The Earth After Rebirth

"Nikolai was it?" When his initial shock subsided he asked.

"Yes sir."

"Kiro is in his bedroom, I'll ask Vada to take you. Excuse us." Sekani said getting out of his office followed by Wilfred.

"I'm not here for him sir, I want in." Nikolai didn't break eye contact once.

"In on what?"

"The mine operation sir, it was initially going to be us going there and Kiro told me everything, he knows I'm here now asking you for this." This was far too personal for him to not be involved.

"Why would you want to go through something like that? You understand that it will be very dangerous, you could lose your life in the process?" Sekani was very stern as he tried to make the situation as dire as possible, hoping to scare him away.

But he didn't know, Nikolai had gone through his own personal hell. There wasn't much in the world that could scare him.

"I understand sir, I have a bone to pick with my father, I ask you to allow me to come. I won't be in the way, I promise."

Wilfred seemed to take a step forward, maybe wanting to knock some sense into the kid. Whatever the revenge he wanted to exert, it was simply not worth his life. The butler had seen many men fall in the name of revenge and this child right here didn't deserve the same fate.

He was stopped by Sekani's arm. He could see his eyes, there was nothing but fire burning resolve in them. It was more dangerous to leave him to his own devices.

Something told him whether they agreed to let him come or not he would find his way up there and possibly mess with their own plans, it was much safer to just include.

"Can you cook Nikolai?" He asked something irrelevant to diffuse the atmosphere that was building between them.

"Uh, uhm, huh?"

"Can you cook little man?" He asked again.

"Y-yes sir I can." He was caught off-guard by the question, so was Wilfred.

He lead both of them to the kitchen, kicking out Angelina and Vada telling them they would be cooking dinner this evening. They were shocked by this but didn't argue and took the day off they've been given with grace.

Fortunately they hadn't started cooking and so Sekani took out aprons and gave to each of them and took out the food they would be cooking for that day, he started giving orders like he was some kind of chef.

"Where did you learn to chop like that Nikolai?" He asked as the boy seemed more or less like a professional.

Sekani hoped he would also open up to them even if a little about why he was on this journey so he struck up a conversation.

Nikolai smiled uncomfortably, sure he'd told his friends about his adaptation when he was a young boy but he wasn't quite ready to let anyone else know.

"My father was a very strict and unloving man. And because my mother wasn't from a prestigious family we were mistreated greatly in the house of Black, he did nothing to stop it. I'm convinced he kept my mother around because I was his son. I had to learn from a very young age to take care of myself." He stopped there with his half truth.

Sekani was shocked hearing this, he had no idea that even if you were born from something so sad could happen to you. Nikolai's upbringing was not far off from the kids who grew up in the lower district, that's what he thought anyway unaware that there was a darker side to his story.

"That's very sad Nikolai, I hope you know that you're welcome in this house whenever you please." He offered.

"Thank you Mister Waynworth."

Nikolai had never been shown a father's love before and this to him felt like it was the closest thing to it he could ever receive. Not that he was hopeful that Sekani would suddenly see him as a son, that would be too soon and too strange.

He didn't doubt that as much as Kiro grew up without much money, he did grow up with two loving parents and for that, he found himself a little jealous of his friend.

Without being told, Wilfred grew to understand what Sekani was doing with Nikolai and why he decided to just allow him to join them, so he lowered his guard and helped vigorously to create the meal.

It wasn't long before it was six o'clock and they were done preparing just in the nick of time. Freya had came in more than once into the kitchen asking if she couldn't be of any help and she was chased out every time by her husband.

At exactly six, the doorbell rang.

"Could you please go receive our guests Wilfred?"

"Of course Sir," Wilfred answered bowing lightly and leaving the two.

Nikolai had never seen someone treat hired help the way the Waynworths did. Something that both surprised and impressed him.

"It's strange, the way you treat them."
Enjoy new chapters from empire

"Well, they're people too like myself."

Nikolai laughed lightly, "I doubt there is any rich person who thinks this."

"I'm sure Kiro told you, we weren't always this rich." Sekani answered tasting the soup and it was almost perfect, they still came in third, behind Angelina and Freya.

"I know that, but even with someone from the lower district, if they get a chance to mingle with those in the middle and upper, they cling onto it and look down on the people they used to laugh with."

Sekani understood his point, but that's not the world he wanted to live in. It may not be the most equal world out there but he still wanted a country where everyone was able to live comfortably with wasting their lives away with nothing but work.

"Hopefully, our work accomplishes something that will completely destroyed that ideology." He answered more to himself than the kid in front of him.

"Help me set up the table in the other room."