‘Rose was right! All I had to do was look closely at the tree closest to me and voila! Hmpf! I doubt those idiots would have figured this out!’ thought Ryan with a chuckle. He opened the scroll and read its contents.

‘To the reader: Please note that a small tag with your target’s name has been slipped into your pocket. Collect the tag inside your target’s pocket, and when you find your way back, your mission will be considered a success.’ Ryan almost fainted when he heard the contents of the mission. How would they know if the tag he had belonged to his target?

He put his hands into left his pocket, and inside was a grey, circular tag with the name Chris embroiled into it. The small tag was made of plastic, with a pin at the back. Ryan scratched his head, as he tried to think. How would he get to know everyone’s names? Well, he decided, it’d be better to do it in the morning, when he could see everyone’s faces.

After walking around and making sure the surroundings were safe, he sat down and began to meditate. He appeared in a space filled with white light.

“Welcome back. Ready to continue cultivating?” asked Rogarth.

“Yes. What do I have to do to keep going stronger and faster?” said Ryan, asking his own question.

“Currently, you are still in the early stage of the third level of mortal cultivation. The muscles in your arm are the only ones strengthened with qi. You need to circulate the qi and use it to strengthen all the muscles in your body, not just the arms!” replied his tutor. He continued, “As for getting faster, once the muscles in your body are strengthened, I’m sure your body can handle traveling 100 meters in the blank of an eye.”

Ryan sat down cross legged, in the space and began to circulate the qi in his body to strengthen his leg muscles. When he opened his eyes, the light of dawn hit him like a red wave. He struggled to stand up, since his legs felt numb. He still had weights tied around his legs. The only difference was that Myra had made them invisible, so that they couldn’t be seen by anyone else. Coupled with the fact that he was sitting for such a long time, it would be a surprise if his legs didn’t hurt at all. After standing up, he looked around.

‘I’m not good at tracking people. So how am I supposed to find those idiots?’ before he finished thinking, he heard loud voices in the distance. ‘Guess I don’t have to waste time’, he thought with a wide smile. He walked in the direction of the voices with a cold smile.

As he got nearer, he started hearing an argument. It seems two female voices were arguing. “What do you mean we can’t leave in that direction? What makes that direction special?” asked the first female voice.

“We went through there last night and we almost fell off a cliff! Let’s take the opposite direction first!”

“How do we even know where we are without GPS?”

“Does that matter? We first need to find an outpost or something of the likes, and then from there we’ll be able to figure out something.”

“…”

The argument kept going on and on, and Ryan couldn’t stomach it anymore. He turned, about to leave, but then he remembered something. A lightbulb turned on in his head, and then he proceeded to where the argument was going on. When he arrived, everyone turned to look at him, and then went silent.

“Seems like you came back. What then?” asked the young man who had antagonized him before.

“I got lost”, replied Ryan, with a bashful smile. “I’ve realized that you were right. I can’t get home without your help. It would take more time if I tried by myself. Please let’s work together.”

The male antagonist frowned, while the others showed an indifferent expression. One of the females asked, “Why should we trust you?”

“You don’t have to. Look, if you don’t want to work with me it’s fine. I can leave if you want me to”, replied Ryan.

“Okay. Introduce yourself then”, replied the female he had met last night.

“My name is Arthur, Arthur Firn. And you might be?” he asked the girl.

“My name is Christine, and this is Daisy”, replied the girl, introducing the other one as well.

“I’m Ray”, introduced the person who had antagonized Ryan earlier.

“I’m Gary”, replied the remaining person.

***********

Nightingale was stressed. How could Blue Rose allow this to happen? The reason she had sent Blue Rose was to make sure this never happened! And now it had happened. She couldn’t decide what to do. Despite being High Assassin, she couldn’t just reject the application. She wasn’t the one who organized the recruitment, but she could make sure he got disqualified! That’s when she made a decision.

She stood up from the desk and yawned as she made her way out of the office. Two men were standing outside the office.

“Boss, good morning. We’ve been waiting for you ever since yesterday night”, said one of the men who was wearing a black leather jacket.

“What is it?” asked Nightingale, walking off.

“Uh, boss, where are you going?”

“Out!” replied Nightingale with a cold expression.

The man blocked Nightingale’s path, before saying, “Boss, you know you’re not allowed to just walk around without a bodyguard?”

Nightingale’s gaze turned even colder, and the temperature in the hall turned down by several degrees. She replied, “I’m the High Assassin for Pete’s sake! You think someone can kill me just like that?”

“It’s not me boss. You should know by now.”

The other man calmly looked at Nightingale without saying anything. In fact, he looked quite amused.

Nightingale sighed, and then asked, “Where’s she?”

After she asked, a young girl appeared. She looked around 16 years of age, and was wearing black glasses and black tight fitting clothes. She had short, black hair and her eyes had a faint blue color. “Seems you’re going somewhere, High Assassin?” she asked as she arrived at the hall.

“Hello Cecilia. It’s nice to see you too”, responded Nightingale with a sarcastic smile.

“I’m supposed to protect you whenever you’re going away, High Assassin. It’s my duty after all”, responded Cecilia.

“Fine! Just don’t ask questions!” responded Nightingale, as she moved out.

“Boss, we have some news you should know about concerning, Viola”, said one of the men in black.

Nightingale was reaching the stairs, but she immediately froze as she heard those words. After sighing deeply, she walked back into her office. “This better be good!” she declared, as she sat on the table.

Everyone followed her into the office and Cecilia closed the door.

“She was caught last night with files containing information about half of our assassins, and the missions they had been assigned”, spoke the man who had an amused look earlier.

“What?” asked Nightingale, shocked.

“Just after she left this establishment, she contacted a guy wearing a black outfit. The guy’s outfit had an insignia like this”, responded the man, showing a picture of the insignia.

“Halloway? Are you kidding me? Where did this insignia come from?” she asked.

“After digging around, we found a company called Halloway Inc. situated on a small island called Aloha Island. The person is headed by a person called Reeve Halloway. Apparently, he doesn’t exist!” was the reply.

Nightingale’s body shook as she heard this. She realized that something was going on. This was something even more dangerous than Sky Haven itself. However, before rushing to conclusions, she had to know some things. Chief of these things was: Why was Ryan trying to join Sky Haven now?

“Where’s she?”

“She’s being interrogated at Haven’s Feel. So far, she hasn’t said a single thing. We managed to remove the pill under her tooth, before she could commit suicide.”

“Then let’s go there first.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea, High Assassin?”

“What did you call me?”

“Uhh, High Assassin?”

“Good! Then stop asking questions!”

“Okay boss.”

With that, everyone stormed out of the office. After exiting The Pinktail using the backdoor, they headed towards Haven’s Feel. This place was a prison made specifically by Sky Haven in order to put people who had committed grave sins against the organization. Nightingale couldn’t believe that her friend, the same person who had helped her to get accustomed to Sky Haven, could betray the organization just like that. Something was off.

However, what caused her to feel uneasy was that she was contacting someone who worked for an organization located on Aloha Island. That was where Ryan was supposed to be! It was too much of a weird coincidence, and she didn’t believe it. The problem was she didn’t know how to approach this situation at all. Would she torture her own friend in order to get information about who she was working for? What about her son who wanted to join the organization? Would she allow him to join and become an assassin?

And if he saw her, how would he respond? What about Blue Rose who had betrayed her by telling her son about the organization and how the recruitment process is carried out?

As countless thoughts raced inside her head, she sighed deeply. It seemed her life was now to be consumed by endless troubles. Despite having had her husband killed, she couldn’t shake this feeling that he was getting revenge on her from the underworld. As she thought about this, she shivered.