-Seres-
With Hiris dead, Kuro and Jarou rushed inside to check on Lord Yun’anum and his family. Upon entering, they were silently greeted by an older maid, wearing a black dress with a red apron. She waved to them, gesturing for them to follow her. She brought the pair to the same room Kuro had talked with Lord Yun’anum during his first visit to the estate. It felt as cold and barren as it had the first time.
Yun’anum was seated in the chair Seres had sat in while they chatted, with a clear view of the only door leading in and out of the room. He looked nervous, and his leg shook up and down vigorously as he sat, hunched forward with his chin on his hands. Upon the Hunter’s entry, he quickly composed himself, sitting up straight and bringing his arms down to the chair’s armrests. He even managed to get his leg to stop bobbing up and down. “Report,” he demanded, with the authority one would expect of their actual employer.
Kuro stepped forward, and bowed slightly at the hip, “Lord Yun’anum, the Necromancer, Hiris, has been eliminated. Are you and your family well?” He wanted so desperately to speak less formally, but even Kuro knew not to get on the bad side of someone as powerful as a Lord.
“We are. You’re certain there are no other Necromancers, or otherwise dangerous and malicious individuals?”
“That is our next step,” Kuro explained, maintaining his small bow and formal tone. “With your permission, we would like to secure the perimeter of the estate and check for any signs of potential intruders within and without the house.”
Yun’anum waved a hand, “You have my permission. Be sure to knock on any doors that are not open before entering. The double doors at the end of this hall is my personal study, the doors should be unlocked, and there shouldn’t be anybody inside. Go, now.”
With a quick “Yes sir,” from both Hunters, Kuro and Jarou split up to quicken the work. They decided Kuro would inspect the inside, while Jarou secured the outside.
Most doors inside the mansion were, in fact, open. Kuro began with the aforementioned study. He marvelled at the impressive collection of books, displayed proudly on floor-to-ceiling shelves that covered the two walls that didn’t have a door or window. Checking the window, which also ran seamlessly from the floor to the ceiling, and made up nearly half the rear wall, he didn’t find any signs of someone trying to enter through it. In fact, he couldn’t find any way to open the window in the first place, meaning they’d have to break it first to make it an entrance. His investigation would reveal that was the case for all of the windows on the first floor.
Satisfied with the office, he circled around the entire first floor. It was mostly just servants’ quarters, a rather large kitchen, and a grand dining hall in the middle and at the back of the house, complete with another floor-to-ceiling window that stretched up into the second floor.
He couldn’t find any signs of tampering or attempted entry in any of the rooms, and so made his way to the second floor. He was quite confident he wouldn’t find anything there either, but it was part of the job. So while it was mostly just a formality, Kuro seriously checked every room on the second floor. This included the Lord’s quarters, as well as Seres’s study and bedroom. Her study was not nearly as grand as her father’s, but Kuro admired how tidy she kept it. He had expected it to be more, well, childish. Instead it felt quite mature with tasteful decorations, and while there was a significant amount of fiction and entertainment-centric literature on her shelves, it seemed she was dedicated to her studies as well and had an impressive collection of textbooks, covering a wide variety of subjects. Kuro recognized one of the books, it was a copy of the same book on Aetherology Nadred had assigned him to read recently. It was tucked away on the neatly organized shelf, but it showed obvious signs that it had been used often, with a worn cover and several notes sticking out of pages.
Satisfied with the study, he moved onto Seres’s room, the door to which was shut. Following his orders, he knocked and waited for a reply. A moment later, the door cracked open and he could see the young girl’s shy face peeking from inside. Her face lit up when she recognized Kuro, before flushing red with embarrassment. “Oh! Can I help you, mister Hunter?” She asked sheepishly, shying away behind the door slightly.
“I’m just here to make sure you’re safe and that no-one has tried entering through your windows or anything like that. And please, Kuro is fine.” He explained.
