♛

MAX AND HIS FRIENDS finally arrived back in London, everyone feeling completely drained after their unexpected trip to Tokyo. Though they originally went there to eat ramen, a bunch of them decided to grab a couple of drinks, leaving them a little hangover.

     "What time is it?" Kingston asks with dark bags under his eyes and a neck pillow around his neck that he bought on the plane earlier.

     Gengxin, who also looked drained, finished the water in his bottle first before looking at his phone. "It's 5:30 AM, Tuesday. We've been gone for two days."

     "And the funny thing is, we've spent most of our time in the airplane than we did in the destination we went to," Nox says before laughing at the realization he made himself.

     "I don't think I have the energy to go to school," Magnus then says before giving out a loud yawn. "I'm beat. I don't have enough life in me to do anything productive."

     "Well, I'm gonna rest for a couple of hours before heading to class. I can't miss another day," Gengxin then counters, making Magnus roll his eyes back, finding it unbelievable that Gengxin still has the strength to do such a thing despite their long trip.

     "How about you guys?" Nicolás then asks Max and the others.

     "Honestly, I'm going to school if you're all going," Ari honestly said, making it sound like a sweet gesture of friendship, but in fact, he just didn't want to miss classes alone. If his friends are going to school, he'll definitely drag himself there whether he likes it or not.

     "You guys can decide on your own, but I'm not going to school," Felix then explained.

     Max and the others thought that Felix was just tired, but then Keigo realized something and said, "Oh yeah, the Annual Brotherhood Reranking is next week. All the brotherhoods aren't in school since they're all training."

     "That's right, I totally forgot about that," Nox, a student of the House of Rooks, said before scratching his eyes, that was starting to get heavy. "The battles are about to begin."

     "I heard about that from one of the orientations," Kingston said, surprisingly showing interest in it. "It's when the students in black uniform battle each other to get a higher rank, right? Something similar to Mr. Brains & Brawn."

     "Something like that. The difference is that it's a five-day event, and they use actual weapons. A lot of the brotherhoods get badly injured during this battle, so you really have to be physically and mentally prepared," Ervin then explained.

     "I heard some news outlets are trying to cover it," Magnus then says.

     "They've been trying to for years, but the Battles is very secretive. No one outside the Houses really knows what happens during the five-day event," Nox answered, making Kingston laugh because he remembered something about that statement.

     "Oh yeah, that's why your motto is whatever happens in the castle, stays in the castle. I remembered how dramatically Gengxin said it during the closing ceremony."

     "Wait, Gengxin closed off with that line? That's hilarious," Magnus then comments, making Gengxin cross his arms before looking at Magnus with annoyance.

     "You didn't know? Weren't you at the ceremony?" Nox asks.

     "I bet he fell asleep again during the ceremony, so he didn't know. He really is a lazy bum," Gengxin angrily says, and Magnus just laughs before scratching the back of his head.

     "Anyway, I get the Annual Reranking thing. But what does that have to do with Felix?" Nicolás then asked, instantly making Felix glare at Keigo, who totally forgot that no one other than them knows that he's an actual brotherhood member of Crazy 8.

     "He's an underling of one of the brotherhoods. The underlings are allowed to assist their brotherhoods, so Felix was asked to help with their training," Max quickly answered for his friend, and thankfully, no one else questioned it. No one except for Asahi, who stared at Felix since he knew exactly who he was after their encounter back in J.S High.

     While everyone was talking amongst each other, cars started arriving in front of the airport. They were all there to pick up the heirs from their somehow long trip to a different country.

     "Looks like our ride is here," Ervin said as their driver got off their car to open the door for them. "My bother is tired, so I'll have to head home first. You guys can just message me if we're going to school or not."

     "You guys drive home safe," Max then says as his little brother, Edward, bowed to them before heading inside their car with Ervin.

     Soon after, Kingston and Gengxin got ready to leave as well. It was surprising that they even agreed to this hangout, but it seemed like the two of them had fun, especially since they were carrying a bunch of souvenirs from Japan.

     Kingston even had to suck it up and told them that they could call him again if they planned to head anywhere next time, which Max heavily teased him for.

     Magnus went home next, and then the white uniforms Nox and Nicolás followed. Asahi, who was still very much quiet the entire night, bowed to Max and his friends and thanked them for the experience before taking his leave as well.

     As for Ari, their family car arrived at the airport. No one got out of the car, but then Max noticed that a man slowly pulled the window down, only showing his sharp eyes. Ari's face instantly changed into fear as he whispered the word, "Uncle."

