Chapter 22: The Pawn in a Chess Game
Soundtrack: The Beginning - ONE OK ROCK
Giovanni and I watched as Sebastian made himself comfortable on the couch. The scene was like of a man in a cozy coffee shop waiting for someone to serve his special beverage. He turned to us with his bored look as if he never said anything foolish.
"Are you implying that you hate yourself?" Sarkastikong sagot ni Giovanni. The scene was normal with the Freniere Brothers. They could commit an attempted murder to each other every single day.
"No one has the capacity to hate a Sebastian Freniere. They lust over me," sagot ni Sebastian.
"You said you loathe cheaters. You've been cheating on every women you've met." I almost nodded my head. Giovanni had a point there. "And why would you lust over yourself?" Dagdag ng nakababatang Freniere.
"Did I say that?" Tila bale-walang tanong ni Sebastian.
Napailing-iling si Giovanni. He gave up the conversation with his brother. "Why are you here, Tres? You should be entertaining our guests."
"I won't do that to your guests. You won't be able to keep up with my market value as an entertainer," Tres said proudly. He seemed to be the only one who was eager to keep the conversation going by mocking Giovanni.
"We're discussing an extremely important thing here. Now, could you please leave us." I could almost see the hint of impatience in Giovanni's voice. Alam kong hindi maganda ang patutunguhan nito. I'd watched them fight through the years and nothing good comes out of it. Bago pa man makasagot si Sebastian ay pinigil ko na iyon sa pamamagitan ng pagsasalita. I knew that Sebastian would push Giovanni to the exploding limit.
"Tres, we're just talking about Summer Leondale's security. I'm sure we can handle it," wika ko. I thought it would help prevent what was about to happen. Subalit mukhang hindi ang inaasahan kong reaksyon ang naging sagot ni Sebastian. He suddenly stood up and strode towards us.
"What about Summer Leondale? How to steal some romantic time without her knowing about it?" Hindi ako nakasagot. I didn't understand him. Why would he think of something ridiculous like that?
"Tres, just leave and entertain our guests." Halatang pinipilit ni Giovanni na maging kalmado sa inaasta ni Sebastian. No wonder Sir Algernon Freniere gave him the responsibility as the Mafia Leader while he was gone.
"Why would I do that?" Mas malakas ang tinig na tanong ni Tres.
"Because that's what you're good at! Entertaining!" Giovanni Freniere finally snapped at his older brother.
Sebastian seemed to dodge the mockery and smirked. I knew that smirk too well. Everything was going bad now. "Oh, yeah right. Let me entertain your bitch downstairs. I swear she'll forget your existence."
The next scene was a blur. Before I knew it, Giovanni was already lunging violently towards Sebastian. He crashed against him so hard that they both landed on the floor. I sighed. I knew this would happen again and I was so tired of being the peacemaker. I just watched them like I did when we were young. I sat comfortably on table avoiding the chaos they were making.
When they both got up, Sebastian made the first move and punched Giovanni causing the latter to stumble backward. The younger man recovered fast and tried to kick Sebastian on the gut. They didn't make a word in their fight. They were just brawling silently with the sound of the breaking objects as their voices.
Both of them were strong and fast. They could endure each other's attack. The door opened and I saw Forest enter the room and lock the door quickly. She carefully ran towards me avoiding the two Frenieres.
"How about our guests?" Tanong ko sa kanya.
"Old Max is entertaining them."
I tsked. This entertain word started all this current mess.
"Old Max?" Tanong ko. We didn't really call a legendary hunter as an old one.
Nagkibit-balikat siya at sinabing, "Our guests called him that." I dismissed it, realizing that it was the name Summer and her friends probably used for him. Sabay naming pinanood ni Forest ang pagbubuno ng dalawa. She seemed to be enjoying it. She searched for her pocket and showed some paper bills to me. Nagtataka ko siyang tiningnan.
"I bet on Tres. I think he would win this. He's quite passionate about it," wika ni Forest.
Napailing ako sa kanya. When Tres produced a hunter's knife, I decided to run fast in the middle of the brawling and stopped them. I grabbed Tres' arm that had the knife and put pressure on it causing him to let go of the blade. I kicked Giovanni on his chest when I saw him lunging forward and pushed Sebastian away to the other side. They both landed on their back on the floor.
"Please, stop being stupid for a minute," seryoso kong sabi habang tinitingnan ko sila. Habol ang paghingang umupo si Giovanni habang nanatiling nakahiga si Sebastian na tila naka-ngisi pa.
