"Tell me. What do you want to talk to me about?"
After the group sat down, Silco lit a cigar and casually blew out a smoke ring as he asked.
"Silco, you met that enforcer Marcus before, didn't you?"
Vander asked.
"Oh, so you're here to call me to account."
Silco smiled disdainfully. "That's right. I was the one who told him those brats who caused trouble were at your place. But that guy's useless too. I heard he still didn't catch them even after that. Hmph. You're still pretty good at hiding things."
"No. I didn't come here today to argue with you."
Vander shook his head. "I came to ask you to work with me."
"Work together?!"
Silco's movements paused, and then it was as if he had heard the world's greatest joke. "Work with you? Vander, I once believed in you. And you—how did you repay my trust?"
As he spoke, he stood up, his face filled with anger. "Do you know what it feels like to have your wounds submerged in sewage, radiation and blood mingling as they flow through your body? From that day on, the old me—the Silco who respected and trusted you—was already dead."
"I'm sorry. That really was my fault, and I'm willing to bear any consequence for it."
Vander lowered his head and apologized again and again. "I'll accept whatever you want to do to me... But Silco, I've realized the mistakes I made back then. I hope you can give me a chance to make up for them."
"A chance to make up for it?"
Silco walked forward and met Vander's eyes. "Let's hear it."
"Back then, we recklessly charged the bridge, causing countless people of the Undercity who trusted us to lose their lives..."
"That wasn't recklessness. That was