Rise of the Darkness Tycoon

Chapter 6- A Strike from the Dark

Water elementalists were often renowned for their healing abilities, but the water element could bring as much death as it could bring life.

Pressurised water was a deadly weapon, and if the spear hovering in front of that man’s palm was fired at top speed, he doubted that the younger doctor would be able to jump to the side fast enough to avoid it.

Even if he did, the elementalist could just fire another.

A cold breeze blew across the open balcony roof of the building, the two doctors silently facing one another while Calvin hid in the dark and considered his next course of action.

While he was doing that, the two doctors were speaking to one another.

“W-what do you want?” the younger doctor demanded, his voice trembling lightly.

At this, the older man snapped.

“What do I want?! Rickey, you betrayed me! You made me end up like this! Because of you, I got fired, and my wife divorced me! Now everyone looks down on me because I lost my license!”

Hearing this, the young doctor, Rickey, frowned deeply and argued back.

“I betrayed you? You betrayed that white coat you’re wearing first! You disobeyed basic rules as a doctor! You secretly accepted bribes to sabotage an operation!”

“Shut up! Shut UP! It had nothing to do with you!” the older doctor snapped back.

The water spear in front of his palm grew larger, and noticing this, Rickey stepped back in fear, his back close to the balcony railing.

“You…you’re going to give me the money for the fine!”

“What?!” Rickey exclaimed. “The fine was ten million dollars! I don’t have that kind of money!”

“Shut up! Your father’s the director, isn’t he!? Call him and get him to give me the money, or I’d put a hole in your head!”

Hearing the old man’s demand, Calvin gained a basic understanding of the situation and nodded silently.

‘Accepting a bribe to deliberately sabotage a medical operation crosses from medical malpractice into severe criminal conduct. That guy is likely facing massive civil lawsuits besides the fine and license revocation.

But he should be in police custody. How did he get here?’

While Calvin thought that, the man continued demanding that Rickey call his father, pouring more power into the spear, his hand trembling lightly.

“Call him! Let me see the screen! Put him on speaker!” the man shouted, cutting off Rickey’s chance to secretly call the police.

Just as Rickey held up his phone and wordlessly tapped the screen, Calvin glanced down at the elementalist’s shadow cast by the balcony light and exerted his will over the darkness.

He manipulated the shadow, making it move and crawl up the man’s leg from within his trousers, all the way up to his outstretched arm.

A higher-ranked elementalist would have noticed Calvin’s actions by now, but his target was fortunately an E-Rank at most, and in his current emotional state, it was impossible for him to notice Calvin.

As such, Calvin was able to make the man’s shadow wrap around his arm with ease. Calvin then clenched his fist and pulled his hand down, forcefully redirecting the man’s palm toward the ground and with it, the spear of water he had conjured.

The sudden movement made the man reflexively release the spear, sending it piercing straight into the ground below, shattering the tiles and sending fragments flying in all directions.

“!”

“What?!”

Both he and Rickey flinched at the sudden impact, and the tiles were sent flying. In that moment of shock, Calvin dashed toward the elementalist and immediately swept him off his feet with a kick to the back of his legs.

The man immediately fell on his back with force, gasping hard as he struggled to regain his breath, and without giving him a chance to recover, Calvin quickly grabbed the man’s shirt, pulled him up, then hit the underside of his jaw with the heel of his palm.

His eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell unconscious, and Calvin lowered his body to the ground before turning toward the stunned Rickey.

“What are you waiting for? Call the police already.”

His words finally snapped the young doctor out of his stupor, and he immediately dialled the emergency number.

But before he pressed the call button, he paused, glanced at the unconscious man, then deleted it and instead dialled a different number.

Calvin, who was using the former doctor’s lab coat to restrain his hands, didn’t notice this at first, but when the call connected and he heard what Rickey said, he looked up with a frown.

“Dad, there’s a bit of an issue.”

[Issue? What issue? Where are you now?]

“On the roof balcony of the general ward building. You see…”

Rickey went on to narrate the events of the past few minutes to his father, and hearing this, the man on the other end of the line was alarmed.

[WHAT!? THAT WICKED BASTARD!]

Since the phone was on loudspeaker, Calvin clearly heard the sound of something crashing on the floor, likely knocked off a table in anger.

[Stay right there, Rickey. And don’t call the police! I’d handle it. We can’t let them rush over with their sirens and startle patients.]

After saying that, the man cut the call, and Calvin then asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Is that why you didn’t call the police?”

Rickey nodded silently, putting his phone down. Calvin thought it was reasonable, so he didn’t complain.

Instead, he glanced at Rickey’s phone screen and, upon seeing the time, remembered that his mother had gone out to bring food for him.

“Okay, you handle the rest. I’m going back to my ward.”

With those words, Calvin turned and was about to leave, his decisive action surprising Rickey, who immediately reached out to grab his arm.

But before Rickey could reach him, Calvin moved to the side, avoiding him, before turning back toward the man with a frown.

“What?”

“h-huh? How did—? No, wait! Where are you going?

“Didn’t you just hear me? I’m going back to my ward,” Calvin responded, gesturing toward his hospital gown, clear proof that he was still a patient there.

Rickey had seen the gown, but after recalling how quickly Calvin had moved to take down the former doctor just now, he was left without words for a reply.