     It seemed like Ari's uncle found out about this long trip and fetched his nephew himself, causing Ari to look completely distressed.

     "I'll see you guys later," Ari said with a frown on his face before running to their car and driving off.

     As soon as the others went home, and only Keigo, Max, and Felix were left, Felix immediately hit Keigo's arm and told him, "Should I stop wearing my mask too since you're going to tell everyone about me anyway?"

     "Sorry! It was a slip of the tongue," Keigo desperately apologized while Felix continued to scold him.

     The two were bickering at each other as Max just watched them while trying not to laugh at how his friends were acting. But as he was doing so, a car suddenly honked behind him, immediately making Max turn his head around to see a white car that had the Lemieux symbol on the hood. The car parked on the side, and Max's loyal butler, Étienne, got out of the car and opened the door for his exhausted master.

     "Guys looks like I'll have to go first," Max told the two, instantly making them stop fighting.

     "Oh, okay. My ride's going to pick me up soon, so you can go on ahead," Felix replied.

     "I parked my motorcycle here, but I'll stay with Felix until his ride comes," Keigo then suggested, which made Felix look annoyed, but deep down, he was touched that Keigo would wait for him so he wouldn't have to stand there alone.

     "Then I'll have to go. Thanks for this trip, Keigo. I really enjoyed it. You have no idea how much I needed this," Max says as he reaches out to give Keigo a hug. Keigo was surprised, but he smiled and wrapped his arms around Max too.

     Max pats his back, but just as he is about to let go, Keigo whispers to his ear, "My cousin talked to you back in Japan, didn't he?"

     Max's eyes widened in shock since he wasn't expecting Keigo to be able to catch on, but then he took a deep breath and pulled away from Keigo before giving him a warm smile. "Tell your cousin that I hope I'll be able to see him again soon," Max says, and Keigo smiles back and nods his head.

     Max waved at Felix and Keigo before finally walking towards Étienne, who was still holding the door for him.

     "Welcome back, Master Leigh. How was your trip?" Étienne asked as Max got into the car.

     "It was great," he answered, and Étienne closed the door before heading inside. As soon as his butler drove off, Max took a deep breath and looked out the window. "How's my brother? I bet he's been worried sick since I've been gone for three days."

     "Worried isn't even the right word for it," Étienne answered, making Max chuckle. "But after I told him that you went to Japan on a trip with your close friends, it seemed like he calmed down. Thankfully he was also busy with some school affairs. Though it worries me a little since he's been coming home all bruised."

     "He's probably training like crazy," Max said before closing his eyes so he could rest a little.

     Étienne noticed that his master was tired, so he took a deep breath and closed the divider between them so he could have his privacy. But as Max had his eyes closed, the adrenaline from the Tokyo trip suddenly disappeared, and the problems that he left behind here started to pile up again.

     He remembered the information he found out about his mother from Madam Agostina Rosario and then the theory that Takemitsu Hiro had regarding Crème de la Crème.

     To backtrack everything...

     Nine years ago, back in 2015, the Stepanov Clan arranged a reunion where the entire family attended. For some unknown reason that Max has not pieced together yet, the top five members of Crème de la Crème: Viktor Stepanov, Maximilian Sinclaire, Cindy Lin, Gavriil Alexeev, and Mathew Grey Cullen, were all in that party, including Jontell Rosario.

     Rank 11, Takemitsu Hiro, who was also invited but didn't attend, stated that something important was supposed to happen at this said party, but due to the incident, it was never revealed.

     Coincidentally, Max's mother, Luna Lemieux, met up with a bunch of powerful families before the Stepanov party. First, it was the Takemitsu Clan, and then the Rosario Family.

     A few weeks before the bombing incident, Luna spoke to the head of the Takemitsu Clan for an unknown purpose. A few days after that, she spoke to Agostina Rosario and bought the bombs in her possession, bombs that were later found in the Stepanov's mansion that killed the entire clan.

     At first, Max thought that his mother plotted this, but Gavriil was right. Someone had to be blackmailing Luna. They tried to make her seem like the bad guy so that the blame would fall on her. If people found out Luna tried to kill the Stepanov Clan, people wouldn't question it. She was a monster, after all, and the two families were publically considered rivals.

     There was a bigger picture behind all this. What was his mother planning, and why is J.S High suddenly connected to all this too? Why did Janus enroll them in his school? What was the purpose? Did Janus know something about this too?

     "Crème de la Crème," Max then whispered to himself before opening his eyes back in realization. He quickly turned his phone on and then started typing something down on his notes.

