First day of Sat’xahr, 4043 AOT

Wave 3, Arbhur City Zone-0, Aesbyl Region

After the bloody battle with the group composed of thirty mercenaries, Azalea did not go directly to Wave 4. Some groups may also be lying in wait to ambush her if she carelessly takes the obvious path to the next area of Zone-0. It seems that these bounty hunters are well informed of where she wants to go. After all, it is the most common thing to do for anyone who fall in the same ridiculous situation as her. She needs to take a detour.

What the hell am I doing?...

While pondering in an abandoned falling apart house, Azalea receives a phone call from a close trusted friend.

“What’s up Qin?” She responds while putting it in loudspeaker and holding away from her ears.

“YOU!!! WHAT’S UP WITH YOU?!!” His voice thunders. “I just received some really disturbing news from some of the traveling merchants who passed by Aesbyl this week. What the hell was that?! A reward for capturing you??! What did you do this time?!!”

“Excuuuuse me? Why is it my fault?”

“Because obviously you’re that kind of person.”

Azalea takes a deep breath. “Okay.” She turns the loudspeaker off before holding the phone close her ear again. “I admit that I’m not that great of a person… BUT! Listen! There’s really nothing I can do if the other bastard is an entitled asshole.”

“What exactly did you do?”

“Nothing! I just rejected him!”

She hears a deep sigh from the other side of the call. He mumbles a great deal of something inaudible for a while.

“I’ll help you. Just get out of there.” His voice sounds calm now.

She responds in an enthusiastic and grateful tone. “Sure. Thanks, Qin!” Then she ends the call.

“W-wait-!!”

Azalea turns off her phone before returning it back with her other valuables in the smaller belt-bag that replaced the huge luggage she used to have. Her eyes are still dead and cold. The mask of that cheerful person is still nowhere to be found.

“I haven’t done anything to deserve this much trouble.” She mumbles. “Should I give them a better reason?” She scoffs.

∞×∞

Twenty first day of Panca’xahr, 4043 AOT

Ylam City, Aesbyl Region, Surus

The Hunter’s Party

After the successful demon hunt, the hunters still need to claim the rewards and divide the loot so they are staying in the city for few more days. Some of them also decided to relax before returning to their respective hometowns.

Right after all the rewards have been claimed and loot have been distributed, the group of licensed demon hunters has decided to bond for one more time before parting ways. They choose a humble fast-food chain in the city center. While waiting for their orders to be served, Cassandra receives a call from her village back in Laamhi.

“What’s up?” Cassandra picks up the call and then her smile quickly curves down. “Say that again without stuttering so I’d understand.”

“What is it?” Fred joins the table while carrying a tray of glasses of water.

“Oh, old lady seems to have some emergency.” Gustaf chuckles.

“What do you mean lady? That’s an old hag.” Matt whispers very softly.

“Hm. Is that so?” Cassandra’s tone turns grim.

“W-wha-! I haven’t said anything!” Matt jolts away.

She glares at him. “Keep your voice down. Why are you so jittery? Huh-?.. No, there’s some rowdy brat over here… Don’t worry, I’m about to go back.”

“She didn’t hear. It seems you’ll live a little longer.” Carlo whispers.

“Why is she treating me like a brat? I’m old enough to start a family of my own.”

Fred scoffs looking at them.

“Hey,” Aaron calls them while scrolling on his phone. “Something is… I think, our little young hunter got herself in trouble.”

“Why? What happened?” Gustaf is quick to respond.

“Look into Aesbyl Region’s Hunter’s website, right in the home page. There’s a new poster that was posted recently.”

They all heed his words. To their surprise, they see a face that is so familiar to them.

Fred’s brows furrow. “This is…”

∞×∞

Fairy dust is an illegal drug that can boost the user’s power but it has bad side effects to the mana circuit once overused. However it is more known in the field of medicine as a drug that helps severely injured patients’ recovery. This drug’s main ingredient is the flower of the plant “Lemerus entus” that only grows in rocky and humid environment. It looks like a cactus with tiny spikes and a few leaves that grows around its flower.

Around half a century ago, the Shilan Research Group discovered a way to cultivate the plant Lemerus entus in an artificial environment. Since then, they have continuously improved the process of cultivation which allows them to mass produce the plants. This made the Shilan Pharmaceuticals become the biggest supplier of the medical drug, L-Entuxine, in the continent. To continuously produce this supply, the Shilan group constructed more plantations around Arbhur City where their main company is located. Because of this, their research team meticulously studied the plant in hopes to discover more use for it. They discovered that the leaves and roots can be made into tea and help in treating fatigue as it also has a slight healing effect. It did not take them long to learn that a larger amount of the flower extracts can boost the ability of a reveil. However, they also discovered later on that too much use of it can destroy their mana circuit. Thus, the production have been stopped and it was categorized as “illegal” by ICA.

The Shilan Group mainly focuses on improving the effectiveness of L-Entuxine and the quality of their Le-Ent teas. L-Entuxine has a healing effect that helps large wounds close faster. It also regulates the circulation of mana in the system which allows for faster recovery. This effects are observed in both reveils and ubliss which makes it the drug of choice for post-operation patient care. Le-Ent tea on the other hand, cures everyday fatigue that people can experience after a busy day. Its healing properties allows people to feel refreshed even if they sleep less than normal. It has become an essential everyday drink for people with heavy work schedule as well as college and post-graduate students. Both products have almost no side effects if consumed in the right dosage, which made it more popular and easy to market.

