As Ira ran through the empty hallway he noticed small shadow threads snapping each time he passed. He figured it must’ve been some sort of alarm, but it didn’t matter. At his current level, the people who could stop him were all higher races and the number of humans needed wouldn’t fit in such a narrow space.

Ira saw another door in front of him and slowed his speed and activated his camouflage as he approached it. There was no need for him to even hide his presence, but it was his idea of fun.

The unsuspecting victims on the inside had yet to be alerted by the shadowy figure so they continued their activities unknowingly. That was until the door slowly creaked open in a loud and obvious manner.

“It’s too early for a shift change, asshole,” A man said as he continued practicing his sword strikes on a wooden dummy.

The few seconds that went on without a response instantly raised suspicion and one man drew a sword and slowly crept toward the door. Once he arrived in front of it he abruptly opened it and prepared to attack, but didn’t see anyone present. He squinted his eyes toward the end of the tunnel, but he couldn’t see anything.

“Must’ve been the wind,” The man turned around with a shrug.

“It must’ve.” A grating voice agreed with him before a claw tore through his chest and lifted him into the air before tossing him away like trash.

“What the fuck!?” The men scrambled to their feet but were too late as any trace of an attacker was gone.

“Who’s there?!” Someone shouted.

“I am,” The voice responded before a man was sliced in half with a pair of claws.

Ira finally showed his nightmarish appearance while swinging his claws to remove the blood. Without leaving time for a reaction, he rushed forward and ripped another man’s throat out before moving onto the next and impaling him. Screams erupted as Ira tore the guards apart, leaving unrecognizable piles of flesh with each step. In less than a minute, the room turned quiet.

“Whew,” Ira’s eyes flashed with a knowing look before he exhaled a sigh of relief and turned to face the children held in cages.

All of a sudden a shadow rose from the floor and stabbed him in the back.

Ira quickly spun around while laughing and grabbed the shadow, “Sloppy,” He said as he tossed it into a wall. The shadowy figure coughed as it crawled to its feet before disappearing.

“Who are you?” A voice echoed throughout the room.

“You can’t guess? The black fur and yellow eyes should give it away,” Ira replied as his face was revealed beneath the layer of dermal armor.

“Ira? So the Prince figured out my connection to Lowell and he’s sending you to deal with me, that it?”

“What? No.” Ira furrowed his brows in confusion, “Thanks for telling me though, I really didn’t know who you were.”

The shadowy figure went silent at its idiotic mistake, it overestimated Ira completely, “Then why are you here?” it asked.

“I was a bit bored so I decided to kill some people and ended up here,” Ira explained as his eyes scanned the room. He could still sense the presence of the shadow figure.

“...What would it take for you to ignore this operation?” The figure asked as a shadow crept toward Ira.

“Why would I do that?” Ira asked before he suddenly raised his foot and drove his foot into the floor.

The shadowy figure screamed in pain as it fell rose from the ground. The shadows covering its body began to dissipate revealing a young man with a flattened arm.

“Got you!” Ira picked the man up and slammed him to the ground repeatedly eliciting the sound of bones snapping each time.

“Who do you work for?” Ira asked.

“...I…work for...” The young man opened his mouth to speak, but Ira slammed him into the ground again before picking him back up.

The young man made wanted to curse at Ira for not letting him speak and Ira seemed to realize it as he slammed the man into the ground again.

“Stop!” The young man spat out a few teeth as he pleaded for mercy.

Ira dropped him onto the ground and pressed his foot against his chest, “Are you just a freelance guy?”

“The Merchant’s Circle...I...pick my own jobs on the side...but they are the ones who usually….hire me…” The young man confessed while breathing deeply. His entire body felt as if it were on fire.

“I see,” Ira raised his foot but the young man hurriedly spoke.

“Wait! I can work...for you! I can gather...information!” The young man spoke through the pain.

“...I’ll think about it. In the meantime, stay right there. Don’t even think about running, I already remembered your scent.” Ira waved his hand and began to dress before he undid his secondary transformation.

After his nightmarish form was undone and he was dressed in proper clothes, he looked more like a handsome young noble, but that didn’t matter to the kids who saw his previous form. He plucked the locks off the cages and knelt down.

There were a few kids tied in chains which made a few unsavory memories resurface in his head. He activated his pheromone generation but made sure to restrain it. The children had changes in their expression as they looked at Ira. A comforting scent drifted from his body which made them move closer. A few of the younger ones clung to his leg as they looked up at him.

“Come on,” Ira said with a bright smile before leading the kids toward a back room.

A line of kids formed behind him as they followed on like little chicks. Ira kicked the door open and looked at the composed old man piling currency atop the desk.

“Ah, it’s you, Ira. I’ve heard a lot about your exploits–” The old man couldn’t even finish as Ira grabbed him by the throat and tossed him onto the ground in front of the kids.

The old man coughed before speaking, “Try to be reasonable!”

