❝ さあ Com'on 覚悟キメて
震え高ぶれ My heart❞

xviii. origin: ms. evette

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Everyone was carrying the pressure on their shoulder. The First Lady of their recently deceased crown prince was seated along with them, inside the council room with her face under a veil, their bewilderment had no bounds. No one could muster up the courage to initiate the conversation even though they felt uncomfortable in the silence surrounding them. 

"Sir Emerson is really dead?" Jin arose the question still submerged into the obscure statement about their crown prince who was about to inherit the clan and become the leader of the most powerful one to exist. The woman in the veil nodded and wiped her face, probably wiping the dusty tears that fell from her eyes. She was married to Carl Emerson since she was at a young age, roughly 14 years. They both were the perfect couple before the people below them, despite their huge age difference and defying the law.

Jin cleared his throat and bent his eye vision downward in respect, "I'm so sorry for your loss, Mrs. Emers-." The widowed young lady interrupted Jin's condolence, "Ms. Evette." Jin nodded his head and let a soft sorry come out of his mouth. "And please, I had enough of all your condolences. I know the world and know how to keep up with emotions. I have always seen worse," Evette slammed her fists on the table as the 10 jerked a little from their positions.

"Shall we get back to business?" Evette's voice didn't sound like the one a woman who had the worst befallen on her but, either the tone of a professional businesswoman who preferred money over emotions and power over love. "Before all that, you murdered 6 people in a week. The casualties are at high stake and how are we going to shut the victim's family and friend's mouth? We don't want the INTERPOL sniffing us for the catastrophe Ms. Evette," Jin came straight to the point and explained his stress.

Evette chuckled as she smelled like wet rocks, the sweet and musty petrichor smell filled everyone's nostrils. "I have compensated the family and their friends with a whole lot of money and settled the accounts, don't worry, they won't be an issue to you. You all should keep your school under control, bullying or harassing someone has its limits," Evette replied pulling out a cigar from her pocket.

"You killed them, Ms.Evette! Murder isn't a hobby and you are not god to punish someone," Jin raised his tone to only earn a playful snicker from Evette. "Don't act like goody-two-shoes before me, Jin. I have access to the inter affairs division and have read all your cases, you all would have been dead 40 times if the police got their hands on the files," Evette's words were enough to shut them all up for an eternity. She was much more dangerous than the devil's honor.

Her cherry lips held a cigar between them, she pulled a gold platted lighter with an enigmatic symbol craved on it. "The clan's elders are looking for valid candidates to become the new head and grand panel, they want one of you to participate in the election to claim the head position," Evette puffed the smoke and exhaled grey fume which then later disintegrated in the air.

The Atsuda clan was established in 1868, after the Boshin war (civil war) in Japan; the war between the feudal military government (Tokugawa shogunate) and those who yearned the return of political power to the imperial court. The directing of the foreigners by the shogunates led to this crisis, welcoming foreign trades diminished the domestic trades. The end of the war resulted in a new political reform, called the Meiji restoration and the era of samurai ended.

The traditional samurai hierarchy was weakened in Japan by the newly formed imperial rule, so a few left their homeland to pass on their martial arts. As the days passed by, western culture started to dominate the clan as the Japanese became a minority despite being the origins. The society of samurai was totally demented during world war 2, the Atsuda clan was totally reformed and foreigners ruled over it. The clan we know now, where money and knowledge have an upper hand is a contrast to the older one, where the ones who mastered martial arts had the whip hand.

"Oh, and they have only one slot left," Evette puffed her cigar again as the ten started to feel anxious. Becoming the head of the clan, or even being a candidate would shower you with many privileges; your ranks and status grow, you gain access to almost every division if the head and the panel allows you. Having only one slot left means only one of these ten could fly ahead of them and become the most influencing member of the student body and they would never give up this chance for a lifetime.

Jin acted quickly before any one of them take any rash decisions, "I know you all want to fill the slot, but unfortunately only one is left. So, how about we settle things like the old times? a quick vote people." As much as they wanted to shove a dagger on each other's hearts and take the place, they still compromised for the sake of their bloodline. Everyone nodded disheartened, this is going to be one hell of a ride. Jin clapped his hands as the students with a tag around them placed a piece of expensive paper and pen before the ten and went back to their positions.

"Write the name of the person you would like to become the candidate and drop them inside the box placed in the heart of the table," he announced as everyone rushed to write their names on the paper with the blue ink and folded the paper neatly and dropped it inside the box as per his instruction. 

Jin averted his direction towards Evette and bowed his head a little, "would you be kind enough to count the number of votes?" Evette nodded and dropped her cigar on the ground and stepped on it with her heels to turn the fire off. Just as she expected, everyone wrote their names on the slip. It explained how desperate they need to be better than the others and how 'inseparable' their masquerade bond is but, to her surprise, she found a name written twice.

"Namjoon won with two votes."

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❝I'm simply trembling, my boy
I won't let you drop out❞

+ i made a mistake before, ravana clan was supposed to be atsuda clan. I would edit it soon.