The Underworld

RANLEIGH

After Bryce left, a maid guided me to my room that was prepared especially for me — that was at least what the maid said. It is on the second floor of the mansion and it is nerve-wracking to memorize every turn we made on our way to my room. The mansion is so big and there are so many hallways. I couldn’t memorize the way out of the mansion at all. Hell. It even looks like a palace.

After arriving, I thanked the maid and smiled at her. The maid just bowed her head. “I’ll prepare your bath, my lady. Please excuse me.”

I nodded my head and cued the maid to get out of the room. Without looking back, the maid got out of the room as if in a hurry.

I sighed and slumped my body on the bed. I took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling that was carved with ancient designs.

Prepare my bath? What do they think of me? An idiot who couldn’t even prepare the bath for myself?

I shook my head. This life is just too different from my life outside the Marquisate and it isn’t for me at all. Although my life is simple, I am greatly satisfied with it.

I don’t have to deal with so many complicated things. I only had one problem and that is how I could pay my grandfather’s debt.

My phone rang and I immediately answered the phone call without checking who it was.

“Where are you?” The man’s voice from the other line was hoarse. He was breathing heavily. It was Bryce.

I cleared my throat. “I’m in my room. What’s the matter?” I asked.

He was breathing heavily as if he just came out from an excessive workout.

“Stay there and no matter what, don’t come out. If possible, hide somewhere safe. My men will come to pick you up.”

With that, Bryce ended the call leaving me clueless. All suddenly, the light turned on and off. It’s impossible that the sudden interruption of the electricity is because of insufficient supply. Something is really going on outside the mansion.

I stared at my phone and furrowed my brows. What’s happening on my first day in Bryce's mansion? Everything was just fine earlier. Everything was in place until now. I scratched my head. Bryce didn’t even let me ask a question and immediately ended the call. They were really living with their, ‘no question, just obey’ rule.

Knowing that I might be in danger, I couldn’t stay still without doing anything.

I walked near the curtains. I gently dragged the curtain sideways and looked outside the window. There were men in their masks who were shooting bullets towards the mansion on the land floor.

Damn! The furniture out there that costs probably millions would be in waste. I sighed in dismay. Just thinking about the money spent on it was enough to make me sigh in disappointment. The house might not take a big deal out of it but I am different. I could even buy a brand new house and lot if I sold those paintings but now, all of those were as good as trash.

I could see the men were slowly invading the mansion. I could hear the maids screaming at the top of their lungs from the lower floor. While I was listening to their scream, the door of my room burst open. A man entered the room and started looking around. I hid behind the thick curtains before the man saw me. I listened carefully to the footsteps.

“Where is she?” the man asked himself.

Fortunately, the man was alone. However, his colleagues might be somewhere inside the mansion so I had to be more careful.

“Just come out, lady. I promise I won’t hurt you. I swear.”

I rolled my eyes. Does he really think that he could fool me—that I would believe him? Is he, perhaps, an idiot?! I laughed silently. Just like a noob, the man wasn't really that good at what he was doing. If he wanted to be believable, he should have at least hid his gun under his pants, but the man was displaying it as if ready to shoot. They had shot bullets against the Marquisate’s men. It was given that I would be involved, or worse, I might be one of their targets. I am Bryce's fiancée after all and as absurd as it sounds, I am now part of the household too. What made them think that I would come out just because they told her to? I would choose to stay beside the frigid Bryce than to be killed by their ugly ass.

That reminds me!

I looked at the vase near the vanity table. It was just near the window. If only I could move without being noticed, I could get the chance to get a vase and slam it to the guy’s head and send him to death myself. It might be risky but I won’t let myself be a damn lady-in-distress who needs a knight-in-shining-armor to save me. That was the last thing that I wanted to be.

The man walked near the door that is on the other side and got inside the room. That is when I got the chance to grab the vase and walk fastly beside the door and wait for the man to come out. The vase was a bit slippery due to the gloves Bryce’s closest aide made me wear.

