Chapter 55. Naive. Lucifer POV.
In the headquarters of the Hunter Association on the highest floor was the President’s office. A large spacious room with dark wooden floors and a big window behind the desk, overlooking the city below.
I stared out of the window. A frown on my face as I looked at the city and the ocean. It was beautiful. Structurally and in color, the buildings were arranged in an efficient way and the color of the sea was so blue that it reminded me of Evelyn’s eyes.
My rings tapped against the glass. A ting ting sound echoed in the empty room.
Turning to my desk, I placed my back against the glass. My chair was made of high-quality dragon leather. The red ones. A beautiful creature with an S-ranked mana core.
To the left of the chair, on the desk were documents I required to manage the Association and the judicial branch. A mountain of documents on everything from the academy’s to the Hunter prisons and their inmates.
My eyes landed on the right side of the desk. Project Ark was its name. Stacks and stacks of paper. Half a decade worth of properly arranged data yet I couldn’t read it.
I have never failed before. Ever since I spoke with Silas Vane for the first time it felt like I was constantly playing catch up, trying to find the missing puzzle pieces.
My stomach hardened into a tight ball of frustration.
Walking to my desk, I grabbed one of the papers from Project Ark. I flipped it open. The letters were there. A, B, C, D and so on. My mind refused to register them.
“Berlin next time unseal these damn documents,” I said out loud in my empty office. A headache was forming in my temples.
How could I be the President when I couldn’t read the most important documents of this organization?
The door to my office opened and a person entered. My right-hand man, Isaac. His face was emotionless like always. I turned to him.
His suit was neatly ironed, the tie straight and he smelled like fresh linen. His bald head gleamed in the light of the sun. A file was in his hand.
He approached my desk, the sound of his shoes on the wooden floor. I sat in my chair. Reading the file that he handed to me. My red eyes moving quickly as they scanned through it.
151. That was how many people the organization identified with the glasses that Silas took from that monster-hybrid girl. These people lived amongst us.
My hand was gripping the file so tight the paper crinkled a little. If they all were abused by one of our own, then the Association needed to take responsibility.
I sighed. Looking at the clock I saw that my 2PM appointment was about to arrive. Another meeting with the board of directors.
“Cancel my meetings and inform the Hunters to locate all of the hybrids and bring them to the headquarters immediately.” My voice was quiet. I put the file on the side of my desk and waited for Isaac’s response.
“Understood, what about Henry Smith? Do you wish to interrogate him?” He asked. A spark of irritation went through me. The man who had started it all and was hiding behind the third Hunter amendment. A loophole in the system that protected researchers from prosecution.
An antique law created during the apocalypse that should’ve been abolished a long time ago. I would see to it that it was removed in the near future.
“No. Have the department of intelligence gather everything there is on Henry Smith and Haden Everheart,” I answered with a cold voice.
Isaac nodded and left, closing the doors behind him. His footsteps disappeared as I was alone again.
Naive.
That was what Silas called me at Berlin’s estate, before I left the mansion. At the time I dismissed it as an insult from a man who never played by any rules. But the truth was, I was naive.
Naive to think simply prosecuting criminals was enough to uphold justice. I was naive to believe the organization didn’t have secrets. However, my ignorance would end soon enough.
Berlin chose me to take over this organization. I wondered if he knew what I would do once I knew the truth. Maybe he was just playing a joke on me, expecting me to do the same as he did and turn a blind eye to it.
But I would never do that.
The rain hit the glass. Outside, the city continued as it always had. It would not continue this way for long.
The world will see what the Hunter Association had been hiding.
Picking up a pen, I started to draft the new laws. A law protecting monster-hybrids and abolishing the third Hunter amendment.
To judge fairly, value life and rule with logic. Be they humans or hybrids.