RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 179

He quickly used the link to enter the virtual room where he found Jack, Rudra, Slaine and a few others talking to one another in loud voices. “I guess the discussion isn’t going on amicably,” said Balthazar sarcastically in a very loud voice getting the attention of all the attendants of the meeting.

“Who are you? What are you doing here? I thought this place was supposed to be secure and no random person could enter the place. This is as bad as the courthouse,” started rambling a person beside Jack dressed as a lawyer while Jack himself had a horrified expression on his face.

“Hi Jack! How are you doing,” greeted Balthazar smiling widely creeping out his cousin.

“What are you doing here? You were supposed to be on your trial for at least 5 more hours,” said Jacking pointing at Balthazar. He was very afraid to do this as his family wouldn’t support his actions. Any conflicts were to be resolved within the family and with Balthazar who currently owned the guild, his family would not support him for inviting trouble to the family business from outside. This is common irrespective of how small a business might be.

Moreover, Balthazar has already accepted and won his challenge about the cyber cafe related business. So, Balthazar could also twist it as Jack undermining the authority of the people who presided over that challenge, especially Arthur. This caused a feeling of panic in Jack as soon as he saw his cousin enter the virtual room. He had waited till Balthazar exited the game and only then sent the invites and tried to finish it up before Balthazar returned. He knew that the trial would take a minimum of 24 hours time to complete.

But soon, he realized that his cousin did exit the trial before the time of 24 hours was up. He himself took about 40 hours to complete his own trial satisfactorily. He had realized that since his cousin had exited, before the trial minimum time of 24 hours was up, there was a high chance that he had failed it.

“I got out of it a bit quickly and luckily heard that you were trying to do something stupid,” said Balthazar. “How come you decide to talk about the guild matters without inviting the owner?”

“Got out a bit quickly?” sneered Jack surprising Balthazar. He didn’t know the reason for the sudden change in Jack’s expression. “More like you failed the quest,” continued Jack.

“I didn’t fail the trial,” replied Balthazar looking at him in confusion.

“You passed within a day? No one did that ever before. The best was 28 hours,” said Jack making Balthazar realize a few things. It was true that Harek informed them that their trial was different. Moreover, they weren’t given any information of the trials of the people before them. Their own trial was fixed to end by 24 hours, but it probably couldn’t have been the same of the trials that happened before.

“You do know how records are made don’t you?” asked Balthazar as he realized the reason for his cousin’s confidence.

“Anyway, if you want to have any claim to the name, you contact me. I am the one that decided to continue to use the name Crimson Realm. If you have any issues, let us deal it as we decide all family conflicts. Like we decided the last one. Moreover, I believe this comes under purview of the bet of that challenge as the guild is also a part of the business of my workshop,” continued Balthazar.

Jack didn’t know if Balthazar really passed the trial or not but looking at his confident speech, he wasn’t sure what to do. His cousin also indicated that the guild is a part of his workshop which frightened him more. He already knew Arthur was on Balthazar’s side and he didn’t want to provoke him. Balthazar also looked very angry. Balthazar was actually livid that his cousin would use the time that he wasn’t present to pressure his friends.

“I. I can, can,” faltered Jack unable to come up with a reasonable explanation. He didn’t want to anger Balthazar and hoped that his cousin would leave him a way out but looking at the livid expression on Balthazar he didn’t feel very hopeful.

Balthazar started walking towards him in the room. A couple of people came in the way, but Balthazar simply pushed them off their feet to the ground. He caught his cousin by his neck and pushed him against the wall of the room.

“Are you the administrator of the room?” he asked in a whisper.

“Huh?!” expressed Jack before nodding.

“The only one? No one else has administrative privileges.”

“Yes.”

“OK. Who put you up to this?” he continued with his questioning. “I know you are a bit greedy, but you aren’t a stupid one. Someone offered you something in return for your help. Who was it?”

“It is the guild leader of the Divine Swords. He offered me a post as a guild leader if I manage to get this done,” said Jack. He didn’t want Balthazar to take this to Arthur. So, he immediately gave up any thoughts of hiding information and gave up the name of the person who put him up to it.

“Divine Swords? If you are lying you will regret it badly,” said Balthazar shaking his cousin.

“Yes. I am not lying. I don’t want you to inform Arthur. It would be nice if we could put an end to this between us and don’t involve anyone else,” requested Jack. Balthazar felt that his cousin wasn’t lying, and he didn’t think that Jack had any good reason to lie to him about this.

“They are quite far away from us in the game. They are nowhere near, in another empire. Why would they want to trouble the guild?” he thought. He couldn’t understand the reason for a first-rate guild who mainly occupies the fae empire were trying to mess with him. At this low level, they had no decent reason to waste their resources for something like this.

“This meeting is done, and Jack doesn’t want to pursue this any further,” said Balthazar looking at the others in the room. “Go back and play the game, I will handle this,” he said to Rudra and Slaine.

“Kick all the others out. We need to talk,” he said to Jack who immediately complied.

“You know why the Divine Swords wanted to do that?” he asked Jack.

“No clue. I asked the same. I didn’t want to enter a deal which he could renege and didn’t want to be someones tool, but their leader Muramasa told that the owner is willing to give me the role of an elder 1% of their shares just for getting the name. He even had papers with signatures done,” replied Jack.

“Who owns the shares. Whose sign did you see?”

