Chapter 114

Backlit by the tilted moon, crimson eyes glow.

A black cloak billows, and the daggers hidden within faintly bare their teeth.

Black hair, intertwined with the sandstorm, sways.

“Sorry to interrupt your fun, but I’ve got a real good job for you. Wouldn’t you want to make some big money?”

In the dark dawn, a girl with a flash of blinding smile descended.

“What the hell is that punk!”

The men holding the woman’s arms and legs shouted, looking at the girl perched on the rooftop.

“Don’t you want money! I’m asking!”

Along with a bright smile, she shouted loudly.

“…Ah, uh. Yeah… Money’s good.”

The hulking brute, speckled with dark blemishes, blankly stared into the boy’s crimson eyes, then broke into a lewd grin.

“Little missy, come down here and let’s talk.”

The man, his trousers still unzipped, approached the rooftop where Sion sat. His eyes, brimming with filthy desire, swept over the girl’s cheek.

“……”

The girl, her smile unwavering, looked down at him. An awkward silence stretched between them.

“Huh? It’s not like I’m gonna eat ya! Hurry up and come closer…”

“You’re annoying me.”

With that single, icily hardened sentence, the man’s head separated from his torso.

The girl, now somehow standing beside the corpse, briefly examined the bloodied dagger, then tossed it to the ground with a grimace.

“Tch… Even the blood is filthy. And this dagger was expensive.”

The man’s headless body slowly crumpled.

“Alright! Apologies for the brief disturbance, everyone! Shall we continue where we left off? A chance to make some real money…”

“You son of a b*tch!”

Rarely, these hoodlums seemed to possess a sense of loyalty.

The two thugs who had been holding down the woman’s limbs pulled rusty daggers from their waistbands and charged at Sion. Their eyes burned with a fierce animosity.

Freed, the woman hastily began crawling towards the alley’s exit.

“If you run, you’ll die too.”

As Sion spoke, the woman’s muscles seized. Deep within, the survival instinct etched into her very being screamed at her not to move, no matter what.

Whoosh!

Soon, a man’s torso tumbled into the woman’s field of vision.

A rusted dagger had taken root in the man’s heart.

A frigid silence seized the dark alley. Soon, the sound of bones cracking echoed, filling the woman’s ears.

“There! Sister, now that the idiots are quiet, shall we discuss business?”

Sion approached the woman, frozen in terror, and tidied her disheveled clothes. She scarcely dared to decide if she could open her mouth, or even if she was permitted to breathe.

“It’s nothing much. Just return to the tavern and spread a little rumor.”

Sion smoothed the creases from the woman’s clothing, who stood stiff as a statue, slick with cold sweat, then lightly patted her back.

“…You can, yes?”

* * *

I opened my eyes sometime after morning had broken.

Normally, I’d be awake before seven, but last night I simply couldn’t drift off until the wee hours.

Because of that, the dark circles under my eyes were deeper than usual, and my arms and legs felt strangely heavy.

“Ugh…”

Lir, too, sighed as she rose from the bed, as if sharing the feeling of leaden limbs.

It must be the bed’s fault. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in at least a decade; the springs must have been spent, and the stuffing, no doubt, as well…

“Up! It’s morning, morning! A very late morning at that! The archipelago fog will soon dissipate, so hurry and prepare yourselves!”

“Ugh, damn…”

I recoiled at Sion’s booming voice, meant to rouse us, and dragged myself out of bed.

“Don’t you ever sleep?”

“Haven’t yet!”

An answer so vibrant, it was impossible to believe he hadn’t slept all night.

“Ha ha, spend two sleepless nights and you’d shatter a building with your voice alone.”

Why, of all things, does this assassin have such a bright, booming voice?

I think he’s really chosen the wrong career.

Even an opera singer performing at Carnegie Hall would have a smaller voice than you.

“…Need a hand?”

Lir asked, watching me struggle to get my robe on with one hand. His voice was still quite hoarse, like he hadn’t fully woken up yet.

“No, I can manage.”

I didn’t want to bother Lir unnecessarily.

It’s not like he’s even ready himself, how could he help anyone?

“Alright, let’s just throw something on and get moving! We’re cutting it close on time!”

“…Cutting it close how? How close are we talking?”

I asked, trying to force my ruined right hand into the robe’s right sleeve.

“Three minutes left!”

?

“…?”

Huh???

“Am I still half-asleep, or did you just say… how many minutes left?”

“Three minutes! Now it’s closer to two minutes and fifty seconds!”

Ha ha, this is insane, I heard him right.

“Hey, you b*stard! What kind of schedule is this tight!?”

I snatched the hat hanging on the rack, clutching it haphazardly to my chest, and bolted out of the hospital.

Lir, finally snapping out of it, hurriedly gathered her robes, hat, and staff, then followed me down the stairs.

“Wizards need their sleep, you know! I mean… a sharp mind means faster spellcasting, right?!”

Shion, on the contrary, started to grumble about how I should be thanking her for letting me sleep until the very last minute.

