The staredown continued as the man continued to nervously hold Frey hostage.

“I’ll slit her neck if you come any closer.” He panicked while holding a knife to Frey’s neck.

“You won’t do shit. Because if you even so much as scar her body. Then the one with a slit neck will end up being you.” Misen says. “Now if you want to survive I suggest hightailing it out of here. Either you die by my hand or your client’s.” Misen’s threat and her projecting bloodlust made the kidnapper drop his knife and run away. Misen sighed as she put away her sword.

“How did you know he wouldn’t go through with it?” Frey asked.

“Red wolf humans are rare and there aren’t many of them left in the world. The creep who wants you probably wants your body in best condition.” Misen said, disgusted by whoever hired the kidnappers. “Also I want to say I’m sorry, I should’ve never snapped at you. Having hope in this world is a good thing but it's something a cold person like me lost a long time ago. I’m glad we were able to rescue you in time. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like we will be able to learn which rich asshole tried to kidnap you.”

“I accept your apology. What do you mean by we? I only see you here.” Frey, confused, tilts her head.

“Well this was a joint effort between me and. Ah speak of the devil, he is here.” Misen says, looking at the beaten and bruised Voulin.

“I’m glad you are safe, Frey.” Voulin said, appearing right on cue.

“How did you find us?” Frey asked.

“I saw the kidnapper running away without Frey, and went in the direction they were running away from. That’s how I found you guys.” He replied.

“You’re late, that big guy gave you trouble huh.” Misen snakily says, shaking her head.

“That big guy, was Nivio who was a mercenary elite.” Voulin sighed. “Luckily, I was able to out smart him, but things could’ve easily gone south at any moment.”

“Is that so? Well I’m glad you made it out alive. So Frey, what brings you out here in Stellarina? I would assume it would be safer for you to stay in a land protected by your god and his worshipers.” Misen said, puzzled.

“Well, if I stayed in the holy land I would never be able to fulfill my goal.” She replied.

“What’s your goal?” Misen asked.

“To rebuild the red wolves.” Frey said, starry-eyed, wagging her tail. “I grew up in a village full of red wolves, one of the last decent sized ones. It was burned down and my people were hunted. I only survived because I was able to run away quickly enough. The rest of my family was not so lucky. They say that red wolf fur is some of the most exquisite fur which lead to us being hunted to near extinction. After that I was taken in by the Sherasil church where I was protected.” Frey explained. “The reason I left was because most of the men in the holy land don’t wish to start a family unfortunately.” She slumped down.

“What a noble goal. Though I guess it makes sense that the men in the holy land wish to stay pure.” Voulin said.

“What’s your goal Voulin?” Asked a curious Frey.

“To live an interesting life, that’s all.” Voulin let out a grin.

“My goal is to die, however I’ll help see your goals through.” Misen said with a big smile. “Voulin, meet me later tonight. I’ve got something to ask from you.” She whispered to him. Unbeknownst to them, Frey could still hear their whispers.

Later, Misen and Voulin met up. “So what did you want to talk about?” Asked Voulin.

“I want information on the one who attempted to kidnap Frey. How long will it take you?”

“With my network I could get it done in less than a day. I’ll update you with the information tomorrow. Consider this a favor, and you’ll owe me one in the future.” Voulin agreed to the proposal. Due to his status as a mercenary and his experience, he has lots of connections and has a pretty expansive information network. Finding a foolish lord who hired thugs to kidnap a defenseless red wolf woman would be child’s play.

“Good night, I’ll look forward to an update.” Misen says as she leaves for her inn room.

“Good night.” He replies. The two go their separate ways for the night. Back at the inn room Misen thinks about everything that happened today.

“Frey was almost kidnapped, I almost didn’t get the chance to apologize. I want to make a meaningful friendship with them, but I’m a coward, I’m too afraid to lose anyone again. I’m a walking contradiction. I fear being alone, yet I fear the day I have to say goodbye. I think I’m human, but I can’t die.” A worried Misen paced back and forth in her room. “Well, tomorrow I’ll take care of the unfinished business. Otherwise, Frey will never be safe.” Misen muttered as she fell asleep. Whilst Misen slept, Voulin met with one of his informants. The two met up in normal looking clothes for the area. They met at a cafe near the back row. The woman across from Voulin was the leader of an ace informant team. They work with a lot of high profile clients. Although Voulin has known the current leader for a long time. She had short curly medium coppery blonde colored hair.

“Jess, I would like you and your team to find the one responsible for Frey’s kidnapping. Misen is likely going to take care of it. I’m rather interested in seeing her way of fighting when she is hunting.” Voulin tells his lead informant.

“Normally, if my client said my name I would’ve terminated the agreement and have them killed. But we’ve known each other for a long time.” Jessica sighed.

“Would the assassin have been Revera or Gillian?” Voulin asks with a smile.

“Because it’s you, I would have both of them take care of it. You are a tenacious one like a cockroach.” She chuckled.

“Well as long as interesting people like you and your team keep existing, I’ll be sticking around.” He returns a laugh. “I’m helping Misen and Frey cause they are interesting.”

