I slipped past the guards, their crude laughter fading into the background as I finally crossed the threshold into the 4th District, the heart of the Luminous Knight Bureau Association.
The moment I found a secluded, shadowed alleyway, I ducked inside to undo the transformation. Tapping into my blood magic, I let the illusion melt away. My regenerated left arm, healthy eye, and tongue dissipated, while my massive crimson blood-wings, empty socket, and gruesome Glasgow smile grew back. Standing there as my true self again, I felt a wave of relief, but I had a glaring problem: my scent. I absolutely refused to walk into the Bureau smelling like a four-day-old slum rat; the embarrassment would be unbearable.
Luckily, the 4th District was lined with fewer but higher-end merchant stalls. I spotted a small vendor selling fragrances, walked up with my hood pulled low, and ordered their cheapest perfume. I handed over 2 silver coins, grabbed the bottle, and heavily sprayed the mist all over my tattered commoner dress and canvas cloak. The sharp, masking scent did the trick. Now, I am ready.
Stepping into the LKBA headquarters, the atmosphere was entirely different from its sister building, the Caria Knight Bureau Association or CKBA. The hall was packed with loud, boastful adventurers chugging ale and bragging about the low-tier monsters they had slain. They looked down on my plain attire, entirely ignorant of the fact that I had just slaughtered the legendary Neospider Queen a couple of days ago.
I bypassed the rowdy crowds and walked straight to the high-ranking registrar, Sydney Popov. Sydney looked up, blinking in surprise as the strong floral mist hit her nose.
"Greetings, Eirene. That's... quite a perfume you got there, tell me, what do you need today?"
Using my single right hand, I quickly scribbled a name onto a scrap of paper and slid it across the counter to her:
Vanessa Katt.
Sydney's eyes widened instantly.
"Vanessa Katt? The Immoral Commander's wife? How in the world do you know that name, Eirene?"
Her shock was entirely justified. The profile I had obtained back at the CKBA was a highly classified, real-time intelligence document regarding Cameron, curated directly by Nautilus Cotton. Because Nautilus was heavily fascinated by the recent anomalies in the Caria Mines, he had kept Cameron's top-secret family records close to his chest, meaning no reports had been shared with this sister building, the LKBA. To Sydney, a commoner hunter knowing the name of a high-ranking rogue commander's wife was an impossibility.
Sydney leaned in, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"Last week, the Bureau dispatched several high-ranking Luminous Knights and Capital Knights to hunt down a faction of these immoral rogue knights. We aren't expecting their official field reports until next week. I highly suspect Vanessa's location will be confirmed in those files. But right now? I'm sorry, Eirene, I simply don't have the data to help you."
A heavy sigh escaped beneath my hood.
Another week.
I was officially stuck waiting. It would take exactly seven days for the Bureau to get the reports on Vanessa's whereabouts, the exact same amount of time it would take Olive to finish my fire-resistant crimson trench coat. All of my major deadlines were perfectly aligning for next week: preparing for Cameron's bounty, tracking down Vanessa, and plotting my infiltration of the main Luminous Knight base.
I left the rowdy halls of the LKBA behind, stepping out into the crisp afternoon air of the 4th District. I found a quiet, shaded stone bench beneath the sprawling branches of an old oak tree and sat down.
A whole week. Seven entire days before the reports on Vanessa would arrive and my crimson trench coat would be tailored. I absolutely refused to sit around wasting precious time, hiding out at my house and doing nothing while the clock ticked down. Vanessa's tar and fire magic was a lethal threat, and Cameron's bounty wouldn't collect itself. If I wanted to survive what was coming, I needed to get stronger, and I needed to upgrade my gear. High-end hunter gear required serious coin, and my only real source of income was the hunt.
I reached into my cloak, pulled out my leather purse, and retrieved my personal Registry of the Condemned, the heavy bounty ledger I kept to track the scum of the underworld.
I flipped through the blood-stained pages, reviewing my past contracts. So far, the only major marks I had wiped off the board were Cletus, a mid-tier B-rank bounty, and Oksana, the brutal S-rank target. If I wanted to pull in the kind of gold required for top-tier weapons and armor, lesser contracts wouldn't cut it. I needed to hunt another big fish.
Turning to the high-threat, S-rank section of the ledger, my eyes briefly swept over Oksana's profile, which I had aggressively scribbled out with a graphite pencil to mark her permanent retirement. I kept turning the pages, scanning the remaining faces of the city's most dangerous fugitives until one specific profile caught my attention.
Target: Don Anthony
Threat Level: S-Rank
Reward: 5 Gold Coins
Reported Crimes: Black-market arms trafficking, illegal weapon distribution, and fueling underground syndicates.
Five gold coins. That was a massive fortune, more than enough to fully fund my preparations for the upcoming war against Cameron and the Luminous Knights. If he was a black-market arms dealer, taking him down wouldn't just give me money; it might also grant me access to his hidden stash of high-grade weapons and munitions.
I stared at his smug face printed on the parchment, a cold smile tugging at the edge of my scarred lips.
"Found you," I muttered silently to myself.
