Capítulo 335: Chapter 335: Cash Money

Onno had been repeatedly sighing deeply for the last five minutes and not really said anything. Jebben being, most likely, the leader of the Firestarters was going to affect everyone in the family, not just Cash. Hunter, Nibbler, Onno himself, everybody was going to be looked at in a very different way because people were subtly aware that every single one of Cash's children hated his guts. Who's to say the other children wouldn't also rebel and try something similar in the future? Onno was leaving, so he wouldn't have to deal with the constant suspicion directed his way but Hunter? 'Who's to say he wasn't secretly building a gadget army in secrecy!'... And other such baseless claims... Hunter wasn't going to have it easy going forward and, by extension, neither was Nibbler. 'That sharkdog is going to grow up to be a terrifying monster that will eat us all because Cash's son wants payback' blah blah blah. Sanctions galore were in store for Hunter's store, that was for sure! The Federation would have to bend to the will of the people partially and at least make it look like they were taking the 'threat' that Hunter posed seriously and that was most likely how they'd do it. If he didn't have enough money, he couldn't fund payback on a large scale in private.

Jebben had really sold his own family down the river here and Onno was not appreciative of his 'wreck everything as I throw my own life away' approach this idiot was taking. He could have just done what the other brothers were doing and leave like a normal person! It's not that Onno didn't understand the resentment, all of the brothers did, it's that they dealt with it like mature adults and not some rebellious child who didn't get their way throwing a temper tantrum. Sure Jebben was one of the younger brothers but this was still pretty unacceptable. Also, Jebben wasn't going to be spared when this all came to a close. Unless Jebben gave up on this Firestarter nonsense right now, disembarked on Xasca, and laid low for a couple generations, there was almost a guarantee this kid was getting executed. Onno didn't exactly like him but the guy was still family and they'd never had a major falling out or anything. It had been a competitive home to grow up in but it's not like Onno resented him on a personal level or anything. Knowing his brother was going to get something along the lines of the guillotine was still hard to hear...

Ares really did feel a bit sorry for Onno after all because it felt like, excluding Hunter, every single one of this guy's family was just a piece of irredeemable crap. This family dynamic was a nightmare! Ares could no longer complain about his own familial situation in front of this guy due to the sheer guilt he would feel! It wasn't a contest but Ares at least had a family that didn't hate his guts and want them spilled in the streets while he was cooked alive so they could peck at his corpse and take away all his belongings! It's not like Jebben seemed particularly fussed about killing his own brothers with this Firestarter thing so that was a pretty hard blow to Onno who didn't think things had gotten that bad just yet. The most Ares could do here was promise to do to Jebben whatever Onno asked of him. If Onno wanted him captured alive and brought to Cash to deal with, fine. If he wanted him alive and brough to him for one final goodbye before the execution, fine. If he wanted Jebben to be murdered on the spot without having to ever see his despicable face again, fine. If he wanted Ares to help the guy run away....

Not fine.

This guy could not be allowed to roam freely, that was a problem manifesting in the background that Ares didn't want to be responsible for. He was leaving Sheryashka but he didn't want to leave it a ticking time bomb because he owed it more than that. The most Ares would be willing to do in that circumstance would be to eternally imprison Jebben in Red Sun. That was as good as it got and that meant Jebben's fate was effectively sealed. It was never going to be a good ending for him now that he'd done this and gone as far as he had. Even just yesterday morning it might not have been too late for him but, as it turned out, making a bunch of people become smouldering corpses had consequences! Sure this was cultivation society, and yes he could get away with certain things, but this was all a step too far and the Federation was not a singular, forgiving, entity. Jebben was not the ruler and he did not have the power or status to enact his tyranny and be consequence free. There was no justifiable reason for this either, beyond his own personal problems which were not something that couldn't have been dealt with differently, so the wheels of fate had turned and couldn't be turned back because they'd jammed on the start of this next chapter.

Ares discussed with Onno the options he had available and Onno threw him a curveball he wasn't expecting by telling Ares to make his own decision on the matter... The hell did that mean?! He had no skin in this fight! If it was up to Ares, he'd just kill the damn guy!... Crap. Ares cursed to himself because now he felt like that wasn't the right thing to do even though he had full permission to do it. What a hassle! Onno had slipped some extra work onto his plate like the evil little conman he was. It's not like Ares could force an answer out of him though because he seemed to be genuinely in a foul mood. The will his father altered was one thing but learning the reason why was considerably worse and now his day was ruined. He was just about to get over it, because the will changing didn't really affect his Red Sun future, but now the real problem was going to affect his family as a whole and it couldn't be avoided really. This was not a problem he could run away from because a dead brother was a dead brother no matter how he looked at it. Also, Hunter would be incredibly sad. Hunter always made an effort to try and get along with everyone even if they wanted little to do with him. He'd been burned on the relationship front by them so many times but persisted anyway so this news would not be easy for him to digest. He'd already been worried about Jebben's sudden disappearance and throwing this discovery at him would not help him sleep at night at all.

