Vibrations on my phone woke me up that I immediately took after, to not wake Hestia. I grabbed my robe and put it around my body as I answered it.

“Yes, I assume this is urgent.” I commented, heading to the kitchen to make breakfast. 

“My apologies for disturbing you this early morning, Dame Rei. I would just like to inform you that we have disposed of the remains of the body, and have got rid of any traces. I have also sent you the full details of his background and where he is working for” the man spoke on the other line. 

“Very well. Tell Jacob to set about the plan on the Blue Mansion. The other guy was just a collateral damage after all” I ordered.

“Noted, Dame Rei” he responded right before I ended the call. 

I proceeded to create Hestia’s breakfast and settled it down on the small table outside. The sound of the splashing waves on the shore and birds chirping from the distant mountains were bordering as I endulged my coffee while reviewing the files sent to my email. I took a sip while scrolling down its information. 

The sound of footsteps then caught my attention as Hestia suddenly appeared on the open passageway towards here. I abruptly set aside my laptop, right after she sat on the table.  

“Good morning, love. How was your sleep?” I asked as she took a bite of the eggs and pancakes I had prepared for her. 

“It was totally peaceful,” she answered, gulping her pineapple juice “especially since you were beside me” she added, shyly. I smiled and removed some syrup at the edge of her lips using the phalanges of my index finger.

“You go get a bath. I will set the course back to the docks so you can get enough rest.” I instructed and she nodded seemingly, making her way the comfort room.

As I proceeded to the helm and started the engine back to the port, and found myself recapturing.

“I lost them. Damn it. Stupid! I was just following them” the guy in an all-black tux and pants, cursed as he went outside his car, going for a phone call. Thirty minutes later after talking to a man who seemed outrageous from the other line, he went back inside, and just right there, a sharp double edged dagger blade was placed in his throat. 

“Well, hello there. You may scream if you want but that might be futile, for you’d probably be choking your own blood while doing so” I said. “So how about you tell me precisely, why were you following my car?” I asked, staring at his frightened eyes at the rearview mirror that was not expecting me. “You better start talking. I really don’t like wasting my time, so are my hands with whom I am trying to control the urge to slit your throat” I whispered, as I felt him trembling. How hilarious.

“I— I was assigned to follow Miss Hestia. I was—wasn’t following you! I was tasked to get her. That’s all! Please!” he pleaded as he tried to explain himself.

“Sure, let’s get deeper into that shall we?” I fired the electric shock weapon on my left hand that was already placed at the back of his neck causing him to pass out. 

The following moments were just sounds of muffled voices against the cloth placed on his head, echoing in the room, as I took out a modified gun for a russian roulette inside my play box. 

“There, you’re awake finally.” I said, grabbing the cloth bag from his head looking down at him.

“You! Where—where are we?! Please I have no bad intentions! I was just doing the job assigned to me!” he supplicated once more, looking at his arms chained down on the table in front of him.

“Yes, I got it, I got it” I nodded as I grabbed the chair to sit across from him. “Do you know what this is?” I took the revolver and showed it to him.

“A-a gun of course!” he said, trying to act tough as he answered. 

“Quite right. This is indeed a gun, but I tinkered it a bit you see, and modified it to only fire 10D with 9-gauge nails rather than bullets” I shared, then looked at him with a smug look in my face. He clenched his jaws.

“What do you want?! Money?! My boss can totally give it to you! I can arrange a negotiation for you!” he said as fear ran through the veins of his eyes, and his body was already aware of the danger he would be put into.

“Tsk, so hasty. Now let me tell you a game that I would like to play with you. If you win then I will let you go. It’s called Russian Roulette. If you tell the truth from the questions I will ask, I will fire the revolver on my head. If I get shot, of course I will perhaps die, you are free to go. If you lie, I will fire the gun on you” I flashed him a crooked smile as I continued. “There are nails that I will load to the chambers of the cylinder, and each of them might end up on my head, or your hands. But here’s the catch, the probability of you and me being hit by it will be under the luck of rolling the chambers. Exciting, isn’t it?” I explained, delighted.

“What?! Are you sick?! I will not play that crazy ass game of yours, you bitch!” he shouted, as he shackled his hands from the metal surrounding his wrist.

“Well big guy, you don’t have much choice at all, do you?” I said as I chuckled. “Now let’s begin! First question, who are you working for? Since you stated you are just tasked to do it, aren't you?” I asked him, tracing the muzzle to his fingers. He took a moment to respond, trying to think what to say. 

“I—I worked for the police of the royalties. I was t—tasked to keep an e—eye to Miss Hestia, for h—her own safety…” he answered while his index finger started to scratch the table and his eyes kept moving from left to right, then to me. 

“Ah. Are you sure about that?” I asked, while pulling the hammer of the revolver. 

“Yes! I am telling the truth!” he said desperately, as I tilted my head mocking him. 

“Ah. However, the Royal guards don’t wear suits and pants, let alone have their own Bentley car. This is not the first time I saw you following Hestia, you were there from the very beginning of the school year, studying and tracking her” I told him, as I placed the point of the revolver at the back of his palm. “I am going to ask again, why are you spying on her?” I said as I rolled it. He fists his hand trying to break away from being strapped, and I pressed it harder.

“Okay! Okay! I was told to monitor her and tell everything she does to Sir Gomez. He wanted Miss Hestia to be taken away and be brought to the boss’ mansion by the end of December” he said.

“I see, Mr. Gomez huh” I retorted. “You lied then, Mister” I whispered and pulled the trigger as the nail punctured through his hand. He screamed in agony that made my heart blazed. Hearing his misery makes the game even more thrilling. 

“You shit! I told you the fucking truth!” he said out loud as tears fell from his eyes from the pain. Very entertaining. 

