Within a spacious room were fifteen men of various statures sitting side by side along a round table.
They each wore different attires, but they all had one thing in common.
A part of their body was constantly moving.
A toe, a finger or their entire feet was moving, or they kept looking over to the sun trying to see how much time had passed.
It was as if they were constantly being pricked with needles, their bodies itching.
After a minute, one of them finally spoke up.
"Does anyone know where he is?"
"If we did, we wouldn't be waiting here with you, now would we?" another said.
"True, but does anyone know why he called us all here?"
"Well, I don't. I only got a letter telling me to come to this place. What about you guys?" a third said.
"Same here"
"Me too"
"So…we don't where he is, neither do we know why we're all here, and now we're all waiting here with no idea of when he is going to arrive…sigh…this is troublesome"
"Yeah! Why can't he be on time?" another took it up.
"We're wasting time here when I could be using it far more efficiently!" he continued.
At this moment…
*Click*
The door opened up to reveal Cabrera, who mentally counted the number of people present and found them to be all here.
They were the thirteen Alchemists he told Ezra about.
"I'm sorry for taking your time, but I'd advise against slandering" Cabrera released a wisp of killing intent while staring at the last man to talk, before adding…
"Because I'm sure it hasn't been ten minutes since you all arrived. I advise you to be patient. That said, anyone who doesn't want his time wasted can leave"
Cabrera observed their reaction for a few seconds, but no one left. And so he continued…
"Since it seems no one is leaving, let's begin the meeting" then he finally sat down.
"I called you all here to grant you an opportunity" he said, before adding…
"Whether you grasp it or not will be on you" paused, then continued…
"I made an alchemy recipe that I believe will generate enormous profit. But I alone am not enough, so I called you"
Cabrera stopped at this point, making his purpose known.
"Can we see this recipe? And if it is as you said, how long will we work for and how much will we be paid?"
A man of thirty years said, with a monocle on his left eye and wrinkles on his face.
The others kept silent, choosing to 'wait and see' how the situation would pan out.
"You'll be allowed to see the recipe…"
Cabrera answered as he pulled out a scroll from his clothes, but then he took out another one and said…
"...after you sign here"
The eyes of all the men shook as they adjusted their monocles, or rubbed their eyes to make sure they saw it right.
Laid on the table in front of them was a folded scroll of bright gold color with wisp of golden mana occasionally leaking out of it.
"I-Is that w-what I think it is?" the man with the monocle said with his shaking index finger pointing at the scroll, before looking at Cabrera who had an innocent smile on his face.
At this moment, thoughts began to sprout in the heads of the fifteen seated as they looked at Cabrera with a predator's gaze.
The atmosphere in the room suddenly became tense as killing intent began leaking from the bodies of all thirteen.
Their thoughts followed the same direction.
'If I'm able take it, money shouldn't be an issue for a long time'
'He's only at the Intermediate rank, so this will be easy'
'I don't care if he's just crazy or really dumb, but I'll be taking that'
'He'll get intimidated and back off since he can't take us all at once'
They might be Alchemists, but each had learned at least one offensive and defensive combat art to protect themselves in a dangerous or desperate situation.
All of them being Mid-tier Adepts while two were intermediate rank, so killing one intermediate rank, no matter how rusty their skills were, couldn't be that hard…or so they thought.
As greedy thoughts filled their heads, while thinking of how to steal the scroll, Cabrera spoke.
"Yes it is what you think it is, it's a Dark-Gold soul contract. But I hope you sirs are not having any funny thoughts"
At this moment, thick killing intent, as well an overwhelming aura, erupted out from Cabrera like a volcano.
At this moment they knew…they had fu**ked up!
"Hiieeek" one of them screeched before falling on his back, beads of sweat forming throughout his body.
The fifteen others had frozen, their face's immensely ashen at this moment, and all greedy thoughts were immediately extinguished.
Cabrera, who was the cause of all this, merely kept his innocent smile, before retracting his aura.
'What was that just now?' the man with the monocle thought.
Just now, the moment Cabrera released his killing intent, he had died.
Only for his sight to return a second later. His brain could be said to have shut down due to the signal all his five senses transmitted.
Which was why his body had frozen. Like entering a coma for a second, his senses were all giving the same message.
It was death. He would undoubtedly die should he go against the man, no, the beast in front him.
'He's a monster'
Or rather…
'He's become a monster'
Because the Cabrera they knew wasn't a monster.