Given Onno's current state, and his need to be alone for a while and give things some thought, Ares bid him and Esme goodbye leaving him all alone... There was supposedly a monk here also but Ares didn't see no monk! All he saw was a scam artist! Ares flipped Massai the bird and Voidwalked off into the distance as he'd had enough fun for one day. He was going to head back home and consider where to go from here regarding Jebben and maybe try to get Aejaz' opinion on the matter. Ares had briefly considered what he would do if Aejaz pulled something similar and he could understand why Onno was having a hard time accepting this mess. Putting Onno on the spot to come up with an answer was no good but that didn't mean Ares didn't have his own answer! If Aejaz did something akin to what Jebben was doing, Ares would kick the crap out of him! That was step one, step two was shoving him inside a prison until he stopped being an idiot. If all else failed, step three was brainwashing the moron. It wasn't exactly morally sound but, hey, if it got Aejaz back to the world of sane people and prevented him from acting like a crazy person then so be it! Of course if all that still failed then Ares would just eternally resort to step one! Treat Aejaz like a broken machine and kick it until it sputters back to life! Of course Aejaz had no such intentions, so it didn't really matter, but boy would he be glad it wasn't ever going to be an issue if he knew what Ares considered a solution to this problem to look like... If Aejaz thought his training was spartan, he should see what Ares' betrayal-induced ass-kicking looked like!

Ares returned home and mulled over the potential avenues he could take but didn't come up with anything even with Aejaz' 'help'... If it could even really be called as such. After waking up Aejaz begged Ares to make him some breakfast so Ares ended up not avoiding that outcome at all... To make matters worse, he then promptly dipped after saying 'I dunno' and running off to get back to his thieving ways. Some help this guy was! Ares just shook his head and went back to doing miscellaneous tasks like pressurising the Blade and practicing with pressure underwater. This might have seemed like mundane work but he did take a few breaks here and there to enjoy the general ambience outside with some quick walks around the local area. It was his first completely ordinary day on the Federation and, normally, he would have been happy about it but there was a voice nagging at him because he hadn't dealt with all the immediate issues yet. Relaxing while the Firestarters were still at large, he didn't know what to do about Jebben, and monsters were still en route to cause trouble... It's not that Ares couldn't relax, he did, it was just not as satisfying as it should have been... Ares didn't dwell on it too much and just went about his day before dozing off when Aejaz returned. His brother was being oddly secretive about where he'd been and who he'd been messing with but Ares wasn't going to press him for answers if he was acting like a sly cat. He'd probably find out eventually anyway when whatever he was doing culminated in something required Ares' assistance to finish. That sounded very much like Aejaz so that quick and pointless conversation marked the end of Ares' day off.

About eight hours later, Ares woke up and took a bath. He didn't need one but it was a good chance to keep his practice going as he didn't need to be anywhere today for another good few hours. The auction started at around two in the afternoon and it was still relatively early in the morning so he passed time in much the same fashion that he did yesterday, even down to making breakfast for a peckish Aejaz who disappeared immediately after getting his food again. This guy was so carefree it almost made Ares feel jealous! Some people in this household had business to take care of! Well not really, the auction wasn't a mandatory event to show up to, it was just a little something that Ares was interested in personally. He had a meal ticket in the form of the C.E.O... Who's name he still didn't know... Whoops. Probably should have asked him about that at some point... Or Ares could be lazy and just keep referring to him as the C.E.O. It's not like he cared about the guy or anything. Anyway, a free item from him as well as maybe using his 820 high grades to snipe a cheaper object for a low price was good enough incentive to have a look around. If he was extremely lucky then maybe the Firestarters would do something stupid and attack the event, giving Ares an excuse to heroically leap into the fray and save everyone. Would he get stardust in response? A free item maybe? Anyway, those delusions were precisely just that, delusions. Jebben didn't seem like the type who was stupid enough to attack what would inevitably be such a well guarded event. Ares' presence alone would probably be enough to drive them away like garlic to a vampire.