“Well, you lied on your first answer, didn’t you? I am just playing fair here.” I laughed at him and loaded another nail. “Second question, why does he want to get her? Ah, let me paraphrase. What was his plan over Hestia?” I asked, moving the gun on his other hand. 

“Please, I don’t know! I was just doing it for the money he was paying” he responded as another wave of panic in his expression surfaces. 

“Too bad, that is not the answer, and so you are lying” I pulled the hammer of the revolver preparing for another shot and he stopped me. 

“Wait! Wait! I think I heard something he said about it! I—I once asked his p—plan and he said the boss wanted to take o—over the king’s chair through her! Through having a child with her. That’s what he said when I was in the meeting with them!” he said with rashness just to escape the situation. I stared at him with cold eyes as I heard his confession, the flames at the back of my spine turned blue, burning every bone in my body, and the urge to tear limbs and ribs shrouded my sense of rationality with the man he was working for. Still, I remained. 

“I see. Well done, with that Herbert. Herbert, isn’t it? It’s on your I.D. Now let me roll the cylinder and let’s see if I get hit with the nail I loaded” I spun the cylinder of the revolver, placed the muzzle on my temple and pulled the trigger. With the sound of a loud click, I laughed as the gun didn’t puncture my head. 

“Oh god, how unfortunate! I got lucky! Hah!” I continued while insulting him through my tone. He looked at me with horror-struck in his face, his jaw dropped as the nail didn’t go through me as his eyes hoped. 

“Where were we again? Ah, what is the name of your boss? The one who initiated this operation you commenced? Not the Sir Gomez you have said of course” I said, staring down at his poor face. He hung his head down, and shook it trying to conceal his tears.

“I don’t know his full name” he said while not looking at me, trying to hide the information by not looking at me directly.

“You don’t? Are you sure about that?” I loaded another nail on the cylinder and the sound of a clack echoed on the room as I pushed back to its barrel. 

“Yes, I don’t know, you dipshit! You better fucking let me go or I will beat you up to death!” he shouted as he forcefully shook his body, like it will lose him free. I laughed at his own demise. Pathetic.

“Oh? You would? Why don’t you try” I said, mocking him, and pulled the trigger once again, impaling the second nail to his right hand. He clenched his jaw extremely before he let out another scream of torment. His mouth slobbering from the pain.

“We can do this the easy way, or you can choose the hard way” I said as I sat back on the chair, putting my palms on my cheeks after settling my elbows on the table.

“I-I really do not know his name, or so at least. W-we call him Monsignor. I just know he lives on Elm Street, with that big blue mansion. Sir Gomez is the only person who knows who the boss is” he answered, forcing himself to talk through the searing pain.

“There you go. Why don’t you try to just answer with honesty rather than choosing the painful road, Herbert” I raised my eyebrows and told him that. “Now let me try if you’d get what you are waiting for” I placed another nail on the gun, the muzzle of the revolver in between my eyes, and pulled it, where only a dud strike reverberates the room. 

“Ah! Another lucky spin!” I said as I ran my tongue at the back of my cheeks. 

“Ch—cheat! You cheated! How can the revolver miss the shots you take towards you?! You clearly set it to just fire on me!” he said. I smirked at him.

“How can it be? You see, I have been aiming at myself just the same as I do to you. Now for the last question. Do you think you will be able to win this game with me?” I asked, cocking my head.

“O—of course! Because you stand by with what you said right?! I—I answered all your questions correctly. I gave them all to you! Now please let me go!” he said with extreme desperation. I laughed intensely at him, and he froze on his seat as I loaded the last nail on the gun.

“You truly are so entertaining!” I stated and pointed the revolver in between his eyes. “But you got it wrong, señor” a final loud bang resonated in the room, while a freshly curated art was seated in front of me. His eyes rolled at the back of his head as the last nail pierced his forehead. How marvelous. 

A car engine stopped outside and I stood up, putting back the gun to the box. Pulling a black towel out, I wiped my hands with alcohol smeared on it. 

“Good evening, Dame Rei,” a man spoke behind me. 

“Dispose of the body, and make sure to not leave any cell of his existence” I dictated. 

“Who is he, Rei?” a young man in his early twenties appeared at the back of the first man. 

“A miscalculation I needed to elucidate” I responded. “I need you to check the owner of the Blue Mansion in Elm Street, and send me the details” I added as I noticed little blood stains on my sleeves.

“Should I prepare the Hades Edict for this one, Rei?” he asked once more.

“Might as well, it’s close to that one. I will give you more orders after I get my hands on his background” I asserted.

“Got it, Rei” the young man answered, as I left the scene.

I twisted the wheel as the harbor’s platform started to appear in the distance. As I clicked the buttons to set the course straight, soft hands enveloped my waist. I smiled. 

“Is everything alright?” Hestia asked with a troubled look.

“Yes, Corazon. Everything is perfectly fine.” I touched her cheeks and placed my palms against it. “What’s with that look?” I asked back.

“You look like you were about to sink on the train of your thoughts” she stated that made me chuckle. 

“It’s the thoughts that actually made me feel fantastic.” I told her, after remembering the night I left her in the house. 

“Well, I am hoping I am on those thoughts” she said, lowkey teasing. I pulled her closer and kissed her.

“You never left in my mind, Hestia” I confessed, making her cheeks red and goosebumps on her arms. She tried to not smile.

We arrived exactly at the port five minutes past 12, and I decided to just buy the lunch out, and drove Hestia back to the house. She fell asleep while we rode back, and I ran a little faster to let her rest properly and comfortably on a bed. She must be that tired, so I carried her to the bedroom and laid her there carefully. 

“No one shall ever touch even a single hair of yours, sweetheart. I promise.” I touched her cheeks using the back of my finger and kissed her forehead.