“Oh, that makes sense,” She said, before pausing to look behind herself at her room. Turning back to him, she continued, “Give me one moment to tidy up, please.” He nodded as she closed the door. After waiting a few minutes in silence, Seres opened the door once again. She was dressed in a modest, soft pink dress, and had her wet hair down. She stepped aside, and gestured for him to let himself in.
Her room was decorated more like he’d expect than her study, with soft plush toys and artwork of various landscapes and cities, and completed by an overly large, extravagant bed. He silently inspected the window, as she shifted positions behind him, sitting on the bed.
“Is it true?” She asked while he worked, “Was the Necromancer truly Hiris?”
Kuro took in a deep, deliberate breath. “Yes, that was his name, or so we were told. He didn’t exactly introduce himself. Did you know him?” Finished with his inspection, he looked back at her.
She nodded, “We were friends as kids, before my father had this area demolished and rebuilt as his business complex.” Her expression deepened into sadness, “Around that time, he got accepted into the School of Towers. He came home during a break period to find his childhood home destroyed, replaced by these large, soulless offices. We were still friends at that point, and every time he’d come to visit family, we would meet up and reminisce about the past. He’d often bring up the park we’d played at often as kids, which used to be directly in front of this house here, just across the street.
“A few years ago, my father fired his parents. They weren’t nobles, but they worked for one of his many companies. After that, Hiris grew more and more distant. The last time I heard from him, he threatened that he would kill me and my family for what we did to him and his.” She finished with a sigh, looking down at the floor.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“That sounds like a hard thing to deal with,” Kuro said after a moment of awkward quiet. He didn’t really know how to respond. He had expected some kind of former lovers story, not this. “Well, if you’re safe, I have to inspect the rest of the rooms on this floor and the next. Stay in here for the meantime, okay?” He didn’t wait for her to respond before he silently left the room, shutting the door behind him.
After finishing his rounds, he returned to the room with the red furniture, where Yun’anum was waiting with Jarou. “Finally finished?” Jarou asked in a teasing tone, with a smile to match.
“Yep, all done.” Kuro turned to the Lord. “The house seems safe, no windows were broken, and there was no sign of anyone trying to force their way in elsewhere.”
“The outside is also clear, there’s no signs of anyone sneaking around or spying on the house in the surrounding area.” Jarou said just as Kuro finished.
For the first time since they came inside, Yun’anum stood up, and to both Hunters’ surprise, bowed slightly. “Thank you. I will meet with my siblings first thing in the morning, and have your payment sent to the embassy by midday. Now if you don’t mind, you can show yourselves out. I need to check on Seres.”
He walked out of the room ahead of them. He refused to see them out, even though the front door was on the way to the stairs leading to the upper floors. Despite him saying to see themselves out, the old maid from earlier appeared from around the corner, and silently gestured for them to follow her. She took them to the front door, and after thanking them for their service, saw them out.
It was nearing early morning by the time the pair arrived at the embassy, exhausted from the difficult fight and long walk back. To their surprise, Rel was awake, waiting for their return. He was sitting at the table in the common area, where the Hunters stationed there would usually eat, chat, and play cards. He had a large stack of paper out in front of him, illuminated by twin orbs of light, that floated gently just above his head. He had two papers from the stack pulled out, directly in front of him, and he wrote with a gold-trimmed, red fountain pen on one of them.
Rel looked up, with eyes that plainly told of his exhaustion, as the younger Hunters stood in front of him, on the opposite side of the table. “Oh, you’re finally back,” he said tiredly, followed by a long yawn, “How did it go? What’s your report?”
Kuro and Jarou took turns recounting their investigation during the past few days, and their encounter with Hiris.
“A job well done. I’ll have the two of you follow up with the other Lords in the morning and ensure no other such events transpired while you were at Sar’en’s house. Other than that, I declare this to have been a successful hunt, and offer you passing marks on your Black Cloak Exam. Congratulations to you both.” His sense of formality and professionalism was completely shattered as he let out another loud yawn, and stretched his arms above his head. “I’d advise you both to get some rest, you’ll have to make the long trip back home in the afternoon. That said, I do believe you have visitors to chat with before that.”
