Star Hedonist-Chapter 14: New Plan

Clara leads the mysterious white-haired man into the large conference room, drawing everyone's attention inside.

Diego and Javier scowl upon seeing the white-haired man, but the others seem both friendly and curious.

"Here," Clara offers her own chair for him to sit in.

Then, she moves toward the center of the table, placing her hand on one of the empty chairs.

"I'll grab your old chair in a second."

She shoots a provocative look at Diego, who glares back, clearly annoyed.

"You're not planning on using it anymore, are you?"

Diego visibly restrains his frustration and simply gestures dismissively with his hand.

Clara grins, dragging the rolling chair next to hers, positioning herself between the white-haired man and Nyx.

He now sits between Clara and Jex, who greets him with a bright smile and a V-sign gesture.

Matteo gives him a slight nod with a friendly expression.

Nyx also greets him but with a subtle smile and an intense gaze, which he returns with the same depth.

Seeing the friendly scene, Javier rolls his eyes in disgust.

Diego looks more impatient.

"Can we start now???"

Clara nods, wearing her usual provocative smirk.

"Of course, Captain."

Her tone drips with sarcasm, but Diego ignores it and begins speaking.

"First and foremost, I want to congratulate everyone on a job well done."

"Ahem!" Clara fake-coughs dramatically.

Nyx and Jex nearly laugh, while Matteo shakes his head.

"I hope you're not even remotely considering your own performance as decent, at the very least."

"For fuck's sake, Clara!"

Diego exclaims, but before he can say more, he notices the dark stare from the white-haired man falling on him, sending shivers down his spine.

Yet, Diego forces himself to ignore the unsettling gaze and refocuses on Clara, attempting to maintain his composure.

"Elliot left me in charge of the Safira, so if you're not satisfied with my leadership—"

"Okay, okay..." Clara scoffs playfully. "You can go on."

"Thank you!" Diego speaks slowly and loudly, his patience visibly thinning.

"As I was saying, everyone did great—MUCH more useful than I was."

Clara nods enthusiastically, a proud smile on her face.

A heavy sigh escapes Diego.

"But the most important thing now is..."

"We recovered the relic and escaped Zhaaros, so all that's left is to deliver it and complete the contract."

"MONEY! MONEY!! MONEY!!!" Zion exclaims excitedly.

"Yeah, a billion credits is gonna make us rich!" Jex adds, equally thrilled.

"A billion and a half," Matteo corrects.

"Yeah, there's that bonus for delivering the relic intact, right?"

Nyx glances at Clara briefly before turning her attention back to Diego.

"If I remember correctly, the bonus was specifically for not opening or modifying the relic."

Diego nods. "Exactly."

"BUT?" Clara raises an eyebrow at him, suspicious.

Diego shrugs, leaning back in his chair in a relaxed manner.

"We can do that... if that's what you all want..."

Everyone watches him with confused expressions until he raises a finger.

"BUT!"

Updat𝒆d fr𝑜m freewebnøvel.com.

"Yeah, Clara, there's always a BUT!"

"There always is," she mocks.

He shakes his head.

"Come on, folks!" Diego gestures dramatically.

"Who the fuck pays a billion credits for an old, useless relic?"

Before anyone can respond, he continues.

"And half a billion more just for us not to open the damn box???"

"If it were the Xharythuun Empire, I might understand."

"But come on! It's the Umbrakai!"

"They don't have infinite riches."

Diego's supporters nod at every word, but Clara's group remains skeptical.

Matteo, in particular, looks concerned.

"Where are you going with this, Captain?"

"It's a weapon, obviously." Diego responds instantly.

"No shit!" Clara mocks again. "What a fucking genius you are!"

Diego ignores her and focuses on the others.

"I'm not just saying it's a weapon..."

"Think about it. That thing was buried in a hole in Zhaaros, and even the fucking Thek'Shar wouldn't go near it!"

"What kind of weapon scares those savages???"

"And why would the Umbrakarians send a small crew like us to retrieve it instead of going themselves?"

"..."

No one has an answer to Diego's questions, but he nods.

"I'll tell you why."

"Because that weapon is fucked up!"

"Whatever the hell it is, it must be insanely dangerous."

"And extremely valuable," Maxwell adds.

"Exactly." Diego nods, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"So, my dear crew, my proposal is simple—"

"We shouldn't open it." Nyx states coldly.

Matteo nods. "We made a contract with the Umbrakarians, Captain."

"This isn't some Dravaal Expanse treasure hunt where we can just sell to the highest bidder."

"We were given specific intel to find and retrieve that relic. If we fuck this up..."

There's a cold look on Nyx's face as she stares at Diego.

"We do not want to screw over the Umbrakai."

Diego shakes his head, disappointed.

"You two... fucking cowards..."

"You have no idea what we're sitting on!"

"And you do?" Nyx raises an eyebrow.

Diego suddenly stands up from the table, and Nyx nearly reaches for her sword.

But instead, he smiles casually at her and the group. "Come on!"

He walks toward a large horizontal window dividing the conference room from another chamber, next to a door.

The glass is dark at the moment, but Diego presses a button on the wall, and the window turns transparent, revealing the room beyond.

Inside the room, the group watches as a man in his thirties, dressed in a gray lab coat and surrounded by various tools, moves around the relic that Clara retrieved from the ruins of Zhaaros:

The box that once contained the mysterious white-haired man.

The relic still floats in mid-air, held up by the anti-gravity devices Clara attached to it. Now, the man in the lab coat seems deeply engrossed in analyzing it.