Don Anthony was my next target. It was time to start tracking the arms dealer down and make the most of this waiting period.
I turned around and marched right back into the rowdy halls of the LKBA. I had a clear target now, and I wasn't going to wander the streets blindly trying to find a ghost.
I pushed past the boasting adventurers and approached the front desk again. Sydney Popov looked up from her paperwork, blinking in surprise.
"Eirene? You're back already? That was sudden. What can I do for you this time?"
Without a word, I opened my Registry of the Condemned and placed it on the counter, pointing my finger directly at the smug face of Don Anthony.
Sydney's expression shifted from surprise to absolute gravity.
"Well... you really do prioritize the S-ranks, don't you? First Oksana, the Lotus Dust Queen, and now Don Anthony, the Mafia boss. Don't worry, I'll help you with what I can."
I could tell Sydney was starting to see my true potential. To her, I was a high-risk, high-reward specialist who cleared out the most dangerous scum because they were the most valuable. She wasn't wrong, but she didn't know my secret weapon, my shapeshifting ability. With the power to take anyone's face, I could manipulate people from the inside, turn their own guards against them, and use them as disposable pawns, just like I did to dismantle Oksana's empire from the shadows.
Sydney pulled a heavy, locked iron drawer from beneath her desk and began sorting through high-clearance dossiers.
"But Eirene, you need to understand that this is entirely different from Oksana. The files I gave you for her last week laid out her exact coordinates and the layout of her drug empire. Don Anthony is a completely different beast. He is a ghost. His true identity remains entirely incognito, and he runs his arms trafficking ring with absolute privacy. He is notoriously hard to catch."
She sighed, pulling out a slim, weathered folder.
"I can only give you what the Bureau has managed to scrape together. It's only a few pages, but it's all we have."
Sydney handed over a three-page intelligence journal. I stepped back into the shade of a nearby pillar and began to carefully read through the classified details:
Page One (The Organization): Don Anthony is the undisputed leader of the city's premier arms trafficking syndicate. His syndicate is officially recognized as one of the three major criminal organizations ruling the Andromeda Underworld, sitting right alongside the ruthless Bronze Coin Guild and the mysterious Sisiphon Alchemist Guild.
Page Two (The Arsenal): This page made my blood run cold. It detailed their current black-market merchandise. Don Anthony's men had somehow managed to steal a Death Chant Tommy Gun directly from Alta, the rapid-fire sister weapon to my own Death Chant Shotgun. Even worse, the syndicate was now mass-producing copies of this high-grade firearm and selling them to other dangerous bounties throughout the region.
Page Three (The Lead): The final page contained a face and a name: Luke Granhart, Don Anthony's personal apprentice. He had been captured during a failed smuggling operation and was currently locked down in the highest-security prison in the territory, the dreaded Dodorant Citadel.
My jaw nearly dropped beneath my hood as I stared at the name and face on the third page. Luke Granhart.
A cold shock washed over me, quickly turning into a sickening knot that made my stomach curl. Luke wasn't just some random criminal, he was one of my own guild members back in Town Allure. He was the talented water conductor who had heroically stopped the spreading disease, a true ally, and someone I considered a friend. The last time I had seen him, he was at the Town Allure infirmary watching over his sick brother, Luck. To see that one of the original, good-hearted members of our guild had somehow fallen from grace and joined a ruthless S-rank criminal organization completely baffled me. What could have possibly driven him to this?
Sydney noticed the sudden stiffness in my posture. Mistaking it for intimidation, she shook her head gravely.
"The Dodorant Citadel is a heavily fortified island prison located far to the east of Caria City. It's an absolute lock-down facility. There is no way you can just stroll in there, Eirene. Civilians and standard hunters are strictly prohibited from entering. You cannot speak to Luke mouth-to-mouth, visitation is entirely barred, especially for high-risk criminals tied to the Andromeda underworld. Trying to break in or sneak into that place would be suicidal. You cannot track down Don Anthony by yourself."
I closed the journal, a sharp grin forming beneath my hood. Don Anthony might be a ghost in the streets, but his apprentice was trapped in a cage. If I wanted to find the Mafia boss and stop him from flooding the streets with mass-produced Death Chant firearms.
A quiet, confident smile broke across my scarred face beneath the shadows of my hood.
"No way for a civilian, sure. But they don't know who I really am, or what I can do." I said
With my shapeshifting abilities, a high-security prison wasn't an impenetrable fortress, it was just a puzzle waiting for the right face to unlock it.
I carefully closed the intelligence journal, tucking the pages safely into my cloak. I looked up at Sydney, offering a polite nod of my head.
"Thank you for the files, Sydney," I communicated silently through my posture, giving her a respectful wave with my remaining hand.
Without giving away a single hint of my plan, I turned away from the registrar's desk and walked out of the LKBA headquarters. As I stepped back onto the streets of the 4th District, my mind was already racing. To get to Luke and figure out the truth, I needed a flawless disguise. I had to find a way to the eastern docks, secure passage to the Dodorant Citadel, and figure out exactly which high-ranking guard or inspector to impersonate. The clock was ticking, and my one-week deadline had just become a lot more interesting.