A day later, 9 PM, Tacloban International Airport
A private plane carrying Rafael, Graves, and Michael landed on the runway and taxied to an isolated section, a hangar where a convoy of armored vehicles awaited. Emir had stayed behind for a bit in the US.
"Well, we have a day until Monday, so see you then," Michael said as he entered one of the vehicles. Soon, Rafael gazed in silence at the airport's horizon as the sea breeze touched his skin.
Graves and the rest of the guards stood frozen. They had nothing to comment, knowing that more problems would start coming tomorrow.
Ten minutes later, "All right, let's go," Rafael ordered. Graves nodded and opened the door for him, and the convoy drove back to the estate. Now, it was fully fortified; Atlas security guards patrolled the outer grounds and the yard, while two platoons of Alpha-1 operatives guarded the underground base and the mansion, sending squads to take temporary positions in the guard house and patrol the forest.
Thirty minutes later, Rafael hung his mask up in his bedroom, changed his clothes, and after taking a pill and drinking a blue liquid, he lay in bed and went into a deep slumber.
The next morning, Rafael was doing his morning routine, doing pull-ups with 60kg strapped around his waist. As beads of sweat formed, he grunted and completed his 100th pull, repeating for the hour.
A few hours later, Rafael was currently at the pub, specifically in the kitchen. He was somewhat of a special cook, and being the semi-owner, he had to visit often. His skills were comparable to a high-class chef, and he was cooking a bowl of vegetable fried rice and a soup of sinigang fish soup. One of the bestsellers was the handmade siomai and gyoza.
Since he was cooking alone, he was able to quickly finish the orders, and the silence was harmonious, other than the sizzling sounds of the food being cooked. Rafael loved the sound as he drank his ice coffee vanilla. He looked at the slab of Wagyu steak that he was cooking over butter. Taking it out, he cut it into smaller pieces and placed a portion of it on top of the steaming bowl of vegetable fried rice. He got another empty bowl and scooped a prepared amount of fish soup. As the food was prepared, he called the waiter, and the food was picked up.
"Who's the chef this time?" one of the customers asked. He was the head of security of an Atlas factory, on his early lunch break.
"It's Mr. Villanueva," the waiter said, and those who heard started adding orders and asking for a refill of their soup. The man earlier just nodded and continued eating his food.
Cling! Cling!
The bells at the entrance chimed as two bulky European men wearing tuxedos and of average build entered. Anyone close enough could see a pistol showing itself near their waists. Everyone inside was alerted as the bartender pulled out a pump shotgun, while the waiters drew their own firearms, and the armed customers also did the same, aiming their guns at the Europeans. Those near them drew knives and submachine guns.
"Wait! Wait!" one of the European men immediately raised his hands in surrender, stopping them from taking any further action.
"We come at peace; we only wish to speak with Mr. Villanueva," the man explained as he slowly pulled out a letter. Rafael came out with a long chef's knife that was almost like a sword.
"Speak, what do you want?" Rafael asked, since he didn't know a second invitation had already arrived.
"It's an invitation to a party in the Holstein Manor in the outskirts of the city, and the details for the rest of the party are in here," he said respectfully. Rafael was very suspicious and nodded while the two European men left the pub.
Later, the atmosphere returned to the pub, and Rafael was cooking food while reading the letter.
'Dear Sir Mr. Rafael Villanueva,
We would like to invite you to the birthday party of the young princess, who's turning 10 years old this coming Saturday. The venue is located @#$###$@@$$. Please present this letter at the entrance in order to be allowed entry.
From Vincent van Hossen'
Rafael crumpled the letter and placed it inside his pocket.
A few hours later, at the Villanueva estate, it was 5 PM, and Rafael was summoned to the main estate. A drone from Atlas monitored from afar, and a QRF team was nearby in case enemies appeared.
"Ben, why did my father summon me?" Rafael asked, entering the house and seeing Ben standing not far as if he was waiting for him.
In the backyard balcony, Hector was seen texting with his wife, who was living in the United States with the youngest child of the family. To raise him safely, they were sent to the US after what happened to Rafael. When asked to send messages, Rafael used the old way of sending letters to him and only sent them once a month, except for his mother, which in a way saddened him.
Even though his wife used all her resources, including her family's, to find her son, she found him during the infant stage of Rafael's Atlas Corps when his first barter of weapons in exchange for information on a warlord's location occurred. But she broke the deal and tried to ambush them, but Rafael somewhat knew about this, and his team was able to break out of the ambush and nearly had a face-to-face confrontation about it. In the aftermath, Rafael retaliated by hanging the dead bodies of the hired mercenary group that ambushed them in front of her home, along with Rafael's silent anger towards his mother. He never wanted to deal with her company, which was thriving a bit but enough to have nationwide recognition in states that Rafael didn't recognize, and he ordered the council not to deal with them.
