Neo pov

  But as soon as I set my foot on the ground, something caught my attention. Unnoticed by me before to this moment , on the concrete floor , there was a huge stain of unknown origin . It was dried up so much so that from the substance that dried up was nothing more left then fkes , dust and stain on the ground .

  I have no idea what caused this stain . However, I was sure where it came from. In the lower corner of the locker I come to open , there was a hole eaten away by rust. It was from this hole that the stains was coming out. Something was leaking from this locker, and there was a lot of it. Squinting my eyes, with a slight curiosity, I opened the locker by breaking the lock on it with a crowbar.

  And what I saw inside made me raise my eyebrows. Without even paying attention to what had fallen out of the locker onto the floor right at my feet, I focused on what I found in the locker . A body, or rather a skeleton covered with shreds of clothing simir to the jumpsuits from the previous locker and pieces of mummified skin , was squeezed into the locker

  ' Looking at the size of the skeleton alone, adding to that te muscles and everything else that have to be on them bones befor ..... The body must have had broken or crushed limbs to fit inside. '

  I thought, looking at the rge bones that fell out of the locker when it was opened. And indeed, many of them were broken. However, I am not a doctor or an investigator, so I had no idea whether these were postmortem fractures, ante-mortem fractures, or fractures reted to decomposition.

  For the same reason it was impossible to me to determine what killed that person and whether he or she was even dead when he or she ended up in that locker.

  ' But considering that the locker was locked from the outside with a padlock, I am pretty sure that the possibility that this person squeezed in there by themselves is rather slim. '

  I thought, looking at the broken padlock lying right next to the bones.

  ' Well, that's not my problem. '

  I thought, deciding to ignore it because it doesn't concern me at all. The situation itself simply surprised me; it's not every day that you find a literal skeleton in the closet. The sight of that body did not disturb me because it was just bones. Besides, I've done worse things with living people and seen worse bodies. Looking at the body again , I could at least confirm that no one had been here for a long time.

  ' Certainly not since this person died. Body had already decomposed to the bone. The smell of body had also dissipated '

  And now, as I thought about it, looking at the stain on the concrete, the origin of which had become obvious, I shuddered with disgust. It wasn't just a bit of blood, to which I would be accustomed , as it is impossible not to get blood on yourself while working. The sight of blood-stained walls and walls covered with internal organs or flesh are not uncommon either.

  But this ? This are all the disgusting fluids and liquefied by the decomposition muscles, organs, and everything else merging into one big mess of biological sludge . This is a whole new level of disgusting, and what's worse, I'm standing on it with my new shoes.

  Still , ignoring the evidence of the crime, I quickly looked around the interior without touching the body , searching for something useful. I had no intention of standing in that pile of biological material for too long. Despite this, I didn't miss the opportunity to find something.

  ' Can I say that this locker serves as a grave? '

  This sudden thought distracted me, causing me to stop what I was doing.

  ' In theory, it is a box with a body buried underground. '

  Another thought , made me put my hand under my chin.

  ' So is this whole room a tomb? Can what I am doing be called grave robbery? '

  With another thought, I shook my head , realizing how stupid it was to think about it right now.

  ' Well, it doesn't matter. '

  I shrugged my shoulders as I looked into the locker . I felt nothing because of the possibility of desecrating somebody resting pce. But what could you expect from someone like me? Apart from the fact that I work as a hitman or hired gun on a daily basis. Theft, kidnapping, and torture are part of my everyday life at this point.

  My personal moral principles are quite loose. Apart from my full loyalty to Kurumi and a certain loyalty to the rest of our little family, I approach everything else with detachment.

  ' Digging up a grave is probably one of the gentlest things I've done so far. '

  I thought, stepping on fragile bones, breaking them under my weight . Getting even closer to the locker , I put my head inside to try and see if there was anything behind the body. However, I found nothing, so I was about to leave the " grave " when something caught my eye .

  Thanks to the fact that the skeleton's suit had practically disappeared from his stomach, which now, looking closely, seems to be the work of rats. As far as their small bones lying on it revealed. I saw that inside the skeleton, on the hip bone, there was a small , hand size , metal box.

  Still, the thought of having to grab that box, which had been rotting along with the corpse, and now was inside it, was very unpleasant. Nevertheless, it was practically the only thing of interest in that body. So I sacrificed the cleanliness of one hand and intrigued, I reached for it, and as soon as I grabbed it, several small centipedes ran across my hand.

