Levi wished he could just seal off his baby’s eyes and ears, so he could only see and hear happy and beautiful things. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t confine his baby inside a golden birdcage. His baby deserved to fly freely.

However, with more freedom, protecting his precious from the world became harder and harder.

Yet at that exact moment, this beautiful angel-bird within Levi’s bosom nudged him with its fluffy head, proudly telling him, “You think I chose to let you hold me because I wanted your protection? Hmph! You think too highly of yourself! A phoenix born in fire like me only chose to nestle here in order to protect a squishy little mortal like you!”

“Mn,” Levi murmured into Noah’s neck, the rumble of his baritone rippling through Noah’s flesh and turning his bones into jelly. ‘I understand. As long as we are together, as long as we protect each other, nothing can hurt us.’

Noah’s entire body shivered, and he tried to shrink his now pink neck but had nowhere to escape to.

The third wheels in the room, _(´ཀ`∠)_ ‘It’s all good and fine that you guys are invulnerable, but… we aren’t! ‎(ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ ┻━┻ Our single-dog hearts are especially vulnerable to your fucking cannonballs of dog food! QAQ Can you show some restraint?!? This simply animal cruelty!!!’

The completely forgotten Maery, ‘Um… hello? What about me?! My name is also being blackened online! How come I don't see either of you feeling heartache for my sake?!' щ（ﾟДﾟщ）

Fynn, as one of the single dogs in question, couldn’t watch this PDA any longer and coughed loudly to interrupt. Seeing the two about-to-be-newlyweds reluctantly look over to his side, Fynn wasted no time. He immediately brought the important matter at hand to their attention, praying in his heart for their love-filled brains to be distracted from one another, even if only for 5 minutes.

Fynn pointed to the large light screen behind him, showing the footage of a… tied-up blonde? Delicate facial features, small frame, long blond hair tied up in pigtails. The petite woman wore fashionable branded clothes, looking like a magazine model in the middle of a shoot.

In any other situation, the first thing anyone would think would probably be along the lines of…

A BSDM porn video? Fynn, so this was your taste? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) You dawg!

But no! This was a conference room filled with law enforcement officers! So this footage was…!

“That’s…” Noah’s expression turned a bit odd, and Levi’s followed.

“That’s right,” Fynn confirmed, his face looking a bit stiff, “Swiftrain.”

Noah speechlessly stared at the little petite beauty that, with a bit of make-up and proper clothes, could pass off as a loli and found no words that could fully express how he felt at that moment.

This… wasn’t exactly the image of a professional hitman he had envisioned, ah! ○|￣|_

‘Not even close! Who is this vain blonde of indeterminable age with a bad case of a princess syndrome?!? Give me back my manly fantasy of a badass assassin!!!’ QAQ

Fynn considerately paused to let them fully take in the information. God knows it took him fifteen full minutes to recover from the shocking image in front of him when he first saw it…

After a long silence, Noah’s lost soul returned, and he awkwardly coughed, “That… well… she does seem kinda cold and bitchy?”

Levi looked at the sneer on the woman’s face that screamed of its owner’s disdain towards everyone absent or present and couldn’t help but agree.

Fynn seconded that, “Yep. She has not said a word since she woke up. Completely uncooperative.”

The three men fell silent again, mourning their own shattered expectations.

Fynn was the first to recover, and he soon continued his briefing. His men couldn’t find the bullet that had been fired, probably because it evaporated soon after being fired. However, they did find a case in Swiftrain’s possession that was used to store the bullet and had managed to find a clue there. The case was actually a high-tech freezer the size of a box of cigarettes. It had an opening on one side with a sliding cover. If held upside down, with just a push of the cover, the bullet would slide out into one’s palm.

From this, they learned two things. Firstly, the bullet needed to be kept at low temperatures to remain in solid form. And secondly…

“You were right,” Fynn faced Noah, “The bullet is indeed made out of mental power. The residue left inside the case was enough for us to identify it. Not only is it made out of mental power, but the mental power in question belongs to an S-ranked Fluxer. The terrorists must have figured out a way for S-ranked Fluxers to condense mental power into a solid form.”

Noah’s eyes lit up, and he tapped his fingers against the table, “I remember that Druxa Pharmaceuticals has an S-ranked Fluxer working for them. And they were recently VERY eager to hire more of them…”

Fynn’s face finally broke out in a smile, “That’s right. And do you know how many S-ranked Fluxers there are in Concordia?” Fynn rose four fingers. “The first one is the victim of the second attack and is still in the hospital. The second is an old veteran that retired a year ago and has been on a cruiser touring the globe with his wife for the last three months. The third is one of the founding members of another large pharmaceutical company that had been vehemently opposing Druxa since day one. And the last one…”

Noah’s eyes curved, “Works for Druxa?”

“That’s right,” Fynn chuckled, “And what was it that the CEO of Druxa said when we paid her a visit? What did she claim was the reason behind recent aggressive recruitment aimed towards the victim of the second attack?”

“‘Because his skills would be very suitable for one of our newest projects?’” Noah very helpfully offered.

Fynn shot him an appreciative glance, then concluded, “I think it’s time we visit her again so she can tell us more about this new project of theirs.”

“This time with a warrant, I take it?” Noah’s smile widened.

“This time with a warrant,” Fynn confirmed.

Noah let out a musical chuckle and leaned back into Levi’s embrace, his tense nerves finally relaxing. “So this whole thing wasn’t completely fruitless. What about Swiftrain’s communicator, any luck there?”

Fynn nodded, “We got full chat records with her client, including their email address. Of course, it’s an anonymous account, so we don’t know who the email owner is yet. Even the payments Swiftrain received were in cryptocurrencies and cannot be traced. And from what we’ve seen in the chat records, the bullets were delivered to her by a drone. Even she likely has no idea of her client’s identity. They are very meticulous. There weren’t even any fingerprints on the bullet case besides Swiftrain’s.”

Whatever else Fynn had intended to say was interrupted by a ding coming from Levi’s communicator. It was the hotel manager with the report Levi had demanded of him regarding the strippers.

As it turns out, the person who had ordered the strippers and paid for them had made the call from a hotel room a few floors below. The room in question had been rented out yesterday, a few hours after Noah and Levi had arrived here. The occupant of the room checked out shortly after the terrorist attack, seemingly fleeing in panic.

The manager attached the footage recorded during check-in, as well as the name the room was under. The name was unfamiliar, and even the footage revealed a buff man that was completely unknown to both Noah and Levi.

However…

Noah squinted his eyes, looking at a shape that stood away from the man, at the very edge of the recording range, flitting in and out of the recording. “That… doesn’t that figure look a bit familiar?”

Fynn’s team had been keeping track of all new arrivals at that time and had their own cameras recording the reception from different angles. Thus, Fynn immediately pulled up the footage corresponding to the check-in time.

Sure enough, that was indeed someone they both recognized.

- Author Note -

Good news! I’ve now finally paid back all of the chapters I owed you guys due to being sick for a couple of days and taking a few weeks off for Christmas. Yay for me!

See, didn’t I tell you guys you wouldn’t be wronged?

Unfortunately… now that I’ve paid you guys back, we are going back to one chapter per two days release schedule. ╮(╯▽╰)╭ This author has so much work to do, and SSC isn’t paying my bills.

Of course, if you guys want more SSC chapters, donating via ko-fi or Tapas is the way to go.