Rank 1: Maximilian Leigh Sinclaire

                  Viktor Alekovich Stepanov [FORMER] (Leader of 'king' brotherhood, Busters)

Rank 2: Cindy Lin (Leader of 'queen' sisterhood, Vixens)

Rank 3: Gavriil Ivanovich Alexeev (Elites' Vice President)

Rank 4: Jontell Rosario

Rank 5: Maria Rosalia Ortega (Member of 'queen' sisterhood, Vixens)

                  Matthew Grey Cullen [FORMER]

Rank 6: [UNKNOWN]

Rank 7: Hans de Vries (Leader of 'duke' brotherhood, BND)

Rank 8: [UNKNOWN]

                  Serenity Karlsson [FORMER] (Former leader of Vixens)

Rank 9: Scarlet Romano (Leader of 'duchess' sisterhood, La Séptima)

Rank 10: [UNKNOWN]

Rank 11: Takemitsu Hiro

Rank 12: [UNKNOWN]

     Max still doesn't know four members of this group, while 6 people on the list were confirmed to have attended the party. Max wasn't sure if the others were invited like Hiro was, so Max decided that he should start asking around. If they really were invited to this party too, then he can now believe that something very important was really supposed to happen during that night.

    "I should ask Hans about this first..." Max said, staring at the duke's name. But while Max was staring at it, a chill suddenly ran down his spine as he realized something that scared him more than he expected.

     "The bombing incident at the greenhouse," Max whispered, remembering the time when he and Red got blown off after a bomb was set during his Mr. Brains & Brawn training. "Were they targeting...Hans?" Max asked in shock before crossing out Hans's name.

     H̶a̶n̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶ ̶V̶r̶i̶e̶s̶

     Soon after, things started to connect one by one.

     Someone didn't really intend to kill the Stepanov Clan. They were there to kill one heir, and that was Viktor. And because of this incident, Viktor was said to have died with the rest of his family.

     V̶i̶k̶t̶o̶r̶ ̶A̶l̶e̶k̶o̶v̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶S̶t̶e̶p̶a̶n̶o̶v̶

     But that wasn't all. The killer wanted to use the golden opportunity. The reason why he set those bombs at that very party was that he found out that other members of Crème de la Crème were there too. Unfortunately for them, all of the members survived.

     But after that bombing incident, shit started to happen.

     Gavriil's family's reputation was greatly affected when people found out that the bombs they manufactured were the bombs that were used to murder the entire Stepanov family. Because of this, the Alexeev family had to lay low for years, and their reputation was forever tarnished.

     G̶a̶v̶r̶i̶i̶l̶ ̶I̶v̶a̶n̶o̶v̶i̶c̶h̶ ̶A̶l̶e̶x̶e̶e̶v̶

     In connection to the Stepanov's death, the Rosario family was heavily criticized after the incident since they were the only suspect of the crime. Despite never being proven guilty, the family never recovered. Because of this, the Rosario family decided to merge with another strong family, which could potentially strip Jontell's rights to his family's riches.

     J̶o̶n̶t̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶R̶o̶s̶a̶r̶i̶o̶

     Next was Grey's car accident which, for some reason, was never covered properly by the media.

     M̶a̶t̶t̶h̶e̶w̶ ̶G̶r̶e̶y̶ ̶C̶u̶l̶l̶e̶n̶

     And lastly, there's Serenity, who committed suicide after the gruesome fate she had received from a brotherhood named Paradox, which just so happened to consist of 5 former members of Crème de la Crème.

     S̶e̶r̶e̶n̶i̶t̶y̶ ̶K̶a̶r̶l̶s̶s̶o̶n̶

     Max stared at the crossed-out names on his list, making the hair on his skin stand as he realized that these heirs had been faced with accidents and instances that ultimately killed some of them.

     Max still couldn't entirely understand everything, and he still couldn't draw the entire picture, but this realization gave him a huge clue. Takemitsu was actually right. Someone out there is really trying to target the members of Crème de la Crème, practically using it as a kill list.

     But as Max stared at the names in front of him, the young heir suddenly swallowed the lump in his throat when he crossed out one last name.

     M̶a̶x̶i̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶a̶n̶ ̶L̶e̶i̶g̶h̶ ̶S̶i̶n̶c̶l̶a̶i̶r̶e̶ ̶

     The incident with Luna...

     Were the killers expecting that Luna would become the suspect in the Stepanov bombing incident? Since Luna was the real buyer of the bombs, were they hoping that the news would destroy her and the Lemieux family, which would ultimately destroy Max?

     But it didn't.

     And because no one was able to connect Luna's involvement with the bombing incident, they tried something else instead.

