A tall middle-aged man in a black coat entered the living room. A couple of meters behind him there were two guards and another group of slaves who won the auction, from the 1st and 2nd sectors; it was clear by their poorly hidden smiles.Kyon noticed for the measured gait of a man that he was an ordinary person and possessed some abilities.
All the people began to part from his way, and the trio, mastered the shop, moved closer to the wall to make room on the mini-stage. Their importance was clearly inferior to that man who were the coat.
Rising, the man indifferently glanced the gathered crowd, and then, having cleaned the throat, spoke:
«All of you probably know who I am and why I"m here. I"m not going to stay in this place for a long time. The three people who made the most bets would be promoted and sent to the estate…»
Although these words were heard every year, they always made a splash in the living room.
Each slave evaluates the promotion followed by moving to the estate as something unimaginable, as something that would completely change one"s life for the better. Delicious food, favorable living conditions, high salary ... The opportunity to become a footman of some gentleman, making his life a fairy tale, or even to become a servant, or even a livestock breeder, that"s where the dream of an ordinary poor man. The prospects were unimaginable, yet the estate belonged to the Stones, the family number one in the Kingdom. The price of promotion in contrast to the usual freedom was on average three times higher.
The man in the coat, aka the delivery man, spread his hands and said solemnly: - «...Let the auction begin! The first rate is five thousand rupees, who proposes more?»
There began to stretch hands with the subsequent shouts: «Sixty thousand!» ... «Seventy thousand!» ... «Ninety thousand!»
As a result, the first person bought the promotion for 250,000 rupees.
Kyon decided to buy the promotion of the second lot, believing that it would be cheaper.
Soon his thoughts were justified: he won second place for 220,000 rupees. Psychology and the mood of the ma.s.ses were at his fingertips.
And yet how well it worked, that to him came the rich Pinocchio and kindly gave their possessions. With the last amount he would have before the auction to plow many, many years, but rather would have to come up with another cunning plan. Everything worked out as well as possible. What awaits him at the manor? He couldn"t wait to find it out.
The third person won the third place for 275,000 rupees, collecting this amount for about 10 years. Still, promotion was worth such amount of money, but any freedom was not. Another year a slave in would not stay for the mine any more – he wanted to save, taking the third, and it turned out, as always. Surprisingly, his face demonstrated sad and happy tears at the same time.
Kyon, imperceptibly to the others, gave the rest of the money to Mike, who was already healthy and eternally grateful, shook his hand and followed the man in the black coat outside.
Given rupees, as far as he was aware, were not in circulation in the estate.
On the way from the living room he was met by a happy strong man Borya, also shook his hands, patted him on his back. «The legend of the guy who defied the system, and, most importantly, won, would be echoing for a long-ter throughout the mine. Good luck in the future, Kyon.»
John, Kyon"s old supervisor, was standing in disbelief. This sniveler bate him up, maimed him, took his money, and now he"d got a promotion with his own money. This world is unfair…
Babil shed an angry tear, clenching his few teeth. The little cheater was not the man he could cross, he was not a sucker, he was a tiger in the skin of a sucker.
Byron called Martha to warn her that the guy was leaving the mine, and went to see him off. :
«Kyon, I"m so happy for you! Hopefully, people in the estate will treat you well.»
Kyon smiled:
«Don"t forget our conversation. By the way, I have left you a surprise, you"ll find out tomorrow what.»
The big man looked down at Kyon with interest. He liked surprises. As a result, he smiled warmly, shook his hand:
«All right, kid, take care of yourself. I"d leave you a surprise, too, but I have nothing to surprise you with.…»
«That"s okay.» Kyon patted on the shoulder of the person due to him n.o.body for a whole week encroached upon a large amount of money in his pocket, while there were enough the ones who felt like getting rich. If not for Byron, to get out of the mine, he would have to go a roundabout way, which would take perhaps not a month, and maybe not two.
Kyon realized that delayed cleanup of Byron"s keys, and not to the level of «master» would not fully write off his debt. Still, in the future, he was sure to pull him out, and perhaps even help to make revenge, if it would not be difficult for him.
The guy, after shaking hands, followed the supervisor in a black coat. He prudently hid on the body the amber crystallized energy, potential explosives, which in the future could serve him in any case, moreover, it is, as a matter of fact, is money, not that rupees.
For Kyon to hide something from the search was simple - he just hid thesmall stones under a dense bandage somewhere on the forearm.
A group of people were approaching Sector 4.
