“I decline”
Jaylin stood up and walked towards the coffee shop’s door.
“C’mon man, at least give me a good reason.”
“...”
Exilis give me a good excuse.
Uhhhhhh...Say something about... I don’t know, being a lawful citizen. The things smugglers do aren’t fitting for good people.
Jaylin reached for the door handle as he said
“I have no interest in getting involved with criminals. I’m a law abiding citizen.”
“Really. You don’t have an I.D so you certainly didn’t enter the city legally.”
Jaylin froze.
There was a miniature panic going on within his head.
Exilis you didn’t tell me people would be able to tell.
Well, the only people who should be able to sense you don’t have the I.D should be Rune-Masters! I figured we would be able to get one before we met one of them. The I.D’s have seals on them, much like the guild I.D. He can sense the lack of the seal.
Mhmm, Yes, and you didn’t think to tell me this?
Well obviously not, or we wouldn’t be talking about this.
...
Tell him you lost it!
“I just lost it.”
“If you used it to get into the city it would leave some traces.”
Exilis.
╮(- _ -)╭ Just say no again, I guess.
Jaylin sighed, and Ren thought it was directed towards him.
“Aww don’t be like that, really, we’re not that bad. I guarantee that any ambitions you hold will come to fruition if you join us.”
Ren put his arm around Jaylin. Moving his head so he was looking through Jaylin’s perspective, he waved a hand as if trying to get him to picture it.
Jaylin stared at the arm on his shoulder and felt mortals these days seemed to like this maneuver. While Ren began his spiel, Jaylin gave him a sweeping glance, and sidestepped out of his arms. Ren paused momentarily. Looking towards Jaylin to check if he was leaving. Seeing him standing there, awaiting his next words, he grinned inwardly.
Got him.
He was confident as long as Jaylin was willing to listen, he would be able to rope him in. This kid was something special. He was sure of it. In all the years he’d been living on the edge of disaster, he’d learned something. The only ones with that kind of confidence and composure, were either the insane people,
or the truly powerful.
As he interacted with him, Ren started to think the kid was slipping into the first category, but that didn’t matter. Sometimes insanity was an asset. The new recruits these days are too cowardly. They joined to achieve their dreams, but didn’t have the fortitude to go through with it. As the captain of the B-Cadre, he worried for the future of the Striped Devils. That’s exactly why every talent, even the unpolished ones, should be treasured.
“You would be surprised at how many of those loaded families have ties to the underworld. They will give you all the respect you could ever want, as long as you know things about them they don’t want revealed. Of course, without a proper backer, you can’t just go over and blackmail influential people. We’ll be that backer. You know how many of those ‘clean businessmen’ use us to deliver their secret goods? They wouldn’t dare to attack one our own. If you’ve got talent-”
Ren lookey at Jaylin, hoping to see excitement in that cold countenance of his. Nothing.
Shoot. He’s not interested.
“Ahem. So yeah, that’s all nice and good, but you can’t forget the society within the Underworld. Forget about those pussies who dip their toes in for profit, the real powerful ones sit at the very top. If you could get up there-”
Ren saw Jaylin turn around, uninterested.
“Wait-Wait-Wait! Come on kid! You can lift your family to the highest class-”
“Don’t have one.”
“what?”
“A family.”
“Oh.”
“Well, any close friends?”
Ren slid over to Jaylin, and tried to nudge him with his elbow, which Jaylin avoided expressionlessly.
“Any...girls? You might like?”
Jaylin raised his brow as if to ask ‘really?’
Ren turned and rubbed his chin while muttering quietly.
“Yeah, didn’t think so...”
He spun back around to look at Jaylin, still walking towards the door, and regained his upbeat look.
“Kid, trust me! You’ll do great in the Striped Devils. It’s like a shortcut to the highest point in life! No kissing up to superiors, no clean reputation to uphold, nothing, It’s practically the fastest way to the top. Meet the greatest, marry the greatest, be the greatest. All of that will be possible, if you join us.”
Jaylin, who once again had his hand on the door, paused.
Ren noticed.
Power. That must be his weakness. His ultimate goal. I’ve got him now.
Master...
Exilis could tell why he hesitated. Jaylin is a sucker for shortcuts.
On a broader scale, one could say Jaylin was an incredibly patient person, but really, his patience is more of a suppression of inner desires. He forces patience on himself. However, if he’s given the chance, this suppression can shatter like glass, and it’s quite easy to coax him into doing things. Even Exilis has benefited from this trait of his.
