I reluctantly stood up from the wooden booth, abandoning the half-empty milkshake and the brief, beautiful illusion of a normal Earthly romance. I didn't dare pull out my notepad to explain the situation to Tae-man; doing so would risk exposing too much in front of the Capital Knights. Leaving him behind with the remainder of our silver, I pulled my canvas hood back over my head and walked out of the food hub under the heavy, armed escort of my biological sister.
As we marched through the bustling thoroughfares of the 7th District toward the towering, imposing spires of the Bureau Headquarters, Evelyn kept pace right beside me. The elite Luminous Knights formed a rigid perimeter around us, but their presence didn't stop my sister from letting her smug, annoying sibling persona bleed through.
"A boyfriend, big sister? Really? The cold, terrifying, mute vanguard of the district actually has a soft spot for a loudmouthed street-vanguard? I never thought I'd see the day 'Little Ren' got caught sharing a sweet cream drink with two straws. Wait until the rest of the family hears about this."
I kept my gaze fixed forward, my single jade-green eye cold behind the shadow of my hood. I ignored her completely, but as I looked at her out of the corner of my eye, a sudden, jarring observation made my analytical mind stall.
She grew taller.
Just two months ago, when I last crossed paths with her before my hunting arc against Cameron Gal, Evelyn had a distinctly petite, slender frame, standing at a modest 5'3". But right now, as she walked beside me, her shoulders were visibly higher, her stride longer, and her silver-trimmed armor had been heavily modified to accommodate a sudden, massive growth spurt. She had shot up by a staggering three inches, putting her at 5'6".
Then, the cold, anatomical truth of our shared bloodline clicked into place.
Evelyn wasn't entirely human. She was a genetically engineered half-human, half-slime hybrid, a biological weapon cultivated by our family handlers. In the evolutionary ecosystem of Andromeda, slimes and amorphous strains possess volatile, hyper-accelerated cellular structures. Chronologically, Evelyn was only a six-year-old child. Yet, due to her volatile slime biology, she was violently trapped inside the fully developed, mature body of a woman in her twenties. With this recent growth spurt, her physical height had actually surpassed mine.
It was a deeply intriguing, twisted biological reality. To the public and the Bureau administration, we were constantly mistaken for "Irish twins"... siblings born less than a year apart due to our highly developed adult statures and overlapping entry into the military ranks. No one in the capital would ever suspect that the highly articulate, commanding Luminous Knight leading this detachment was essentially a toddler operating a biological mech suit.
I quietly adjusted the cuff of my crimson trench coat, the Level 8 Mana Pool, Level 6 Magic Enhancement, and Level 5 Healing rings humming with a low, synchronized pulse against my right fingers. Evelyn could laugh, and she could mock my "boyfriend" all she wanted. But as the iron doors of the Bureau Headquarters loomed ahead, I knew I had to compartmentalize my maternal instincts and my budding romance with Tae-man. I was walking straight into the jaws of the high-tier bureaucracy, and 'Little Ren' needed to make sure her mask was perfectly fastened before the interrogation began.
We marched onward, leaving the vibrant commercial noise of the 7th District behind as we officially crossed the border into the 8th District… the immaculate, heavily fortified administrative sector where the Capital Knights Bureau Association resides.
The atmosphere here shifted instantly. The air was crisp, free of the soot from the lower districts, and the roads were wide and meticulously swept. At the primary security checkpoint, a veteran gatekeeper clad in heavy, polished steel armor stepped out from the guardhouse to intercept our detachment. When his eyes landed on us, his stern expression softened into a familiar grin.
"Hello, sisters, Eirene, it's been a while since you stepped into this district. And what do we have here... Evelyn?" the gatekeeper greeted in a booming, respectful Alatist dialect. He looked directly at my hooded silhouette.
He paused, his eyes widening as he looked between the two of us, finally noticing the jarring shift in our physical statures.
"I didn't realize you got so tall, girl! You walk through this gate every single day, and I only just realized it now because you're standing right next to your sister's height. You've completely shot past her! Anyway, you know the drill… tolls and status cards."
Beside me, Evelyn gave a casual, arrogant shrug of her shoulders, crossing her gauntleted arms and letting me do all the administrative work. She was entirely content to let her "older sister" handle the manual logistics.
Moving with practiced, mechanical grace, I reached into my spatial purse with my single right hand. I didn't pull out my notepad. Instead, I retrieved our official Bureau status cards and smoothly handed over the required toll coins. My fingers, glittering with the hidden power of my Level 8 Mana Pool, Level 6 Magic Enhancement, and Level 5 Healing rings, clinked faintly against the silver currency as I passed it to the guard.
The gatekeeper stamped our logs and waved us through.
"All clear. Have a safe deployment, ladies."
We stepped past the threshold, our boots clicking rhythmically against the pristine, gleaming porcelain tiles that lined the grand avenues of the 8th District. The soldiers walking strictly beside us were no longer standard grunts; they were elite, high-tier Capital Knights, their halberds and shields reflecting the crisp afternoon sun.
We wove through the grand, marble-pillared architecture of the Capital Knights Bureau Association Base, a sprawling fortress that dictated the law and bounties of the entire capital. Every passing knight offered a disciplined salute to Evelyn, completely oblivious to the fact that they were bowing to a six-year-old slime hybrid, or that the silent vanguard beside her was the very Crimson Phantom they were desperately trying to hunt down.
As we approached the grand, mahogany double doors of the central command spire, Evelyn's teasing demeanor completely vanished, replaced by the cold, efficient military tone she had been trained to use.
"Let's go straight to the chief's office, Chief Roman has been waiting for you all morning, big sister. Don't keep him waiting." Evelyn murmured, her amber-like eyes flashing with a sharp, serious intelligence as she pointed toward the stairs.
Evelyn pushed the heavy mahogany doors open, stepping onto the pristine porcelain tiles of the office. Following right behind her, I adjusted the collar of my crimson trench coat, keeping my single jade-green eye sharp.
Sitting behind the grand, newly procured desk was Chief Roman Calico, radiating his usual imposing, bureaucratic authority. But my focus immediately locked onto the figure standing strictly at his side.
It was White Flower.
She stood there in her sharp, monochrome white tunic and pleated black skirt, the polished steel of her lightweight breastplate reflecting the morning light. Her silver-framed spectacles caught the glare from the window as her eyes locked directly onto my hooded silhouette.
I stood completely frozen, a rare surge of profound internal irony rushing through my demonic veins. White Flower. Back during the devastating aftermath of Town Allure, she had genuinely believed I was dead. She had spent the last two months mourning a ghost, preparing herself to honor my memory. Yet here I was… very much alive, carrying an 18 gold bounty as the Crimson Phantom, and stepping directly into her new executive domain.
Evelyn, entirely oblivious to the deep, silent history between us, crossed her arms and let out a smug chuckle, gesturing toward the desk.
"You were thinking you'd see Nautilus, right, big sister? Well, he officially resigned a few days ago to focus entirely on being the Principal of the Caria Mastery Academy. The new Executive Secretary of the Capital Knight Bureau Association is White Flower, the Chief's own stepdaughter. She's the one managing the classified rosters now." Evelyn drawled in a clear, commanding military tone.
Chief Roman remained silent, his stern, hardened eyes tracking my movements with cold calculation.
White Flower stepped half a step forward from the Chief's side. Her posture was rigid, but behind her polished spectacles, her eyes blazed with a mixture of absolute shock, realization, and a quiet, fierce relief. She didn't look at me as a stranger; she looked right through my hood, recognizing the unmistakable aura of the girl she knew.
"Greetings, Roxy, back from the dead, I see."