Silent footsteps.

What I am doing is really risky and I know it might put my life on the line but I couldn’t care much about it. This was nothing compared to the things I had done in order to pay our debts. I wouldn’t be able to pay our other benefactors if I only worked as a marketing strategist in a small thriving company after all. Although it had been months since I quitted, my training and experience couldn’t be erased in such a short period.

When the doorknob moved, I readied herself to slam the vase on the man’s face. Timing and the crucial body part of the target should be taken into consideration.

After the man got outside of the room, I immediately slammed the vase on his face. The man bended in pain and groaned. I didn’t waste my chance to attack the man. I clenched my fist and blew it against the man’s cerebellum. I also grabbed the man’s head and struck his face with my knee three more times. I kicked his abdomen and grabbed his hair. He groaned in pain and weakly warped his arms around my legs.

“Please stop. I surrender,” he begged.

I cackled. “Not too fast, you idiot,” I said as I dragged him near the bed.

“You bitch! I’ll kill you if I get out of here alive!”

“That is if you get out of here breathing.”

I strangled his neck and chuckled when I saw his face that was almost turning white. Only when the man lost his consciousness did I stop beating him.

I get the gun from the man and look at the vase. “What a waste,” I stated.

The vase costs thousands of dollars. I saw it once as an item in a bidding party and from how it looked, I know that this one is the real deal compared to its replica displayed in an art museum. The price starts from fifty thousand dollars and the one who won the bidding bids two hundred fifty thousand dollars. In short, the vase itself is a fortune.

I grabbed the thin bed cover from the bed and tied up the man and covered his mouth with a cloth to detain him from moving and to shut him off. I saw the tattoo in his arms and it was from a big org from the underworld. But why do these kinds of people target Bryce? It’s not possible that it is because of me since no one in the underworld knew my real identity.

I sighed. Seems like the Marquisate is hiding something.

The people were divided into three hierarchical groups. Nobles, commoners, and the ones who succumbed to the darkness, who people called underworlders. Underworlders are those people who are doing bad things to gain the best of the world. It could be the nobles or commoners. Though they are considered to be in the lowest in the hierarchical group as they do things that are considered as immoral. Underworlders are mafias, syndicates, gangs, and other illegal groups who kill for money.

I was part of it. I killed for money. Though, most of my targets were the country’s most wanted criminals and families who gambled people’s lives for their own gain. Most of them have done such disgusting things that deserve the death as penalty. I was a hired killer.

I dragged the man onto the side of the door of my room and kept the gun under my pant’s pocket. I locked the door and dragged the man again towards the balcony and let him lean on the railing. I deterred him from being tied and kept the bed cover except for the cloth that was covering the man’s mouth.

The bed cover was from my room. From the way I tied this old fool, only a fool would believe that the one who tied the man was a noob and only an idiot would think that I wasn’t the one who beat up the man and tied him using the bed cover of my bed.

But Bryce and his men aren't fools and they are fast to catch up. If I leave the bed cover there, it could be used as circumstantial evidence against me and they might find me suspicious. I need to be careful. This is the household of a Marquess after all and those who live with Bryce are the best of all of their men. They stand out a lot because of their praise worthy combat abilities and their mind’s capabilities.

I fixed the queen size bed to how it was before like nothing happened. I covered myself with the blanket and closed my eyes like I was just taking a nap. After a few minutes, someone knocked on the door three times, however, I didn’t move.

After a few minutes of waiting, the door burst open. Bryce looked at me while I remained in my position. I immediately closed my eyes when I saw him run towards me in panic.

“What the hell happened?!” he asked as he ran towards me and held me between his arms.

I groaned. Bryce’s smell was so calming and I hated the fact that my heart skipped a beat the same time Bryce touched my skin. Bryce’s embrace was so warm. As if I was made for Bryce, I totally fit perfectly in between Bryce’s arms.

“Boss, I think the lady is just taking a nap.”

“We’re not sure, though. Check the area and kill everyone who is suspicious.”