The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

But there was silence for a few seconds. The silence felt like tiny needles being pushed slowly through his eardrums, “Af...”

“I can’t send men anymore.” Afei’s answer left Oscar speechless. “Aren’t there nearly two hundred of my men at your place? Where are they?”

“Afei.. That’s not enough. Even though there are two hundred men, I directed some of them to help guard the base of branch groups that are usually attacked by the enemy. But I didn’t expect that today RJC would come to my head base.” He answered in a desperate tone.

“In that case, have them come to your head base now,” Afei’s voice sounded colder than usual.

Oscar shook his head exasperatedly, “They’re on their way here but it most likely they won’t be able to finish off all the RJC members who have come here. That group would still be able to return home safely,”

Oscar’s answer made Afei laugh. Perhaps it was the first time the blonde-haired man could make the commander laugh, “You wish you could finish off your enemy? Do you think fighting is easy? The fact that you still being able to call me now from your room is something you should be grateful for. Now everyone is fighting out there to protect you. You shouldn’t expect too much, Oscar.”

Oscar never expected to hear such insulting words from Afei’s mouth. It seemed that since the scam Oscar had experienced, Afei felt much superior to him and began to put aside the contributions Oscar had given as one of the big factors in the formation of the Creeper group.

“FUCK!! FUCK YOU AFEI!” Oscar exclaimed by slamming the cellphone belonged to his assistant who was standing with trembling knees behind him.

.....

On the other hand, two pairs of eyes of two men were staring into the upper window of a building that had about five floors. Not far from where they stood, a battle was taking place between their group members and the members of the group whose headquarters they were visiting.

“They must not have expected that we would come to the head base,” Damian Jamin said with his arms folded in front of his chest. It looked like his hair has grown a bit longer so he no longer looked so bald.

“Well.. A bad leader makes bad men. He’s too stupid to think we’re going to attack a small base filled with chicks only. Do they think RJC was the same as a group of little thugs? How funny,” Vico Hustle mumbled.

Damian nodded, “Just look at that,” he pointed his chin forward, “Even though we didn’t bring too many members, the knocked down men have piled up there that much. I’m not surprised that Oscar was pacing back and forth in fear over there,” He looked at the windowpane which they had been watching from the start. But it seemed that the stupid man named Oscar didn’t notice someone was watching him from below.

“Don’t forget that we shouldn’t attack too badly. It’s enough to just cause chaos. There’s no need to break into the base,” Damian said to Vico.

The man with a line scar on his lips nodded casually, “I know. Kenny has mentioned it to me too. Looks like they’re planning something big. They said it has something to do with that midget man named Black,”

“When I heard that Black joined RJC, to be honest, I was kind of surprised. Just imagining that he had toppled Hell Gate’s main base by himself makes me wonder how he would have dealt with that stupid boy. I don’t know how many glasses he’d broken,” Damian said with an amused laugh.

But Vico shook his head casually, “Your imagination is so wrong, Damian. He never roughly treated Danis in the slightest. In fact, Danis admitted to me that Black was very kind and gentle to him. Even though Danis couldn’t do much of what Black asked, instead of getting angry, Black helped him to find another way out.”

Damian’s eyebrows shot up high, “No way! Gosh! Black is such a weird guy. I’m curious to talk with him directly,”

Vico laughed condescendingly, “You better not wish too much. Yesterday, Kenny told everyone that Black was a special guest for Marcel. He even scolded Roy and Donald who were guarding Marcel’s door at that time, for making it difficult for Black to get inside. It looks like Black is indeed great that our boss treats him like a gem.”

“I can’t believe there is such a person. I shouldn’t have been the one assigned to a remote village that time to find someone to set up the bank account Marcel asked for, so I could see Black without a helmet in person.” He pursed his lips.

“That’s a waste because even under his helmet, he’s still wearing a mask,” Vico replied.

“Hei, you two!” Two tall men were walking towards them.

