“‘And now,’ said the unknown, ‘farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude. Farewell to all the feelings that expand the heart! I have been heaven’s substitute to recompense the good - now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!” - Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)

  * * * *

  Kailey sipped at her coffee slowly, savouring the taste of the coffee beans.

  The coffee that the barista of this music bar isn’t solely why she frequented this place often whenever she had a free moment. Quite a few members of Aegis have speculated for quite a while now that there likely is someone who had caught her eye, and they aren’t entirely wrong.

  “Back again?”

  Kailey only gave a small smile at Jonan who had slid onto the stool next to her, with the latter snapping his fingers at the barista and ordering a cup of coffee for himself.

  “Hey, Jonan.” Kailey greeted. “I can say the same for you though. Haven’t seen you around here for a while.”

  Jonan rubbed at the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah, work has been keeping me busy,” he admitted. “I doubt we can put on any music gigs for a while.”

  Kailey only made a noncommittal sound in her throat. She knows exactly why Jonan would be busy for the next couple of months, at least.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  The barista approached them with Jonan’s order just then, and both of them fell silent for several moments.

  “Can I ask you something?” Jonan asked suddenly, and Kailey raised an eyebrow. “What…would you do, if you’ve done something unforgivable?” His voice grew smaller and smaller to the point that Kailey had to strain her ears to hear Jonan, even though he was seated next to her.

  “Like what?”

  Jonan hesitated, rubbing his thumb along the rim of the coffee cup in front of him. “…I am ESA,” he said at last, and Kailey nodded. “You’re not surprised.” He noted, a look of surprise on his face.

  Kailey only shrugged. She was already prepared for this eventual conversation. “I figured you must be,” she responded. “The way you carry yourself, and even the way you moved—you’ve seen some combat in your life.”

  Even if Kailey wasn’t aware of Jonan’s affiliation with the ESA from the start when she first started frequenting this music bar, she would be able to pick him out from a mile away.

  Jonan managed a strained smile. “I…see…” He fell silent once more, with only the low background music of the music cafe filling the silence. “In my position as an ESA agent, I did many things.” He admitted. “I’m not proud of all of them. I first signed up for the ESA, as I believed it was the right thing to do, and that I could make a difference. I still feel that way sometimes now. But…” He hesitated. “I did something very bad once. I made an error in judgment. And the result is that I got an innocent man killed. But due to the chaos of everything that followed after, that incident was swept under the rug and was forgotten about. But I just…” He struggled with his words.

  “Couldn’t live with yourself?” Kailey interjected, and Jonan nodded. “Is that why you’re still with the ESA?”

  “I am aware we don’t have the best reputation. I just…” Jonan struggled with his words, his shoulders slumping. “I don’t know anymore.” He admitted. “I can’t talk about this with my teammates or even Allen. All they will tell me is that I made the right call and judgment at that time. But it doesn’t change the fact that I killed someone by mistake. Someone that should never have died.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “…I still see the eyes of his daughter in my dreams.” He admitted. “I want to make it up to her, but I don’t even know where she is now.”

  “I see.”

  Kailey studied Jonan’s side profile for several moments before looking away again, her thoughts running rampant in her mind. Jonan’s story seems oddly familiar.

  ‘Who was the man that he killed?’ She wondered.