The heavy mahogany doors had barely finished clicking shut behind my brother Elias and his party before the suffocating tension in the room finally broke. I let out a long, shuddering, completely mute breath beneath my thick canvas wrap, my shoulders sagging as the sheer panic of near-discovery began to pass.
Chief Anton Kif set his empty teacup down, looking at me with a profound, lingering respect.
"An absolute masterpiece of a cover, Eirene, I'll keep my word. Your brother will only ever see the innocent little sister back in Town Allure."
Then, his expression turned deadly serious. He leaned forward, tapping his fingers against the desk.
"But you need to be careful out there. The Bureau just authorized a massive bounty pool for the Crimson Phantom. The upper council has officially labeled this winged demon as an S-rank monster and a peak-level beast, threatening our borders. Whoever brings that beast down is going to walk away with enough gold to buy an estate."
I stood perfectly still, my single jade-green eye blinking once beneath the dark shadow of my hood. A wave of grim, dark irony washed over me.
"Oh shit." I thought
He's talking about me. The terrifying, blood-sucking monster the Bureau was putting a massive price on was the very phantom standing in his office. My crimson wings were a curse that would get me hunted by my own flesh and blood. I needed to ensure they remained tightly bound, completely flattened, and hidden beneath my heavy traveler's cloaks at all times. If even a single red feather peeked out, the kingdom's finest would turn their blades on me.
I gave Anton a firm, curt nod, signaling that I understood the danger. I turned on my heel, ready to finally slip out of the office and head to the market to buy the gear I desperately needed.
"Eirene, wait, there's one more thing. Last week, before you vanished into the southern deserts, you were officially tasked to investigate the Caria Mines. Now that Oksana is dealt with... do you still intend to continue that mission?" Anton called out, his voice halting me right at the threshold.
The words hit me like a physical blow. A sudden jolt of realization flared in my mind. The mines. I completely forgot.
My focus had been so consumed by the frantic hunt for Oksana and the chaotic infiltration of the academy that the primary investigation had slipped entirely from my mind. Last week, before I set out for Sisiphon, I had visited the sister building of our association… the Capital Knights Bureau Association or normally the CKBA. There, the high secretary of the bureau, Nautilus Cotton, had personally handed me a high-priority tracking file for the deep, abandoned tunnels of the Caria Mines.
It wasn't just a random contract. It was personal.
Six years ago, that pitch-black abyss had swallowed my mother. She had been brutally torn apart and killed down in those dark shafts by a nameless, horrific entity lurking in the deep. Ever since that bloody day, I had sworn a silent, unbreakable vow, I would hunt down the monster that frayed in the mines, rip its heart out, and finally avenge her death.
The memory burned fresh in my chest, igniting a dark, volatile spark of blood magic beneath my skin. The four royal gold coins resting in my purse were no longer just for gear… they were for survival. The monster that killed my mother was still breathing down there, and my ledger wasn't finished.
I turned back around, my heavy boots thudding against the rug. I marched straight up to Anton's desk, my lone eye blazing with an absolute, terrifying finality beneath my hood. I didn't need to write a single word on paper. I slammed my right hand firmly onto the desk once more, staring directly into his eyes.
The message was clear:
"Give me the files. The hunt for my mother's killer begins now."
Anton didn't flinch at the slam. Instead, a faint, understanding nod crossed his face, his expression softening as he looked at the raw determination burning in my lone green eye.
"That's the spirit, but Secretary Nautilus is not available right now. The Capital Knights Bureau Association building is closed for the day for a high-security audit. I can't give you the files right this second because they are locked inside their central vaults. Besides, you've had a brutal week, Eirene. You took down an entire drug syndicate and traveled across a desert wasteland all by yourself. Go get some rest. Tomorrow morning, I will personally retrieve the files and hand them over to you." Anton said, sighing as he closed the ledger on his desk.
I closed my eyes for a brief moment, letting out a silent, raspy breath. He was right. My muscles were aching, my skin was still radiating the heat of Sisiphon, and my mana reserves needed time to recover before I descended into the pitch-black abyss where my mother died. I gave Anton a respectful, curt nod of thanks, pulled my heavy merchant hood low over my face, and exited the executive office.
As I walked back down the grand marble staircase into the main lobby, a familiar, excited voice cut through the murmurs of the crowd.
"Hey! Eirene! Look at my card!"
I paused, turning my head. The real Zenni came sprinting out of the corridor leading from the measurement room, a massive, bright smile lighting up his face as he proudly held up a freshly minted, glowing blue status card.
I stepped into the shadow of a grand pillar and took a quick peek at the inscription dancing across the surface:
Name: Zenni Roy
Rank: Not an Adventurer
Magic: D-rank
Magic Mastery: D-rank
Swordsmanship: D-rank
Marksmanship: D-rank
Battle IQ: D-rank
Job: Civilian
Affiliation: LKBA
I stared at the flatline of D-ranks, a silent wave of pity washing over me beneath my mask. He really is incredibly weak. Every single stat was at the absolute baseline of a regular, untrained human. He truly was just a broke, helpless alchemy student whose identity I had hijacked to infiltrate a ruthless cartel. In a metropolitan stronghold like Caria City, a civilian card with those metrics meant he was entirely defenseless.
Then, a harsh realization hit me.
Zenni had spent his entire life in the brutal slums of Sisiphon. He had packed his meager belongings and fled his home solely because I gave him a pouch of gold and told him to start a new life. He didn't know a single soul in Caria City. He had no family here, no connections, and no roof over his head. The gold I gave him would buy food, but without a legal guardian or proper status, he was right back where he started: a homeless boy wandering the streets of a strange, giant city.
A sharp pang of guilt twinged in my chest. I was the reason he was displaced. If I left him out here alone in his fragile state, the predatory underground of the capital would chew him up and spit him out by nightfall.
Reaching into my cloak with my right hand, I pulled out my charcoal pencil and my small leather-bound notebook. I quickly scribbled a few words in neat, sharp print and held it up directly in front of his face.
"Come with me." I wrote in a piece of paper
Zenni blinked, his eyes widening slightly as he read the note, then looked up at my intimidating, heavily cloaked silhouette. I turned on my heel and began walking toward the exit of the Bureau, my heavy boots thudding against the stone. I was going to take him back to the civilian sector, find him a safe place, and ensure the boy I used as a ghost persona actually got the peaceful life he deserved.