Execution.

BANG!

The door to the glass room was forcefully opened, as a man wearing a black coat and menacing, dark green, piercing eyes intruded with a silent yet fierce expression, his fists clenched.

Behind him walked several individuals wearing a certain grey uniform with red and golden linings on the sleeves.

A symbol of a golden and red double phoenix was engraved on the middle of their shirts, two tails of flames swirling into a circle with a purple diamond in each circle.

They all wore similar grey caps, standing in silence behind him in an orderly line, silently with hands behind their backs, as if they had been trained in an army for years, obeying every order without question, nor an ounce of hesitation.

Along with them, there were two female individuals who entered the room, one being Quana, who appeared composed, and the other being a friend of hers at court—or more specifically, her best friend, Katy.

Quana's cool gaze swept across the room, her eyes falling upon the glass that looked down onto the white room.

Slowly walking over passively, she touched the glass, looking down only to find a certain individual sitting there, bound to an unusual-looking chair with chains severely binding that individual.

They needed to take extra precautions with Xin due to his unexpected nature that could change in an instant.

Infamous for his excessive strength—even being able to escape and destroy certain things such as handcuffs and normal metal chains—the agency had worked to make a durable chain from the combination of carbon, bronze, smelted iron, and steel, which would be impossible for any human, no matter how strong, to break from.

She let out a soft gasp and looked around to see if someone noticed her reaction, before she bit her nails anxiously at the unfolding situation.

'Xin is in there. I need to get him out of there, even if I get exposed. I can't bear to watch him getting killed in front of me. Damn those bastards, my poor child will die like this…'

Despite being a cold-hearted woman who wouldn't bat an eye at running over a child using a bulldozer, there were only two things she cherished in her life.

And those were her younger sister, Ekidna, and adopted child, Xin. To her, they were the reason she went on living, striving in this brutal, violence-filled world.

Her eyes darted, trying to come up with a plan, before she got startled at a man's voice.

The man with the dark jacket's furious, sharp, yet calm voice—like a raging snowstorm.

"Mark," he growled in fury.

He walked over to the unconscious man, his steps measured, and Jacob crawled away in fear, gulping a mouthful of saliva as his trembling gaze slowly went back to Mark, who was on the floor.

Glancing over to the phone that was still replaying the video, his sight lingered on it for a moment before he removed his gaze from the screen with a sigh and violently kicked Mark in the ribs.

Coughing, Mark awoke and wheezed in pain as he clutched his stomach, his rib fractured under the heavy military boots, and instinctively curled into a ball as a defensive mechanism.

Yet, the man did not give Mark a chance to protect himself.

"You son of a bitch, do you know what you almost did? Do you know how much time it took to catch the little fucker on the other side?" Squatting down beside him, he calmly held Mark's collar before pulling him closer to his face.

He clenched his fists before bringing it down on Mark's face, a crisp sound of skin contact resounding.

PUNCH!

Mark's mouth was filled with the metallic taste of blood. The man had broken one of Mark's teeth, the black blood dripping from the edges of the poor man's mouth.

Mark opened his mouth to plead and tried his best, with his vision going blurry, to raise his hands to prevent the man from beating him, but he was interrupted.

In a sharp, angry voice, the man spoke menacingly.

"After all I told you, you still decided to kill him, didn't you? You took my words for granted, as a joke, huh?"

SPLAT!

"You think my words are a joke, don't you? Was it because I was too lenient on you for your previous punishment? Because I forgave you last time for how you fucked up the whole mission...? Yeah, it's my fault, isn't it?"

CRACK!

"...Maybe it's because I didn't teach you properly? It wasn't you who caught him in the first place. We had to deploy Codename: Emma because of you, and instead of a thank you, all you managed to vomit out was ungratefulness. You really are a bastard through and through..."

Mark, as quickly as he became conscious, quickly lost consciousness to the excessive trauma he received to his brain. Thus, to protect his brain, his nervous system shut down any activity.

Jacob had stepped a few meters away, huddled into a corner of the dark room, shuddering in fear with his gaze on the ground, not daring to look at Mark in the face.

In reality, he was the one who had encouraged Mark to get revenge on Xin, but he had never thought that his actions would reach such consequences...

The man's violent and unmerciful fist came down on the bloody mess on the ground, cutting through the air. At this point, his face was unrecognizable due to the excessive wounds, puffed-up features, and different colors on his face.

This spoke volumes of the man's power and physique, proving to be superior to more than 80% of the Agency's commanders.

