Demon Lord's Reincarnation

Chapter 1424 Benjie - Hoodwinked?

At first, I thought I would see something similar to what Mr. Cuervo had in the basement but after a series of stairs and going through a fancy-ass door, what we saw was akin to a museum. While it wasn't as big as a museum-museum, the room we walked in had more than swords from all parts of the world—though swords and blades were the main focus.

And before we could even walk up to the first display piece, Cynthia popped right in with the twins and a few others.

"Woah~!"

"This place is huge~!!!"

"It's like a museum!"

"Look at all this! Shit's insane!"

"C-Can we touch it?!"

At that point, I thought Mr. Cuervo would react differently but he never smiled so wide from the thought of showing off his collection. He even forgot about us for a few seconds as he quickly walked over to them and had Cynthia introduce her entourage.

"Hi, br— I mean— Da— Mr. Cuervo! They are my friends and colleagues from all over! I know you want to show off your collection to anyone and I brought a few people who I'm sure who would appreciate them!"

"Oh? And who are they—"

Then Joe cut in with a semi-deranged look on his face, "Good day, sir! I'm Joe! I-I can see that you have a valiant collection— m-may you please grace u-us with your first piece!"

"Hah! An eager one, are ya? Sure, sure! Follow me right here~"

With that said, let's just say that we exchanged hosts where my cadets were led by Mr. Cuervo while our group was joined by Cynthia. While we could've easily merged both groups to have a better experience, I felt my spidey-senses tingle for a short bit and lo and behold, Benjie, Benjamin, or the fucking mutt was there in one corner.

I could barely see his whole face but the dude's got a makeover and it seemed like he wanted to rock his new-ish metal-plated eyepatch.

"Eye did not see you there, heh," I said as I walked over to him.

"Funny," Benjie rolled his single eye before completely revealing his new getup.

At the moment, he was wearing a full suit and tie but there were areas like the lining of his clothes and the bottom of his shoes were shining. It could be the same material that was on his eyepatch—since it was all matching and shit—but right now, aside from his brand-new knives tucked in his belt, he also has a Deagle, out of all fucking guns to use, by his torso holsters.

"Seriously?"

"What?"

"A Deagle?"

"That's… Ask Mr. Cuervo for that…"

"Huh?"

"He told me to keep it on me at all times. Hence the silver…"

"Holdup, is what I'm thinking—"

He glared at me, "Think what you fucking want—"

"Hah! Did Castro fire you or something?! I thought you were supposed to be—"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?!"

"For one, knowing you as an edgelord like myself, combining the all-black aesthetic with those silver trims is not the way… And a Deagle… Pfft—"

"YOU—"

Kaley cut in, "Cut it out, you two… Everyone's looking at you… Can't you see?!"

I just had to do it, "I see the whole thing, Bennie here could see about half—"

"FUCK YOU!" Benjie shouted at the top of his lungs before flipping his eye patch up, "I didn't lose my eye, morons! Mr. Cuervo just made me wear it! And don't call me Bennie!"

"Huh. I hate to say it but that's a cool-looking scar. I have one on my eyebrow here but that shit's intense," I had to say it as well.

"You— Thanks…"

"Hah? It's you're welcome, dumbass. Forget I did that?"

"YOU— Ugh… Fuck it, sure. Whatever."

"Heh. The fuck are you doing here anyway? Museum duty?"

"Shadow duty."

"Mr. Cuervo's personal detail?"

"Something like that."

"Going back though, what happened with Castro? I thought you two are best buds or something?"

He shook his head, "Fucker said he needs some time."

"So, you left him at your place?"

"Nah, he's actually on his basement floor below here."

"Oh."

"And our place doesn't exist anymore. We torched it."

"Oh."

"I… I thought you'd have a bigger reaction to that."

"So you two fucks are basically living here, eh? What happened to the rest of your crew?"