"Sir, the young master is here," Ben reported, and Hector turned to his son.
[A/N: Okay, readers, Hector doesn't know that his son is the Administrator of Atlas but has a hunch that he has some sort of strong connection within Atlas since the presence of Atlas guards around him, so sometimes he is in shock or just brushing it off and thinks that some secrets are left untouched, and Rafael is not always hiding it, but he keeps his activities at an all-time low.]
"Good, you're here. Let's have a quick chat," Hector said and put the phone down.
"Did you receive the letter?" he asked.
"Yes, two people delivered the letter, and tell them next time not to send it to me personally, just send it to my estate," Rafael said with a tired sigh.
"Why?" he asked.
"A gunfight was about to erupt since a lot of bad people tried forcing their way into the pub, and the customers were trigger happy," Rafael said as he requested a glass of ice tea, and Ben came back 10 minutes later.
"The birthday party is around 5 PM at the Hossen Manor that is outside of Tacloban, and I might arrive early, but what about you?" he asked and took a sip of water.
"I don't know, but I will try to be on time, and tell me, why are the Van Hossens here?" Rafael said and wished to prefer to stay away from them since he showed his face to their current ruler, although his face was covered in blood and bruises, his features could still be made out.
"Sure," Hector said, ignoring the last question, and Rafael left after chatting for another hour.
The next day, Rafael arrived as usual and parked his bike and met up with Michael, who smirked, and both of them did a fist bump before grabbing their bags and heading towards the classrooms. But as they were about to cross the road, multiple black SUVs appeared next to them and whipped past them, and the two took a step back.
"What the f*** are they doing?" Michael asked as he was pissed off and looked around, seeing security gathering around the SUVs that stopped in front of the admin building.
While some SAF troopers who were stationed on campus approached the vehicles with their fingers near the trigger.
"Stand down, all of you, they are the dean's guests!" The secretary of the dean shouted, and the guards stood down. The commander of the guards turned to Michael, who nodded, and the commander followed inside.
"Michael, you saw it yourself. Alert the council that things are changing sooner or later," Rafael said coldly and walked towards his classroom, and Michael just nodded and followed him, knowing that the Dean had officially signed his death warrant.
A few minutes later, as the second subject rolled in, the classroom advisor walked near the demo table and spoke in a loud voice, "Now, everyone, we have a new student attending for the rest of the school year!" he announced, and everyone murmured in gossip while Michael and Rafael braced themselves as they saw four tall, average-built Americans wearing formal attire.
Michael, sitting a few meters from Rafael, checked his bag and saw the ballistic knife and Glock 45 pistol, and he knew it was ready. Rafael just closed his eyes, aiming to remain unnoticed by the men near the door.
Entering the room was a tall, jacked woman with blue hair, and it seemed she was the leader of the unit of bodyguards. She turned to the back of her group, "Ma'am, it's all safe," she said. Soon, a woman with pearly white skin and hair with some red fading as her hair nearly touched her shoulder, and her blue eyes made all the boys, except the two, fall head over heels. Michael was silently observing with a neutral expression while Rafael went back in time.
Rafael's Flashback
"I told you to keep running towards that direction; that's where your family is waiting!" Rafael shouted to a short-haired girl who was catching her breath while shivering as the cold rain poured in the Amazon jungle.
"Why would I do that? You're my savior, I won't allow you to die easily," she said with a smirk.
BRRRTTTT! BRRRTT! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Short bursts of gunfire were heard from a distance, and Rafael fired back, killing a few of the pursuers who were too exposed, and the rest took cover.
"Fine, run fast and ahead as you can. I will hold them off," Rafael said as he changed the magazine of the AK-74.
"Yes," she said, offering no arguments.
"Now!" Rafael shouted and began laying down covering fire as the enemy was about to move forward but failed. Rafael grabbed a few claymores from his backpack and placed them quickly, then turned around and caught up to the lady.
"Tell me, what's your name?" Rafael asked as he hit the detonator, and screams and shouts were heard.
"Ru—"
End of Flashback
Before Rafael could remember the name, the advisor's voice was heard: "Meet Ruby Zandria Rose. She's a transferee from the United States, from the University of San Diego, so please guide her on the classroom rules and other stuff," he said with a fake smile, and beads of sweat were visible on his forehead.
To be Continued.