Seeing the silent Rickey, Calvin exhaled softly and said, “If you want to repay me for saving your life, then come to Ward 16 later.”

Closing the distance, he stared directly into Rickey’s eyes with a cold gaze and added, “Do NOT let the police know I was involved. Just say you tackled him or something when he misfired his attack after being suddenly startled or something.”

Rickey instinctively took a step back and nodded when he heard Calvin’s suddenly cold voice, and after getting Rickey’s confirmation, he turned and left, and this time, Rickey didn’t try to hold him back.

Calvin hadn’t interfered because he wanted Rickey to owe him, but now that he did, he might as well gain some benefits from it.

Rickey was the son of the hospital’s director, and given that this was the largest hospital in the city where all the big shots came for treatment if needed, who knew what connections Rickey’s father had.

‘Any one of them could turn out to be useful.’

Calvin had such thoughts as he rushed down the stairs to return to his ward, managing to arrive shortly before Martha returned with his dinner.

After eating his meal, Calvin was talking casually with Martha when there was a knock on the door. It opened to reveal two men, one familiar to Calvin and one completely unfamiliar.

Both had brown hair and eyes, but unlike Rickey, who had soft facial features and a friendly demeanour, the man who walked in with him had a sharp gaze and gave off a cold air.

Martha immediately frowned at the sight of the two, not recognising either of them as Calvin’s attending doctor.

Calvin’s gaze was on the two men, so he didn’t notice when Martha silently reached downward and pulled up her jean trousers a bit, her fingers touching something strapped to her leg.

“Ah!” Rickey said, his expression brightening at the sight of Calvin sitting on the hospital bed. “There you are, Mr…”

He paused and stopped in his tracks, blinking in confusion, then scratched his head lightly as he finally continued, “Um…I didn’t get your name earlier.”

“Calvin.”

“Ah, yes. Mr Calvin,” Rickey echoed. “I’m Rickey Davidson. Thank you for your help earlier.”

“You’re welcome,” Calvin responded, moving his gaze to the older man who came in with Rickey.

Noticing this, Rickey quickly introduced him.

“This is my father, and uh…” Rickey looked toward Martha and tilted his head, about to continue speaking, when his father finally spoke up.

“Good evening, Ms Carter. I’m Doctor Davidson, this hospital’s Director.”

He spoke with a calm, composed voice, extending a hand toward Martha as he added, “Nice to meet you.”

“…Nice to meet you too,” Martha responded after a short pause, accepting his handshake.

Their hands separated after a few moments, and the Director immediately got down to business. Gesturing toward Calvin, he explained the situation to the very confused Martha.

“Your son helped my son with a matter earlier, so we came to properly convey our gratitude for his help.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Martha replied, glancing at Calvin, who nodded silently.

‘I’ll explain later’, he mouthed, and Martha nodded before looking back at the Director, who held out a small bag toward her.

“This is just a small token of our appreciation.”

Then he looked at Calvin and added, “If you need help with anything, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I’ll help to the best of my ability.”

“No problem. Thanks,” Calvin responded curtly.

Director Davidson nodded once, then said, “Okay then, we’ll take our leave now so as not to disturb your rest.

I hope you get well soon.”

With that polite wish, he turned to leave, but Rickey stayed behind for a moment, pulling out a card from his pocket and presenting it to Calvin.

“This is my name card. If you need anything in the future, please feel free to call me. As long as I can help, I’ll spare no effort.”

Calvin accepted the card silently, and Rickey then bowed lightly before turning around and running after his father to go back to dealing with the police, who now had the former doctor in custody.

Right after they closed the door behind them, Martha set aside the small paper bag the Director had handed her, then looked at Calvin and asked.

“So? What happened?”

Calvin gave her a brief account of the situation, naturally leaving out the part where he’d used elemental powers to turn things in his favour.

After hearing Calvin’s explanation, Martha hummed thoughtfully before speaking.

“Well, it’s nice and all that you’re trying to help people, but please try not to do anything too dangerous, especially now that you’re still recovering. Getting involved with elementalists is far more dangerous than it’s worth.”

Hearing her words, Calvin decided to take advantage of the moment to ask about something that had been on his mind since the previous day.

“Speaking of elementalists, have you ever tried getting yourself checked to see if you’ve got any elemental powers?”

Calvin’s question made Martha blink in confusion before she replied.

“No. Why would I?”

At that, Calvin shrugged.

“Who knows? Maybe you’d get lucky. Just having elemental powers is a boon that can be used.”

“But those advantages come with responsibilities that are far too dangerous,” Martha replied immediately. “The government’s benefits for elementalists aren’t worth the danger as far as I’m concerned.

Besides, elementalists are rare. What are the odds that a family that hasn’t produced an elementalist in generations would suddenly have one in my generation? My passion has always been cooking, so I’ve never really had the need or desire to try my luck at becoming an elementalist.”

“The benefits, huh?” Calvin muttered. “True. The government benefits for elementalists at the lower ranks aren’t really worth much. Only those who are confirmed to have high affinity levels receive additional support.”

Martha was about to respond, but at that moment a voice echoed through the hall from the overhead speakers, announcing that visitation hours were over.

Setting her thoughts aside, she stepped forward and hugged Calvin, telling him to get some rest before finally taking her leave from the hospital.