Chapter 82 Carl Got Dumped



Inside a luxurious meeting room, there sat six people around a round table, all in colorful mage outfits.

They were having a serious discussion when a butler entered the room and whispered a few things in the ears of a man wearing red robes, making him frown.

His expression made another mage ask, "what's wrong?"

The man shook his head lightly. "Just a failure from my department."

"Oh? The Mystic department fails as well?"

"Sometimes." The man replied. Shaking his head then, he said to the butler, "ask the people to not underestimate anomalies and to investigate before wiping them."

The butler bowed. "Understood. Shall the failed mission be issued to someone stronger then?"

"No. The team that was involved, ask them to keep an eye for a while and report it to me. It's been a while since someone has survived."

The butler bowed and excused himself after getting the instructions.

A woman in a yellow robe sighed and said, "I don't understand what's happening lately. All the departments are meeting with some or the other trouble. Even the Mystic department suffered one."

The man in red robes shook his head. "That might not be the case. The ones handling this might've either miscalculated or were careless. Things have been going too well, it's no wonder they're slacking."

Another person on the table, a burly man, harrumphed and said, "On one side there's the Mystic department that never fails while on the other side there's the Recruitment department, consistently failing to bring in fresh bloods into the Association."

A man in blue robes didn't like the statement and said, "It's not our fault that the Gods aren't blessing better people. It's either that or the Association's candidates are being snatched by others."

"Others?" A veiled woman in white robes asked.

The man in blue robes nodded his head. "Did you forget that Evil Blesseds are on the rise? The dark side is too captivating for the newbies, it's no wonder we're failing."

The man in red robes sighed. "I've got some bad news regarding that."

All five turned their heads to him.

"The status quo is shifting slowly as the Evil is on the rise. Some low power countries have already either collapsed or integrated with some other, forming an alliance and resisting the major powers' exploitation."

The woman in the yellow robe had a grave expression on her face. "The bigger fish threatens the smaller fish. The smaller fish gets caught by the fisherman to catch the bigger fish. All of this just makes me wonder... what's the difference between good and evil anyway?"

The veiled woman leaned close to the yellow robe lady beside her and said softly in her ears, in a manner only she would be able to hear:

"There's no good, there's no evil. It's all cause and effect. Though, half the guys sitting here are just a bunch of righteous hypocrites and don't know about it. Anyway, keep a poker face, don't let these scheming fools read you."

The yellow robe woman thought, 'what's going on in this meeting? I thought we were all a close group managing the entire Association of Blesseds.'

With concerns and doubt hidden within her, the lady pretended as if there was nothing going on in her mind and continued with the meeting.

Once the meeting was adjourned, she met the veiled woman secretly and asked her what she meant.

The veiled woman's expression turned serious and she said, "I have no idea, but lately I've been feeling that something's definitely wrong with the Association. It'll take time for me to figure that out."

"I don't feel anything though. Everything seems to be running smoothly." The lady argued.

The veiled woman shook her head. "That's not the case. There's repeated problems arising within the Association with the most major one being Blesseds leaving it and running around freely. Add to that, the men in the meeting all seem to have changed. I don't feel their same auras anymore."

"You might be thinking too much, I think. I felt everybody was normal."

The veiled woman didn't speak anymore on this. "Watch out for yourself, there might be danger looming. You're one of the six pillars of the Association, your fall will half collapse it."

The lady knitted her brows but before she could ask more on this, the veiled lady had disappeared.

'What's really going on...'

***

It was 9 a.m. and Alex was out for business, wearing a formal shirt and pants.

He was on his way to see Samuel and Carl as there had been some difficulties.

Forming a business and running it was not easy. Samuel had met with trouble and so did Carl.

On Samuel's part, despite doing everything right and paying the fees, the startup wasn't registered. They rejected it by saying something along the keywords: money laundering.

It wasn't uncommon to open up a company to launder money, but Alex wondered despite not having made a single transaction, since their company wasn't even up yet, they were accused of money laundering.

Samuel obviously can't be made to run around to fix this issue as he was still just a fresh college graduate. It was Alex's responsibility to solve this issue.

As for Carl, his job was to research the streaming websites in the states and try contacting them.

Carl was met with rejections everywhere and due to living a NEET's lifestyle for a while, once his girlfriend visited him, she was horrified by the state of his room and dumped him.

Carl was now sobbing in a corner of his house and Alex knew he had to get that kid together, otherwise he would break down and not have the drive to do things anymore.

Carl was just two years younger than him and Samuel, but to Alex he seemed nothing more than a little kid who yearned for love and affection.

His father had passed and he knew nothing about his mother. He had no siblings and the only support he had all these while was from his girlfriend, who also seemed to have left him.

Alex got news of Carl's condition just this morning from Samuel who had called him to get a bit of information.

Carl was sobbing over the call but still did his best to inform Samuel about what was up.

Samuel had to stop him and ask what was wrong, which made him sob even more.

Since Carl had nobody else with him, not even friends, he vented on the call with Samuel and explained about his breakup.

Samuel could do nothing but sigh and comfort him on call while he made his way to his place and also seeked Alex's help.

It took Alex half an hour to reach Carl's place and once he was there, he found himself in a really poor neighborhood.

There were signs of violence all around and the apartment buildings also appeared shabby and rundown.

Alex made his way upstairs in a building with no lift and once he was outside Carl's apartment, he found the door to be open.

Alex walked in and just a step there, he frowned as a nasty smell assaulted his nose.

He felt as if he had walked into a garbage bin but shaking his head and pinching his nose, he went to see Carl.

The whole room was filled with trash from food packets along with various food spills, dirty dishes, and laundry.

Carl's studio apartment was small and it didn't take much walking to see the sobbing Carl, curled up in a corner and refusing to face Samuel, who was kneeling behind him and rubbing his back.

Noticing Alex arrive, Samuel turned to him with worry filled eyes and just said, "amigo," and shook his head, expressing the situation was really bad.

Alex gestured him to move to the side and rubbed Carl's back.

With a gentle tone, Alex said, "Carl, why the crocodile tears? Isn't your life going on track right now? You have college to attend, also have a job, and don't have debts anymore... So what if a girl left you? There's going to be many more, you know?"

This made Carl sob even more. "I... sniff... I r-really loved her. How can she leave just... sniff... like that?"

Alex sighed. He had no idea how to comfort someone because it was for the first time he was dealing with someone going through such an issue.

Although in med school he was given training to deal with bad news, he wasn't taught much on how to deal with people's psychological issues since he wasn't a psych major.

Alex still tried his best to comfort Carl with whatever he could, but finding his condition worsening, his own expression turned serious and he knew he had to do something.

'Do I knock him unconscious?' Alex thought. 'No. That would be bad.'

Alex thought about things and it suddenly clicked him, 'Mel and Nixie might be of help.'

His two wives were really loving and caring. They knew how to deal with emotions such as these.

If Melissa could deal properly with a toddler, Alex had a hunch that she could easily deal with a heart broken teenager.

Alex gestured to Samuel to take his place and going out of the apartment, gave a call to his wives.

"Hi, honey. Can you come with Nixie to the address I texted?"