The Loser Is the War Commander

Chapter 4: A Call to Power

The tension in the cramped room was suffocating. Adam Heinz stood there with his shark's smile, waiting for Alessia's answer like a predator savoring the moment before the kill. His bodyguards loomed behind him, their presence a silent threat.

Then Darius spoke, his voice cutting through the oppressive atmosphere like a blade through silk.

"Your concern is unnecessary. I'll handle everything."

Adam's head swiveled toward Darius, as if noticing him for the first time. His eyes narrowed with irritation. "And who the hell are you supposed to be? Another stray dog Alessia picked up from the gutter?"

Darius didn't respond, his gaze steady and unwavering.

Adam scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. "Whatever. You're clearly nobody important. Just another piece of trash cluttering up this hovel." His attention shifted, and his eyes landed on Aria, who stood silently near the broken doorway. His expression transformed instantly, lecherous interest lighting up his features. "Well, well! Now HERE'S something worth looking at!"

He sauntered toward Aria, adjusting his collar with exaggerated confidence. "Hello, beautiful. What's a stunning woman like you doing in a dump like this? You deserve better surroundings. Better company."

Aria's expression remained perfectly blank, like a statue carved from ice.

"I'm Adam Heinz, heir to the Heinz pharmaceutical empire," he continued, positioning himself far too close to her. "C-ranked nobility, wealth beyond measure, connections that span the entire region. A woman of your... caliber... should be on the arm of someone like me, not wasting her time with these bottom-feeders."

Aria said nothing.

Adam mistook her silence for interest. His hand reached out toward her face. "Come with me tonight. I'll show you what it means to live like royalty. You'll never want for—"

CRACK!

Aria's palm connected with Adam's face with the force of a hammer. His head snapped to the side, and he stumbled backward, shock and pain written across his features.

"You—you BITCH!" Adam's hand flew to his reddening cheek. "Do you have any idea who I—"

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Three more slaps in rapid succession. Each one landed with surgical precision, alternating cheeks. By the fourth strike, Adam was spinning like a top, his legs tangling beneath him. He crashed to the floor in an undignified heap, his expensive suit now wrinkled and dusty.

"How DARE you!" Adam shrieked from the ground, spittle flying from his mouth. "I'm Adam Heinz! You can't—nobody treats me like—"

Aria's boot pressed down on his chest, pinning him to the floor. Her voice, when she finally spoke, was colder than winter frost. "Touch me again, and I'll break every finger you own."

"You'll regret this!" Adam wheezed under her boot. "You'll all regret this!"

Darius stepped forward, his tone calm and measured. "Bill, I'll arrange for the best hospital to treat your legs. Starting tomorrow."

Bill's eyes widened with alarm. "Young Master, you can't! The medical facilities in this city—they're all either owned or influenced by families like the Heinz! Adam will block any treatment! He'll—"

"No hospital will treat you!" Alessia's voice cracked with desperation. She turned to Darius, her face pale with worry. "Young Master, you don't understand how the medical system works here! The Heinz family has contracts with every major hospital! They control pharmaceutical supplies, medical equipment, even the doctors themselves! Without their approval, no one will help us!"

Adam, still pinned under Aria's boot, burst into hysterical laughter. "Finally! Finally, someone with a brain! Yes, you stupid girl, that's EXACTLY right! Every hospital, every clinic, every two-bit pharmacy in this cesspool of a district answers to MY family!"

Darius pulled out his phone, scrolling through his contacts with unhurried precision. "We'll see about that."

"What are you doing?" Adam cackled from the floor. "Calling your imaginary friends? Praying to whatever gutter god you worship? It won't matter! You're nothing! You're all NOTHING!"

Darius found the number he was looking for and pressed the dial. The phone rang once, twice, then—

"This is John Cole." The voice on the other end was crisp, professional, authoritative.

"John, it's me," Darius said simply.

There was a pause, then the sound of a chair scraping hurriedly. "War God! I—I wasn't expecting—sir, how can I be of service?"

