"Breakfast… I wonder what they have planned." I murmured to myself outloud.
My footsteps, previously quiet clicks, were now more audible. The rhythm was slow and careless, as though I had only just woken up.
I placed my hand on the dark gold doorknob of the kitchen door before opening it.
Inside was a warm, slightly steamy room. Both its walls and floor were a tiled white pattern. Stainless steel counters with cooking utensils and implements were found commonly throughout the room. On the far side of the room was a glass door, labelled dining hall.
Without a doubt, this was the kitchen.
I narrowed my eyes and tightened the muscles at the back of my mouth to force a yawn. I felt my eyes moisten but I blinked it away as I simultaneously greeted the occupants of the kitchen.
"Haaa~... Good morning everyone."
Earlier, my chat with Hajin was heard by someone. Someone with black hair.
The moment I noticed them, they scampered off like a startled rat.
I didn't quite catch their footsteps, meaning they were either a sharpshooter, a support class, or a non-combatant. This knocked out many of the cadets on this trip as well as some of the heavier servants.
The maids wouldn't have reacted that way either unless they wanted to incur suspicion, so that knocks them out too.
That squeezed the range of my selection of candidates down by quite a bit.
With that in mind I glanced around the room, observing the people here.
'Move your eyes. Naturally. Not too quick, not too slow.' I reminded myself.
There was a man in full white, an apron professionally hung around his neck. He was wrinkled and quite short, though his hands were steady. He was likely a chef.
'Gray hair. Not him.'
There was the boy he had been talking to. A cadet? He had blue eyes and a broad build. He was speaking quietly and seemed to have been inquiring about something.
'Brown. Not him either.'
At one of the counters was another chef, working on a multitude of dishes with a nonchalant expression. Another chef.
'Black hair. Length, hidden under her toque. Is she the head chef? Ah, doesn't matter, it isn't her anyways. She's too busy preparing everyone's breakfast to be spying on cadets in the corridor.'
"Ahh, another cadet. I hope you rested well after the commotion last night. It was truly horrific. I cannot believe we had such a criminal as our employer." The old man huffed in response to my greeting.
It seems he had a lot on his mind.
"Breakfast will be ready in a moment. Please head over to the dining area. Many of your fellow cadets are there already…and no, we will not create specified orders." The woman spoke with a cold tone, absent of warmth.
"Oh, alright then. Thank you." I nodded trying to indicate mild disappointment before turning my gaze away..
I walked through the kitchen, ignoring the scent of food in favour of keeping my eyes open for the sign of the eavesdropper.
I opened the glass door and found a seat next to the window. My wrist moved as I flicked my watch onto the news, pretending to skim through it.
From my peripheral vision I could see that most of everyone that sat down were cadets. Some with rested expressions, others solemn and even excited. The mixed bag of emotions made it hard to gauge any irregular reactions.
That, paired with the amount of people with long black hair made the chances of finding the perpetrator slim.
'Whatever… I can't be bothered to look anymore. If the information gets out I can just explain it away. Plus if word spreads about the information I can just track them down then.'
So with a sigh I flicked onto Violet Banquet and began typing up an apology letter to Vatz… hopefully he doesn't care too much about the ring.
…
The Evil Society, one of the most notorious Djinn Associations in the world, being officially recognised by the UN and the HeroAssociation as the number 1 wanted group. Although there was something about this group that nobody knew.
An internal faction war was brewing beneath its dark surfaces. It seems that a conflict between two devils, Lilith and Lucifer, are causing their worshippers to plot against each other.
Although slow at first, it seems the violence may ensue in one or two years.
But for now, in a room reserved for meetings, deep within the ominous halls of the underground base of the Evil Society was an ongoing meeting between two individuals.
One was a goateed man, he had dark rings under his eyes and looked as though he had missed several months of sleep. He sat atop a black wood chair, observing a kneeling man with seething eyes.
"Say that one more time."
The kneeling man shivered as though the cold from Russia's surface was finally seeping into their bases padded walls.
"My apologies."
"No, don't apologize. I said to say that again, Silasen. You said… a cheetah and a dog messed up your plan?"
The man, Silasen, raised his head. His face dripped with sweat and his red eyes glowed with fear as mana pressed in on his lungs. There was a clear scar on his forehead, as though a bullet had drilled into it.
Scars, usually unseen on Djinn kind. But here he was, a sign of his failure plastered for everyone to see. But more than that, it was a sign, a sign of light magic.
"...Yes… a man in a panther mask had took me off guard when we were facing Yun Seung-Ah, if it wasn't for him- if he didn't interrupt-" Silasen's fear melted in the face of his anger.
"Shut up. If you're going to report something, do it properly." The bearded man sneered in contempt, a blasphemous insult flashing through his mind.
"Yes sir! I-I made a body double just as I was shot and managed to escape to the first floor. It was then that I caught a glimpse of the Panther masked man." The man shrunk and began to report in full.
