A sudden, freezing wave of pitch-black cynicism washed over me beneath the absolute psychic barrier of my mask. The dramatic irony of the situation didn't just tickle my dark sense of humor; it practically suffocated me.
An isekai summoning ritual.
As someone who had spent her childhood locked away devouring any text she could get her hands on, I immediately recognized the narrative blueprint. It was the exact kind of cliche coincidence you would read about in light novels or watch in an anime on Earth. A random, unsuspecting person from another world gets violently ripped away from their life, pulled across the dimensional barrier by desperate, fanatical priests, and thrust directly into a brutal, foreign conflict. And their only purpose? To act as a heavily weaponized, sacrificial pawn… a "hero" destined to slaughter the demons and the Immoral Knights for the sake of a kingdom that couldn't handle its own internal corruption.
The cosmic joke of it all was almost too much to bear. Here stood the Holy Pope, sweating mages, and the entire high-ranking Bureau, praying for a savior to eradicate the "demon menace," completely blind to the fact that a high-tier, blood-sucking demon with a 16-gold bounty was standing less than five feet away, casually listening to their grand plan while holding a box of chemical precursors for weaponized tear gas. If this summoned hero ever actually manifested, my own demonic evolution meant I would be near the top of their target list.
"Our research and ancient texts indicate that this specific translocation array requires a staggering, monumental fuel source of 10,000,000 mana points to successfully pierce the outer dimensional fabric," Pope Corneas continued, his voice echoing off the vaulted stone ceiling as he gestured to the blinding, iridescent blue lines pulsing beneath the master mages' feet.
He let out a heavy, weary sigh, though his eyes remained fixated on the glowing geometric runes.
"We have sacrificed countless magic stones, holy artifacts, and the daily mana pools of our top casters just to get this far. Fortunately, we are officially halfway there. At our current rate of channeling, there are exactly three more months left to prepare before the circle completely ignites and we finally meet our destined, summoned hero."
Three months.
I offered a slow, stiff nod of my canvas hood, keeping my single jade-green eye perfectly locked onto the glowing array. Behind my visor, my brain was already working like a high-speed calculator, mapping out a completely new set of tactical parameters. A three-month window was a lifetime in the underworld. It gave me more than enough time to systematically hunt down the Katt siblings, synthesize my chemical arsenal, clear out the corrupt syndicates within the 5th District tenements, and locate the brunette, blue-eyed reincarnated boy Father Columbia was tracking.
More importantly, it gave me a strict deadline. If the Holy Church was going to tear open a hole in the universe in ninety days, I needed to ensure the Crimson Phantom was powerful enough to survive whatever "overpowered cheat ability" the Goddess decided to drop into the 8th District. I adjusted the heavy alchemical crate in my right hand, the glass flasks clicking softly as I prepared to step back into the shadows of Caria City.
The low, rhythmic hum of military logistics enveloped us once more as we crossed the threshold back into the obsidian fortress of the Capital Knights Bureau Association. Walking down the shaded, wide administrative corridors, the static click of my leather boots contrasted sharply with Evelyn's light, cheerful steps. She was practically skipping ahead of Nautilus and me, humming a bright, melodic tune that felt entirely out of place in a building dedicated to high-stakes warfare.
She paused her humming for a brief second, glancing back at the shifting, light-swallowing void of my Leech's Hollow Mask with an eager grin.
"I hope you get an incredible rank, big sister! With all the S-rank syndicates you've been wiping out lately, the Bureau would be crazy not to put you at the absolute top."
Beneath my deep canvas hood, I remained completely silent, but my analytical mind immediately rolled the factual data of our respective power levels. The sheer, terrifying reality was that Evelyn was already officially ranked Third among all the Luminous Knights in the entire kingdom. And she earned that apex spot for a very good reason.
Because of her unique physiology as a half-human, half-slime hybrid… a mutation forged from six brutal years of adapting to a toxic, subterranean environment… she possessed an organic super-computer brain and four distinct, utterly devastating human skills based from my appraisal skill:
Corrosion- A passive and active trait inherited from her slime biology that could dissolve heavy armor, magical barriers, and flesh within mere seconds of physical contact.
Slime Manipulation- The absolute structural control over her own mass, allowing her to shape tools, mimic weaponry, or even sprout fully functional, gelatinous wings from her back whenever she needed high-speed flight.
Explosive Magic- A destructive, high-output offensive spell matrix capable of detonating localized areas with terrifying kinetic force.
