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2024-10-29 19:42:56His eyes widened for a second, then he regained his composure.
“Umm, can I make an instalment payment? I do not have the full amount at the moment” He only had ten dollars to his name at the moment. Where was he to get five hundred thousand dollars from? Sebastian thought to himself “Come with me to the counter to process the necessary documents for instalment payment.” The nurse replied. They went down to the counter. As Sebastian was filling in the necessary details, a lady walked in, looking in Sebastian’s direction. She looked at what he was doing, wrinkled her nose and asked, “Who dragged a dead dog in here?” No one responded or acknowledged her presence. She stomped her foot on the ground and yelled in a loud screeching voice, “How dare you low-lives ignore me?” The nurse looked up at this point. She didn’t recognise her still but on scanning her outfit, she was donned in limited edition wear from head to toe. If she could afford to dress like that, she must not have a simple background. The nurse stepped out and apologized politely, “Sorry miss, pardon our oversight. How may we help you today?” The lady ignored the nurse and looked straight at Sebastian who was busy filling the forms. She continued; her tone condescending, “Tsk, tsk, tsk such poor reception from a hospital under my dad. All for what? This dog filling in the forms?” She turned to the nurse “Do you not know how to distinguish weed from wheat?” “Forgive our misstep miss, we are at your service…” The lady didn’t let the nurse finish, she walked straight to Sebastian, picked up the forms he was filling and tore it to pieces! Sebastian looked up at her with disinterest in his eyes. He had had enough of this cliché drama from the rich. It was the same script over and over again, it seemed they all went to the same school or crammed the same lines and steps of action. Even if they wanted to mock him for being poor, what happened to a little originality? He thought to himself. He did not regard the lady, he looked straight at the nurse, “Please may I get a new form?” The nurse glanced at the lady who was glaring at her and remained rooted. She wasn’t sure what to do next, after all a word from the lady could get her fired. Sebastian sighed aloud and rubbed his hand on his face. “I will return later to continue with the procedure then” Sebastian turned to leave “Who said you could leave?” The lady said Sebastian ignored her and kept walking towards the door. “Where is the manager of this hotel?” She asked with a wild shriek that could wake the dead. “Is this how you let nobodies steal from me early in the morning?” Someone walked out of an office, bowed deeply to the lady and said, “Good morning miss Anna, welcome to Crescent hospital. How may we serve you today?” The manager recognised her immediately. She pointed a finger at Sebastian, “Stop that thief at once!” The manager signalled the security and they stopped Sebastian from leaving. Sebastian turned, he glared at the manager and Anna, whom he was looking at clearly for the first time since she started making a scene that morning.Did they not see he was not in the mood and that he was grieving? He was certain Anna knew, given that she initiated the chain reaction of all that happened yesterday and she was Leonard’s girlfriend, not to mention her family background, which allowed her to know anything in mere seconds if she wanted.
Is she trying to cover the shame of him seeing her making out with some other dude? He breathed in and breathed out. He walked to the manager, “May I ask why I am being stopped, sir?” Completely disregarding Anna’s identity. Anna piped up, “you are trying to run from the hospital bills obviously” Sebastian spoke directly to the Manager without regarding Anna, “If I were a thief, I would not be filling the instalment payment form with my sensitive details. If I were a thief, I would have moved my family out of the hospital long ago. Why would I run knowing that they would be trapped here?” Anna spoke up, “If you are not a thief, pay the bills here and now, otherwise the patients will be thrown out of the hospital this instant!” Sebastian looked at the Manager and the manager sneered at him, “Please kindly pay the bills, sir” “I do not have the full amount at hand, give me the instalment payment form, and let me fill it. Hopefully, this time it will not be torn to shreds.” Sebastian shrugged. “Choose wisely Manager, I don’t need to tell you the consequences of crossing me, do I?” Anna crossed her arms on her chest and glared pointedly at her. The manager swallowed hard and turned to Sebastian, “If you don’t pay the bills right now, I will throw your family on the road, half dead or not. Maybe they are already dead?” Sebastian’s mouth twitched a bit at the last thing he said but the manager continued, “I will equally call the