Alastor felt somewhat nostalgic as he toured the Enaj castle – not. He didn’t really ever stay in this place. He usually just entered, massacred, and exited swiftly once he was done. This was the first time he was going to actually be living here for a few days, even if only to later conduct a massacre. And well, take over as a duke, he mumbled to himself, that’ll probably make me nostalgic of this place in the future runs. I’ve never actually ever been the ruler of a place, have I? Didn’t bother to.

To their credit, Alastor had to admit that Duke Enaj and his ancestors had built this castle in a far more tasteful manner than the Deidamian royal line. They had actually chosen to use other colors than gold, colors that were either soothing on the eyes or were at least fun to look at.

“This is the room we give to only the highest guests, hero,” Duke Enaj buttered up as he opened the blue, silver filigree combo door – to be fair, the room did look incredibly luxurious. Two bigger than king sized beds, intricately made carpets, chandeliers, mana stones attached to the walls that could manipulate the room temperature, everything and anything you could think of that screamed luxury, basically.

“So, Hero,” Duke Enaj cooed after waiting for a few seconds, letting Alastor examine the room, “What do you wish to do in our beautiful territory? Would you like to sightsee? I can personally get my children to show you every nook and cranny in our capital, and even our dukedom. Would you like to train? I can get the best trainers and equipment for you. Would you like to—”

“Sightseeing sounds nice,” Alastor interrupted before the man could continue on with his monologue. “I truly appreciate you being so hospitable. No wonder the king said Enaj would make my spirit feel rejuvenated.” he flattered – the king had most certainly not said that, but eh. It wasn’t like the duke would actually check. And it was enough to prevent the man’s delicate noble ego from being hurt.

Alastor did have to stay in this place for a few more days, after all. No point in antagonizing the lord of this place himself.

Duke Tyler’s smile widened. “I see. Please, take some rest, hero. I shall go alert my children immediately – they shall help you sightsee till your heart is overflowing with sights.” Saying so, the man left the room. All the while, he’d made sure not to turn his back towards Alastor, maintaining a small smile on his face as he back pedaled towards the door, only turning around once he reached the door.

Alastor sighed once the door closed. Hecate, being the busy man he was, and probably to not interrupt his plans, had left pretty much immediately after he gave the duke the king’s letter. That made him feel a bit sad – Hecate was a point bank, after all. The old man leaving made his heart naturally throb with melancholy.

He flopped onto his bed. It would probably take a solid half an hour or so before these ‘children’ of Duke Tyler’s would show up. He was moderately sure the letter had given Duke Tyler the impression that he was some chosen, genius hero, so he would most definitely include at least one of his daughters in this sightseeing party that would guide him around. And naturally, the girl had to get ready, after all – she needed to look her best to woo the genius hero.

He groaned. Why couldn’t he just massacre all of these people, again?

Right. Points. Points. There’s definitely someone like Raven and Hecate in this place too – can’t kill them all. Nope. No siree.

—

Information spread quickly, in the slums. Very, very quickly. Within a matter of an hour, everyone knew what had happened in the dumpyard. Including Alan.

But unlike Archer, when Alan was greeted by the sight of the massacre, of the bodies, of the mush, he did not feel fear. He did not feel disgust, nor did he feel the primal urge to run away. The reason was simple – it had already been all but confirmed that all these bodies belonged to one, single source.

The debt collectors. The harvesters. The reapers. The hyenas.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

It belonged to the criminals of the slums. The incorrigible, the kind that killed rampantly. And Alan, he was a victim of these rogues – he very nearly died because of them. His life had been a living hell because of them. He… hated them. Like the majority of the slums. He did not feel fear or disgust, no. He felt glee. He felt happiness – he felt the urge to laugh till his throat broke.

And he felt eternally grateful to the masked men that had killed these bastards.

—

Leco stirred and yawned, sitting up. She blinked and rubbed her eyes lightly, trying to bring them into focus. Of course, her brain came into focus much sooner than her eyes – so, when she was able to open her eyes and actually see, her mind short circuited.

Why am I able to see? Where am I? What in the hell is going on? Wait, why am I awake in the first place? Wasn’t I drugged by Alea?

She still remembered that fateful day. One of her… missions went wrong, and the man… he gouged her eyes out and enj— She shivered, dismissing that line of thought. Either way, she’d begged Alea to relieve her of this life, of this pain – to just drug her, kill her, and harvest her organs or sell her dead body to a dark mage. Make a quick profit – she was useless now that her eyes had been gouged out, anyway. There was no way Alea would waste money on her, hire a mage to heal her.

Alea had initially been skeptical of doing something like that – she claimed dark mages would buy bodies that were fully healthy and intact, not her disfigured one. Which made sense, even to Leco. But to her luck, it seemed that her proposition to sell her organs had struck a chord in Alea’s heart.

Normally, Leco was supposed to have been disposed of without any drugs – probably gotten her throat slit or her head bashed in. They could hardly let the new kids, still useful for missions, see what fate they’d suffered. That would be a very good way to not only make them not do missions, but also make them try to escape.

But from her case onwards, they began drugging the useless kids and stacking them in a room – to Alea’s surprise, their bodies were bought, no matter how cheap the profits were. So that was that.

She did wake up like one time in the middle when Alea had forgotten to administer the drugs in time, but Alea had quickly corrected it, and her mind had been groggy during that time. This was the first time in seemingly forever when she felt so… clear headed, normal, clean.

Leco blinked and took in her surroundings cautiously, hoping that would reveal something to her. She was in a normal looking bedroom on a rather comfy bed, and was surrounded by beds on either side of her. She greedily drunk in every sight around her – it had been ages since she could see, after all. There was a boy sleeping peacefully on the bed next to her, and he’d donned white robes – she looked down on herself, and realized she was wearing white robes too.

On the other side of her was a woman, wearing white robes too, who was sleeping just as peacefully as the boy. This mildly confused Leco – Alea only dealt with kids, as far as she was aware. Why was a grown ass woman here? Then again, Alea wouldn’t have healed her eyes either. Perhaps Leco was successfully sold to a dark mage? The dark mage fixed her disfigurements— nah, a dark mage wouldn’t have let her live once he fixed her disfigurements, let alone wake up.

So was she sold to some brothel? But… Most of her missions consisted of working in brothels, anyway. She was moderately sure no brothel would actually heal her, let alone even buy her. She wouldn’t say she was ugly, but she was definitely not beautiful enough to be bought by one of those high class brothels targeting nobles.

Now she was just completely confused.

Ah. Her eyes lit up. Perhaps I’ve died and am in heaven?

That made sense. Her white robes, the comfy beds, the peaceful room – her gaze turned to the door at the end of the room. Where would that door lead to, then? She pondered, tilting her head lightly. Would—Would it lead to god? Her eyes widened.

She… Goodness, could she meet god?

Right at that time, the door did open, a woman stepping in. She had green hair, green eyes, and wrinkles around her eyes and mouth that made her look like the very definition of kindness – her robes were a mix of white and green, which were the sign of a healer – but Leco was confused enough that she ignored a detail as minor as that.

Is this god? She exclaimed in her mind as her eyes twinkled in amazement.

—