C53: Stalking Dangerous People

"I will accept, only if you count this mission as ten missions," I said.

This would make me eligible for the Expert Exams without spending the next month and a half doing missions all the time. I could use that time more productively.

Father and daughter glanced at each other and seemed to have a whole conversation with just their eyes.

I let them do their thing.

Despite them being more powerful than me, I was the one who had all the cards. After all, it wasn't like they could threaten my family.

My offer wasn't antagonistic or undermining the authority of the clan leader. It was a sketchy thing to ask for. But not something that would go below my clan's moral line, if they even had one.

They just had to fake some things, register my mission score, and make it seem like I had gone on ten missions for the clan. It was an easy request for them.

When the fire was too hot, anyone with common sense would leave the kitchen. So if my clan refused my offer, I would just walk out of the deal.

Delia turned toward me and sighed. "Sure, but not for ten missions. But nine instead."

"That works for me," I nodded, smiling politely.

I already had one mission finished. I had added one more there so Delia could offer a smaller number. At least it would give the illusion that she was still in control.

They probably already knew about my mission record and accepted my unspoken truce.

We were family, and we didn't need to fight each other. Our clan already had more than enough enemies.

"Good, you can have three days of rest. The mission will start whenever you're ready within those three days." Said the clan head.

Oh? So we're playing the game of giving concessions to each other. To assure the others that they were still in control. He was an intelligent man.

Though he didn't seem to handle deals well when he had no leverage, he was probably used to having someone's loved ones as a hostage. When that was the case, it was always easy to win negotiations.

After that, Dalia and I walked out. She explained the gist of the mission. "We have to hunt down a royal guard. If you're stupid enough not to know what a royal guard is, as his name says, he protected the Royal Family, but then he did some crazy stuff. Kidnapping, stealing, racketeering, murder, prostitution. You think it, and he has probably done it."

Her face cringed in disgust, as if she had the moral high ground.

I decided not to mention how except for prostitution, our clan probably did all the other things also. However, I had other concerns.

"Royal Guard? Then sorry, but I'm dropping the mission," I refuted. Those guys were elites, and I had no place in that battle.

Even with Dalia backing me up, I wasn't crazy enough to go against them.

She might have confidence in herself, but I didn't have confidence in her.

"Also, one of the twenty-two Special Exorcists will join us on the assignment."

"Then I will reapply for the mission," I added swiftly.

Special Rank Exorcists had overpowered abilities. Having one of those monsters with us inspired a lot of confidence in me.

"You know. If you keep changing your words like that, what kind of man are you?" Dalia's face was solemn, as if looking down on my lack of honor and bravery.

"A living one," I answered. "Also, a man with common sense. If someone does something that he knows is impossible and doesn't help anyone. Then that's not bravery; that's stupidity."

She stared at me for a couple of silent seconds. Then she chuckled. "You've gotten funner to be around since going to school. What changed you so much?"

"I got a girlfriend."

She froze when I said that, as expected of a low-leveled sibling. So I broke her worries. "Just joking. I'm more concentrated on my studies."

She narrowed her eyes and was about to pull the casual ass-whopping older sibling move when they lost an argument. So I immediately changed the conversation. "Anyways, do we know our target's special ability?"

"We thought we did, but it turned out to be a false lead," she shook her head.

Unknown special abilities were very tricky to fight. That's what made my future knowledge so damn useful.

"Anyways, how long do you plan to rest during your three-day break? I hope you didn't grow up to become spoiled during your stay at the academy," she sent me a mocking smirk.

It seemed like she was asking me if I wanted to rest. But if I said yes, no matter how little time I rested, she would use it as a reason to try and ridicule me. It's an older sibling thing.

"Resting? What're you talking about? We're setting off right now." I needed my training arc as soon as possible. This mission could be a shortcut to that.

Unlike a certain someone and his rival, I couldn't catch up to years of progress within a couple of days. So I had to use shortcuts.

Delia frowned, but she still nodded. "Then let's set off. Do you need a horse?"

