Evelyn gave my arm a gentle, affectionate squeeze before turning toward the grand pathway leading to the military barracks.
"I'll see you at home tonight, big sister! Be careful," she whispered with a supportive smile.
I gave her a reassuring nod from beneath my deep canvas hood, and we officially separated. As I watched her proud, white-and-scarlet silhouette disappear into the ranks of the marching soldiers, I slipped my right hand into my pocket to take inventory. Thanks to her generous handling of all the district tolls, I still had exactly thirteen silver coins jingling in my purse… a safe, comforting cushion of emergency funds to ensure I could bypass checkpoints or completely flee the city walls at a moment's notice if the high-noon house inspections went south.
Turning my attention back to the mission at hand, I marched purposefully toward the massive, imposing facade of the Capital Knight Bureau Association building.
The CKBA stood as the sister organization to the Luminous Knight Bureau Association, but the atmosphere between the two couldn't have been more different. While the LKBA was constantly chaotic, loud, and completely overrun by rowdy, low-ranking adventurers looking for easy coin, the CKBA was the exact opposite. It was a place of ironclad discipline, populated entirely by heavily armored knights, high-ranking military officials, and elite mercenaries moving with strict, silent purpose.
Furthermore, while the LKBA generally handled low-to-mid-tier monster subjugation contracts, the CKBA acted as the ultimate, buffed-up version of the guild system. Here, the bulletin boards were loaded exclusively with high-level, catastrophic monster contracts ranging strictly from A-rank to deadly S-rank threats. This sheer level of danger and prestige was the exact reason Nautilus Cotton had so fiercely insisted I join this specific bureau in the first place, it was the only institution in Caria that could truly match my supernatural lethality.
As I climbed the grand marble steps, the same two heavily armed entrance guards who had witnessed my arrival on my very first day stood at attention. Recognizing the dark, imposing silhouette of the S-rank hunter beneath the canvas cloak, they silently saluted and opened the heavy, reinforced oak doors for me.
I stepped into the pristine, echoing lobby, ignoring the curious, sharp glances from the passing knights. Navigating straight to the main desk, I approached the professional receptionist. Without uttering a single sound, I slid a neatly prepared slip of paper across the polished counter using my single right hand.
The note contained just a single, precise word written in clean, sharp ink:
Neospider.
I stood perfectly still, waiting in the heavy shadows of my hood to see what kind of high-level investigation or collection contract the Bureau was about to hand over to me.
The receptionist looked down at the slip of paper, then raised her eyes to peer into the deep shadows of my canvas hood.
"You're Eirene, am I correct? I must verify your identity with your official status card before I can legally hand over or let you claim this contract."
I reached into my leather purse with my single right hand, pulled out my metallic hunter's credentials, and slid the status card across the polished counter.
She took the card, running it through a magical validation device that glowed briefly with a soft blue light.
"Everything checks out perfectly, Miss Eirene. However, since you are applying for a highly specialized resource gathering and extermination contract, the Bureau requires a brief record of your relevant field experience. Care to list your previous high-level monster or bounty hunts?"
I reached into the pocket of my maid dress to pull out my notepad, flipping to the next page. A minor wave of irritation hit me as I realized I was ripping out the absolute last blank page of the pad. I desperately needed to stop by a stationery shop or a merchant stall to buy more notebooks after this, otherwise, communicating with the hearing world was going to become impossible, especially since formal sign language doesn't exist in this medieval fantasy world.
Shaking off the distraction, I quickly penned a list of my most notable, brutal achievements and handed the final scrap of paper to her:
1. Neospider Queen… Karama Village (Peak-Level Beast)
2. Goblin King… Ravine (Peak-Level Beast)
The receptionist's professional demeanor shattered for a fraction of a second, her eyes widening as she read my casual documentation of slaying peak-level beasts. She quickly cleared her throat and smiled, sliding my status card back to me alongside a freshly stamped parchment dossier.
"Well, your qualifications are undeniable, luckily for you, there have been recent Neospider sightings reported just outside of the city walls. Even though they are normally quite rare in this region, Neospiders tend to breed heavily in highly secluded, damp environments. Fortunately, our scouts have already recorded their exact breeding grounds. The standard drones are slightly lower than A-rank threats, but our intelligence reports indicate there is another active Neospider Queen nesting at the center of the colony."
She held out the official hunting contract, but just as my fingers were about to grasp the paper, she hesitated, holding onto the edge with a sympathetic, cautious look.
"I must warn you, however, someone else already formally accepted and signed onto this exact same contract just an hour before your arrival. They are currently one of the absolute top contributors of monster hunting in the entire Bureau, a legendary powerhouse. It is none other than the Blessed Blade himself… Alta Granite."
I tightened my grip on the edge of the contract, my single jade-green eye narrowing under my hood. The name echoed in my mind. A peak-level hunt was dangerous enough, but competing for the precious Neospider silk against the Bureau's top-ranked knight prodigy was going to make this extraction significantly more complicated.
Then Plasma suddenly interrupted through my thoughts.
"Oi Eirene, did you even forget Alta, she fought beside you at Rebelbub, alongside with your brother. Didn't you tell me you have amnesia?"
And yet, as Plasma had just said, the mention of Alta Granite sent a sudden, profound shockwave through my chest, the name hitting me like a physical blow beneath my heavy traveler's cloak.
