared blankly at the giant sprawled in the ruins, splinters of wood stuck in his scalp, blood pouring down his face, dead or nearly so.
Only after several long seconds did the others finally react and raise their weapons.
Silco stopped them with a lift of his hand.
He was still sitting there as calmly as ever. With deliberate elegance, he brushed back his hair, smoothed the part of his style the shockwave had disturbed, and said mildly, "That desk was expensive."
He looked at Van, now standing straight before him and staring coldly down at him, and his expression still did not change.
"You really are like Vander. Too quick to use your fists, not quick enough to use your head. So I'll give you one more chance. In a few days, we're moving against the factory district in the east."
"In a few days? Heh. You really can stay patient."
"A clever hyena waits until the tigers have torn each other apart before moving in to steal the spoils."
"They're not tigers."
"And I'm not just some scavenging hyena."
Silco waved a hand.
"You can go now. As for what you want..." He paused, then said, "That will depend on how you perform."
...
...
"How'd it go?"
Sevika had stayed outside the whole time. When she saw Van emerge with heavy steps, she asked the question anyway.
But judging from the look on his face, she already knew it had not gone well.
As expected, Van ignored her. He walked past, picked up the battle axe that had been thrown on the ground, and headed straight out of the alley without once looking back.
Seeing how weighed down he looked, Sevika let out a quiet sigh and decided not to ask any more. She turned around, intending to go check on Silco's side instead.
"Sevika."
"Hm?"
Van had already gone some distance when he suddenly called her name.
"The factory district in the east... who runs it?" he asked.
"Some crazy bitch who got rich reselling chem-waste. Renni, I think, or something like that... Why?"
"Nothing..."
Looking at Van's lonely back, Sevika still asked, a little uneasy, "You all right?"
Van touched the pendant at his chest. Ever since his crystal pendant had shattered, the one he wore now was the bluebird pendant Vi had given him.
His fingers traced the surface of the bluebird again and again, while the hand gripping his axe tightened harder and harder.
"Me?" he said. "I'm fine."
[End of chapter]