Chief Anton continued reading down the thick parchment, methodically listing every single commendation, shattered syndicate cell, and recovered asset linked to my recent executions. Every time the Chief paused to breathe, Mochi made it infinitely worse. Still reeling from the shock of my true identity, his golden feline ears twitched frantically as he loudly commented on every single detail.
"Wait, you bypassed the iron fortress of Don Anthony alone with one arm?! And Cameron Gal? You dueled a high-tier military commander while completely mute?! Eirene, that's practically suicidal!"
Chief Anton raised a thick eyebrow, clearing his throat loudly to silence the frantic beastkin. He pushed the final ledger aside, leaning his heavy forearms onto the mahogany desk.
"Well, you two, since the record clearly states you both operated together on the frontlines of this border raid, the official protocol is unyielding. We need to split the reward. The absolute bounty bounty for Laulif Flower is exactly 3 gold coins. Therefore, each of you will receive one gold and 50 silver."
Mochi's eyes widened, and he instantly jumped up to deny the payment.
"Wait, no, Chief! I can't take that! I was just doing my duty as an undercover Knight! The tactical execution, the infiltration, actual contract… that was all Eirene! She deserves the full payout for her retire… "
Before he could finish the sentence and compromise my financial timeline, my pale right hand shot out with blinding, mechanical speed.
SLAP.
I firmly clamped my palm directly over Mochi's mouth, instantly cutting off his frantic protests. He muffled a shocked gasp against my hand, his golden feline ears pinning completely flat in surprise. Behind the Leech's Hollow Mask, my single green eye locked onto him with a fierce, unyielding glare. I gave him a sharp, commanding shake of my head, gesturing aggressively for him to just shut up and keep the money. A Luminous Knight's official salary was modest, and if he was going to ride into danger with me, he was going to get paid for it. Besides, arguing with the Bureau over decimal points would only delay my transaction.
Chief Anton didn't even blink at the sudden display of violence. He simply let out a low, amused chuckle, reaching into his heavy desk drawer to pull out the official reward.
CLINK. CLINK.
The Chief slid two heavy leather pouches across the desk.
"Spoken like a true commander, Eirene," Anton murmured.
I released my grip on Mochi, and before he could utter another syllable of protest, I snatched up both pouches. I roughly stuffed his share of the reward… one gold and 50 silver… directly into his front armor pocket, tapping it hard with my knuckles.
"Keep it and shut up," my heavy gaze commanded.
Mochi blinked, looking down at his stuffed pocket, thoroughly thoroughly intimidated by my silent, terrifying demeanor. He let out a defeated sigh, finally slumping back into his seat and nodding quietly. The money was distributed, the S-rank serpent was dead, and the Crimson Phantom's financial countdown was one massive step closer to completion.
Mochi rubbed his jaw where my hand had just been, his golden feline ears twitching as he let out a sharp huff, trying to mask his embarrassment.
"Hey, not cool, Eirene, but then again, I shouldn't be surprised. You're Elias's little sister, after all. I guess a ruthless streak just runs natively in your bloodline." Mochi muttered, crossing his arms and glaring at me with a mix of frustration and profound respect.
Before I could react to the mention of my brother, Chief Anton's expression completely hardened. The low, amused demeanor vanished, replaced by the grim, stone-cold gravity of a wartime commander. He reached for a fresh, magically encrypted dispatch scroll that had arrived on his desk just minutes prior, unrolling it with a heavy sigh.
"Alright, enough bickering, you both did an exceptional job bringing me Laulif's head, but the aftermath of this trafficking ring is absolutely mind-blowing. I received high-priority reports from our forward scouts in the border sectors early this morning." Anton said, his gravelly voice dropping an octave.
The Chief leaned forward, his eyes fixed on the ink.
"Do you know what that monster Laulif did before he fled? According to the forensic knights on the scene, he intentionally flooded his own subterranean vaults with some kind of unidentified, highly toxic vapor. He wiped out everyone in the dark… every single captive slave, all the wealthy black-market auction buyers, and his own auxiliary staff. He brutally executed dozens of innocent lives just to ensure no one could testify against him or trace his outer continental networks. The man was a cruel, unyielding demon until his final breath."
Beside me, Mochi's fist tightened until his iron gauntlet creaked.
"To slaughter his own merchandise and clients just to cover his tracks... he truly was a rat. Thank the gods you severed his head, Eirene."
Sitting in the heavy leather chair, the air inside my lungs felt like freezing concrete.
They didn't know. Neither Anton nor Mochi had any concept of weaponized chemical agents or the volatile, atomized tear gas resting in the spherical glass canisters of my spatial inventory ring. They truly believed Laulif Flower had committed a scorched-earth massacre to protect his secrets.
In reality, it was my hand that had poured the amber poison into the water station's intake grates. I was the one who had made the cold, mechanical calculation to sacrifice those innocent, chained souls in the dark to guarantee the permanent eradication of the Bloom Syndicate. The burning, suffocating deaths of those captives were entirely on my soul.
The crushing weight of self-blame flared up fiercely behind my Leech's Hollow Mask, throbbing in tandem with the phantom ache of my severed left arm and the demands of the heretical life inside my womb. But I kept my mouth completely shut, my posture frozen like an iron statue. I didn't let out a single breath or make a single movement that could betray the devastating truth. My identity as a flawless savior of the kingdom was perfectly intact, but the blood on my invisible left hand would never truly wash away.
Chief Anton carefully rolled the dispatch scroll back up, tying it with a heavy silk cord before looking at us one final time.
"Consider yourselves well paid, thank you, Eirene and Mochi. Caria owes you a great debt for bringing down the Bloom Syndicate." the Chief said, his gravelly voice filled with sincere, military respect.
With the official business concluded, we stood up from the leather chairs. I turned away from the severed head of Laulif Flower still resting on the floorboards and led the way out of the high-ranking office. Sydney didn't even look up as we passed, still aggressively dabbing at her ruined dress with a wet cloth.
We walked out of the white-stone pillars of the Luminous Knight Bureau Association and down into the sunlit courtyard of the 4th District. The morning air was crisp, but the phantom weight of the innocent slaves I had sacrificed in the vents still lingered like a cold shadow over my soul.
Mochi walked beside me until we reached his armored warhorse. He untied the leather reins from the hitching post, but before mounting, he turned his head, his golden feline ears pinning back with a soft, deeply emotional expression.
"Well... I guess this is goodbye for now, Eirene, It's just... so incredibly good to see you here. I truly thought you were gone forever. I even visited your funeral the other day... stood before your memorial stone completely devastated. But seeing you stand here alive, operating as a legendary bounty hunter while secretly maintaining your rank as a Luminous Knight... it's just completely unbelievable. You really are something else." Mochi said, his voice dropping into a quiet, uneven tone.
Behind the rigid, calcified lines of my Leech's Hollow Mask, my single green eye softened for a fraction of a second. I didn't offer him a speech, a note, or an explanation of the ticking, two-month demonic timeline currently accelerating inside my womb. Some secrets had to remain buried in the dark forever.
I simply raised my pale right hand, giving my loyal subordinate a gentle, silent wave of farewell.
Mochi offered one last disciplined, knightly salute, swung himself smoothly into his saddle, and turned his horse toward the upper military barracks. I spun on my heel, my tattered crimson trench coat billowing behind me as I melted into the growing morning crowds of Caria. My retirement fund was secure, my inventory was lightened, and the Crimson Phantom had survived to fight another day.