The morning had already arrived, and I was violently jolted awake as a sharp beam of scorching sunlight pierced directly through a gap in the fabric, striking me right in the face. The solar radiation felt incredibly hot against my skin, triggering a sudden flash of irritation. I leaped out of bed and immediately pulled the heavy curtains completely shut, locking the bedroom back into absolute, protective darkness.
It was an incredibly unpleasant morning, and the second time a stray beam of light had managed to bypass my security like that. My massive, translucent blood wings were twitching with raw irritation from the thermal shock, but I forced my breathing to slow down, remaining completely calm. Today was the big day to finalize all my preparations before my midnight deployment to the Lulu Mountains.
I reached for my fire-resistant crimson trench coat, sliding my single right arm through the sleeve and buttoning it tightly to compress and conceal my wings. To double-check my gear and ensure my silhouette was flawless, I stepped over to look at myself in the full-length mirror.
As expected, there was absolutely nothing there. The glass reflected only the empty wall behind me. Because of my sixth-evolution demonic nature, I entirely lacked a physical reflection, and even the clothes I wore seamlessly blended into the light-swallowing void of my invisibility. It was a familiar, cold reminder of what I had become.
Leaving the empty glass behind, I slipped my silver 7th-Rank status card and my purse back into my secure pockets. I checked the golden band on my index finger; the internal registry confirmed my ten flasks of weaponized tear gas, the two Death Chant firearms, and the nineteen stolen elemental rings were all resting safely within the spatial void, keeping me entirely weightless.
I turned on my heel, left my bedroom, and proceeded downstairs. As I descended the staircase into the living room, I immediately spotted Evelyn waiting below.
Evelyn was already lounging on the sofa to start the day, looking completely relaxed as she flipped through the pages of the morning newspaper. Charlie, the energetic 3rd District paperboy, must have dropped it off early on his routine route. She was contentedly munching on a slice of golden toast thick with sweet strawberry jam, her jade-green bioluminescent hair tips pulsing with a bright, healthy rhythm in the dim room.
My single jade-green eye scanned the rest of the living room, taking a quick inventory of my remaining localized assets. Over on the coatrack hung the blank, light-swallowing void of my Leech's Hollow Mask. Just a few feet away, beneath the heavy wood of the dining table, my other two bootleg Tommy guns remained perfectly concealed and untouched. Between those two hidden firearms and the dual-drum Death Chant models currently floating inside my golden index-finger ring, my total black-market arsenal was formidable.
I knew that I still had plenty of time to prepare before the true midnight deployment. I walked over and sat down on the cushions beside Evelyn.
"Oh, you're awake, Eirene, here, the paperboy left some fresh news for you. I'm gonna get going!"
Before I could even reach for my notepad, she took another massive, messy bite of her strawberry jam toast, stuffing the remaining half completely into her mouth. She wiped a stray smudge of red jelly from her cheek, gave me a quick, energetic wave, and bounded out the front door, leaving the house to report for her early shift with the Luminous Knights.
Once the front door clicked shut and locked behind her, the house fell into a profound, calculating silence. I reached over, pulled the crisp pages of the newspaper onto my lap, and adjusted my hood. My currency pool was still solid at 1 gold and 46 silver pieces, my ten alchemical tear gas flasks were perfectly weightless in my inventory, and my wings were relaxed.
I smoothed out the paper and began reading the front-page headlines to see exactly what kind of chaos, political maneuvering, or syndicate movements the capital was trying to print today.
The ink of the Caria Times was fresh, leaving a faint, charcoal-like residue on the tips of my fingers as I smoothed out the Monday edition across my lap. My single jade-green eye locked onto the bold, sweeping typeface of the front page, my analytical mind immediately dissecting the public narrative the capital was spinning.
CARIA TIMES- MONDAY EDITION
MYSTERIOUS BOUNTY HUNTER DISMANTLES THE ARMS TRAFFICKING GUILD; DON ANTHONY SLAIN
Reports confirm the high-tier arms trafficking ring was entirely dismantled in under six days. This lethal operative has systematically purged the city's worst syndicates, starting first with the legendary drug lord Oksana, and now executing the elusive Don Anthony within his own reinforced compound.
