Capítulo 184: The Cage (Part 3)
Ana and her group were at a private lounge.
They were watching a battle royale survival game in an arena.
Where 30 people are fighting to the death, to be the last man standing.
The victor of the battle royale will be granted freedom from the Cage's influence and will have their slave contract that binds him or her to the cage be terminated.
A bearded man in a black suit, who looked to be in his 50s and had a nasty burn scar on his neck was sitting in one corner of the lounge.
He was looking at the people on the arena, kill to earn their freedom.
"Aren't they pathetic, the lowest of the low? Look at that guy fighting to survive in this arena. Killing the elderly, children and women to be free from the influence of the Cage. Before participating in today's battle royale, he was living a good life at the 20th ward. He had the roof on his head, an honest job, 3 meals a day, a wife and children. But when learned that today's battle royale participants have a few children, women and elderly contestants, he ran here to register himself on the event. In the preliminary rounds, all you have to do is knock your opponent but in this arena? He has to kill every contestant and be the final victor to gain that freedom. His freedom, not his family's. He abandoned his family to their fate, so he can be free from the Cage. He had a young wife and two young boys, twins. The wife will now have to sell herself to raise his children now. As for the children, they are young and don't understand anything but with their life now suddenly tilted upside-down. It's not hard to guess what will be their future. They might probably sell their mother to someone or kill her in the future. That's one of the common scenarios."
The old man said, puffing out smoke.
He had a cigar on his left hand and a glass of alcohol on his right hand.
The group of five on the other side of the corner were quietly watching the battle royale on the arena.
Both Ana and Zakior were indifferent. They gave off the impression that they don't care.
But it's different for the other three misfits.
After a few moments of silence, Zakior spoke up.
"I say, as a person who once emerged as a victor...It's a great feeling to be free from the influence of the Cage. Now, I don't have to beg, starve or beaten by people who find me an eyesore. Unlike, in the past where I had death following me every second of my life. I'm free and don't have to be afraid anymore. Right now, I'm living. Before I wasn't. That's just me, judging myself. I can't judge this person, because it's not up to me to judge him. He has his reasons. Whether it is good or not, what's that have to do with me? I'm the master of my own life."
The old man glanced at the boy with the wolf mask.
His gaze lingered on his figure for a few moments before he returned to the girl beside him.
The girl was wearing the mask of a Rabbit.
He then turned to the two boys behind the girl. Both of them wearing masks of an Eagle.
"I see..."
He did a background check on the group.
Among the five, he only found information about two of them.
He doesn't care about the girl with the Rabbit mask or the boys with the Eagle masks.
The boy with the wolf mask has been seen in and out of many influential places inside the Cage.
He went into deep thought.
Thinking, if the boy once had participated in an arena. Why there's no record of him?
The boy was giving a weird feeling to the old man.
'There's no hostility but he will change his stance if need be.' The old man said being cautious of the boy.
He then turned to the girl sitting on the leading chair on the other corner.
About the two people, he has information on. One is this girl wearing a mask of a Snake.
The other is one of the boys with the Eagle masks.
Anastasia Dimitrova Petrova and Zulkernyn Yazid Hassan.
One is a fiancee of the Tevittar tribe prince and the other, a Hassan.
"Then let's get on with why you are here, Ms?" The old man asked the girl wearing the Snake mask.
"I'm here to buy some materials." Ana replied in Tevittar tribe's language, Tevittarian.
"Why me? At 'The Market' you can get anything you want. What do you need that you went so far to trade a valuable relic of the Tevittar tribe for an audience with me, Ms Dimitrova?" The Old man asked in the same language that Ana spoke to him.
"Yes, I can get it from 'The Market' but that will leave a record and trails leading to me some way or another. I want the materials off the record, leaving no trails. I don't want the Tevittar tribe to come after me for it, Mr Cameron."
Cameron frowned hearing Ana.
"And what materials do you need, Ms Dimitrova?"
Ana turned to Cameron before replying.
"Tevittarium mostly. The other materials are not of concern to me."
"How much you need?"
"2 ton."
Cameron immediately laughed hearing the amount of Tevittarium Ana asked for.
"I'm sorry, Ms Dimitrova. But I can't meet your demands. 2 ton of Tevitarium off the record? That's not possible for me. I can give you 1/10th of the amount you asked, not the full amount."