  ' !!!!!!!???? '

  In panic and disgust, I fell backwards, taking the box and the centipedes with me . Not caring that I had nded on my butt on the ground covered with disgusting biological residue, I threw the box away and then I quickly and frantically began to whip my hand , so that anything that was on my hand , would fall off. Only when I was shure taht I threw every centipedes away , I get up .

  "Neo?"

  Kurumi called out with concern, noticing the commotion. Seeing her anxious look, I just grimaced and smiled. Only when the emotions subsided I noticed that my hands touched the ground in an attempt to support my body.

  ' ...... '

  Looking at my hands covered with dark, dried patches, I gritted my teeth and wiped them on my clothes.

  ' That's why I work with gloves on. '

  I thought , brushing the residue off my hands, trying not to think about what it really was. And once the situation was back under control and I was back on my legs , I unscrupulously and deliberately trampling every insect in my path making sure that none of them get close to the defenseless Kurumi .

  I was angry, very angry. I wanted to burn down this disgusting pce and kill every disgusting insect here..... However, the st thing I wanted at that moment was for some insect to take advantage of the opportunity and crawl onto Kurumi's defenseless body. Looking around quickly for another insect that would dare to approach Kurumi, I let out a sigh of relief when I saw none.

  Looking around again looking for them box I had thrown away, I immediately noticed the it and started walking towards it .In my heart, I just hoped it was worth it . When suddenly another disgusting crunch escaped from under my shoe.

  Another centipede fell at my feet . Lifting my shoe, I saw that the upper half of its body was still struggling to move . The lower half, however, was nothing but a disgusting pulp . Frowning at this disgusting sight, I crushed the upper part of the insect's body, ending its struggle.

  Wiping the sole of my shoe on a clean patch of concrete, I returned to the box. Without dragging it, I lifted it up and put it on the table. After a moment of struggling with the rusty little tch, I managed to open it. And what was inside made me freeze.

  Squinting and blinking few times , I wanted to make sure I was seeing correctly. And after confirming that I , in did , see correctly , I immediately , went to Kurumi to show it to her. Taking out something small from the box, I showed it to Kurumi.

  The object was tiny, held only by my two fingers. But even though the item was small, its value was not. This was perfectly reflected in the sparkle and shock in Kurumi's eyes. All her pain and fatigue seemed to disappear the moment she saw what was before her eyes.

  "Is that. . . a diamond?! It looks real. Let me see up close !!"

  Kurumi said, almost gating up from the ground. However, just the slightest movement was enough to contort her face in pain. I immediately dropped the stone and the box to calm her down. Holding her gently by the shoulders, I looked at her pained face, unable to do much.

  "I'm fine... Don't worry. "

  She said, and I listened . As I let go of her, I looked at her face for a moment, searching for any irregurities. When everything turned out to be okay, I picked up that precious stone from the dirty ground where I had dropped it and gave her the stone back to look at.

  "From what Big Mom taught me, it looks good. But to be sure, we would need a microscope and other equipment. However, if it's real... At this size, it's worth three million on the bck market. But what do you think, my little mouse?"

  Kurumi said with excitement and joy hidden behind rationality. After all, can you really expect to find a diamond in a pce like this? I also looked again at the diamond , this time under the mp . Having better control over the angle at which I was looking at it, I examined it carefully. At first gnce, I didn't see any problems that we see during our training in pawnshop .

  Still, just as Kurumi , I didn't get my hopes up unnecessarily so as not to be disappointed.

  'But if it's real... then the rest of the contents must be too.'

  I thought, looking at a few other small colorful stones in the box.

  "What else is in there?"

  Kurumi asked, noticing my gaze directed at the box. Not wanting to keep her in suspense, I took out a few small rubies, sapphires, and emeralds to show her.

  " If these are real stones ....... "

  Kurumi said, leaving the rest of the sentence in her heart. But what she was going to say was obvious. I had the same thought in my head. With our contacts, we have the opportunity to sell them. Even if we don't get their full value on the bck market , and we lose money paying someone to sell them . And then we'll have to give the rest of the money to undry, for which we'll also pay. It still has to be six or five million.

  With this kind of money, our pns will be realized years ahead of schedule. But , putting the stones aside, I pulled the st thing out of the box. It was a rolled-up piece of paper. There were many familiar colored lines drawn on it . The only thing that stood out was a red X on one of the lines and a short text next to it .