"Hey, Henrietta! You should have waited until the end!" Protesta ni Forest habang nakasimangot. Hindi ko sya pinansin at sa halip ay tinulungan si Giovanni na makatayo nang masiguro kong mahinahon na siya. I couldn't believe they would still brawl like this. I thought it stopped during their childhood years. Nagtungo ako sa direksyon ni Tres nang matulungan ko si Giovanni. I looked at him and saw him smirking at me. I lent him my hand to help him stand. He grabbed it but to my surprise, pulled me towards him. I landed on his chest. My heart decided to beat violently before Giovanni immediately grabbed me away from his brother.
"Kung mananatili kang ganyan, hindi ka namin kailangan," seryosong wika ni Giovanni. Forest walked towards us and we both watched Sebastian, still smirking.
"Is he trying to scare us with his creepy smile?" Tanong ni Forest. Nang masiguro naming walang balak na gumalaw si Sebastian ay iniwan namin siya at nagtungo sa mesa kung saan kami nag-uusap.
"Are you sure about this, Giovanni? He might overhear us," tanong ko nang mukhang wala siyang balak na ipagpaliban ang aming pag-uusap.
"I think this is the reason why he was acting like that. He was going crazy because he doesn't know anything. Let's just hope that if ever he listens to this, he would act accordingly," sagot ni Giovanni and motioned for the clueless Forest to sit on the chair in front of me.
"Forest will still be guarding the mansion with Maximus Bown. I will get other reapers to be with me and start hunting them. It looks like they are trying to be aggressive by entering our territory and property. They need to be punished." Giovanni is acting like the only sin the Novous committed to us was the situation we had now. He was trying not to be ruled by the tragedy they brought to his family in the past. He was trying to think clearly.
"Wait, are we talking about the sabotaged transactions we had?" Tanong ni Forest. Sinenyasan ko siya na manatili sa pakikinig.
"As for you Henrietta, you will be protecting Summer. Please bring her home today and ask assistance from some Mafia guards for the surveillance. I can also get Mikhail to back you up. I'm so sorry I had to give you this big mission. Most of the reapers are with Sir Algernon to guard him."
I nodded in agreement. Protecting Summer means that I would be the first in line soldier. I would receive the strongest and deadliest impact. And I couldn't say No to this one. I'd been waiting for this. I'd been waiting to get in touch with those people.
"I can't lose Summer. We can't let them take her this time. Not again," determinadong wika ni Giovanni. I saw how he adored this girl too much. I couldn't imagine what it would make him and the Freniere Mafia if they lost another woman.
Nang wala sa amin ang muling nagsalita ay saka nagtanong si Forest. "Alright, my turn. Who is this 'them' we're talking about?"
Giovanni stared at Forest. "The Novous," he answered gravely.
Wala sa amin ang agad na nakasagot. Sa gitna ng katahimikan ay nakita namin ang marahan na pagtayo ni Sebastian mula sa pagkakahiga sa sahig. He walked unsteadily towards us. He had a grim expression on his face. His mood now matched a stormy weather. He smashed his fist on the wooden table when he reached us. I swear I could hear a crack because of the impact. He must have really broken the table.
"Why?" He asked. The anger in his voice was evident. We looked at him questioningly.
"What? You still don't understand? What have you been doing to your head all this time?" Tila napipikon na ring tanong ni Giovanni.
Hindi naman natinag si Sebastian at muli niyang isinuntok ang kamao sa mesa. "Why?!" He screamed this time. Even I couldn't understand him. I wanted to stop him. I also wanted to help him if ever something was wrong with him. But I just can't, can I?
"What the f*cking thing are you trying to ask!? What's with your fucking 'why'? Why couldn't you still understand!?" Giovanni's cool and serious demeanor was running out. He was matching his voice with Sebastian's intensity.
Sebastian clenched his fist as he looked down on the table. With lowered voice, he spoke again, "Why? Why is it always about Summer? Why would you let the Reaper die just to save her?!"
And with his words, everyone turned to look at me. I wished I could say something comprehensible about it but I just couldn't. I had no words for absolutely a couple of minutes. Before someone had the courage to speak up, a loud crashing sound interrupted us and we all turned to the broken door except Sebastian. There, standing and staring at us, were the guests of Giovanni and Maximus Brown who was rubbing his knuckles.