Declined promotion

"The manager will be free for the next 15 minutes before he goes for a meeting. So you can head in to see him now" The secretary said as she fixed her eyeglass properly before heading back to work.

"Thank you!" Lucien said as he looked at the secretary gratefully.

'Maybe today might not be a bad day after all' He thought, as he headed towards the door.

Knocking lightly on the closed door and stopping after some while, Lucien didn't dare open the door until he heard a voice from inside the room.

"Come in!!"

Pushing the door open, Lucien was greeted by the sight of a burly middle-aged man who was going through the numerous documents that were laid on his desk one by one.

His name is Bruce. The current manager of the Notre Dame branch.

"Sit" Bruce said as looked up at Lucien.

"You know, I was about to tell Miss Chanel to get you for me" He added.

"Yes. I have already heard from my assistant that you wanted to discuss something with me" Lucien replied.

"Yes, I do want to discuss something of great importance with you, Mr. Lucien" The man said as he looked at Lucien seriously.

"And what would that be sir?" Lucien said as he was already feeling the dreadful feeling creeping gently on his back.

The man looked at Lucien for a moment before moving his eyes to the drawer below his desk.

Pulling out a small object wrapped in a white cloth. The man gently gripped the object tightly before he placed it on the desk.

Looking at the wrapped white cloth, for some reason, Lucien already knew what was in it.

Groaning internally as he saw the man removing the white cloth as the object that was hidden in it was immediately revealed.

Lucien sighed as his guess was right on the spot.

"Do you know what this is, Mr. Lucien?" Bruce questioned Lucien as he looked at him suspiciously.

"Yes, sir" Lucien responded truthfully.

"Then if you know what it is, can you please tell me what it is?"

"It's a custom-made desert eagle 64 ME, Sir".

"Good. And how many of these weapons are there in this world, Mr. Lucien?" Brice asked as he stared at Lucien with a piercing gaze.

"Only one" Lucien who didn't like where the conversation was headed could only keep his mouth shut, as he had no other choice than to keep answering Bruce's question.

"You are right. So can you please tell me the only person currently in possession of this weapon".

"M-Me" Lucien said although with a little hesitation.

"I can't hear you, Mr. Lucien, what did you say?".

"Me. I am the only person in possession of such a weapon".

"Alright" Bruce nodded his head seriously as he looked at Lucien.

"So as you have said Mr. Lucien, you are the only person who possesses such a weapon. So can you please tell me where this weapon was found yesterday night".

But Lucien could only shake his head in response as he couldn't even remember what had happened yesterday night. So how could he remember where he had left his weapons.

But unfortunately, Bruce misunderstood Lucien's gestures and takes them as a sign of refusal.

"Are you now keeping secrets from me, Mr. Lucien? Well, I would advise you not to do that now because this information is of the utmost importance".

"It's not that I don't want to answer, but it's just that I don't remember anything that happened last night" Lucien responded tiredly as his failure to remember what had happened the night before was becoming frustrating as each second passes by.

"You don't?" Bruce replied with surprise in his voice "Are you sure that you don't remember anything, Mr. Lucien? Or you are just trying to avoid the consequences of your actions".

"If I did I would have already told you. And besides, you already have my weapon so why would I try to deny it".

"Well, since you can't remember, then I will help you refresh your memory. You see yesterday when I was about to head back home after a long day of work, a group of B-ranked huntsmen came in with various injuries on their bodies"

"But fortunately, those injuries were only superficial but you see one of them had a bullet hole on his leg, causing it to be badly damaged. And when asked what had caused the injury, your gun together with your bullets that was brought out during the treatment was present as evidence when they said that another huntsman had attacked them" Bruce said before the slumped back in his chair.

"But as you know, such an accusation is a very sensitive issue according to the protocols of our organization which bans a huntsman from attacking his fellow huntsman, especially during work. Nevertheless, we decided to do some investigation of our own, which wasn't hard considering that we already had the clues in our hands"

"So imagine our surprise when we find out that you, Mr. Lucien were the one who had attacked them. And even the facial description of their assailant matched your face"

Meanwhile, Lucien's face immediately scrunched up into a frown as he listened to the details of his actions which he has no memories of the night before.

"So according to the rules of the organization, you will be suspended until deemed eligible to return to work. And also, as punishment, your badge will be seized together with your weapon and uniform and you will be placed under community service which will also be handpicked by the organization".

"But, my promotion" Lucien said in shock as he didn't want to be suspended on the day of his promotion.

"Oh! Yes. As for your promotion, they shall be revoked indefinitely. This means that you will have to wait for some time before you are given the chance to be promoted again".

"T-This isn't fair. I have worked very hard for this promotion. So for you to take it away just like that is not right" Lucien said with anger in his voice.