Ana turned to the arena in front of her.
Almost half of the participants have been killed.
The man Cameron talked about is still alive.
"The Cage is between a dead zone of Russia and the Tevittar territory borders. Through the Cage, Tevittarium is smuggled all over the world. The one who is smuggling the Tevittarium from the Tevittar territory is my former fiance, the Crown Prince. You have more than enough of the amount I asked for Mr Cameron."
Cameron narrowed his eyes at Ana.
"I wonder how you know that I have the means to not leave any records or trails since there are only a few people who know about this information."
Ana smirked under her mask.
'So you finally asked me the real question, huh?' Ana said in her mind.
"Besides the people present in this room, there are only 5 others who know or knew about this information."
Cameron's face turned serious.
"Three are dead as of today. You killed two of them right before coming here."
Ana was loving the changes in Cameron's expression.
"One committed suicide, the person who committed suicide told me this information. He also told some other things!"
"One is your trusted subordinate, who's your right-hand man. Alas, the last one! The princess of Tevittar Tribe."
"The princess is dead." Cameron started, looking at Ana.
"Is she? I don't think so. Yes, everyone saw the princess being beheaded for her crimes. But I refuse to believe that she would accept being framed by his twin brother and let herself be killed by false charges of being a traitor."
A heavy killing intent was focussed on the group of five.
"I don't have anything against the princess. The relic I traded with you is a gesture of my goodwill." Ana said to Cameron.
The killing intent didn't recede.
Zulkernyn was already angry with everything he had experienced today.
Now that the old man Cameron was baring his fangs in hostility, towards his friends.
He was about to snap but Zakior stopped him.
"The princess and I used to be friends, Mr Cameron. She asked you to at least listen to everything I say before you can judge what to do with me, no?" Ana said to Cameron before turning to him.
The room went silent.
The killing intent slowly receded after a minute.
Cameron was silent. His face didn't show any more hostility.
"What is your purpose!" Cameron said breaking the silence in the room.
"My purpose as I have stated is Tevittarium among other precious materials. That is the main purpose of my visit but I do have some other objectives but not as important as the Tevittarium."
Ana said before continuing.
"A single trade isn't what I want from you, Mr Cameron. I want to have a stable supply of Tevittarium from you, off the record of course! But if you don't want to, I guess I have no choice and make do with just a single trade. The side objectives are not too much of an importance. But if you do agree to have a contract with me, you can gain a lot from it, Mr Cameron."
Feeling annoyed, Cameron asked.
"What would I gain? I don't think there's any benefit to having a long term contract with you, Ms Dimitrova."
Ana replied to Cameron.
"Something that you think is lost forever to you."
"And what would that be?"
Ana turned to the arena.
The man Cameron spoke about before has emerged victorious on today's battle royale.
"I heard you had a daughter. She was sold to someone when you were a slave. Later, you registered yourself in the arena and gained freedom emerging victorious killing the best of the best fighters at that era inside the Cage. That battle royale is considered the greatest battle royale in the Cage."
Cameron became emotionless.
His expression turned neutral.
"Where are you going with this?" Cameron asked in a neutral tone.
"You later found your daughter. She became a bedslave of a warden in the 16th ward. You barged into the warden's mansion and killed him. But the mansion caught fire."
"My daughter died in that fire..." Cameron muttered softly.
"She didn't."
"What did you say!" Cameron raised his voice towards Ana.
He thought he heard wrong but Ana repeated what she said.
"Your daughter didn't die in that fire."
Cameron was shocked at first before he turned angry!
"Ms Dimitrova. My daughter is dead, don't play games with me!" He raised his voice in anger at Ana.
Ana didn't reply to him but took out a picture from her purse.
She placed the picture on the table beside her.
It was a picture of a woman in her early twenties holding a baby on her arms.
"You're right, your daughter is dead. But she didn't die in that mansion but died of a terminal illness, like your late wife."
Cameron was stunned.
He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
The woman in the picture looked like his daughter.
"You asked me what the thing you will gain that is forever lost to you? Family, it's family that you have failed to protect. The family you thought you lost forever."
Ana placed a letter on the table.
"Your daughter left you, a granddaughter before she passed away."
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