Fair Trade

A bitter taste lingered in her mouth.

Even after Yuri left, Sei lay on the sofa for a long time. It was difficult to lift even a single finger. She thought if Giulio’s men came to visit her, she’d have to ask for a wheelchair.

The sex, which was brutish to her and a light thing for him, made her feel like the rest of his semen was dripping out of her. Even though she obviously showered, the sensations didn’t go away.

Sei stared blankly under the sofa table. She felt drowsy as she stared at it thoughtlessly. But at that moment, she felt a strange sense of difference.

There were clear traces of the carpet having been lifted.

She checked her left and right, then carefully rolled up the carpet. It was her father’s way to make a safe on the floor. Aside from Albert’s blood, not a drop of blood had permeated into this safe.

Sei picked up the ash tray she kept near the fireplace mantle and took out the key she had hidden in it. When she opened the safe after dialing its password, she found all the diamonds, watches, bundles of cash, and various documents she had collected.

Everything was in its place. A sigh of relief leaked out of her mouth, as she wondered whether she was freaking out for nothing.

The safe not only contained her stolen items or cash – she also pulled out Albert’s memento that had been wrapped in a cotton flannel from it. It was the only thing she could bring back instead of a keepsake. She was the only one who knew of the secret collection of the man without a family.

The thing wrapped in the cotton flannel was a 9.1mm-caliber five-shot magnum revolver. There was a cheap sapphire embedded in the buttstock of the revolver, which was nothing special.

She couldn’t understand the man who modified the gun. She thought it would have been better to engrave their name than to insert a sapphire with such low purity and a lot of foreign substances in it. Of course, he was an unusual man in many ways. If it was his usual eccentric temperament, he would have probably done even more.

But guns were scary, too.

Looking down at the revolver, she put it back in the safe and locked the door. Then she went into the room and packed a couple of clothes for her to change into.

She was used to packing, but she didn’t need to do it whenever she went to meet up with Giulio.

He would prepare everything — from the lingerie to the dresses, and even the shoes and accessories. It was because he was satisfied only with clothes that suited his tastes.

Finally, putting the watch Yuri gave her into her bag, she picked up the case full of terrifying and excessive things.

Does he have some weird hobby of installing weird devices into these beautiful babies?

While clicking her tongue, Sei put the necklace and earrings on, then hung the anklet around her ankle.

When she saw it sparkling on her pale ankles, she thought she could somewhat understand a little bit of the mood of the medieval slaves. Plus, anklets were just not her style.

After getting ready, Sei kept checking the time.

She drank some beer and told Chloe, who was about to fall asleep, that she was going to go somewhere for a while, and then gave her some cash. She also told her that Justin had come, but Chloe was drunk and fell asleep without hearing her words properly.

At exactly midnight, Sei turned off the lights in the house and opened the front door.

“Ah… Romano.”

Berenice Romano. A young professor at the University of Washington, as well as a close aide to Giulio.

Sei smiled as she looked at Romano wearing neat horn-rimmed glasses.

“It’s my first time seeing you wear glasses.”

“I usually wear them. Your luggage?”

“Here.”

She pointed to the bag on her side. Standing in front of Romano, Sei looked like a freshman college student.

Tsk, Sei clicked her tongue and then untied her hair that had been tied up.

“You know, you still look like a kid.”

“Yes, yes, ok, uncle.”

“You cheeky brat!”

He escorted her with his formal Italian smile.

Only Yuri Petrov and Giulio Parenti would bring a Rolls-Royce to such a slum. As she headed to the airport with Romano, she asked him some questions about Giulio, and found out that he had left for Nice. She also found out that this was the place where his fifth villa, which had been completed by then, was built.

Southern France was the main port of call for DE:A cruises. And the owner of DE:A was Yuri Petrov…

Somehow she felt like she had stepped into a deep abyss. She felt like she had been pulled into a huge maze game that someone had made on purpose.

Sei, who traveled through the first class with Romano, drank about five glasses of champagne in a row, and then wore an eye patch and earphones. She covered himself with a blanket. Then, inclining her seat back, she went straight to sleep.

Throughout the flight, she dreamt of a blue-eyed monster. He opened his mouth wide and swallowed her in one gulp, and covered her body with sparkling diamonds. While asleep she felt joyful, but she was frustrated when she found out that it was only a dream.

Seriously, it was one hell of a dream.