Normally, Exilis would have no issue in Jaylin entertaining himself, as long as it didn’t cost him.
Joining this ‘Striped Devils’ was one of those.
Looking at it closely, Jaylin's goal during every span of time he spent awake was quite simple. He explores the new era, then moves onto the next. As in, shuts of for an extremely long span of time till everything's gone away and come back again, all new. Exilis, unlike Jaylin, does not have the ability to kill himself temporarily. He would have to wait. For centuries. And then there was the newly discovered risk of being kidnapped. Yeah, no thanks.
Exilis always did his best to keep Jaylin interested in the current era, and not to mention keeping him entertained so he doesn’t just go off and find his own way to explore. Jaylin wouldn’t care if he had to spend a lot of time getting to the era’s points of interest, as long as he wasn’t bored during that time.
For his own benefit, Exilis would have to find him a job that both interested him and took time and effort to succeed in. A criminal syndicate was not the option he was looking for. The journey to an influential member of the Underworld was heavily dependent on strength and deceit. Jaylin wouldn’t have to uphold morals or society’s standards, crucial aspects of stalling Jaylin’s worldwide tour.
Not to mention the strange people found there. Unique people can be found in any time period. They were an essential part of Jaylin’s venture through eras. Finding the oddballs in society is another of his strange hobbies. Direct access to a whole cluster of Jaylin’s goals was most definitely the method Exilis tried to avoid the most.
Exilis could see Jaylin’s inevitable agreement to Ren’s job offer.
He cried inwardly. It seemed the time spent in this era would be quite short. Well, he could at least console himself with the thought of Jaylin being robbed. The thing that would save him was the thing that contrasted the most with Jaylin’s personality, his hoarding nature.
Although he did not enjoy being trapped in a box for decades, it would definitely benefit him in the end when it took a while for Jaylin to get his stuff back.
Unless... Wait no. Don’t think about things like that.
Unknowingly, Exilis started speaking out loud. Inside Jaylin's head.
Jaylin heard the sword’s abrupt words and inquired,
What was that?
Eh? None ya fucking business.
Hostile. Interesting. What happened to you?
You did.
...
Jaylin was quiet.
He had to admit, his and Exilis’ contractual binding wasn’t exactly the most...consensual, of experiences.
Second greatest tragedy of my life time.
...Thanks...
“So what do you say kid? Did I catch your interest? Willing to join now?”
Jaylin shifted his gaze to Ren, who was looking at him expectantly.
He sighed imperceptibly. Jaylin could sense a hassle coming up. Oh well.
The thing he’d been waiting so long for was finally arriving, he could handle waiting a little longer.
“Fine.”
Ren grinned mischievously.
Got him!
Jaylin followed Ren into a secluded bar. A blond bartender saw him walking in. He gave a short greeting paired with a calm smile, then alerted a suited man to lead Ren to the next room. The people in the bar stared at him with envy, but they didn’t seem to know his identity. Ren ignored them and stepped into the next room. At first glance, it seemed to be the same as the last one. But the atmosphere was miles apart. Instead of drunks littering the tables, there were well dressed folks sipping their wines like nobles. If someone from the other room listened in, they would hear enough classified information to get them on the top of anyone’s hit list.
There was a group of people gossiping on one of the tables Ren and Jaylin walked by. Their discussion got softer as the two got closer when suddenly one of the women at the table called out to Ren.
“Yo! If it ain’t the leader of the B-Cadre! We don’t like failures hanging around here!”
Ren looked at the scantily clothed woman who yelled at him with a cold smile.
“Hey Sweetie~ Nice to see you.”
The woman flinched at the nickname.
Ren continued with a mocking tone,
“Hahaha. I heard that’s what your ‘backers’ call you. Of course, that’s is if you’re willing to climb into a failure’s bed?”
The woman was quiet before she bit her lip, like she was considering it. It would be an embarrassment no doubt, but even the probationary members of the Striped Devils had people begging for their favor, not to mention a Cadre leader. They made fun of him because they knew there was no way they had a chance, and simply settled for other entertainment. People rarely tried to curry favor with the Cadre leaders. They were known to be single-mindedly focused on either money, power, or absolute loyalty to the Striped Devils’ president. If given the chance, nobody would miss the chance to climb into that nest. Even if Ren didn’t mean it, it would be even worse if he did and you missed out on it.
