Chapter 14: Pleasure to Work with You
“Aren’t you happy, Cillin?” Seeing Cillin’s uncertain gaze, Shawton explained to him, “Mr. Aiflon is only asking you to pose as his son and not his bodyguard. There’s no way you can come in contact with his family’s business either, so in order to make full use of your time, I have suggested to Mr. Aiflon to have you undertake a higher education. He chose Seven Lights University.”
Generally, the galaxy’s education could be divided into three broad categories: primary education, secondary education and higher education. Most Hunters in the top four Hunter regiments had received higher education. As long as they meet the age requirement, the regiments would fund and raise them. The top four Hunter regiments were never stingy with their talents, which was also why they were better than the other Hunter regiments.
However, most of these Hunters had received their higher education at the ten Sectors between D to M. There weren’t many at all like Cillin who could receive his higher education at the Shining Three Sectors.
This was also an investment Shawton had made for the Sixth Squad, and even better, the Sixth Squad didn’t have to pay a cent for it. It was practically the perfect opportunity, and Shawton was sure that even if all Cillin did was to pose as Aiflon’s son, Aiflon would definitely choose a high rank university in order to defend the Douance family’s reputation.
Cillin was not a fool. He had not even received a proper primary education while he was at Planet Brown Earth in Sector X – Genya was the one who tutored him privately all this time. So why would he let such a chance slip by?
“Of course I’m willing, since I got the chance.”
Aiflon nodded his head, “Everyone knows how Seven Lights is. Moreover, the reason I chose Seven Lights isn’t just because of the Douance Family’s reputation, but also because it is located at Sector B. The families’ hands do not extend too deeply there, so those who plan to act against you will have more to worry about. This is good for both me and you.”
It was true that Aiflon would not need to spend more manpower to handle certain probable sudden ‘accidents’ that might happen if it was Seven Light University.
Aiflon received a few more tidied documents from the butler and passed them over, “If there are no further questions, then please sign here. As we have agreed upon, the down payment will be a hundred thousand. Going by galactic time, a sum of fifty thousand will be transferred to Cillin’s account every ten days. When the mission is complete, an additional ten million will be transferred.”
“Galactic credits?” Shawton asked further.
“Galactic credits!” Aiflon seemed very dissatisfied with Shawton’s suspicions. Did he really think that the great Douance Family would pay with sector credits?
The exchange rate of galactic credits to sector credits was 100 at the thirteen backwater Sectors, and 10 for the trade Sectors D to M. The bounties Cillin once earned from his ‘hunt’ were all in sector credits, and the few million credits he spent to buy a blank ID and debit card were just sector credits from the thirteen backwater Sectors. His three years of bounties were only equivalent of this mission’s ten days of income.
Hearing the dissatisfaction in Aiflon’s voice, Shawton returned a smile and cracked a rare joke, “Cillin is a really excellent, you know? Once you missed him, you’ll be hardpressed to find another Hunter as good as he is. Plus he can act as a bodyguard once he’s finished as a son, though, of course ,that will be a different charge.”
Cillin rolled his eyes straight away. It was only now that he could see that Shawton and Dias were truly blood related brothers; the way they joked was practically of the same mould.
“Pleasure to work with you.”
“Pleasure to work with you.”
Both sides handled the matter crisply. They were all smart men; there was no need for additional explanation.
After the deal was complete, all three signed what was necessary for the agreement. They signed a tripartite agreement specifically for Cillin’s mission, and no one would know about the contents of this agreement except for the three of them.
Aiflon would not stay for long at the thirteen backwater Sectors, so he gave Cillin an address and have him depart there two days later. Someone would pick him up afterwards.
Shawton left the hotel in a relaxed mood and had Cillin return to the squad first. It wasn’t too convenient to walk around with a mask on his face after all.
Since everything was done and his depressed feelings for the past few days were completely swept clean, after asking the Sixth Squad to hand over the cargo to Aiflon’s men, this Sixth Squad Commander looked at his debit card and went on a rare shopping spree, looking to increase the Sixth Squad’s quality of life.
After returning to the squadron, Shawton had even purposely pinched Cillin’s arm a little.
This... is real flesh alright. It’s just that whenever Shawton recalled the scene where Cillin slammed that Rank A bodyguard right into the wall, he couldn’t help but shudder. How was that a Rank B human? He was more like a human armored vehicle!
On the other side, Aiflon sat quietly in his seat with eyes lowered and fingers crossed on top his knees, looking to be sunk in deep thought after Cillin and Shawton had left the hotel.
A while later, Aiflon looked up, “Sopho, send ‘Carnage Elf’ back for improvement and upgrades; If the problem can’t be solved, then just discard it. It’s almost time, so urge that matter at Seven Light. Also, start arranging the matter about Cillin.”
“Okay.”
Aiflon’s words were very simple, but as an old butler, Sopho knew very well Aiflon’s intentions.
‘Carnage Elf’ was the gun Aiflon’s bodyguard was using and a new type of firearm developed by the Douance Family. Since the gun was small for stealth purposes, there were many designs that had been simplified. But it was the cause of the scene where Cillin had pierced through the gun’s ‘Achilles heel’. If they could not fix this problem, then Aiflon would rather give up than take a risk on this firearm.
The second matter was about Seven Light. Seven Light University’s enrollment period had passed a long time ago, but the school hadn’t opened yet, so there was a need to supplement and manage the related procedures. This really wasn’t hard to manage with Douance Family’s influence.
The last one was of course regarding his ‘son’ Cillin. In a few days, the world would know about Aiflon’s abandoned ‘son’, and so certain operations should be started as well.
After returning to the squadron, Cillin went to look for Beaver. As part of the technical staff, Beaver was qualified to use some of the Sixth Squad’s instruments.
“You want to reinforce this ash crystal?” Beaver looked at the pendant Cillin had taken out and said, “Sure I can, but you should know that the energy spent to reinforce an ash crystal will cost quite a bit.”
“How much?” Cillin asked.
Beaver thought for a moment to calculate the cost of materials, “Thirty thousand at least, and in galactic credits.”
“No problem.” With the hundred thousand galactic credits from Aiflon, it would be sufficient.
Beaver stared at him. It had just been a few days; when did this kid get so rich? But Beaver did not ask him any questions; Dias had told him not to ask Cillin more questions than necessary for now, “Come with me.”
An ash crystal was the ashes of a person that were electro-cremated, compressed in high pressure and underwent a series of processing into a block shape crystal. The process cost close to ten thousand galactic credits; the majority of Cillin’s bounties back in those years were spent on this process.
An hour later, Beaver finished reinforcing the ash crystal and returned it to Cillin. After the reinforcement, the ash crystal seemed to have shrunk a little, but it was also more solid and transparent. When facing towards a light source, the faint image of a person could be seen inside.
“Ex-girlfriend?” Beaver asked. The image of the person depicted inside the ash crystal did not share any similarity to Cillin’s appearance. This meant that they weren’t relatives.
“Yeah.” Cillin wore the ash crystal back onto his neck.
Beaver gave Cillin a slap on the shoulder. He had seen a lot of similar situations, “The road ahead is still long.”
Perhaps one day in the near future, Cillin would meet a great girl and diminish the sadness of the past.
Other than Beaver, Shawton and a few other Lieutenant Commanders, no one else had seen Cillin during the two days he had returned to the ship at all. The Sixth Squad had done a pretty good confidentiality job. Shawton had told him everything he should know. The rest of the opportunities fell on Cillin alone to grasp.
Two days later, with a mask on his face, Cillin headed towards the destination mentioned by Aiflon and received his new identity.