police. Maybe you can convince them to pay instalment bail” The manager finished with a sarcastic tone. Anna smiled, clearly pleased and looked down on Sebastian. Sebastian was angry, a cold air was emanating from him. Since he was a freshman, Anna had always picked on him for the strangest reasons. When she thought he was a rich heir in disguise, she wouldn’t stop fawning over him and giving him suggestive looks but when she had to face the bitter reality that he was a poor commoner who entered such a prestigious university through scholarship, she made his life miserable any chance she got. He was half certain that she deliberately lured Leonard to the parking lot to make things difficult for him she slapped him and left, knowing fully well Leonard’s temper. Anna snickered, “Do you want to hit me, Seb?” Anna stepped closer to him lowering her voice. “If you want to make me regret it, you need to have more going for you than cold stares and washing cars. And this is a warning, if you say a word of what you saw this morning, I promise you I will crush you with my mere fingers” She smiled chillingly. Sebastian smiled chillingly and fixed a stare at her, gradually throwing caution to the wind, forgetting that this was what led to the fight in the parking lot yesterday - refusing to submit. Anna was taken aback a bit by the look in his eyes. Sebastian’s phone rang out with a notification, breaking the silence. He brought it out, and looked at the message that was displayed on the screen: “Dear Guerriero, your first task will be assigned after your briefing. The task will be assigned by 2 pm.” What was it with all the Guerriero messages? Was someone trying to scam him? They sure picked the wrong person – he was poorer than a Church rat. As this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly recalled the credit alert he saw earlier. He hadn’t processed what he was seeing then but if his memory was serving him well, the Guerriero people sent him one million dollars right? “Let’s test their validity. It’s not like it could get worse than sending me to the station, I can bluff my way out of things if it ends up being fake.” He muttered to himself He brought out his card from his wallet and spoke to the manager, “Where do I make payment?” Anna burst out laughing at this point. “How does one go from begging to make an instalment payment to asking to pay the full price? Did a credit alert come in or what? How much can you even earn in mere seconds?” She kept taunting him “Manager, there is no need to listen to his nonsense anymore, go ahead and call the police” “Do you want the hospital bill or not? Isn’t that the reason you stopped me just now? If not, I will quietly go about my business and you have no right to stop me or call the police on me” Sebastian said with a serious look “How about we see the end of his act? Five hundred thousand dollars is not easy to bring out in the snap of a finger for low lives like him” The Manager coaxed Anna “Fine.” Anna shrugged, not worried at all because she didn’t believe he had that amount of money. The manager gestured to the nurse and she took him to the counter to process the payment. She swiped his card and the transaction was successful! The printer printed his receipt immediately! Sebastian was not the only one dumbfounded, Anna, the Manager, and the Nurse, their eyes went wide and they remained in shock for five seconds! Sebastian recovered first. “I take it that we’re done here. I’ll take my leave then”. Sebastian took his receipt in one fluid movement and walked towards the door quickly, leaving the stunned group behind. He had to leave quickly before Anna had the time to think up another excuse to stop him. Anna stared hatefully at Sebastian’s retreating figure. She hated that he was so poor and so good-looking at the same time. He made her heart race each time she set her eyes on him and that was the main reason she picked on him each time, to satisfy a guilty pleasure of hers. If only he was truly a hidden heir, she would stop at nothing to make him hers, but alas, wishes are not horses. How did he manage to pay Five hundred thousand dollars though? When Sebastian rounded two streets and was sure no one was following him, he brought out his phone to confirm what was happening. He was looking at his phone in disbelief. He saw the Debit alert of the transaction he just made and saw he still had a balance of five hundred thousand and ten dollars! He eyed the Guerriero messages again and a strange feeling rose in his heart. His eyes stayed on this particular message: “Dear Guerriero, for briefing, come to the Cozy Café at Wall Street by 8 am” It was 7:30 am at that point. He took a deep breath, “Let’s find out what these guys are about; if not for anything else, I owe them five hundred thousand dollars”.
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THE RISE OF THE ABANDONED HEIR 5. Did he know?