“Y-you...-”
Ren cut her off with a cynical smile.
“On second thought, I don’t really like second hand goods. Have a good afternoon Sweetie~”
Ren’s face lost its jovial look as soon as he turned around. His brows lightly furrowed, one could easily tell he was angry.
He walked to a hallway and Jaylin followed him.
The woman bowed her flushed face, people snickering at her on all sides. The embarrassment was more painful then she’d thought.
...
“Hey guys...?”
The snickering folks look towards the man who spoke.
“Yeah Juno?”
“...Who was that guy behind Mr. Ren?”
All of them looked around at each other, checking each other’s reactions.
“I didn’t see anyone.”
“Yeah me neither.”
...
“Huh. Maybe it’s just me.”
“How was that, kid?”
Ren started walking backwards to look at Jaylin and put on a smug look.
“...”
Jaylin stared at him blankly.
“C’mon wasn’t I cool?”
“That certainly didn’t look like respect.”
“Ah...well. You’re not interested in that part anyway. All you want is power, right?”
Seeing no reason to lie, Jaylin spoke.
“No.”
“Hah?”
Ren stopped walking and looked at Jaylin like he was crazy.
“I want to witness power.”
Exilis scoffed. Witnesses don't beat up performers.
Jaylin ignored him and was watching Ren's reaction.
Ren stared at him, confused.
“Really...? That’s like saying you want to watch someone eat ice cream... You’re joking with me, right?”
Jaylin kept walking past him.
Scratching his cheek awkwardly, Ren continued after him.
...What a strange kid.
Jaylin strolled through the hallways, casting sideways glances at the private rooms. There was some suspicious noises coming from some of them. Ren thought he was uncomfortable so he walked a little faster to the room at the end of the hall.
“Ahem. Here we are.”
Ren put his hand on the door handle and began turning it. He suddenly paused.
“Kid.”
Jaylin, after finally recognizing that this name was addressing him, looked at Ren with raised brows.
“I’m asking you one last time. Are you willing to join? I know my speech was convincing, but what we do is no easy business. Don’t try to leave saying I suckered you into joining. Once you step into the dark side of the world, you can never truly leave. I want you to really think about this-”
Ren was cut off by a wave of Jaylin’s hand. Jaylin’s expressionless face held a hind of annoyance as he signaled him to get on with it.
Ren chuckled wryly.
This kid...
...Isn’t going to survive one minute down there.
He said you wouldn’t need to kiss up to your superiors, but there still needed to be the bare minimum respect ya know?!
Nobody needs to kiss up to superiors, but most recognized the value in getting easy benefits! Even if your pride wouldn’t let you, to keep your life, you never ever offend the people who back you! People often act on whims, Killing because of a petty grudge. He promised Jaylin that nobody would kill him impulsively if he was part of the Striped Devils, but if even the higher ups didn’t care about him, others wouldn’t hesitate to end his life.
Did I choose the wrong guy? I can’t let him ruin the B-Cadre out of recklessness.
Ren took a deep breath.
Calm down. He can still be trained. He has potential.
It’ll be fine.
...
Hopefully.
“Fine then.”
In a dramatic movement Ren opened the door. It was a sitting room. There where a few bookshelves on the sides.
...
Even Exilis was disappointed.
This was a bit...anticlimactic.
Indeed.
“Doesn’t look like much, I know. But...”
Ren snapped his fingers. A glowing seal appeared in front of one of the bookshelves.
Jaylin and Ren stared blankly as the bookshelf slowly slid to the side, revealing a long staircase.
Wow. A musty staircase.
Jaylin couldn't come up with anything else to say, ...Indeed.
“Come with me kid.”
As soon as they stepped into the narrow stairwell the bookshelf slid closed and they were surrounded by darkness.
Ren pulled a thin black cylinder out of his jacket’s breast pocket. With a click, it extended to the length of his forearm.
Immortals tend to start out with similar senses to humans, although their taste buds are a bit lacking, and their sight a bit superior. Jaylin could see just fine. The staff seemed to have a strange mechanism within it. Jaylin could feel mana inside of it. There were two separate clumps of mana, and they didn’t seem to be doing anything. Jaylin was no Rune-Master, but he knew the basic organization of runes needed to create the majority of seals. Neither of these clumps of runes were a full seal. Jaylin was awoken from his thoughts from the soft clicking sound coming from the staff. In a few short movements the two rune clumps were pressed together. A medium sized fire sprouted from the staff’s end. Jaylin was somewhat intrigued.
