Empire of Shadows

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Mr. Ted looked at Lance sitting in the chair opposite him. Even though he was the one standing, he felt as if he was a head shorter than the other man.

The front desk girl and several employees stood outside the door, which made his face feel hot and flushed.

He had always been the strongest one; in front of his employees, he was practically a tyrant!

But now… his hand rested on the phone. “If you don’t leave, I’m going to call the police.”

Lance tilted his chin. “Call them. Call them now. If you don’t know the number, I can tell you.”

The two looked at each other for a moment. Mr. Ted saw not the slightest fear in Lance’s eyes. Instead, Lance was looking at him with a provocative gaze, as if really urging him to dial the police.

He knew that once this call was made, some things would be hard to take back.

He glanced at the employees watching the excitement outside the door, feeling ashamed and angry, but also helpless. He was trapped and couldn’t back down.Lance looked back, and the employees outside immediately averted their eyes. Some even ran to a place where he couldn’t see them. He then signaled for Hiram to close the door.

When the wooden door separated the inside of the room from the outside, Mr. Ted clearly breathed a small sigh of relief.

His hand left the phone, and he sat back down in his chair. “Are you Jobav’s people?”

Lance shook his head. “He packaged the debt and gave it to me. You don’t need to care whose man I am. You just need to know that now, you owe me money.”

He took out the proof of the loan. Although Mr. Jobav knew this money would be hard to recover, he had still made ample preparations, with all the documents in order.

Lance was very clear about his methods and purpose. It was to use this method to tell people like Arthur that he had the capital to refuse, and even the possibility of taking legal action.

And through such actions, he strongly conveyed a message—”This is the last time!”

But in the end, as everyone saw, the three hundred thousand in debt claims he gave to Lance was the result of his compromises each time. They always had ways to continue extorting money from his hands.

He had overlooked a fact, or rather, he had always been unwilling to admit this fact, which was that in the Federation, the judiciary was also just a plaything of the rich and powerful.

Just like Prohibition, such an outrageous constitutional amendment could be passed and required to be enforced throughout the Federation. This, in fact, had profoundly illustrated this principle.

But Mr. Jobav was unwilling to admit it. He was unwilling to admit that the Federation was such a country, deviating from all his perceptions of a beautiful Federation.

In fact, it wasn’t just him; many more people were like this. For example, the former Bolton, or Ennio’s father who was still a salesman. They had essentially seen that this place was not beautiful, like hell.

But they couldn’t admit this, because once they admitted it, it would mean that everything they had fought for and paid for over the past few decades was worthless and meaningless.

Even an adult would have a mental breakdown in an instant!

The only thing they could do was to continue to persevere. For decades, Mr. Jobav still believed he could change his situation. Ennio’s father still believed he could eventually reach the pinnacle of his life by selling those worthless things.

On the contrary, it was Bolton who had now embarked on another path, a path that was not necessarily correct, but at least it made him start to feel good.

Looking at the complete loan agreement, Mr. Ted began to sweat a little.

If the creditor was Mr. Jobav, then it would be easy for him to handle. Now that it had been replaced by someone who looked hard to mess with, he was a bit at a loss as to what to do.

He wanted to play rogue with Lance, but it seemed that in this aspect, he was definitely no match for Lance and his men.

So, just like those people, when he found that playing rogue didn’t work, he started to reason.

“I still don’t know what to call you…”

“Lance.”

“My God!” Ted had heard this name. The Empire District was right next door; he had definitely heard this name.

When he knew that Mr. Jobav had packaged and sold the debt claim to Lance, he surprisingly didn’t hate Lance that much. He couldn’t even muster much anger. Instead, he was extremely dissatisfied with Mr. Jobav!

If you have the guts, go get your money back from Arthur, instead of using this method to torment me!

He didn’t ask Lance how much he had paid Mr. Jobav for these claims, but he knew he definitely had to repay the money.

“I only actually got ten thousand from this debt. The other fifteen thousand… was taken by someone else.”

He was reluctant to say Arthur’s name.

But now, regardless of whether Lance cared if he said it or not, his finger tapped on the agreement, and the sound from the tabletop was telling Mr. Ted that the situation was different now.

“I don’t care who took that fifteen thousand. Right now, this agreement has your signature. You only have one path to take.”

“Give me back the money you owe me.”

“Or we find a way to squeeze every last cent out of you to ensure you can pay this debt. I don’t guarantee what methods we will use; it depends on whether you cooperate with us.”

“Now, you can choose.”

Mr. Ted’s expression changed many times in a very short period. He finally pursed his lips and still said where the missing money went.

“Arthur took that fifteen thousand. I can only pay you ten thousand and this portion of the interest.”

“But for the money I didn’t receive, I cannot bear the repayment obligation.”

Lance rubbed his chin. “This Arthur, is he Senator Williams’ son?”

An indescribable expression appeared on Mr. Ted’s face. This kind of expression often appears in a very strange psychological reaction.