Sebastian stood at a corner opposite the café he was supposed to meet the Guerriero guys. He was on time but he was not about to walk into what he did not know; in a place he was not very familiar with.For all he knew, this could be all a cruel joke by a rich heir and he had had his fill of rich heirs for a while. The next time they cross him, he may really lose it. He picked a newspaper on the floor, opened it and used it as a shade, standing by a dark corner to monitor the Cozy Café. Nothing was happening inside, everyone was carrying on with their business normally, nothing was out of place and no one was waiting behind from his point of view. It was already 9 am, and he considered going back home and sending them a text to meet him in a place of his own choosing. He at least wanted to pay them back for the money he spent and draw up an instalment payment plan. For someone who just spent five hundred thousand of money that was not his, he wondered where his effrontery was comin
THE RISE OF THE ABANDONED HEIR 6. Lecturer Grizzalo
“Listen carefully, Sig Sebastian…” “Sebastian” “Fine. Listen carefully Sebastian, you must have already guessed the purpose of those messages so I will go straight to the point. The Guerriero Family is having a trial to select a new leader for the family, not merely members. Five contestants have been carefully vetted and selected to participate in the trials and there will be a series of tests and challenges. During the duration of this trial, any contestant has the right to mobilize the full force of the family, as much as they can command to do whatever they want, however, it must be within reason and for the benefit of the family. At the end of the trial, the Boss and the family will choose the next leader. Did you follow all that?” Alessandro finished “Why was I selected?” Sebastian asked “Our vetting team found you worthy” “What did they find worthy in me? I am an outsider and from what you are saying, this Guerriero trial sounds very important to your family” “It is inde
THE RISE OF THE ABANDONED HEIR 7. Bellissimi Tre
The three ladies who are ranked the most beautiful in Evertrise College are always called the beautiful three, with time it took an Italian variation, Bellissimi tre. And since last semester till now, the current Bellissimi tre were all from Sebastian’s class – Cecile, Zzemona and Anna. As Cecile walked to sit beside Sebastian, the grumbles got louder and the voice of the lecturer was heard once more, “Gentlemen and ladies, one more peep and the class will go in for it, especially the rich” No one made another sound after that. Cecile’s expression was indifferent, she was the kind of person that did not stand out too much yet was never hidden. In contrast to the heiresses in the hall, you could say she goes unnoticed, yet, she still draws attention, like a mysterious shadow that is always present but somehow blends in. She was the talk of the school when she enrolled just last semester which was very rare. The school hardly accepted such special students, given that she would grad
THE RISE OF THE ABANDONED HEIR 8. I will make you pay for killing Gramps!
He was practising his Judo in the evening, after school when he was sure most of the school had gone home or to their various engagements. Even if anyone was lingering behind, his practising what everyone thought was loose punches would not make any difference to them or raise suspicion.Suddenly, he felt he was being watched but ignored it. It could have been anyone and it didn’t matter what their intentions were since they did not approach him, or so he thought.From that day forward, he kept feeling that peculiar gaze. The person was highly skilled because they managed to conceal themselves well from him. One day, he was finally able to use a detour to identify the stalker and it turned out to be the new student, Cecile!He ignored her initially, when her curiosity of his poor condition waned, she would naturally stop following him but she never stopped. He had to readjust his routine because of her to avoid mistakenly revealing his proficiency with Judo and martial arts.Despite ch
THE RISE OF THE ABANDONED HEIR 9. Sorry Seb, my application has already been accepted.
“I will never understand why you choose to bear their unjust treatment all the time without reporting it.” The lady asked, scanning him from head to toe, seemingly searching for another injury.Sebastian wiped his blood-stained mouth and asked, “Do you want a polite answer or the truth?”The lady glared at him, “What do you mean?”“Nothing Doyenne.” He bowed“Speak”“If you cared about the scholarship students, you would not turn a blind eye to their suffering despite knowing about it with the excuse of it not being reported. I dare not tell you how to run your school but if you insist on mixing high society with commoners, you have to be ready to bear the consequences that come with it, including death.” Sebastian kept his head low“Excellent! One of my best students is actually so ruthless with his words! If it were not for me, you wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn from the crème de la crème! What would your genius mind amount to in the face of sub-standard education?”“With al
THE RISE OF THE ABANDONED HEIR 10. Tampering with someone’s sleep is just plain evil
“Dear Guerriero Numero Uno, your side quest is to bring the leader of the Red Rats gang to the headquarters tonight. He must be delivered alive. Goodluck”“Alessandro, I just got a message, what is up with the side quest? Haven’t we been given a task already?” Sebastian had barely arrived home before he got the message.“Oh, I forgot to tell you, other than the main tasks for the trials, you will be assigned side quests at random. The side quests are different per contestant but the main task is to be completed by all the contestants.” Alessandro answered nonchalantly over the phone, the sound of a punch landing on a sandbag audible over the speaker.“What other important information have you forgotten to tell me, Ales?” Sebastian asked, his tone a bit annoyed.“What’s the rush, you will eventually know all with time, let’s just hope you don’t find them out late.” He chuckled.“For a Consigliere, you sure are careless and grossly undisciplined!”“Judging a book by its cover now, are we
THE RISE OF THE ABANDONED HEIR 11. All that was heard was the sound of breaking bones...
