I left the 5th district at night, Cletus men were still after me, knowing that their boss was decapitated and the prostitute fled. Luckily, I made it past these men and safely entered the gates.
Then the rude gatekeeper from earlier suddenly approached, instead of its attitude being a prick, he showed through fear through me, like he saw a ghost or some sort.
"C-Cletus."
The gatekeeper stammered, I'm still wearing Cletus skin, I didn't react and handed the silver coin in kindness while the rude gatekeeper suddenly pulled a positive side towards me.
"Here, my toll." I said with the voice of a rapist.
The rude gatekeeper was shocked, and started begging me and fell through his knees, the others where shocked and I was left confused. Then the gatekeeper lend out the truth.
"Please Cletus, I'm begging of you, don't fuck me. Please."
At first, I knew Cletus was a straight up rapist, but knowing his deeper side. I was shocked to see that Cletus was a gay pedophile, the gatekeeper was shaking in fear, and grabbing his butt tightly when he saw my face. From which i would not find it funny.
Then I replied in a softer tone, mimicking Cletus behavior through the gatekeeper.
"If I hear one of your pleads one more time, I'll swear I'll tear your ass into a porcupine. Don't just stand there and open the gates."
"H-Here!" Then the gatekeeper opened the rusted gates.
"Suit enough." Then licks his face like a gnarly predator.
I left the district with ease while the gatekeeper who was bothering me earlier raised a shocked expression, I knew Cletus was a predator, but this… this was too much.
I retreated the back gates and shapeshifted into my original self again, I sensed that my body is changing and the pedophile's body slowly deteriorates.
[DNA trace depleted. Shapeshift deactivated.]
A huge change suddenly surged through my body, the blood wings once hidden suddenly sprouted back like a butterfly, since the coat that I stole were oversized. I can tell that the wings were hidden completely from the public's eye.
I still wore Cletus previous outfit before he died, the oversized cloak was a huge advantage to hide my wings, and these trousers were full of disgusting semen, I puked but still, my body transformed.
While my body changes rapidly, the multiated arm returned, the tounge diminished from my mouth, my famously glasgow smile turned back and even my left foot slowly dissipated, the same foot that Dominik cut all of the toes.
I didn't waste no time, I needed to collect my bounty, so I rushed to the fourth district and reached to the bureau.
The grand lobby of the Luminous Knight Bureau was much quieter in the pre-dawn hours, but the few knights and night-shift clerks present froze as I pushed through the heavy oak doors.
I was a sight of pure nightmare. My heavy black coat was stained with sewer grime and fresh arterial spray. My hood was pulled low, but the sharp, metallic scent of blood preceded me. In my right hand, I gripped the burlap bag, a dark, rhythmic drip... drip... drip followed my footsteps across the pristine marble floor, leaving a grisly trail behind me.
Whispers broke out instantly.
"Isn't that the girl from yesterday? The one with no occupation?"
"Is that... a head? She went into the 5th alone and came back with a trophy?"
I ignored them all, my single eye fixed on the reception desk. Sydney Popov was sorting through a stack of morning reports, a cup of steaming tea at her elbow. When she looked up and saw me approaching, her eyes went wide, and she nearly dropped her quill.
"Eirene! You... you startled me," she stammered,
Sydney gazed by the dropping from my scarred face to the sodden bag I hoisted onto the counter with a heavy thud.
The bag sagged, the distinct shape of a human face pressing against the fabric. A fresh pool of crimson began to spread across her neatly organized paperwork. Sydney's face went from pale to a ghostly white as she realized the blood was still warm, this was a fresh execution.
She reached out with trembling fingers, peeling back the edge of the burlap just enough to see the jagged scar and the dead, staring eyes of Cletus Roman. She gasped, recoiling so hard she hit the back of her chair.
"Cletus… He's been a pain in the ass in the bureau's side for two years. Three squads went into the sewers last month and came back empty-handed. And you... you did this in one night?"
I didn't nod. I didn't smile. I simply stood there, my stump of an arm hidden and my breath coming in slow, silent rhythms. I was the ghost they had created, and I had come to collect.
Sydney looked around nervously at the gathering crowd of gawking knights. She knew this wasn't something to be handled in public, not with the tension already boiling over Elias's disappearance and my resurrection.
"Eirene, come with me, the Chief needed to see this. He... he hasn't slept, and I think he needs to know exactly what kind of Bounty Hunter he just unleashed on this city."
She led me toward the private staircase, her hand hovering near my shoulder but never quite touching me, as if she feared I might break, or bite. I followed, the weight of the gold I was owed already ringing in my mind. One gold piece was a fortune, but the look on Anton's face when he realized I was more dangerous than the men I hunted? That was going to be priceless.
