For the first few minutes after Hiro left them, the assassins sat in the bedroom in silence, catching their breath and contemplating what to do next. Their moment of reprieve is interrupted by the sound door opening. Their worst nightmare had walked through the door. It was Rex.
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Upon seeing him all of the assassins tense up, but don’t move, for fear of getting into a fight with him. “You all can relax. Hiro filled me in on the situation. Regardless of how I feel about you guys, I won’t attack you.” Rex says through clenched teeth, suppressing his rage. Despite his words, the tension in the air was palpable. After he speaks, he surveys the room, looking for Rose. He spots her unconscious, leaned up against the bed next to a frightened Vuella. “I’m just here for her.” He says, pointing to Rose. He picks her up and walks her out of the room without saying another word. After he leaves, someone else walks in, this time it’s Helen. “Well hello to you all! I’d like to formally welcome you to the royal palace. My name is Helen Azor. What’re your names?” She says with a smile on her face. The difference between Rex’s approach and Helen’s approach was night and day.
“My name's Elajuel. I’m the oldest of us. It’s a pleasure to meet you”
“My name is Velajul. It is nice to meet you.”
“The name’s Vuella, and I’m the youngest. Nice to meet you.”
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As they introduce themselves, Helen notices that Vuella is still tied up. “It’s great that we introduced ourselves, but how come nobody untied you? Let me get that for you.” She says while walking over to her. She conjures a magic pair of scissors out of thin air and cuts Vuella out of her bindings. “Thank you for that. I guess my brothers were too shocked at what just happened to untie me.”
“She should have left you tied up if you were just going to start yapping at us.” Elajuel says in response to Vuella’s jab.
“It’s good to see that you guys are starting to get your spirits back up. Aside from introductions, I’m here to give you all your first job.”
Elajuel sighs and says, “Who do we have to kill this time?”, “Kill? Nobody said anything about killing. Your first job is to clean and fix up Hiro’s study. From what I was told, you fought Hiro and Rose there last night and wrecked it.”
“We’re… Cleaning?”
“Yes, you’re cleaning. Now dust yourselves off and come with me.” She says sternly.
.
.
.
Helen walks them over to Hiro’s study, grabbing brooms, towels, and buckets of water, along with a few tools. Once there, they start picking up all of the scattered books and papers in the room. While picking up papers, Velajul stops to read a few of them out of curiosity. After skimming through a couple of them, he feels a hand rest on his shoulder. He quickly turns around and sees Hiro standing above him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Vuella and Elajuel finally turn around to the sound of his voice, having not heard him enter the room. “I mean you no harm. You two continue working. Velajul, come with me.”
“Yes Sir.” He responds with a hint of nervousness in his voice. They walk out of the room and proceed down the hallway in silence until Hiro stops one of the maids passing by. “Could you bring us two glasses of water to the courtyard?”
“Yes my Lord. Is there anything else you and your friend might need?”
"No ma’am. Also, he’s not a friend, he’s family. Treat him and his siblings as you would treat the rest of us. Pass this along to the rest of the palace staff.”
"As you wish, my Lord."
Velajul is perplexed as to why he would say that, but says nothing of it.
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As they enter the courtyard, the sun is still rising, accompanied by the chirping of birds in the light morning breeze. Hiro walks over to a bench and gestures for Velajul to sit next to him. As he sits, Hiro says, “You sure are a quiet one.”
“I could say the same about you. Respectfully of course.”
“You can drop the ‘respectfully’. You don’t need to be formal with me in the palace.”
“So then what should I call you?”
“Rose calls me Mr. Hiro, so if you’re fine with that, it’s fine with me.”
“Well then, Mr. Hiro, it’s good to officially meet you, but why did you invite me out here?”
“I wanted to see how you feel about your current situation. Based on the room of emotions that we were in earlier, I could more or less tell what your siblings were feeling. But you… you remained silent throughout the entire exchange. Even after your brother said he wanted to die."
"I was coming up with a plan. My siblings usually count on me to plan out our missions, along with an escape plan if anything were to go wrong. In layman's terms, I'm the smart one."
"So, what did you come up with?
"The best course of action was to let the situation play out. There was obviously something that happened between Rose and Vuella prior to our arrival that made them friends despite her being a hostage, so I decided to let them handle it."
