The moment we cleared the grand main gates of the academy, the girls reluctantly stopped their hovering.
Aisha stepped up first, gently taking my newly regenerated left hand into hers, turning it over to inspect the smooth, unblemished skin with a soft, relieved smile.
"Take care of yourself tonight, Zenni. No more playing with fire."
Amelia wasn't about to be outdone. She aggressively lunged forward, clinging tightly to my other arm. As she hugged it against herself, the distinct, soft pressure of her chest pressed firmly against my side, making her blush crimson even as she glared up at me.
"You better be fully rested by tomorrow, you idiot! And don't go tracking dirt into the classroom!"
Cindy stepped into my space last, her cool fingers gently tracing my jawline where the charred flesh had just been. Her eyes locked onto my brand-new left eye, ensuring it was completely healed, before she gave me a quiet, lingering nod.
"See you tomorrow, genius."
As soon as they disappeared around the cobblestone corner, the lazy, carefree smile of Zenni the slum kid vanished from my face. The afternoon sun was bleeding into a deep, heavy orange across the sky. I tightly gripped the handle of my black umbrella, tilting it just low enough to cast a shadow over my freshly regenerated face, and began my trek toward the southern district.
I navigated the bustling streets with practiced ease, pulled a few coins from my pouch to pay the southern district tolls, and straight away headed toward the heavily guarded gates of the Emerald Spire.
To an outsider, a towering criminal fortress operating right under the nose of a prestigious magical academy seemed impossible. But the reality was a masterclass in dark politics. Oksana's drug lord empire essentially controlled the entire underbelly of the city, and it was actively protected by the corrupt ruler of Sisiphon himself.
The journey took me through the bustling trade sectors until I reached the southern district checkpoint. I quietly paid the toll fees to the corrupt guards, passing through the heavily armored gates that led straight into the Spire's sovereign territory. To the ordinary citizens of the kingdom, the Emerald Spire was just a soaring, prosperous trade hub. But to those in the underworld, it was the absolute beating heart of Oksana's multi-million gold drug empire.
The reason was brilliantly simple: Oksana heavily bribed the local government to maintain a flawless monopoly on vice. Under her iron-fisted influence, the petty crime rate of the city had plummeted to a staggering zero percent. How? Because she didn't allow independent thieves, muggers, or murderers to ruin her business. Any criminal foolish enough to step out of line was immediately snatched up by her enforcers and forced to work as expendable, slave labor in her massive underground drug manufacturing pipelines.
To the high-and-mighty politicians, she was a godsend who kept the streets clean. This perfectly explained why the government completely refused to intervene; as long as the gold flowed and the city looked peaceful on paper, they turned a blind eye to the poison she distributed.
This corrupt political shield explained exactly why the Bureau had never intervened. It explained why the Luminous Knights were never deployed to raid the Spire, and why even the legendary Shadow Walker, my older brother, Elias… had never been tasked to investigate this city. The entire drug empire remained completely invisible to the royal ledger because the King himself was holding the curtain shut.
But where the law and the Bureau were blinded by politics, independent bounty hunters were not. The Grand Council might be bought, but a blood-stained bounty notice whispered the truth to those daring enough to listen.
As I walked down the clean, heavily guarded avenues of the southern district, passing by lines of elite syndicate guards clad in pristine nobleman armor, I kept my eyes fixed on the towering jade structure rising into the evening sky. I harbored no illusions of grandeur. I wasn't a saint or a revolutionary. I knew I couldn't dismantle a systemic drug empire rooted in royal corruption, nor could I change the twisted peace of this city.
I wasn't here to save Sisiphon. I was only here for Oksana's head.
I approached the massive, ornate iron gates of the Spire, where several heavily armed guards dressed in tailored nobleman suits stood watch. They recognized me instantly, their eyes widening slightly as they took in the heavy gold academy medal still hanging around my neck.
I raised the brim of my umbrella just enough for them to see my cold, unblinking glare.
"Miss Sasha is expecting me," I said, my voice dropping back into its razor-sharp, dangerous undertone.
The guards didn't say a word. They quickly bowed their heads and threw the heavy gates wide open, ushering the Crimson Phantom straight into the heart of the empire.
I stepped through the threshold of the Emerald Spire, the heavy gilded doors shutting behind me with a muted, authoritative thud. Instantly, a squad of heavily armed syndicate gatekeepers stepped into my path, their hands resting cautiously on the pommels of their enchanted blades.
"Right this way."
They turned and led me deeper into the belly of the Spire. As we navigated the winding, opulent corridors, the atmosphere shifted drastically from academic prestige to underworld decadence. We passed open lounge areas where low-level syndicate bandits and dealers sat slumped on velvet couches, casually holding intricate glass bongs and rolling thick wraps of weed. The skunky, intoxicating smoke filled the indoor air, swirling around the crystal chandeliers like a thick green fog. I kept my breath shallow, my mind focused entirely on the objective.