Ira ignored him and waved his hand, and a few weapons dropped onto the ground. The kids quietly watched on, but not before sending fearful glances toward the old man. They knew he was the one in charge because he made sure that the guards disciplined them if they acted out of line.

“Alright, kids. Let’s play a game.” Ira picked up a small knife and handed it to a small boy. Before doing the same with the other weapons.

“What are you doing?!” The old man showed a flustered expression.

Ira ignored the old man as he grabbed a small knife. “Here’s how you play.” He raised the knife and stabbed it into the old man’s hand causing him to cry out.

“Your turn,” Ira pointed to the small boy.

The boy began to tremble as he looked at the old man who was screaming in pain. Ira frowned, but adjusted his pheromone generation to a slightly higher output. Which caused a soothing feeling to overtake the kids.

The boy looked at Ira before he raised the knife and stabbed the old man in the shoulder.

“That’s it!” Ira smiled as he patted the small boy on the head.

“You’re sick!” The old man hissed as he clenched his teeth in pain.

A small girl next to him looked to be jealous and stabbed a thin dagger into the old man's stomach before giving an expectant look to Ira.

“Good one,” Ira gave the girl a pat on the back before continuing, “But watch out for the vitals or the game will end too early,” He said as he pointed out a few spots.

Another kid nodded and stabbed the old man in the arm. Soon a rhythm was developed and the dozen or so kids began stabbing the fragile old man to death.

Outside the room, the young man listened on in horror as the laughter of kids and the screams of the old man filled his ears. After a few minutes, Ira walked out of the room and was followed by children dressed in ragged clothes stained with fresh blood.

“You’re still alive?” Ira whistled in surprise as he looked at the broken young man before grabbing a set of chains.

The young man looked up at Ira, “...Have you...thought...about it?”

“I’ll ask my wife about it.” Ira tied the chains around the young man’s body before lifting him up.

“Come on,” Ira said to the kids who hung close to him.

With each step, the young man whimpered in pain but was too afraid to ask for him to be more careful. He thought himself to be resigned to death, but at that moment he could empathize with Lowell.

…

Avery was quietly drinking tea on the balcony of her and Ira’s room with Rhys when Ira abruptly landed in front of her with a man on his shoulder.

Avery glanced at the badly beaten man before speaking, “You’ve brought a guest?”

“Yeah, he was connected to that guy, Lowell...I found him by accident, but he says he can gather information for me, but I don’t know if we need that.” Ira dropped the young man onto the floor before sitting down, “Hey, Rhys.”

Rhys gave a delayed nod toward Ira before looking at the miserable young man.

“Well, he’s useless in that state. Do you want me to heal him?” Avery asked in an unbothered manner.

“Yeah, he’ll probably die pretty soon if you don’t,” Ira grabbed Avery’s cup and drank the contents before placing it back down.

Avery raised her hand and covered the man with a layer of healing fire for a few seconds before she recalled the flames, revealing a fully healed young man who was still unconscious.

Ira sighed as if he was tired before he began speaking, “I killed a lot of criminal types today, but the most annoying part was the kids.”

Rhys’ trembled before scribbling on her notepad, [You killed them?]

Ira squinted at Rhys’ incredibly rushed message before chuckling, “No, I didn’t kill them. I took them to some guards and gave them some money, but they all grabbed onto me and cried for ten minutes straight.”

Avery showed an almost imperceptible hint of annoyance as she briefly glanced at Rhys.

Rhys silently wrote on her notepad before she held it up, [Sorry.]

“Leave,” Avery said curtly.

Rhys switched her gaze between Ira and Avery before she stood up. She wanted to hit herself for automatically assuming the worst possible outcome.

“Wait,” Ira stopped her as a memory resurfaced in his mind, “We’re friends aren’t we Rhys?”

Rhys slowly nodded and waited for Ira to continue.

“So you won’t literally stab me in the back or anything, right?” Ira asked for confirmation.

Rhys shook her head almost immediately.

“Yeah, I thought as much. I should have something for you by the time we get to the Capital.” Ira said with a smile.

Rhys grinned under her mask before she nodded and walked away with a lighter step. Seeing that Ira wasn’t upset with her assumption helped to brighten her mood.

After Rhys left, Ira leaned into his chair and spoke, “So should we keep him?” Ira poked the unconscious man with his foot.

“At our level is there a need to gather information?” Avery asked.

“Could be useful,” Ira shrugged as he placed his foot on the young man’s throat.

“I guess you’re right. If he doesn’t bring anything substantial then we can just kill him.” Avery said.

“Then it's decided, I’ll take him to the Fourth Prince for now.” Ira removed his foot before looking up at the moon.

“...You know, I’d be a great parent,” Ira said. It was clear that he didn’t realize that he may have instilled some dangerous habits into some very young and very impressionable kids. Even if he did, he wouldn’t care since he didn’t see anything wrong with it.

“We need to have a child first,” Avery smiled at him.

Ira looked at her and then to the unconscious man and threw him over his shoulder before standing up, “I’ll take him to the Fourth Prince right now.”