Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Frogs In A Well

In a café that was near a river, where leaves were flowing down to the direction. A woman with long flowing hair attracted the eyes of people. She was sipping her drink elegantly. The constant glances didn’t bother her. Across this woman was a man in a black business suit.

“No.”

She replied without affecting her mood. Robert, who sat leisurely, sighed and properly sat down.

“May I ask why?”

“We are neutral,” Leona said. “We’ll be breaking our vows if we choose to interfere with the politics and structure of Saint Lucius.”

“I can’t convince the Lionheart to intervene, then?” Robert said.

“We will only protect ourselves. It may sound selfish and rather apathetic to hear from a family that stood by our vows. But we’re simply unable to act now with most of us going to war.”

“The Lupus Family… wouldn’t this affect the ‘war’ that the Families are conducting?”

“Oh, it will, Robert Oswald. However, you must learn that coercion and trying to stop them will not happen. These are older people who think their wisdom is above others. That they can’t possibly be wrong no matter what.”

She drank her tea again. She leaned on the armrest. Her eyes alternated between the drink and the leaves on the river. Robert followed her eyes before wondering if he should take off.

“Your mind wanders, Enforcer. It seems like you’d be at home in a battle where you cannot think and only focus on the situation. Have you rested?”

Work and then rest.

Sometimes I watch cartoons about a mouse and a cat.

Watching a channel about nature and then spending time on his computer programming.

Before he died.

Before he became Robert.

What he wanted was to find a calm place to live his life.

One last job.

It’s always one last job.

And yet here he was doing this.

So far Robert had been thinking of putting up with this until the Millennium Bug ruined everything for them. Until all of the magic goes away and the normal world comes to him.

But what was the normal world anyway?

The world he walked on wasn’t entirely normal either. People with metal on their bodies and people living past one hundred while still looking like they were still in their forties.

The heat of the sun scorched his skin for a moment. His eyes went to the eyes that have been examining him.

“I never did ask you about why you entertained me.”

“Why not?”

Robert folded his arms. She smiled lightly.

“CASE had asked me. I usually don’t do meetups, but I make exceptions now and then. You did gather my interest. Mhm, I dug up about you. I was surprised that Ms. Sofia Grimaldi didn’t shoot you. My, do you have a taste for strong women?”

“We worked out the misunderstanding. She’s probably back in the Americas doing things.”

“Never thought of working it back?”

Robert raised a brow at her questions.

“Pretty interested in her.”

“She is a strong woman blessed with superior genes. I've seen some footage of what she can do as a mercenary for hire. It’s hard to find a natural like her.”

“That so?”

She clenched her gloved hand and then opened it.

“In regards to your request. I cannot help. As I said the Lionheart’s not able to do it. Besides, even if we do help, it will complicate matters of how we handle it. We take no hold of this city but we will defend our communities if violence reaches us.”

She said with certainty that it wouldn’t change. Robert somewhat knew that he had nothing to compel them into making a move.

Robert hated politics. He was always the kind of guy that you told where to shoot and pull the trigger. The worst part about this was their ability to act was limited because of the Magi families. If they were normal criminals then it was only the matter of offing the right people and causing enough damage to bring the top to a place where they can find and get rid of him.

And he was supposed to be working on the supernatural. Not these mobsters and gangsters connected to the occult practices of the Magi Families.

The ill-tempered passenger started complaining. Demanding that they just put a bullet on Yaga’s head and be done with it. The problem was it didn’t solve the issue of the Lupus Family and the Magi Families not backing down.

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And people like them tend to get paranoid. Even as he sits down with Leona here near the river. Something was moving and the pawns were being set.

Leona let out a tiny smile.

“It’s tiring thinking about it, no? People are stubborn. There are many that have their own wits and strength that one person can’t simply organize a singular thought that would fix these circumstances. Each movement is like a stir in the web. What will be the consequences of your actions? Those who wield their swords and guns find it somewhat easier to act because they are told where to stab and shoot. So many choices. CASE has been somewhat less direct lately. Enforcers acting like Agents who are free to do what they please.”

Robert didn’t answer. He crossed his arms and leaned back. Leona remained neutral and finished her drink. She leaned forward and then calmly smiled.

She was stable and despite the problems that might affect their family. Her attitude made Robert wonder if they were secretly supporting the events happening. There was no proof. No evidence that they were, but Robert’s gut told him that somehow they knew what was going to happen and simply didn’t care enough.

For a righteous family their empathy for criminals was practically zero. If anything Robert had sensed that they weren’t concerned about what criminals do. It wasn’t their business. Their attention was more on a larger threat that required the full attention of their family.