Humans truly go beyond heaven and earth for convenience. But even still, it was quite creative.
Ren looked back at Jaylin and saw an unfamiliar spark of interest in his eyes. He tried to track the kid’s gaze to find out what he was looking at and was faced with the blazing torch he had just turned on.
“??? Don’t tell me you’ve never seen one of these before?”
Jaylin shook his head.
“Really? Where have you been this century?”
“Asleep.”
“You know, I doubt I will ever be able to understand you.”
“...”
“...here we are.”
Ren retracted the staff and the fire seal pulled apart again. Putting the small cylinder back in his breast pocket, Ren stepped over the last stair and walked onto the small stretch of flat ground in front of a doorway. He pushed the stone door open and the light of a cavern shone through the stairwell. Ren covered his eyes with a wince.
“Gods I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that shift.”
Jaylin looked around the cavern. It was a well-lit dome shaped cavern with a black lake in the center. Pathways stretched across the pitch black lake, each leading to a different set of rooms. The doorway was inset in the cavern wall. There was a short tunnel before you could walk into the open cavern. At the end of the short tunnel there was a slim looking guard.
Ren’s energetic temperament froze over as he walked over to the guard and handed him a card. The card looked similar to the I.D card needed to get into Inzoscape, the general I.D card. The only difference was the blood red star printed in its center. The guard hardly stared at the card before he said
“Ren Sivelsky. You may pass.”
...
Ren's eyebrow twitched, as if he might've expected something like this to happen. In a moment of stubborness he continued. “...Janiss. I think you’ve forgotten something.”
It seemed Ren wasn’t on the best terms with guard, his voice laced with anger as he spoke to him.
“Oh you mean that title of yours? I thought it should be omitted to save you some face for any newbies that show up. You don’t have to be ashamed of losing it if they didn’t even know you have it right?”
Ren sneered at the guard’s mocking tone.
“Even a former cadre leader is better than a guard, wouldn’t you think?”
“Hmph.” Janiss gave him a mocking grin. “Compared to someone who’s losing his position to a weakling coming through the back door, I’d say I’m doing pretty well for myself eh?
“Tch!” Ren tried to swipe his card back but Janiss held it in a tight grip.
“Oh, but if you’d really like to keep that title of yours I can comply with that.”
“Wha-”
“Ren Sivelsky, leader of the B-Cadre has arrived to the premises!” Janiss' voice echoed through the cavern.
People walking across the mostly deserted pathways atop the lake looked at them with faces that said ‘Damn it, not this again’.
“At his request, I ask that you all bow and maybe give him your soul as proof of loyalty to the B-Cadre!”
All the passerby’s walked off with annoyed looks and Ren’s eyes lit up in annoyance.
Just when it seemed the event had passed, a feminine man with a purple scarf and tall boots burst out of one of the rooms along the places the pathways led to, a score of daggers sheathed at his waist along with his many pockets. His long hair fluttered in the air as he screeched.
“YOU ASSHOLES BETTER SHUT THE FUCK UP! NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS, SOLVE THEM QUIETLY!”
Janiss flinched at the man’s yells. It was less out of fear and more out of surprise.
Ren regained his composure and spoke to the yelling man.
“Apologies, Rank 4-Amiya.”
Amiya sighed angrily and slammed the door behind him, muttering something about shitty titles, crappy names, and headaches.
Janiss handed the card back to Ren, his face dark.
“You’re truly pathetic, brother.”
Ren took the card, but continued standing there.
Janiss looked at his brother with a disdainful look.
“What? Gonna beg for an apology? Fuck off.”
Ren smiled. He pointed behind him, at Jaylin who’d been talking with Exilis.
Janiss looked shocked.
I didn’t see him?
“See, I’ve got a new recruit with me today.”
The words were loud enough that the people rushing off in annoyance heard him. A few came back to take a look.
It was an open secret how disappointing most of the unreserved the new recruits were. People who Cadre leaders saw potential in would no doubt be above the rest. If they seemed promising, the other Cadres would spare no expense to poach him.
Janiss’ face changed from shocked to fearful.
