Chapter 11: What He Left Behind

"She was no more, and it wasn't because of old age or an illness."

White Hat fell silent, silently observing the girl sitting across from him. As expected, on her face was a shocked face, but she… didn't look that shocked? White was having difficulty reading her expression. While she looked surprised, she also seemed like she had expected him to say it, like someone who had already known the answer but pretended otherwise.

"What do you mean, sir?" Riona's voice was quiet as she spoke. "Don't tell me that…"

White nodded slowly, his eyes closing as he forced the words out of his mouth. "She was murdered."

Riona let out a gasp as she covered her mouth, but once again, White had no idea if she was really shocked. "Th-That's horrible… I'm, I'm very sorry for asking."

"It's okay, it happened long ago. Eight hundred years ago, to be exact," White said and took another sip of tea. "I advise you not to speak of his late wife when your boss's around, though I'm sure you've already figured that out yourself."

"I won't. I know how painful it is to lose your loved one." Riona mumbled, biting her lips as she recalled the moment she found out she had lost her parents to a plane crash. She could remember how the world around her had crumbled after that discovery, so she imagined how much pain her boss had had to go through. Was that the reason behind the sorrow she could find in his eyes whenever she looked into them?

"Sir, I don't mean to pry, but…" she continued, breaking the short silence between them. "May I ask if you know what exactly happened?"

This girl was really messing with White's head. On one hand, she looked like she had already known everything. But on the other hand, she appeared surprised and curious. Which side of hers should he believe?

"Well, I do know. But I have to warn you that some details may scare you." He tried to push his thoughts away as he replied, deciding to go on when he saw Riona nod. "Mr. Black Hat has many enemies, but not many of them dare to challenge him, except for one particular organization—The Red Mask Organization. The Manor's known for having a very tight security system, but it somehow couldn't detect their assassin as a threat. As a result, Mr. Black Hat's wife, who was also his scientist at the time, let him in. The assassin requested that they let him see all the organization's products, so Mr. Black Hat and his wife did what he asked them to. He waited for them to let their guard down before attacking them. It turned out that his weapons are stored inside him."

"So… he hid them in his clothes?"

"If that'd been the case, the security system could've identified him as a threat." White paused, seemingly thinking carefully about what he should say next. "I don't mean to horrify you, but his weapons were literally inside him, like they were his own organs. When he attacked them, his weapons… how do I say this, sprouted from inside him and through his skin. You can say he was a biological weapon, a very advanced one."

White watched the way the colors fade from Riona's face, though he couldn't blame her for feeling terrified. He himself was also in disbelief when he heard about it at first.

He decided to continue talking to steer her attention away from the terrorizing mental image that was probably going through her head right now. However, she didn't seem like she was imagining it—she looked like she was actually recalling that moment as a person who had seen it firsthand. Again, this puzzled White, but he tried to ignore it and continued talking, even though he was afraid to get to this part of the story.

"Anyway, despite being caught off guard, they were still to defend themselves. But then, the assassin suddenly split into two, and before both of them could do anything, his clone had stabbed Mr. Black Hat's wife from the back," White stopped, wondering if he should reveal the last detail, "right through her heart."

Flinching, Riona touched her chest at where her heart was. To White, she looked like she was experiencing the pain, and unbeknownst to him, his observation was correct—she actually just felt a sharp sting at her heart, like a very sharp blade just stabbed through her heart and flesh. The pain felt so real that she had to look down to see if there was actually any blood or injuries there.

"I guess Mr. Black Hat was angry, right?" She managed to talk again after she had found her voice.

"To say that he was angry is an understatement—he was more than outraged. There's actually no accurate word to describe how furious he was." White stared at his tea, thinking for a brief second before looking up again. "He told me when he saw his wife lie there motionlessly, something clicked in him, and his demonic power arose. He killed the assassin and its clone in seconds. After seeing The Red Mask's logo flashing on the assassin's glasses, he teleported to their headquarter and killed everyone there before moving on to finding and killing the remaining members who had managed to escape. He basically went on a killing spree. After that, all that people talked about was the massacre at The Red Mask Organization, but they didn't know it was Mr. Black Hat who did it until two years later, when he decided to reveal it to the public. Me, Mr. and Mrs. Hat were the first people to know about this, since Mr. Black Hat was willing enough to tell us about the whole story not long after it happened.