Diego and his supporters stare at the relic with curious and excited expressions, while Nyx and Matteo seem concerned, though not as much as Clara.

The white-haired man lingers at the back of the group, casting only a brief glance at the box, his expression completely unreadable.

"You see this?" Diego taps on the glass, grabbing the attention of the man in the lab coat, then points at the box.

"Impressive, isn't it?" The man in the room asks, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

Diego and his group nod eagerly.

But Nyx keeps shooting him disapproving glances.

"What is Louis doing to the relic? If he damages it in any way..." Nyx warns.

Diego raises his hands defensively.

"Relax, Nyx. He's just running some preliminary analyses."

Clara starts feeling uneasy, worried that her lie might come to light. But at the same time, she's incredibly curious about the white-haired man and his mysterious origins.

"What have you found out so far?" She asks.

Louis makes a disappointed face. "Absolutely nothing."

"Nothing?" Diego frowns.

"Yep."

Louis gestures toward the box. "This damn thing doesn't have a single button, wire, or even an external circuit..."

"Not even a single seam."

"It's completely covered in this bizarre metal."

Clara tries to remain calm, but she finds herself biting her lip in nervousness—and when she realizes it, Nyx is already staring at her with a curious expression.

"Clara?"

She nearly jumps when she hears her name, but when she looks, it's Diego speaking, also watching her with suspicion.

"What?" Clara blurts out.

"You know something?" Diego asks.

"Why the hell would I?" She snaps defensively.

Diego raises an eyebrow, puzzled by her reaction.

"Because you were the one who found it, obviously."

"Oh."

"What else did you discover about it in the pyramid?" Diego presses.

"Oh, that..." Clara shakes her head quickly.

"I didn't have time to find anything, obviously—the Crimson Nebula was after me, remember?"

"Of course." Diego nods.

"But you really can't tell us anything about it? You're our expert in antiquities."

"I'm an expert in ancient languages and maps, not unknown alien technology."

Despite her words, Diego keeps looking at Clara with an expectant expression.

"Come on, Clara. I know you're just as curious about this as I am."

Clara glances at the relic, her eyes gleaming with curiosity. She can't hide it.

Diego grins eagerly, but Nyx shoots Clara a piercing look.

She feels a little guilty. "I know we have a contract and all that... but..."

"It's probably better if we at least have an idea of what kind of weapon we're dealing with, right?"

"If it's even a weapon, of course."

As Matteo shakes his head, Nyx lets out a long sigh.

"I was against taking a contract from the Umbrakai, and I don't think we should mess with this thing."

Nyx can't keep a stern face at Clara for long and ends up smiling slightly.

"But I can't stop you, can I?"

"Hehe~" Clara giggles and steps into the room quickly.

The group watches her closely, while Nyx and the white-haired man have slightly different expressions.

Clara walks around the mysterious box, giving it a good look over the metal surface since she didn't have much time to analyze it inside the pyramid.

Louis watches her with a mildly irritated expression. "I told you, there's nothing on the outside."

"Maybe..." Clara ignores him and keeps studying the box.

Diego and the others grow impatient. "Any ideas, Clara? Anything at all?"

"Hmm..." Clara stares intently at the top of the box.

"Even though there aren't any clear markings, this thing reminds me of Xharythuun technology, at least aesthetically."

"Oh?" A light flickers in Louis' eyes. "That actually makes sense!"

"And what does that mean?" Diego asks.

"Touch-sensitive hidden buttons," Clara says aloud at the same time that Nyx mutters it under her breath.

"Yes," Louis nods. "That could be it."

Clara instinctively reaches out to touch the box, but stops when she remembers the ice burn.

She clenches her hand into a fist.

"Wait!" Louis gives her a curious look.

"???" Clara becomes concerned.

"This metal is extremely cold," he explains.

"You should remember that—since you were the one who retrieved this relic from the ruins yourself, right?"

"Yeah... I almost forgot about that." She nods.

Louis turns around, grabs a pair of gloves from the workbench, and tosses them to her. "Here."

Clara catches the gloves and puts them on quickly. "Thank you."

"Now let's see if—" Clara places her hand on the lid of the box, and just like before, glowing blue circuits light up through the metal.

The box opens, but without the hissing air pressure sounds from the first time.

"Holy shit!!" Louis exclaims.

Everyone else looks shocked—except for two people.

Outside the containment room, Diego and his crew expect something to happen next, but nothing does.

"Looks safe," Louis says, though his tone lacks confidence as he steps closer to peer inside the box.

"HUH???"

He looks completely confused when he sees nothing but a translucent red liquid inside the box.

Clara realizes she should have the same expression—so she quickly fakes it. "What the hell??"

"What??" Diego looks concerned and rushes into the room.

"What is wrong with the weapon—" He looks inside the box, expecting to see some kind of mysterious alien device.

But there's only that strange red liquid inside.

The other crew members enter the room, curious to see what's so strange about the mysterious box.

Even Matteo seems intrigued.

But the white-haired man remains outside the room, standing on the other side of the glass—and so does Nyx.

She steps closer to him, watching him with a curious expression.

Then, she lowers her voice so that only he can hear.

"You don't seem the least bit curious to see what's inside, do you?"

"..."

He meets her gaze with a mysterious, slightly amused expression.

"Maybe because you already knew what it is?"

He smiles confidently at Nyx.

His usual charming smile that makes any woman's heart skip a beat.

"Heh~" She smirks back at him, her eyes gleaming with curiosity and expectation.