Chapter 14

Artemis Thaleia's POV

"Good evening, my lady."  I took my eyes off the elevator that Sin rode back to his room.

I turned to look at a woman in her mid-twenties, wearing the same uniform of the servant I'd seen on dinner earlier.

"I'm Catliona your lady-in-waiting. I'll take you to your room."  She mumbled.  Instead of taking the elevator, we used the Chateau's grand staircase instead.

"I'm sorry we had to sort a few things in the room where you'll be staying. Lady Mallory didn't tell us right away that the Miscreant had a new member which is why we haven't prepared anything for you,"  she mumbled.

My eyes darted on the paintings that were hanging on the wall.  I stopped walking when my eyes landed on a world-famous one.

I came closer and tried to examine the painting, I knew nothing about painting but this one looked like a legit painting of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

"Is this?" I tried to ask.

"Bring these boxes into Artemis' room and you can leave us alone afterward," Mallory said.

Her eyes darted on the same painting.  "That's the original Mona Lisa painting of Leonardo Da Vinci, my favorite one." Mallory glanced back at me

"I paid Euleasis millions to have that one."  My lips parted.

"I remember asking Eul to steal a blueprint which he managed to do within an hour, but stealing something like this one is a different case.  Is he that good?" I asked Mallory.

"For how long did you have this painting here?" 

"Three or four years," Mallory replied.

"But there was no news three or four years ago that the Mona Lisa was stolen," I trailed.

"They didn't know it was stolen." The playful smile came back on Mallory's lips.

"H-Huh, but how did he do that?" Mallory asked.

"I don't know. It's an Eul thing as he called it. I don't care about how he did it. What's important to me was he managed to bring me the painting," Mallory said and led me to my room.

"Starting tomorrow you're an unofficial member of Miscreant Mafia until you prove yourself worthy to become one. If not then you must bid goodbye to your life, Artemis," Mallory said and was close to leaving when she turned back to me.

"By the way, those boxes were sets of contact lenses you must wear every time or at least if he's around. Sin hates seeing your eyes and their natural color," she said then walked out of the room. 

I gawked at those boxes for a moment.

"Why would he hate my eyes?"  I whispered.

****

Sunlight hitting my face woke me up from my sleep, despite that I chose to close my eyes and pulled the comforter to wrap it around my body to sleep again.

"Good morning, my lady."  I heard Catliona's soft voice.  I got up and opened my eyelids even though I still wanted to sleep.

"Catliona?"  I called her and then got off the bed.  A few seconds passed and she came out of my walk-in closet.

"Do you like coffee, tea, or milk, my lady?" She asked with a smile that drew my attention from the clothes he placed on the bed.

"I'd like to have black coffee please,"  I muttered. 

******

A few steps before I could reach the shooting range where Sin was, gunshots filled my ears. Sin was standing a few meters away from a target holding a golden-coated caliber 45 pistol.

A man walked towards the target to pick it up and ran back to Sin to show it to him. Every bullet that he fired up landed on the bull's eye.

"Good morning, Artemis." Rivalee greeted me before she took a shotgun from the row of guns lying on a table.

"There you are,"  Sin said then sat on the red couch by the gazebo.  Thayer handed an ear muff to Rivalee before she rose to her feet and marched her way to the shooting range.

"Does she know how to use a shotgun?"  I asked. Conrad tore his eyes from his phone and stared at me for a moment before he put his attention back on it. Lorcan on the other hand was busy assembling a gun

"Well, what can I say, Miscreant raised her well," Mallory murmured as she smiled in Rivalee's direction.

A few minutes later after the shotgun bullets ran out. We saw Rivalee remove her ear muff, and then make her way back to us.

"You hit them all?"  Thayer asked.  He dropped the double-sided knife that he was playing with on the table. Rivalee nodded with a smile then took a bottle of water from Thayer.

Rivalee turned to me and then handed over the same shotgun she used. 

"It's your turn, Artemis," Rivalee said.  I looked at it for a few seconds before I finally accepted it.

Handling guns is not new to me. I do know how to use a pistol, machine gun, sniper, and some other rifle but not this one, I don't know how to use a shotgun.

"Go, baby, make me proud," Sin said before he sipped on his wineglass.

I breathe deeply and stride my way towards the shooting range.  A man came up to me to give me the box of shotgun ammunition. I loaded the empty gun with it, moment after that, a man pressed something and a mechanism started for the targets to move.

I took a deep breath and exhaled. I pulled the trigger of the shotgun, but the impact made me lose my balance.

I looked at the gazebo and saw that they were all looking and watching me seriously.

"Damn it!"  I blurted out, panicky.  My hands trembled and the box of bullets fell from the table. I bent down and picked them up.  I loaded the shotgun with another bullet and tried to aim at the moving targets, but it was still the same as before.

I quickly became nervous when Sin snatched the shotgun from me, I didn't even notice that he was standing behind me now.

"Sorry," I said.

His jaws were clenched and his face was red out of anger. Sin laughed even though nothing was funny.

Within a snap, without even tearing his eyes off me. Sin angled the shotgun towards his right and then fired. 

"What is so hard about this? You managed to blow up a chopper but you can't aim at your targets.?"  He asked between gritted teeth. 

"Show me no fear, Artemis!"  He screamed.  I redeemed my composure as he handed me the shotgun again.

"You will not leave this shooting range until you hit those targets!" He said then turned to the gazebo.

"Mallory! We'll leave in five minutes for Isla Serpiente!" He shouted.