Reinforced Mana- The ultimate defensive ability, enabling her to coat her entire body in a thick, dense, nigh-impenetrable layer of compressed mana that absorbed both physical impacts and lethal magical curses.
Even with my current three-gun arsenal hidden against my demon wings and my tactical chemical precursors, I knew the objective truth: in a straight, unrestricted vanguard battle, Evelyn was fundamentally stronger than me. Her versatile hybrid traits made her a literal walking calamity.
"We've arrived,"
Nautilus Cotton announced smoothly, his fluffy hair bouncing slightly as he stepped up to a massive set of double doors reinforced with heavy mana-conducting silver alloy.
"This is the core Evaluation and Measurement Room."
As the doors groaned open, revealing a sprawling, high-tech magical laboratory filled with heavy standardizing crystals, testing arrays, and long queues of anxious knights waiting to verify their combat statistics, the room instantly fell silent. The low-ranking squires and seasoned mercenaries took one look at Nautilus's prestigious secretary uniform, Evelyn's highly recognizable elite presence, and my tall, blood-themed crimson silhouette.
Because Chief Roman had personally prioritized my registration to ensure the Bureau could utilize my lone-wolf strength against the Immoral Knights and roaming demons, I didn't have to wait a single second. Nautilus gave a sharp, authoritative wave of his hand, and the guards immediately ushered me past the entire length of the line, guiding me straight into the center of the grand measurement platform.
I set my heavy wooden alchemical crate down onto the stone floor by my boots. Stepping onto the central metallic grid, I stood perfectly still under my deep hood. Heavy, invisible currents of scanning mana began to violently ripple out from the surrounding crystal pillars, wrapping around my crimson trench coat to read my biological output, tactical history, and latent energy to determine my official Luminous Knight rank.
The metallic floorboards beneath my heavy leather boots began to emit a deep, resonant hum as the scanning arrays fully initialized. Unlike the standard recruits or the normal citizens of Caria who had to physically place their bare palms onto the towering mana pillars to construct their baseline status cards, I didn't need to touch the crystal at all. Doing so would risk exposing the highly irregular, demonic alterations in my biology directly to the room's main server grid.
Instead, keeping my single jade-green eye locked onto the device through the shifting darkness of my Leech's Hollow Mask, I calmly reached out with my right hand and slid my newly updated metallic status card directly into the specialized receiver slot built into the side of the pillar.
The crystal pillar flared with a brilliant, pulsing azure light, its magical processors rapidly collecting and aggregating my operational data from the Capital Knights Bureau Association networks. It crunched my high-speed takedowns of Oksana's cartel and the total decimation of Don Anthony's arms trafficking warehouse.
After a few tense seconds of heavy atmospheric static, a large, translucent magical screen popped up directly above the pillar for everyone in the measurement room to see.
The screen flickered, displaying my final placement:
[ LUMINOUS KNIGHT RANK: 7TH ]
[ DESIGNATION: A BOUNTY HUNTER ]
I stared at the glowing blue text beneath the shadow of my hood, a sense of immense tactical satisfaction settling over me. Being ranked 7th in the entire kingdom was an incredible achievement for someone who had "died" and held a funeral just last month. It was the perfect compromise. Because Chief Roman and Nautilus were actively hiding my true identity from the public ranks, and because this Luminous Knight title was strictly a part-time job to give me legal immunity, the Bureau had deliberately masked my combat statistics. They didn't list a complex breakdown of my hidden firearms, my sixth-evolution traits, or my lineage. They simply placed the label "A Bounty Hunter"... and left it at that. It was the ultimate camouflage.
"Yay! Seventh place!" Evelyn cheered loudly, clapping her hands together with genuine, bright enthusiasm that turned the heads of several nearby squires.
Even though she sat comfortably at the apex as the 3rd Rank due to her terrifying slime manipulation and explosive magic, she was genuinely thrilled to see her big sister recognized near the top of the vanguard.
"That's amazing, sister! They already respect your shadow work!"
Beside the testing platform, Nautilus Cotton calmly flipped a crisp page in his heavy leather-bound ledger. The fluffy-haired secretary scratched a line of text into the official registry with a silver fountain pen, finalizing the parameters of my dual-employment status.
He closed the ledger with a soft, authoritative thud and looked up at my tall, blood-themed crimson silhouette, his sharp eyes offering a rare, respectful nod.
"Congratulations, Eirene, you are officially recognized. The 7th rank grants you total unrestricted access to the lower district borders, institutional funding, and the authority to operate alone without a knightly squad. Your double life is secure."