A massive man sat by his desk, which, compared to him, seemed like a table for kids. His shoulders as wide as his whole workplace, reaching from one end of the desk to the other. In this office, which was dominated by black and brown colors, his hair stood out like a torch in the night.
Lucius Strada scratched his chin faster and faster as his annoyance grew. Looking at the papers, he mostly saw losses of money or not as big an income as he wished for. “Godan was annoying for sure, but he brought me a lot of money from the pit. Then that lady made the price of the bets rise almost fifteen percent… Now without Godan and her. I am one hundred and fifty percent loss!” The man punched his desk to release the anger that had built up inside him, and with the tremor, a few books fell off the bookshelves.
“My immunity from the wrath of the gods better be worth it…” The man whispered to himself as he pressed his pen even harder against the desk, finally breaking it apart with too much force, staining his hands black with ink. He looked at the stains with empty eyes. “This day can’t get any worse…”
With his clean hand, Lucious closed the doors to his office and put them behind his red tie. Any servant he had passed bowed to him and waited for him to leave or give a command before lifting their heads, constantly in fear of being thrown into the pit, as Strada often made examples of those who were insubordinate.
On each floor in his mansion was a big bathroom that could easily hold two elephants with some room to spare to move around. Lucius entered the one on the top floor where his office was. The floor tiles were made of black marble with white lines, and the walls were made of massive dark green tiles that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. The bathtub, toilet, and sink were made with dark clay. The room was lit with three windows that were close to the ceiling, not letting anyone take a peek inside.
Lucius moistened his hands with water and then with soap, not missing any stain of black on his hand. With annoyance, he scratched the same spot on his thumb many times until he damaged it with his nail, drawing a bit of blood. Losing his temper, he smashed the mirror, making his hand bleed even more.
As he left the bathroom, a maid was standing in front of the doors, compared to the rest of the servants, she didn’t seem shaken by the presence of her master.
“Clean the bathroom and order a new mirror.” Strada was about to leave, but he noticed the maid’s gaze lingering on his injured hand. “Make someone bring me bandages to the library.” As he gave the last order, the maid bowed to him and went away for the needed tools.
“Books. That’s the only thing that won’t annoy me today. I have to finish reading this book about a Jarl. That will make me calm down, maybe even draw out some laughter out of me.” Lucius headed down to the base floor of his mansion, visible even through the windows, was a building attached to the mansion, with only one corridor.
While the mansion looked like every rich man's house, the building beside it looked like an antique building. White columns towered from the ground to the base of the roof, practically holding the whole ceiling. Between each column, there was a window rising halfway toward the roof. The roof stretched along the rectangular building with a light slope. The tiles of the building were dark green, making them look completely black in the night and green in sunlight.
At the end of the corridor, there were massive double doors with a silver frame and door handle. Lucius pulled the handles down and lightly pushed the door; without much resistance, the doors slowly opened and revealed a grand library behind them. Rows of bookshelves all around, with another floor that stretched to three-fourths of the whole building. Leaving the rest of the space with a high ceiling, many beautiful chandeliers hung down, and where the bookshelves haven’t reached, the paintings of poets and philosophers hung.
Strada Lucius was a large man often mistaken for a refined warrior who only wore elegant clothing, but in truth, he was a person who preferred knowledge over strength. The whole library was filled with the books of his choice. The one he read, as well as the ones he plans to read.
Lucius immediately turned to the left, where there was a section for fictional stories he adored. His finger moved close to the bookshelf as he looked for a book to read, stopping on a single title, “How I Became A Jarl”. As he picked it up, he noticed that the first part of the story was missing.
“I must’ve forgotten to put it back.” He thought as he moved toward the end of the library.
Under the chandeliers was a reading area with desks to read and learn. At the center was a red couch, the back pillows only on half of it, and the end without them slightly bent down. Designed for sitting and lying while reading. The frame and legs made out of pure gold.
Lucius stopped as he saw a man lying on the couch. White shirt and red vest over it. A standard clothing for Strada’s servants. In the man’s hand was the first part of the book that Lucius wanted to read.
“No servant should enter MY LIBRARY without MY PERMISSION!” Exclaimed Lucius as he took strong and loud steps forward that echoed along with his shouts. As he saw the man not even reacting to his words, he quickly stopped and knelt. As he opened his eyes, the library was drained out of all colors. The shelves full of books of many colors turned dark and grey, and the man lying on the couch closed the book to look at the baron.
“Am I getting rusty… Or am I still annoyed with how my assassination ended?” The man straightened his back and sat as he looked toward Strada’s family head direction, but in truth his gaze was behind him, looking at the marble ball that stopped right by the bookshelf behind Lucius.
“I didn’t realize that Gods’ messenger would come this quickly. Especially a day after the assassination…” The man tried to remain calm, but his mouth couldn’t stop out of anxiety.
“Well… I do have unfinished business.” As Adrien stood up, his appearance changed, the clothes melted into a dark coat, the blond hair into a cape and scarf that hid his true face.
“You mean one of them survived? Could it be… Him?” Strada asked, not wanting to mention the specific name just in case anyone overheard the conversation.
“...Yes. I came here to prepare a trap for him…” Adrien answered with irritating disgust. Like he didn’t want to say those words at all.
“Ask me of anything! I’ll help however I can!” Lucius desperately wanted to show his worth to the gods, mostly to avoid their wrath.
“Okay.” Adrien took out a knife and tossed it in front of Strada. The man looked down at the knife, confused about what he should do with it. Once he looked at the Gods’ messenger for the answer, Adrien quickly gave it to him. “Kill yourself.”
Lucius stared at the assassin, thinking if he had heard the man correctly. “I must’ve misheard…” He then asked out loud, “Could you repeat it? My ears must’ve been plugged.”
“You heard me right. Kill yourself. Slit your throat with the knife, spill your guts out, do it however you like.” Adrien answered as if it wasn’t a big deal. The simplest task he could give the man.
“But… You need me to kill Godan! I can help you set the trap! We had AN AGREEMENT!” Emphasized Lucius as he stood up and shouted at the messenger, his voice becoming pure anger.
“And that’s how you’ll help. Without you in the way, I can slay that man no problem.” Adrien stated with a cold tone, making Lucius understand his situation.
“He didn’t come here to make a trap. His intention was to kill me from the beginning…” Lucius turned around and was about to run toward the doors to get his guards' help. He stopped as he noticed the doors were closed.
Adrien brandished his knives and slowly approached the frozen man. “There is no way for you to escape this place. At least alive. No door, no window will open to you while in my world.”