However, behind it all, the Shilan Group still continues to secretly study the boosting properties of the flower. Later on this research resulted in the creation of the now known “Fairy Dust.” They distributed and sold these illegal drugs mainly to hunters and mercenaries. Then after a few years, Fairy Dust became increasingly popular in areas outside the city like the Zone-0. It is mainly being used by people who have work which requires heavy physical labor. The occasional consumption became dependence, which later proved to be devastating. In the end, despite the drug’s destructiveness, many people in desperate situation would still rely on it.

The illegal international exportation of Fairy Dust through the black market makes the Shilan Group wealthier and more powerful. The developing dependence of the mercenaries of Zone-0 in this illegal drugs allows the Shilan group to have some control over them.

∞×∞

For the past couple of days, Azalea moves stealthily from around Wave 3 to enter the western parts of Wave 2. She is more dedicated into not getting noticed this time so she traversed the slums with the outmost caution. She set a hiding place close to the laboratory and plantation that can be found in the border between Wave 2 and Wave 3. Here, she decided to rest while observing their operations.

What the hell am I doing?..

While idly watching from the distance, she cannot help it but be plague by different thoughts. It is as though she is arguing with herself in her mind.

“I understand… She made a choice. My presence became an opportunity.”

“But still… I feel betrayed.”

“She is a kind person… it’s just that… her kindness is not meant for me.”

“I feel awful…”

“Running away is exhausting. Maybe I should make a little more mess around here.”

“It’s like there’s an accumulating heavy cloud inside.”

“What should I feel?.. Will it go away of I vent it out?..”

“It can’t be helped… people are like that after all.”

“I did help them a bit. Hopefully all of these effort won’t be wasted. They better have left safely from this slums… and have started a new life somewhere better.”

“But why do I feel so bitter?”

“It doesn’t matter… I’ll just forget about it… I should move on. But before I leave, I’ll give them a gift. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, or how much good this will bring… In fact, I might be doing more harm than good… to myself… and the people. It’s hard.”

“Sometimes… trying to be a good person hurts a lot.”

In order to get away from the mercenaries that are after her, Azalea has been keeping Pulse active on high alert for the past two days. Her inability to turn it off is already tiring, but to actively keep it on highest sensitivity is all the more exhausting. It is like feeling drowsy but being unable to fall sleep. Despite this, Azalea is actively keeping the spell on.

She stays close to the laboratory and plantation for another day to observe it without getting discovered. It looks like a normal pharmaceutical laboratory, except that one suspicious warehouse. A large number of sealed boxes has been taken out of it and put inside an old looking transport truck that does not have the logo of the Shilan Group. It seems to be going farther west, maybe even going out the country.

“West?... Westar…” She mumbles. “The port?.. hm…”

She stays hidden while waiting until sundown. She is thinking over and over what to do next. She has decided on her target first. She has made up her mind about what she wants to destroy. She has also planned how to escape from here.

“I’ll be quick… and be gone.”

Once the sky is starting to change from a mix of yellow and light orange to a mix of dark blue and purple, Azalea makes her move. She stealthily treads her way towards the suspicious warehouse. She looks around reassuring herself that there are no personnel near the area. After that, she picks a side of the warehouse then she uses the spell “Wind Cutter” to slice the concrete wall open. She makes a hole large enough to fit herself then she casually waltz in. Inside, she quickly notices the brown boxes that are stock piled over each other. These boxes are towering and occupying over half of the warehouse space. She goes farther inside and inspects one of the boxes stock in lower columns.

She pulls one box. She taps it. Judging by the sound it makes, it seems to be full of whatever’s inside. She flips it around, looking at the six sides of the box. All sides of the box have a small red symbol. The symbol looks like two leaves that is made to resemble the letter “S” and inside each leaf is the letters “L” and “e.”

“Does this symbol mean that these boxes has Lemerus entus inside… and that it’s a product of the Shilan group?..”

She looks around more. She then notices that some groups of boxes have different symbols stamped on them. Several of them also have notes pasted on. A group of boxes is arranged in one area seems to be ready for shipping. It looks like the boxes are being marked as to where they are going to be transported. She cannot decode those, and it will be a waste of time. So, she goes back to the box she pulled a while ago. She uses the Wind Cutter again to slice it open. Dust-like particles burst out making her cough upon inhalation.

“What the shit!” She coughs while fanning the dust away with her hand. “So this is it… That Fairy Dust that’s been quite popular around here.”

The light sparkly pink powder pours out of the sliced box while the thin dust settles down. Azalea takes a pinch and then looks at it closely. This is called Fairy Dust because the powder looks magical. However taking it and relying on it is like a long lasting curse that brings one closer to death every time they use it. But still many people choses to use it. Maybe because they were fooled, or maybe they are just desperate.

“What the hell am I doing?”

This powder needs to be mixed with water. The dosage and potency varies from person to person, depending on how reliant they have become to this substance. Once it is mixed, the liquid needs to be injected into the veins and circulate in the blood stream. The effect will be felt within five to ten minutes after injection, and it can last up to almost half a day.

Once taken, regardless of being an ubliss or reveil, the person will experience a surge power. They will feel highly energized and powerful. If the user is a reveil, it greatly improves the flow and recovery of their mana, thus making them perform better. If the user is an ubliss, they may not have access to their mana but the feeling of being energized allows them to work more and get tired less.

She then uses it to draw a magic circle on the open space. She then walks out heading towards the plantation. Her floating spear follows her movements close behind her back. She climbs up the building and finds a corner where she can conceal herself.

“Why am I even doing this?”

Let’s hurry and get this over with…