4/9/2019

  8:30 PM

  Venue Col I, Colemond, TX

  "I can't believe I'm back here again."

  Daniel viewed the venue from afar while standing next to his truck in the parking lot. "Sorry about that, Joe. It's that you guys are the only ones in the police department I can rely on right now. Except for that one guy who leaked to the press."

  Joe, who only arrived a few minutes ago, couldn't process everything that happened over the past two weeks. "So, you're really going to demolish this place?"

  "Yeah, I am. It has been deemed to be a fraud, and there is no chance that the average citizen could use this place for events they wanted. It was all an elite social and money laundering hub," Daniel said, opening his phone's text app. He sent a document file to Joe's number. "I sent you the files."

  Joe's phone rang, and Daniel watched him open the files.

  "My goodness…What the hell. Is that figure right?"

  "Me and the city council checked it three times with independent financial advisors and a few private companies that handled our city taxes." Daniel took a deep breath and sipped from his bottle of water. "Look at page ten of the account history."

  After Joe looked at the page, he exited the document and turned his attention to Daniel. "I…I think we should send this to the courts. There's too much suspicion with that amount of money around for one city."

  "I want to remind you and the department to read all the files before making any reports. There's one page in there that would bring the entire police of Colemond and the fire department into trouble."

  Joe grew concerned. His eyebrows lowered. He demanded to know what could possibly be that would put the police and fire department in jeopardy. Daniel refused to answer and responded again to find the time to read everything in the file. It was too complex for him to tell either way.

  That only caused Joe to be more suspicious and curious for more information, to which Daniel didn't budge. "Seriously, I'm not going to say it again. Take the time to read the files first with the team. Then you can ask me questions. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with more questions than necessary. Is that fair enough?"

  "Fine…We will ask at that time, then."

  "Good," Daniel said, turning back to view the venue. "Two minutes to go."

  Boom!

  The venue building imploded, with a loud rumbling, the entire lot. Daniel felt the vibration reach his feet. Joe almost fell from the shockwave while covering his ears because he had no earplugs. "How are you standing still?"

  "Come on, you know I wield magic. Are you interested?"

  "I don't know. It feels bizarre!" Joe yelled.

  Daniel's head turned, realizing Joe's ears got blasted. He directed his palm right in front of Joe and fired a green light beam. "There…I fixed your ears for you. It wasted a little of my stamina, but you're welcome."

  "Woah, that was very weird. My ears don't hurt anymore."

  Smoke residue from the rubble was rampaging outward to the parking lot and the neighboring street. Daniel and magic wielders summoned a thrustful shock right back at the smoke. Multiple loud bangs like a clap erupted simultaneously, clearing all the smoke with no traces left behind.

  "Alright, well that's done…A crew will come out to take care of the cleanup tomorrow," Daniel said to Joe. "Get all the documents read, and we will continue the conversation then."

  "Ok, I get it!" Joe exclaimed out of annoyance.

  Daniel partially smiled as he walked away, heading back to his F150 Raptor. Empress Cai and Lian caught up with him from his left.

  The magical wielders who drove headed to their vehicles. Some stayed behind to make sure the lot appeared to blend in and not stand out in the open. Lian got in the truck first, sitting in the rear this time. Empress Cai took the passenger seat, and Daniel got in last.

  After turning on the truck, Daniel and the two made themselves comfortable. The three talked as other vehicles left the scene.

  "I can't believe she did all of that," Empress Cai commented on Helda. "She wasn't the introverted girl after all."

  "Probably a vengeance spirit inside of her. She knew them very well. Mayor Burman was some fucked up person to put her through all these meetings. You know damn well she was thrilled to do this."

  "Did we teach her swordsmanship?" Lian asked.

  Empress Cai shook her head. "No…We didn't. I thought she was a martial artist, not a swordsman. Damn…If only Mizuhana was here."

  "Mizuhana?"

  "She's my close friend and ally. She ruled the Yamahiryu (山費リュ) Kingdom. A civilized samurai society. Mizuhana is a master swordsman and will bring a lot of unique, unorthodox methods to the table."

  "I'm intrigued. A Japanese-like society. How many live in Yamahiryu? (山費リュ)"

  Empress Cai summoned a bottle of Baijiu, taking a few gulps. She looked at Daniel and Lian. "You two want some?"

  "No, not now, thanks."

  Lian accepted and summoned a cup. She poured some and took a sip.

  "Not that much. Only six hundred thousand live in that kingdom, compared to our three billion."

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "Dang, I thought it would be more…How many are coming here in total?"

  "Only five."

  "Excuse me? Five?!"

  Daniel was flabbergasted. A huge gap and an extremely low percentage compared to the six hundred thousand. And he has so many questions about what led to only five, but he held off on the thought.

  Empress Cai said the numbers were unfortunate, but it was expected. She revealed that everyone and the civilians acted as her guards. They treated her like a deity, so during the destruction of Raal, all sacrificed themselves to get her and the other four out of Raal and arrive at Middle Ground safely. In a way, Mizuhana was still in a state of sorrow because her home and history were gone. Her coming to Earth with the second group of Raal refugees was the closest she could come to the other four without being separated.

  "You're saying that we give her a purpose?"

  "That's right. Remember, Mizuhana is a samurai and born with a duty by her sword. If she sees Helda's ability, she will get attracted to it…Same goes with you, Daniel. You have the strangest sword out of everyone, and you are a very unorthodox magic wielder. To which I'm giving you and Helda a new responsibility. Get her out of the sorrow mood and lighten up her day."

  "I hope Earth treats her well," Daniel said, then pulled the gear stick. He drove the truck out of the parking lot and headed for the on-ramp back to Colemond Highway One.

