“I’m Pearl St. Claire. The owner of this establishment.”

Pearl introduced herself and offered her hand for a handshake. Rory got up from the couch and walked over and shook her hand.

“My name’s Aniket. Nice to meet you.”

Pearl looked at him with a sharp gaze before releasing his hand.

“Please take a seat, Aniket. Then I’ll discuss the reason I called for you.”

Rory sat at a chair which was in front of Pearl’s desk, while she sits behind the desk.

“First off, Let me tell you my concern.”

She looked at Rory asked-

“Do you realize how much money was on the card you gave us?”

“5 billion Ani.”

“So you do?”

Pearl sighed.

“I’m afraid that we can’t accept that much money, Aniket. It’s too much for us to handle, especially since we’re privately owned. One mistake and this bank will crash and burn. As such, we must decline.”

“I see. I thought that considering the nature of this bank, you would have no problem taking it.”

“I assume that you’re referring to my identity as one of the Three Dons. I assure you that despite my background, this bank is a legitimate business.”

“I see. Then how about this? I want you to clean the money for me.”

“You mean to launder your money? It’s dirty?”

“Of course. Did you think it’s easy to earn that much money through legitimate means?”

“True, but here I was thinking that you were a prince or something.”

Rory laughed when he heard that.

“Well, you’re not wrong. I’m indeed royalty, but I’m not on good terms with my family for a while now.”

“So you’re a prince who turned to a life of crime ?”

“I didn’t really mean to at first, it kinda happened. Before I knew it, I became an international criminal. Life is funny sometimes.”

“I see. I know what you mean.”

Rory leaned over with a smile.

“So, will you clean this money for me?”

“It’s not that easy to clean so much money, Aniket.”

“Then it’s beyond your abilities?”

“Not exactly, but I need to know how much are you willing to give me if I clean your money.”

“How about a billion?”

“?!”

Pearl couldn’t contain her shock.

“A billion? You’re willing to give me 20% to clean your money?”

“Of course. It’s like you said, it’s not easy to clean that much money. So I think you deserve at least that much.”

Pearl couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Aniket, are you perhaps from the Sacred Family?”

“Hahaha. I’ll leave my origins up to your imagination.”

Rory replied.

“So, will you do it?”

“Of course. It will take some time, but it can be done.”

“I see.”

He stood up.

“I’ll be staying at the Golden Breath Villa. If you need me, you can just ask Jane. I’m sure she’ll happily show you the way.”

“The Golden Breath Villa….I have a home there myself. I guess that makes us neighbors.”

“I see. Then, if you’re in the neighborhood, please drop by any time.”

Rory turned around and started walking away.

“Oh, that’s right.”

He suddenly stopped and turned around to face Pearl again.

“I recently met an interesting woman.”

“Woman?”

“Yes. I met her in an alley just last night. She was suffering from being shot with a bullet made from Animite.”

Pearl's eyes narrowed when she heard that. Under her gaze, Rory dug into his pocket and took something out and toss it at her. She caught it and saw that it was the bullet that Rory took out of Fraus’ body.

“Do you have her now?”

“That’s right. She was suffering so I patched her up. I told her to stay at my place for a while.”

“Can I come see her?”

“I’m afraid that she isn’t healthy enough to have visitors yet. Maybe in the future.”

“I see….How unfortunate.”

There was now killing intent in Pearl’s eyes. Rory smiled when he saw that.

“Oh, yeah. She said that she was being chased by some scary people. Something about leaving their group, but I hardly think that’s enough of a reason to try and kill her. Do you have any ideas as what she could’ve done?”

“Who knows? She might’ve stolen something very important. I think it would be best that you see if you can find what she stole and return it to the owner.”

“Some important huh? I think you’re right.”

“So you’ll ask her?”

“Why? Would that be the smart thing to do?”

“It would be safe thing to do. After all, you don’t want to be caught in the middle of her problems.”

Rory nodded as if he had understood something.

“I see. I guess you’re right.”

He smiled at Pearl.

“I’ll do that.”

After saying that, Rory left the room but not before flashing Pearl one last smile.

“……….”

After he left, Pearl sat in silence behind her desk.

“That guy…..He’s dangerous.”

She knew that Rory was clearly taunting her and even boldly declared that he had the person she wanted.

“He didn’t need to tell me about Fraus, but he did….For what reason? Fear?”

She shook her head. She couldn’t sense the slightest hint of fear from Rory. In fact, she sensed amusement. After recalling their conversation, it felt like Rory was toying with her. But she couldn’t figure out his reason.

“There’s also that large amount of money….He wasn’t afraid to lose it at all and even gave away one-fifth of it like it was nothing. Not even the filthy rich would give away a billion to a total stranger that easily.”

She felt like the man she just met was someone outside her realm of understanding. As if he was Chaos himself.

“Is he Fraus’ ally? I mean he is sheltering her. But why give out her location to the one who wants to kill her? A trap? He wants to bait me to attack him?”

Pearl grabbed her head.

“Ahh! I can’t figure him out!”

She leaned back into her chair.

“I feel like he’s harder to deal with than Lucas and Tony.”

An old memory of a beast of a man, who looked like the incarnation of savagery, flashed on her mind. His image overlapped with Rory’s.

“They are a bit similar….Aniket and Salvatore.”

Meanwhile, Rory had left the bank and had entered his car. He had a big smile on his face while sitting in the car silently.

“Pearl St. Claire huh?”

The memory of an energetic dark elf child flashed in his mind.

“It looks like they are indeed related.”

He started the car and drove out of the parking lot.

“I got carried away and ended up teasing her too much. I can’t believe I mistook her for Steph.”

He laughed.

“I originally intended to repay the St. Claire family for the debt I owed them back then too. I hope I didn’t make her my enemy.”

With a big grin on his face, he drove home. When he entered the mansion he took off his coat and said-

“My Harem, your king is home. I wish to embrace one of you. Who will it be?”

“……….”

He got silence in return.

“Hmm….That’s strange. I would normally be bashed by ReRe and Elia for being too cocky. It’s embarrassing if no one heard me.”

He said while making his way to the kitchen, where he sensed everyone. When he entered, he saw the women passed out on the floor.

“What the?”

He quickly approached them and looked around. Everyone except Amelia was knocked out cold on the ground.

“Hey, ReRe. What happened?”

He started shaking Reina, but there was no sign of her waking up.

“A-Aniket…..”

“Emilia.”

Rory approached the head maid, who looked barely alive.

“What happened?”

“Elia…..Cake….”

“Huh? What about Elia and cake?”

“Nothing’s wrong with it.”

That’s when Amelia entered the kitchen holding a paper bag.

“Elia, What happened?”

“Nothing really. Fraus just baked an apple cake, which was surprisingly delicious. I said that I wanted to give it a try and baked one myself.”

“Don’t tell me…..You poisoned them? Elia, I know that there’s a lot of women around me lately, but there’s no need to poison them out of jealousy.”

“Who the hell is jealous?!”

Amelia shouted with a red face.

“I didn’t poison them. I baked a normal apple cake following the recipe and this was the result……”

“An apple cake?”

Rory looked and saw a half eaten cake with apple topping on the table.

“Lord Aniket….Destroy that cake!”

Fraus who was laying next to the oven shouted with the last of her breath.

“You guys are exaggerating. There’s no way it can be that bad.”

Rory took a slice of the cake and ate it.

*Thud!*

He immediately collapsed on the floor with his eyes rolled to the back of his head and froth coming from his mouth. That day Amelia defeated Rory for the first time, and it was a oneshot by cake.