The victim will begin to identify with the aggressor, even standing with the aggressor mentally, and may eventually become their accomplice, helping them to harm others.

He didn’t need to open his mouth for Lance to know the answer.

“Yes.”

He rubbed his chin. There was some newly emerged stubble on his smooth chin, which was a bit scratchy. “Is there proof?”

Mr. Ted’s eyes flickered. “No.”

Actually, there was. An IOU, on which it was written that Arthur had borrowed a sum of fifteen thousand dollars from him, with no interest.

The reason Mr. Ted insisted on having Arthur write this IOU was actually for roughly the same reason as Mr. Jobav. He wanted to make Arthur feel disgusted about taking money from him, in order to reduce the instances of being extorted by Arthur.

In fact, it worked. Later, when Arthur tried to borrow money from him again, he brought up the IOU and expressed concern about Arthur’s ability to repay. Arthur, as if he had eaten shit, stopped coming to him.

The reason he was extorted by Arthur several times was that he had gone through Senator Williams’ channels to successfully obtain the logging permit for the area around Golden Port.

With this logging permit, he had an advantage over others in this industry.

Perhaps it was only a few dozen cents or a dollar or two less per cubic meter, but if you magnified this number to the materials for an entire single-family house, which was basically over a hundred cubic meters, he had a significant advantage.

It was because of this that he was harassed by Arthur several times.

He did not intend to hand over this IOU.

Lance shook his head. “Then take out the money, Ted. Don’t force me. You know who we are and what we do.”

“No matter what we do, no one will find it strange.”

Mr. Ted thought for a while longer. Just as he was about to answer, Lance stopped him. “Don’t be in a hurry to answer. Think about it some more.”

“Don’t end up having to endure pain you can’t bear, and still have to hand over the money or things. It’s not necessary, really not necessary!”

Arthur’s IOU was actually still very useful to him. In the future, if he still needed Senator Williams for something, this IOU could play a role.

Its value was actually more than the fifteen thousand dollars it represented!

But he also didn’t want to take out that fifteen thousand. That wasn’t one hundred and fifty, or one thousand five hundred, it was fifteen thousand dollars!

For him, it was also a considerable sum.

He looked at Lance, at the idiot beside him who kept flipping his hair, and thought about the reputation of Lance and the Lance family circulating in society. He suddenly had an illusion.

Perhaps he could be tough for once?

Mr. Ted hesitated again and again, then said, “I know people from the Dogg family…”

Lance leaned back. “Wrong answer.”

Hiram walked to Mr. Ted’s side, and under the latter’s somewhat confused gaze, picked up the ashtray from the table and smashed it against his head twice.

Blood immediately flowed down from Mr. Ted’s head. He touched his wet and hot head, looked at the bright red thing in his hand, and his head spun.

At this moment, he finally realized that knowing Arthur, knowing Senator Williams, knowing people from the Dogg family, was meaningless right now.

Lance looked at him calmly. “You can choose again.”

As he spoke, he took out a handkerchief and wiped a drop of red blood from his collar. Fortunately, the clothes were dark, so it couldn’t be seen.

Perhaps the two hits from the ashtray had slowed Mr. Ted’s reaction considerably. For a moment, he forgot he was answering a multiple-choice question.

As Lance said “Time’s up,” Hiram swung the ashtray in his hand and smashed it again, twice.

This ashtray was not made of glass, or agate, or something like that, otherwise Mr. Ted might already be lying on the ground, dying.

It was a beautiful wooden ashtray.

It was shaped like a tree well, with a deer head carved on it, seemingly drinking water, looking very artistic.

Especially now, it was stained with some blood, adding a bit of the forest’s cruelty to this lively, nature-filled art piece of an ashtray.

The person who made it probably didn’t expect that it would be as handy for bashing heads as it was artistic.

Lance leaned back again and again, but two more drops of blood still splattered onto him.

“You need to be more careful, it almost splashed on my face!”

At this time, Mr. Ted finally came to his senses. Blood had already soaked his face, and he was in great pain.

The wooden ashtray hammered his head, causing pain but not fatally. He now wished he could faint instead of staring wide-eyed in terror at Lance and the idiot beside him, which meant he would continue to be beaten.

“I… I don’t have that much cash. I need time to raise the money.”

Lance shook his head. “I’m interested in your proof now. Ten thousand, plus your proof, and I’ll give you back this loan agreement.”

“You only got this much in the first place. There’s no reason for you to pay for someone else’s mistake, right?”

Mr. Ted’s head was hurting badly now. He also had a lot of anger in his heart, towards Mr. Jobav, towards Arthur, but not so much towards this Mr. Lance in front of him.

Under Lance’s gaze, he finally compromised. “I can give it to you…” he said, pausing for a moment, hesitating, as if after an internal struggle, he asked, “Will you also collect the money from Arthur?”

