Investment #5

Vincent whistled lazily as he ran a silk cloth through the internals of his weapons. The sky was still dark and the grounds were littered with bodies of dead gangsters.

 "Is he finally done?" The bartender asked, cleaning his bolt-action.

Sabine walked over to him, taking a seat on the fallen keg. "Yeah, It seems like we found a little monster cub."

"With our luck, I'm not all that surprised." 

"You got that right." Sabine agreed, taking a cigarette case from her coat. "Want one?"

Vincent looked at her and nodded. "Thank you."

In the distance was Arthur shaking his hands of the residue blood. Alexander walked over to his side and gave him an assuring pat on the back.

"Good job, Kid." The giant proudly smirked, ruffling the boy's hair while he was at it.

Arthur just huffed, slightly annoyed, swatting his hand away. "Enough, We only dealt with the gangsters, are we going to loot anything?"

Alexander stroked his bloodied-white beard. "We were waiting for you, kiddo." He said, motioning to Sabine and Vincent, who was perched on a fallen keg.

Arthur nodded. "I see, then, let's get going. We don't have all night." He said, yawning. "Also stop patting my head."

"Sure, Sure-- it's not my fault you have lush hair."

The group gathered around the largest building, which the guards were originally guarding. Arthur discarded the empty cartridges into his bag, so as not to leave an ounce of evidence for the authorities.

"Fan out, I'll look for a light switch. Grab anything we can use against..." Alexander trailed off, not wanting to reveal the name of his traitor.

"Against...who? c'mon!"  Arthur complained internally. "Sure, anything else is up for grabs right?"

Sabine gave Arthur a thumbs up. "That's right. Go wild kiddo-- ransack the whole joint."

Arthur nodded at her. "Yes ma'am, and since when did I become a kid?"

"Since right now." She proclaimed proudly, crossing her arms. 

Arthur sighed, rolling his eyes. Arthur squinted at sabine, before shaking his head, not wanting to argue.

"Fine, whatever," he said, leaving them. "Time to find anything interesting. Gangsters are bound to have cash somewhere around here." 

Arthur wandered the empty warehouse, splitting away from Vincent, Sabine, and Alexander. The air was heavy with the smell of rust and the atmosphere felt heavy and depressing.

Putting his hand over to his nose, Arthur pinched his nose. "Ugh, it's so weird in here."

thud!

Bright lights turned on overhead with a loud starting-up sound, surprising three of them, and making them draw their weapons. Arthur turned around to see Alexander by the entrance, holding a large lever. "What the--"

"I found the light switch" He waved, with a cheeky grin. Arthur felt a vein bulge on his forehead, but he said nothing.

 To everybody's surprise, however, the large warehouse had four levels: a loading bay, a second floor, two floors of balconies overlooking the loading bay, and the rafters-turned storage unit.

Aside from the large size of the interior, what captured his attention was not the goods littered around the place, but the suspicious crates covered by a tarpaulin at the back of the room.

 A faint memory flashes in his mind. This exact spot, in this exact warehouse, was the location of the biggest scandal in the first year of the story.

Arthurs's eye's widened. "Don't tell me..."

He sprinted over to the crates, immediately grabbed hold of the end of the large sheet, and pulled on it. watching the large sheet fall, the crates turned out to be large metal cages, and in them, were about twenty captured prisoners, with their hands tied up and blindfolded

"aa-ah...my eyes..."

"Is that someone?"

Arthur gulped down hard on his saliva. "Don't panic! I'm here to save you."

The crowd of captured prisoners immediately brightened up. 

"I-Is that t-true?'

"Yeah, but I can't free you just yet, there are many dangerous people around at this time." Arthur tried to reassure the skeptical crowd.

"I-Is that the truth??"

Arthur spotted the most important man out of them all, the centerpiece of the first year's first Arc. He was the closest to the gate and by far the quietest. The man was wearing a suit and coat, both with a significant number of patches on his elbows and knees.

"Yes, now here is what you're all supposed to do. Keep quiet until I come back, and when I do, the police would be following soon after me. Is that understood?"

The captured victims were uneasy, but they nodded. "W-We understand..."

Arthur closed the cage slowly, so as not to scare them. "Now, don't worry, help will come soon."

After reassuring them one last time, Arthur dashed for the office cubicles by the opposite corner of the warehouse. "I really can't believe it! He was here! the greatest explorer!"

Arthur could feel his heart bubbling with excitement. His nose tickled from a very strong scent, the strong scent of money. 

"This is by far the best business opportunity! That man, his name was Gantz, Gantz Galileo, the first man to prove the world was round!"

Arthur burst through the office, heading straight for the safes. Removing his gloves, he channeled his fire magic to them, heating the metal safes.

"Ever since I achieved the first circle, using magic had been so easy! Anyways, back to Gantz, although the world here is incredibly technologically advanced, they still believe the earth is flat!"

"The reason for this is simple, it was all because of the supercontinent and the five empires that thrived on it, Pangea. The Pangea continent had been thoroughly explored, and occupied by the five, for centuries. Thus, they all hold a geocentric view."

"This empire holds the majority of the Northwestern hemisphere of the continent, giving it the largest coastline."

clang!

The safe door fell apart, displaying a bountiful stack of Sterling banknotes. "OH! Money!" Arther interjected. "Oops-- I must be quiet."

"Naturally, with that much history and lore, any country would stick to its traditions, and so would their citizens-- all except one man and his crew, Gantz Galileo, the International Pioneer."

Arthur stuffed the banknotes into the sack he had prepared, before moving on to the next safe. 

"He physically proved the theory of his disgraced predecessor, Henry Galileo, the man who theorized that the earth, was indeed round and revolved around the sun."

"But what Gantz didn't know, was that the Pangea Continent was not alone."

"He successfully brought back a race of people, not native to the Pangea Continent, proving that the earth was indeed round, and the sun was the center of the known heavenly bodies, and also discovering the sister supercontinent, Panthalassa."

"This must be the finance room, as a large number of safes. Too bad for you, anonymous traitor, this money is mine now-- muahahaha- wait a minute!" Arthur choked on his own saliva.

"With this much money, I could invest in him now! And in three years' time, just by the middle of the story, the crew thought to be missing comes back to the continent carrying the madman pioneer. That man was the man who ushered in the age of Exploration."

Closing the first bag of cash, and replacing it with another one before working on another safe. Arthur finally came to a decision. He finally recovered from his fit of coughs, before resuming his heist upon the gangster's treasury.

 "I've decided to personally sponsor Galileo, but only after taking over the gangsters here in the city," he said.

"Not only will I provide funds, but I will also provide him with a trained military-like force so not only would he discover the continent and its people, but claim as much land as possible."