We finally reached a set of massive, reinforced mahogany doors guarded by two silent, S-rank enforcers. The gatekeepers bowed and stepped back as the heavy doors groaned open.
Stepping inside, I immediately realized this wasn't Oksana's private office. The room was sprawling and circular, dominated by a massive, polished obsidian round table.
A high-stakes meeting was currently in progress.
Seated around the table were several powerful, shady figures, corrupt city officials, wealthy merchants wearing royal seals, and high-ranking syndicate captains, all deeply embedded in the King's protected drug network. At the head of the table sat Oksana. She was still wearing her Miss Sasha disguise, her hair dyed a vibrant purple and clad in a tailored, sharp nobleman's suit that exuded absolute authority.
The moment I walked in, every single eye in the room locked onto my uniform. A tense, suffocating silence fell over the meeting.
Oksana, however, simply leaned back in her high-backed leather chair, a slow, dangerously captivated smile spreading across her lips as her violet eyes flashed with dark excitement.
She gestured gracefully to an empty velvet chair positioned right at her right hand.
"Perfect timing, sit, Zenni." Oksana purred, her voice dripping with an intoxicating mix of approval and malice.
I walked over to the obsidian round table, my expression completely unbothered as I pulled out the velvet chair and sat down directly among the high-ranking criminals attending the meeting. These weren't just low-level street dealers, they were Oksana's most trusted, ruthless subordinates, deeply embedded in her continent-spanning syndicate.
Unfortunately for me, the two men I happened to sit between weren't just hardened criminals, they were depraved predators. The moment I took my seat in my neat, tailored academy uniform, their eyes dragged up and down my body, viewing a young, fresh-faced slum prodigy like me as a rare, vulnerable prize.
The man on my left leaned in entirely too close, his breath reeking of cheap alcohol and weed smoke as his hand crept onto the back of my chair.
"Well, well... what a pretty little thing the boss brought in today," he murmured, his voice a low, disgusting slither.
Before his fingers could actually brush against my shoulder, a syndicate captain across the table slammed his fist down, casting a sharp, warning glare at the two gay predators.
"Keep your hands to yourselves, you absolute fools, that 'pretty thing' just broke a fourth-year magma mage with his bare hands an hour ago. More importantly, he's Oksana's new apprentice. Touch a single hair on his head, and the boss will have your skin turned into leather by midnight." the captain hissed in a hushed, frantic whisper.
The two predators stiffened, instantly pulling their hands back and clearing their throats, though their eyes remained glued to me with lingering, twisted malice. Beneath the table, my right hand slowly untwitched from the hidden dagger handle beneath my uniform jacket.
"Lucky for them, if they had touched me, Oksana wouldn't have been the one killing them." I thought coldly.
Oksana ignored the brief undercurrent of tension at the end of the table. She stood up, leaning her hands on the polished obsidian, her violet eyes scanning the room with absolute command.
"Alright, everyone, listen closely. This next mission is absolutely crucial for the future of our drug empire." Oksana announced, her voice instantly cutting through the lingering haze of smoke.
She tapped a large, enchanted map draped over the center of the table. A glowing green line traced its way from Sisiphon, winding through the heavily guarded mountain passes, and leading straight to a massive, sprawling crest.
"We are going to smuggle a massive, unprecedented shipment of our refined lotus dust directly into Caria City. Once we are inside, we will systematically introduce our products to the largest, wealthiest metropolis in Andromeda. By hooking the nobility and the merchant guilds, we will expand our territory tenfold and secure a profit that will make our current wealth look like pocket change." Oksana explained, a confident, predatory smile spreading across her elegant face.
Internally, my mind began working at lightning speed. Her strategy made perfect, ruthless sense. Up until now, lotus dust had never managed to breach the borders of Caria City. Because of the city's elite security, the high concentration of powerful adventurers, and the watchful eye of the Luminous Knight Bureau Association's main sectors, there were currently no known drug addicts within Caria's walls. It was a completely clean, incredibly wealthy market.
Oksana's grand plan was to use her Miss Sasha professor disguise and my rising status as an academy hero to create a flawless, untraceable smuggling pipeline straight into the heart of the capital, poisoning the most powerful city on the continent from the inside out.
I leaned back in my chair, steepling my fingers with a dark, compliant smile that perfectly mirrored her own.
"A brilliant expansion, Master," I said aloud, Zenni's lazy tone returning as I played the role of the loyal apprentice to perfection.
The trap was scaling up. She wanted to conquer Caria City, but all she was really doing was paving a direct, bloody highway for the Crimson Phantom to finally corner her outside of her protected kingdom.
One of the syndicate captains at the far end of the obsidian table slowly raised his hand, his brow furrowed with deep concern.
"Well, Boss, what about the Bureau? Caria City isn't like Sisiphon. Their detection defenses are incredibly high, and the border mages inspect every single magical registry. If they catch even a whiff of lotus dust, the Luminous Knights will lock down the entire sector."