A smile appeared on Lance’s face. “He owes me money. Even if he is Senator Williams’ son, he still owes me money. He can’t change that fact.”

Perhaps it was Lance’s insistent attitude about the money that moved Mr. Ted. He stood up, walked to the safe, and opened it.

Inside was a manila paper bag, large and sturdy, the kind made of heavyweight kraft paper with waterproof treatment.

Inside the entire bag, there was only a small piece of white paper torn from somewhere, on which was written:

“I, Arthur, borrowed fifteen thousand from Ted in June of 1023 and will repay it by the end of the year. Signed, Arthur.”

Next to it was a large-value check and over a thousand dollars in cash.

Lance packed everything up and handed it to Hiram. “See, what did I say?”

“You would definitely do as we said in the end, so why did you have to go through this suffering?”

“By the way, you can call the police after we leave, but I’ll remind you as I did before, you have to be prepared to bear the consequences!”

He picked up the hat from the corner of the table, gently placed it on his head. The new recruit who came with him had already opened the door. He walked to the door and glanced at Mr. Ted again. “Have a pleasant day, Mr. Ted.”

With that, he walked straight out, just as he had come, with a swagger in his step!

After confirming that Lance and his group had left, Mr. Ted walked out of the office, clutching his head.

He looked terrifying. The front desk girl screamed repeatedly. Someone else asked if he needed to call the police or an ambulance, but he stopped them all.

He drove himself to a nearby clinic. He actually only looked scary; the bleeding had already stopped…

On the way back, Hiram was a bit curious. “Is this piece of paper that important, worth fifteen thousand?”

Lance had a half-smile on his face. “If used well, its value is far more than fifteen thousand.”

Actually, Mr. Jobav also had Arthur’s signature, but Mr. Jobav didn’t give it to him.

This was one of the reasons why he couldn’t integrate into Federation society. He always used the mindset of an Empire citizen to deal with the Federation’s way of doing things.

After Lance returned to the office, he called Morris over.

Morris had been keeping an eye on Eric during this time. Not just him, but several others were also watching Eric.

After Morris sat down, he began to talk about Eric’s daily life during this period—

“He usually sleeps until noon before getting up. He goes out for a stroll around two or three in the afternoon, and on Wednesday and Saturday nights, he goes to the Seidel Opera House in the Starlight District to listen to opera.”

“It’s mainly to pursue a female opera singer named Shayna. Every time he goes, he buys a lot of flowers and gives them to her.”

“At other times, he also tries to find ways to get in touch with this Shayna. He is frantically using our money to pursue that girl.”

“But he’s like an ATM. He hasn’t even held Shayna’s hand yet, but he has already spent at least one or two thousand dollars.”

“Romance” in the Starlight District was much more expensive than “romance” in the Empire District. A normal dinner could cost dozens of dollars.

If you wanted to be a bit romantic, one or two hundred dollars was very normal.

Those flowers cost two for a cent at the docks, but when they reached the Starlight District, they were wrapped in colored paper that cost a dozen for a cent, and could be sold for a dollar a bouquet.

Rich people’s money was easy to earn. When they needed something, and you could provide it, then as long as the price wasn’t outrageous, they would pay for it.

Listening to Morris talk about what Eric had been up to, Lance couldn’t help but laugh and say, “He’s like a dog in heat. What’s this Shayna’s background that he hasn’t used force?”

Morris shook his head slightly. “I haven’t been able to find out, but I heard she has a decent uncle who is very famous in the opera world and is friends with some senators.”

“And there are many people pursuing her. Many young men in Golden Port are pursuing her, which makes it difficult for others to use force. Everyone is watching.”

Lance smiled and made an analogy. “They have turned the pursuit into a game, they just don’t know it themselves. I believe whoever can win Shayna will be the most successful among the young men of Golden Port!”

“Is Senator Williams’ son among them?”

Morris nodded. “Arthur is just one of them. I also saw Mr. Pasoretto’s son.”

Lance had met Mr. Pasoretto’s son twice. He was twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with the sharp facial features of a Summuri person, but it might not be appreciated by Federation people, as it was too “hard.”

Although they had met, they hadn’t spoken much. He didn’t seem to get along well with Alberto, and Lance was clearly classified on Alberto’s side by them.

“Sounds complicated!” Lance input all this information into his brain. “Keep an eye on them. Find a way to spread some rumors that Shayna only belongs to the people of Golden Port, not to outsiders.”

This outsider definitely referred to Eric. The mayor was not a native of Golden Port; he was an outsider.

The balance between him and the local forces was just the result of a trade-off. It didn’t mean he could suppress the locals, nor did it mean he was afraid of the locals.

Perhaps these old men had reached a tacit understanding with each other and were not so easily provoked into conflict, but the young people were definitely not so stable and smart.

They were in their prime. Making them take a step back, especially in the competition for mating rights, would be harder than killing them!

(End of this chapter)

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