Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 236

Chapter 236: A Family Matter
‘Tap tap tap…’

Even from far away, the old man could hear the sound of someone’s footsteps.

They seemed to be agitated and pretty fast-paced.

The sound of someone panting heavily as they came closer to his office was also easily recognizable, hinting at the fact that whatever this person had come to the old man’s office for, it must’ve been something of importance.

‘It seems like… even tonight I won’t be able to avoid working overtime.’

Before the person outside the office could knock on the door, the old man said: “come on in.”

The hand that was about to knock stopped, and the other grabbed the doorknob, opening the door and revealing an image that stunned the man.

The office was pretty much empty, apart from a big carpet covering the entire center of the room, and a large desk placed on top of it, no other furnishings were in the room…

Only the cozy leather seat in which the old man was resting, and the little crystal table beside it.

However, that was not what shocked the man who had just entered the room.

The moon was the only source of light inside that place, it penetrated the room from the clear glass wall behind the old man’s desk and cast a long shadow over everything in the room.

Since the leather seat had a high backrest, it blocked the light from passing through, leaving the old man’s face shrouded in darkness and mystery.

However, the man was used to reporting to the person inside that office, so he did not take a lot of time to get back on the matter at hand.

“Sir, we have an emergency!”

After a long and exhausted sigh, the old man talked:

“Tell me about it…

I’m all ears”

“Hans Richter has just landed in Europe, more precisely, Hans Richter has just landed in Italy…’

“I’m failing to see how that should be our problem”

“Please wait, I’m getting there, ever since discovering his flight’s destination, we have been trying to figure out why he would ever go there… but we were wrong, the question we should’ve asked was… Why did he return there?!”

“Return? Are you saying Hans’s Italian?”

“Yes, but the worst part has yet to come…”

“Well, you haven’t told me any bad news for now, I almost couldn’t recognize you”

Commented the old man before letting the other continue.

“Even though the catastrophe has canceled a lot of information, and for the past nine years, a lot of zones remain uncontrolled, without any information about their habitats, we managed to find a little information storage which was used to store middle and elementary school data.”

“Please, get to the point”

The old man interrupted.

“Yes…what I wanted to say, is that we found Hans in the catalog, but That’s not the problem… his mother has a… peculiar surname I don’t think anyone other than ‘him’ has… and with further research we have confirmed it… she’s his daughter.”

“I would like to know what the hell you’re rambling about”

“Sir… Hans’s mother’s surname is…”

The eyes of the old man first widened and then closed as he wrapped his hand around his forehead, massaging it…

‘This is… a fucking mess’

He thought, however, he kept it to himself.

“What do you think? Should we tell both of them?”

The man asked the other, who was seated on the leather chair, and the reply he received was:

“No… it would probably fuel a great clash… it’s better if we stay out of this.

However, take two of the satellites and monitor them both, just in case something were to happen, and ask the defense team to calm things down if a fight breaks out.”

The man nodded before leaving the office.

“Sigh…”

The hoary old man couldn’t help but sigh.

“I wonder what will happen if we leave it like this…

whatever, let’s hope they’ll resolve their family matters by themselves”

…

In the meantime, Hans had already left the airport.

He was now waiting in line for his turn to take a taxi.

Since this time he wasn’t traveling because of work, he couldn’t just ask the dean for a car to pick him up when he arrived.

‘There was a single airport in Milan.

There were once three in the vicinities, but when the catastrophe first broke out, two of them sustained irreversible damage, forcing them to shut down.

Since then, government funds had been used for more pressing matters, and no private investment associations decided to invest in a new one.

Milan, which was once a great city, standing at the top of Italy’s economy, even surpassing the capital, had lost some of its financial value and had instead been transformed into a great city for awakened and civilians to live in.

The economy was still blossoming because of the awakened, and even if most of the trades were made in the night market, making it impossible for the government to collect taxes through them, just the fact that a lot of awakened decided to settle in Milan and its surroundings made it a beacon of hope and safety for the whole country.

It was finally Hans’ turn, he left his little luggage with the driver and entered the cab.

“Where to?”

Asked the man In questionably good English.

Hans replied in Italian.

“Mi può lasciare giù in Via Torino”

(you can drop me off in Torino Street)

Hearing the boy talk in Italian, the old man sitting in the driver’s seat couldn’t help but chatter a bit.

“Haha, I didn’t know you were from here boy! You don’t look Italian”

“That’s probably my dad’s genes fault”

“Hehe, is that so?

What was a young man like you doing abroad? The world’s dangerous these days, you better find work here, there’s no place as safe as Milan.”

“My family doesn’t live in Italy anymore, we’ve been living in the US for the past few years, it’s my first time returning here”

“Oh really?! You’ve got to see the city, it’s been reborn, and even the suburbs have become a safer place, real estate industries have been thriving these past few years, as the population’s more than doubled.”

Hans had heard about it, but he didn’t know it was this much.

“Really? How many citizens are there now?”

Asked Hans curiously.

“I don’t know about citizens, but I know about three million people live in the city at the moment, with a lot of immigrants, citizenships are difficult to obtain as of late.

The price of life also skyrocketed, you have proof of it right before your eyes.”

Hans lowered his gaze a little and watched the taximeter, it was placed behind the shifter, and the numbers written on it were changing almost every second.

The counter was already displaying the price to be almost thirty euros.

Since the exchange between euros and dollars remained almost one-to-one for the whole time, it meant he would’ve paid a lot for the ride from the airport, which was stationed quite far away from the city center.

“Mh…”

Hans replied nodding.

He didn’t really care about the money he spent, since he was a multimillionaire.

But he felt that many people in Italy had probably suffered a lot because of this…

Also, with the prices getting so absurdly high, the only reason why the currency wasn’t facing a huge wave of inflation was probably that it was used all over Europe, and this sudden rise in costs hadn’t hit all the countries.

In a few words, Milan seemed to have developed an incredibly high-wage high-cost economy.

It was difficult for an outsider to move around the county if they weren’t plenty rich.

“Why do you feel so safe here?”

Hans inquired.

“Haha, you sure sound like you’re not from here now…”

Hans was puzzled by that comment, he didn’t know how to continue the conversation, but luckily, the old man talked without him having to ask anything else…

“The night market.”

‘The… night market?’

He thought.

Repeating what he had already said inwardly, Hans asked about it:

“The… night market?”

“That’s right, the whole world knows it as a market, but here in Italy…

We know it as a guardian”

Under the black veil of the night, the streets were almost desert apart from some occasional bars filled to the brim with youngsters who enjoyed the bitter taste of alcohol.

Thanks to that, it took less than forty minutes for the taxi to reach Hans’s desired destination.

During that time, he chatted with the driver and found out a lot of things about the current state of the country.

“Where do you want to get off?”

The old man asked with his tranquil voice.

“You can leave me at the corner of the square”

“Alright”

The car stopped where Hans had pointed, and after paying the taxi fee, he got out of the car and took his luggage.

“Thank you for the ride”

He said as the old man got back inside the vehicle.

“And you, don’t forget to keep yourself safe from danger young man!”

Replied the driver.

As the car got away, and the red rear light’s reflection on the boy’s face faded, Hans turned around…

“That cost me an arm and a leg… but at least I’m finally here”

Hans observed the Duomo of Milan in its whole majesty and splendor, and a warm smile instantly formed on his face.

However, it faded away in just a few seconds, as he thought:

‘No matter how beautiful this is, it does not justify the price I had to pay to get here… how can a forty-minute ride cost me almost two hundred and fifty euros?’