A skinny man with glasses and a face that screamed cowardly was being buried in a stack of paper. He was scratching furiously, his pencil having a battle of the ages with the paper in front of him. The more he wrote, the more grim his face became. Soon, he stopped writing, putting his hand on his head instead, trying to support it from slumping onto the table. Bern was facing what was possibly the biggest crisis in his career as an accountant… he discovered anomalies in the numbers. He had done the calculation multiple times, dug deep into the records. And now, he could not deny it — someone was embezzling the company's fund.

  Bern wanted to cry. This was trouble. He did not know how to report it to his boss without facing his wrath. If possible, he wanted to turn a blind eye, letting someone else deal with it. But Bern had a duty as an accountant, a sense of pride as one. Bern sighed, steeling himself before he finally stood and walked towards his boss’ office.

  Knock Knock

  Bern knocked at the door. “Come in.” A voice from inside the room invited him in. He opened the door, revealing a clean office with a cleaner desk, no paper in sight. His boss, a middle-aged balding man, was still flirting with his affair partner, half-ignoring Bern. “What is it?” He asked Bern, annoyed that Bern dared to interrupt his time with the lady in his lap.

  “Uhhhm… Sir… I think I found proof of embezzlement.” Bern hesitated to tell his boss. If this embezzlement was ever found out by their higher-ups, they could all be in trouble. And yet, his boss seemed unfazed hearing that. “Alright, alright. Just put the paper on my desk. I’ll read it later.”

  “But Sir, this is serious.” Bern tried to get this issue to be his boss’ main priority, but his insistence pissed off his boss instead. “Are you deaf? Just put the damn thing on my table.” In a way, Bern managed to take his boss' attention from his affair partner.

  “Sir, we need to deal with this now. If our higher-ups find out about this — we’ll be in a world of trouble.” The boss's face turned serious. He realized, he could not get Bern to back off easily. He turned to his affair partner with a sweet face, “Dear, can you give me and the boy some time to talk?” The affair partner flirted with the boss a bit, kissing him on the cheeks before leaving the two men to talk.

  “Listen, Bern. I know you found proof of… some accounting mistake. I want you to ignore it.” The boss said so bluntly Bern thought he misheard. “I- Ignore? But Sir, how could we just ignore this sir? And I’m sure this is not just some accounting mistake, sir.”

  The boss sighed. Bern did not get what he meant. It seemed he had to be more direct. “Bern. It's an accounting mistake. End of story. And if you think it looked too much like an embezzlement… I want you to… fix it a little bit.”

  “You… you want me to… fix it!?”Bern was shocked. He could not believe that his boss just asked him to cook the book. That was a taboo for an accountant. A crime. The boss reached into his drawers and pulled out a purse. He poured the contents of the purse onto his table, dozens of silver and even some gold Azul. “I’ll make it worth your while.” The boss smirked, confident the money in front of him was enough to tempt Bern.

  Bern’s face became more shocked. It finally clicked with him. It was his boss that did the embezzlement, and he was going to make him an accomplice. “I… I can’t, sir.” This time, it was the boss who was surprised. Bern was an educated man, but he was no noble nor rich. He probably never saw that much money nor held it — and yet, he refused it. No one ever refused it before. Just in case, the boss pulled another purse and poured its contents. But Bern’s complexion did not improve, if anything it got worse. “Are you sure about this, Bern.” the boss asked while staring at him.

  “I… I can’t.” The boss sighed when Bern rejected him for the second time. Now he knew for sure that Bern could not be persuaded. He put the coin back into his purse, not sparing a sight to the befuddled Bern. “Alright, Bern. You can leave now. I’ll handle the rest.”

  Bern wanted to speak more, but he realized there was nothing more to discuss. He stood there, fidgeting for a while. His boss ignoring him completely, focusing on putting the coins into the purse. Bern finally decided to leave the room. “Bern. Keep your mouth shut.” His boss told him just as he was about to leave the room. “I… I… Yes sir.”

  The sound of coins hitting each other in the purse rang loudly as he closed the door behind him. On his walk back to his desk, Bern realized he just made the biggest mistake in his life.

  ********

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  “Siiigh,”

  A skinny man wearing a glass was sitting on an empty crate. He was inside a cave that was used by the urchins to store all their foods. Mountains of crates sat in front of the skinny man, who was in charge of keeping a record of them.

  “What’s wrong Bern?” another man, just as skinny as Bern, but clearly older with his long grey hair and beard approached him. “We’re screwed Thomas. Screwed.” Bern complained to the old man, Thomas.

  “How so?” Thomas did not get Bern’s concern. Ever since they joined Regulus’ life had been good for them. They were fed and given shelter, protected by Regulus and were given purpose in life with all the things to do for the sake of the gang. “It’s the food Thomas. We’re running out.” Thomas looked at the mountains of crates after hearing Bern’s worry — he just could not believe that they were running out of food considering the sight in front of him, “how so?”

  Bern took off his glasses to massage his forehead. He knew his concern did not sound important considering the amount of food they currently had, so he was gathering his thoughts on how to explain it properly to Thomas.