Today Mob was working alone at the checkpoint, as he owed Bob a day off. He was sprawling out in a chair and read a book, pretending to be an intellectual, or really did not want to be equal to the local slaves, and then, turning around, noticed a group with Kyon.
The question itself came out of his mouth:
«Kyon?! Are you a winner?!»
The guy nodded:
«My adventures are coming to an end here.»
The deliverer man in the coat hid the surprise that the guy had contacts with the authorities, approached and indifferently told Mob:
«If you know each other, it makes the things easier. Write down in your report that he won and would be sent to the estate. I"m in a hurry.»
Mob lightly bowed, knowing that the person in front of him was the respected one, and quickly began to make journal entries that would only bring up confusion.
There were heard the footsteps - Martha came to say goodbye to Kyon, the boy who had made her have the most unusual week in the mine.
Mob, recording, involuntarily looked round at the familiar sound of footsteps, and cried:
«Martha! Hi!»
The woman, seeing all those present, especially Mob, smiled sheepishly:
«h.e.l.lo…»
The man broke into a blissful smile, then coughed awkwardly.
Martha approached Kyon, took him by the hand and spoke:
«I didn"t expect you to have so many secrets! I"m so glad you got out of here. I hope you"ll be all right at the manor.»
Kyon, seeing her good-natured, pretty face, nicely smiled and replied:
«All that things would not happen without your aid. Thank you for your operations and for your Cooperation.» - and he winked at her conspiratorially.
Martha covered her blus.h.i.+ng face with her hand, carefully averting her eyes. She was indeed an accomplice in Martin"s murder, albeit unintentionally.
Mob, startled, as if remembered something, suddenly grabbed the boy by the hand and firmly shook it, the second hand patted him on the shoulder:
«Kyon...well... Don"t be bored. Well... Good luck.»
Kyon looked at the man in shock. So how Mob could shake a slave"s hand? No way. It was clear that he wanted to impress Martha. And, moving his gaze to the woman, he mentally nodded – it had worked! Yes even as!
Martha covered her mouth with her hand. She always hated that Mob bate up slaves, treated them worse than bulls.h.i.+t. And that time he was shaking hands with one of them! Smiling! Is that the same man? Even after protecting herself from a mad servant, she had seen many good qualities in him, and now... but she still hadn"t said anything to Byron, hadn"t broKyon up with him. She had to be more determined.
Kyon cleared his throat, answered the question:
«I won"t miss you, believe me.»
Mob took away the handshake, almost imperceptibly wiped his palm on his pants, continuing to "smile sincerely". It was not in vain that he had cheated. An expression on the face of the beloved woman was indescribable.
In the meantime, the supervisor stared at the boy as if looking at the anomaly. He met such a young slave in the mine for the first time, well, okay, maybe he had done something criminal and had got here at such a young age. Then he was surprised that the slave had enough money in his hands to buy his freedom. This amount could be earned for many years of hard work, and he here was unlikely to work hard since his infancy, therefore, he had somehow cheated. But how to cheat, whom to deceive and steal to acc.u.mulate so big amount of money? It was very strange. Later it turned out that he was friends with the boss of the mine! Even stranger was the fact that the nurse came out to say goodbye to him! Oh, well, you can believe she liked the handsome young one. But how he could be a friend of the supervisor, who, as far as he remembered from his previous trips, despised slaves?! This young man was too mysterious. Curious... very curious how he manage to do it. Everything on the whole increased the a.s.sessment of the guy in his eyes by many times.
Suppressing his astonishment, the delivery man spoke in a raised tone. «Have said goodbye and it"s enough. If you want to stay in the mine, stay.» Having finished his speech, he followed in 4 th sector with the group.
Kyon, throwing a last smiling glance at Martha, waved her two fingers to say goodbye and followed the supervisor. He decided that for kindness and help he would return her debt in full, but he needed to start to stand on his feet and spread his wings.
The woman followed the guy with her glance with longing. Suddenly his straying silhouette became looking very similar to her son, suddenly everything seemed somehow symbolic. Tears flowed from her eyes, and her heart was so sad. Memories of the past overflew her, again all repeats itself…
Mob saw the weeping beloved and tactfully put his arm around her. «Well, well ... He"ll be ba... He"ll miss you, too.»
Martha nodded, wiped her tears, and shouted after him.:
«Take care of yourself!»
Kyon didn"t turn, but he was smiling.