“You and your interests haaaa.” Jessica sighed. “Oh well, you're paying me and my team, so it doesn't matter. We’ll have the information sometime tomorrow. We’ll send you a note in a discreet manner.” She stated.

“Thank you, I’ll look forward to Irarine’s disguise this time.” He said with a smile, as he finished his food then paid and left.

“That foolish man, he never changes.” Jessica smiles. She channeled some mana into her ring to teleport her to headquarters. After arriving in the sky base located on a floating island. The invisible ears is a large informant organization. Within the organization there are tiers at the top of the food chain is Jessica and her team. Only the upper tiers ever get a chance to step foot in the main headquarters. Jessica makes her way into the section for her team.

“So because Jessica personally went out it was either a high paying client or it was Voulin. My money is on Voulin.” Laughed Irarine. Irarine is an optimistic 19 year old woman with chestnut colored skin, brown eyes, and short dark brown hair. She was originally a thief in the slums of Airere. However, after being recruited by Jessica she uses the skills she learned to secretly give the client the information.

“Oh, Jessica is back.” Revera’ ear twitched and yawned.

“She’s back?” Gillian yawned.

Revera and Gillian, the tired duo make up the top two executioners of the organization. Revera is a light skinned tall 29 year old, white shoulder length haired, blue eyed, fox woman with access to wind and water elemental magic. She has several scars all over her body from training and missions early on. Gillian is an average height light skinned 28 year old. With short light brown hair, blue eyes and is a fox man. He has a similar amount of scars due to joining the organization around the same time as Revera. The final person in the room is Tomo. He is a human who is one of the main information collectors. He organizes all information found by the team. He has long black hair and brown eyes. He was born and raised in Kajne. Currently he is making sure all information is organized. Those four were the only ones currently in the meeting room for the team. With the other members being out.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Ahem! You know I can hear you right, Irarine?” Jessica calls from outside the door. “I’ll have to discipline you later.” She sighed. “We have a quick job from Voulin. It’s to find out who ordered the kidnapping of Frey, the red wolf woman.”

“I was right! Wooooo.” Cheered Irarine. Gillian and Revera, both annoyed, hand her some gold coins.

“Well, for lords that desire a red wolf woman. Here is the list. Although for Stellarina that leaves two.” Tomo said, grabbing a folder. “However, it’s reasonable to believe that lord Jackington is the culprit due to how idiotic he can be. The other lord is lord Reskir who is smarter. However, it’s not a good idea to assume so it’ll be best to investigate both.” He said.

“Since it’ll be a quick job I’ll just send Naria to investigate, and once she learns who ordered it. Irarine will deliver the information to Voulin. That’s all for now.” Jessica stated then went to her room. After some time Naria, who was a short, black cat woman, came back. She heard her orders and departed to Stellarina in order to investigate. While she was investigating. Irarine, Gillian, and Revera decided to bet on which lord it was.

“My money is on the obvious one, it’s clearly lord Jackington.” Irarine proudly said while placing down 5 gold coins.

“I’m gonna go with lord Reskir.” Yawned Revera as she placed down 5 gold coins.

“Your tiredness has made your judgment sloppy. No take backs though.” Chuckled Irarine placing 5 more coins.

“I’m going with Irarine on this one.” Gillian said as he placed 5 gold coins down. After they made their bets Gillian, and Revera fell back to sleep. At some point midday, Naria came back. Gillian and Revera wake back up as they sense her arrival.

“So what’s the result? Who was it, Naria?” Asked an eager Irarine.

“It was surprisingly Reskir. It seems his calm and collectivism was all a front. Or perhaps he lost his cool, the moment he saw the red wolf woman. He was quite frustrated that the ones he hired never came back. Jackington was just being an idiot as usual, but it seemed like the only red wolf thing he did was buying paintings of one. Also it seems that Voulin killed Nivio while trying to rescue Frey with Misen.” Naria reported. Tomo writes down that Nivio is dead in his records.

“Well it seems it’s my victory then. Who’s judgment was sloppy?” Revera grabbed all 15 gold coins and placed them into her collection.

“Drat! And I was so sure it would be lord Jackington.” Cursed Irarine.

“It seems it was my loss then, unfortunate. I went with the seemingly safe bet. However, it was not the correct choice.” Gillian sighed.

“Also that woman, Misen. We should ask Voulin about confirmation about the poison she bought back in Airere. It didn’t seem like she had it on her anymore.” Naria said. Tomo writes down all the information he got, and makes a note for Irarine to hand to Voulin.

“Alright Irarine, whenever you are ready, you can deliver this to Voulin.” Tomo said as he held up a folded up note.

“I’ll go right now, I need to get some fresh air.” Irarine grabs the note and heads to her dressing room to put on a disguise. After changing her face, eye color, basically all physical attributes. She steps out and gets ready to leave for Stellarina. “Do you think Voulin will see through this one?” She asks.

“Yes, definitely.” Naria said.

“I’m positive.” Tomo said.

