Stone Spitters left a short while ago. Bilka and Pilli were in the worst situation they have ever been in their entire lives. They couldn’t even cry out loud anymore as even the slightest movement of their limbs hurt them pretty bad. Still, it pained so much that they couldn’t contain themselves from moving around. It was a literal nightmare for the two of them as they crawled in their own blood, feeling plenty of veins needling them from the insides of their bodies.

“What do you want to do now?” Pilli just wanted to ask that question, his face in a dismal decoration.

“I want to beat the shit out of you,” Bilka extracted out some words out of the pain coursing through his veins and then went into a disconcerted pause before speaking again. “Getting beaten by him back then didn’t feel that bad, but right now, I feel pathetic. It’s beyond embarrassing to be lying on the ground like this.”

“I apologize,” Pilli rolled his eyes toward Bilka, who lay beside him. Bilka didn’t say anything, but his ruffled face revealed most of his thoughts.

“Guess who’s back?” a voice rang in Pilli’s ears, almost bringing him a heartache. When his pupils shifted by degrees, there was a face he least expected to see. It was Lirzod, who squatted down, making a poker face. “Those little fellows really went all out on you two.” The two of them had their eyes broadened in bewilderment. “You might be wondering as to what I’m still doing here. Relax. I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry—for how things got here.” His words puzzled them both. “So don’t trouble me again, got it? I’ll be climbing the decks, so I guess you won’t try too hard to come after me. Anyway, don’t cause trouble for others without a good cause,” he placed a somewhat abnormal almond on Pilli’s chest. “There. You pissed the most. You can eat it and regain some strength. It will reduce your inflammation, too, but only a bit, though.” He stood and looked at Bilka. “Hope you got what I’m saying as well. Too bad that I only had one novel almond left. If he’s willing, you can break that one into two. See you both later.” Saying that Lirzod began to walk away.

Pilli took the almond off his chest. What was it that he just received? An apology? A warning? No, he's messing with me! “Damn you…” He threw it at Lirzod, who turned his body a bit and caught the almond by his pants pocket.

“Don’t want it?” Lirzod shrugged his shoulders before turning back and continuing his walk. “My mistake. I thought everyone liked almonds. Well, as far as I know, at least everyone in my town does.”

Pilli squealed from the pain he felt every time he moved his body.

Bilka slightly blew air through his nose. “A fool till the final second.”

In the Z block of the tenth deck.

One room was quite different than others, be it in size or style. Its door was locked but was being guarded by two hollows that held shimmering spears. A messy gray-haired man kowtowed on the ground in front of those two, and though he didn’t say a word, he still gave off a gloomy aura.

The entire street was eerily silent, and not even winds whirled. Breaking the stillness of the street, the sound of soft pacing grew ever so clear by the second.

In less than a minute, a panda of ample proportions rounded the corner of the street, taking a sharp turn and stopped at the first room itself. From atop its back glided down a small and somewhat stocky brown-haired man, his shoulders and chest guarded by slender and stylish plates that curved creatively around his muscular curves. His hard-angled brows helped him in forging a fierce look with ease, and his mutton chops beard would shed all presuming doubts of him being a boy. His pompadour hairstyle increased his height just a bit.

Both the guards bowed before one of them hurriedly unlocked the door, and the brown-haired man walked in. The gray-haired man still assumed the same position. His heart, however, beat almost twice as fast. The panda sat down and was playing with a scurrying bark beetle by blocking its path with the hand. After receiving a bite, it squashed the beetle into smithereens with a cupped hand and looked around, seemingly looking for another one.

“Commander is calling you in,” the guard gestured at the gray-haired man to come in, and then they both removed their footwear. Upon entering and passing through some sub-rooms, he stopped in a room that looked distinct from the others. An oversized painting made of blacks and whites and grays and many other colors decorated one of the walls and fully set the tone of the room. That large-scale art was the map of the tenth deck.

