I stared at the house in front of me, eyes bulging. I knew Crime Lords were rich, but this rich? To the point where Midas could afford golden fences and have liquid gold pour out of his fountains? He was asking to get robbed!
The man in the waistcoat was a middle aged man with gray hair. He opens the gate to let us through.
"Master Midas, Harrow, good to see you return. I see you've brought a guest. Shall I have the servants serve some wine in the foyer?"
"No, the boy is too young for wine. Bring some tea instead. Gold tea, preferably. Thank you, Lucifer."
"As you wish, master."
Lucifer walked off, before turning around after a few paces.
"Bacchus wants to meet with you in seven days time, at his manor, regarding your proposal."
"Do you think he was interested?"
"I hope so, master, but I doubt it."
With that, Lucifer strode away.
***
After seeing Midas house in all of its golden glory, I had followed him inside, where a grand foyer greeted me, with a circular staircase in the back and many pieces of art and life-like golden statues arranged about. There was a grand table, surrounded by chairs, and a couch with more comfortable chairs off the side. Midas went and sat down on a chair, and motioned for me to sit down on the couch.
Quickly, a young man in a servants suit wearing a golden mask came up with some tea, and poured a cup for Midas and offered some to me, which I accepted, though I did not drink. Even when Midas invited me into his house, I did not trust him to not poison or spike my drinks.
Midas drank all of the golden tea before looking at me.
"I'll answer your questions now. And drink your tea. It's not poisoned. I haven't gone through all this trouble just to kill you now."
I took a sip of my tea. It was delicious. After a minute of me drinking the tea, getting it refilled, and eating some of the cookies that the servant brought out, I asked my first question.
"Who are you? Really, I mean."
"I'm Midas, one of the Crime Lords of the Underworld, number four on the God-force watch list, and practitioner of the Deadly Sin of Greed."
"How did you get this rich? Wait, did you say that you're on the God-force watch list?"
"I own many businesses and corporations here in the Underworld, as well as a few in other places. Most of them are on the shadier side of business, complied with the fact that I am one of few to use the Deadly Sins full potential, they want me behind bars. Well that, and the fact I've committed crimes that go against multiple different conventions, and attempted to kill a few politicians. So, I'm basically a threat to society."
Midas seemed proud that he was recognized, and probably feared, throughout the world, but a chill crawled down my spine. I finally recognized Midas.
***
When I was younger, a year before my sister was judged and I was only eight, she and my parents were watching television while did my homework. I was bored of doing it, so I slipped out of my room and my eyes fell on the TV."
The TV was playing some kind of broadcast from a station, and they were talking about dangerous criminals in the Underworld.
"Why are we even watching this? We are nowhere near the Underworld. None of this concerns us."
My sister loved complaining about everything, even if she had to atone for her sins later.
"It's for your father and I."
"No need to shelter Tali any more, Susan. Councilmen Glen was assassinated and killed by an Underworld criminal, and they might show his face on this broadcast. Hopefully, this sinner faces judgment."
My father's face darkened. At this age, I was pretty sheltered, as my parents paid my tutors to refrain from swearing, so I hadn't a clue what 'assassinated' meant, but I had never seen my father so angry, and I knew Glen. He came over once and bought me some candy. I liked him.
On the TV screen, nine peoples faces were shown, one had a red 'x' of their picture and another had three gray bars over his picture, which I would later learn to mean that he was in captivity.
***
That's how I recognized Midas now. His face was one of the pictures. I think there was a caption that said he turned people into golden statues. Suddenly, the life-like golden statues everywhere took on a darker meaning. Were they people he had turned to gold?
"Are you okay? You seem in shock."
Midas looked at me with concern, then glanced where I was looking, to see if someone was there. My eyes focused, so I could see. To my and Midas's utter and complete surprise, there was a person where we were looking. They were carefully walking on the balcony of the second floor that was visible from the foyer.
The figure was completely covered in black clothes, and they were unaware that they were spotted. Midas swore, and snapped his fingers, the sound echoing through the room.
The figure looked down and swore. Midas had spotted him! With Midas enhanced senses, he should've been more careful. He tried to run, but his shoes melded with the floor. When he tried to take them off, his feet seemed to glue to them. The figure looked up, and saw Harrow standing there, before everything turned black.