The atmosphere in the room shifted instantly. Alessia's eyes went wide. Bill's mouth fell open. Even Adam's laughter faltered for a moment.

"I need a medical team sent to an address in the lower district," Darius continued, his tone casual. "Full diagnostic equipment, top surgeons, everything required for extensive orthopedic reconstruction. The patient is an old friend with severe leg injuries."

"Of course, sir! Immediately! May I have the address?" John's voice trembled with nervous respect.

Darius rattled off Bill's address while Adam stared up at him with confusion and growing unease.

"We'll have a team there within the hour, War God," John promised. "I'll personally oversee the case. The patient will receive the finest care available in the entire region. You have my word."

"Good. I'm counting on you, John."

"It's an honor to serve, sir. We'll—"

"One more thing," Darius interrupted, his voice taking on a harder edge. "Spread the word through your network. Bill Jackson and his daughter Alessia are under my personal protection. Anyone who refuses their treatment or attempts to interfere with their care will answer to me directly."

The silence on the other end stretched for several heartbeats. "Understood, War God. Crystal clear. I'll make sure every medical professional in the city knows. No one will dare—"

"Thank you, John." Darius ended the call and slipped the phone back into his pocket.

For a moment, nobody moved. Nobody breathed.

Then Adam exploded with laughter—a sound edged with hysteria and disbelief.

"BAHAHAHA! Oh, that's RICH! That's absolutely PRICELESS!" Adam tried to sit up, but Aria's boot pressed down harder, forcing him back to the floor. "John Cole? JOHN COLE? You actually expect anyone to believe that the chairman of Duskfort Medical Group just took your call? That he called you 'War God'?"

His bodyguards joined in the mockery, their voices overlapping.

"This guy's completely delusional!"

"He probably called his buddy at some corner clinic!"

"'War God'! What a joke!"

Adam's face flushed red with manic glee. "You're even stupider than I thought! Do you have any idea who John Cole is? He's worth billions! BILLIONS! He doesn't take calls from street rats like you! He doesn't bow to guttersnipes and cemetery dogs!"

"Young Master..." Alessia's voice was small, uncertain. "Was that really...?"

"You actually believe him?" Adam crowed from the floor. "Oh, this keeps getting better! Listen, you pathetic fools—that was obviously some actor he paid to play along! Or maybe he just called a disconnected number and pretended! Either way, it's the most pathetic bluff I've ever seen!"

Darius walked over to where Aria stood and nodded slightly. She removed her boot from Adam's chest. The heir scrambled to his feet, his expensive suit now creased and dirty, his hair disheveled, his face still bearing the red marks from Aria's slaps.

"You know what?" Adam's voice dropped to a venomous hiss. "I was going to be merciful. I was going to give you one last chance. But now?" He pointed a shaking finger at Darius, at Aria, at all of them. "Now you've crossed a line you can't cross!"

He pulled out his own phone, fingers flying across the screen with furious energy. "I'm making calls right now. REAL calls, to REAL people with REAL power!"

Adam's voice rose to a shout as he barked orders into his phone. "Yes, it's me! Listen carefully—effective immediately, every pharmacy, every hospital, every medical facility connected to the Heinz family is to blacklist Bill Jackson and his entire family! No painkillers, no treatments, no doctors, NOTHING! I don't care if he's dying in the street—let the old cripple suffer!"

He ended that call and immediately made another, his eyes blazing with vindictive fury. "Dr. Morrison? Adam Heinz here. Yes, that charity ward you run? Consider your funding cut unless you refuse any Jackson family members. Yes, ALL of them. I don't care about your hippocratic oath—you work for ME!"

Call after call, Adam wielded his family's influence like a cudgel, systematically cutting off every avenue of medical care in the district.

Finally, he lowered his phone, breathing hard, his chest heaving with exertion and rage. "There! THERE! That's how REAL power works, you delusional fool! By morning, every medical professional in Duskfort will know that helping Bill Jackson means becoming an enemy of the Heinz family!"