Kings On The Horizon (Vol. 4-6) ✓

214 | Illegal

♛

TODAY WAS MARCH 13, the third day of the Annual Brotherhood Reranking. The new ranks had just been announced, and Max was already on his feet, texting his brother to tell him congratulations and to share the message with the others.

     "They really did it," Max said with a bright smile as he continued to stare at the list on his laptop. But while he was trying not to celebrate too early, someone suddenly knocked on his door. It was his most trusted butler, Étienne.

     "Master Leigh," Étienne greets him before giving a respectful bow. "Are you free to have a discussion today?"

      "Discussion? If this is related to work, then you can tell me some other time. I would rather not spoil my good mood," Max then explains, but Étienne shakes his head and takes a step closer to him.

     "No, it's not about the company. It's actually about the task you assigned to me a few days back. About the woman named Payton Wolfe," Étienne reveals, immediately making Max close his laptop in shock.

     "You found something?" Max asks.

     "It's not really something. In fact, it's more like...someone," Étienne answers, pulling an envelope out of his coat's pocket and handing it over to his master. "This was difficult information to acquire, and I had to pull a couple of strings in order to get a hold of it. But there's really nothing money can't buy, so consider yourself lucky, Master Leigh."

     Max stares at the envelope, a bit nervous to see what he might find. But after composing himself, he finally opens the envelope, revealing a series of pictures of what seems to be a man wearing a formal suit and dark shades. Max couldn't tell who it was at first, but after staring at the face for a few more seconds, Max immediately looked at his butler in complete shock.

     "Is this—"

     "Payton Wolfe."

     "Where did you get this?" Max asks, looking through the photos that show Payton walking inside a busy café in the middle of the city.

     "This was taken from a CCTV camera near Gilmore Street from February 5 to February 11," Étienne explains. "After tracking down Ms. Wolfe's whereabouts, I discovered that she visited this café for almost a week, wearing the same clothes and walking the same path, almost like she was trying to fool people into thinking that these all happened on the same day."

     Max couldn't believe that his butler was able to acquire such a valuable thing. Adults really are scarier.

     "What was she doing then?"

     "On the 11th of February, exactly 3:42 PM, he met with someone," Étienne explains, and Max looks through the photos further. There were a few more photos of Payton walking down the pavement and entering the café, her hand in one of her pockets as if she was holding onto something. But after going through a few more photos, there was another picture of a different person.

     He was trying to look discrete, but with one glance, Max already knew who this was. "M-Magnus! This is Magnus McKay! So Payton and Magnus are connected? If Payton hired Magnus to spy on J.S High, then what's the reason? Is it for revenge? That's the only reason...right? He wants J.S High to fall after what happened to her."

     Max looks at Étienne, but Étienne can only shrug his shoulder in response since he doesn't entirely know the connection between all this. He only does what his master asks him to do, and that's that.

     "You mentioned that this was taken last February 11, correct?" Max then asks, and Étienne nods his head in answer. "February 11...February 11..." Max tries to think of a significant occurrence that happened on that date, but nothing comes up. But after looking through the important events that happened to him last month, Max's eyes widen in shock.