The Goddess Made A Mistake Again

"Right now?" Rocco asked, a bit perplexed.

"Yes, that's why I came here." I nod, signifying the importance. "I have a good business proposition for your friends."

Rocco was confused, sure. But he didn't do say anything to disturb Henry.

In his line of work, Rocco had contracted a sort of sixth sense that helps him recognize people to a degree. Because of that, he had a presumption about how severe Henry could be if he gets irritated.

It was through his intelligence and gut, did Rocco last so far. He wasn't going to stray away from it now.

"Alright, I'll sent the invitations. When do you want to do this?"

"As soon as possible."

Seeing the cold hard stare of my eyes, Rocco's also became serious, "That serious huh... alright, I'll send in the doves and get them to come as soon as possible."

Rocco went to his desk and started writing something on a card as he said, "But even with me saying of its importance, I don't know if all of them will respond to this. There are some… ahh… that are a bit…"

Rocco didn't find the right word to compliment them.

"Jackass"

"Yeah… yeah that does fit them." Rocco smiled and got back to writing, "The earliest they can come will be midnight, okay?"

I nod, "Where's the location?"

"Here, at the VIP Room."

…

Midnight

The roads of the city were empty by this point. Only creatures of the night and some drunkards were the only figures that strayed or puked the place.

It was a soothing silence. One that either scares you or lets you sleep in peace.

As it seemed that nothing would be able to disturb this silence, suddenly the city gates went up. With that, a few carriages drove in the city.

Every single carriage had a sort of extravagant feeling to them, like the person inside was either very rich, important or both. It wasn't the only thing that was peculiar about them.

What felt the strangest was that all the carriages went the same path before all of them stopped at the one place.

They gathered in a row before stopping in front of Rocco's Gambling House.

The doors to the carriages opened and only one person came out of each carriage. The figures looked at each other but did not say anything to acknowledge each other.

They all quietly went inside the building and only when the door closed, did one of them spoke, "Rocco sure does seem to have it good."

Another one joined in as he gave his coat to a guard, "That sly bastard, we should have gotten this idea and exploited it. Unfortunately, Rocco was the one who beat us to it."

"Yeah… but I've heard something else." This time it was a woman, "I heard that this place wasn't doing very well… but that's definitely not the case here." She said while looking at the gambling house with hunger.

"I heard that he found an investor who helped him." A fourth voice said, "But it wasn't at a good price, though. What do you think, Maverick?" The guy turned to the last figure, the fifth one.

The last guy quietly looked at the gambling house with neither greed or anger, there was just a calculative look.

"Without listening to hearsay, why don't we hear it from the man himself?"

At his cue, everyone heard a familiar tone, "You lot have found your way then."

Turning around, they saw Rocco standing at the stairs with a large smile on him. Looking at him, they were more than shocked.

It wasn't because of his words but his clothes.

"What happened to you, Rocco? Did you join a bandit group or something?" The first guy said.

Rocco laughed and came down as he hugged the guy, "This is called style, Benedict. You wouldn't understand a hard concept like this."

"Hard concept my ass, you're only showing off bastard!" Benedict said, yet he had a smile on him.

Rocco let go of him and turned towards the others, "Thank you all for coming at such a close call. Do you guys want anything? Help yourselves, I'm sure I have your preferred drinks at the bar."

"Thanks for the offer, Rocco." The woman with an alluring figure smiled, "But we would much rather know why you called us like this."

"Always on business, huh Reina? Do you guys feel the same way?" He asked the others and saw them nod, "Alright, since you're all such important people, we can get to business."

"But it seems the others didn't want to hear me out." Rocco said, missing a few people in here.

"You know how it goes. Some will listen and some won't." The fourth guy said, "At least you still have us friends here."

"You're right about that." Rocco gave a mysterious smile, "Well, it's their loss."

"Come with me then gentleman and gentlewoman." Rocco added the last part with a wink that the woman deftly avoided.

As Rocco showed them the way to the VIP Room, Benedict asked, "Hey, Rocco. Is it true what they say about the investor?"

Rocco only smiled mysteriously, "Don't worry Benedict, you all will get the answer when we get inside."

Benedict snickered, "Sneaky Bastard." He made sure not to lower his voice as everyone heard him but didn't find anything strange about it.

Rocco and Benedict are old friends who always bickered like this. So they didn't think much about it.

Quickly they came to the second floor which was blocked off by a black door and two large guards. The guards stepped aside and opened the door for them.

Getting inside they saw that unlike the first floor, this floor had a lot of black walls blocking in like a cube. They understood the cubes were all separate VIP Rooms.

They only gave analyzing looks to them and stayed silent, but Rocco could feel how those gaze held jealousy and sneakily smiled.

They came towards the end of the floor where there was a large black door that led to a room. Getting inside, they found a large oval table and chairs, waiting for them and one large man sitting at the end. The man unknown to them.

"Take your seats, people." Rocco said and sat at the core seat, right next to the unknown man.

"Before we start this meeting, why don't we all get to know each other first?" Rocco suggested and pointed to Benedict, "This is Benedict Lamb, the proprietor of Elside. He specializes in Agricultural and Fisheries type."

Benedict grit his teeth at the lame introduction but said nothing.

"Salvick Morera," The fourth one, "Proprietor of Southingrad and works in the Metal Business."

Salvick gave a quiet look at the unknown guy.

"Fredrick Barlow," The second guy, "He's the man who oversees Bellby and delves in Tea and Dairy Products."

Fredrick gave an acknowledging nod to the unknown man who did so in kind.

"Reina Hynes." Rocco smiled, "Known for her Leather and Textile business. The women of Lunaville and her only love, money."

"Which is why I will never sleep with you, Rocco."

The smile on Rocco faltered for a second but he smiled back. Which she did replicated.

"Lastly Maverick Queenton." Rocco pointed to the guy who sat right opposite of him, the one who remained silent from the start.

"The Proprietor of Queensmouth and one who works out the Meat Division."

"Rocco" Salvick who had been eyeing the unknown man since the start, said, "You've done all of our introductions, might doing the same for this… gentlemen next to you."

"I was about to." Rocco said and gestured to his right.

"This is the man you've heard rumors of. My good friend and an extremely wealthy investor, Mr. Tax."