Commission(II)

Aside from the normal house on the top elevation of the estate, the basement that Maximus was currently using was in fact a secretive lab that was regularly used by his late father, who was also a scientist. It was a pretty decent laboratory with everything one needed for experimentation.

Furthermore, it was reinforced to withstand tremors such as seismic wave tremors resulting from any kind of quake in the earth. However, Maximus further reinforced the entire basement and the security of the entire building became super tight, so much so that there was no way anyone could intrude on the house, let alone his secret lab without his awareness.

Not even Donatello was aware of his secret laboratory despite them having worked closely in the past. Though he decided that he was going to tell him at some point back then, he was glad that he didn't tell him, especially after finding out about Donatello's true colors which made him lose faith in him.

From then on, he refrained from telling him about it at all. As such, Donatello only knew that he was a rune expert with extensive knowledge on par with renowned experts and also that he was a talented superpower concept writer. Other than that, Donatello knew next to nothing about him or his creations.

After arriving on the first and only floor of his residence, which was only about 600 square feet in size, much smaller than the size of his lab, which was about 5 to 6 times bigger than the first floor, Maximus quickly changed his attire from his lab coat into casual wear. He proceeded to pack some stuff he would need into a cheap duffel bag, then put on these fancy, dark sunglasses to cover his eyes.

Moments later, after making sure that he had everything and didn't forget anything required for the commission, he approached the mirror in his room to check his looks for a moment, which depicted a tall handsome young man with short black hair and amber-colored eyes.

The next moment, he presses on a mini gadget at the back of his ears. Immediately after, his face distorted briefly before his entire facial appearance changed in the following moment.

Right now, he was no longer Maximus. His current identity was known to others as Magnus. Naturally, Magnus was only an alias that he used to hide his true identity from others.

The intricate gadget he used just now was only an implement that served to change his facial appearance by temporarily rearranging the Life Runes on his face. Other than that, his tall, skinny body and stature were still the same as ever.

Maximus admired his new look for a brief moment while adjusting the sunglasses on his eyes before nodding in satisfaction. Shortly after, he headed out for the location of the commission, following the address stated in the email.

…

In front of a big mansion with a towering 5 floors that could house four generations of families, two men dressed in black suits, who appeared to be either bodyguards or guards of the enormous gate were stationed.

The two men were discussing something among themselves as they were bored from standing there for six hours straight. However, in the middle of their discussion, one of them, who seemed to have moderately sharp senses suddenly noticed a figure approaching their direction from the corner of his eyes and immediately spoke with an apprehensive tone of voice.

"Who are you?! And what business do you have at the Wells Family Estate?!"

"What? What's going on?" The other man was confused as he didn't notice the presence approaching them. He instinctively turned to face the direction his partner was facing, and to his surprise, about 50 meters away, a tall young man with dark sunglasses on while carrying a black duffel bag on his shoulder was approaching them in calm footsteps.

What was surprising about this young man was not his calm footsteps nor was it his shady attire that made him look as though he was some dangerous killer. Instead, it was his lack of aura. In other words, his presence was so thin, almost as though he was an ordinary human as he didn't have a trace of Runic Force radiating from his body. This was also why the other man didn't notice his presence at first.

However, if that was the case, such a person shouldn't carelessly be approaching their estate in such a carefree manner, at least this was their first time seeing an ordinary person approaching their mansion boldly and without anyone guiding them.

Ignoring his shady appearance, when the two men noticed that he was just an ordinary person without any force emanating from his body, they assumed that he was most likely a lost person, so the man who spoke to him from the distance stepped forward and emphasized his statement once again.

"I said who are you?! If you're just in the wrong place, then get lost!" The man shouted this, but he got no response.

"This is not a place for people like you to wander around. Kindly leave while we're being nice." The other man also chimed in when he realized that the young man was not responding to his partner.

The two men frowned as they coldly stared at the approaching young man, who seemed to not care about their threatening statements and continued to approach them in a nonchalant manner.