     "The car accident!" Max suddenly shouted, immediately making Étienne stop the car. He quickly pulled the divider and looked at his master, checking if something happened.

     "Leigh, what's going on? Are you okay?" Étienne asked, and Max just stared at his butler with shock and realization.

     "Étienne, you and father believed that my mother, Luna, tried to kill herself, right? She tried to kill herself while I was sitting in the front seat of the car, right? And that's how I lost my memories." Max asked, confusing Étienne.

     "W-Well, yes. The police reported that there were no signs of struggle. No one was chasing her, and the car was not tampered with at all. The Lemieux family simply decided to report that it was an accident because they couldn't bare that people would know that their only daughter committed suicide," Étienne calmly explained.

     Max thought about it for a while, but then he shook his head and told his butler, "I lost my memory. And during those times, I somehow believed that her death wasn't an accident at all. It wasn't suicide, either. Étienne, someone was really trying to kill her."

     "Look, Leigh. We already went over this. I was with you when we tried searching for evidence that suggests someone tried to kill your madam Luna, but we didn't find a single thing. I don't want you to waste your time again like what happened in the past," Étienne explains, obviously worried that Max was opening this up again.

     Max furrowed his brows, wondering if he calculated this all wrong like what his butler said, but then he remembered the Confession that Payton was supposed to give him.

     Confession No. 4: I am the brightest moon, surrounded by dying stars. I had the whole world under my feet, but then, when I discovered that there was a small chance that my sun was going to lose his light, I had to show them darkness. I had to make the stars explode. I had to make sure that Victory wasn't theirs.

     Who do you think I am?

     What did she mean about this confession? What did she find out? Where did she even find this information to begin with?

     "Étienne, you swear that you are loyal to me, correct? You are loyal to me and only me," Max said, looking straight into his butler's eyes.

     Étienne was surprised by the question, and without even asking, he already knew what Max was thinking. He wasn't certain if this was something that he should answer so freely, but Étienne took a deep breath and decided anyway, "Of course, Master Leigh. I am loyal to no one but you."

     "Then, can you do me a favor? A favor that no one else should know about but you."

     "Anything."

    Max takes a deep breath and reaches out to hold his empty collar before saying, "Payton Wolfe...find her for me."

...

Felix Campbell, despite how exhausted he was from their trip, went straight to an abandoned warehouse which was Crazy 8's temporary training grounds.

     All 32 members of Crazy 8 were inside, training in the skills that they were best known for. But as Felix entered the warehouse, everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to look at Felix to give him a respectful bow. After all, he is Crazy 8's 7th executive and also the member who is considered Siren's right-hand man.

     "Felix!" 4th-year student Spike Jacobson, Executive No. 5, who specializes in defense, removes his boxing gloves and runs to greet his fellow marquis.

     "You finally arrived. We've been waiting for you all day," Spike said with an excited smile, but the moment he saw the serious expression on Felix's face, he instantly knew something was up.

     First-year student Eren Nabi, a new member of Crazy 8 and also Felix's club member in Omega Society, runs to him and gives him his mask and brooch. Felix thanks him and wears the items before releasing a heavy sigh.

     "She's in that office," Spike said, already aware that Felix was here to speak to their leader, Siren.

     Felix nods his head and walks to the office where Siren can be found. After adjusting his mask one last time, he knocks on the door before entering the room. Siren was sitting in front of an old desk, discussing battle strategies with Executive No. 2, Peter Uccello, who is their brotherhood's battle strategist.

     "Oh Felix, you've arrived," Siren says with a smile. But when she saw the serious expression on his face, she sighed and looked at Peter before nodding her head, automatically making Peter stand from his seat to leave the room.

     As soon as the two of them were alone, Felix approached Siren and gave her a respectful bow. "I apologize if I have only arrived today."

     "It's alright. I heard from Marcus that you were on a trip with your friends," Siren replies, standing from her seat and grabbing her famous cane, which is actually a thin sword. 

     "But based on your expression, you're not here to share how your trip went. Am I wrong?" Siren asks, walking in front of Felix and leaning toward him with a grin. "What secret do you have for me today, my marquis?"

     Felix is a white uniform that acts weak so that no one would know his real identity. He is the epitome of Crazy 8's customs and the brotherhood member that Siren will pass her cane.

     Other than proving himself as the smartest student in J.S High, Felix is highly observant. A single word or sentence can give Felix enough information that will paint an entirely blank canvas. That is why he is one of Siren's, and previously Payton's, informants that has never failed...not even once.

     And this skill...

     Is very terrifying indeed.

     "Magnus McKay...he was the spy sent to J.S High."

- END -