NOVEL NEXT Chapter 21
The Great Zombie Incident led by the noble vampire Drakel, henceforth known as the Blood Night Crisis.
This uproar ended with the main perpetrator, Drakel, being subdued.
Drakel was acknowledged for his dangerousness and was imprisoned in Nastront, a special prison for serious offenders.
As this facility is strictly managed by one of the transcendent beings, the Dragon Mayor,
It seems that Drakel is now destined to never again face the outside sun.
“Are you really thinking of requesting the second-class merit for this?! Capturing a noble vampire hiding in the city is completely worth a first-class commendation! I absolutely can’t give up the reward!”
And just a few hours after he was captured.
In front of the Night Haven Central Police Station, which had its lights still on late at night, a female police officer was raising her voice at Alice, as if it were absurd.
Based on the evidence left at the scene and the testimonies,
This Blood Night Crisis was undoubtedly classified as a level two disaster, corresponding to code orange.
While the city itself was not in danger,
It was a chilling incident where, if things had gone wrong, there could have been outrageous casualties.
Yet, in this situation, to have quickly subdued the perpetrator and handed him over to the police while stepping back, claiming it wasn’t a first-class contribution?
The officer, despite this not being her responsibility, felt a strong regret for the missed commendation and reward.
“Ahaha… Actually, I didn’t do everything; I just finished what the ghost almost caught. I don’t really want to steal that credit. It’s burdensome to be in the news as well.”
However, for Alice, this was the only reasonable choice.
She was a law-abiding woman who felt at ease only when returning money that had fallen on the street to its owner.
And being able to capture Drakel was simply finishing what the ghost had managed to set up.
Thus, she insisted with almost a kind of obstinacy that the police must include the ghost’s name in the first-class merit.
Eventually, unable to resist Alice’s persistence, the police could do nothing but push her up to the second-class merit and write the ghost’s name there without understanding why.
“Ugh… Well then, if you think so… I guess it can’t be helped. Then, I’ll be going now! See you next time!”
“Yeah, take care.”
I wonder if this is enough of a reward.
After greeting the police officer who seemed to be left with a lot of regrets, Alice turned her back without hesitation.
And just as she was about to step onto the street with a light step,
A familiar male voice rang out from the side.
“Hey, Alice. Are you done with everything? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Oh, Jin! You were waiting for me.”
“Who’s waiting? I just happened to be passing nearby and saw you, so I just said hi.”
The man’s name was Jin Crowley.
He was the owner of the Crowley Fixer Agency where Alice worked as an employee.
Jin, who held a fixer license that was just barely within its validity period,
Had a preference for dressing in all black from head to toe, even having black hair.
Some of their acquaintances sometimes called him Raven.
“Hmm~ My sister said that there isn’t much demand for cool guys. It feels like unsold stock that no one wants, right?”
“You should tell your sister to stop watching those comics. These days, what does ‘cool guy’ even mean? It’s an old term over seventy years old.”
Heh heh.
Despite feeling awkward, Alice broke into a light laugh at Jin’s accompanying steps.
At a glance, although he seemed to be just living life casually, his habit of always observing his surroundings was naturally ingrained in his actions.
So, the two of them walked down the street in silence for a while. The first to speak was Alice.
“By the way. Jin, I actually met the ghost that Victor mentioned earlier.”
“…Is that true? What was it like?”
“Well, I didn’t see it use any supernatural powers… but it really doesn’t seem like a bad person, just as Victor said.”
Alice recalled the visit of Victor, Jin’s friend, a few days ago to their office.
A man with impressive spiky blonde hair, Victor.
He had suddenly come to them and said this.
“Raven. I have a sudden favor to ask, but could you investigate the ghost? It might be related to your… missing younger sister.”
“…Please explain in detail.”
“A large-scale supernatural research experiment that resulted in thousands of victims, the Nexus Project. I think that the only meaningful results from that experiment are related to the ghost.”
Power wielded by invaders from another world that neither falls under science nor magic. Supernatural powers.
The attempt to graft that power onto humans had been repeated hundreds of times over the decades since the races crossed paths.
And among those, the closest to success was indeed the Nexus Project, which was led by an unidentified group believed to involve Jin’s missing sister.
“How can you be so sure? The Nexus Project was a plan brought about by a group that even the dragons couldn’t catch. I can’t just believe your words. How would you even distinguish between shadow magic and supernatural powers…”
“Ah, right. But what if… the ghost is a small child?”
