CHAPTER 40: CHAPTER 39: YOU WORK FOR ME NOW

Kael was done playing nice.

He was very angry this time. He wanted to see the end of it.

He came to find Red Morn’s lair this time. Although Red Morn was dead, some of his people were still here. It was in a slum area. where the city’s lowest—and most dangerous—called home.

It was a place where the city guards were afraid to come even during the day. But Kael had come here alone at night.

He found a bear-faced man sitting on a broken crate outside a shack that stank of fermented fish. The man was half-drunk, one tusk chipped. Bigger than Kael.

Kael’s eyes met his. No blinking.

"Where’s Red Morn’s lair?"

The bear-man tensed. "You lost, human?"

Kael didn’t respond. Just took one slow step forward. The kind of step that says you’d better start talking before I take something from you.

The bear-man shifted, then looked away. "Three alleys down. Red door with black paint. You’ll smell it before you see it."

Kael nodded once. "Thanks."

.....

Inside the lair, things had gone to shit.

Four of Red Morn’s former thugs were picking through what was left. The boss was dead, and now they were stripping his corpse blind. No honor, just hunger.

A barrel-chested brute with a twisted nose and cauliflower ears was tearing a painting off the wall. "Reckon this is real gold frame?" he grunted, tossing it to the ground.

They were the four thugs. The leader of these thugs was that woman sitting on the throne of Red Morn. She considered herself the king of this place.

A few days ago, they had tried to rob Kael. Kael had beaten them without breaking a sweat. Made them look like fools.

Now, they were stealing from the corpse of the devil who once owned them.

"Are we really doing this? Robbing a dead warlord’s den... after that guy killed him?" one of the thugs said.

"Better us than the guards. You want this to end up in the city treasury? They’ll just ’confiscate’ it and line their own damn pockets," the woman said.

"She’s right. This is freedom money. We’ve worked for him for so many years, so we deserve it. Here, our hard work pays off. We take this, we leave Ginip. Change names. Start over," Muscle Guy said, wiping dust from a golden skull-shaped goblet.

"You saw what he did. You really think someone like that just lets things go?"

"He’s probably gone. He got what he wanted. We’re just rats cleaning up the crumbs."

"Crumbs worth more than anything we’ve seen in our lives. You want to go back to slitting purses for coins?" Thug 2 said, folding all types of coins into a large bag.

"I want to stop sleeping with a knife under my pillow," Thug 3 muttered. "I want to stop looking over my shoulder. I want peace."

"Then take your coin and shut the fuck up," the woman snapped. "Nobody gets to be clean in this city. You want innocence? Join a monastery."

Everyone laughed.

"We should hurry anyway. We need to get out of here quickly, with what we can carry. Before someone else shows up."

"Too late,"

They all froze.

The shadows at the ruined entrance shifted—and out stepped Kael.

His presence hit the room like a steel trap snapping shut.

All four of them froze. One man dropped a sack, coins spilling out across the blood-soaked floor. The woman reached for her dagger.

Kael didn’t speak at first. He simply looked at them—just cold focus. The kind of stare that said he wasn’t here to negotiate.

"You’re stealing your boss’s money," Kael said, voice low, tired, dangerous. "You left your leader behind. There is no loyalty among you. That makes you either smart... or stupid."

"We—we didn’t mean anything," one of the men stammered. "We just... Red Morn’s gone. This shit doesn’t belong to anyone now."

"Wrong," Kael said. "It belongs to me."

He stepped closer.

"We—we can split it," another man blurted. "Fair share. You get half. Hell, take seventy percent. Just let us walk."

Kael’s face didn’t change. He looked at the woman. "Your hands are shaking."

"I’m not scared," she said.

"Then why’s your heartbeat so loud?"

That was enough. They lunged.

The woman struck first—dagger drawn, aiming for Kael’s ribs—but he sidestepped, grabbed her wrist, and slammed her head-first into the nearest wall. One of the men came from behind with a chair leg, but Kael ducked low and swept his legs out from under him. The other two hesitated—and that was their mistake.

Kael wasn’t just angry. He was surgical.

In seconds, all four were on the floor. Groaning. The woman’s nose was broken. One of the men had a dislocated shoulder.

Kael stood over them, breathing hard. Not panting—controlled. Like he could’ve gone ten more rounds.

"Please," one of the men croaked. "Don’t kill us. We’re sorry. We didn’t know."

"You knew enough to run," Kael muttered.

"We’ll leave! We’ll disappear. We’ll never come near your shit again. Just let us go."

Kael crouched beside the woman. She met his gaze, blood leaking from her mouth.

"What’s your name?"

"Vera," she whispered.

"You’re in charge, right?"

She nodded.

"Then you’ll answer this once. You work for me now. Or you die."

Vera’s lips trembled. "Why would someone like you need people like us?"

Kael stood and looked around the ruined lair. "Because this city is rotting. And rot attracts flies. I need people who already live in the filth. Who know where it festers."

One of the men laughed bitterly, coughing up blood. "You some kind of... vigilante merchant now?"

"I’m a businessman," Kael said. "I sell power. And you’re going to help me build a network."

Vera looked around at her broken crew. "You really think we’re loyal material?"

Kael stared into her soul. "No. But I know loyalty can be bought. Or burned in. You’ll start small. Cleaning. Watching. Reporting. You fuck up, you vanish."

Then his tone shifted—not softer, but heavier. Like thunder rolling in over a dead city.

"But if you serve me well—if you prove yourself—I will give you more than scraps. I will give you wealth and power beyond anything you’ve ever imagined. I make realities. I am not a man who talks big."

He stepped back, gaze sweeping the ruined lair as if he already owned it.

"I’m a man who builds what others are too afraid to dream of."

He did not want to give him another chance, and now he decided to punish him.