A few hours of meandering about, and, you know, actually enjoying his holiday, later, Ares was departing from the house and taking to the blue skies with Voidwalk yet again. This had become a common sight in the local area and some people treated it like bird watching. There were even a few people off in the corner running some kind of betting shop for when the flying man was going to appear again. Some people had gotten comfortable with Ares leaving early in the morning so consistently and lost big on a bet today because he only left later to go to the auction. This was part of what the betting organiser was planning on as he figured Ares, a big shot, would attend the auction, an event for big shots. He was right but for all the wrong reasons. A lot of the stuff at auction was too rich for Ares' blood and he mostly would have been attending, were it nor the C.E.O, just to see what kind of items passed through the more elite auctions in Sheryashka. Originally, Ares was convinced he would get nada from it whatsoever and the guy running the betting stall who thought Ares could just buy whatever he wanted really didn't understand the immensity of wealth that the people on this country possessed. He was a mortal so it was understandable, though, because he couldn't really tell the difference between someone with a hundred high grade and someone with ten thousand to throw around as chump change. Either amount would be enough for him to live the rest of his life comfortably. You only needed to be that rich f you were a cultivator looking to make your life easier by acquiring endless rare resources and treasures. Regardless, the betting organiser fooled the other mortals with his misguided, but still clever, analysis and got a few extra bits of stardust to play around with. It's not like Ares could fault the guy, Ares had made bets on himself too back in Red Sun!

The auction was being held in a different direction than the one Ares usually went in back when he was looking for Hunter so he was entering new territory today. He didn't stop and check things out, though, because he was only really after one thing at the moment. He did look down and take note of any businesses that caught his interest, basically only restaurants, but actually stopping and checking them out in detail? Maybe when Ares had dealt with all the other problems that were piling up first. This was still an entire country at the end of the day so not exploring all of it wasn't exactly a problem or unusual. If anything, trying to explore the entirety of it was just silly! Unless Ares planned on riding this thing for at least a month straight such a thing just wasn't possible and, even then, he'd have to rush around with Voidwalk just to facilitate such an activity. He would much rather just deal with things as they happened in his area.

To that end, he was rather lucky that the Firestarters base seemed to be somewhat close to his abode. Onno had gotten very lucky with where he placed Ares but it might have also been intentional on his part. The shack was pretty close to the centre of the Federation, making it cover a considerably larger chunk of ground than any of the usual temporary accommodations and hotels that lingered near the edges of the country. Onno was sly enough to do something like that, weaving in personal benefits even while doing a friend a favour. Not having to scour the entire Federation or Voidwalk in one direction for a day at a time just to hunt the Firestarters down was a real blessing but, then again, it also made sense why they were near to Ares. Their real goal was the top of the food chain and those lot were at the direct centre of the Federation. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Being within scouting range of the headquarters meant that making decisions, and subsequently moves, would be far easier as relaying information was much simpler. It was impossible to tell how much of this factored into Onno's decision to house Ares here but, knowing how crafty he could be, there was a decent chance he'd taken at least some of this into consideration. It could also just be that, like Jebben, Onno knew how unguarded the Federation could be around its core and shoving Ares there as a form of defence was a good idea too. Whatever the reason, Onno viewed Ares as a valuable asset to the Federation during the duration of his stay here and was making full use of him. Not that Ares cared as he was invested in this matter too. Granted he cared more about the Torchbearer but you had to dig up the surroundings before you could reach the root of the weed anyway.

It didn't take a genius to spot the auction venue because it stood out like a sore thumb even from ground level, let alone from up in the sky where Ares had a clear view of its towering and imposing form. It was a multi-storey... Shopping mart? Ares had to admit he wasn't expecting such a low brow appearance considering the societal standing of those who visited but the inside probably made up for it in some way. The outer appearance was likely due to some long-standing tradition as that would be just about the only reason capable of swaying the elites on the Federation to tolerate it. Heritage was important, as it turned out, because this place was actually the first ever shop built on the Federation. It had stood the test of time and any and all waves that threatened to quell the ambitious dreams of those who founded this project. This one-stop shop had it all at one point and served as a hub of commerce for fishermen stuck out at sea. It would restock at various countries before setting off and braving the stormy tides to get valuable supplies to those who needed it most. A humble beginning filled with tales of valiant determination. Things had changed a lot since then, and perhaps the comfort of what the Federation was now in comparison was taken for granted, but this place had never outwardly changed much.

