The Rise of the Heir

Chapter 10

Theo's steps felt like they carried an invisible weight as he climbed the stairs to his boarding room in Sector 4. Afternoon had just turned to night, and the digital paper containing the anonymous Armagenda University scholarship announcement was still tucked into his jeans pocket.

He was physically exhausted, but his mind was still spinning, formulating a plan. His student status would be active in three days, and it was his legal shield. However, as soon as he pushed open the wooden door of his room, the pungent smell of balsam oil and the stench of blood assaulted his nostrils.

Inside the dimly lit room, Yanuar sat on the floor, his back propped up against the bed. His white shirt was torn, revealing a long gash on his left arm, which Bima was pressing with an old T-shirt. In the center of the room stood a thin-faced man in a faded flannel shirt, holding a small pocket knife.

Reno. He didn't have Bima's massive muscles, nor did he have the rough and fierce demeanor of a street thug. However, his eyes were blank, as if devoid of life, typical of the Baru Valen faction's executioners, accustomed to taking lives without a hint of emotion. Two of his burly men stood in the corner of the room, holding blood-stained iron pipes.

"Funny," Reno said, his voice flat, almost a whisper, when he saw Theo enter. "Everyone on Valen's board of directors is busy whispering about finding Roy Atmaja's rightful heir... but all I found was a skinny kid, a casual worker who just got home with his exam papers."

Theo didn't answer. His eyes glanced at Yanuar, who was panting. "Uncle Yanuar..."

"He deliberately lured me here to trap you, Theo," Yanuar said hoarsely, enduring the pain in his arm. "Valen's men bribed someone in the campus administration. They know you won a scholarship today."

Reno twirled his pocketknife between his fingers, making a rhythmic clicking sound. "Valen doesn't like surprises, especially legal surprises from the university. Hand over the Atmaja Group inheritance documents you keep in this room, brat. Then I'll make sure your death tonight isn't as painful as your father's."

Theo's anger boiled over, boiling in his chest, overpowering the pain. Ignoring his cracked right rib, Theo lunged forward, delivering a left punch straight to Reno's face.

Damn!

Reno dodged with just a slight tilt of his head. His movements were incredibly efficient. Against a professional killer, Theo's movements were all too predictable.

BUGH!

Reno's right fist struck Theo's solar plexus with unexpected speed. Theo gasped for breath, his lungs feeling like they were being forced to deflate. The attack wasn't just based on muscle strength, but also on the deadly precision of nerve endings.

Theo staggered back, his vision blurring. One of Reno's men took advantage of the opening, swinging a metal pipe at Theo's right shoulder, which had only just healed the night before.

CRACK!

"Argh!" Theo screamed as his body was thrown against a plywood cabinet, crushing it. The pain in his right shoulder exploded again, the joint seemingly dislocated for the second time.

Bima screamed in anger, trying to get up to lunge at Reno, but two of Reno's men restrained the limping giant with repeated blows from a wooden block to his legs and back. The cramped boarding room had become a silent murder chamber.

Theo knelt on the cold cement floor, his breath ragged, while warm blood dripped from the corner of his temple. Reno walked over, staring at him with a bored expression, then pointed the sharp tip of his knife directly at Theo's chin, forcing him to look up.

"Roy Atmaja was never this weak," Reno hissed, staring at Theo as if he were looking at a corpse. "You're just trash who happened to inherit his name."

In that moment, the world seemed to slow down before Theo. He saw Yanuar coughing blood in the corner of the room, Bima groaning under the weight of the wood, and the image of his mother, scared to death the night before. He realized that if he continued living like this—as Theo, the resigned, safe-playing courier—everyone around him would end up in a coffin because of his naivety.

Bzzz... Bzzz... Suddenly, the phone belonging to one of Reno's men vibrated. The burly man picked it up for a moment, then whispered something into Reno's ear. "Boss, the Sector 4 security faction is conducting a routine patrol at the end of the alley. We need to move."

Reno pulled the knife from Theo's chin and wiped it on the collar of his flannel shirt. "Officer Monia always comes at the wrong time."

The tall man turned and glanced at Theo from the doorway of the damaged boarding house. "We'll meet again at Armagenda University, Young Master. Make sure you take good care of yourself until that day, because Valen wants your head delivered in a silk box."

At that moment, the world seemed to slow down in Theo's eyes. He saw Yanuar coughing blood in the corner of the room, Bima groaning under the weight of the wood, and the image of his mother, terrified to death the night before. He realized that if he continued living like this—as Theo, the resigned and safe courier—everyone around him would end up in a coffin because of his naivety.

Bzzz... Bzzz... Suddenly, the cell phone belonging to one of Reno's men vibrated. The burly man picked it up for a moment, then whispered something into Reno's ear. "Boss, the Sector 4 security faction is conducting a routine patrol at the end of the alley. We need to move."

Reno pulled the knife from Theo's chin and wiped it on the collar of his flannel shirt. "Officer Monia always comes at the wrong time."

The lanky man turned and glanced at Theo from the doorway of the broken boarding house door. "We'll meet again at Armagenda University, Young Master. Make sure you guard your life well until that day comes, because Valen wants your head delivered in a silk box."

The three men disappeared into the darkness of the alley as quickly as they had come, leaving an eerie silence in the ruined room.

A few hours later, the sealed basement of Rouza Grill was eerily quiet. The scent of cheap antiseptic and the smoke of Bima's clove cigarettes mingled in the musty air.

Theo sat shirtless on a metal chair. An elderly doctor, a loyal associate of Agent RX, was stitching up a tear on Theo's temple and re-bandaging his right shoulder with a sling. The stitches were performed without adequate anesthesia, but Theo didn't complain. His eyes simply stared at the dried blood staining the hem of his white shirt on the floor.

Yanuar stood by the table, his arm wrapped in a clean bandage. Although his face was pale from blood loss, his gaze remained unwavering, demanding an answer.

"Still want to escape this world, Theo?" Yanuar asked, his voice low but echoing in the basement. "Do you still want to go back to being a poor courier and pretend that Roy Atmaja's blood doesn't flow in your veins?"

Theo was silent for a long moment. He saw his reflection in the scalpel blade lying on the medical table—a face covered in bruises, but his eyes no longer held the hesitation of a street courier. A fire had ignited within him, cold and deadly.

He realized there was no turning back. To fight monsters like Valen and the people behind the government faction, he could no longer rely on luck or mercy.

Theo stood slowly from the medical chair, ignoring the excruciating pain stabbing through his ribs and shoulder. He stared straight into Yanuar's eyes.

"Don't just protect me like a piece of inheritance paper, Yanuar," Theo said, his voice low but solid, without the slightest waver of hesitation.

He clenched his uninjured left hand tightly. "...Teach me everything. How to read the faction's movements, how to cut off their cash flow, and how to kill people like Reno. Teach me to be a true leader."

Yanuar froze for a moment, before a faint smile of dark satisfaction appeared on his old face. He bowed deeply, this time with genuine respect.

"Welcome home, Young Master Atmaja," Yanuar replied.

That night, beneath the ruins of a rusty old restaurant, Agent RX stopped hiding. In three days, Armagenda University would open its gates, and Theo Atmaja would enter not to study, but to begin his own headhunt.