Chapter 6 - Simon

Chapter 6 - Simon

Pretty knew there was no point in escaping now. Even without them doing anything yet, she’s probably already caught in their trap. There was no way they’d put a heat sensor only in this place and not everywhere else if not to lower down her guard. They probably already put some traps inside and outside the medhall.

Not a second later, her hunches were proven right.

The sprinklers in the ceiling turned on, blasting a yellow colored solvent on the whole medhall entrance and the staircase.

Before she could run to evade it, the yellow liquid already drenched her in a matter of seconds. Her invisible form started to take shape into a yellow outline of a person. She did not even bother transforming the liquid around her into invisibility as that would only consume too much renisas.

With her form exposed, five meters of octagonal nets suddenly shot out and wrapped around her from the mounted barrels at the four edges of the portico.

Each of the edges of the nets had special screws in it immediately drilling to the floor, trapping her inside it.

Her whole body was confined to that space, with only little space for her to move. She tested the net's strength by tugging it in her hand and it did not budge.

She was trapped now.

In a span of a second, she debated whether to cut through the net. It was not a sturdy net, only made with synthetic fiber, and with a knife anyone could hack it. But she eyed the four barrels above her and decided not to.

She suspected that the moment she cut to the four nets covering her, another set of nets could shoot out for her.

She instead removed her body invisibility and waited for the Summit’s next moves. She was oddly calm inside and she did not even feel a tinge of fear. Now that she was captured, her plans to escape might be close to impossible but she would still try to see it to the end.

Anyway, the worst that could happen to her was death. She already accepted this fact when she landed in the City yesterday.

She knew there was a huge possibility that she would fail and die as a result. She already made peace with that. But even if she had expected it to happen, it didn’t mean she would just stand there and take it. As long as she could breathe, she would try anything to survive. She would take any seconds of time to prolong her life, and if death was the only way out, she would make sure to make the most of it.

So Pretty stood there, with the sprinkler now drizzling her with blue solvent.

The sprinkler was not that strong, it was only enough to wet her and make her body look like someone dropped a bucket of paint on her.

A second later, the sprinklers changed its solvent to red, adding another color to her. She didn’t mind and just held her head down waiting for the Summit to make its move.

The sprinkler suddenly stopped and a row of Summit soldiers, armed with rifles, rounded up out of nowhere around her.

They pointed their guns at her and she knew she had no way out now.

A middle aged man walked out from behind them and approached her.

Pretty’s eyes immediately turned colder.

He was a tall and handsome man, with dirty blond hair, dressed in a black dress shirt and pants wrapped in a white trench coat.

He had the demeanor of a respectable and amiable man at the prime of his age. His name was Simon, and he was the leader of the Truth Holder's Summit.

Simon was sporting a stern but concerned expression as he looked at her. He sighed. “It’s been a long time, Pretty. How are you?”

Pretty’s hands fisted. If there were no nets between them, she would have lunged and scoured the eyes of that man who was acting really well as if he was really concerned for her. But instead she held back her anger. A sliver of a plan was slowly forming in her mind.

Probably seeing her obviously disgruntled, Simon stopped approaching her. “Don’t think of doing anything funny, Pretty, or we will have no choice but to shoot you. You already have done more damage to the Summit… that terminating you outweighs the benefit of keeping you alive.

“But don’t worry. As long as you surrender and promise to repent. We will not hurt you.” His voice then became gentle. “If we have wanted that, we could have the Senior Officers apprehend you. If we wanted to hurt you, then you would not be running in the city unharmed. I hope the run in the city has lessened your temper.”

Simon’s bearded face now, had a kind expression as if he was just a father trying to reason out to her rebellious daughter.

With his patient and gentle demeanor, anyone who did not know him would be fooled. But she knew better.

She once worshiped him. She grew up unwanted where everyone didn’t want to do anything with an abomination like her. But he always believed in her even before she had her ability. Even after that, when she proved to them that she was also someone who had the ability to be a member of the Summit, most kids only envied her and the adults did not even care. She realized that time that even if she had an ability, they still would not care for her or give her attention. What would her invisibility benefit them?

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Simon was the first one who believed she could do more, urging her to believe in herself. Even if people taunted her, that the head only cared for her because she was useful, she did not believe them. Because she was desperate for someone to recognize her and care for her. So she took what she could get.

In fact, when she thought about it now, it was not a lie. He indeed believed in her, that was why she worked hard to prove to him that his faith in her was not misplaced. Just for him to be proud. But she did not know then that he only believed in her because she was under his control and also because he was useful to her. They were right all along. Once she stopped following his orders, he would even resort to killing his own brother just to get her.

Yes, he was her uncle, the one who killed her father.

Pretty gritted her teeth, coldly staring at Simon. Her face might be masked but the eyes above it showed cold hatred towards the man.

As if Simon couldn’t see her throwing daggers with her eyes, he started to approach her again. “Stop this, Pretty. Let’s talk this out. We are not your enemies,” he appeased to her, as if she was just throwing a tantrum and did not betray the organization he led by giving their vital secrets and information to their enemies.