“Hm.. If I’m not mistaken, are they Tony Lin and Eddy Norman?” Damian muttered, still with his arms folded across his chest and buttocks leaning against the parked motorbike.

Vico nodded lightly, “Seems like we’ll have to sweat a little on this small mission.”

Not long after, the two of them lay battered on the cold asphalt. Sorry, it needed to be clarified that the two people who were lying down were Tony Lin and Eddy Norman. Of course, Vico and Damian could beat those two with their multiple meaningless punches.

After kicking Tony in the back once, Vico found one of his members walking rather quickly towards him, “What is it?”

“The rest of the Creeper men are heading this way. They were men who were guarding the branch bases. Should we stay here or leave now?” The man asked.

“Well..” Vico noticed the condition of the road that was already filled with the bodies of men who had fainted. Not to be arrogant, but all that lay down were The Creeper’s men. Now, there were only a few Creeper members left who could stand up to fight. The men recruited from the martial arts studio were indeed not ordinary people. They were quite strong. Vico finally shook his head, “No need. We’ve done enough for today. Let’s pull back,”

“Right. Of course we have to spare some for our sports tomorrow,” Damian laughed. Then he walked to his big motorbike with Vico who then sitting on the back.

Then the group of RJC motorcyclists headed in the opposite direction with the rest of the Creeper men showing up late.

***

A man in a soldier uniform, which was a specially made guard uniform, knocked on the door of a room and entered it. The room looked simple. But the owner was someone who had a highly important position in that place.

“Commander,” The man greeted with a respectful bow.

“Hm,” Afei replied, still busy with his notebook.

“I’ve come with the news, Commander. The Greenvalley Creeper has been attacked by RJC.” The man told.

“I know. How is it going?” Afei asked by stopping writing and putting the pen with the pointed tip he was holding next to the notebook.

“RJC had been fleeing just before the additional members at the Creeper Greenvalley branch arrived. RJC didn’t have time to get inside the Creeper head base. But they knocked out a lot of our members.” He explained.

“No.” Afei shook his head slowly, “That’s not what I meant. I want to know how it goes on my request of you to investigate Oscar Chopper.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t find that Oscar had been misusing the group’s money all this time, Commander. He always gambled and wasted money. But what he used was his personal money which he got from the group’s sharing income as usual. What he does in excess is to use group property such as cars, houses and others for his personal use.” The assistant explained.

The explanation made Afei fall silent. Although he would feel angry and disappointed to learn that Oscar had been using group funds for his personal purposes, that was precisely the information he wanted to hear from the assistant’s mouth. It was because Afei was completely fed up with Oscar’s constant troublesome existence that never helped the group at all. He wanted to get rid of Oscar with the most plausible reason so that it would not tarnish his image as a leader in the eyes of all his men.

“Pardon, Commander,” The assistant woke him from his thought. Afei glanced at the man, “Actually, Oscar asked you for more men because, after the last attack, their men became too few. It looks like RJC’s members have gotten stronger so that the men they beat on average get pretty bad injuries.”

“Until then, I won’t be adding any more men than I’ve given. Let Oscar be at least more independent and could solve problems with his own brain and muscles.” Afei replied.

However, it seemed the problems didn’t stop there. The next day, a huge protest demonstration appeared in front of the Creeper Chingsu District’s headquarters. Without needing to be called out, Afei immediately knew of the problem. Even though he seemed cold and careless, his ears and eyes were never closed to the surroundings involving the group he led.

“Commander,” The Creeper members in the headquarters lobby immediately bowed deeply when they realized the leader appeared from the inside.

“What is happening?” Afei asked them.

The commotion outside was even heard in the lobby. The phone at reception kept ringing. Every time the phone was picked up, the receptionist kept apologizing over and over and couldn’t explain what was going on.

“The factory workers who are customers of our loan business are demonstrating outside, Commander.” One of the members answered.