The interior had been retrofitted so that it could continue serving a purpose for a while but it eventually needed another clean up due to changes in the Federation's ruling class. After the very first expansion of the Federation, it morphed from a shop to the first ever headquarters and it became a very office-y sort of building that was abandoned in later years when the headquarters was relocated yet again to be at the centre of the ever expanding country. They didn't want to tear the old building down but they were so pre-occupied with building an entire country from scratch that it was just sort of left there to collect dust. Eventually the leaders, at the time, of the Federation got around to revisiting old buildings and this one was a stumper. They couldn't get rid of it but the stuff inside didn't need to exist any more. This led to a large fire sale to clear everything out but that just served as the basis for what came next. The sale had been rather successful as there were a few hidden gems still residing within the hall of fame this place had become, including old memoires of the founders and personal belongings of the people who helped shape the country.

Everything was so successful, in fact, that somebody had the idea to keep holding auctions here because the wide space had to be used for something and it was already proven that auctioning items here was manageable with a bit of rearranging. After that, a whole lot more rearranging was done and, by the end of it, the Federation now had an auction site that had lasted them up until now. So yes the outside was a bit shabby but the inside was particularly classy and the place's rich history had been faithfully maintained. Now if this place ever started being a financial burden a good majority of the upper members would want it gone but, for now, it was doing a good job and could stay. The new leaders of the Federation weren't quite as sentimental because they never experienced any of the hardships that bred important memories of such a dinky place but they weren't completely heartless either and permitted it to continue existing as long as it was in everyone's best interest.

Ares landed pretty much directly in front of the entrance because, though he was monetarily lacking, he was scarily packing in terms of firepower and could not be matched by basically anybody aboard this ship. Maybe the higher ups would have some kind of rare treasure to slow him down but outright stopping him would be a nightmare task and so he had a certain kind of status here that couldn't be replicated by money alone. The Federation did occasionally have experts from Vraizon come down and they were given the same treatment and respected as though they were a wild animal that could not be angered. Some degree of deferential treatment was in order and nobody was going to complain about Ares' landing spot because they knew damn well they couldn't. Before Ares walked the last few steps that were needed to actually reach the front entrance and pass by the guards, a man in a suit brushed past him and kept walking like he was king of the world... And, based on his eyes, he probably was the king of this country at least..

Ares had heard from Onno that his father, Cash, had a mutation that would be obvious at a glance and Onno could not have been making a more truthful statement if he tried... This guy's eyes were literally coins! Golden coins for eyes! And his name was Cash! The universe was being funny again, was it?! Talk about a mandate from heaven... No wonder this pretentious twat thought he was the chosen one! He bloody well was! There was never a clearer sign in all of history that a person was destined to do something than this guy's name and genetic makeup. It was literally ingrained into his DNA at this point! Ares couldn't believe HIS eyes and almost had to call foul play here. He wasn't convinced this guy didn't pay good money for laser eye surgery or something but a quick check with his Omniscience revealed that it was all completely natural! Bastard! Ares was annoyed. He didn't know why but he really felt like he should be right now! Of course the guy was also a terrible person, so that helped fuel the displeasure, but the fact that he was so perfectly crafted to become the person he had was almost insulting...

Which is what made this all worse because Ares was the exact same!

Ares, 'the God of war', and he ended up like this? Was this what others thought of him? It made Ares sick to his stomach that he basically was this guy! Swap the art of business with the art of war and you had two people tailor made for the life they were fated to live. That being said, destruction didn't necessarily have to be tied at the hip to war but still, the similarities were right there and they were more than close enough. Anyway, that aside, Cash had a very punch-able face! He wasn't bad looking at all, and he wasn't the most handsome guy ever, meaning he was somewhere above average. It was hard to pinpoint were he landed on the attraction scale because the polite facial expressions he wore were only something that could fool those who knew nothing about him and his true self made him appear all that much uglier. There wasn't much all else to say about him as, other than his eyes and face in general, he looked to be rather unassuming. No ten arms, no demon tail, no whacky clothing. He was just a guy who was an asshole and good at conducting business. Nothing more, nothing less, and that kind of angered Ares, actually. Such a plain and boring bastard was ruining countless people's lives so that he could make something more of himself even though he never actually would no matter how hard he tried. At most, he'd go down in history as a terrible person who's only accomplishments came at the cost of everyone else's suffering. It wasn't being written that way now while he was still alive but the second this prat croaked, and could no longer harm those who spoke ill of him, his corpse was going to be getting a reality check!... Unless he was already expecting that... He could have written his own book in advance or, perhaps, he just didn't care. He wanted to feel like he would be remembered in death, even if it was for all the wrong reasons, because he would be too dead to care by then and nothing that came after could tarnish his legacy in his own mind. This was all just a form of reassurance to him, allowing him to pass on in comfort and nothing else. Regardless of what the truth of the matter actually was, one thing remained true, screw this guy!