Sydney opened the doors while I carried the blood stained bag of Cletus himself, the pedophile who roam the streets of the 5th District.
Anton's office door swung open with a heavy groan. The Chief of the Luminous Knight Bureau sat behind his massive oak desk, dark circles carved under his eyes from yet another sleepless night. The moment he looked up and saw me, bloodstained cloak, single green eye, and the dripping burlap bag in my remaining hand, his exhausted expression shifted into something between disbelief and wary respect.
"That was fast, I gave you that job barely a few hours ago."
I stepped inside without a word. Sydney followed nervously behind me, closing the door. The metallic scent of fresh blood filled the room as I dropped the heavy burlap sack onto Anton's desk with a wet *hump. A thin line of crimson immediately began soaking into the wood.
Anton stared at the bag for a long second, then reached forward and pulled the fabric aside. Cletus Roman's severed head stared back at him, eyes still wide with frozen terror, the jagged scar across his face now matched by the clean cut at his neck.
The Chief let out a low whistle.
"Fresh. Still warm. You didn't just kill him… you brought him in before his blood even cooled." He looked up at me, eyes narrowing.
"Sit, Eirene, you must be pretty exhausted from the mess you made."
Sydney and I took the two chairs opposite his desk. I remained silent, as always. My stump rested against my thigh, hidden beneath the oversized cloak that still carried the stench of the sewers.
Anton studied me carefully.
"Eirene… you're a quiet little assassin, aren't you? Most bounty hunters take a week just to find a slippery bastard like Cletus. You went in alone and came back the same night with his head in a bag."
He let out a short, humorless laugh. A laugh from my actions.
"I knew you were Elias's little sister, but this…"
He stood up slowly, walking around the desk until he was directly in front of me.
"Give me your status card."
I pulled the card from my pocket and handed it over without hesitation. Anton took it, then retrieved a glowing magical stamp from a locked drawer. The stamp pulsed with powerful verification runes.
"You can handle B-rank bounties faster than I ever could, you deserve this."
Golden light erupted across the surface of the card. The letters shimmered and rearranged themselves. When the light faded, I took the card back and glanced at the new text:
Status Card: Updated
Name: Eirene Rynd
Rank: Gold (Evaluation Pending)
Magic Power: S-rank
Magic Mastery: S-rank
Swordsmanship: A-rank
Marksmanship: A-rank
Battle IQ: B-rank
Job Occupation: Bounty Hunter (S-rank)
Affiliation: LKBA (Branch 1)
Anton's voice was solemn.
"You're the first person in this city to achieve S-rank as a bounty hunter. Most people need years of proven results. You did it in one night. That blood manipulation of yours… it's terrifyingly efficient. You can get jobs done that entire squads fail at."
He crossed his arms, watching me closely.
"People are already talking downstairs. Some are scared of you, others want to recruit you. A few idiots are probably already thinking of ways to challenge the one-armed mute girl who just dropped Cletus's head on my desk. Let them. Fear is useful."
Sydney finally found her voice.
"Chief… should we issue a public announcement? Or keep this quiet for now?" Sydney said to Anton
"Quiet for tonight, let the rumors spread naturally. By morning, every rat in the 5th District will know what happens when you cross Eirene."
He walked back to his chair and dropped into it, suddenly looking more tired than before.
"Rest. You've earned it. But Eirene, this city is rotting from the inside. Elias tried to fix it the honorable way. You and I both know how that ended. If you're going to walk his path… do it your way. No mercy. No hesitation."
I gave him a single slow nod.
As I stood up to leave, Anton spoke one last time.
"And change out of that disgusting cloak. You smell like a sewer and a slaughterhouse had a baby."
For the first time in a long while, the corner of my mouth twitched. Almost a smile.
After that, Anton reaches out his pockets to prepare rewards from me, as I recalled the rewards, it is a singular gold coin. Equivalent into a hundred silver, for the noble's, they threat is like it was nothing, but for commoner's like me, I can tell that this is a life fortune.
Anton's hand hovered over the gold coin he was about to pay me for Cletus, but his eyes followed my movement as I reached into my purse and pulled out the Registry of the Condemned.
I flipped past the D-rank pickpockets, the C-rank muggers, and the B-rank predators like Cletus. I turned the heavy, vellum pages until I reached the very back, the section where the paper was stained dark and the ink felt like it was made of dried blood.
These were the S-rank Bounties. The monsters that didn't just break laws, but broke the world.
My eye scanned the list, but one name stopped me cold. The Immoral Knights.
