The Descended Mountain Villager Is The Supreme Commander

Chapter 2: The Richest Man Kneels

Chloe's legs turned to jelly.

Her brain could not process what her eyes were showing her. Harvey Whitfield. The Harvey Whitfield. The man who owned half the commercial real estate in Whitemoor City.

The man whose name made bankers sweat and politicians smile. That man was on his knees. On the actual ground. In front of someone she could not see.

"What in the world..." Chloe whispered, her voice cracking at the edges.

She grabbed Nina's wrist and pulled her forward, standing on the tips of her toes, stretching her neck like a bird trying to see over a fence.

"Move. Move, I need to get closer." She shoved past two bystanders who had also stopped to watch the spectacle.

A bodyguard stepped in front of her for the second time. This one was bigger than the first. His neck was thicker than Chloe's waist.

"Ma'am. I already told you. The road is blocked. Step back."

"I just want to see who it is! I am not going to touch anything!" Chloe's voice hit a pitch that could crack glass.

The bodyguard looked at her the way someone looks at a fly buzzing around their food. He did not move. He did not blink. He simply stood there like a mountain that had grown legs.

Chloe huffed and retreated, pulling Nina with her to a slightly elevated patch of grass by the roadside.

Who could possibly make Harvey Whitfield kneel? The governor? A foreign dignitary? A royal?

Up ahead, where Chloe's eyes could not reach, Darius stood with his hands still in his pockets, looking down at the richest man in Whitemoor City kneeling at his feet.

"Get up, Harvey."

His voice was flat. Not cold, not warm. Just flat. Like a man telling someone the time.

Harvey lifted his head, and his eyes were wet. Genuinely wet. The man who negotiated billion dollar deals without blinking was on the verge of tears looking at a twenty year old in a plain jacket.

"My Lord, you have no idea how long I have waited for this moment. I have served Mount Olympus for fifteen years and never once had the honor of meeting you in person." Harvey's voice trembled as he pressed his forehead close to the ground again.

"I said get up." Darius's tone did not change, but something in it made Harvey scramble to his feet instantly. He speaks like Master Alesio. Quiet, but impossible to disobey.

Harvey straightened his suit, wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and bowed deeply.

"My Lord, please. Allow me to escort you into the city. I have prepared everything for your arrival."

He rushed to the car door and opened it himself, waving away the driver who tried to do it for him.

"I can open a door for myself, Harvey." Darius looked at the man with something close to amusement.

"Of course you can, My Lord. But please let this old servant have the honor." Harvey bowed again, his smile so wide it looked like it might split his face in half.

Darius shook his head slightly and got into the car.

The interior of the vehicle was unlike anything Darius had seen on the mountain. Black leather seats that smelled like money.

A minibar stocked with bottles whose labels Darius did not recognize. Screens embedded in the headrests.

Harvey slid in beside him and immediately began talking, the words pouring out of him like water from a broken pipe.

"My Lord, I must tell you everything I have arranged. First, regarding the Watson family."

Darius turned his head slightly. "What about them?"

Harvey's chest puffed with pride. "I knew that Miss Nina Watson was betrothed to you, My Lord. So three months ago, I issued a commercial partnership proposal to the Watson family through one of my subsidiary companies. A joint venture worth forty million dollars. I wanted to ensure that your future in laws would be financially secure and would treat you with the respect you deserve."

Harvey paused, waiting for praise. His eyes were shining like a dog that had just fetched a stick.

Darius stared at him for a long moment. "Cancel it."

Harvey's smile froze on his face like someone had pressed pause on a video. "I... My Lord?"

"The cooperation with the Watson family. Cancel it. All of it."

"But... My Lord, may I ask why? I spent months putting the proposal together. The Watson family has already begun celebrating. They think this is the beginning of their rise. If I pull the offer now, they will..."

"They will what?" Darius looked out the window. His reflection stared back at him, calm and unbothered. "Nina and her mother came to see me today. They canceled the engagement."

Harvey's mouth fell open so wide a bird could have flown in and built a nest.

"They... they canceled the engagement? With you? With YOU?"

"Chloe Watson called me a penniless piece of trash. She compared me to a leech. She threw a ten thousand dollar check on my table and told me to stop scamming people." Darius recited it the way someone reads a grocery list.

No emotion.........No anger......... Just facts.....

Harvey's face went through seven different colors in three seconds. White. Red. Purple. Back to red.

"That... that woman. That stupid, blind, ignorant woman! Does she have any idea what she has done? Does she have any idea who she was talking to? A leech? She called YOU a leech?" Harvey's hands were shaking. Not with sadness. With fury.

"She also called my master a fraud."

Harvey looked like he was about to have a stroke. "Master Alesio? She called Master Alesio a fraud? The God of Medicine? The man who could bring the dead back to life with a single needle? That woman is not just blind. She is brain dead. She is dumber than a rock at the bottom of a river. No. She is dumber than the mud underneath the rock."

"Harvey." Darius's voice was quiet.

Harvey clamped his mouth shut immediately. His entire body straightened like a soldier snapping to attention.

"I do not need you to be angry on my behalf. Just cancel the cooperation. Quietly. No explanations."

"Yes, My Lord. It will be done within the hour." Harvey nodded so fast his neck cracked. Then a thought struck him and his expression changed to one of deep concern. "My Lord, what about the welcome banquet? I have reserved the Asgard Hotel. The entire top floor. The finest chefs in the country have been flown in. Three hundred of the most influential people in Whitemoor City have been invited to welcome you."

Darius closed his eyes and leaned back against the headrest. "Cancel that too."

"My Lord..."

"I do not like banquets. I do not like crowds. I do not like three hundred strangers staring at me while I eat." Darius opened one eye and looked at Harvey. "Find me a quiet place to stay. That is all I need."

Harvey swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. He is exactly like they said. The young lord of Mount Olympus does not care for luxury or praise. He is the storm that moves in silence.

"Understood, My Lord. I will arrange a private residence immediately. The quietest and most secure property in the city."

The car began to move. The procession of luxury vehicles pulled forward in a slow, thundering line, engines humming like the heartbeat of something massive and powerful.

On the side of the road, Chloe nearly dislocated her neck trying to see inside the vehicles as they passed.

"There! There! The third car! That is Harvey's personal car! I recognize the license plate!" She was jumping up and down now, pulling Nina along like a ragdoll. "If we could just see who is inside, maybe we could find out who this mysterious figure is. Nina, this could be your chance! If this person is as powerful as the rumors say, and Harvey Whitfield is kneeling to him, imagine what a marriage to someone like that could mean for our family!"

Nina was not jumping. She was not excited. She was staring at the third car as it rolled past them, slowly, like the world had shifted into slow motion.

The tinted windows were dark. But as the car passed under a gap in the tree cover, a sliver of sunlight cut through the glass at just the right angle. Just for a second. Just for a heartbeat.

She saw a silhouette. A jawline. The way someone leaned back in their seat with one hand resting on their knee.

Her heart stopped.

No. That is not possible.

"Mom..." Nina's voice came out thin and broken, like a thread being pulled too tight.

Chloe was still waving at the car like a lunatic. "What? What is it?"

Nina's face had gone completely white. Her fingers dug into her mother's arm so hard that Chloe yelped.

"Mom... am I seeing things? Why does the person in the car look like Darius?"