  “Thomas, we got a lot of food right now, but with our current numbers, we’re gonna run out of food sooner or later. By my calculation we will run out in a month or two — and that’s if our numbers don’t keep growing.”

  Thomas finally started to get the picture. Their gang did grow in size recently, and considering Regulus, they might grow even more. “How many people do we have exactly?” Bern took out his notes to find the answer to Thomas’ question. “211 people. And God knows how many Molrrets.”

  “Can’t we just start gathering food… or buying some food?” Thomas' suggestion seemed reasonable, but Bern just sighed at it. “I considered those two… but I don’t know how we will gather food. And buying… we got money, sure… but we don’t make enough to consistently feed our group. We’re screwed, Thomas. Screwed.”

  Thomas understood why Bern was acting dramatic now. Feeding two hundred plus people was not an easy task, and he realized that they had no group that was in charge of getting food at all. He only got one solution left for Bern, “Have you tried asking God?”

  Bern shuddered. He was reminded that Thomas was one of Regulus' devotees. Most of the former prisoners were, Bern was the outlier that did not treat Regulus like a God. “I’ll be honest Thomas… I’m scared of Regulus.”

  Thomas just chuckled, “I know. We all know. It’s pretty fucking obvious. Seriously, you got nothing to be scared of. Regulus will never harm us.” Thomas said that with a conviction that Bern could not understand. How could he and the rest of the Regulus’ devotees be so sure of that. If Regulus wanted to, all he needed was to swipe at them and they would be torn apart. “Thomas, could you tell Tera about this? Maybe she can talk to Regulus about this instead of me.” Bern begged Thomas, hoping he did not need to face Regulus at all.

  “I guess I can… but you do realize Tera will invite you to talk with Regulus in the end, right? You’re the one who knows about the details afterall.” Thomas was right. Even if he went about it in a roundabout way, he’ll meet with Regulus in the end after all. Bern put his face on his hand, massaging it to relieve his stress… but then

  Brrrt Brrt

  He could feel the earth vibrate. He knew what this meant, everyone in the gang knew. His biggest fear — Regulus was coming.

  Plop

  From underneath the ground, Regulus plopped out his head. Bern fell from the crate he sat on due to his nerves, while Thomas immediately fell to his knees, bowing to his God. “Re- Re- Regulus. What are you doing here?” Bern asked while trying to fix his glasses that had fallen down, his hands shaking like crazy.

  “Hey Bern. Hey Thomas.” Regulus greeted Bern and Thomas with a big smile on his face. Hearing his name being mentioned by his God, Thomas' tear ducts burst out of joy… Bern’s tear ducts on the other hand were about to burst from all the shaking. “I heard about it. We got a food problem right?” Regulus asked Bern as he pulled his body out of the ground.

  “You… You heard about it?” Bern could not believe it. He knew Regulus had good hearing, but to be able to hear a conversation without being in the same cave? How good was Regulus’ hearing? “Yes, you mention something about only having enough food for a month or two, right?” Regulus asked for confirmation. Bern could only nod in disbelief. Regulus did hear his conversation with Thomas… He was worried about what else Regulus heard, if he said the wrong thing… He did not even want to imagine what could happen to him.

  “Well, don’t worry about it, Bern. I’ll handle it. Thomas, Bern, inform everyone I’m going to be gone for a while.” Regulus turned around, about to enter the hole he just dug and disappear to find food for the gang, but he stopped, remembering he had something to say to Bern. “And Bern, you don’t need to be afraid of me. I won’t harm you.”

  Bern froze, Regulus heard him. Regulus told him not to be afraid, but could he truly trust Regulus?

  “And what if I betray you Regulus? What will you do then?”

  Bern closed his mouth immediately. Those words slipped out unconsciously. Even Thomas, who had spent most of his time groveling could not help but stare at Bern for that obvious blunder. How could someone who claimed to be afraid of Regulus asked such a question to his face. Bern’s mouth was shut tightly by his hand, afraid that stupid mouth of his would bring him more trouble. Bern’s eyes could not focus, he felt dizzy, his heart beat was through the roof.

  “Even if you betray me… I still won’t harm you, Bern.” Regulus answered, and his answer calmed Bern down. His heart no longer beat like crazy. His eyes regained his focus. He saw Regulus' face. Smiling, but it was not his usual smile — it was a sad wry smile instead, like he remembered something that hurt him, but trying to hide it.

  And Bern knew why. He only heard about it, but apparently, the former leader of their gang, John, betrayed Regulus and inadvertently betrayed the whole gang — yet Regulus did nothing to him, even though he confessed to Regulus about his betrayal. Maybe that was why Bern calmed down after hearing Regulus’ answer. He was convinced that Regulus truly would not harm him no matter what.

  “Well, I’ll be going now. Take care.” Regulus dived head first into the hole, disappearing in an instant. With him gone, Thomas finally stopped groveling and faced Bern.”Can’t believe you said that Bern. and here I thought you were scared of him.”

  Bern did not respond immediately. He was deep in his own thoughts. “You know Thomas, I don’t think I can ever see Regulus as a God… but I think he’s a good boss.”