Life After Prison

As soon as Claude and the others left, Zachariah and several of the Ballards’ elders fell silent in the room.

After some time had passed, a middle-aged woman said to Zachariah, “Sir, I think Claude has a point. We need to be wary of Draco Hall!”

Zachariah nodded. “Indeed, we do, but I’m afraid that we shouldn’t mess with Draco Hall. If Brookbourn Mansion joins hands with underground forces like the Emerald Cloud Gang in dealing with Draco Hall, our reputation and image would be tarnished if word gets out! Moreover, Draco Hall did not commence any further action after absorbing the Cedar Gang.”

The middle-aged woman thought over Zachariah’s words and said, “Sir, the upper-class families hand over ten percent of their income to us every year, don’t they? How about we raise that by double? The councils in other cities mostly request a twenty percent contribution from the upper-class families, and this makes us seem a little too merciful.”

“I agree, sir! We might have a wealth of funds right now, but Draco Hall will surpass us if they take over the Emerald Cloud Gang. Even if that doesn’t happen, we are now barely on par with each other. The way I see it, we should adopt the suggestion that esteemed elder, Edith, has just proposed and increase the contribution amount to twenty percent! Only with money can we hire elite fighters, and that would most certainly stabilize Brookbourn Mansion’s position!

After hearing their opinions, another old man sighed. “Our main stumbling block is the difficulty with which those upper-class families earn money. There’s been a recession in the economy the past two years, and it’s not ideal for us to make such sudden demands of them!”

Zachariah took into consideration the views that had been put forth and said again, “The Longhorns gave. us three prearranged spots in Liberty City, and the locations that were given are quite good too. I believe it’ll bring us a lot of profits, so we’ll leave it at that for now. I think we should invite the people from Draco Hall to come over for a drink sometime soon. We can further this discussion once we get a feel of their attitude toward us!”

“Meeting Larry and his men just to see their reactions seems like a step in the right direction.” Edith, the middle-aged woman, nodded her head in approval.

At that moment, Sheila had just returned from some shopping.

“What’s up, Dad? What are you discussing so late at night?” Sheila felt elated after she got Severin’s number, and since she knew where Severin lived, she could always hang out with him if she had nothing to do. Just thinking about it made her feel excited already.

Zachariah smiled and motioned for the others to leave.

After several of the elders went down, Zachariah said to Sheila, “It’s nothing serious. We’re just worried that Draco Hall might threaten our status, so we’re planning to recruit a few more elite fighters to stabilize our strength and status as Brookbourn Mansion!”

“Elite fighters? Severin counts as one, right?” Sheila smiled, and then said again, “It’s a shame that we left too early today and didn’t get to see an exciting encounter. I heard that three very strong assassins wanted to kill Severin, but he turned the tables on them and killed them instead. The three assassins were reportedly very strong, so much so that even the Longhorns’ bodyguards had a lot of praise for them. In the end, however, Severin faced all three of them alone and killed them! Isn’t he amazing?” Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

After hearing that, Zachariah could not help but laugh. “Hehe, it would be great if you can get him to help our family out. My gut tells me that he has the aptitude, otherwise the Longhorns wouldn’t have

sided with him at the project launch today!”