Stepping into the villa and walking side by side with him, Arthur glanced around, noting a good number of new faces among the house personnel.He observed for a bit longer before turning to Henri and asking, “Did you change your butlers and maids too?”Looking from the ones who bowed in greeting to Arthur, he replied. “Well, yes I did. I was thinking a lot after discovering one of my own workers was the one responsible for my daughter's state. It was shocking but I had to make a decision to prevent anything like that from ever happening.”“And you did that by hiring some naive and lousy new blood?” Arthur asked, gesturing at the door from where they entered.Understanding that he was referring to the guards outside, he bowed slightly again as he commented. “You have my apologies for that once more. I ask that you understand that they were tense due to the failure of their predecessors.”Henri opened the door to his private study while he continued. “As for the maid servants and butler

And so, over a week passed before the arrival of the long awaited D-day.During that time both Arthur Rhyfel and Henri Lefevre prepared everything required for their strategy. As far as Henri knew, the plan was simple; both he and Arthur were to board the cruise ship and attend the event while the latter was in the guise of a bodyguard.His aim apparently was simply to meet someone and that was all Henri needed to know, both for his safety and that of his family. But for Arthur it was anything but a simple or straightforward plan; he would need to infiltrate the Merchant's cruise ship while maintaining his persona as Henri Lefevre's bodyguard. If that wasn't tough enough, he had to also navigate and properly investigate the ship for any and all sorts of evidence that could be used against the Hughes family.This was an objective suggested by Charles and not long after it was given to Arthur as a sub mission under the main one which was; [Defeat the “Merchant”.]Charles had given his

Arthur remained by Luna as the maids placed his luggage in the black car that was to take him to the Lefevre house. Then from there under the guise of Henri's bodyguard, he would be taken to the cruise ship where if things went as planned, he would meet the Hand of the Hughes family called the Merchant. He could sense her unease, her fear of being separated from him after being reunited for only a short while. Arthur's heart swelled with empathy; he knew exactly how she felt. He had promised her and himself that he wouldn't cause her anymore pain and yet again he found himself breaking that promise. It seemed that all his planning and their outing was not as effective as he had originally hoped it to be. "Luna, my dear cousin," he said, his deep voice soothing, "I'll be fine. I promise. This trip is just a quick one as I told you before, a meeting with a contact of Henri Lefevre to discuss potential business ventures. I'll be back before you know it." Luna's eyes narrowed, her

Assuming a more confident posture with a smile that reflected how proud of himself he was, Charles replied heartily. “Of course, sir. You don't need to worry because everything you need is right here.”Upon ending his statement, he handed a yellow folder to Arthur who did nothing to hide his expression that reflected what a pleasant surprise Charles' act was.“It was quite difficult, sir. For a long time, even I was unable to get anything on the ship or even the event. That's how secretive it was, sir! It was only about a day or two days ago that I was able to get my hands on this.”Charles exhaled audibly and tiredly, watching Arthur shift his gaze from him to the folder before him.He opened it to see several blueprints of what he recognized as the cruise ship alongside several notes and markings that surrounded it. Raising the blueprints, he peeked below at a few other observations of all sorts made in the form of notes.Placing the mappings of the cruise ship on Charles' desk that

Arthur pulled out the life-like skin mask, inspecting the detail that it had for a moment before turning to Leon who had asked.“I truly hope it meets your expectations, sir?” He glanced at the rearview mirror once again in an attempt to gauge the reaction of his superior to the piece of art before him.Amelia Elizabeth in an act of showing her support to his endeavors to bring about the downfall of the ones responsible for the fall of the Rhyfel family, had personally arranged for a skin mask, the final piece of Arthur's disguise, to be created.Her aim while creating it was to make a face that while it looked like Arthur, it was clear that it was a completely different person. She did this so that it would not only fit his face perfectly, it would also serve as something of a deterrent for anyone, mostly in the hostile camp, that took notice of him.Internally grateful for her actions, Arthur replied with a small smile. “Yes, it does.”Glancing up from the skin mask in his gloved ha