For the longest time, the Striped Devils had the rule of single generation disputes. Due to major infighting, the president made the rule that any disputes between families Cadre’s or Rankers are not allowed to be disclosed with any of the younger generation. This rule included new members of any age as long as they were recruited two years after the dispute started. This led to many people calculating when their disputes with their enemies started. Lots of people realized how petty the starting point was. Things like ‘I don’t like the way that girl’s nose looks.’ Or ‘ the way that guy talks pisses me off.’ Their hatred wasn’t completely dispersed or anything, but out of embarrassment, many people dialed down their targeting.
But there were families with generations long bad blood, and were less willing to move on.
They were not given a choice.
The elders of such families were people who’d experienced the might of the Striped Devils’ president firsthand, and owed him several lives. They were eternally loyal to him. His words were essentially laws for them, and there is no way in hell they would let their children break the president’s laws.
There were some exceptions to this though.
The Ailes family. Many of the Ailes were part of both the A and B-Cadres at the time, and they held quite a lot of influence within the Striped Devils. The Ailes family had a bone deep hatred with the Sarishin family, who held most of the control when it came to the A-cadre. The Sarashins were a family who had one of the elders of the Striped Devils, who enforced the new rule on them. The Ailes also had an elder in their family. Zachary Ailes. He died several months before the rule was applied.
The Ailes were unwilling to let go of their grudge. Behind everyone’s back, they relayed the hatred filled tales to their children. This went on for years. The naive children of the Sharishin family faced the revenge of their Ailes counterparts for years before the Ailes family finally slipped up. The parts of the family that knew what they were doing was incredibly dangerous and needed to be kept secret slowly eroded away with time, and only the arrogant, reckless and indignant descendants remained. At a ranking competition, a child of the Ailes family wasn't even bothering to hide his targeting of the Sharishin girl, and eventually spouted some nonsense about ‘well deserved revenge’.
The Ailes’ secret was uncovered and they faced the prosecution of a majority of the Striped Devils.
At the very end, the president came out. The Ailes family who’d grown in power over the years, faced the president of the Striped Devils. It’s said that as soon as the Ailes family elders saw him, they felt a burst of confidence. The president was a lot less intimidating than they’d imagined.
He slaughtered the entire family.
With this one sided massacre, there came another generation who never disobeyed the president’s orders. Perhaps less out of loyalty and more out of fear. The thought of someone so incredibly powerful watching over them sent chills down their spines, yet also filled them with pride.
With these emotions in mind, no one dared to disobey the single generation dispute rule. Even if it was accidental, it was likely to lead to your death, and if you were lucky, your family would fall to a historical low and lose a majority of their influence.
The Sivelsky family’s dispute with their eldest son, Ren, had been going on for three years.
Janiss let out a shaky breath. Luckily, the president has been missing for five years. There was still countless people loyal to him, but the rules had started to loosen, and the inner turmoil had been increasing rapidly.
Ren scooted Jaylin up to Janiss.
Janiss’ voice softened as he spoke. Rookies with potential were hardly mistreated. There was no harm in making a good impression on someone with a good future.
“Your name, please.”
“Jaylin.”
Janiss paused for a moment.
“I’ll need your last name as well.”
“Don’t have one.”
The passerby’s were disappointed. They'd seen no shortage of people who tried to get a card without giving their last names. Try to give themselves an easy way out. After all, how easy would it be to run off if you could still use your actual name and official general I.D card paired with it? Many people left at this moment. No one needed a coward on their team.
Even Ren was disappointed at the kid’s actions. Though he doubted someone like Jaylin would lie about that kind of thing, he could’ve just made a last name up and Ren could've covered for him. One needed to adapt to circumstances in this business.
Janiss lost the habitual kindness one would give a good rookie. He didn't get along very well with Ren anyway, what did he need to be nice to one of his people for?
“Cowards who try to leave themselves a means of escape won’t make it anywhere down here.”
“I don’t have a last name.”
Janiss stepped toward Jaylin threateningly.
“I’d hope I wouldn’t have to check your general I.D. This is your last chance to tell me while I’m being nice.”
“I don’t have one of those either.”
The passersby who waited to watch the drama thought the same thing that Janiss said.
“What?”
“An I.D card.”
“You can’t get into Inzoscape without one. No way you snuck your way in.”
Ren was about to intervene when Jaylin replied, “I jumped over the gate.”
...
Ren froze in place and Janiss' eyebrows shot to his hairline. They thought the same thing in unison.
Huh?