I didn’t have time for pointless bickering and simply listened to her words.

“After all, who stayed up all night on guard duty? Shouldn’t I at least get a thank you? How could you not appreciate my consideration for wizards…”

“Enough! Where are they! Where do we go?!”

“Hey, why the rush? We still have a minute and thirty seconds…”

“Don’t lead the way and I’m terminating our contract right now?!”

“Yessir―! I’ll take you the fastest route possible!”

Shion darted ahead of us as soon as we exited the hospital. Lir stuck close behind her, already picking up speed.

Holding her robes with one hand and clutching her hat tightly with the other to keep it from blowing away, she looked rather pathetic from behind.

…Of course, my own state probably wasn’t much better than Lir’s.

Following Shion’s lead through alley after alley, we burst out into a vast plaza. Mold clung to the wood forming the platform, and an old fountain was stained with what looked like someone’s blood.

The square, filled with desolation and silence, was blanketed with a ‘fog’ rarely seen in the desert.

Lir paused momentarily at the sight of this alien landscape, then focused intently, examining the fog.

“It seems to work on the same principle as a dungeon portal; the density of the fog isn’t that high, but strangely, you can’t see inside…”

“Alright! No time for leisurely analysis! Let’s go!”

Without hesitation, Shion shoved Lir in the back as she carefully approached the fog.

Losing her balance and stumbling forward, Lir was soon completely swallowed by the pure white mist.

“Alright! Next!”

“Haa… Just, a mom-“

Breath.

Just breathe.

“No time to catch your breath! Poor Lir unni, she must be shivering all alone in that mist!”

Just…

Hey.

Don’t you usually ask if you have someone you love before doing something like this? Guess you’ve never done bungee jumping or airborne training, but there’s a procedure for this sort of thing, always is…

“Go!”

“You son of a bi—”

* * *

It feels like pure white foam is enveloping me.

I’m gasping for air, but strangely, it isn’t unpleasant.

It’s a different sensation than entering a dungeon.

If that darkness felt like it was gnawing at my very being, this mist feels like it’s embracing me as I am.

Not bad.

At least, not for the first five minutes.

‘How long is this going to take?’

Lost in thought, spending time in this pure white foam is definitely a pleasant experience.

But what if that lasted for more than 10 minutes, turning into 20, 30 minutes?

…Well, it varies from person to person, but for me, at least, it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience.

“Haa…!”

About thirty minutes into swimming through the foam.

Finally, air different from before entered my lungs. I promptly collapsed onto the spot, coughing, and in the saliva that splattered on the ground, there were unknown, pure white bubbles.

…I don’t know exactly how many minutes I swam through that fog, but it was certainly not a pleasant experience.

“Alright! Is everyone gathered?!”

Behind me, as I gasped for air, I heard Sion’s bright voice.

With trembling legs, I stood and immediately grabbed her by the collar.

“Breath… breathe. You said we’d go in… with breathing equipment….”

“Seems like fewer people have gathered than I thought.”

But Sion, looking behind me, muttered quietly, ignoring my outburst.

What is she looking at?

“Oh, oh. It’s, it’s that woman! The… the pretty woman I told you about!”

Immediately afterward, I heard a voice from behind me, a voice I had never heard before.

I released Sion’s collar, then slowly turned my head, turning my body to face forward once more.

There, dozens of hulking men, armed with knives, axes, and clubs, stood lined up.

“Haa… haa….”

“There, that’s the mage. White hair.”

“What’s with all the coin pouches on his waist? You think there’s gold coins in there?”

“At least a few hundred gold, easy…?”

Men brandishing weapons advanced upon us, slow and deliberate.

Lost in the bewilderment of it all, glancing around at them, a shock of yellow hair caught the corner of my eye.

Lir, having apparently discarded her robes and cowl, clutched only a slender wand in her hand.

Sparks began to erupt from her very being. Her hair, defying gravity, floated upward as if pulled by a magnetic force.

“H-Hey! What’s, what’s the plan?! I, I brought all my… my friends! Our boss, too…!”

A man, hunched over, waved frantically toward Sion as he approached.

And then, in the next instant,

“Ta-da!”

A sudden shimmer rippled before my eyes.

Like slipping on spectacles with the wrong prescription, the world blurred for a heartbeat, then exploded in a wash of crimson.

“Thirty-one individuals, showing aggression and posing a threat to Lord Vin!”

Against the backdrop of that blood-red vista, a girl cloaked in a pitch-black mantle stood with arms outstretched, like a magician taking her bow, a dazzling smile gracing her lips. In each hand, she brandished a dagger, also stained crimson.

“Born of the back alleys, raised by the back alleys, the pride of the back alleys! This Sion has utterly eliminated those fools who dared to trifle with us!”

Scarlet droplets fell, one by one.

Behind her, a scene resembling a canvas drenched in buckets of red paint unfolded.

“Service fee: 62 gold, please.”

Barely had the words left her mouth when,

Headless corpses plummeted to the ground.

Thud.

Thud.

Upon the fallen corpses, a rain of heads.