Chapitre 43: Continuation of Forgotten Dream

"If Gilbert isn't that good, I might have had the chance to be your personal assistant!"

The voice burst in the air, slamming against my hearing as soon as I opened the door of the private sitting room, bringing the light refreshments on a tray for the guest.

The half hexagonal-shaped room had three windows on each line to let the sunlight in, three ancient couches with different shapes and colors of bone white, turquoise, and bronze were sitting in the middle. A gramophone on the table gave an artistic touch in the corner, the vinyl records formed a row in the storage just underneath it. Two bookshelves enough to store some favorite collections were placed against the wall, and the door where I was standing by was in between them.

I was still holding the doorknob, going on pause as I watched Marvel and his guest sitting on the same couch... To be exact, I could clearly see his guest was squeezing himself in Marvel's arm.

"Pardon my intrusion," I said, looking away immediately, pretending not to see anything.

Two pairs of eyes were sticking on me as I put the refreshments on the table, watching every move I made. I tried my best not to reciprocate, hiding my nervousness as I was afraid to learn the emotion of the steel blue ones.

Marvel rarely spent his time in this room, even though his guests loved it so much. I, too, thought that the room was nice. He was always busy with work during the day. Even on holiday, he didn't come here often, mostly because he hated morning routines and so he preferred sleeping.

Other than his bedroom, this room was the second perfect space to enjoy the birds' songs overlapping in the backdrop while welcoming the sunlight that filtered through the tree branches outside, and if you were lucky, you could feel the earth-smelling morning breeze.

But, the weather disapproved to enhance the beauty of the room today.

It was chilly overcast outside, and even though the room was warm, the grayish undertone that dyed the atmosphere was enough to indicate the somber nature.

"This must be your first time seeing each other," Marvel said, breaking the awkward silence. "Why don't I introduce you both?"

He brushed his guest's hands away from his arm, amiable in the movement yet absolute in the command, he then stood up, nonchalant to the fact that it might hurt the other's feeling.

"Ed, this is Asta, my secretary. Asta, this is Edward," Marvel told us.

"Nice to meet you," I said, smiling at the young man.

"My pleasure," Edward smiled back, getting up from the chair as well.

Wow. He looks so young, I thought to myself as we were shaking hands.

The man, or should I call him the boy in a blue suit, was Edward. His fluffy blonde hair covered his head, the curls on it were lovely even for a male. He was almost as tall as me, his skin was almost pale white. As he smiled, the braces on his teeth complemented his cute face.

"Edward is Mikhail's assistant. They came together today," Marvel continued.

I needed to pretend I didn't know anything about Mikhail, so I looked around to find the man who might have been him but found no one except the three of us in the room. I stayed quiet in feigned confusion, waiting until Marvel was willing to clarify the information.

"Mikhail is the man who barged into my office earlier. He's my older brother."

Surprised by the way he casually talked about it with me, I quickly dragged my gaze to him.

"Sir, you have an older brother?" I asked, faking my surprise.

"You can say it like that," he was too lazy to explain.

"You don't know Mikhail?" Edward slipped in. Somehow, he sounded more surprised than I did.

"Maybe because this is his first time meeting him," Marvel answered the question for me.

"I see," Edward nodded twice. "By the way, you look younger than your age, Asta!"

"I'll be twenty-seven this year," I let him know.

"I already know that!" Surprisingly, he was confident.

"You already know that?"

As Edward grinned broadly, I was more bewildered by his omniscience. I really wanted to ask why, but I stopped the wonder.

"How about you? You look pretty young yourself. May you tell me how old you are?"

"I'll let you guess!"

"Oh, no... I'd better give up, then," I shrugged, lightly laughing, admitting I was bad at guessing.

Edward sealed his mouth shut, still keeping it a secret. He mischievously giggled to see my troubled face.

"Twenty."

Out of the blue, Marvel's husky voice was softly heard. I turned at him and my hazel found that he was already staring at me.

The moment I was with Edward, I completely forgot Marvel was also there with us.

Within Marvel and my connection, I could feel those familiar features locking my eyes, serene and peaceful, but a bit... blue?

"Twenty years old? Wow... You're pretty young, aren't you?" I was the first to leave Marvel's gaze and cut off our link.

"Why did you tell him?" Edward whined at Marvel, kind of annoyed. "Sir, you can't keep a secret, can you?"

"What secret? Every year you've been telling me your age," Marvel protested.

"I want to let you know as I've officially aged since you said I couldn't be your secretary because I've always been too young!"

"I can't handle kids," Marvel smirked, making Edward's face flush in embarrassment.

"I'm not a-"

"What kids are you talking about, Marvel?"

