Kings On The Horizon (Vol. 4-6) ✓

246 | The Proposition

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"NOT JUST YOU. IT'S related to all of us. The members of Crème de la Crème," Elijah Memphis says before taking a deep breath and turning away to look at the scenery in front of them. "I think you've realized it by now, but someone out there has been targeting us. Both the new and the old members."

     "I have noticed. It started with Hans at the greenhouse in J.S High. Most of us thought they were targeting me so I wouldn't be able to compete in Mr. Brains & Brawn, but that wasn't the case at all. Thinking back, it was way too presumptuous of us to think it happened just because I enrolled in J.S High," Max explained with an almost embarrassed chuckle.

     Elijah, as well as the rest of the students in the four houses, found out about the bombing incident that occurred during the pageant season. It was surprising because J.S High has the best security, making them the school where everyone least expected to get bombed. A lot also made rumors about what that incident was for, but when Elijah heard that Janus Sinclaire dropped the case and kept quiet about it, he instantly knew that it was more than just about the pageant.

     "Wait, you mentioned the old members, too, right? What do you mean by that?" Max then asks, realizing what Elijah just said.

     "Actually, the incident earlier wasn't just a bomb explosion," Elijah reveals, pulling something out to show it to Max. "Someone tried to target Vesper Cinna with this."

     "What?" Max asks in shock, taking the dart from Elijah's hand to check it. When he saw the logo, he immediately looked at the brotherhood leader, confirming that Max knew what that logo meant.

     "So you've met my father," Elijah says with a sigh.

     "Someone bought a special bullet from him. That bullet was used against us, which is why PHD lost," Max explained, and Elijah figured much. During the brotherhood reranking, when he saw how Kim Hee-joon just started losing his vision, he knew that he wasn't just hit by any ordinary bullet.

     He knew at that moment that such a deadly weapon had to be created by his father.

     "I'm not close with my father because my mother made sure I don't associate with him thanks to the nature of his work. As much as I want to understand our family's situation, I understand how dangerous my father and his talents are," Elijah explains. "But I'm not here to fucking talk about my background..."

     "So this bullet was supposed to hit Vesper?" Max asks instead to change the subject.

     "The culprit must have known that Vesper and I would sometimes meet up and chat. I think he used that dart so that when Vesper actually gets hit, they'll find this as evidence, and then they'll pin the blame on me and my family. It's like hitting two birds with one stone," Elijah explains, making Max widen his eyes because something similar already happened.

     "This also happened to Gavriil's family," he says. "During the Stepanov bombing, the bombs found were actually created by the Alexeev Corporation, so they were the first suspects. It was proven to be false after, but it already affected their reputation."

     "Exactly. It's the same script, yet idiots still get deceived," Elijah says, his expression changing into anger again. "Those mother fuckers know us enough to the point where they can make these kinds of narratives that would make sense. They're all wrapping us around their fingers, and the more I think about it, the more it pisses me off."

     Elijah clenches his fist, and then he suddenly pulls his shirt down, showing a familiar mark on his shoulder. It was a symbol of a fleur de lis, the symbol imprinted to them with a hot iron as a mark to show that they're proud members of Crème de la Crème.