"I've never seen him so tearful until that day. His words also hit me hard, so hard that I can still remember each word clearly—'I've killed everyone from that organization, I've got my revenge, but no matter what I do, I'll never get her back. I was too slow and failed to protect her, so now, she's gone forever. I can find a woman who looks exactly like her, but that woman will never be able to fill in the empty hole in my heart. Only she can do it, and she'd be the only person in this world who was capable of doing so.'"

Both of them fell silent and stared down at the ground, though White brief glanced up to observe Riona again. Her expression was unreadable just like before, but he could see a mix of sadness and pain in it. She was probably feeling sorry for her boss, though there was something else in her eyes that he couldn't quite grasp.

"Thank you for telling me, sir." On her lips was a bitter smile as she gripped her dress, which White didn't miss. "I didn't know such horrible things happened to them."

"Yes, it was indeed tragic. Although Mr. Black Hat has gotten over it, he's unable to forget about her," White said. "Right after he hired Ermano, the first job he gave him was to completely renew and upgrade the security system. Ermano told me he was confused about why Mr. Black Hat wanted him to do it until he was told about the incident. Mr. Black Hat also asked our parents to take care of Ryan and Iris while he tried to move on from everything."

"Wait, so…" Riona looked over the two children in question, "Ryan and Iris have been staying at Mr. and Mrs. Hat's place for eight hundred years?"

"No, no." White chuckled. "Mr. Black Hat took them back to the Manor after two years, when he was sure he had completely moved on from the trauma. About six months ago, the kids said they wanted to visit their grandparents, so Mr. Black Hat let them stay there. He must've hired you after they were away. Whenever it's time for the kids to go home, me, Mr. and Mrs. Hat would go with them and stay here for a few days."

"Oh, I see—"

Riona cut herself off when she felt someone pulling at her dress. She looked down to see Ryan, who was standing next to her with his sister by his side. She didn't know why, but there was something about these two children that made her sad and nostalgic. The reason was still unknown to her, because when she first met them, she had yet to be told about their parents' tragic story.

"Miss Riona, we're hungry," Ryan said, and Riona chuckled at how he addressed her. She had told him countless times that he only needed to call her by her name alone, since she was just a servant, but he insisted on calling her "Miss Riona" in a respectful manner. It was endearing in a way.

"You two must be tired after playing so much. It's not lunch time yet, but we can get some snacks if you want. Let's go, shall we?" She smiled, standing up before turning over to White. "Please, excuse me, sir."

He gave her a slight nod and watched her taking the kids back inside, narrowing his eyes in the process. Their sight reminded him so much of his sister-in-law with her children, and it made him recall what his mother had told him last night, which was the reason he decided to set up this conversation in the first place.

"White, come here for a sec…"

White, who was walking back to his room to sleep, stopped in his track. He turned back to see his mother, who had a very troubled expression on her face.

"What is it, Mom?"

Emerald glanced back and forth, seemingly to check if they were alone, before whispering into his ear. "Something very strange just happened. You know Riona, the new maid, right?"

"Yeah." White nodded.

"Well, she was cleaning while I was reading in the living room a while ago. Iris had fallen asleep in my arms, so I decided to bring her back to her room. When I stood up, I accidentally woke her up, and when she saw Riona's behind, do you know what she said?"

White shook his head, and Emerald took in a deep breath.

"She called her 'mama'."

The words hit White like lightning, making his eyes widen. "Wh-What? She's never called any woman that before."

"That's what I'm saying!" Emerald whisper-shouted. "Fluggie passed away when she was just one year old. You still remember how she used to constantly ask where her mom was, don't you? Yet, the first moment she saw that girl, she immediately called her 'mama'. She only realized it wasn't the same person when Riona turned around and showed her face."

"Was Black there?"

"No, fortunately."

White averted his gaze and gasped as he covered his mouth with his hand.

"Thank goodness Iris was asleep when Riona greeted us at the door this morning. Otherwise, I don't know how Black would've reacted."