Chapter 15: Trust Me, Bro
Later that day...
——
Dante locked the door to his room. The large room was bathed in the warm, dim glow of soft lamplight and the crackle of a stone fireplace roaring quietly on the left. There was a small round table near the fire with a crystal decanter of liquor, a stack of books, and a single black rose in a slender glass vase. Against the far wall was a four-poster bed set with a leather trunk at its foot, and to the right was a mahogany desk piled with books.
The walls were covered in deep green and gold damask wallpaper above dark wood wainscoting, decorated with a number of heavily framed oil paintings.
Dante walked over to one of the paintings on the side wall. It was the classical portrait of a reclining nymph, loosely draped in silk that left her breasts exposed, and her eyes were fixed on the viewer with a coy, distant gaze.
Without studying the painting, he lifted it off its iron wall hooks and placed it gently on the carpeted floor. Behind where the painting had been was a recessed brass turn-dial, framed by a set of tiny, interlocking gears inlaid directly into the wall’s wooden paneling.
Dante reached out, spinning the dial three notches to the left until a subtle click echoed inside the wall, followed by two turns back to the right. Just then, the sound of gears turning could be heard, and then, the wall began to move on its own, swinging silently inward to reveal a hidden room.
He then stepped inside and turned on the lights, bringing a pale, amber glow to the space. The room was like a messy detective’s hideout. Lots of newspapers were on the floor, and their front pages were marked up with dark ink and crude red circles. There was a board in the center of the far wall, which had dozens of portrait sketches, clipped news articles, and handwritten notes all connected by a web of taut red string.
One of the writings on the board read: Get the favor of Evelyn, Mother of Blood. If that fails, Plan B is the mountainous zone between the Administrative Province of Valenzia (near Vesperia) and the Colonial District of Celestia. There should be a temple in the mines there belonging to Mors, the evil god of the Undead.
Dante picked up a red charcoal pencil, and since he had now succeeded in becoming the Apostle of the Goddess Evelyn, he drew a bold, decisive line right through Plan B.
"Phew... that’s done!"
He couldn’t help but smile because Plan A had worked. There were too many problems with Plan B.
For one, he wasn’t sure exactly where in the mines that particular temple was. But more than that, he didn’t really fancy the thought of being around corpses. Also, from what he could recall from the wiki about the very few Apostles of the Undead, many of them lost some of their senses, like that of taste, during their ascension.
’I can recall that I once read the profile of an apostle who said that the cost he had to pay to use his power was sleeping with corpses to gather divine energy.’
As he thought that, a repulsed look flashed across his face and he shuddered at the thought, subconsciously drawing another line across the text.
Once again, he praised Evelyn in his heart for accepting him. ’I do not know much about the other unorthodox Gods, including where their temples are located. By the way, why am I just seeing the irony between the two now? While Evelyn is vigor and life, Mors is death.’
With that random thought, he turned and took a step toward where the small picture of a young man in his early twenties hung on the board.
This man’s name was Ezio, and he was an NPC Dante had known when he first played the game.
The game Crown of Fates was an MMORPG where players could be anything they wanted and do anything they wished. Unlike in this world where one was born fixed to a particular class, in the game, one could choose any of the classes from mage, warrior, high priest, rogue, and merchant.
The class one picked affected everything about a character’s progression, from the passive traits they received, to the kind of magic they could learn, and the lifestyle they could live.
In the game, there were so many things to do, from simple daily activities like crafting and running a shop, to open-world quests, running cults, and high-stakes Labyrinth expeditions. But one of the things that made the game popular was the deep connection players could build with NPCs, along with the feature to form parties with them or to just have them as followers who would be willing to do anything for their leader.
It worked much like a web of side quests. Many NPCs had personal troubles or ambitions, and if a player could fulfill these requests, they would gain a fiercely loyal follower. The greater the task completed, the higher their Affection Meter would fill.
Using that mechanic, one of the followers Dante, or rather Michael, had secured during his playthrough was this exact young man who went by the name Ezio.
It was a hidden quest that he stumbled upon with a high reward, as Ezio was a skilled tier-two warrior and one of the uncommon Red-Graded Apostles with an incredible Divine Skill.
He was the perfect right-hand man, but more than just his power was the fact that Ezio had lots of underground connections and could gather information.
Now that Dante was in this dangerous world, recruiting someone like Ezio was an absolute necessity. There were a lot of things that even Dante was not aware of in this vast world, and there were even more things he needed to achieve. He needed his own personal people... people who did not report to his parents but were strictly loyal to him. So Ezio would be very important for his plans now and in the future.
’Plus... he was a really interesting character and friend back when I played the game.’
While he was still looking at the picture, a voice suddenly sounded beside him. "Who is that angry-looking fellow?"
Without turning to look at Edward, who had appeared beside him, Dante smiled and replied, "Someone I need to recruit to my side."
"Ooooh."
Edward grinned in an unsettling manner and leaned over to look at Dante.
"Where is he?"
Dante looked at him and replied, "Prison. To be exact, Val-de-Grâce Penitentiary."
"Huh?" For the first time since meeting him, Edward seemed puzzled.
Val-de-Grâce Penitentiary was the worst kind of prison one could imagine, located on an island in the middle of a treacherous sea.
That was where the worst of the worst were locked up, and once a person got thrown in there, there was no release until they died. There on the island, the prisoners were forced to do hard labor, fight for survival, and endure relentless torture.
"What did he do?" Edward asked, rubbing his chin.
Dante shrugged and replied casually, "Decapitated a bunch of people he shouldn’t have messed with."
Edward shivered. "Oooh, I like him already."
’I knew you would,’ Dante chuckled in his mind.
"But there’s a problem here..." Edward mused, scratching his head. "How are you going to get him out of prison?"
Dante smiled. "No. There’s no problem."
"Huh?"
"Money." Dante rubbed his thumb and index finger together in the universal sign for cash, then spoke like a man possessing immense wisdom. "Any problem that can be solved with money isn’t a real problem."
"Ooh!" Edward nodded in deep agreement. "Wise words, Master. I must say, I learn a lot from you."
Dante smiled and accepted the praise with a nod.
Meanwhile, Edward turned to see the image of a young lady who looked to be the same age as his master. She had long blue hair tied neatly and a black lace blindfold was wrapped snugly around her eyes.
"And who is this?" Edward asked, tilting his head.
"Ah..." Dante did not reply immediately. After a few seconds, he reached out and touched the image, then let out a slow exhale. "Her name is Annabella. She began as someone unreadable and evolved to be a very powerful villainess in this world." He paused for a few seconds before adding, "She is also the one who will kill me a few months after we return to the academy."
"What?" Edward snapped his head toward Dante, and his expression instantly changed.
Seeing that, Dante chuckled lightly.
Indeed, the first person to die in the Fioravanti family was Dante Fioravanti, who was assassinated by his classmate Annabella Bellini during the mid-session examinations after she was manipulated into doing so.
"I don’t understand..." Edward muttered, blinking in total disbelief.
"What don’t you understand?" Dante asked calmly.
"What do you mean, what don’t I understand? You are even speaking in the future tense. How do you know this? What’s your source?"
"My source?" Dante smiled faintly. "Trust me."