CHAPTER 66: BUSINESS WITH CRIME

I’m now walking through the streets, incredibly the academy doesn’t have a curfew, if you leave the academy, you just need to get to class on time and everything’s fine.

’It’s a beautiful night’

I’m wandering through the city at night with a fixed goal, I need to do this before tomorrow’s class.

I find one of the manhole covers that’s what I’m looking for, I kick the cover down, breaking it, I see the area down there, it doesn’t seem to be in use.

’I hope this is worth my time’ I jump down there and start walking through the tunnel, seeing perfectly in this darkness.

Soon I see torches and luminous stones lighting up the long tunnel.

I walk quietly and stop at the corner feeling two presences.

"Dude, for real, don’t fall asleep, what’s gonna happen if someone breaks in?" One of the guards says to the other.

"Who in their right mind would break into the sewers in the middle of the night? Especially if they know who owns this place."

"Still, you never know, there are crazies for everything in this world."

I feel like they’re insulting me, I’m not crazy, I just have confidence that I can break in and get out without problems.

I walk forward and go up to them with a smile.

"Beautiful night, don’t you guys think?" They’re surprised by my sudden appearance, as they draw their swords.

"Who are you, surrender now or we’ll kill you."

"Huh?"

CRUNCH! CRACK!

I made two walls with the shadows and crushed them against the concrete walls, as soon as I undo the shadows I see the walls painted red with crushed meat and bones slowly falling to the floor.

I enter without problems, through the back part that is the least protected, so this is easy.

"Hey little girl, what are you doing here?" After walking for a while and turning a corner, a guard sees me, as soon as he extends his hand to touch me, I cut off his arm with a shadow-shaped blade.

"AARRRGGGGG MY ARM, YOU BITCH" He’s quite resilient and tries to hit me with the other arm, ignoring the pain, only to have his head separated from his body.

I hold the arm and take a bite. It’s not bad, better than the cafeteria food, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the food in my castle.

I walk through the hallways calmly chewing on the arm, soon I find a group of guards playing cards at a table, they seem very focused, it’s obvious they’re weak if they haven’t noticed me yet.

I approach slowly and observe the game, I have time to enjoy it, after all, the night is young.

"Hey, no cheating" One of them says without looking up, and it’s ridiculous how they don’t notice me even though I’m right next to them.

"You’re the one cheating, look how unbalanced your cards are."

"Shut up and just play."

There are 5 of them playing, I wonder what game this is, it must be specific to this world, it looks interesting, maybe I’ll play it with Shogo later.

"Whoever is eating, could you please stop, it’s distracting my concentration," one of them says, obviously referring to me eating the raw meat of an arm.

"Sorry, it’s making more noise than I intended." I say, hoping for a reaction, and it’s true that eating a raw arm creates noise.

"No problem, just avoid eating during the game."

I hold back the urge to laugh at this situation.

"Hey, what does that card do?" I start participating, I want to see how long it takes them to notice.

"It ends the game, you don’t need to worry about it."

"I see, and who’s winning?"

"I am," the 5 of them say at the same time, soon they all raise their heads to argue.

"Of course it’s... me... Wha-what the fuck is that?" The one at the opposite end sees me chewing on the arm, I wave at him with the half-eaten arm.

They all get scared when they notice me, some fall off their chairs while others get in a defensive stance.

"IN-INTRUDER!" One of them comes to attack, only to be dismembered, the place has a dark aspect, so generating attacks with Shadow Sculpture is easy.

"AARRRGGGG" The other 4 seem to realize the seriousness of the situation, they draw their swords, but I make the shadow on the ground extend and rise up, crushing them against the ceiling, when the shadow disappears, blood and meat drip like rain, falling on the only dismembered guy I kept alive.

The guy I left alive cries as he tries to crawl away. I throw the arm I was eating into the shadows for my sharks to finish eating.

I step on the desperate guy who screams and howls in pain.

"Could you tell me if your boss is here?" I ask in a calm and peaceful tone, belying the seriousness of the situation.

"H-He is, he is, p-please don’t kill me..."

"And why do you want to stay alive? You’re a criminal, I doubt you can live on the surface, and I doubt anyone would heal your lost limbs, do you want to live like a rat on the streets until you starve to death?"

He shakes his head desperately, I guess the will to live is stronger than reason or my "strange" logic.

"Okay, I promise I won’t kill you." I say, moving away from him, I see hope in his eyes.

"Well... I’m going after your boss, I hope you survive long enough to see tomorrow, my sharks can be quite... unique hahahaha." I say, walking away as several dark fins begin to circle around him, as he tries to crawl away desperately.

"YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T KILL ME!" He yells as he sees me leaving.

"Yes, I’m not killing you, my sharks are living beings, I didn’t give any orders, I just said do what you want, if they kill you, it’s not my fault." I turn the corner as I hear screams, the sharks have started.

I’m someone who keeps my promises, I didn’t kill him as I said I would, if he died because of another living being, then it’s no longer my fault.