The brown-haired man was seated in a peculiar yet comfortable chair that lacked arms. Its design resembled the rear half of a fish, with the tail fins rising toward the ceiling. Seated in that Thing Throne[1], he looked intimidating. Only the commanders of each deck had these custom-made thrones. “You look like death warmed over.” His voice was rich and imposing.

The gray-haired man knelt on the green carpet and could no longer hold on to his tears. “Please forgive me, Commander Zentzu,” he caught the legs and pleaded, “just give me some time, and I’ll make sure to pay you back.”

“Pay me back by when, Komal? A week?” Zentzu Mammon said in a detached voice but got no response. “A month? Or do you want a year?”

Komal managed to squeeze out a few words through his heavy throat. “Two, two months. That’s all I need.”

“Two months?” he kicked Komal under the chin, forcing his whole body to lose contact with the ground. He crashed down ten feet away from the throne. Zentzu got down from his seat and walked over to Komal and stepped on his chest. “ Whose leg do you think you’re pulling?”

Komal frowned as he bled from his mouth. “If she didn’t fool me, I wouldn’t be in this place right now. Just give me two months, sir.”

“What will you do in two months? Go up and get your money back from her?” he pressed his foot a little hard, making it hard for Komal to breathe. “If you’ve wanted to stay rich, you should have stayed away from sluts. That’s common sense.”

“I-I don’t have money, but I can get it back. I’m sure. So, please give me some time.”

“A man without money and a woman without a womb are one and the same,” Zentzu boldly said. “Both are equally worthless beyond a shadow of a doubt. Tell me why I should make you an exception?”

“I…”

At that moment, the barking of the panda reached his ears. Zentzu looked at the guard and softly said, “Give Pupuu the usual menu. Ten kilos of young and fleshy shoots, and five kilos of luscious leaves.”

“Right away, Commander,” the guard hurriedly left.

Zentzu glanced down at Komal, who had a mix of a splenetic and a sullen look. “Gotta feed my blue-eyed boy in time, or he’ll get aggressive by the minute. Just like me.”

Komal didn’t say anything, or rather he couldn't speak anything because of the pressure on his chest.

“I’ll give you one week, like how I give to those I have some trust in. Don’t know what you will do or whose boots you will lick, but if you fail to give my money back in time...” he put down his foot and lighted a cigar as he walked back to his seat, “you can bet that you’ll spend the rest of your life as a slave who never sees the light.”

“Yeah, thanks for your kindness, but I didn’t expect you to understand the betrayal of love either!” Komal roared, making Zentzu stop. “You are rich, richer than I can ever be. You can eat different food, wear different clothes, and sleep with a different girl every day. What would you know about attachments? What would you know how much it hurts when the girl you loved and climbed a hundred decks together with betrays you for some fucking prick from the higher decks? All you care about is making sure that you’re feeding off people’s blood and sweat in the form of interests.”

Zentzu let out a stiff smile. “This is what I get for charging a three-copper per-week interest when I could easily make that six or seven copper,” he turned around and strode ahead, his facial features becoming prominent, and especially his resolute look pierced Komal’s very soul. “Do you know how it feels when your own stepmom and stepsisters bully you for what you are, a three-foot three-inch scrotum-faced shaver? Do you know how easily they can make smiles that strike you sharp and dig deeper than a dagger ever can?”

Zentzu’s voice came deep down from his heart and was weighty from the start. “Do you know how miserable your days get when you come home in bruises and bloody limbs only to get further beaten up by those who should be taking care of you? Do you know how pitiful you become when they feel stronger and better by bullying you and turning you into a weaker and worse being?”

Zentzu grabbed Komal’s collar. “Do you know how much you cry when you look for a rare moment of support, but the truth makes you realize that there’s no one to catch your fall? Do you know how the days go by when you feel suicidal, losing any hope of life getting better? Do you know how long the nights get, when at the end of every day, you can’t even feel glad for being alive? Do you know how cursed you feel when you try so hard to love them but won’t get a speck of it in return and instead get called a cursed child that even dwarves don’t bother to cast a glance at?