As the two men were about to lash out at him as they were infuriated with his unresponsiveness, the young man took one more step toward them. Now, with only 3 meters between him and them, he then spoke in a calm voice: "Hello. My name is Magnus, and I came here to fulfill a commission. Is this the Wells Family Household?"

"Eh?" The two men were surprised by his identity and immediately relaxed their offensive temperament.

Then, one of them said: "So you're the rune expert we are expecting today? How could you be so young? I thought it would be an old man judging from your description. Never mind, follow us in. The Young Lord had been patiently waiting for your arrival."

"So this is the right place. I thought I came to the wrong place." The young man mumbled in a low voice and then asked: "Has your Young Lord started yet?"

"Huh? If you mean the engraving and imprinting process, then no. It was for this purpose that the Young Lord requested your assistance in the first place. So the Young Lord wouldn't dare start without your presence. Please follow us inside."

"Alright."

The young man, who was actually Maximus nodded and followed the two men through the front gate and inside the estate shortly after. An Air Drift Vehicle was waiting on them as they entered the gate. The mansion was at a distance, far away from the front gate. As such, they entered this Air Drift Vehicle and they drifted in the air on a straight path for a few miles before reaching the entrance of the mansion.

They then entered the first floor of the mansion. There, a handsome young man with a cold expression on his face was sitting on a couch with his leg crossed. He was watching the latest and most popular romantic movie. At this time, the movie was showing a handsome man kissing this beautiful young woman forcefully in the current scene.

For some reason, the handsome young man frowned slightly in displeasure when he saw this kiss scene, almost as though he was appalled by the entire kiss scene. However, based on his reaction, it would appear that he knew the beautiful young woman portraying the female lead in the movie.

At this time, the handsome young man gritted his teeth in frustration and was about to curse when he noticed the two men walking inside. He also noticed another person walking behind them, but he ignored them to focus on the movie once more.

Even though the handsome young man didn't acknowledge them, one of the men who brought Maximus inside the room still nervously spoke to announce their presence.

"Y-Young Lord Cedric…"

The man who attempted to speak was met with the cold glare of the young man referred to as Young Lord Cedric.

He coldly spoke: "Can't you see that I'm busy here? What do you want?"

"The rune expert that you requested has arrived." The man quickly spoke without hesitation, afraid that delaying his words would only anger his Young Lord further.

"Oh…? So you are…" Young Lord Cedric turned to look at Maximus briefly before carelessly saying: "Alright, wait for a few minutes. I still have to finish watching this movie."

"..."

Maximus was left speechless by the neglect and carefree action of this young man.

Curious about why he was sidelined, he turned to see what the young man was watching that was more relevant than obtaining his Runic Path only to see two people, a man, and a woman, passionately kissing each other as they lay in bed on the screen projecting the movie on the wall.

Obviously, it was an R-18 scene from the movie that the handsome young man was currently watching by himself. However, the handsome young man did not seem embarrassed watching such an obscene and titillating movie in front of him or the two men. Maximus was baffled by the tactlessness of this handsome young man.

'Is it because we are all men in here?' Maximus silently thought so and immediately presumed that to be the case. The current situation was similar to what he found out after his research, which stated that some men, or rather most men, are not shameful when watching such indecent things in front of each other.

Maximus might not be knowledgeable about romance as he had never been in a relationship nor did he care to be in one, but he could at least tell what was happening with this young man from his facial reactions as he watched the movie. Based on the face this young man was making, he could infer that the handsome young man most likely was acquainted with the female actress. Even more likely, he was infatuated with her, in other words, he liked her.

There was also the possibility that the two of them were already lovers. If that was the case, then watching such a steamy scene of his lover kissing another man on a televised screen was probably too much for him.

But if that was indeed the case, why was he insisting on watching it to the end? Maximus didn't particularly care what was going through this handsome young man's mind. He only cared about completing his commission early and returning home as Nini was waiting on him.

Thus, he opened his mouth to say something, but on second thought, he gave up and chose to wait for the handsome young man to finish watching his dramatic movie. Since it seems like the movie will be ending soon, he could afford to wait for a little bit.