Lorenzo planned to completely sabotage the mission and alert the police, completely ruining the quest and making Sebastian look incompetent before the family.Sebastian was taken aback by Lorenzo’s actions and seeing the recent turn of events, he didn’t take action. He observed the battleground for a bit before he ran out of the den. After some time, he returned to the den where the battle was still intense but instead of joining the fight, he sat back on a wall, crossed his legs and relaxed, watching the fight and eating some nuts he found on a nearby tree.From the looks of the fight, the Red Rats gang and the men assigned to him did not have arms on them. It was understandable why the Red Rats gang would not have arms, they looked like a small gang and arms were crazy expensive but it did not make sense why the men assigned to him only held weak knives, not one decent weapon.Lorenzo looked up amidst a fierce battle to see Sebastian lounging on the wall without a care in the world.
THE RISE OF THE ABANDONED HEIR 12. She flung her heels into the Incinerator
A helicopter came to pick up Mike and the wounded men from Sebastian’s team to deliver to the Guerriero headquarters. The police stormed the Red Rat’s gang after Sebastian had left. It was later discovered that why the police took so long to arrive was because a fire had been started nearby and the city square was in chaos because such a thing had never happened before. Between people causing commotion, and quenching the fire, the police had their hands full, thus, they could only arrive at the Red Rat’s base after all was done. *** Same Night in a luxurious restaurant in Country A “Principessa, you called?” A man dressed in a sophisticated forest green suit bowed to a lady dressed in a silk off-shoulder blue evening gown, a matching veiled mask covering her nose and mouth, flowing beautifully. “Any progress on the investigation?” He smiled at the enchanting ring of her voice. He sat back on his seat with crossed legs, exuding an air of arrogant confidence, “I’m curious abo
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30. I would Never let you win Leonard, Never!
Expatriate Wilson held Sebastian’s angry gaze with his own, there was a mini-starring contest between the two as he considered all the possibilities.Brushing off the situation was not an option as news of what happened would still reach Country B. And if they knew he was here and did nothing about the situation, there would be a pound of flesh to pay.Secondly, if he used Sebastian as a scapegoat, the possibility of Cecile intervening was very high, judging from her disposition.If he used any other person, apart from Alexo as a scapegoat, he had a feeling Sebastian would do something to make the situation escalate even further. The only option was to do as Sebastian wanted. The boy weaved the trap perfectly and he could only dance to his tune as a pawn in his plan.With what just happened, if he had doubts before about Sebastian’s academic standing as he had heard, or even doubted his capabilities from the drama that was happening with his project, all the doubts evaporated with Seb
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29. Drag her out of the stage!
“How is it not the same thing? The scale model of Sebastian’s project is exactly the same as that of Leonard!”“Yeah!”“If it weren’t the same project, how is it possible that it has the same features as that of Leonard?”“Exactly!” There were mixed reactions among the students in the crowd.“I guess we’ll find out after my presentation if the two projects are truly similar or not.” Cecile gave a charming smile that sent millions of hearts melting, male and female. All their attention was fully on her now and the room was still.Everyone was paying rapt attention to hear what she would say, and how she would turn this project, which was a replica of Leonard’s own into something different.“I would like to point out a few things about Elemour. Just like Leonard rightly mentioned, it is indeed a hilly and mountainous terrain. One so scary-looking, it was written off as a waste land, laying bare for any constructor who would be daring enough to make something of it.”“However, the mounta
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28. Who said our Projects are similar?
The more Cecile thought about it, the stranger it was.Why would Leonard be so confident in presenting the stolen design without making any adjustments to it? The pairs were to be called up randomly, so how was he so certain that he would present before her and Sebastian?Her guess was, that Leonard didn’t just tamper with the timing of the presentation, he also tampered with Lecturer Grizzalo’s shuffling program. With that realization, she smiled as she wheeled up their prototype. It was covered with a white cloak.“Where is Sebastian?” One of Leonard’s minions shouted from the sidelines.“Yeah, it’s supposed to be a team presentation, not a solo presentation.” Yet another minion added.Cecile looked to Lecturer Grizzalo and he clarified, “Sebastian took an excuse from me this morning to get a report which he needs for this project. He mentioned he would be back before his partner was done so let’s wait and see, shall we? In the meantime, Cecile, please proceed. If he’s not back by th
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27. But they are not protecting you now either, are they? What’s the difference?