"You sound awfully nonchalant for someone who could've died from one misstep. Ignoring Rose, you three were being held captive by one of the strongest men on the planet."
"You're one of the strongest around, sure, but I knew you wouldn't have killed us. At least not there in that moment. I've researched your habits for a while. Back when you and your brother were simply hit men for your mother, you would only kill people when it was just you and the target. It seems you prefer to take care of 'dirty jobs' when people aren't looking."
Hiro pauses for a brief moment, as if Velajul had struck a nerve.
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"That's pretty good. Most people don't know about any of these 'dirty jobs' that you speak of. I wouldn't call us hit men, more like her hands and feet once she got too old to catch and execute runaway criminals. You really did your research on me."
As Hiro speaks a light fog begins to roll out of his sleeves and pant legs. He gives an ominous laugh and stands up to face the now nervous Velajul. The sky above them, as well as the courtyard around them, started to grow dark, as if it were the night of a new moon despite it being early morning.
"There is one thing that you forgot. I am not afraid to kill for this kingdom, nor am I reluctant to do so. The only reason why I let you live is because I wanted Rose to figure out how to resolve the problem on her own."
Hiro leans forward, mere inches away from Velajul, staring directly into his eyes. As he does so, two water dragons appear behind him from out of the fog, peering over his shoulders and glaring at Velajul.
"Listen to me very closely. Dismissing a possibility that can end with the deaths of you and your loved ones based on your enemy's 'habits' is ridiculous, especially against an opponent such as myself. Do not ever act in this manner again for as long as you live."
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Velajul is visibly shaken to his core. He is terrified at the menacing scene before him. He is speechless until the maid from earlier enters the courtyard with their glasses of water. Hiro notices her and instantly dispels the darkness, wafts away the fog, and dismisses the dragons in the blink of an eye.
"Ah you're here. I was starting to get thirsty."
Hiro says, walking towards her with a smile, as if nothing happened. While Hiro chats with the maid, Velajul takes a deep breath to try and compose himself. He had just found out that Hiro was scarier than he initially thought, and he had more skills than he had showcased previously. "Rex's water dragons, a dark affinity for magic, his fog ability, in addition to one of the greatest minds in the nation. He is a truly terrifying man." He thinks to himself as Hiro walks back with the water.
“Don’t misunderstand. My family and my kingdom are the two things I hold dear and you are a part of both, so I wouldn’t dare to harm you. However, I would do anything for the preservation of those two things.
"That’s all well and good but I have a question. Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what? Talking to you? I don't think I need a reason to conversate."
"You know what I'm talking about. Are you testing me? Why did you show me what you did, but you didn't use it to dispose of me, or even threaten me? Was it to see how I would react to a display of power like that?" Velajul says while taking one of the two glasses of water from Hiro.
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"This isn't a test, it's a lesson. Take what I said and apply it to your missions going forward. If you want to succeed in your future tasks, you will need to think differently than you do now."
"But why teach me anything? If you yourself are as intelligent as you are, and you already have the lesson we speak of, why teach it to me?"
"Let me ask you a question. What would happen if something happened to me right now? If I died at this very moment, what would happen to this kingdom?"
Velajul stops to think of an answer, but is struggling to find one. After a few minutes, he says, "I suppose someone in the royal family would step up to take your place."
"Yes and no. Yes, because that is what would likely happen, but no because it's not that simple. Unless I bolster those around me with skills and knowledge, they won't be ready for the worst case scenario. Being king has shown me that trouble can come at any time, whether we're ready or not, and I, as the current king of Rahu, need to make sure you all are ready to act when the time comes."
Hiro’s words and actions are starting to make more sense after his explanation. After he finishes speaking, Hiro gets up attempting to leave the courtyard. "I should get going. Rex and Helen have been waiting for me for near an hour. I hope this has been as educational for you as it has been for me."
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"Mr. Hiro, everything makes sense, at least most of it does. The one thing that I don't quite understand is why you said 'when the time comes' instead of 'if the time comes'. Do you see an ominous fate in your future?"
Hiro stops, turns to him, and shows him an almost pained smile. "I can't tell you, but it's good that you're as sharp as you are. You'll figure it out when the time comes, but until then, there's no need to worry about it."
As he walks off, Velajul sits alone in the courtyard, pondering Hiro’s words, trying to figure out what needs to happen for a man like that to be concerned about his own future.
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