In one of the buildings within the Alley of Silence, the two brothers were just staring at each other, neither willing to break the silence first.
But, in the end, it was the silver‑eyed man who folded and spoke:
"You know something!" he was certain.
"You know something about the little girl and refuse to tell me. What's so special about her?"
The black‑eyed brother clearly didn't want to answer.
He didn't want his brother to know just yet.
"Just go search for her. You will find out once you see her again."
But the silver‑eyed brother refused to be brushed off like that.
"You have been strange since you saw her for the first time!" he glared at his brother.
"Normally, if the underdogs said they found the person, even if you knew it's just a set‑up, you would have gone to check on it. You never agreed with me to just chase the underdogs away. But just now, you told me to do just that."
The black‑eyed brother narrowed his eyes sharply, the temperature in the room dropping with his mood.
"Since you have enough clues to figure things out on your own, why are you still bothering me?" he asked coldly.
"You can just go search for her and think about the clues in the meantime."
The sudden change in the black‑eyed man's temperament clearly surprised his brother.
He wasn't expecting it the least bit.
The only ever times when his mood fluctuated like that was when things were concerning that person.
"You bastard..." the silver‑eyed man's voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper.
"You were keeping something like that from me..."
With that, he turned around and left the room, returning to searching for the girl.
He already had the answer he needed.
When the silver‑eyed man left the room, the black‑eyed brother crushed the pen he was holding, breaking it in half.
From that, atrament spilled over his knuckles.
Usually, the man didn't tolerate even the most unnoticeable mess, but at the moment, he didn't mind having his hand stained with black ink.
He greatly didn't like what was going on.
"Why now..." he sighed, his anger calming down as quickly as it appeared.
Once calm, he leaned back in his chair, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead, ignoring that he was smearing ink over his face.
But there was nothing he could do to change what had already happened.
He should not have let his brother go take care of the intrusion that happened.
If things were handled by subordinates, all the problems he was facing at the moment wouldn't have arisen.
Outside, the silver‑eyed man took in a deep breath, remembering the scent of the girl.
He still didn't wash off the blood on his hand, so that also partially worked as a reminder of the scent.
He would soon find her.
The girl was unaware of the silver‑eyed man tracking her so quickly.
She had the guess that one of the two men could come looking for her, but she partially doubted it.
She didn't have a way of knowing that there was something about her that made her important to the two, so it was only natural to assume they wouldn't bother too much with her.
So, she calmly prepared to go to bed, making sure not to lie on her wound.
Just a while ago, she had to explain to the tavern owner, the beautiful woman, what the Limit Killer was and how it had affected her.
She had been basically abusing the ability, ignoring the side effects, so at the moment, her body was screaming at her in protest.
Especially so after she got hurt.
Her muscles were aching, her bones throbbing, and her breathing was uneven.
After finally deactivating the Limit Killer, her body showed just how overused it was.
The girl was still somehow able to function and knew she would even be able to work the next day, but she definitely wasn't enjoying the state she was in.
But, well, that was to be expected.
When she was still in the Academy of Magic, every day she went to the old training grounds which slowly pushed her body to the limit.
(And even before that, she had been using the Limit Killer for days straight to get to the Capital City.)
Then, she used the Limit Killer to escape the Academy and enter the lawless area.
There, she only deactivated it for a while before she got angry and went to vent her anger in the Alley of Silence; where she ended up hurting herself and abusing the Limit Killer again.
And the escape from the place also didn't benefit her.
So, after returning to the tavern, she had the first chance after a long time to relax, giving her body the possibility of rebelling against her.
So, lying in the bed, the girl looked like she had been poisoned.
She was curled up around herself, gasping for breath, shuddering every now and then.
Like that, she bore through the night until morning.
Sleep wasn't really an option until middle of the night when exhaustion took her.
In the morning, she got up and changed into a uniform the tavern owner prepared for her.
She was ready to go work.
Even though she was feeling quite terrible, she looked mostly normal.
After a while, she went downstairs to first grab something to eat before proceeding to work; at least that was her plan initially.
But when she entered the kitchen, her eyes widened.
"There you are," the soothing voice of the silver‑eyed man carried into her ears.
That handsome face had a bright smile on, unlike the killer glare the man was showing when he was fighting her just a day earlier.
The girl momentarily stopped in her tracks before entering the kitchen.
"You no longer hate me?" she raised a brow.
"I thought you were planning to kill me," she meaningfully touched her shoulder, the spot she had the wound from the man's claws.
The man's smile widened into a grin.
"Oh, but I still plan to do that!" he stood up from his seat and walked over to the girl.
"Now, I'm just here to bring you to my brother," he placed his hand on the girl's wounded shoulder, giving it a squeeze until blood seeped through her clothes.
The girl and the man weren't the only ones in the kitchen.
The girl wasn't the only worker in the tavern, and the rest of them also came down to have breakfast.
So, they were watching with bated breath the exchange between the girl and the man.
That was until the tavern owner came down.
At the moment, she wasn't disguised as a young girl, her beauty more than obvious.
"What an unexpected guest!" she walked to sit down amongst her workers.
"Why did you decide to grace my tavern with your presence?" she looked at the silver‑eyed man.
"I hope it's not to take away my new waitress. I'm short‑staffed."
The silver‑eyed man moved his gaze from the girl over to the tavern owner.
"I have some business with her, so you will have to manage without her," there was something wild in his eyes as he spoke.
Something even the tavern owner had never seen in his eyes before, and she knew the guy.
The whole time the man spoke, he kept his grip on the girl's shoulder, even tightening it.
The blood spilling between his fingers wasn't bothering him the least bit.
The tavern owner let her eyes roam over the man and the girl, her gaze deep.
After a moment of silence, her words were quite surprising.
"Make sure she doesn't get hurt any further and you can take her."
Even the girl was surprised to hear that.
She thought the tavern owner disliked the pair of brothers from the Alley of Silence (based on how the woman reacted the day before when she found out the girl got into a fight with them).
But, so it seemed, her guess had been terribly wrong.
After getting the tavern owner's permission, the silver‑eyed man dragged the girl along with him, not caring what she thought.
He further tightened his grip on her wounded shoulder.
The girl knew not to resist.
If she wanted to, she could slip out of his grip and disappear just like she did the day before.
But with how fast the man was able to track her down, he would be able to do it again.
Very much simpler it would be for her to just go along with him for now to see what he wanted.
She would cross the bridge when the time for it came.
The man dragged the girl out of the tavern before letting go of her.
"This time, you better follow along! You know I can always find you!"
And just like the day before, he turned his back on the girl to walk towards his destination.
The girl widened her steps to get right next to him, walking side by side with him.
"How can you know I won't just decide to leave the whole Capital City behind? I could go far with my speed."
The man snickered.
"Even if I for some reason wasn't able to follow you personally, my people would catch you and bring you to me. And you don't want that. They aren't nearly as gentle as I am."
The girl scoffed at the last sentence.
If the man next to her was considered gentle, then she herself was a saint, even with all the evil she had done in her past life.