"Haa… They're all here too, they've been all hands on deck building this whole place up like our old castle."

"Really? All I've seen is just more and more fencing."

"Let's just say we're starting from the bottom— no, let's just say below ground before making our way up. Shit takes time, ya know?"

"As long as I don't wake up with a Balrog on my floor, we're good."

"That reminds me— Don't you want anything worked in your place?"

"Like what?"

"You've seen the lower floors. We're mostly responsible for that. Mr. Cuervo and the De Leons had some part in it but let's just say we can do a little better."

"Oh? You take cash? I have lots."

"Fuck you. Forget I asked—"

"Kidding, kidding! What else can you make besides basements that run deep?"

"Tunnels, secret passages, heck, if you want something above ground, that's way fucking easier. Beats repo jobs by a mile too, I might add."

"Huh. Didn't peg you for the business type."

"As I said, we're building up from scratch again. I'm the interim head, if anything— interim everything, if we're being honest. But come game night, I'm still aiming for some payback. You owe me an eye."

"Hah? You just showed me that it's fucking healed, the fuck I owe you an eye for?!"

"IT'S— YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT!"

"Suuuure~ Roight, Roight~ But yeah, I don't have any means to squeeze what you're offering in my schedule right now but if you're that good at what you say you do, you better call the Rivas Family or just Sebastian directly. He needs some help with that… tunneling business of yours."

"Sebastian— That fucking Frankenstein needs help?"

"Something like that. Or he just might flatten that witch mountain if he deems it necessary."

"Fuck me, great. He actually might— Shit, better call him now, I guess—"

"Don't you still have a job to do?"

"Ah— Fuck! I still have a few more hours… Shit."

I chuckled, "If you fucks need help, just reach out and we'll try to work something out—"

"We don't need fucking charity, we work for it and you pay us fairly, or else we take a huge chunk on top of our supposed agreement. And didn't you just say you don't have time for us right now?"

"That's true but give me a card or something. I'll call you when I have an epiphany."

"Here."

"You actually have a— great! It has the SAT number and everything!"

"How'd you contact me if we don't have a proper business card?! Pigeons?! You know how valuable meat is right now?!"

"Dude. If you're struggling with food while 90% of the population is gone, you're doing something wrong. Hit me up if you really need it and I'll hook you up. I'll even make you dig random holes if you're really not taking a handout."

"I'm serious—"

"I am as well but yeah, things would've been different if you're still the same mutt as before. I never knew you besides the games Mr. Cuervo would hold together so yeah, I've experienced hunger before and I don't want someone who's trying to live a decent and fair life to experience that."

"Huh. I thought you were just a fucking asshole."

"I am a fucking asshole too, I'm not a fucking saint. I just said I don't wanna see hardworking people hungry— but yeah, I'll do you better if you lose the Deagle…"

"Enough with the Deagle!"

"How could I?! You're supposed to fucking shadow with all the bling! Might as well bring a disco ball with you!"

"AHAHAHAHA!!! FUCK THESE TWO! I CAN'T SIT FUCKING STILL!!!"

"HAHAHAHAHA!! IT'S JUST HIM, FORGET THE EYEPATCH BITCH! HAHAHAHA!!!"

At that point, our two giantesses were just losing their shit from the back from my interaction with Benjie and the dude just stomped away and switched groups to "shadow" incessantly. Still, I was still partly in disbelief from seeing Benjie now compared to before because let's be honest here, he was a homicidal maniac the moment the go-ahead was given to him.

But yeah, our smaller group was now free to explore wherever in this museum and my eyes instantly landed on the Japanese section where a set of different blades were on display.

It ranged from historically accurate blades to ones that were made with modern technology and on the table right in front of them were some of the ores like pig iron that was used way back then. However, I almost choked on my fucking spit when I saw the fucking "katana" on display from one of the stalls from way, way~ back.

'Should I tell Mr. Cuervo that he got hoodwinked?'