Inside Razor’s office, Lucien and Ava stood in front of the desk in an increasingly awkward silence while Razor remained completely still, her gaze slightly unfocused as though she were turning something over in her head.
They had already finished explaining everything, so now they were just… waiting.
Lucien suppressed a sigh.
Razor had a habit of letting silence drag on longer than necessary. Whether she did it intentionally or not, he honestly couldn’t tell anymore, but it always made being in the same room as her feel strangely tense.
The only sounds came from the faint crackling of the lantern near the wall and the occasional creak of wood somewhere deeper in the building.
Eventually, Razor gave a slow nod.
“Your mission still produced valuable results, especially the information regarding the Spider Hollow in the Contested Zone.” Her tone remained calm and even. “You also managed to identify several of the Knight’s combat patterns. That alone is important considering Hollows rarely develop many variations in behavior.”
She paused briefly, her eyes sharpening slightly as they settled on Lucien.
“Next time, I want the patrol route mapped. Or kill it.”
Lucien felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders at that.
The Twilight Covenant wasn’t especially brutal when missions failed like this. At worst, they simply wouldn’t get paid. Considering they had barely escaped alive, he could live with that outcome.
He exhaled quietly through his nose.
“I’ll make sure to map the route next time.”
Razor’s gaze shifted toward Ava next.
“You’ll accompany him again during the next scouting run. Be prepared.”
“Yes,” Ava replied simply, giving a small nod.
Razor turned back to Lucien afterward.
“Do you have any contacts in the Merchant Quarter?”
Lucien blinked once, caught slightly off guard by the sudden shift in topic. A faint frown pulled at his brows.
“I do,” he answered slowly. “Why does that matter?”
“Considering you operate as a freelance scout on the surface, you’re allowed to bring in outsiders for scouting or even hunting operations within the Southern Ruins,” Razor said calmly. “Any useful information they provide will be rewarded.”
Lucien gave a small nod as the explanation clicked into place.
The other districts had already started making moves toward the Southern Ruins as well. From what he’d heard, it was likely connected to preparations for reclaiming the Luminous Spire in the Contested Zone, which apparently could still be repaired.
The deeper parts of the Southern Ruins remained largely unmapped even now, and anything hiding there could easily interfere with a large-scale operation.
Given the Twilight Covenant’s role in reconnaissance and the Merchant Quarter’s tendency to trade information with practically everyone willing to pay, Lucien had already suspected that at least some of the Covenant’s intelligence eventually circulated through those channels anyway. Other factions were probably already using that information to slowly push farther into the Southern Ruins.
“I understand,” Lucien replied. “I’ll look into it if the opportunity comes up.”
His thoughts immediately drifted toward Edric. As a merchant, the man must have more connections than he let on.
And honestly… I’d rather stop getting dragged into frontline fights every other mission.
On top of that, Lucien still wanted to test the broader intimacy methods tied to the System.
“That’s all for now,” Razor said at last.
She opened one of the desk drawers, pulled out a stack of black slips, then slid six of them smoothly across the desk.
“Your payment. Three each.”
Lucien and Ava stepped forward and picked them up carefully.
Lucien glanced down at the slip in his hand.
It was printed in a muted silver-gray ink, with a simple upward triangle stamped at the center. A small stylized eye rested in the upper-left corner, while a thin line of identification characters ran along the bottom edge. Other than that, the note was nearly plain—no portrait, no decorative borders, not even any indication of an issuing authority.
Twilight Covenant currency.
After the Eclipse, old imperial coins still circulated here and there, but mostly as leftovers from the past. No new currency had been minted in months, and inflation had climbed high enough that most ordinary people couldn’t realistically rely on coins anymore. For many, bartering had simply become the default way to survive.
The old Asterian Empire currency system had depended heavily on Asteria as the capital and the dwarven forges of the Skyspear Mountains. Both had effectively stopped supplying money after the collapse.
Twilight Covenant’s notes were different.
They were most likely produced within Vel'Sharim itself, using materials sourced locally or from nearby regions. Unlike the old coins, their circulation barely seemed affected by the Eclipse at all.
More importantly—
They actually pay like decent human beings!
Three slips of this type could cover roughly a month’s worth of food, pay for several moderate Covenant services, or buy a decent amount of supplies from the Market Floor.
Lucien let out a quiet breath, the corner of his mouth tugging upward slightly.
Being an assassin isn’t so bad after all.
“Dismissed,” Razor said.
The two of them left immediately without lingering.
A short while later, they stepped back onto the crowded Market Floor. Lantern light spilled across the underground bazaar while voices, footsteps, and distant bargaining blended into a constant low hum.
Ava glanced at the black slip in her hand, turning it over once between her fingers before looking at Lucien.
“So,” she asked casually, “where exactly do we use these for food?”
“There’s a street called Pickpocket’s Alley in the Merchant Quarter,” Lucien replied as they walked. “You can use those there.”
Ava slipped the black note into her coat pocket. “What about you? Got plans after this?”
“I’m heading to the Merchant Quarter too, though not specifically to Pickpocket’s Alley. I can walk you there first if you want.”
He had briefly considered stopping by the Temple District to lower his Corruption, but he felt that his corruption level wasn’t high enough to justify spending resources on purification yet, so he had dropped the idea.
“Hm.” Ava glanced sideways at him. “Then escort me there.”
Lucien snorted softly. “Sure, let’s get moving.”
The two of them climbed the stairs and exited the building, stepping back into the tangled maze of the Eastern Slums.
As they walked, an awkward atmosphere lingered between them.
Or maybe Lucien was the only one feeling it. Ava looked completely normal.
Ever since they crossed back into the Contested Zone earlier, they had barely spoken at all, mostly because they were too exhausted to bother. Now that the adrenaline had faded, the silence felt more noticeable.
“You really screwed up back there,” Ava said eventually, breaking the quiet with a chuckle. “We almost died, you know.”
“Yeah.” Lucien rubbed the back of his neck with a tired sigh. “Sorry about that. I stopped paying attention to my surroundings.”
“Well, whatever.” Ava let out a quiet laugh. “I was honestly more surprised you didn’t leave me behind near the end. We were already close to the border.”
Lucien thought back on it for a moment.
“…I didn’t really think about it,” he admitted with a small sigh. “I was still thinking we should hold it back together while retreating. Maybe I would’ve left you if I’d actually stopped to think.”
“That shadow tendril thing surprised me, though.” Ava tilted her head slightly. “Can you do that repeatedly?”
“Just a couple times.”
His answer came naturally.
He wasn’t overly worried about Ava knowing what she had just seen. Before this, he had already mentioned that he knew the basics of the Obsidian thread, so Shadow Tendril wasn’t completely impossible to explain away.
Still, Lucien made a mental note to be more careful about using it in public from now on. After all, anyone who seriously looked into his background would eventually notice the inconsistencies.
Ava studied him for another second, as if trying to decide whether to push further, before eventually shrugging.
“Well, whatever it was, it saved my life,” she said lightly. “So I’m not exactly complaining.”
“How understanding of you.”
“I try.”
A faint smirk tugged at Lucien’s lips despite himself.
The Knight, the Spider Hollow, the deeper ruins, the Luminous Spire—
Soon enough, large numbers of people would probably start moving into the Southern Ruins all at once.
And knowing his luck, he'd probably end up among the first people standing on the front lines.