  10:40 PM

  Vaillant Residence, Colemond, TX

  In his home office, Daniel sat next to a stack of financial portfolios of Mayor Burman's twenty private donors. Once he starts opening the first file, he won't leave the room. He looked to the cabinet nearby and stood up from his chair. Inside were stacks of spare notebooks and printing paper. Daniel took one hundred sheets of printing paper, placing them on the table.

  Despite it being late at night, outside of his office there was still noise. Most don't sleep, They either hang around or keep themselves busy. Either way, it wasn't distracting, so he took one sheet of paper and began with the first financial portfolio.

  4/10/2019

  12:00 AM

  Knock! Knock!

  "Come in."

  The door opened. "Daiyu asked if you want any drinks?"

  Daniel looked up at Mother Elaine. "Sure. I'll head on down." He stood up from his seat after finishing writing the sentence on his twentieth paper. He closed the second to last financial portfolio, heading out to the kitchen.

  Strolling down the stairs, Daniel heard the sound of cabinets opening. He caught up with Mother Elaine and walked with her to the kitchen. Daiyu was taking cups out of the cabinets and plates from the dishwasher. She turned around as the two arrived.

  "It's midnight. What do you want to drink?"

  "I'll take any whiskey," Daniel requested. He turned to Mother Elaine. "What about you?"

  "I already got my smoothie requested…So, what did you find?"

  Daniel relaxed on the seat. "Which part? The total?"

  "No…The cash. How much cash do they have in their checking accounts?" Mother Elaine asked.

  He thought for a moment, recalling what he wrote on the papers. "I was about to finish the second to last portfolio. I stopped at four billion dollars…Jesus, their net worth is way more than thirty-eight billion. There's an external factor in all of this, but I can't figure out what it is."

  Daiyu, who was eavesdropping as she was making drinks, asked: "Did you say thirty-eight billion?"

  Anyone who was in the living or dining room stopped what they were doing. Daniel was confused about why everyone was looking at him. "Did I say something, or is the sound of money intriguing you so much?"

  No one admitted to it except Solomon and Lian, who don't care about monetary values. But the numbers were what got their ears perked.

  "If I'm right, that could feed and take care of an entire country or continent in Raal. It's that much different compared to here, and I still don't understand how y'all lost so much value." Solomon then mentioned something to Lian. "That reminds me of when you told me the cost of a drink was two dollars."

  "That's right," said Lian with an affirming nod. "It should've been only ten to twenty cents…Yinhai, with that much money, we could have done so much with it for others and ourselves back home."

  Simon, who just finished playing a chess match with Rebecca, came into the kitchen. "How about we start making a conglomerate?"

  "What's that?" Lian and Daiyu asked.

  "A big company that owns many smaller companies. You guys don't have big businesses?"

  Empress Cai partially shook her head. "Not exactly…everyone has a business, and we work together."

  Mother Elaine and Rebecca found that to be like a utopian reality that wished it happened on Earth.

  Ironically, after going through forty portfolios with one about to finish and another one following, Daniel thought he would know what to do with the money. It turned out he didn't know what on earth he was going to do. On the one hand, millions of dollars were not hard to handle. On the other hand, billions in a non-governmental fashion was stressful to think about.

  His mind was agitating. He looked at Daiyu doing her bartending work. As he was about to plead for the drink, she finished his whiskey and let her magic do the final touches. A bottle was summoned to do four servings. She handed Daniel an empty glass with a large ice cube.

  "Enjoy," she said. "And relax."

  "Thanks."

  Daniel poured a serving into his cold glass. He took a sip, feeling the burning sensation massaging his throat. A little stingy at first, but with another sip, the tolerance took over. It was really pleasant that he gulped the glass, causing a reaction from Daiyu.

  Mother Elaine, who wasn't an alcoholic but tried a lot of drinks, grimaced. "Are you alright?"

  He nodded at her and poured a second serving. Daiyu continued to stare at him and stopped blending Mother Elaine's smoothie. "Are you an alcoholic?"

  "No. I hope you aren't turning me into one."

  "Moving on…" Daiyu turned her attention to Mother Elaine, telling her the smoothie was at ninety percent. She added a kind of Raal native grapes into the blending process. It was as big as two strawberries, and three were enough to mix. When she finished, her qi swarmed around the finished smoothie and created a big cup and a metallic straw. "Here you go."

  Mother Elaine took a massive sip through the straw. Immediately, she coughed out condensation as if she were at an outdoor winter retreat. "God…Why is…it so cold?"

  "It was stress relief. Anyone sweating would crave a shot glass since this was how you guys called it luxury."

  Daniel was interested in the smoothie. "Can I try a sip?"

  "Sure, if you trade me your whiskey."

  "Deal."

  The two briefly exchanged. Daniel took a load of the smoothie, and Mother Elaine drank the glass.

  Like the latter, Daniel coughed out condensation. It got so abrupt that he accidentally exhaled flames, jerking him off the seat. His hand instinctively placed the cup back on the counter as he tripped to the floor.

  Mother Elaine hated the whiskey and quickly took back the cup, drinking the smoothie.

  "Smoothie saved…the…day. Phew, excuse me."

  Simon deterred the fire away with ice and slammed it down into bits with his heavy right foot. "You're a dragon now?"

  Daniel got up from the floor. "I don't know. No wings." He then handed Simon the bottle of the last two servings of whiskey. He was finished. "I think my mind got a little relieved. If you don't want the whiskey, you can give it to anyone in here…I'm going back upstairs to finish the last portfolio. See you guys in an hour or two."

  He headed back to the bifurcated stairway, jogging up to his office.

  Whatever comes out by the end of investigating the last portfolio, he wanted to know as soon as possible.