Shadow Dragon: The Fallen Angel Is My Teacher

"I said I don't want to work together. Do you not understand simple words?"

"How dare you—"

"Stop."

The hooded man grabbed the woman's arm before she could cast a Spell at Dante.

He looked at me, then at his leader who was stuck in the broken wall.

Two of their members rushed to pull their leader out.

"Is that a Cursed Item? I can't feel any life from it," the hooded figure said.

I raised an eyebrow.

"You can sense life? Looks like at least one of you is half-decent."

"You bitc—"

"Dante."

The moment I said his name, the woman shut her mouth.

I chuckled.

"Why did you stop cursing? Are you afraid?"

The woman glared at me, shaking with anger.

But she didn't step forward after glancing at Dante again.

The last two members managed to pull their leader free from the wall.

I stared at the injured man for a moment.

Did I feel bad?

I didn't.

I could debate he was injured because of his own stupidity or because I was acting in character.

But the truth was simple.

I didn't care about people I didn't know.

If I was the type who tried to save every stranger or worried every time someone got hurt, I would never have become an assassin.

I had killed too many nameless people in my past life.

I wasn't going to turn into a hero now.

Being kind for no reason wasn't going to save my family from what was coming.

Only by doing everything for my goal would achieve that.

"Go and tell the Exorcist Union you met me. They'll treat your leader for free and probably give you a reward," I said to the hooded man.

He stiffened. "You knew?"

"Duh," I said and shrugged.

They left quickly with their whole team.

'With this much noise, the Exorcist Union will know I'm here.'

'And the Prime Five should hear about it soon.'

'It's one step closer to saving Carlotta's brother.'

Of course, it wasn't only about him.

In my last life, after all the big Hidden Clans were damaged, Prime Five—the Illegal Exorcist Organizations—had helped me defend Earth and fight the invaders.

We still lost, but their strength was real.

They were strong, skilled, and capable.

But they were also eccentric and selfish.

They only cared about their own goals.

Even while being hunted by the Exorcist Union, they didn't form an alliance.

They didn't even trust each other.

They were enemies of the Exorcist Union and each other.

That was why Caelum Nocthera was important.

He would join them, take control bit by bit, force them to work together, and become their leader.

It was an ambitious goal.

But I needed to achieve it if I wanted to fight the invaders again.

The Exorcist Union alone wouldn't be enough.

As the Exorcists I had beaten left, I looked at the other Exorcists eating nearby.

"Scram. Or do you want to get beaten too?"

They scattered fast.

Finally, I turned to the eldritch horror octopus-head girl who had a human body.

She stared at me with her brows furrowed.

"Sir, fightin' in th' Drinkin' Whale Inn be forbidden," she said in a clear pirate-like tone.

She looked annoyed.

I couldn't afford trouble with her or the crewmate here.

So I smiled and walked to the counter.

"I'm really sorry about this. I don't want to cause trouble in a place like this. But they've been chasing me for a long time. If I didn't act, they would've tried to kill me," I said with a sad tone.

She didn't show any sympathy.

"Anyway, I'll pay for all the damage," I said and placed a hundred gold bars on the counter.

"S-Sir?!" she squealed.

Her pirate tone slipped through again. "Be ye serious?!"

"Please take this as repair money," I said.

Then I turned to the crewmates eating at the tables.

Some looked annoyed because of the disturbance.

"Also, treat them all to free food today. It's on me."

One of the crewmates stood up.

"Be that true, lad?" he asked in a pirate tone.

"Of course," I said.

The mood changed immediately.

"I want more ale!"

"Gimme more meat then!"

"Aye, free grub!"

"Good lad!"

They all shouted for more food and drinks in their pirate accents.

I turned back to the girl.

"I apologize again. I didn't mean to break the peace of this place—"

"It be fine," she said, cutting me off with a smile.

She quickly began sliding the gold bars under the counter.

"I understands ye be havin' a rough time. Don't worry 'bout a wall or two. We care more 'bout our customers."

She nodded firmly.

"And ye don't need to fret 'bout yer safety neither. I knows some crewmates in the patrol guard.

"I'll tell 'em to keep watch around these parts. They'll help ye if somethin' like this happens again."

Her pirate accent softened a little at the end.

I smiled and thanked her.

Then I headed toward the stairs and began climbing up to my room.

In my mind, I was crying over losing that much money.

But there was a reason I had done all of that.

Soon, both the Exorcist Union and Prime Five would try to recruit me.

The ones I would refuse would try to kill me.

I was strong for my rank, sure.

But I couldn't yet beat a proper Rank 2 Exorcist trained by a major Hidden Clan or one of the higher-ups from Prime Five.

Dante would help, but he wasn't an Immortal Class Cursed Spirit anymore.

Depending on how people viewed him, they could defeat him too.

And on top of that, this place was covered in mist that blocked all magic, even spatial magic.

I couldn't escape with teleportation.

'If the Exorcist Union and Prime Five try to kill me, I'll be in trouble.'

I wasn't arrogant enough to think I could fight them off when they arrived in two days.

In the future, yes. But not right now.

This was why I needed someone else to act as my bodyguard.

And that "someone else" would be the patrol crewmates who would be keeping watch because of what I just did.

I opened my room with the key and stepped inside.

The place was simple.

Just a wooden bed with a rough but clean sheet, a small table, a lantern hanging on a hook, and a single window showing a bit of the fog outside.

It felt like a normal inn room.

"Are you going to sleep, Lord of Shadows?" Yuna asked.

"No. I can't sleep here," I said. "Bermuda Triangle's narrative says it's within Earth, and this ship is in the sea even below that. So if I sleep here…"

"Ghost-type Cursed Spirits would take over your body," Yuna said, finishing my sentence.

"Yeah. So Exorcists either use relics or pills to stay awake, or they leave the domain if they want to sleep. I will be doing the same," I said.

I played with the key in my hand while looking around the room.

Now I had to wait a few days for the Exorcist Union and Prime Five to approach me.

"Who kidnapped Carlotta's brother, Lord of Shadows? You said you would tell me, but you haven't yet," Yuna said. She sounded bored.

"The System Church," I said.

"The… what?" Yuna blinked.

"System Church. They worship the System as a universal right. They preach that System access is cultural property, not a monopoly of world of Wageah."