The Archivist's eyes lingered on the jagged scar across my lips, his expression softening from academic coldness to a grim, professional respect.
"Just by seeing your scars, lass, I can tell you've been to many battles. You are an experienced soldier. May I confirm your status?"
I reached into my silken robes and produced the heavy, enchanted status card. As he took it, the mana-infused gold shimmered. He didn't flinch at the Rynd name, he already knew the weight of my bloodline, but when his eyes scrolled down to my rank and occupation, he finally reacted.
"A bounty hunter, you came here for Oksana's head. You are right to seek it, the drug empire she has built is a rot that has turned our city into a crumbling ruin. We will assist you in hunting down the Lotus Queen by providing whatever intelligence we have gathered."
The Archivist turned toward the massive, towering shelves that lined the hall.
"Luckily, the Central Library is packed with information on that elf and her operations. We have been tracking a power struggle. There is a rival faction in the Eastern District, the Eastern District Clan."
At the mention of the name, a cold flash of the sewer massacre flickered in my mind. I saw the severed head of Anastasia hitting the floor and the arrow burying itself in Gary's skull. The rivals were already moving, and they were far more violent than the Council seemed to realize.
I stared at the Archivist, my face a mask of cold, S-rank indifference, even as the curse in my chest pulsed with a dark irony.
Not hostile? I thought of the leader's silver whistle, the poisoned arrows, and the severed head of Anastasia that they had dropped like common refuse on the sewer floor. The Council hadn't just tasked them they had hired a pack of wolves to fight a nest of vipers. And the Archivist was under the delusion that he held the leash.
"You will be working with them, They are the hammer we will use to shatter Oksana's glass empire."
The Archivist repeated, his voice filled with a scholarly confidence that didn't belong in a war zone.
Nikolai looked at me, his eyes wide with a mix of pride and fear. He didn't know I had already met this hammer, and that I had left most of it twitching and melting in a puddle of pink sludge.
If I told the Council now that I had wiped out their contracted rebels at the sewer lab, the Archivist would realize I was the Blood-Witch shifter. My cover as Zenni Roy would be blown before I could use it to walk into the Emerald Spire. I needed the Council to keep believing their plan was working while I moved through the shadows of both sides.
I gave a slow, deliberate nod. I reached out and traced a finger over the Eastern District on the map, my touch lingering on the boundary line near the sewers.
The Archivist smiled, mistaking my silence for agreement.
"Excellent. I will send word to their leader, a former capital knight. He was supposed to report back this morning after a raid on a small facility in the Sewers. Once he confirms the lab's destruction, we will coordinate your strike on the remaining four."
I felt a cold chill. That capital knight was likely the masked leader who had escaped my blood-arrows. If he saw Eirene Rynd, and recognized my eyes or my mana signature from the Zenni he fought in the tunnels, the game would be over.
I needed to silence that capital knight before he could report to the Archivist, or I needed to ensure that when we met, he was too terrified to speak my name.
The Great Hall fell into a heavy, expectant silence as the scratching of my pencil echoed against the marble walls. I slid the first note across the mahogany table:
"I'm working alone. I don't want to join the clan."
The Archivist raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise crossing his weathered face.
"I'm surprised, Eirene. I know the Rynd reputation, but this is an entire empire. You truly think you can handle Oksana and her hundreds of enforcers by yourself?"
I didn't blink. I simply wrote a second message, my hand steady and purposeful:
"I'll handle the rest. You will make the cure from the drug."
Before he could respond, I reached into the hidden folds of my travel silks and pulled out the crumpled, chemical-stained parchment I had taken from Gary Pink in the lab. I slapped it onto the table with a sharp thwack.
The Archivist leaned forward, adjusting his spectacles. As his eyes scanned the detailed measurements, the urea, the nitrates, and the specific distillation process for the Lotus Flower, his face went from confusion to utter shock. His hands trembled as he touched the paper.
"This… this is a master-level chemical breakdown. This is the exact recipe for Lotus Dust. How... how did you obtain this so quickly? We have had spies trying to infiltrate their kitchens for months!"
He looked up at me, a new kind of fear in his eyes. He realized then that I wasn't just a hunter waiting for a lead, I was already ten steps ahead of his rebel clan and his scholarly theories. By providing the recipe, I had given the Council the means to save the city's students, but I had also signaled that I didn't need their Eastern District help.
"If this is accurate, my chemists can begin working on a neutralizing agent immediately. We can stop the addiction at the source."
The Archivist whispered, clutching the paper like a holy relic, He looked at Nikolai, who stood as still as a statue, then back to me.
"Very well, bounty hunter. If you provide the cure, we will stay out of your way. But be warned: if you enter the Emerald Spire alone, you are walking into a fortress designed by the most brilliant, twisted alchemical minds in the world."
I gave a curt, final nod. I had done what was necessary for the Eirene side of this mission. Now, it was time for Zenni to go to work.