Before they could ask who he was talking about, one of the meeting room doors opened, and a familiar voice called out, “Well done, both of you!”
Kuro turned, and was shocked to see Oroske and Nadred slink out of the adjacent room. Nadred echoed Oroske’s congratulations more quietly as they approached.
“What are you two doing here?” Kuro asked, “I thought we weren’t supposed to see you until after we made our final report to Danfis?”
“Technically, you’re right. But our mentors did this same thing, and many other mentors do as well. We just don’t put it on the official record, that’s all. We wanted to be among the first to congratulate you,” Oroske explained with a smile as he pat Kuro’s shoulder. “We couldn’t hear very well, mind recounting your epic battle against the necromancer? Sounds like it was quite exciting. It was hard to see the actual fight with that wind vortex he made.”
The group left Rel to his paperwork, and went into the meeting room Oroske and Nadred had been hiding in to chat.
Kuro and Jarou had long since finished their story, and had moved on to more casual conversation with their mentors. Kuro was in the middle of telling Jarou about a particularly grotesque Sigil he’d once exterminated in the Der’venn’ya Desert, when he was rudely interrupted by some rather loud commotion happening outside in the street. Concerned, the four ran out, joining up with Rel in the hallway.
The five Hunters rushed outside, the front door opened by the Hunters who were guarding the entrance that night. Once outside, they were met by the sight of one of the Hunters, a young Black Cloak barely a year older than Kuro, being held up by his face. He was held by one hand of a tall person, wearing a black cloak that hid any discernible features and had an elaborate webbing of golden chains as ornamentation. With it being no less than thirty minutes to sunlight - and many of the rel crystals being turned off at this hour - it was difficult to make out details, and it took Kuro a moment to recognize a small lump of darkness on the ground to be the other Hunter guard.
The figure turned toward them, a creepy grin being the only part of his face visible under a mask that Kuro recognized. Kuro asked himself as the person threw the young Hunter in his grip to the ground forcefully, before walking towards the group.
Rel stepped forward to confront the man, and summoned his weapon, ready for a fight. With Rel past the closer of the two guards, Kuro cautiously approached along with Nadred, inspecting the man. He was breathing shallowly, and bled profusely from his leg. The wound looked incredibly painful, a wedge had been cut out of his calf, nearly an inch wide and just as deep. As he began assisting Nadred in providing first aid, the man in the mask spoke to Rel.
“Rel, oh Rel. It is good to see you again after so many years apart,” he said in a raspy voice, barely above a whisper. “I’ve come to inform you, my companions and I in the New Empire have arrived in the city. You have precious few days to make whatever preparations you can, before we begin our take over of the city.”
“What do you-” Rel was interrupted as loud banging resounded from the Pilgrim’s Gate, which was closed for the night.
The party looked to the gate, just in time to see it crack, then blast open. On the other side of the splintered wood, they saw a Sigil. It was on the smaller side, and had seven gnarly limbs that had the appearance of knotted wood.
Kuro and Rel both looked back towards the masked man, only to find no trace of him. Rel then looked to Kuro, and nodded towards the Sigil. Nadred and Jarou stayed behind to care for the wounded Hunters, as the other three ran towards the monster.
As they approached, the beast threw out impressive lances of ice, additionally charged with lightning. The lances struck the ground with impressive force, but the Hunters were able to evade the attack with ease, barely concerned about the following burst of selr that resounded with loud thunder as they passed by.
With all three Hunters attacking at once, the Sigil went down with ease. Kuro and Oroske both summoned their scythes, cleanly slicing through two limbs each, while Rel created a rapier out of light magic. Kuro wasn’t paying close attention, but from the corner of his eye he could have sworn he saw Rel only thrust once. Yet in the aftermath, before the body disintegrated into dust, he saw there were dozens of equal sized holes, surrounding the area Rel had stabbed.
Having not even broken a sweat, Rel motions silently for Kuro and Oroske to follow him, heading back to the embassy. He rounded up Jarou and Nadred as well, and the two carried their charges into the hall to care for them further.