“Do you know how it feels when you realize that nobody is perfect but have already beaten both your stepmom and stepsister by then? Do you know how it feels when you look at your past during which all fingers point at you for one wrong thing you did, which you aren’t proud of either, but not one of them points at those who made me do it in the first place? Do you know how gut-wrenching it gets when you go mad and literally beat yourself up, again and again, before you even grew a beard?”

Koma’s eyes broadened, not knowing what to say.

“Do you?” Zentzu roared.

Komal couldn’t speak.

Zentzu let go of the collar and adjusted his dress. “We all get shit smeared on our faces at some point in our lives,” he said as he circled around Komal. “So don’t act like the whole world is weighing you down. Get your shit together, and don’t waste your days on planning your revenge. If fate has it, you will teach her a lesson. Knowingly or not. You just have to focus on keeping your word by paying my money back." His tongue paused a moment, and the sound of his footsteps was the predominant sound in the room. "If you are thinking of escaping… then don’t. My grain[2] is faker than your girlfriend. Trust me, you don’t want to see it in full.” Saying that he began to trace his way back to his seat. “Get out of my room.”

Komal stood in silence for a few seconds before his feet took him toward the exit door.

“By the way, I won’t cut down the interest rate,” Zentzu said, rubbing the cigar in the ashtray. “If your regret had righteousness, it would have reached my heart. Sadly, it didn’t.”

“Thanks,” Komal said in an enervated manner before his slowing down pace picked up again.

The moment Komal left the room, a guard entered and quickly knelt on one of his knees. “Commander, I went to the room you told us to check. The door was open, but nobody was inside.”

“Mm, what about the neighboring rooms?”

The guard flinched a bit, “Commander, you didn’t tell me to check the nearby rooms. So…”

Zentzu raised his brows. “Idiot. If the information is right, he boarded the ship with two others. They would have been given rooms next to each other. If he’s not in his room, he might be staying in one of those rooms.”

“T-Then I will immediately go and bring him,” the guard swiftly stood and turned back.

"Wait," Zentzu's voice stopped the guard. “I’m free right now. Instead of wasting my time here, I will go there myself. Let’s also make this a round.”

The guard slightly bowed his head. “As you wish, Commander.”

A few minutes later.

Sariyu just reached her room, murmuring about something, and she didn’t seem to be in a good mood. “The official assemblies sure have it easy.”

As she was about to enter, a voice came from afar. “Wait, miss!” she looked to the side and saw a short man striding toward her. A short-haired guy with a pencil-thin mustache, and a tattoo of a spear with its head pointing down between his brows, was closely following him.

After getting closer, the short man put his hand forward and said, “I’m Zentzu, the commander of this deck.”

Sariyu measured him from top to bottom before turning her hand and stepped into her room without saying another word.

Zentzu looked at his hand before pulling it back.

“How dare she!” the guard tightly grabbed the spear and took a step ahead, but Zentzu’s arm blocked his path.

Zentzu stood right outside the door. After discerning that the neighboring rooms had no people in them, he said, “Do you know where Mr. Lirzod is?”

Sariyu raised one of her brows. Her lips slightly stretched to the sides showing signs of suppression of smile; however, her face was out of their view. Mister? Now, that’s a first. She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Why do you ask of Mr. Lirzod?”

“I heard that he had a skirmish with Geragorn, so I just came here to see how he’s doing.”

"Oh, thanks for worrying, but Mr. Lirzod is not here. And… in case you are wondering, then he's not going to bother Geragorn again.”

Zentzu frowned a little bit. “So, is he staying on this deck?”

“Mm?” Sariyu narrowed her eyes. What did he do now? Oh my days, he better not come to me for money. She gleefully disapproved the thoughts that came to her mind. “I don’t know. You should ask him.”

"Miss, do you know who you are talking to?" the guard asked in an increased tone, standing behind Zentzu.

"I don't think I have to know that." Her austere voice rang in the guard's ears like the buzzing of a bee.

--------------------------------------------------

[1] Thing Throne: A deck commander’s chair made to resemble a certain being or object.

[2] Grain: The natural character of a person.