Chaper 21

I offered my hand to her...

"Work by your side?" She smiled then took it. "Okay."

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"Where is Lord Death!? Where is my prince!?" Princess Butterfly had arrived at the hotel looking for Death. "He's busy!" Sun yelled furiously at her. "Hey, easy, Death just went on a job!" I yelled. "A job?" The Princess calmed down after I said that. "I hope my Lord Death will come back soon. "Anyway, what are you doing here, Princess?" I asked. "Well, I came to see Lord Death of course." She replied with a warm smile then Sun just got annoyed to death by her reply. She took a deep breath before saying anything then glared at the Princess. "Who do you think you are? Death's wife? Can't you tell we're on a mission? Just when did Death ask you to play house with him? Instead of taking care of your duties as a Princess, you come here to bother us! Death has no interest in you! He has no interest in a selfish brat like you!"

"Sun!?" I was shocked, how could Sun say that. To the Princess!? "You... you take that back!" The Princess yelled furiously, she was pissed. "Haha, or what? You'll arrest me cause you're a Princess? I'm high in rank too! So do you get it? You're not special!" Sun snapped. 'What a drama scene' Those thoughts were shown on everyone who had seen what had just happened. "How dare you...?" The Princess looked at Sun angrily, the tension in the air was bad, really bad!

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"So tell me, who are you working for, you, all the Numbers?" I asked. It was a two-hour drive and we had stopped in some places but finally arrived at our destination. 'The Prison of Doom.' No one in a million years has been able to escape and no one ever will. It is known that if they put you in there then your life is over. The man I was looking at had dead eyes yet pride.

I let out a little laugh...

Pride not even worth a cent. "What are you waiting for? Answer me already." I said then he swallowed his throat and stood up weakly. "I... I will never... tell... you!" He tried to sound strong but there was doubt and fear in his voice. "Oh?" I made a dangerous smile.

At that moment when I was beside Death watching the scene, I saw something I had never seen in Death. A symbol in his eyes and even though I was standing a bit far. Fear... dwelled inside me...

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"Let us hope sacrificing two groups from the Numbers to collect data on the guardians paid off. If we can win this war then, this world is ours."

"Yes, most likely. And don't worry about the loss of groups because they were weak either way. Letting them live would have only just got in the way, at least now they served a better purpose." Someone smoking in the corner smiled cruelly to his boss, indicating that his words are true, in some way. "Okay, when will you go after them or are you waiting for them to come after you first?"

"It's complicated, but at your command, we'll strike."

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"Death?" I asked, we were now in the passages, walking back to the car. Death had got all the answers he needed and I had also asked a few. After that symbol had appeared in Death's eyes the man couldn't resist, he told everything like he was being controlled. "What?" He asked back. "What was that? Back in there, your aura changed and your eyes had this weird symbol. Who are you?"

He just laughed as I had just made a joke then went back to being serious. "Why do you want to know? Are you interested? In me perhaps?" He asked and his odd question made me blush unexpectedly. With that being my response he smirked. "Are you?" He said and then I realized this was part of changing the subject "I'm curious and it doesn't matter what you call it."

"It's better if you don't know yet. You're not ready."

"Why?"

"You're scared of me."

"No, I'm not...!"

"Just face it Cloud. It's written all over you."

"..."

"Besides, for your safety, it's best you don't know." After saying that we continued walking and neither one of us said a word until we reached the car. "Are you still willing to work with me?" Death asked with a miserable face. "Of course," I replied then he turned to look at me. He didn't say anything but just smiled. "So Death, do you think the info we got was true?" I asked him. "Not sure if it's accurate or not but the guy answered all the questions in an indirect form."

"Indirect?"

"Yeah, like he was giving us clues."

When I answered Cloud's question I remembered how he answered my first question. "The leader of all the Numbers is someone high in rank." I couldn't dig much more from him so I just moved on to the next question. "Death?" Cloud called then finally snapped me back to life. "Yeah, what?"

"Who do you think he meant by someone high in rank? There are so many people." She said and I knew her words were true. "Let's think, the Numbers' goal is to take over the world. So... they investigated to figure out how to make weak or powerless guardians strong."

"But... why?"

"To get more allies, to become strong enough to take down the Royal Family."

"The King is now old and the throne was going to be passed down to you. So you're their main target."

"But to get to me, they would need me to let my guard down on them so it must be someone close to the Royal Family."

"But... who?"

"The person is using someone to win my heart, someone I trust and would never hurt..."

"Why would they use someone else to..."

"So their identities can remain a secret and if the plan fails, the person they are using will be to blame."

"Who are they using...?"

"It's..."