Oksana let out a soft, mocking laugh, dismissively waving her hand as she leaned over the map.
"We have already planned for this, you short-sighted fool, the Bureau's detection circles are tuned to recognize dense, raw magical alchemy. Therefore, we will hyper-refine the lotus dust into a microscopic powder and completely blend it inside thousands of standard sacks of flour grains. To the border guards and their scanning runes, it will look like nothing more than a routine food shipment for the bakery guilds. You will all shed your syndicate armor, dress yourselves as ordinary merchants, and stroll right through the front gates."
A murmur of approval rippled through the trusted subordinates. It was a classic, low-tech smuggling technique that completely exploited the Bureau's over-reliance on high-tier magical scanning.
Immediately after, another man, a nervous-looking logistics manager, raised his hand to ask a more cautious, technical question.
"But Lady Oksana, even if we bypass the main gates, how do we unpack and distribute the product without drawing the attention of the local city watch? Caria's underground is tightly monitored by the local guilds."
Oksana answered it easily, her sharp violet eyes flashing with cold brilliance.
"The local guilds are greedy, and greed is easily managed. I have already bought out three major grain mills in the lower districts under a dummy corporate name from Caria City. The moment your caravans arrive, the flour will be processed, separated, and distributed through established local black-market channels that have already been paid in full. The city watch won't even know a new product has hit the streets until half the nobility is already begging for more."
She turned her gaze directly toward me, her predatory smile widening.
"And with our brilliant new academy prodigy, Zenni, establishing a flawless reputation as an elite exchange student, the authorities will be looking everywhere except at us."
I nodded slowly, letting out a compliant, relaxed chuckle.
"A flawless strategy, Master. They won't suspect a thing," I said, playing my part to perfection.
Inside, my mind was already documenting every single detail she spoke. The bought-out grain mills, the merchant disguises, the flour pipeline… she was handed me the exact blueprint of her entire operation.
"We will leave after midnight, the Eastern District Clan is sound asleep at that hour, leaving their border sectors completely vulnerable. Ready all of the products and place them deep inside the flour bags immediately. Change your clothes into merchant attire so you do not look like a group of common thugs, and don't forget to add some perfume… even a single, stray speck of raw lotus dust will leave us entirely detected by the capital's boundary runes." Oksana commanded, her voice turning sharp and absolute as she issued her final directives.
With a chorus of compliant nods, the trusted criminals stood up from the obsidian table and quickly scattered, rushing off to the lower levels of the Spire to begin preparing the massive shipment.
Within minutes, the sprawling meeting room fell quiet. Only Oksana, her four silent, S-rank noble guards, and I remained. As her prized little apprentice, I was exempt from the grueling manual labor of packing the wagons.
Oksana turned her gaze back to me, leaning against the edge of the table as she looked at my pristine, perfectly healed face.
"You will use your powers to become the very future of our drug empire, right, Zenni?" she purred, her violet eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"Of course, Master, well, since we're leaving before dawn, what about my classes at the academy? Missing school without a proper reason might draw unwanted attention from the deans." I nodded smoothly, offering a dark, obedient smile. Then, adopting Zenni's typical student perspective, I raised a practical question.
Oksana let out a dismissive, elegant chuckle.
"Don't worry about that. As Miss Sasha, I have already officially informed the academy administration that you have been handpicked for a specialized, off-campus research assignment under my direct supervision. You are completely excused from all classes until we return."
I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, a perfectly fabricated, youthful display of anxiety fading away, designed to ensure she wouldn't harbor a single shred of suspicion.
"Thank you, Master. That makes things much easier," I muttered, playing the role to perfection.
In reality, my mind was racing with dark exhilaration.
"This is the absolute, most perfect plan." I thought
Oksana thought she was being clever by slipping out under the cover of darkness, but she had just handed me the ultimate window of opportunity. With a midnight departure, I had a brief, crucial gap of a few hours right now. I could slip away into the shadows, revert to my true, original form as the multi-dialect bounty hunter Eirene Rynd, and immediately report these exact smuggling coordinates to my trusted underground allies: The Eastern District Clan and The Archivist.
Oksana thought the Eastern District Clan would be sleeping, but once Eirene Rynd tipped them off about a massive, illegal caravan carrying royal contraband through their territory, they would be wide awake, fully armed, and waiting in ambush. With the Archivist logging the operational details, we would ensure that not a single grain of that tainted flour would ever breach the walls of Caria City.
"Get some rest, Zenni, we have a long journey ahead of us, and we will leave just before dawn. Don't be late." Oksana said softly, her tone returning to a sweet, deceptive warmth as she tilted her head.
I replied, bowing my head respectfully before turning on my heel and walking out of the smoke-filled meeting room. The countdown had officially begun, and the Crimson Phantom was about to bleed the drug empire dry.
"I'll be ready, Master,"