A memory flickered in my mind, Elias, his face shadowed by firelight back at the Rynd Household, his voice low and serrated with hate as he spoke of his life's goal, to wipe the Immoral Knights from the face of the earth. If he was out there hunting them now, then I would start from the other end. We would meet in the middle, over the bodies of our enemies.
I slammed the book down on Anton's desk and pointed my finger at one specific entry.
Anton leaned in, his spectacles nearly falling off his nose. As he read the name, his face went from pale to a sickly, translucent grey.
"Cameron Gal? Eirene, no. This... this isn't a man you hunt. This is a walking beast."
I stared at the illustration. Cameron Gal was a slender, almost delicate-looking man with long, vibrant green hair that contrasted sharply with the jagged, black-and-crimson armor of the Immoral Knights. He looked more like a poet than a killer, but the list of his achievements was a descent into madness. He hadn't just killed a village in the southern plains, he had turned the entire population into a garden of impaled corpses, laughing as he watched the life drain from children.
As for the information, see for yourself.
Target: Cameron Gal
Rank: S-Rank (Immoral Knight Commander)
Reward: 10 gold coins
"He is the embodiment of everything we fear, ten gold is a king's ransom... it's a bribe because we are too terrified to send our own knights after him. He's slim, fast, and his magic is as twisted as his soul. He slaughters for the sheer beauty of the gore."
He looked up at me, pleading.
"Eirene, you just got your S-rank status. You're powerful, yes, but Cameron Gal is a monster among monsters. He's currently sighted in the outskirts, near the ruins of the plains. If you go after him, you aren't just hunting a criminal, you're declaring war on the Immoral Knights themselves."
I didn't move. I didn't blink. I simply tapped the portrait of the green-haired man again, more forcefully this time.
The reward of a manor meant a place where I could hide, a place where I could heal, and a place where Elias could find me without the Bureau watching our every move. But more than that, Cameron Gal represented the people who had ruined my life.
I stood up, the chair scraping a harsh, final note against the floor. I didn't need Anton's permission, only his confirmation. I tucked the book back into my purse, adjusted my cloak to hide my stump and my wings, and turned toward the door.
"Eirene! If you do this... if you actually bring back his head... the king himself will have to acknowledge you. But God help you, because if you fail, he'll make you a masterpiece of pain."
I paused at the door, my silhouette dark against the morning light. I wasn't afraid of being a masterpiece of pain. I had already been painted in blood once; I was just going to return the favor.
I was halfway to the door when the heavy clink of metal hitting the desk stopped me.
"Wait,"
I turned back. He was holding a large, heavy coin that shimmered with a deep, rich luster. It was a single gold coin, the face of the King stamped onto its surface. In Andromeda, this was a life-changing amount of currency, equivalent to 100 silver coins. It was enough to buy a small shop, or a year's worth of safety.
But Anton wasn't done. He looked at the trail of blood I'd left on his floor, then at my tattered, grime-stained cloak. A flicker of genuine guilt crossed his face. Perhaps he realized that sending a girl who had already lost everything to hunt the world's most dangerous men was a heavy burden to place on a single soul.
He reached into his desk and pulled out a heavy iron key attached to a simple brass ring. He slid it across the mahogany toward me.
"A bonus, the Bureau keeps a few properties in the 3rd District for high-ranking specialists. It's a modest townhouse, nothing like the manor promised for Cameron Gal, but it's quiet. It has a lock that works and a hearth that's warm. You shouldn't have to sleep in the streets or the slums after what you've done tonight."
I stared at the key. A home. A place where I could take off this heavy cloak, unfurl my wings without fear, and wash the scent of the sewers from my skin.
I stepped forward and took the gold coin and the key. My fingers, still stained with the faint residue of Cletus's life, closed tightly around the cold metal.
I couldn't speak, but I looked Anton in the eye and gave a single, slow nod, a rare gesture of genuine thanks. He simply waved his hand dismissively, though his eyes remained fixed on the burlap bag I'd left behind, as if he still couldn't believe its contents were real.
I turned and walked out of the office, the gold coin tucked into my purse and the key gripped in my hand. As I passed Sydney at the front desk, she watched me with a mix of awe and pity.
The sun was officially rising over Caria now, painting the 4th District in shades of gold and amber. For the first time since the massacre at the manor, I wasn't just a wanderer or a victim. I was a homeowner, a gold-rank elite, and the deadliest hunter the city had ever seen.
I headed toward the 3rd District. I needed to rest, to sharpen my senses, and to prepare. Cameron Gal was waiting in the plains, and I wanted to be at my full strength when I showed him that his audacity to kill these knights were enough.