Similar thoughts went through the minds of the other fourteen.
The room became as silent as a graveyard, before…
"Well, aren't you going to sign it?"
Cabrera's voice rang out pulling the men from their reverie.
"Y-Yes, where do I sign?" the monocle man could only stutter out a response as Cabrera handed him a magic pen and showed him where to sign.
The others immediately did the same. All their thoughts were focused on survival at the moment. Not wanting to anger the beast in front of them, they hastily did so while neglecting the terms written, or rather, they couldn't afford to read it.
Once the last person signed, Cabrera signed and the contract broke into light particles and entered the bodies of each party involved.
"Now that that's over, welcome aboard" Cabrera suddenly said, baffling the seated men.
Only for them to shout a minute later.
"You bastard, what did you do?"
"You tricked us!" one exclaimed.
"I did no such thing" Cabrera denied without a change in expression.
The man with the monocle only asked…
"When?"
Cabrera smiled at this question and answered…
"The moment you all froze"
"Haa.." an exclamation of realization escaped his lips as he nodded, before asking…
"So, what is it you want from us?" he asked.
"Your unconditional loyalty and cooperation" Cabrera replied as someone shouted.
"Like hell I'll work for you, you thieving, scheming, pile of-"
As he rained curses, Cabrera said "Shut up" and…
"Mmm! Mmmm! MMMM!"
The man's clasped shut, refusing to budge as only muffled sounds were heard.
The man's head popped at this insult and shouted even louder. Too bad, only louder muffles were heard.
He looked like a kid throwing a tantrum.
Cabrera ignored such drama and faced the man with the monocle, saying…
"Now, Sir Navarro, where were we?"
Navarro only gave a glance at the muffling man before saying…
"You were saying what it was you wanted from us"
"Ah, yes. Before I continue, take a look at this" he said as he flinged a coin onto the table for all to see.
And the minute they did…
"No way"
"Is that…No, that's not possible"
"Damn…what the hell is going on?"
Another round of gasps and eyes widening ensued.
And how could they not…when the equivalent of a hundred gold coins was tossed in front them nonchalantly.
It was a PLATINUM coin.
While the monetary value wasn't much. One must know that platinum wasn't something in circulation.
It was the money that nobles of Viscount level and above, S to B-rank guilds, clans, kingdoms, dynasties and Empires held to themselves, because items worth using platinum to buy weren't something common. Far from it.
The missionary had this because it was financed and monitored by the Empire, and it was used to allow easy counting of money.
After all, the missionary, like Cabrera had seen, housed thousands of products and also had thousands of purchases daily.
Money was always flowing in.
So if they left all that in gold…well, it would have filled up the building, hence the conversion.
Nobles and merchants had it, but it was in very few numbers and those wouldn't ever be used casually, not to mention handing it to someone like Cabrera.
So, for Cabrera to have this…the undercurrents were moving. And for all they knew, they might have just been brought into a war between kingdoms.
.…!
Alarms rang in their minds. Even the man throwing tantrums had gone silent.
A minute went by with each having their own assumptions and suspicions as Cabrera nodded, before saying…
"It's not as urgent as you think, but it is also more urgent than you can imagine"
Cabrera could guess what sort of thoughts they would have by putting himself in such a situation, so he spoke first to take the initiative.
The men were making weird gazes at the cryptic message before Cabrera added…
"But that's not for you to worry about"
Which calmed them a little, but Cabrera wasn't done…
"Instead, have a look at this" he said as he handed them the Alchemy recipe 'he' had made.
"Yes, just like you suspect, 'they' were the ones who gave the recipe and the gold scroll to me" he said.
"Hmm, this…sigh…this is really troublesome" Navarro said as he rubbed his forehead, before looking at the recipe.
His face began to change into one of astonishment before he looked at Cabrera and asked…
"Do you know the one who made this recipe?"
"Seriously? Of course not!"
Cabrera was implying that the power that had hired him didn't deem him important enough to tell.
"Hmm, what a pity. I would have loved to meet him" Navarro said, before passing the paper on.
The same reaction took place each time…
"Wow! This is…"
"Genius, I tell you, genius"
"So that's the ingredients you need!"
"How did he even think of this?"
After all fifteen read it and made their remarks...
*Cough* *Cough*
Cabrera coughed to get their attention, before saying…
"Now that that's over, let's talk"