Alta Granite. An intersex beastfolk possessing both male and female anatomy, and someone I knew intimately from a past life. Two months ago, back in Rebelbub Village, Alta, my brother, and I had stood shoulder-to-shoulder, fighting tooth and nail to fend off waves of vicious monsters threatening the settlement. She was the absolute last surviving member of her lineage… the legendary Granite Clan. Because of her unique beastfolk biology, her kind was completely ageless, allowing her to look like a youthful prodigy despite having walked this world for nearly a century, though she was still susceptible to death by blade or disease.
Now, she stood as the highest-ranking monster hunter and top contributor in the entire Bureau, universally feared and revered as the Blessed Blade. She was a master of dual-elemental magic, flawlessly weaving devastating Fire and Gale spells together to annihilate entire battlefields. Yet, as I stood there in my tattered hood, she had absolutely no idea that I, too, was seeking the exact same Neospider contract to fix my trench coat.
Right on cue, the heavy oak doors of the Bureau swung open, and the unmistakable presence of Alta Granite filled the room. She stood at a graceful five feet, seven inches tall, boasting a breathtakingly beautiful and highly feminine appearance. Her long, shiny black hair cascaded flawlessly past her shoulders, framing a delicate face, and her soft dress beautifully complemented her curvaceous, full D-cup figure. Yet, the moment she spoke, the illusion broke… her voice was completely and undeniably male, deep and resonant.
But the beautiful facade hid a terrifying truth, Alta was just as much of a monster as I was.
As a high-tier beastfolk, she possessed the rare and destructive innate ability known as Beastification. In a true fight to the death, Alta could transform her entire body into a colossal, bloodthirsty Chimera. The Knight Bureau had absolutely no idea about this hidden nature. In this fiercely xenophobic kingdom, if the authorities ever discovered that their top-ranked Blessed Blade was actually a shapeshifting monster, they would order an immediate, ruthless execution… the exact same fate that awaited me if I was ever caught as the blood-sucking winged demon.
Luckily, only two living souls had ever witnessed her true Chimera form: myself and my brother. And my brother was many things, but he was absolutely not a snitch.
As Alta smoothly glided up to the main desk to finalize her paperwork, the receptionist looked up and gestured directly toward my cloaked, single-armed figure.
"Ah, Alta, perfect timing, you will actually be co-authoring and working with this hunter over here. She just applied for the exact same Neospider contract as yours, and her qualifications are just as outstanding."
I stood perfectly still in the dim lobby, my single jade-green eye locked onto my old comrade from beneath the deep shadow of my hood, waiting to see if the legendary Blessed Blade would recognize the battered S-rank bounty hunter standing right beside her.
Alta turned her head, her sharp eyes scanning my heavily cloaked figure up and down. A deep, distinctly male voice vibrated from her beautiful, feminine frame.
"Who is this lady?"
Realizing that my notepad was completely out of paper and unable to utter a single syllable to explain myself, I reached up with my single right hand. I slowly, deliberately pulled my deep canvas hood down, letting it pool around the collar of my maid dress.
Alta leaned in, her stunning features twisting into a look of absolute confusion. When we had fought together side-by-side in Rebelbub Village two months ago, she had known me as a completely whole woman… I had no scars, I still possessed both of my arms, and I had absolutely no need for a leather eyepatch. What she saw standing before her now was a heavily altered, battle-scarred, deeply tanned woman. Normally, anyone from my past would recognize me instantly by my striking heterochromic eyes… one a piercing crimson red and the other a vibrant jade green. But since my right crimson eye had been brutally gouged out by a stray arrow during my dark descent into the bronze coin guild, only my single jade eye remained visible beneath the leather straps.
Before Alta could piece the puzzle together, the receptionist chimed in, filling the tense silence.
"She goes by Eirene. She is a newly registered S-rank bounty hunter here at the capital. She's the elite operative who single-handedly dismantled the underground drug empire in the lower districts and completely saved the city from economic inflation by clearing the Caria Mines. Her field experience with peak-level beasts is entirely undeniable."
Alta's beautiful face went entirely pale, her jaw dropping as the pieces violently clicked into place. She took a sharp step back, her long, shiny black hair swaying as she stared at my missing left arm and my scarred face.
"Wait... Eirene?! Elias's little sister?! Wait, you... you completely changed! Your eye, your arm... and yet, your pale white skin suddenly became deeply tanned! What in the world happened to you? When we all met back in Rebelbub, you were entirely whole!"
The receptionist blinked in surprise, looking back and forth between us as she realized the capital's top monster hunter shared a dark history with the mysterious S-rank newcomer.
I didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of the crowded CKBA lobby. Discussing the horrific trauma that had mutilated my body, turned me into a mute, and forced me to become the blood-sucking winged demon known as the Crimson Phantom was out of the question… especially with a mandatory high-noon house inspection looming over my head. Every second we wasted gossiping was a second closer to the guards breaking down my front door.
Refusing to waste another precious moment of daylight, I stepped forward, completely ignoring her frantic questions. I reached out with my right hand and firmly grabbed the delicate collar of her dress, giving it a sharp, commanding tug toward the exit. I locked my single jade eye onto hers, sending a silent, intense signal that we needed to leave the building immediately.
Alta swallowed hard, recognizing the deadly, serious look in my eye that hadn't changed since our days in the trenches of Rebelbub. She nodded silently, grabbing the official Neospider contract from the counter, and allowed me to lead her out of the Bureau and into the crisp morning air, where we could finally speak in the privacy of the shadows.