Q: What are the signs of the approaching descent? A: The changing weather, the surge in the number of beast waves, and the outer gates being unstable. - - - In the outskirts alleyway of Starlight city, a youth walked towards a gang of hoodlums. The youth had a hood on his head, so the members of the gangs could not see his appearance clearly—coupling with the fact that it was already evening. However, that did not stop the gang from throwing all sorts of yells at the youth. "Hey punk, get outta here, before you don't have a chance to," the one on the side of the leader yelled, and it was barely anything good compared to the other ones. The other ones showered their daggers and clubs, threateningly like they would not mind beating him if he kept on coming towards them. "Gentlemen, let's not resort to violence, shall we?" the youth in the hood said hesitantly. There were a few coins in his arm, making chimes as he approached the gang. "I only have a few questions. If you answer it honestly, nobody would get hurt. It's a win-win for everyone." "To hell with your questions and win-win," One of the hoodlums shouted and charged at the youth, bearing his club. "Oh, violence, it is," the youth said, sighing. Unfortunately for him, before he could even lift his club a foot threw him away with a dropkick on his chest. His body shot towards where he came from and only stopped, crashing against the wall. The youth tilted his head as if considering, however, he shook his head, finding the approach of the remaining hoodlums him with various weapons in their arsenal. They didn't assault like the heedless one did, the dropkick was enough to make them cautious. So, they loomed around him, weapons ready at any actions. "I don't have time for this," said the youth and threw all the coins in his arm except for one. The coins shot towards the hoodlums and hit them hard on the forehead as if all their names had been written on the coins. They squirmed in pain on their forelimbs. By the way, there were only three coins the youth threw, and they were all silver coins of ten tills. The three coins did not drop to the ground after they assaulted the three hoodlums, but still floated before their eyes threateningly. "A sorcerer," two of the hoodlums, who were still standing as they did not get hit by the coins, said together. They stepped back one step instantly, dropping their weapons. "Can we have a talk now?" the youth said and when he saw the nod of the leaders, he made a gesture with his arm, and the coins returned to his palm, joining the other one. "Good," the youth said and removed the hood from his head, revealing the scarlet hair and handsome cold appearance. It was none other than Scar or Aaron, to be precise. I released a breath and came before the leader of the gang. Nothing works here if you ask properly. In the end, I had to invest a little mysticism and acting to get the result—not that I hated it. Achievement unlocked! he mused inwardly, grinning. After training for a whole month, you can now intimidate low-level thugs. I hid my grinning face immediately and returned to the cold look, ready to interrogate the thugs. "A few kids went missing since last week," I said, looking at the gang leader. "Do you have any information about it?" The gang leader did not open his mouth at first, but when he heard the noise of coins chiming and saw them hovering in the air, he had to open his mouth. Just some paltry tricks! I might get popular at birthday parties. "I have seen a few weird people in cloaks," he said, gulping down a hard breath. "They were only three or four dangerous-looking men and had firearms with them, and I have seen them doing suspicious things like coming and going with sacks. They were on the west side. I'm not sure if—" I arched my brows. "Show me the path," I said and got up, but the leader of the gang did not. "Come on, I already wasted all day on this task." Abruptly, a single firework resounded on my back, and I looked towards it frowning. "Is that the west?" I asked the hoodlum, who nodded aggressively. "Goodbye then, I'll look for you guys later." Without giving a second look at the gangs, I leapt around to climb up a one-storied building nearby and looked at the signal in the sky. Looks like Eran or Julies found the kidnapper before me and now was in a tricky situation. I started sprinting above on the roofs, from one roof to another towards the fire, hoping the situation was still under control. It was supposedly a low-level task I took from the mission hall because I had some business on the outskirts of the city, but there was a hidden quest in it. Supposedly, it looked like a case of kidnapping kids, but it was something more, actually. The kids the kidnappers kidnapped actually used as livestock for the bloodsuckers. Such an act already got on my nerves just when I remembered it being a mid-level piece of the second arc of the story, which would solve after dozens of kids got devoured. Edward was supposed to solve it, but that was at a later date, however, I could not leave the kids