“Did you check his vitals?”

“Yes, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him now but he suffered something similar to a stroke. He’s so fit and young I don’t know how it happened. I did learn one thing though, his body heals incredible fast, and he should have woken up by now. I don’t know why he hasn’t.”

Lucifer had already woken up over 5 minutes ago but he kept his eyes closed and played along, he was too embarrassed to get up. He had almost died from envy, he was still thinking of an excuse to tell everyone so he wouldn’t lose face.

“Ah…” He slowly moaned as he opened his eyes, “Where am I? What happened?” He pretended to be confused.

“He’s awake, boss he’s awake. Mr. Akira, you suffered a small stroke, don’t move around too much for now.”

Lucifer sat up and rubbed his head, “How long was I out?”

“About 20 minutes, how are you feeling?”

“My heads spinning a bit but I’m alright.”

“That’s great, that’s really great. I’d suggest you take a few days off from work. Your body has already recovered but you can never be too safe.”

“Yeah kid you gave us a big fright, what happened?”

“Ah, well I…” Gulp, the bosses eyes really were like an eagles. It felt like his gaze was piercing right through his soul.

“I suddenly thought about a cute girl I saw before and the next thing I knew I was here.”

“Ahhh, I see, hehe kid. You are finally reaching puberty. It’s nothing to be ashamed about. Was it one of Lexi’s daughters huh? You can tell me, come on. I won’t tell anyone.”

Lucif looked at the old bosses face, he maintained a poker face but Lucif knew a liar when he saw one. ‘Grrr, this old man wants me to confess so he can spread it around and mock me. What am I going to say? I just made it up on the spot.’

“Akylas that’s enough, don’t make him pass out again. Look, the poor boys blushing haha.”

Cough…cough, “Alright then, well boy are you going to teach today? Or should I tell all the miners to get back to work.”

Lucifer got up and realized it was almost noon. He brushed off his clothes and headed to the grand hall to teach his class. When he got there he was surprised to find that all 650 superhuman workers were gathered.

“What’s going on boss?”

“Well, now that we are bringing in so much more materials it’s alright if we have everyone take a few hours off every day. In fact, the gems were worth so much that even if they took off an entire year right now. The supervisors wouldn’t complain.”

Lucifer’s eyes lit up when he heard this, ‘Yes, my heart still pains from the loss but this is good. That’s an extra $6500 a day! That means I can make enough for Aruna and Ambrosia’s schooling.’

“Ahm, well then. Shall we begin?”

He started his first lesson but they didn’t train, first he talked about the philosophy of martial arts so they could gain a profound insight before they started. He also did this to milk out his lessons, they learnt way too fast. If it went on like this he would run out of things to teach them.

After the lesson he headed back to the smithy.

“Ah, dammit! I crushed another one.”

“Hey Joe, crushed another what?” Lucif walked into Joe’s workshop and saw shattered gem fragments on the ground. He gasped at the sight, “Waaa…What happened?!”

“I, ah’… accidentally crushed it, my hands ar’ too damn big and these gems ar’ too damn small. When I was a young’n I had no problem but now these gems er’ too small for me. Usually I don’t do er’ gems but boss has been breathing down my neck to get em’ done.’ He paused for a second and scratched his eye.

‘But something happened in the mines and there is simply too many of them and my ands’ ar’ too bloody big. Eh kid, do you know anyone with small delicate hands that would be ideal for cutting gems and making jewelry?”

Lucifer shook his head, “Sorry, I don’t know any….Wait, yes I do.” Lucifer quickly ran out the door and went straight to Aruna’s factory; he burst through the door like a cop and grabbed her. “Aruna, it’s time to quit. I need you to help me at my job.”

“B..but..okay then.” In the end she gave in, she hated her job but it was still a timely distraction. If she didn’t work she’d probably sit on the ground staring at the wall all day. Her boss wasn’t too happy about her quitting but she didn’t care.

Next they grabbed Ambrosia from her job and she quit too.

“Ah, what pretty lil’ girls. Remind me of me own young’n, show me er’ ands’ please.”

They lifted up their hands in the air and his giant eyeball came closer as he inspected them, they were slightly afraid because he was so gigantic but Lucif mentioned that he was a gentle giant so they didn’t fidget too much. Although he left out the part about him being a cold blooded military general and the most powerful super human alive.

“Very delicate lil’ ands’ you got der’. Absolutely perfect for gem crafting, alright then. Er’ hired, pays normal. You get a 0.3% cut for whatever er’ piece sells for. If it sells for $100 you get 30 cents. You are only allowed to use the low class items, I’m not too worried if you break em’ but those high class gems. Er’ better leave em’ alone til’ ya good enough. The lil’ nobles love stuff like this, er’ are girls so you know what er’ like. I’ll teach ya the technique and then ya can be creative, but it’s up ta’ ya whether you succeed or not. Also, any gems er’ break. You will have to pay for it.”

The girls felt pressure on their shoulders as he finished up his speech, “Brother, what if we can’t get good at this and we break too many? How will we pay it back.” Aruna frowned.

“Haha, don’t worry. My martial arts dojo is doing really well recently. I’m making $6500 a day so you don’t have to worry about money anymore.”

“S..six thousand!!!” The two girls were shocked, even Giant Joe raised an eyebrow at his words. “Er, what’s a dojo? Maybe I’ll come er’ check it out.”

“Yeah, come check it out. In fact, you girls should come too. You need to learn to protect yourself.”

The conversation quieted down as Joe started lecturing them on the fine art of crafting and gem cutting. They were naturals, although they broke around $2000 in jewels before lunch time. But according to Joe this was talent like he’s never seen before. All the super humans he tried to teach wouldn’t even get this far.

In a few more days they would move up to cutting mid-tier gems.

Lucifer’s heart ached as he saw his money burning as they failed again and again. They headed to lunch and the girls were absolutely flabbergasted when they saw how they made food here. It was nice and warm, much better than the cold meals they were used to.

Little by little their lives were getting better and the trauma that haunted them was slowly being forgotten. But Lucifer could never forget, his heart still burned with cold anger, an anger that couldn’t be quenched without a mass murder.