I have been working on this novel for a while now. The idea really appealed to me when I first conceived it. It was impossible for me to let it go to waste. So I decided that I should transform it into reality. At first, I was hesitant and thought that I wouldn't be able to do it justice. But my friends encouraged me to complete it. And here I am. I still haven't thought about the very cover of the novel. I'm always nervous about covers. Tried to design a cover on my own once, needless to say, it didn't go well.
I had put off working on this novel for many months, but I finally mustered the courage to complete it due to that encouragement and I started working on this novel. This is my first novel in a few years, so my writing might be a little rusty. Please don't forget to let me know what you think about it.
Let's get onto the story itself, shall we?
As they reached the central hub of Rome, Arcadius noticed the new CEO of the Daelus Corporation, Cyrillus Myron, on the left-most screen that covered the length of the building on which it was mounted. The huge screens were starting to show their age which led Arcadius to wonder how old they actually were. The CEO talked about how the company cared deeply about the Romans. Ah, so bullshit is being served early today. Arcadius thought. The perfect smile and the white teeth of the CEO unsettled Arcadius.
"Something's up with that guy." His close friend, Leonidas commented.
Arcadius could not but agree with him. Something was off about Cyrillus Myron. Whether it was his creepy and almost strange name or his small ears, Arcadius couldn't put his finger on it.
"What's his name again? Cyrus? It starts with a C..." Arcadius asked.
"Cyrillu-"
"Cyrillus! How did he become the new CEO? The D Corp is pretty notorious in choosing its CEOs. From what I hear, he even lacks the experience. Some kind of weird success story."
"Not so strange," Leonidas remarked. "He was the very founder of ArcTech Enterprises. Don't be fooled by his age."
It took Arcadius by surprise. ArcTech was leading the Roman space endeavors, developing "controversial" methods of space travel. After all, who could forget the Portal disaster of 2032? Although years had passed, yet wounds were still fresh. Especially for Arcadius. His face started to reek of sadness. Leonidas realized what he had said.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up." Leonidas apologized.
"No, don't worry. It's okay."
After a long walk, they reached the Roman Times building. "I'll go to the cafeteria," Leonidas said. "I'll catch you later." Arcadius nodded in reply and went up to his office. He sat behind his desk, powered on the computer, and decided to aimlessly browse the internet.
It was still unbelievable for him to believe that Maximus Daedalus had his office right next door to his. The Maximus Daedalus. It was surreal for Arcadius. It was Maximus indeed who had inspired Arcadius to become a journalist. Young Arcadius rebelled against the wishes of his parents who ultimately surrendered and allowed Arcadius to decide himself what he wanted to become. His father didn't live long enough to actually see his son become a journalist, but that is a story for another day.
Arcadius hadn't had the pleasure of meeting Daedalus yet. But he was hellbent on having a meeting with him. Sadly, the chances of that seemed incredibly slim. No one had seen Maximus in a while, which led to the emergence of rumors in various journalism circles. It was widely believed that he was planning his comeback with a ground-breaking story. Now, that seemed to be the biggest rumor of them all as no one had even heard from him. A part of him was afraid of even approaching him, while another part was ready to stalk him. He felt conflicted.
"Arcadius!"
Arcadius fell back down to Earth.
"What the fuck are you doing? I have a job for you. It's going to be a pretty standard one. Screw this one up and you're fired." It was the editor of Roman Times, Pontius Silvanus.
"O-of course, sir." Arcadius stuttered.
"You're going to write a piece on this new hotshot, uh, what's-his-name."
"What's-his-name, sir?" Arcadius was confused.
"The new CEO of D Corp, the one with the weird ears."
"Cyrillus Myron, sir?"
"Yeah, that one. Do a piece on that guy and we'll see what happens next."
Although it seemed simple, Arcadius knew that this wouldn't be a walk in the park like it was with his previous pieces. Something was off about this person. He had thought about politely refusing to write the piece but he knew that he would also be refusing a career in journalism. Finally, something to do. he thought to himself. Arcadius was a ghost at The Roman Times. No one knew him, no one had read his work, and no one wanted to talk to him. It was almost as if they had forgotten about him after his hiring.
Arcadius went down the marble stairs, out of the building, and into the nearest library. Nothing worth mentioning happened during this journey. Or perhaps it did and Arcadius was too busy to even notice it. Probably the latter. Glancing up from his phone, Arcadius saw a young slim-built raven-haired girl standing where the librarian was supposed to be.
"I've never seen you here before," Arcadius commented.
"Oh, I'm the new librarian. Axia. Nice to meet you." Axia extended her hand.
He shook her hand and said, "Arcadius. What happened to Decimus?"
"I guess you'd heard. He died of heart attack a few weeks back." Axia said with sadness in her voice.
Arcadius was taken aback. Decimus had been a dear friend of his father's and managed the library for as far back as Arcadius could remember. He didn't know what to say, what to feel. He was confused as he thought that it was only yesterday that they met. But then again, no one knew how long it had been since Arcadius last set foot in that two-hundred-year-old library. He felt the reoccurrence of the same sadness that had laid dormant for quite some time somewhere within him. The same sadness which he had hoped he would never experience again. It crushed him from the inside and filled his blue eyes with tears.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know you were close." Sympathized Axia.
"I-I need to go. I'll talk to you later." Said Arcadius with red-watery eyes.
Arcadius knew he needed a place to sit down. He went to the non-fiction section where a red couch caught his eye. Arcadius sat down and began to reminisce. Somewhere deep within Arcadius knew that sooner or later this was bound to happen. He had grown pessimistic about life, ever since 2032. Decimus was an old man but his death was still untimely. I figured he had a few years still left in him, Arcadius thought to himself. Though it was certain that Arcadius needed time off to deal with this news, yet he realized that it was neither the time nor the place for mourning and grief. It was high time that he started his research.
He got up and started searching the shelves for Cyrillus Myron's best-selling autobiography. C... C.. C. It took Arcadius a good twelve minutes to sort through the alphabetically sorted books. There you are. Cyrillus Myron: The Mastermind. Arcadius was never a fan of autobiographies. He despised them. Especially the badly-written ones. This book was one of the badly-written ones. You'd think that the current CEO of the biggest corporation in the solar system would've enough money to pay a ghost-writer, if not the time to write it himself.
As was with his person, something felt off with his autobiography. At that point, Arcadius was convinced that it was just him. Perhaps it was anger, perhaps it was jealousy, perhaps it was-
A swarm of bullets unleashed its wrath upon the library.