One of the Summit Soldiers, WInston, who was also Simon’s assistant, looked at Pretty with derision while he addressed Simon, “Sir, if I may say. She had already made enough troubles to the Summit. Why are you even negotiating with her, let’s just terminate her, Sir.”

Winston used to respect Pretty before, but it was clearly not the case now.

Simon shook his head, “Quit it Winston, there must be some kind of misunderstanding here, we should talk it up first.”

Winston grimaced at Simon’s words. “Then she should have talked about it to us first! She had been making trouble for us— for months! She thinks that just because she has an indispensable ability— we can’t do anything about her. TWENTY! Twenty bases of the Summit had already been compromised. Sir, she doesn't deserve forgiveness.”

The other Summit soldiers nodded their heads agreeing to Winston’s words. They also share the same opinion, but Simon just looked at them patiently, “It’s just bases, no one died from it. What matters is we get to know the real reason why Pretty is doing this. Pretty had contributed so much for the Summit, she deserved to at least be heard.” Simon then looked at Pretty. “Now Pretty, why are you doing this?”

Pretty did not answer, letting Simon continue this pathetic act of him in front of her. She never met someone as shameless as him.

“Maybe she joined another organization and was acting as a spy from the start.” Winston offered his guess.

Ghena, another assistant of Simon, nodded her head vehemently. “I agree. I heard she hated the Summit since she was a kid. And it was about some small fights here and there. I’ve heard she’s not that popular during her training days. How could she grow if she couldn’t even take a beating?”

Pretty smiled bitterly inside her at the irony. She might have been bullied before but she always repaid them in kind. Now, they were speculating she betrayed the Summit just because some kids bullied her when she was a kid. They must think of her as shallow.

Winston agreed, “Yeah, this kind of person should have been cut off from the start. Head Simon, considering what she did — if we pardon her, what would the new recruits think?”

The other Summit soldiers also shared some few words of agreement but Simon only shook his head. With a compassionate face he turned to them, “I understand your concerns but that is not how we operate here. If we’re talking about lessons—we also need the new recruits to learn that mistakes are not something they should be afraid of, as long as they reflect and know their mistakes, they can still be a valuable member of the Summit.”

The Summit soldiers understood what Simon was trying to say but they also thought that he was being too kind. Despite this, they did not voice any opinions again.

Simon then turned to Pretty. “Pretty. Please, you can talk freely. It’s about time you told us what’s happening. Are you threatened? Or compelled? Did we do something?”

No matter how many times Simon asked. Pretty have no intention to reply. She just felt tired and did not want to argue in this pointless tirade.

While Simon and the soldiers were waiting for her answer, Josh walked in from below the stairs, limping. His forehead was full of sweat and he looked beaten. But his eyes were aflamed, throwing daggers in Pretty's direction. “She thinks you killed Uncle Fredrin, Head Simon,” he said without preamble.

Simon appeared to be shocked and confused by his words, “What? Why would you think that Pretty?” He paused and his face turned mellow hearted. As if blaming himself, he sighed, “Yes, It’s true. We’re at fault for his death. We did not protect him— and the others well. We’re sorry for that Pretty, but we are also grieving for his deat—”

“She thinks—,” Josh cut him off, “you killed him, Uncle Simon. You,” he glumly said to him, his face still glaring at Pretty. Josh then glanced towards Simon and for a second, his eyes flashed with concealed emotions.

“What?” Simon said, shocked. “What nonsense is this?” He looked at Pretty with disbelief. “Who told you about this Pretty? This is— This is a lie! It's absurd! Whoever told you about it must be lying! Is this why you are doing this? Because you thought I had a hand with Fredrin’s death? How could you think that? How could I ever hurt my own brother?!” Simon said with hurt in his voice. He held a hand in his heart as if he was hurt by her accusation while his eyes misted.

He then took a tentative step towards Pretty and mournfully said, “I have always—always—” he emphasized, “cared for you Pretty and your father–you know that right? I did not know you had this misconception that somehow I had a hand of Fredrin’s death.

“But we are also angry by his death, and we also wanted to know who killed him so that we can exact our revenge. I don’t know how you came to this conclusion— but think about it. Why would I kill my own brother? He is my family. I can never do that to him.

“Let’s clear this misunderstanding. Come back to us. The one responsible for your father’s death must be somewhere out there but you are here doing this instead. Let’s find the real culprit with your father’s death together. Help us. This is what your father would have wanted. ”

Pretty did not know if she should be impressed or baffled by his audacity. If someone happened to see this, they might be easily convinced with Simon’s words. A tear even fell from his right eye as if he was really sad about the tragedy that happened to his brother.

WIth his clear sincere eyes, it would easily be seen as he was just as sad as he said he was. But she knew better.

In fact she knew a lot more than she needed.

She had seen this man’s real self many times. But the one she could never forget in her life, was that one Saturday night when he mercilessly hacked his own brother’s neck as if he was butchering a pig with a dull cleaver. He had a gun with him but he did not use it, instead he took a dull cleaver and hacked it till his brother’s head fell down to the ground, in front of her.