However, his arm was stopped by one man who wore a black cap with an emblem of a crimson royal crown on it.

Enraged, the man turned quickly and grabbed the collar of said individual who dared to stop him.

He raised his bloody fist, ready to punch the individual in the face, only to stop at the last moment.

"How long will you keep holding my collar like this, Alfredo?"

An emotionless voice spoke, as if the man had no emotions and had no qualms reacting to the violence redirected toward him. He was simply... too calm.

The man named Alfredo furrowed his brows in displeasure before letting go of the man's collar, looking back at the mess he created.

"Care to explain why you stopped me from re-educating this fucker, Nelson?" he asked with concealed fury.

Alfredo narrowed his eyes before looking back at Nelson, who merely ignored him and fixed his collar in response to the threat.

He slowly raised his disinterested gaze and spoke with cold logic.

"It is not the right time to do it. Re-educate him later. We have something more important to do, as you can see."

Alfredo clenched his fists but nodded his head before turning to one of the men who was wearing the grey suit.

"Take him to the 'discipline' room. I have some words to beat into him and carve into his soul later. Frankly, I don't give two fucks about his raped wife or bombed children."

Without so much as a nod, the man silently walked over to the bloody mess of Mark before lifting him onto his back single-handedly, walking out of the room.

Sneering, Alfredo looked down at Nelson. "It seems like you really trained your men properly, Nelson."

Indifferently, Nelson merely raised an eyebrow in response.

"It seems so. But unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the same toward your own men. My condolences."

Alfredo glared at him with unsaid hatred, his voice laced with venom.

"I dare you to say that again. I'll cut your tongue as a 'thank you' gift."

Coldly brushing him off, Nelson looked at a certain individual in the room who appeared to be composed meaningfully.

Snapping his fingers, all the men with the grey uniforms, as if in sync, saluted and guarded the door. Although there was another entrance where they had made Xin enter from, the entrance had been sealed using cement to avoid complications.

Thus, the only way for him to escape was through the glass, which was anti-tank. But even so, to take precautions, Nelson took his most trained men for this noble job.

Turning his grey, dull, lifeless eyes toward the woman who had entered with Quana and was still standing in shock:

"Prepare the broadcast," he ordered the woman.

The woman, who was still in a daze, did not hear him and continued looking into empty space. Nelson visibly began becoming impatient and spoke more stiffly.

"...I said start the broadcast."

The woman, startled, snapped back to reality.

"Y-yes, sir! Just a moment!"

She quickly ran to the monitors and tripped over herself before getting up, preparing the broadcast and the screen.

In the white room, slowly a part of the ceiling opened up, revealing a camera and a voice recorder looking down on the young man inside.

Xin merely blinked in interest. If his hands were unbound, he would no doubt be waving at all the attention he was getting.

The walls were sterile white, the kind of color that screamed "this is where things end."

"Is there something wrong, Mrs. Quana? You seem quite stressed" A neutral voice asked.

A voice came behind Quana's back, startling her.

Warily looking at the source of the sound, she discovered the thin man with grey eyes smiling meaningfully. 

At the gaze, she shivered as she felt that the man before her could see through her clothing, through her soul, almost as if she couldn't hide any secrets from him.

Collecting herself, she stared at him with her usual expressionless face. 

"No, nothing is wrong. I was just watching the vile criminal down there who was about to face justice. I find it quite pitiful he would meet his end at a young age. Perhaps if he had lived a more honest life, he would have lived longer"

She answered neutrally, her gaze going back to the bound young man who was looking at the camera that came from the ceiling with profound interest.

"I see, that does make sense. I heard he did something related to your family members, that's why you got angry of him earlier, or so I heard. Isn't that right, Mrs. Quana?" Nelson narrowed his eyes with a soft smile.

Flustered, but outwardly stable, she nodded her head in confirmation. She feigned anger by frowning an clenching her fists to try to appease the situation.

"Yes, he killed my younger brother. I had been vowing to take revenge on him. Now that this day has come, I am in a state of disbelief. It's like a dream coming true. Today, he will be facing justice, isn't that right, Mr. Nelson?"

"That is the case, indeed. I hope you can find solace with yourself" Nelson chuckled and took of his hat, revealing his natural, short and smooth grey hair, before running his hands through it.

Waving to her, he walked away to the other woman's location to Quana's relief. However, midway he suddenly stopped walking.

"And to those who you love"

He gave her one last light smile, before he walked towards the other woman and asking her if everything was ready.