Midnight Bar

After Camille dropped the suspicious flash drive in the hands of a suited man in the parking lot of a skyscraper, they were taken to a street that was closed off to vehicles.

"You can walk, right?" Camille asked the warlock, who felt exceptionally good for someone who had gotten shot mere hours before.

The driver left them at a lively commercial street with bars, restaurants, and nightclubs that had people queuing in line outside.

"Welcome to Moonlit Boulevard," continued Camille as she stepped out of the car with Megan.

Dante followed the two women closely as they walked along the busy street, where the music from the different nightclubs mixed with the chatter of the people, making the warlock intrigued as he glanced around him.

"Why are those people in line? Are they giving free food or something?" he asked his two guides.

In Dante's mind, the only reason why people would queue in line to enter an establishment in his past world was whenever those places offered free food for the poor.

"That's a nightclub. It's a party establishment with music, drinks, and sometimes food…" Camille explained, but the warlock couldn't understand why someone would wait to enter a building where they had to pay for stuff when they could simply go somewhere else.

The platinum-haired girl chuckled at his unorthodox way of thinking, and after walking for a few minutes, they stumbled upon a stairwell tucked away on the side of the street beneath the neon lights.

At the bottom, a sign reading "Midnight Bar" hung atop a red door that led to the underground establishment.

It was a sizeable area with an elegant facade and jazz music playing from the speakers on the ceiling, slightly muffled by the sound of clinking glasses and laughter from the guests.

As soon as they entered, all of the workers turned and bowed politely toward Camille, making Dante notice that they were all women.

Camille brought Megan and the warlock to her office in the back, where she had a large couch for them to sit on while they waited for her to do something on her laptop.

A few minutes passed, and Megan was explaining to Dante what a laptop and the internet were when suddenly, they were interrupted by a waitress entering the office with a cart filled with bottled drinks.

She offered them both beverages, but Megan only asked for a glass of water while Dante was still deciding what to choose.

The cart had wine, beer, vodka, rum, gin, among other liquors. However, in between those bottles, he noticed one that said "orange juice."

It was supposed to be used for mixing drinks, as nobody would ever order a glass of orange juice at a fancy bar, but the warlock was ignorant to these things and was led wholly by his curiosity.

"How is this orange juice so good!? I've never had a drink this sweet…" he said as he happily used a straw for the first time, confusing the waitress.

Camille was looking for a place for the warlock to stay and asked him what type of space he needed, but all he asked was for an "inconspicuous open space."

"Like, a backyard where your neighbors can't see you?" the woman inquired.

"Yeah, that works. You told me magic wasn't common here, so maybe it's better if I don't show it carelessly. Right?" said the warlock.

"No, it's not that it's not common. It's just not a 'thing' here. When someone talks about magic in this world, they are talking about fictional stories or magic tricks from a magician…" Camille elaborated.

"Huh? Then what is that spell that was placed on Miss Megan?" Dante asked, making Camille halt her typing and alerting Megan, who sat straight with a serious gaze.

"What do you mean?" the handler asked.

"There is a strange flow of 'umbra' flowing from her body. At first, I thought it was a spell that one of you cast on her. But actually, now that I see it closer… What is that?" the warlock explained as he extended his hand to grab Megan's.

However, as soon as he coated his hand with 'umbra' and made contact with her, he felt an electric discharge as black electricity slightly burned his hand.

Camille stood up from her seat with haste, asking if they were okay. Meanwhile, Megan was frozen in shock as she didn't understand what had happened.

"Oh, it's a curse…" Dante muttered with a nonchalant tone, waving his smoking hand from side to side.

"What!?" the two girls exclaimed in unison.

"Hmm, have you been near a demon at some point in your life?" the warlock asked, keeping his casual tone while the two women seemed more distressed.

They hesitated for a brief moment, and Dante understood that they either couldn't or didn't want to talk about it, so he just skipped to his next question and asked Megan if she wanted to get rid of it.

Megan nodded fervently, and after the warlock took a deep breath, he reached for her hand once again, except this time, there was no black electricity from their contact.

"I see…" he said after a few seconds, explaining that the curse that was placed on Megan had been on her body for a long time.

Nevertheless, it wasn't hurting her in any way, as he said that it was known as the "hunter's curse."

"This type of curse doesn't cause any ill effects. All it does is tell the hunter the location of their prey…" he elaborated.

Megan widened her eyes with terror and flinched, but Dante maintained his grip on her hand and whispered, "Dispell," producing a gust of wind around their bodies that lasted a brief second.

"Done. No more hunter's curse," he said, letting go of her hand and taking another sip of his orange juice.

Still, even though Megan was freed from the mysterious curse that plagued her body, the two women were still clearly stressed about it.

"Cami, if I had that curse on me… Is it possible that 'she' got it too?" Megan asked, but Camille didn't respond. Instead, she hastily pulled out her phone from her pocket.

"Bring Sophia to Midnight, NOW!" she ordered her lackeys before gazing back at Dante, who was slurping the bottom of his glass with the straw without a care in the world.