 

After meeting with Leona he drove back to his meetup point with Agent Wilson who had hurriedly called him. He found Wilson holding a leather briefcase. He entered the passenger seat and exclaimed.

“Let me guess. The Lionheart wouldn’t help.”

“Yep.”

Wilson rummaged through his leather briefcase. He pulled a paper and handed it to Robert. The paper was a transcript of a conversation with a family member of the Lionheart and the Lupus family. An agreement that they will not be involved in the affair of the Lupus Family.

“Well, shit. Now I wonder why they even bother to talk to me. So that’s it then? Let them start a war of their own?”

Agent Wilson grunted. He was tired. The man had a look that wanted to just lie flat on his back and abandon his case. Nothing was ever easy. For once, Robert wished for an honest gunfight and a target to take care of.

Rubio Ferric.

And now Yaga.

Rubio Ferric didn’t end up like he thought he would. Fighting until the last of his men are gone. He was smart enough to know when to back out of a problem that placed him and his group between two stones.

And yet he still caused enough problems that the Lupus Family had decided to take over the crime syndicates of the city to prevent another case of someone like Bo taking over.

Robert could guess that all of this started ever since the cultists had started making a move on the city. For God’s sake, they didn’t know that underneath the city was a pit of corpses whose souls had been sacrificed until he found himself in Robert’s body. He does have a theory that something else was going on beyond this matter.

He had no evidence.

If anything he wasn’t even sure if the people underneath the sewers were part of the Solar Temple or the Sin-Eaters. Their goal was to summon a demon and then use said demon on something or someone.

They needed enough bodies. They transported people and made business with the leftovers they got from the cult to sell as luxury goods.

So what’s the deal here? Robert thought. Are they after someone or something? Could it be the Lionheart Family? This city has a lot of families in it. CASE’s headquarters is also here and the Lionheart’s Ancestral home is also here. If you want to take out CASE, you cut off the supply directly and slit the neck of their supports. But they should be smart enough to understand how obscenely powerful the Lionheart is. With the families they are even stronger and from how things are. It should be safe to assume that they can’t easily convince the syndicates here to change sides. They cared about profits, true, but they weren’t such a bastard that they’d damn their souls for the sake of profit. So what’s really up here? Power grab? Most likely, but do they have enough resources? And so what’s their true goal other than hurting the people?

“Did we ever know what they were doing here?”

“What?”

It took for Wilson to get a bead on what Robert’s thought was.

“The cult was selling human and organs and blood to create Adrenochrome or Bathory’s Wine as the people of this side of the world say it.”

“Did they have intentions of attacking CASE or the Magi Families? I mean you do know that I almost got killed by them?”

Agent Wilson cupped his chin.

“They were after CASE and the families, but from what I can guess it was more to distract them from their true goal which was to smuggle their product to paying customers. You have to remember, Oswald. This city is facing the Mediterranean sea. On the east, if you pass the Suez Canal, you can reach the Middle-East and the Asian Sphere while if you go down south you get access to Northern Africa and if you go west you can pass the Strait of Gibraltar and then head farther west to reach the South Americas.”

Putting it like that. Robert thought of how easy it was to sell goods using this city’s port to smuggle and deliver goods to their destination without attracting the attention of the law.

But making enough moves would bring down the heat on them. It’ll compromise them and bring the attention of their enemies. It didn’t make sense for Robert at least.

It could be that they were trying to poke the strength of the city. Test the waters before they could enact their plan. Robert for sure knew that Rubio Ferric didn’t know of their plans and only provided the supply.

Robert leaned on his steering while. He was trying to come to a conclusion. Find a piece that could complete the pieces together. Form an idea on what was going on here. It’s absurd to think that all of this was connected, but so far he had noticed that the problem of this City was its criminals and cultists.

CASE was being stretched thin while the city was left with only a few Enforcers and Agents wondering. Robert was feeling a sense of dread. Before he felt that it was annoying, and yet as he tries to understand the events, it made him wonder what was coming to this city.

Surely it wasn’t just the smuggling of products? Why summon a demon? Why go through so much? What are the families planning that they seem unconcerned about the city?

Robert worked his brain out and he found it hard to come make sense of all of it. And right now the biggest worry that he had was about the possible bloodshed that might happen once Yaga’s crew, backed by the Lupus Family, start making a move.

There was still a missing piece. A connection that would allow Robert to understand the situation and take action. But where to start when both sides were so deep-rooted and stubborn?

And as if laughing at their inability to act and figure things out. Robert saw the glasses and windows shatter at a large explosion coming from the center of the city.

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