The Ancient Genes

The sun was on the head, the traffic had begun to increase. People were out for lunch. Max continued to walk trying to find the last apartment.

He could see several students of the Academy, coming in and out of the nearby buildings. 

After a few more minutes of search, Max finally managed to get to the apartment after asking in a shop nearby.

The apartment looked nice from the outside. Max had noticed that the apartments in this area were more luxurious than the previous ones. It seems he was in the area of rich people.

Max rang the bell and stood there waiting for the person to open the door. He was hoping to find a nice guy.

"Creak!"

The door opened and a bald man with fair skin came out, he looked a bit aged in his later 30s or early 40s and had a nice smile on his face. Max immediately felt a ray of hope on the appearance of this nice looking man.

"I saw this advertisement….are you still renting the apartment?" Max asked as he pulled his phone and showed it to the man.

"Yes, I am." A smile immediately emerged on the man's face and he welcomed Max inside. 

Max entered the room with a smile and the man closed the door before leading Max inside.

As he walked, Max noticed the expensive flooring and decor in the house. It was going to cost him a fortune. But he wouldn't mind now, as long as he could get it.

The bald man suddenly began to speak, "I had been renovating this house and couldn't complete it by the beginning of the semester. I thought I wouldn't be renting it this semester since it's hard to find a tenant in between, but it seemed that I was wrong."

"How many other people are living here?" Max asked in curiosity. The place looked pretty spacious.

"It seems you don't know, but this a one person apartment. Only for a single person. I don't mind if they want to share it with someone else though." The man said as he halted his steps. He then turned around to look at Max, "The apartments in this area are for the rich students. Those who don't want to live in the Academy."

His expression was a bit odd and Max could see the doubt in them. Rich students live a lavish life like this, it was obvious that Max's question made him a big doubtful of his financial status.

The man finally couldn't keep quiet and asked, "It might be a little rude, but are you sure about renting it? It's expensive."

"You don't need to worry about money, just show me the apartment. I will rent it if it's nice." Max waved his hands as he spoke and assured the old man.

The old man looked relieved, clearly he was scared of losing this opportunity to rent his apartment. 

The man showed the apartment to Max. It was huge and had 2 bedrooms, one hall, one kitchen and a huge bathroom. It even had a balcony with a nice view. The most important thing which impressed Max the most was that it had all the furniture, decor and even electronics pre installed.

Max couldn't help but be awed, he was even ready to sleep on the floor if he could find an apartment. But this….he couldn't ask for anymore.

After they were done looking through the place, the man served Max a cup of tea and asked, "What do you think?"

"I like it." Max replied with a smile. "But you still haven't told me about the rent."

"Just 80,000 zen a month." The bald man replied with a smile.

Max's brows twitched. He had expected it to be high. But this was….

He could only sigh. It's not like he didn't have the money. He had earned enough to be able to live here after selling the iron clay ore and still had some of the ore left. But he was a minimalist. It still hurt paying it out.

"Fine.." Max gave in. He didn't mind if he could get this place. After all, staying in hotels in the capital was way more expensive than this, it was 15000 zen a night.

"Great! Give me your I.D. card. I will prepare a contract." The bald man replied.

"Umn….I lost my I.D. actually, I will be getting it back very soon. But, I have my Academy's Admission form." Max replied, he actually had his I.D. but it had Edwinson as his last name.

The bald man frowned. This was tough.

"It has the headmaster's sign…" Max added seeing that the man had a frown on his face.

"Oh! It should be fine then.." The bald man replied.

Max opened his account on Academy's website. It had his new application with the headmaster's sign. 

When the bald man saw it, he froze before raising his head and speaking with a blank look, "You are from Arcane."

'Not again….damnit!' Max cursed inside his head.

"Are you not allowing people from Arcane too?" Max asked with a sigh.

"Who said that?"

"I am a nice person, just pay me 5 times."

Max's eyes went wide, at the old man's reply. This man was anything but nice. He was clearly taking advantage of his situation.

But what could he do, no one was giving him a place to stay, the hotels were still way more expensive than this.

In the end, Max raised two of his fingers with a grim look on his eyes. He wouldn't be paying more than 2 times. He would live on the streets, what was the big deal? He had live in Orena, a way worse place after all.

"Deal!" The bald man said with a laugh.  It was then that Max realised that the person was just testing it. The man clearly believed in money not superstition.

'Damn it! This b*stard was just trying his luck on me!! He will definitely rot in hell!!"

...

Within a minute the contract was ready, it had some simple terms and conditions and what would happen if anyone breached it and stuff.

"Let me sign it…" the man said and signed it. As he was about to pass it to Max, his phone rang.

His expression clearly showed how important the call was.

"Wait for a second," he said and went to the dining table with the contract in his hands. He kept the contract on the table before engaging in the conversation.

"Yes, Sir…" 

"I wanted to talk about the apartment that you listed a week earlier in our agency. Someone had shown interest in it." the voice sounded from the other end.

"I am just about to rent it…the person is paying twice the market rent." He mumbled with difficulty.

"Money doesn't matter here…. Is 5 times enough for you?" The voice came through again.

"5 times!..." 

"Ok…I am mailing you the contract." 

The man had the brightest smile on his face as he immediately edited the pre-prepared contract and edited the rent to 5 times before putting his digital signature and mailing it. He couldn't understand what had happened to his luck that it had turned so terrifying. He couldn't help but smile from ear to ear.

When he turned around to look at the table to tear apart the contract with Max, he frowned. It was missing. But, he clearly remembered putting it there.

"Are you looking for this?" Suddenly, a voice sounded and he turned to look towards Max who had the contract in his hands and it had his signature on it.

The man's eyes widened in surprise. He had signed the contract too, if Max signed it as well then it was enforceable. But he had just mailed another one with his sign.

Damn it!

He was in trouble now. He immediately raised his head and glared at Max.

"What are you doing?!!! When did I ask you to sign?!! This is cheating!! Do you think I can't get you behind the bar-"

"Slap!" Before he could even complete his sentence, a crispy noise rang out in the hall.

"Y-You!" The man looked at Max who was suddenly standing in front of him.

"You think, I am this easy? Say another word, and you will see what I can do?" Max said as he pulled the man closed and stared at him with a chill in his eyes.

Max had enough of this b*stard. He was taking this apartment. He was busy saving humanity's ass and here he had to face people like him.

"I have your number and will send you the money. Now get out, and remember that I don't want any trouble." 

The bald man was extremely terrified, he was just a rich person who had some success in business and had managed to build this apartment. He had only fought using his wealth not his fist.

When Max let his collars go, he ran at the first chance and never turned back.

Max sighed, people had such low standards nowadays.

....

On the other side, the man had finally run out to a safe distance. He was never going back until that demon left the house.

"Beep! Beep!"

A message came to his phone and it was his signed contract with the tenant's signature. This was the one he had just mailed minutes ago.

But when he saw the tenant's name, his eyes turned wide and his hands began to shake.

Aria Achilles….