"Private A, where are we going to visit today?"

"...Captain, I'm not sure how I feel seeing as how you still don't remember my name."

Of course, everyone was already used to it and continued like always.

"First, we're going to the outer slums and warn the small organizations, then afterwards we'll do a sweeping operation of the inner slums, with captain's ability to sense where everyone is, we could also figure out their hideout."

Kai groaned.

"Alright, let's go."

"Hey, you heard the rumors?"

"Yeah, the knights are going to flush out the slums. I heard that the captain of the third princess' royal guard is leading the operation. He's infamous through the entire kingdom, holding a huge power and abusing it or something, apparently most of the nobles are enraged with him after he pressured them with his mana and even made some pass out."

"For real? That guy sure has guts."

"Yeah, wouldn't wanna meet him here. Let's go to the old man's place, I doubt they'd look for criminals in there."

Three people with worn out clothes talked with each other and were walking away but before they got far, they turned around and realized that the other person had gone missing.

"...Sven?"

"Where did that idiot go? I knew he had a bad sense of direction but I didn't think that he'd get lost while following us."

"Fran, go search over there, I'll search the alley by the side."

"Got it."

Fran, a man in his thirties with a sword on his waist walked for a few seconds into the place that they had talked in before.

"Sven! Sven, where are you?! You dumbass with no sense of direction, we were walking on a straight road!"

"Hey, you have a nice vessel."

A voice that would be a perfect fit for a demon's rang out.

"Huh?"

Fran felt chills down his spine and turned around as fast as he could with sweat dripping down his forehead. When he looked at the straight road that he had just arrived in, it was covered in black smoke. He turned around and saw that all the paths were covered in black smoke and slowly began to creep over him.

"Who's there?!"

"Mind if I take your vessel? You have a lot of potential to be a puppet."

Fran felt a presence creep up behind him so he took out his sword in a flash and slashed behind him but his sword stopped in mid-air- just before a figure emerged from the black smoke.

"That's dangerous."

A smoke covered hand slowly became more and more visible and bent the sword in half.

"As I thought, you have quite the nice vessel, perfect for housing an evil soul."

The smoke covered hand held Fran's face.

"AGH...!"

Fran wanted to scream and pry the figure's hand away but no matter what he did, scratch, pull, kick, punch, anything he did was useless as if the figure's hand was an iron claw, his voice was also taken away and all he could make were groans.

After a few moments, Fran felt something inside him being pulled out from his chest up to his throat until it reached his face.

The hand's iron grip released and Fran fell on his knees.

My body... I can't move...

"[Extraction]."

The hand used the index and middle finger and pointed it upwards. A bluish-white flame-like object began to emerge from Fran's orifices.

A few seconds after the bluish-white flame-like object came out of Fran's orifices and rested on the figure's hand, a huge cracking sound as if glass were breaking startled the figure.

"[Flame Dragon]."

A giant snake-like flame dragon accompanied by a roar headed for the figure.

"Tch."

The figure clicked its tongue or whatever it had and vanished.

"Release that soul!"

A man in a black trench coat yelled as he kicked the floor, creating a sonic boom and leaving cracks on the buildings beside him and left a crater on the floor.

"Don't get in my way!"

A ball of darkness shot towards Kai but he didn't panic nor show surprise. Kai's hand became covered in light and smacked the ball of darkness towards the sky, it then exploded in the air startling everyone living in the area.

The black smoke that disoriented Fran had already disappeared.

"You have no idea how to use darkness."

As Kai said that, his entire figure turned dark and dove into the shadows.

"If it's just that, I also have it!"

But just as the figure was about to dive in the shadow, a black arm emerged from it and held the figure's neck.

"Too... fast!"

The distance when they were both running was at least three thousand meters. Although at A-class, that distance could be covered in ten seconds if it was a maintained full sprint and about half a minute if it was a normal run.

"[Shadow Prison]."

Kai's arm that held the figure's neck clutched down tightly and dozens of chains began to appear from the shadow below them that wrapped around the figure.

"What is this?!"

"It's shadow solidified. [Shadow Hand]."

A huge clawed hand made out of shadows appeared from behind them and held the figure's head then pushed him towards the floor.

"AGHH!"

"This time, you're not getting away."

This time...?! Does that mean I've encountered this monster before?!

The figure looked into his mind for an answer but no matter what he did, he couldn't come up with anything but it was obvious that Kai held resentment towards him. He must've offended Kai in some way, but all the operations he did were done in secret by using the black smoke and only knew of Kai's identity because of the publicity stunt he pulled.

"HAAA!"

The figure opened its mouth and bit down on its tongue and at the moment that happened, a bright light forced Kai to close his eyes, the thing being held by the chains and hand disappeared.

"...That's a new one. Now, I've got to chase him again, [Soul Call] is useless against that thing, I need to find its true body."

Kai's figure vanished from the onlooker's view and he raised his left fist to chest level. A mark appeared on the back of his left hand which shone brightly. Kai's figure then began to fade like he was a ghost and after a few seconds of being in that state, he vanished.

"Hey, papa."

"What is it, my little princess?"

Natsumi seemed to be used to that sort of comment as she did not seem to mind it.

"You don't think Kai did something right? I feel like something troubling is about to happen."

"I doubt it but-"

A gust of air suddenly stopped King Atsushi's words as a ghostly figure appeared in the middle of the room.

"KYAAAAAA!"

Natsumi shrieked as loud as she possibly could and began to cast a spell. Several knights then began to run for the ghostly figure while brandishing their weapons.

The spells launched and the weapons arrived but with a ding, the weapons were forced backwards and the spell dispersed.

Kai stood there surrounded by a spherical barrier.

"...Couldn't you all at least wait and confirm before you attack? Natsumi in particular, a spell, really?"

King Atsushi was the first to come to his senses.

"Kai, what happened?"

King Atsushi set his priorities straight, Kai wouldn't come back in a hurry using a spell unfamiliar to all of them if there weren't something of grave importance happening. Finding out what spell Kai used should be done for later.

"A soul thief, he took one person from the slum's soul and left with it. Unfortunately, he escaped using a teleportation technique and I couldn't sense him because what I chased was not alive."

Though that wasn't the whole truth.

"I see, should we conduct a search?"

"No, it's impossible for the kingdom's knights to do anything and they'd only be added to the list of casualties. That thing isn't that strong when it comes to fighting but it can produce illusions which confuse the five senses and take souls. Any normal knight would have their soul taken before they even realized what was happening. Instead, send a warning to everyone in the capital, and the surrounding cities and villages, 'don't travel alone and always carry a weapon until the threat is found'."

King Atsushi furrowed his brows in thought.

"Wouldn't that incite panic on the populace?"

"Panicking them is better than leaving them for dead."

King Atsushi yielded to Kai's words and gave orders to the knights to tell Kazuki.

"I'll take care of the body that lost its soul."

Kai walked up to Natsumi and handed her a ring with a gem on top.

"Eh? I-is this what I think it is?!"

Seeing Natsumi all giddy made him giving her a ring awkward.

"...It's the weapons made for you and everyone else."

"A-ah, I see..."

Showing such obvious disappointment caused the awkward atmosphere to spread throughout the room and not just between the two of them.

"Ehem. Well then, everyone go and do your duties."

Saved by the king.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Kai bowed and left the room with quick steps while Natsumi held onto the ring in silence.