A distance away from Evertrise, Sebastian was running at full speed towards the location of the Ministries in Skymin City. It was located in the heart of the city but getting there required covering a considerable distance. And Skymin City was large.Sebastian’s speed, paired with his martial arts could surpass that of a horse at full speed, but even with that speed, it was nothing compared to the speed of a car which would have gotten him there in less than fifteen minutes. The distance he covered with his current speed felt like a drop in the ocean compared to the distance he still needed to cover. The city was just that large. He mentally laughed at himself upon recalling how he confidently told Cecile not to worry, and that he would be back on time.At this speed, if he made it back in time for lunch, then he was a living human rocket! Poverty wasn’t a good thing, and as Sebastian ran, the irritation of being poor gnawed away at him. In that moment, he began to consider the Guerri
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26. A Stolen Praise
“Leonard, what do you mean by you’re cutting all ties with me?” Anna asked, her anger and irritation from last night still simmering on her skin. She was physically recovered thanks to Wintore Hospital’s expert care, but the same could not be said about her mind.“Exactly what you heard. I have no use for a has-been, a violent one at that. You should be grateful I didn’t put you in jail for assault.” Leonard was still nursing the stinging pain on his bandaged right cheek from the injury Anna inflicted on him last night in Wintore Hospital.“You have no right to throw me out now!” Anna’s voice was rising in decibels, just outside the conference room to be used for the project presentation, “Not after everything you made me do for you! Now all of a sudden when I need you the most, you’re leaving me to hang dry?!!!” A mini crowd was gathering around them.Leonard dragged her away from prying eyes into a corner, he pinned her with his elbow at her neck to the wall, “Listen and listen caref
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25. Projects 3: The Plan
Silence descended on the lab, everyone was thinking.For Lecturer Grizzalo’s project, they still needed to do the scale modelling of their blueprint, and that was a lot of work considering it hadn’t been started already. For Gavriel’s project, between completing the prototype design and building the prototype, they still had a lot of work to do.“I’ll take care of the scale modelling Seb, you can concentrate on Gavriel’s project,” Cecile spoke up.“But…”“It’s a lot, I know. I’m not confident I’ll finish it before the time for the presentation but we never know until we try right? And I’m quick with my fingers.” She wriggled her finger at Sebastian as she smiled at him. There was no hesitation in her eyes, instead, there was a gleaming fire in her eyes, a fire borne from the challenge. If there was one thing Cecile enjoyed, it was taking on challenges and overcoming them! And she so loved this particular challenge.“That would be pushing yourself too much Cecile…” It wasn’t that Sebast
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24. Projects 2: The Wrench
Sebastian turned to Cecile who was on her phone and said, “Thank you for being here till this time and sorry for keeping you for long only for me to focus on another project.”“You sound like it was you who made me stay back; I chose to stay back to work on the project of my own free will Seb. The apology is unnecessary, don’t make the atmosphere uncomfortable for everyone. Gavriel is tense enough as it is.” She raised a brow at him and then continued what she was doing.Sebastian was at a loss for words. He scratched his head awkwardly and said,“There’s still a lot remaining for the project to be complete, I’ll feel guilty if you’re doing it alone. How about we continue working on it next tomorrow? The project is not due for another four to five days at least.”“She chuckled lightly, “Relax Seb. Don’t worry, I don’t plan to do everything by myself tonight. That’s a lot of work to complete in one night. I just need the distraction of working on something for a bit so I’m staying back
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23. Projects 1: The Lifeline
At Leonard’s apartment, in a luxurious district of Country A, Leonard was on a call, his tone was angry and dangerous.“I suffered great humiliation today, thanks to Sebastian and Anna. Sebastian must not be allowed to continue studying at Evertrise. He must never amount to anything! So, find a way to make the project presentation tomorrow! I don’t care what you do, make it happen!” And he cut the call.Leonard looked at the completed project work that was in his room. Everything was there, the blueprint, the simulation and the physical model, it was all done to perfection. The only thing of concern was, it was a stolen idea from Sebastian. He was irritated at how excellent the concept Sebastian came up with was, it was almost like a sneer in his face as he stared at it.Leonard had put one of his minions to tail Sebastian and get his idea for Lecturer Grizzalo’s project, as well as pictures of the rough sketches. The minion did a perfect job in fulfilling the task because what was bef
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22. Cancelled Sponsorship
Despite being nighttime, the city was abuzz with discussions, ridicule and laughter. Various versions of what transpired at Wintore Hospital spread like wildfire across the city and eventually the entire Country A in one night!The broadcast of the scene from Wintore hospital, starting from when Anna was pleading to Alessandro to spare her to when Leonard scurried away spread across social media and was reposted over and over. Memes were made with Anna’s unsightly crawling and Leonard’s scurrying away; wild exaggerations were added to the memes and there were the butt of every joke. Headlines began to flow one after the other:“BREAKING NEWS: Five Conglomerates just cancelled their decade-long partnership with Celestine Conglomerate. The various representatives of the companies say they are willing to pay the exorbitant severance f*e than have Celestine Conglomerate as a business partner!”“JUST IN: From Nation’s Husband to Demon Reaper. Leonard who once caused millions of hearts to m
