"Oi! Did you hear? There was another sighting of those night monsters in the outer woods just before dawn!"
"Again? What the fuck is going on right now? Is the capital being infested from the outside in?"
"I don’t know, man, but the local trackers are terrified to even step foot past the tree line anymore. Ever since one of those vampires—or whatever the hell the guild clerks are calling them, ambushed a seasoned trainer and left him half-dead in the dirt!"
"Fucking hell..."
The anxious whispers bled from one wooden stall to the next, spreading through the bustling morning market of Uranik like wildfire.
The crisp morning air was thick with the aroma of baking bread, roasting street meats, and the underlying, unmistakable tang of human paranoia.
Every merchant and armored mercenary loitering near the main thoroughfare seemed to have the exact same topic on their lips, their voices laced with a heavy mixture of dread and morbid curiosity.
As Lucious walked calmly down the cobblestone street, his heavy combat boots making a rhythmic, muted thud against the stone, his enhanced vampire hearing picked up every single word straight out of their mouths.
Beneath the dark, reinforced leather armor covering his chest, he could not help but feel a sharp, sudden twinge of apprehension.
’Don’t tell me...’ Lucious wondered internally, his steps slowing just a fraction as he stared out toward the distant, sun-drenched horizon with a somewhat nervous tightness around his jaw.
A few days ago, during their relentless grinding in the surrounding wilderness, he had stumbled upon a massive realization regarding the mechanics of his Supreme System.
He had already known that the more blood servants he created and bound to his Faction Grid, the stronger his own baseline vessel became.
Taking that logic a step further, he had figured that letting his Mindless Blood goblins and scaled lizards roam freely through the dense forest at night, allowing them to hunt and accumulate their own combat experience, would passively funnel a portion of that growth directly back to him.
Which, of course, had worked like an absolute charm.
His baseline attributes, his agility, physical strength, and undead vitality, had all begun to rise exponentially every single time his nocturnal army clashed with wandering beasts or foolish adventurers in the dark.
Although his strict system command ordering them not to kill human targets still stood firm, preventing an all-out royal investigation, he genuinely had not expected the rumors to spread through the capital this fast.
After all, every single one of those skirmishes had taken place in the dead of night under the suffocating canopy of the forest, where human eyes had almost zero clear vision before his servants retreated into the shadows prior to sunrise.
Lucious let out a slow, quiet sigh, the white mist of his breath dissipating into the morning air.
’I really didn’t think the rumor mill through,’ he admitted in his mind, watching a pair of city guards march past with their hands resting nervously on their sword hilts.
Gradually, the fleeting nervousness vanished from his pale face, replaced by a cold, calculating stillness that settled deep behind his crimson irises.
’But then again, I guess it is for the better,’ he uttered silently in his head, a dark, apathetic edge taking over his thoughts. ’I have no reason to keep their existence hidden forever. Not from a rotten kingdom that spat on me and left me in the dark to die.’
Let the humans tremble at the mere mention of the night. When the time finally came for his syndicate to step out of the shadows, that deeply rooted fear would be a weapon all on its own.
Shaking the dark thoughts from his head, Lucious refocused his attention on the immediate task at hand: the lucrative, off-the-board escort contract handed to him by the short Chairlady back at his apartment.
Seven thousand gold pieces were waiting for him at the end of the road to Border Town, and he was not about to be late.
Navigating toward the outer staging plaza near the city gates, where he was supposed to meet the wealthy merchant family, Lucious scanned the crowded dirt square. To his mild surprise, he spotted their transport almost immediately.
Parked not too far from a bustling, grease-stained street food stand was an opulent, heavily reinforced wooden carriage.
Hitched to the front of the transport were two massive, thick-scaled land dragons, their heavy snorts blowing clouds of dust from the ground as they chewed lazily on their iron bits.
Standing right beside the carriage wheels was a slightly portly man who looked to be in his late forties or early fifties, dressed in fine, travel-ready merchant robes while stuffing his cheeks with a skewered meat bun.
Right next to him stood a striking young woman around Lucious’s own age. She had vibrant purple hair and was dressed in a remarkably bold, somewhat impractical outfit for a dangerous mountain journey, a pair of tight leather shorts that left her long, toned legs completely bare, paired with a rather revealing emerald top that struggled to contain the generous curve of her chest.
At that exact moment, her hands were planted firmly on her hips as she loudly scolded the older man regarding the greasy street food he was happily devouring.
Lucious stopped a few yards away, watching the domestic spectacle with a completely disinterested, deadpan look on his pale face.
"Is that not them, Master?" Dori asked quietly from right behind his shoulder. She adjusted the heavy leather straps of their travel pack, carrying the bulging bag of supplies safely and effortlessly on her back thanks to her S-rank physiology.