The three of us were too busy to notice someone was coming until that person overpowered the noise we made, and I realized it was because of me - I didn't close the door that the man could freely enter. When Marvel told me that he had an older brother who earlier barged into his office, be it my memory or my experience, I felt deja vu.

"Marvel, you can't be impregnating some random woman, can you?!"

True, it was Mikhail, barging in using such a dramatic entrance for the second time today.

"Don't speak to him like that!" Edward came to Marvel's rescue when Mikhail suddenly attacked him.

"Why are you mad at me?!" Mikhail cried out. He couldn't believe his secretary chose another man over him.

With Mikhail and Edward's yell as a background, I felt the steel blue marbles of Marvel's distinctive feature aim at me. I didn't want to return to him just yet, but with him staring at me in such noticeable anticipation, I had no choice.

"Sir, I have something important to talk about. Can I have your time?" I finally spoke to him.

Marvel stared at me for a while without saying anything. His expression was plain at my composing words, equally unemotional.

It felt weird to behave this way during the day toward each other while we engaged in the highest level of intimacy at night, ignorant to the fact that both actions connected and defined us.

But, I told myself that it was my job and I should never waver.

"We can talk here," Marvel decided and at first, I found it difficult to proceed.

Did he intend to let these people hear our conversation?

Mikhail and Edward were silenced right after Marvel spoke, looking at both of us entwined in a serious mood.

"I've completed the report of the company's financial statistics for this week. You might want to look at it," I started, doing as Marvel said to report here and now.

"I could have received the report sooner, but because a certain person who popped out of nowhere had arbitrarily sent you away before you could even submit those documents to me, we couldn't help it."

Mikhail quietly grunted as Marvel's words hurled and stabbed him like daggers.

"Nevermind. We can go back to it later. Right now, you have something more important to tell me, right?" Marvel saw right through me.

"As expected of you, Sir, nothing escapes your attention," I confirmed. "Yes. Earlier this day, Fillan Torrelei and his people have been caught by the officials."

The news infused some unavoidable coldness in the air, adding a greyer ambience. Before Marvel could respond to the bad information related to one of his connections in the underworld, his phone vibrated inside his pocket. He took the call and listened to the voice from the other line calmly.

"Make sure none of them escapes before I arrive," he only said exactly that during a minute of the call before ending it.

The sharp chopping and slapping sounds were heard from outside the mansion, the noise was gradually getting louder as if someone kept increasing the volume. It was similar to a machine gun fire, but somehow different. It almost got worrisome at some point and then a helicopter could be seen from the window slowly landing in the backyard of the mansion, explaining the entire noise; the rotor blades. From afar, Gilbert was seen piloting the aircraft with Tanaka beside him.

"Let's go," Marvel said as he turned at me, lightly smiling.

"Where are we going, Sir?" Confused, I asked. Nothing like that was in the schedule today.

"My people have located the organization that's been messing with me," he replied, checking on his phone.

"You have found it?" I made sure I heard him right, fairly astonished.

"I've gathered the last piece of evidence and finally, everything makes sense now. We're about to see if my presumption was right."

Something was wrong with Marvel's smile. I could sense it somehow. It was gloomy, almost dark, but there was a hint of relief in it, adding a fraction of light, which I found strange... Wait, was that anger in his eyes?

"Stay here while I'm away," Marvel told Mikhail to fill his position for the time being.

"Brat, that's not how it works," the underboss disproved. "If anything, I'm the one who has to go as an acting boss. You can't let your face get exposed."

"You can't handle people better than me."

"You're just too manipulative!"

"And you're too honest, Mikhail."

When Mikhail tried to stop Marvel by pulling his arm, the argument was cut short when the boss grabbed the underboss in the shoulder, almost scrunching the lapel. I got uneasy while watching them, but when I glanced at Edward, he unexpectedly looked so calm - too calm as if he understood the situation - and I realized something.

You can't expect a nice treatment after forcing yourself against Marvel like that.

Mikhail looked dumbfounded by Marvel's reaction and for a moment, I felt sorry for the consigliere. But, Marvel being Marvel, no one in this mansion could defy him.

Marvel let out a sigh, letting go of his gripping on Mikhail's shoulder and then fixing his own sleeves.

"Ed, you understand what you need to do to the noisy old man over there, right?" Marvel said, turning at Edward. "If he gets upset again, feed him his tea. And he can add as much milk as he wants today."

"What did you say..." Mikhail gritted his teeth in embarrassment, clenching his trembling hands full of rage.

"Yes, Sir!" To Mikhail's surprise, Edward complied with Marvel's order.

"Not you too, Ed!!"

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