Eventually, the group crossed the border of the Sector 3... Now none of the old acquaintances would not disturb the guy. He realized this, he exhaled deeply and somewhat sadly.
After 3 hours, after auction in the other sectors, the man took a decent group of slaves away from the mine. At the sight of the formation on his wrist, the guards respectfully let him through.
A mountain wind blew. Kyon saw a beautiful mountain landscape. The sun was at its zenith, and somewhere in the distance was visible greenery, a small river, birds ... Beloved nature which the slaves were not able to see for many years.
The faces of the other slaves expressed delight. They haven"t breathed fresh air for ages.
The man led the group to a large cart drawn by two unusual animals. He climbed up on the coachman"s seat and beckoned to the others.
{My journey is just beginning.} - reminded Kyon himself, settling down more comfortably.
…
Twenty-four elders were sitting at a large round table in a half-open Palace. Half of them flickered like an illusion. If you look up, in the sky you can find a huge blue ball - a planet called «Life».
There was a discussion of an extremely important issue among the two factions which were opposing for thousands of years.
A tall illusory man, aka the Emperor named Mubay, with short blond hair, sharp eyes and a pair of translucent white wings behind his back resembling angelic, spoke in a firm tone:
«We have considered a proposal for a compet.i.tion for the right of possession of the gates to Argus for the next hundred years. We agree with all the points, except the following: it had been stated stated that there should be a hundred of the highest geniuses on each side. We a.s.sume that it would better to leave twenty-five people, rather than create a real ma.s.sacre on the planet of the lower.»
A man named Ryder, Emperor of the opposite faction, with a pair of dark wings behind his back, with an unusually imposing appearance, said with a grin:
«Do you expect me to believe that you care about the fate of the sc.u.m? Tell me you don"t have enough young geniuses to match us.»
Mubay"s illusory silhouette"s reaction was sharp and haughty. «Our geniuses have always been famous for quality, but not quant.i.ty! We are long and hard to cultivate some grain of gold, not stamped packs of rotten ones!»
A fierce dispute ensued in an attempt to humiliate the opponents " faction and defend their position. After the incident for some time, both sides achieved a compromise: there will be 50 partic.i.p.ants from each side.
Mubay, head of the faction of the light, summed up:
«In the new year, on the day of the closing of the gate, we put fifty of the best geniuses under the age of eighteen in random places on the planet. They will all start with the third area of perfection, their success will depend only on intelligence and talent in improvement. The losers will strictly follow the terms of the agreement, and the winners will have the right to use the gates to Argus the next hundred years. Now let"s sign a spiritual contract.» - he looked at the leader of the dark faction.
Ryder signed the doc.u.ment with a confident smile and said solemnly:
«And may the STRONGEST win, I mean US!» As he finished speaking, he dropped the projection link, leaving the last word to himself.
He lazily waved his hand, ordering the elders of his dark faction to leave the conference room. Everybody left with reverence on their faces, there stayed just an extraordinarily beautiful woman who put one hand on his shoulder.
Emperor Ryder with an evil smile pulled the gorgeous woman to him and kissed her with his tongue, at the same time touching her soft b.u.t.tocks, soon pulled away and said:
«Darling, we don"t have much time to prepare. Organize a qualifying tournament throughout the Kingdom. I want to see the top fifty young geniuses in the next month. And make sure you take care of our son. He must get the best training and resources, yet he is born to be the first.»
(Author"s note: thank you for reading the first arch, dear readers. Just want to warn you that the second arch you may mistaKyonly throw all the failures that occur with the main character, in his folly or foolish behavior that is not quite right, because it will all be ideas of the author and no more. He would not have avoided future events, even if he had behaved differently.
P.S. If you have the impression that he is superhuman, capable of anything and everything, superminister, cold-blooded genius and all that, then please do not uprate much expectations. I would like to immediately admit it"s been a mistake - I a.s.sign him a very high bar, that is unreal to be preserved. Besides, my creativity, albeit not obvious, but will focus mainly on the romance and extraordinary relations.h.i.+ps with the female characters - and the flash-forward proves it. Mind games and the implementation of genius main character in all its glory I will not exclude, of course, it will be sometimes slipped. Kyon is an unusual man, but still has some weaknesses, such as, for example, weakness to particularly the beautiful, in especially to girls, sometimes recklessness (until limited vague allusions about this part of his character), Ah and, of course, high emotionality, that for many can be perceived as antipode rationality and genius. Thanks for understanding.)
(Author"s note: I will have to post chapters once every 2 days.)