A cold, faint curvature formed on my lips beneath the shadow of my hood. As expected, the article was a play-by-play ledger of my recent trail of bodies. Thanks to the absolute bureaucratic shielding of Chief Anton back in the outer districts and Chief Roman within the core Bureau administrative offices, my true identity was perfectly insulated behind a wall of redacted paperwork. They had seamlessly scrubbed the frail, mute appraiser named Eirene Rynd from the public record, layering the faceless placeholder of an elite, top-tier bounty hunter over my actual name on the official registries. The city was hunting a shadow, completely oblivious to the fact that the shadow was currently sitting on a sofa in the 3rd District.
I turned the page, the crisp paper crinkling in the absolute quiet of the locked living room. The next headline was significantly larger, accompanied by a sketch of a standard merchant banking vault.
S-RANK BOUNTY HUNTER DONATES 30 ROYAL GOLD COINS TO LOWER-DISTRICT ORPHANAGES
In an unprecedented display of anonymous charity, the same elite hunter who brought down the arms guild has signed over a massive sum of 30 royal gold coins directly to the civilian welfare registries. The slums' forgotten children have been secured an entire generation of food and shelter by a phantom savior.
A genuine, profound sense of pride swelled deep within my chest. The 30 gold pieces I had violently ripped away from Don Anthony's personal treasury vault before I reduced his facility to rubble had been entirely redirected. I didn't need the cartel's blood money to feed my own ambitions; my 7th-Rank Luminous Knight salary and my personal purse of 1 gold and 46 silver pieces were more than enough to sustain my alchemical and dietary needs. Knowing those children from the slums… kids who had been just as broken and abandoned as Zenni once was… now had a guaranteed future because of my wrath made every single ounce of blood I spilled worth the cost.
My fingers slid down the edge of the paper as I flipped to the third page.
S-RANK HUNTER OFFICIALLY ENLISTED AS 7TH-RANK LUMINOUS KNIGHT
The Capital Knights Bureau Association has officially confirmed the recruitment of the enigmatic S-rank hunter into the prestigious ranks of the Luminous Knights. By order of the high high-ranking administration, she has been fast-tracked and positioned as the 7th-Rank vanguard operative of the capital.
I glanced down instinctively at the silver placeholder status card resting securely in the breast pocket of my fire-resistant trench coat. The narrative was solid. The Bureau had perfectly integrated my public persona into the military hierarchy, establishing me as a lethal asset of the state while keeping the true, monstrous reality of my physical evolution completely buried under a mountain of high-security clearance markers.
Then, I turned to the fourth page, and the entire atmosphere of the room instantly dropped to a freezing, predatory chill. The text was printed in bold, urgent scarlet ink, screaming from the parchment.
BREAKING NEWS: BLOOD-SUCKING WINGED DEMON SPOTTED NEAR CARCAKA PLAINS
Multiple merchant caravans passing through the borderlands have reported a terrifying sight: a massive, flying humanoid entity with translucent blood-red wings soaring across the Carcaka plains. High-tier investigators confirm the beast is actively moving west, directly through the mountain passes toward the capital. The Holy Church has issued an absolute directive: the 'Crimson Phantom' is inside Caria. Stay safe inside your homes, citizens. All registered hunters and knights, track this demon down and execute it immediately.
I stared at the lines of text, a low, rumbling chuckle vibrating through my throat. The absolute irony was staggering. The Caria Times had dedicated four consecutive pages to a single person, splitting my existence into two completely opposing legends. On pages one, two, and three, I was the celebrated, altruistic champion of the capital… the S-rank Luminous Knight who purged the drug lords, saved the children, and walked among the elite. Yet, on page four, I was the apocalyptic nightmare, the winged abomination that the Holy Church was desperately trying to eradicate to fulfill their twisted ninety-day savior ritual.
They were celebrating the hunter while actively hunting the phantom, never realizing they were the exact same entity.
My single jade-green eye narrow behind my hood as my translucent blood wings gave a sharp, powerful twitch beneath the compressed fabric of my crimson coat. Let the Church send their investigators. Let the lower-tier knights mobilize their vanguards. Every single headline in this paper was just another piece of data confirming that my board was set perfectly. The capital was completely blind to the monster in their midst, and by midnight, when I descended upon the Lulu Mountains with ten flasks of weaponized tear gas and my Death Chant firearms floating inside my index finger, Vanessa Katt and the entire Immoral Knight syndicate would learn exactly how lethal the Crimson Phantom truly was.