for death with a clear consciousness. In the end, I called two of my brilliant underlings, Julies and Eran, to complete this task with me. It took a couple of minutes for me to approach the building from where the signal was called and it was supposedly Eran who had made the signal. Currently, he was bound inside the building as the kidnappers were arguing if they should kill him or not. I suppose they would not, after all, kidnapping a few kids and killing a spirit practitioner were two entirely different things. One would mostly be dealt with by the normal enforcer, while the latter would be from the spirit practitioner. They would very much not like to do that, however, if the academy or even anyone finds out their involvement with the bloodsucker, this case would only go to the magic enforcer and warders. That was what I intended. I did not enter the room for rescue immediately, seeing Eran bound. I could pretty much guess what had transpired here. Supposedly, Eran found the location of the kidnappers and came to rescue heedless, seeing the helpless children. Still, Eran would not supposedly go so easily, not to mention they were barely marcernary. The kidnappers probably threatened, using the kids as hostages to disarm the broad, dark man. Eran may be a spirit practitioner and not far away from being an actual knight, however, this fellow was actually a simple, soft, and a kind man contradicting his appearance. Still, Eran somehow managed to use the signal. Good job for that. I loomed outside the building, as my head brewed a feasible plan. There were four kidnappers inside the building, all of them hiding their faces with masks. I could put three off together using Sympathetic coins for some time, though I was not sure of the success. Moreover, it wouldn't even be unconscious. It only has been a couple of weeks since I have learned the sympathetic bindings, and could manipulate the coins using one as an anchor to the other three. I could only do three of the coins together because the coins were linked together and weighed a lot less. The art did not even need a couple of strands of spirit force. All I got to do was keep the precision of mind. However, it really was a paltry trick. Should I make a huge hole with fire, instead? If only, the kids were not there. As I was risking shooting the coins, the roof of the building broke abruptly, and a short, bald figure dropped like a bolt of lightning. I gritted my teeth instantly, finding Julies doing his reckless act again. Without considering for a second, I shot the three coins and broke the window to get in. But what happened inside the room was something out of my expectation. When Julies fell, he took one of the masked guys with a hack of his dagger. While one of the other men actually protected the kids with his body like a selfless hero. Surely, every man has some heroism in them, but seriously, that man was a mercenary. I mean, even I, as an introvert, knew what the term mercenary meant. Or was the name of Mercenary sullied for no reason? I didn't get what was happening, and my coins lost their momentum as well. Well, to be precise, there was no need for me to use my little sympathetic ability. Julies handled it on his own while Eran, the guy I thought who was bound, actually freed himself from the bindings and took care of the man that was before him. "Boss," Julies shouted at me, strangling a man double of his size. "Take care of him, my spell wore off him." The one Julies' eyes were pointing at was the masked kidnapper that protected the three kids from the heavy concrete falling. Though he was already in terrible shape, he appeared to have some juice left, preparing to fire his firearms. So, not even a tad bit of heroism. I did not have time to think and took Julies' words for it. I shot a couple of coins right at the face of the kidnapper, holding nothing back. The coins struck him in the middle of his brows and broke the mask before he went senseless. And I did not need to mention the face that came out was not of some bloodsuckers or their underlings, but a human. Well, a mercenary, but he's very much human. Humans did these sorts of things to each other in this cruel world. Even though I knew it, I could not help but release a breath, shaking my head. It took a couple more seconds for the chaos to be sorted. Julies left the man he was strangling towards the kids while Eran joined him. I give them a minute or two to take care of the kids before asking, "Can you give me an explanation for your reckless act, Julies?" "Boss, I wasn't reckless," Julies said at once. "I have used one of their own men to free Eran first without them knowing before assaulting them when I had a clear chance of success." "You used one of their own men?" I repeated his words, knitting my brow. Only now I recalled how little I know about Julies. Even in the book he was something the author ignored on many occasions. However, It sure did look like it, the way the kidnapper saved the kids. But here came a big question. "How do you do that?" ______________________