Lucious gave a single, slow nod, his crimson eyes locking onto the intricate crest painted in gold leaf across the carriage door.
"Their transport bears the exact family sigil that was stamped on the Chairlady’s parchment, so it has to be them," Lucious replied flatly. "Let’s just get this over with."
Without wasting another second, Lucious walked forward, his tall, armor-clad frame cutting smoothly through the lingering morning commuters as he approached the carriage.
When he closed the distance, he planted his boots right in the open patch of dirt where the older man could clearly see him, instantly drawing the undivided attention of both the father and the daughter.
"Good morning," Lucious uttered, keeping his voice level and his expression entirely straight.
The older merchant paused mid-chew, and both he and the young woman turned their heads simultaneously to look at the newcomer.
"May we help you?" the purple-haired girl asked, her tone carrying an automatic, aristocratic haughtiness.
Her bright, intelligent eyes immediately began to scan Lucious slowly from the top of his dark hair all the way down to the toes of his heavy boots.
"I believe you requested high-ranking security for your journey outside the city walls," Lucious stated smoothly, resting a gloved hand casually near his belt. "That would be me."
"Uhn?"
The girl let out a dubious, unimpressed sound. Without a shred of hesitation, she stepped right in front of her father, closing the gap so she could get a much better, uninhibited look at the pale young man standing before her.
She tilted her chin up, her gaze lingering briefly on his sharp jawline and piercing red eyes before dropping disdainfully to his lean build.
"Look, you are handsome and all, I will give you that," she remarked bluntly, crossing her arms beneath her heavy chest and pushing her cleavage up even further. "But you look nothing like a seasoned fighter. Hell, with skin that pale, you don’t even seem like you could hurt a harmless fly, let alone the monsters lurking on the mountain pass."
Behind Lucious, Dori’s jaw tightened instantly, a low, feral growl vibrating deep in her throat as her red eyes narrowed into lethal slits at the disrespectful human girl.
Lucious didn’t even flinch at the insult. Instead, he let out a long, tired sigh, deliberately tilting his head to the side so he could completely ignore the girl standing right in front of him and look straight past her shoulder at the older man.
"Does she speak for you?" Lucious asked coldly.
"Does... she...?" The girl’s left eye twitched violently, her cheeks flushing crimson as she stood there, clearly offended by the blatant dismissal.
Sensing that his daughter was about to erupt and cause a massive scene in the middle of the plaza, the older man quickly stepped up, placing a calming hand on the girl’s bare shoulder to diffuse the rising tension.
"I am terribly sorry about that! She can be quite like this sometimes, please pay her no mind," the merchant uttered hurriedly, swallowing the last bite of his meat bun with a hard gulp.
He wiped his hands on a handkerchief and offered Lucious a warm, apologetic smile.
"Yes, we are indeed the family in need of a capable bodyguard for the trip to Border Town. I am assuming the guild’s broker sent you?"
"Yes, she did," Lucious confirmed without a hint of warmth. "Can we get moving now? The sooner we leave the gates, the better."
"Of course, of course we can," the man chuckled good-naturedly, gesturing with his half-empty skewer toward the steaming food stall nearby. "We were just having a quick bite of breakfast to prepare for the big day on the road. Do you two care to join us before we depart? My treat."
Lucious simply raised a pale hand in the air, cutting the offer off before the man could even step toward the stall.
"No, thank you. I don’t eat street food," Lucious dismissed flatly, already turning his back on the pair. "Load your things. Let’s get moving."
Without waiting for a response, he walked away toward the front of the land dragons to inspect the road ahead.
Dori paused just long enough to shoot one last venomous glare at the purple-haired girl, gave a stiff, perfunctory bow of her head to the older merchant, and then scrambled after her master, calling out softly for him to slow down so she could walk right beside his elbow.
Left standing in the dust, the young woman slammed her hands back onto her narrow waist, glaring daggers at Lucious’s broad, retreating back.
"Ugh! For such a hot guy, he sure knows how to get under my skin," she huffed loudly, tapping her boot against the dirt in frustration.
"Relax, Guinevere," her father said softly, letting out a gentle laugh as he patted her shoulder. "Most adventurers who take contracts like ours are out here risking their lives against terrible things in the dark. He is allowed to be a bit tense and defensive before a long march. Come now, let us get inside the carriage and get going."
The older man smiled warmly as he turned and walked toward the wooden steps of the cabin. Guinevere stood frozen for a few seconds longer, her eyes narrowed at the mysterious, pale mercenary waiting near the beasts, before she finally shook her head in annoyance and trailed reluctantly right behind her father.