“It was Ryan Rowley. Ryan Rowley. He was an old investor of the guild during his youth and had helped establish that guild. His name was Joyeuse in the War god’s Tempest and older games. I only know Muramasa. His name is Sengo Watanabe. I can arrange a meeting between Sengo and you if required,” suggested Jack. He had already heard about the incident concerning Balthazar’s near death and the fact that the ship which exploded was tracked to one of the Rowleys when the Rowley family disowned him and dusted their hands of the matter.

“Hmm. Wait a minute,” said Balthazar as he released his cousin and took a seat in virtual meeting room and began to think about his next move. The name Rowley had caused him to put his guard up. Even though, he had never heard of this Ryan Rowley, he was sure that there is some connection with Raymond Rowley. So, he wanted to make sure that none of them would be alerted by it. But he immediately realized that as the others were kicked out of the room, they would inform it to their superiors sooner or later.

“Arrange a meeting with Sengo. The faster the better,” said Balthazar.

“That is good cause he already contacted me and wants to meet,” said Jack.

“Huh?!”

“He wanted to talk with you about the present situation,” repeated Jack.

“Fine, can you add him to the room?”

“Doing that,” said Jack.

“Give me all the administrative privileges you have and get out of the room for now,” said Balthazar as soon as he saw someone appearing. “We will talk a few minutes later. Don’t go missing.”

“I can stay here and introduce,” stuttered Jack who currently just wanted to calm the parties and get this over with in a peaceful manner.

“It is best if talk this out with one another. I want to know answers for things you don’t want to involve yourself with. You know why I have beef with the Rowleys, right?”

“I guess so, but I doubt Sengo is nothing more than a small pawn. He is not rule breaker that one. He had joined up with them previously for the sake of making a guild, but he wouldn’t involve himself in other things,” said Jack.

“You know him well?”

“Yes. He is not a good guy but has a tendency to do everything as by the rules of the society. Raised by a judge and that,” said Jack leaving the room.

“I hope you are done talking to your cousin,” said Sengo who had seated himself on a chair in the room when he noticed that Jack and Balthazar were talking.

“We are. For now,” said Balthazar taking a seat opposite Sengo. “So, why did you want to meet me,” asked Balthazar.

“Ok. Let me introduce myself. I am Sengo Watanabe, a distant relation of the Watanabe family,” said Sengo.

“Watanabe family?” asked Balthazar as he had no idea who they were. He also quickly searched the web with the same name to get an idea.

“Huh, didn’t expect that. Well, we don’t really move in the same circles. Watanabe family is involved in transport and shipping services. They have only become a bit famous a couple of decades ago, but not near planet Asklepian. So, you might be unaware of it,” explained Sengo.

“Anyways let us get to the issue at hand. I came to know Ryan Rowley through a cousin of the main family as they were in the same business. Ryan invested in the guild for me. I tried to mess with you only because he agreed to sign of the share he owned if I tried,” said Sengo showing him a copy of paperwork signed by Ryan Rowley.

“That is all. This is why you came to meet me? Why are you explaining all this to me?” asked Balthazar unable to comprehend the situation.

“I don’t want to get on the wrong side of you. The lawyers and the rest of the folks don’t know your identity, but I do. When I asked Jack, he initially didn’t want to do anything against you and only after persistent requests from me he revealed your identity. After that even I had second thoughts, but Ryan then changed his offer yesterday. Previously, he had asked to write off his share for forcing you into a lawsuit, but yesterday he just agreed to sign off of I tried and sent me the signed paperwork,” explained Sengo.

“It is stupid to get on the wrong side of a military colonel for something like this. Moreover, one who is currently considered a hero,” added Sengo. “Also, you are a member of the Blyth family and there also have been rumors of the attack on the Nirbadh pirates to be due to your efforts.”

“I was responsible? What rumors? Who did you hear it from?” asked Balthazar in a serious tone as he stood up. It was true that he had revealed Max’s betrayal to the family and that helped them to pursue the Nirbadh pirates, but that was meant to be extremely confidential and under wraps. Even if Jack let this information out, he could be quickly kicked off the family due to the present situation. Moreover, Jack might know that Max was killed, maybe even the fact that he was the traitor from Oliver, but the fact that he was the one who found out about Max was still only known to the top authorities and he doubted if even the elders council in the family knew about it.

“So, there is an amount of truth to it. Was Raymond really helping them?” asked Sengo. Till now, he was not sure of the information that he heard but based on Balthazar’s reaction he believed that at least a part of it would be true.

Balthazar glared at Sengo in anger for having been manipulated to confirm Sengo’s doubts. Now, he ended up being the fool who brought a little credibility to the rumors that Sengo had heard.

“Who told you about it?” repeated Balthazar in deep tone as he sat back on his chair.

“Ryan did. This was his request from the beginning. He wanted to get your attention some way or the other. I am just the messenger who is being paid his shares making me a majority shareholder of the guild,” said Sengo. “Sorry, if I ended up provoking you, it wasn’t my intention, but I was asked to inform you only if you truly were involved in the attack on the pirates. In fact, I would love to have our guilds have friendly relationship over time.”

“That is a matter of discussion for another time. For now, please forward me the message,” said Balthazar.

“I don’t have it with me. He didn’t want to give it, but you will receive it in a day’s time. The password is the original timestamp on your invite to this room,” said Sengo as he got up. “Please, understand that though Ryan still blames you partially for his brother’s death, he insists that he only intends to cooperate with you to bring the true killers of his brother to justice.”

“That is all, I was requested to say. Thank you,” said Sengo as he shook his Balthazar’s hand and exited the room.