Thursday night.

The attic was dark. The curtains were shut. The crimson moon's light shone into the window and into the curtain.

A soft snoring sound was heard in the room. A very faint, almost nonexistent. Aren was sleeping, lying on his side, a blanket pulled up to his chin.

"…"

Next to the bed, Mira looked at sleeping Aren with a cold look and tried to move her hand towards his throat.

She couldn't, as if there was an invisible power stopping her.

Mira was trying to choke him. It was her intention. But the power of the slave choker was too strong.

"Agh…"

She eventually pulled her hands back, hitting herself in frustration, and kept staring at Aren with hatred.

With stiff movements, she moved to the triangle window and tried to open, but once again, she couldn't.

The order, "Don't try to escape," echoed in her mind.

"Shit!"

With a stomp, Mira returned back to her mattress at the corner of the attic, her face twisted with hatred.

She covered herself with the blanket, put her head on the soft pillow, and screamed in frustration.

The pillow muffled her screams.

In the bed, Aren's right eye opened, and under the blanket, he was clutching his black revolver.

However, after seeing that the power of the slave choker seemed to work, he let go of it and let out a soft breath.

'I spent 65,000 to sleep with one eye open. You're very smart, Kael, very smart indeed.'

Aren mocked himself, then closed his eyes, and tried to fall asleep.

…

The next morning.

A cold air of the incoming weekend washed over the streets of Kornacis, and Aren was currently making his way to the Guild.

While he didn't have any need of money, there were still other reasons that he needed to complete the Guild missions.

He was currently at the bottom of the Guild hierarchy—a mere White-ranked adventurer.

The higher the rank, the more access he would have to exclusive missions and rewards. There were vaults inside the Guild.

Those vaults had valuable artifacts, weapons, and everything in between. The adventurers of the Guild could purchase them.

Only if they had access to the vault, though.

With Aren being only White-ranked, he only had access to the White vault. It was mostly worthless items over there.

After arriving at Heavy Smog Street, he quickly arrived at the Guild, and it was as busy as ever with hundreds of Blessed Ones moving about.

In that moment, he saw a crowd outside the Guild.

Ordinary folk were shouting things.

"Please, my child is really sick! If there is a healer amongst you, please come with me, and I will pay as much as you want!"

"There are Monster Rats living under my house. Is there, please, someone that is willing to exterminate them?"

Adventurers of the Guild were pretty much ignoring them.

There were healers, who heard the mother's desperate cry but ignored her, as it wouldn't pay enough for their trouble.

In that moment, Aren saw someone in a black butler's outfit chasing after adventurers, begging them to listen to him.

"P-Please, I am Head Butler of the Baron of the Lanternford Market. His daughter has gone missing, and he is willing to pay a lot for someone to find her!"

The butler screamed and even tried to grab onto the leg of one of the adventurers, but they just shook him away.

The adventurers knew that they could get paid well—if they found the daughter, that is—but the chance of successfully doing that was slim.

Missing people missions were usually ignored by the adventurers because they didn't pay enough for their troubles, and they were really difficult.

If they failed in the mission, their guild rank could drop, and they would just hurt their own reputation.

Mystics and Rangers usually took those missions, but even they had failed many of those missions.

While Mystics could track the missing people with the help of their clothing pieces, if the kidnappers or the missing people just wandered too far away, their powers wouldn't help.

Rangers were really good trackers, but if there were no tracks left of them, then there was nothing they could do.

'…I could hear him out.'

Aren thought and approached the butler.

"Hello. A missing person's case, hmm?"

With a hopeful gaze, the butler turned around to look at Aren, but then he saw his black hair, ear piercings, and cold-looking face.

There was something really dark about him, and then he noticed the black revolver.

'…Outlaw!'

The butler thought with fear.

Usually, Outlaws would take missions that were about killing someone. They never did missing people's cases because that went against their Pathway code of chaos.

Thus, he was certain that Aren was after something else!

The butler looked at the photograph in his hand. It was a photograph of a beautiful young woman.

She was the daughter of the baron of the Lanternford Market.

'Does he find her attractive and want to do something to her?!'

The head butler paled.

"…Well?"

Aren looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"…U-Uh, sir, I-I am sorry, but…"

"But what? I don't think anyone else will accept that mission. You came from Lanternford Market, and that is like two days away with a wagon.

"I am sure the baron of the Lanternford Market had already searched for her with his own men, and after losing hope, he sent you here.

"So, let me guess… She must've disappeared about two… three weeks ago, perhaps?

"No one in their right mind would accept that mission, as it is doomed for failure, but you're in for a luck, I am not in my right mind."

Aren said with a grin.

'…He hit a nail on that. She has indeed been gone for almost three weeks. I-I guess he might be smarter than he looks, but…'

The head butler looked troubled.

However, the baron of the Lanternford Market told him not to return if he couldn't get anyone to accept the mission.

Thus, he would not be allowed to return home, and he was honestly already tired of coming to the Guild every morning in hopes of someone accepting the mission.

This might be the only one that would allow him to finally go back home and see his family again!

"F-Fine, but you'll need to meet with the baron first to discuss the details. There might be a chance that he will refuse your services…"

The butler said hesitantly.

"That's fine. I'll get my things over at my place. So, should we meet over at Royal Park, and we'll head to the Lanternford Market together?"

Aren asked.

"…Okay."

The head butler said, still unsure.