“He always does.” Revera said.

“That’s true.” Gillian said.

“I’m going to fool him at least once.” Irarine proudly said, as she headed to the teleporter section of headquarters. Once she left the secret area where it teleported her. She arrived in Stellarina to hunt for Voulin.

Voulin while walking around notices someone slipping a note into his pocket.

“Thanks Irarine.” He thanked the mysterious woman who disappeared. She was a little frustrated that he recognized her.

“He recognized meee.” She complained to her comrades.

“He always does. This time was no different” Revera said.

“What do you think he plans on doing with the knowledge?” Tomo asked.

“I wonder if it has something to do with the woman, Misen?” Asked Naria.

Misen was enjoying her day and awaiting Voulin’s report. She was wandering the streets of Stellarina.

“He said that it wouldn’t take him long to get the information.” She muttered. Suddenly, Voulin walks up to her.

“Well, according to my informants the lord responsible is lord Reskir. His estate is here.” He said pointing to a location on the map of Stellarina.

“I’ll pay him a visit later tonight. I can’t promise it will be pretty though.” Misen replied.

“So you knew that I was going to watch.” He chuckled.

“It doesn’t matter to me, as long as you don’t try to interfere. I am not a saint. I bite back when a friend is targeted. Otherwise, they’ll probably just send more.” She stated.

Later that night Misen made her way to the estate wearing a mask. She cut through the door after jumping the fence. Once inside she was greeted by a small army of hired help that gathered at the door upon hearing the commotion.

“If you leave now I won’t kill you.” Misen coldly stated. A few of the non-combative servants left immediately. Others stayed behind and believed in their superior numbers. “Less than I thought. Oh well.” She sighed. Misen drew her blade and killed the three of the hired help who were in front of her with one horizontal swing. She quickly ran towards the remaining servants and sliced them apart with ease. The hired help began to panic as none of them could seem to even slow down her momentum. Misen skewered two of the hired help with her sword then drained their body of their blood.

“M-Monster!” One of the hired help cried out. One of the hired help was a big man with a large metal spear. He quickly impaled Misen and she seemingly went limp as her heart was pierced right through. The spear went through her back spilling blood on the floor.

“Just kidding.” Misen however, was not dead and she started to pull herself closer to the man still impaled. He is completely stunned as the woman he just impaled is moving down his spear. By the time he realized what happened she got close enough, she decapitated him with her sword. She took out the spear and her hole regenerated. The rest of the hired help and servants attempted to flee, but she was blocking the exit. She slayed everyone who attempted to flee. Some attempted to pray to a god before being cut down. The halls became dead silent as the only one remaining was Misen the rest had been slayed. Finally, the mistress and the master of the estate came out noticing the smell of blood.

“What in the world is going on here?” Lord Reskir asked. Then he was stunned frozen as he saw all the corpses littering his halls. “Do you know how much this will cost to clean up and replace all of them?” He screamed.

“Darling, I knew we should’ve bought better than just some mercenaries.” His wife said, shaking her head. “First, the kidnappers failed to capture that red wolf woman. Now we have a random masked slasher woman killing all of our servants.” She sighed.

“Neither of you hold an ounce of regret. I’ll see you in Diudis.” Misen said, decapitating both of them. Their heads came off while they were talking and they looked at eachother confused as their heads came off simultaneously. “Disgusting, people like you two don’t deserve to live.” Misen said repulsed. She then went and absorbed the blood of all the people she killed. She was feeling euphoric after absorbing so much blood. Voulin came in.

“Damn.” He whistled. “You are even more interesting than I initially thought. You didn’t hesitate to kill a single one, I’m impressed.” He said while giving a light clap. After Misen went left one of the servants that she never saw screamed seeing all the drained corpses. “You think it’s fine to let them live?” Voulin asked.

“It’s fine I killed my target, that’s enough.” Misen replied. “Can you get rid of this mask for me?” Misen asked. She held the mask in front of Voulin.

“I’ll handle it.” Voulin replied, taking the mask with him. “In the meantime, do you want to have some drinks? Although you’ll pay for your own this time.”

Misen woke up the next day, after going to the plaza she saw a notice on the board that lord Reskir and his wife were murdered last night. Their estate was set on fire burning away all evidence. Misen saw Frey amongst the crowd and smiled at her. Frey wasn’t hiding her red wolf ears with a hood this time.

“Hey Frey.” Misen called out to Frey.

“Oh hey Misen. It’s rather unfortunate that both the lord and his wife passed last night. May their souls rest in Eguhana.” Frey prayed for the fallen souls.

“They definitely aren’t going there.” Misen quietly muttered. Frey heard it with her heightened hearing and sighed. She figured out what Misen had done based on what she heard.

“Misen, how long do you plan on staying here in Stellarina?” She asked.

“I’ll probably either leave whenever or I could go with you on your journey.” Misen said.

“You can tag along. I would definitely feel safer if you did.” Frey replied.

“Maybe we can convince Voulin to come with us. His knowledge and information gathering would be pretty useful.” Misen said.