"The ritual to awaken the artifact had been completed by the time I escaped but unfortunately the skull's ownership had transferred to Yun Seung-Ah who was on the scene."
"...I see. So is that how you lost it?" There was a beat of agitation in the tired man's voice. He had explicitly told them what to do in case of emergency.
Silasen felt the anger and straightened up.
"I-I'm sorry sir! But as I was about to intercept Yun Seung-Ah to retrieve the artifact a man with a dog mask showed up… I could faintly sense that he had become the target of the Skull's illusion. I never expected him to gun it for the skull without sparing Yun Seung-Ah a glance…"
The goateed man raised his hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"So not only did you fail to retrieve Homer's Ring. You also lost three members of the Evil Society, failed to kill a single person, failed to identify our attackers, failed to properly put in place the ritual and even lost one of our artifacts to a man who was under its influence."
The man with a goatee let out a chuckle before turning his eyes to Silasen, a sickly, greedy golden colour brewing in the depths of his pupils.
"There is no place for failure within this organisation. Die."
There was a flash of dark mana before a gasp of air was dragged out of a withered corpse. Both skin and flesh had dried to the point of blackening. Bones had turned to stone and blood turned dust poured out of the poor souls lips.
Such was Kim Hakpyo's depriving gift.
With an agitated grunt, Kim Hakpyo clicked his watch to call the cleaner.
There was a moment of silence as the djinn regained his composure.
'A dog and a panther. Both in black masks. Were they working together? It didn't seem like it… but in hindsight they might have been. The Panther was a sniper, but even with mid to high rank sharpshooters it would be hard to pinpoint where exactly the ritual was taking place. Especially with Silasen's [Decoy]... So either there was an unknown disguised high rank protecting the masquerade or the shooter had a collaborator.'
There was another beat as Hakpyo reminded himself of the scar on his subordinates forehead.
"But who in their right mind would use a gun to fight a Djinn? And then there's the dog masked man…"
'He confronted Yun Seung-Ah, a high-ranking Hero as well as the vice guild master of the number one guild in the world… It's natural that she got out unscathed but the same can't be said for the dogman…'
"Tch, I probably should have left Silasen alive… I'll just have Joseph ask his soul and start a file on the Masked Fools."
…
I forked a slice of pancake and cut it before eating it. I didn't pour syrup on it, nor did I spread butter on it.
Most of my attention was elsewhere, breakfast tasting good was the least of my priorities. Plus, I never enjoyed sweet food, even less after that incident with Lee Sang-Il.
The memory made my stomach coil.
'I lost my appetite…'
I put my fork down and tapped onto the Violet Banquets app.
The screen opened up to the usual dark purple site. The news was at the top, then it was a job board and finally your own profile.
My eyes drew to the small envelope icon with a bright red ball at its centre.
'Did Vatz finally reply?'
My question was answered the moment I clicked onto the messages.
The tab labelled 'Monument' was still dark, my apology letter trailing off to the end of the tab.
'So who had sent me a message?'
There was a fresh user ID just below Vatz, their name was 'Pearl Laburnum'. A weird name, but not something totally out of the ordinary.
However the words that were typed out could definitely be classed as 'out of the ordinary'. I even blinked in confusion before reading it a couple more times.
[Pearl Laburnum: Hey Boy. Did you make it home safe?]
At first I assumed they got the wrong number or something along those lines. Yet Violet Banquet, through one method or another, does not allow for such mistakes.
So it's someone who knows me and more importantly some I know recently as well as someone who has a line of contacts that lead to my Violet Banquet account.
Which means it's someone who knows Vatz.
Which means it's someone from the mission. And the only person who could possibly text something like that out of the blue must be bold enough to steal the ring she was employed to protect and then message said employer not only a day after to ask for my contact.
"Pearl…" I felt annoyingly relieved to see that I got in contact with her.
'The mission wasn't a complete loss in the end.'
[Me: Yeah, I did. No thanks to a certain deserter. How about you? You weren't followed right?]
[Pearl Laburnum: Oh? Worrying about lil ol me? Don't get ahead of yourself, boy.]
'I knew she'd start with a bit of light-hearted joking. Keeping it light is manipulation 101.'
[Me: Oh shut up. Why'd you contact me?]
I cut straight to the point.
[Pearl Laburnum: Youch, so blunt. You wont get girls like this y'know?]
Although it was only text I could still feel the jab from across the screen.
[Pearl Laburnum: Anyways, since I deemed you to be competent enough to help me out in the future I decided it would be best if we got in contact sooner than later. Be grateful.]
I pumped my fist in my mind. All my work to try and impress her actually paid off.
…not in that way.
[Me: I see. In that case, I'll contact you if I need an extra hand or two.]
[Pearl Laburnum: Of course.]
With that message came a notification.
A friend request.
'Friends… I can't believe a website that came from a tower has this function…'
I mused before accepting it and putting my watch down.
We only had a few more hours in Paris and I planned to enjoy it with some actual rest.
As they say, too much stress makes the reaper come to your address. Or something like that.