To the boy's left, Madel was on her computer typing something at rapid speed. Her action felt like the movie scenes where the elite hackers were trying to hack into the main data system and steal important information from the rich corrupt tycoons. Sato asked, "Hey Ms. Madel, what are you doing right now?"
"I'm ensuring your safety." The leader of the Horsemen's answer was simple.
"Uh, okay." With that, Sato didn't really know what to say after. The lady clearly seemed like she did not want to disclose any information.
"Haha, just relax Sato. There is no need to fidget around too much. Madel is highly proficient in reconnaissance. The security system for the UHRP was actually devised by her and a team of experts." Melanie explained what the bodyguard was doing in a more discreet way. After all, there were many high profiled personnels in their surroundings.
If broken down, Melanie was telling Sato that Madel was entering the UHRP database via a backdoor through the security system that she had created herself. With this, the leader of the Horsemen was currently looking through all of the personnels that were at the party today. If there were any suspicious people, she would do further investigation and highlight them as a potential threat.
Sato understood the underlying statement and chose to not disturb the lady anymore. For the next two hours, the boy conversed with Melanie on several other topics. It was a comfortable ride that soon came to a smooth stop with the train reaching the station at Country Y.
When they alighted, a man dressed in a clean black suit with neatly combed hair was waiting for them. Although there were signs of wrinkled on the older looking man, he was definitely one of the most charming males that Sato had ever seen. There was even a strong resemblance to Gray. It didn't take Sato very much to realise that the man was Gray's father, Alex Tobion.
"Hello dear," Melanie saw her husband waiting for her in the sidelines and immediately walked up to give him a kiss. Even after being married for many years, the couple was still very much in love.
"Hello," Alex smiled lovingly, "How was the ride?"
"It was smooth and enjoyable. Sato was there to keep me company the whole time."
"Oh? Him?" There was a trace of spite in his words which Sato caught on to pretty easily. However, the young man did not let it get to him and chose to great Gray's father respectfully.
"It is nice to finally meet you, Mr Tobion." Sato bowed.
"Mmm." Alex grunted in acknowledgement, to which Melanie elbowed his waist, signalling him to be well mannered. The wife lover could only just greet back in obedience, "Nice to meet you too."
"Well, let's not stand around here for too long. We should head to where the ceremony would take place." Melanie interjected, ending the awkward atmosphere.
"Uhh, I need to go to the bathroom, so please head over there first without me." Sato dismissed himself.
"Okay, we will be waiting at the back."
Sato left the couple and followed the signs to the bathroom. Of course, Madel followed closely behind. It felt really weird that there was a person trailing him around. Normally, the bodyguards that Gray had hired would hide in the shadows and not show their presence in front of the young man. This time, he didn't really have a choice as those bodyguards could not come along.
As they arrived at the male bathroom, Madel went in first to survey the area. Inside, there was an old man dressed in a worker's uniform. He was wiping the glass clean at a very slow and steady pace.
"Excuse me, but my client would like to use the bathroom. Could you please vacate this area for now?" The words that came out of Madel were borderline respectful, but anyone could tell that was a bit of pressure from her tone.
"Ah, what?" The old man turned to reveal his wrinkled and haggled face. He seemed to be unable to hear what Madel had said.
"I said.."
"It's okay, Ms Madel. Let the old man finish cleaning the window. I can go to the bathroom without him leaving." Sato watched the scene uneasily and decided to intervene. There really was no need to do such a thing.
"Fine," With that, Madel went to stand outside. Her arms were crossed as she leaned against the wall.
Sato sighed out in relief, before proceeding to the urinal. After peeing, just as he was about to zip up his pant, he felt a sharp pain on his neck and soon enough, the world around him seemed to spin. Blackout. A person caught his falling body from behind. The person was the old man who was in the bathroom with Sato. There was a dart that stuck to Sato's neck. The old man removed the needle and swiftly lifted Sato into the cleaning cart that barely had enough space to store the young man. When he was done hiding Sato's body, he slowly proceeded to the door and left the bathroom. Madel watched the old man turn the corner. Her face had a frown of confusion. There was something that did not add up. There wasn't any cleaners on the database list that she had gathered up.
Realising that Sato had not come out of the toilet after a while, nor was there any noise from the bathroom, Madel stormed in to see that Sato was missing. She quickly turned the corner of the hallway and ran forward, trying to catch up to the culprit. Running as quickly as she could she did not realise there was a person awaiting for her at another bent. With a strong blunt strike to Madel's forehead, the lady was knocked to the ground by the 'old' man. Madel's willpower was rather strong and she tried to get up on her feet once again. Before she was able to, she had to dodge the attacker's move. Leaning against the wall, she retrieved the pocket knife from her sock area as unsheathed her blade.
With great focus, she got into her fighting stance. Madel rushed in with adrenaline pumping throughout her body. With lightning fast slashes, the pocket knife aimed at the culprit's face, to which the guy quickly tries to parry her attack. Even when there were times when the rod had hit her arm, she did not care for her injury. Rather, she was trying to inflict a wound on her enemy. Since she was a passenger, the very most Madel could sneak on the train was a pocket knife. If only she had her gun.
Just as the 'old' man thought that he had managed to parry one of Madel's strike, the blade was actually retrieved and the bodyguard relaunched a strike towards the neck. It was the most effective place to strike an enemy as within seconds of the neck cut, the person could bleed to death.
The 'old' man noticed what was happening and without thinking too much, dug his head downwards, protecting his neck from injury. This, however, lead to the blade slashing diagonally across his 'wrinkled' face. With the slash, the 'wrinkled' mask was peeling off, revealing a smoother complexion that now had a long red cut on it.
"Ah! Fuck!" The man toppled to the ground. He cried out in pain as he held onto his face.
Seeing that the attack was effective, Madel wanted to end it once and for all. Just as she was about to strike one last time, another heavy blow was administered to the back of the head. This time, it was from a fire hydrant and the leader was unable to recover from the blow.
"What took you so long, you fucking moron?!" The man on the ground shouted out hysterically. One of his hand was still pressing on his bleeding wound.
"I'm sorry, boss." The bigger looking man bowed apologetically.
"When I am back, you will receive a punishment from me."
"Okay…"
"Let us go now. Push this kart quickly." With that, Madel was left lying on the ground unconsciously. Only 10 minutes later, did some of the security guards find the lady by herself.