I walk, and walk, killing everyone I encounter, most serve as the new decoration of the environment, painting the walls, ceiling and floor red.

Soon I reach where I think their boss is, it’s a very nice door compared to the dilapidated sewer I’ve been through the whole way.

I knock on the door politely.

Knock Knock Knock

"Come in," I hear a voice from inside, I open the door and enter.

I walk up to the desk where the guy is sitting and sit down in a chair, he seems to already know I was here.

"May I ask why you killed my guards, young lady? Nice mask, by the way."

’So he sees it’ I’m wearing an artifact I ordered from the Grand Duke, and a black mask with details that resemble scales, it has red patterns as if representing a furious black dragon and covers my entire face.

This mask has two functions, it is an expensive custom-made artifact that when seen by normal people, it is as if I am without a mask, while they will see an unknown face.

And for those who are strong, they will see the shape of the mask instead of my face, although it still won’t be possible to identify who I am, be it skin tone or voice, everything is different even for the strong.

It also allows me to eat, having some kind of "Transparency" that allows me to eat things even when wearing the mask.

So there’s no way to know who I am while I’m wearing the mask.

"Well, think of it as a free sample."

"I believe you came to do business with me since you haven’t attacked me yet."

"Correct, I know well that those trash had no value to you, they are just a facade, you are much stronger than them, you don’t need the meager protection they provide."

"You’re after..."

"Your boss." I say bluntly, this kingdom has many criminal organizations, and a leader for everything, this leader can be called a king of thieves or something similar because he rules the underworld of crime in several kingdoms.

"I believe you can’t see her, young lady." He says in a serious tone.

"Yes, I imagine she won’t come talk to me, so I’ll do business with you until she’s willing." This is one of the crime’s sub-bosses, usually used for doing business in this area of the city.

"If that’s the case, I hope we have a long partnership."

"I agree." I toss him a cloth bag, he grabs it and opens it, inside is full of small Necrolitio stones, as it is a magical ore, the price is very high, and Necrolitio, being mainly used for necromancy, has many buyers in the black market.

"So what would be your request for this humble worker?" He says with a touch of amusement.

"Murder, and kidnapping, I want you to kidnap Duke Lionel D’Auberon." I could ask Veritus to do this, but there are certain problematic magics and abilities, and the way to circumvent this is to have the kidnapping done by third parties.

That bastard is screwed, I was going to humiliate him at the academy, but I don’t have the patience after he drugged me, I’m going to make that asshole wish he was never born.

"And for the murder, your target is the Saint, no need for success." I doubt they’ll kill the Saint, but I want to give her a little scare just for fun, if I don’t specify that success is needed, they’ll try and when they fail, they’ll give up, so it’s cheaper.

"Anything else, young lady?" He asks as he makes some notes.

"I’d like to obtain a free pass for the black market."

"Young lady, tell me the maximum you can pay us?"

’I know the reason for the question.’ I pull from my shadow a Quintessentium stone the size of a soccer ball.

He widens his eyes in surprise, this ore can easily be considered one of the most valuable in the world, I took this one from the vault of my castle, then I put it back where it should be.

The reason for this question is because Lionel is probably part of the black market, that is, if he is taken out of the game, the black market loses a customer, so naturally the new customer has to have more value than the previous one.

I doubt Lionel can offer as much value to the black market as I can.

"Your request has been accepted, miss." He speaks in a more respectful tone.

I have much more value than that brat who lives off his father’s reputation, even if I don’t buy anything from the black market, it’s already advantageous for the black market to have me.

From what I’ve researched, this type of information is automatically leaked on purpose, meaning that everyone in the black market will know that someone would be willing to pay with Quintessentium, and the more proud ones will start paying and buying more just to show off.

It means that even if I don’t participate in the black market, just by making this offer to get the free pass, it will already be of great help.

’Fortunately, they don’t reveal who made the offer.’ I don’t want to draw attention or become a target when I’m in the black market.

"How can I contact you, miss?" His tone, which was previously more casual, is now completely professional.

I make a shadow and hand it to him, this is another interesting shadow I recently discovered, the crows, they have the special ability that when they are destroyed, the collected information automatically passes to me.

"Just tell that crow where I should go to pick up my delivery." The crow flies to the guy’s shoulder and perches there, ready for him to use.

Another wonderful thing is that the shadows can’t be connected to me, because I noticed that they have 0% mana, so even if someone finds one of my shadows, that shadow could never lead to me in any way.

Because tracking spells and others like that require mana, and my shadows are literally shadows that have acquired life and form without a drop of mana, this makes me question what this ability really is.

’I wonder if he’ll hide the crow.’ If he doesn’t hide it and keeps the crow, I’ll steal any confidential information the crow hears, with this ability, my information gathering has evolved a lot.

In my free time, I always summon various shadows and try to figure out what they do, there are many that I have no idea what they do.

"I’ll be going now." I walk through the same path I came, leaving after this productive meeting, tomorrow we’ll go to a dungeon, so I should prepare.