"No. But you can take one, if you want to Miss Princess," petty mode 110%. Teasing her was too much fun.

Also, we could run faster than horses and had more stamina. So it would be useless to take horses with us unless we have something to carry. I had Carpy, but he usually slept in my backpack/fish bowl.

…

Two hours later and we were running through the streets of a small town just outside of our clan compound. The town wasn't too densely populated.

It wasn't strange for big towns to sprout close to exorcist clans. But people probably didn't want to live close to known killers like the Dark Sword Clan. Maybe that's why this town was so small in comparison to others.

We searched around and entered from the backdoor of a rundown inn. But unlike its outward appearance, the inn looked nice on the inside. There was an ancient but very nice feeling about the place. It even had a medieval-looking fireplace.

"Paris!" Delia called out in a harsh and cold voice. It seemed like my words had gotten to her more than I thought. "Paris! Get the hell out here! We're setting off!"

"I'm ready," a woman said from behind us.

Dalia and I jumped forward on instinct and turned around. I had my hand on the handle of my cursed sword while Dalia had two daggers out.

The person who startled us was a woman wearing a business suit, and she had rectangular glasses. She had a strict teacher vibe about her.

Paris, also known as the Exorcist of Judgment. One of the twenty-two Special Exorcists. She was ranked 21st on the power ranking.

But I wasn't discouraged by her low position. Her ability was overpowered when dealing with criminals.

"Dalia, this is the help your criminal clan has decided to send?" Paris didn't mince her words. "What is he doing here? He seems too young to be useful. Does he have some kind of special ability that would help us?"

"He's the member of our clan who held back the Demonic Exorcist," Delia said. She would have probably sent me a smug smirk if Paris wasn't here.

"I see, then he must be quite useful," Paris nodded, fixing her glasses, causing them to shine in the light, which made it impossible for us to see her eyes.

Oh! She's a kindred soul!

Though one thing still bugged me. Why was Paris working with the Dark Sword Clan? She was a justice freak. My clan wasn't the best type of people to be associated with.

"Did your sketchy clan find the information we needed to track him down?" Paris asked. There was a bit of bitterness and hate in her eyes.

Delia probably noticed it but decided not to say anything about it. We were just working together. There wasn't a need to like each other. We only needed to get our job done.

"Yes, he is in Itomori Town, near a volcano. Apparently, he was looking for something," Delia shrugged. She didn't bother hiding her contempt for who we were working with.

"How far is Itomori Town?"

"A couple of days on horseback. We should be able to reach the destination by running, if we choose to do that. But then we won't be in our best condition by the time we're there," Delia tried to deviate the conversation toward choosing to use horses. Almost as if she was preparing something.

"No! While we daddle about, someone could be out there dying. Why? Because of our selfishness!" Paris slammed her hand on the wall, causing a crack despite not using any Ord.

Here was the justice-fueled temper tantrums I was expecting.

…

Just like that, I traveled with two beautiful girls for hours. Until the sun set and night came about.

We had barely said ten words altogether as we ran. Paris was very serious about her duty. But we finally arrived at our destination.

Itomori Town was big. They had what looked like smaller versions of a skyscraper. People wearing modern clothes walked about. There were TV screens and advertisements on buildings.

We were all a bit tired. Especially me, since I hadn't been training Ord as long as my companions, who had been at it for years.

Dalia glanced at me and then at the Special Exorcist. "We will be resting here."

There was no room for discussion. So Paris nodded. They might not be as tired as me, but they were also weary after such a long journey.

As soon as we registered at the inn, Paris left without saying a word. She presumably went to investigate the crime scene.

"I will go and stalk her a bit," Delia said, jumping out of the window. Curiously, she didn't go after Paris at all. She was instead choosing a different way.

How did I know all that? Because I was stalking Delia. There was still the chance she might decide I was a competitor in the race to become clan head.

Using a Master's specialty, controlling their Ord. I breathed in and out, locked my Ord, and stopped all inner energy flow. Turning presence-less.

After following her for a while, Delia went into the slums and used her Special Ability.

*******

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