“A child?”
At Jin’s wide-eyed surprise, Victor continued with a serious expression that seemed to carry no falsehood.
“Yeah. I understand what you want to say. A mage pushed to the extremes can use magic that leaves no trace, much like supernatural powers. But would such a mage steal from evildoers in the underworld itself? Especially in the form of a small child?”
“That…”
“My instincts are telling me. The ghost is very likely a supernatural being created by the Nexus Project. And probably had some ridiculous experience along the way. As you know so well.”
The notes on the unexpectedly discovered Nexus Project were shocking.
Forcing an invader’s body onto a human to manifest supernatural powers or opening a brain to meddle without restraint.
Injecting drugs that made it feel like their body was burning and even causing them to end up killing a precious friend with their own hands.
So then, how horrifying of an experience could the successful result of that plan have gone through?
“So please, Raven. I’m asking you to investigate the ghost for me. I’m going to leave this city for a while. Therefore, you’re the only one I can ask. It would also be for your sister’s sake.”
“….”
Jin kept silent for a moment, as if he was deep in thought, and didn’t answer right away.
Then, seeming to have made a decision, he looked seriously at Victor and replied.
“Just one question. What kind of fellow is this ghost?”
“Well, I’d say, at least from my perspective, he’s a really good guy.”
“Hmph. Your perspective is too flowery, so that doesn’t really help…”
Jin shifted his position to lean forward, grinning wide enough to show his teeth.
“Alright. I’ll take it on. Until you return to Night Haven, I’ll thoroughly investigate what kind of fellow the ghost is.”
“Heh, sure. Only until I come back, right?”
Perhaps it wasn’t a lie that they were longtime friends.
Jin and Victor faced each other confidently, as if they were in a competition.
The winning condition was to investigate the ghost before Victor returned.
With his passion igniting like it had been a long time since, Jin’s eyes burned with flames.
‘Rather than friends, it felt more like a brotherly bond.’
Recalling that time, Alice quietly chuckled.
Jin and Victor. With their black hair and blonde hair, they looked completely different on the outside, and their natures seemed entirely opposed.
Yet, it was certainly not a lie that they shared a long relationship, as there were parts where they resembled each other.
It was as if those parts warmed the hearts of the people around them.
Just as she had been inspired by the free-spirited Jin to abandon her stable police life and step into the path of a fixer.
Jin, too, was burning with the passion to genuinely search for the ghost, imparted by Victor.
It seemed that like-minded people became friends, she thought.
“Ah, I really can’t do this! I have to go to the Black Market and protest that the bounty is outrageous! It’s virtually the same as saying the ghost kept the maze safe. This is too unfair!”
“Ah, I somewhat agree with that. Well… the Black Market must be in complete chaos right now due to the bounty hunters who are all riled up.”
Jin shrugged at her words.
Seeing Alice tilt her head in confusion at what that meant, Jin simply explained.
To protect their territory, the Black Market had put out bounties on zombies despite knowing it would result in losses.
However, after the situation ended, all the zombie corpses vanished as if they were a mirage.
Some of the bounty hunters claimed conspiracy theories, saying the Black Market must have known about this ahead of time and put up bounties deliberately.
Naturally, having worked hard only to earn nothing, those bounty hunters readily jumped on that bandwagon, starting to confront the Black Market.
Jin figured that because of this aftermath, the Black Market wouldn’t be able to exert influence in the western maze for a while.
He thought the bounty on the ghost would likely fade soon too.
“Well, speaking of which, if I had known it would turn out like this, I should have been with you in the western maze. Why am I so unlucky?”
“Puhuh, that’s so typical of you, Jin. But… I’m not sure if everything went well since then. The last time I saw him, he was really all beaten up. I’m a bit worried about that.”
“Well… if the ghost has been discovered, there must have been rumors about it already. Isn’t it fortunate that there hasn’t been any talk of it?”
After all, no news is good news.
Jin shrugged as if to say not to worry too much and reassured Alice.
And so, as Jin and Alice chatted and walked, they parted ways in front of the office.
The next day, when Alice arrived at the office,
The two faced an unexpected visitor.
“May I ask you for a favor?”
“….”
A tall muscular orc and a small fox-masked maid that looked almost like a fairy.
It was an utterly incomprehensible combination of synergies.