The Rise Of A Porter

Soon the guards returned with Allen, who had chains on his wrists and ankles. The chains made a clanking sound whenever he took a step. He kept his vacuous stare at the floor as the soldiers escorted him to the conference room, where Arnold and the others were waiting for his arrival, but Allen didn't know that he thought only military personnel would be present there to give him his sentence. But instead, when he walked into the conference room, he saw the person he hated with all his heart.

A plethora of thoughts flooded his mind that very instant. Since he had been behaving well, the soldier had been lightly holding on to his chains, thus allowing Allen to free himself from the guards and jump towards Nathan, all while cursing him like a maniac, but before he could reach Nathan, Arnold stepped in and the next thing he knew, he got slammed into the wall on the opposite side, which shattered into pieces.

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His head got bruised but it wasn't bleeding. While he still tried to recover from the dizziness of the unexpected attack, Arnold grabbed the chains on his wrists and slammed him on the ground. Arnold's hand were pressed against his back, while his legs locked Allen's knees, and his other hand pressed his face on the floor. No matter how much Allen squirmed he wouldn't have been able to free himself unless he decided to break his legs to free himself.

"Just calm down, will you? We're not your enemies... we want to help you out." Arnold whispered in Allen's ears, but Allen wasn't listening anymore. His bloodshot eyes were fixated on Nathan, while he huffed loudly like a wild elephant.

He felt like a pyschopath, an animal and the tight grip of the chains around his wrist was added to that feeling... how dare they, the borrowed kids of his father, treat him like this?

Arnold repeated his words while adding more weight to his hand that was holding his face down, "Just calm down Allen, listen to us..."

"Unacceptable! I won't listen to sh*t that comes out of the mouth of this B*STARD SON OF MY FATHER!" He said in a muffled voice and then tried to spit on Nathan's face, but couldn't as Arnold was holding him down.

"Just... 5 minutes after that, we'll do whatever you want from us. Alright?" Arnold tried to reason with him, knowing all too well, that he won't listen to him but Allen's response caught Arnold off guard.

"...just five minutes?"

"Just five minutes."

"..."

Arnold slowly released Allen and helped him to his feet, but he still held onto his chains as a precaution. Once everything was taken care of, Nathan ordered the soldiers to leave the conference room and only he, Arnold, Nicole, Nina, and Allen were left inside, Arnold placed two of his golems to guard the gate and make sure no one disturbed them during their 'talk'. Nathan was the first to break the silence.

"Allen... I know you hate me from the bottom of your heart. The reason for your hatred is not unfounded and honestly... I know you'll keep hating me no matter what I say or do today, and I'm okay with that, but the way you're trying to hurt our family and the people of this nation is unforgivable. Hundreds of people lost there lives because of you... and yet, all of us, who are present here as well as those who are not, including our father, want to give you a chance to mend our relationship."

Of course, Nathan was lying. Their father, Nathaniel had no idea about the shenanigans of his biological son. Right now he was enjoying the peace after his retirement at a farmhouse, near California, but Allen didn't know that nor was anyone going to tell him that. Nathan tried to use this to his advantage and play an emotional card to somehow get Allen on his side.

"Yes, Allen." Nina chimed in, "Uncle was deeply hurt when he got to know about your involvement with the church, and he understands that it was his fault that he let it happen, and now he wants to correct his mistakes, and give you what was rightfully yours... including his love and name you as the rightful head of the family. All he wants from you is your love, and it'll all be yours."

"Y-You people are lying... ALL OF YOU ARE LIARS!" Allen screamed and pulled the chains, but Arnold was tightly holding on to it, prevented Allen from taking a single step.

"I knew you wouldn't believe me so that's why..." Nathan nodded towards Nicole, who took a piece of paper out of her breast pocket and handed it to Allen's chained hands, "I got an official letter from father, which states that, from the moment you'd like to take on the responsibility as the head of the family, I'll have to vacate my position and will have to help you to the best on my abilities. Now does that looks like we're trying to trap you or something?"

"B-But why would you do something like this for me? So many people lost their lives because of me..." Allen mumbled as he read through the content of the document, his voice started shaking.

"Why I'm doing it? It's simple, you're my brother and I just want us to be on the same side." Nathan stood up from his chair, and put his hands on Allen's shoulders, "So what do you think?"

"I-I need some time to think about it..."

"Sure. Take as much time as you want." Nathan smiled and called the guards to escort Allen out, "Lose those chains and allot the most lavish room for him to stay in for as long as he wants."

Once Allen and the guards were out of the sight, Arnold shook his head in amusement.

"So you noticed huh?" Nathan snickered.

"You kidding me? Even a blind person would be able to see through the ton of bullsh*t you guys just dumped on him. Be the head of the family... father is repenting... here's a letter from the father... damn guys, you just pulled off an Oscar-worthy performance."

"I knew I should've gone to drama school... tsk, it's too late now." Nina smiled, "anyways, since Nathan wanted to confirm whether Allen had gone nuts, like you said, so we joined in and went along with the plan, and it looks like he's actually out of his mind."

"Ahem, at least now we can be sure that he won't be doing something rash now. Not while he's in the illusion of becoming the head of the family, but still we can't let him go free." Nathan informed them, "So for his punishment-"

"Hold up." Arnold raised his hand to interrupt Nathan, "It might sound absurd, especially since I'm the one suggesting it... but can't we go a bit... easy on him?"

"WHAT!?" Everyone shrieked at the same time.