Hero Party Pt.I

Keimen City, Red Light District

Inside a lavish bar filled with jolly drunkards and women in obscene outfits moving about, serving drinks, sat a man in black with a mask on his face. Grimm Black was his name and everyone had come to fear it. Rumours had it that he wasn't human. Some say he was a beast person, others said a markari. People went so far as saying he was a vampire from the Realm of Eternal Night. If not, at least one of the many terrifying races from there.

Most steered clear of his path. This could be attributed to his reputation as a fine mercenary. One of the best around. Never missed a target. There were even some claiming that they had seen him beat B rank adventurers easily like they were a joke. Some said he could take down the famous Kings of Larm easily if he wanted to. Cold, calculating and quiet. The ultimate assassin.

So when such a person sat next to a beauty, drinking a cup of alcohol and heartily laughing his heart out, it raised suspicion for all those around him. Albeit interested, they refused to let him know that, so they would half-heartedly do what they were doing.

"You know, I've always wondered how you drink with your mask on."

The woman, a fair maiden with cherokee-like skin, a nice figure in a revealing outfit that covered only the bare minimum and cherry red hair braided into a locks said in amusement.

"There's a trick to it… hic… I could show… hic… you."

He said lazily, hiccupping in between words. He kept spinning about and laughing.

"Wow. You're in quite the cheery mood, no? Even having a drink with me out in public."

She took a sip of her cup and smiled brilliantly at him.

"Sorry… hic… about that… hic… but you know w-… hic… why, right?"

Grimm rested his head on the table. His hood fell down, revealing his beautiful silver hair that was a mess. The woman passed her hands right through his hair and caressed him.

"Of course I do, my love."

Her dazzling emerald eyes looked on his image with a gaze of interest, confusion and a hint of tender sweetness. This was a very stunning feature of hers that had many men fawning over her. Even now, Grimm was captivated by them.

"Did I ever tell you that you have the most beautiful eyes?"

"Every single time we meet out in secret, darling. Still, I wonder why we can just meet out like this all of a suddenly."

"Hic… Well, the truth is… hic… I- I wanna get m-"

One of the women working in the bar walked over to their table and put down a tray. She leaned in close and whispered something into Grimm's partner's ears. She sighed and removed her hands from his head.

"Darling, it would seem that you have more work to do. Let's leave this for later, ok?"

Her facial expression was now one of obvious disappointment and anger. She got up from the table and leaned into the man's face. With a kiss to his head, she walked away, her mere steps showing grace and elegance one wouldn't expect a person living in the slumps to possess.

Another figure replaced her seat. It was Maude, her dirty blonde hair was a bit ruffled and she was huffing heavily.

Grimm looked up at her, although it wasn't easy to know that. His lack of words and calm, paced breathing would have lead anyone to believe that he was fast asleep. However not Maude. She knew this guy like the back of her palm.

She took out her hand and removed the thick gloves covering them. She sliced open a wound in her palm and blood dripped onto the table. On lookers just observed quietly, causing the whole room to turn silent, all eyes hungry for information on what would happen next.

Grimm stood up abruptly, causing his chair to fly off, same for some tiny black balls which rolled all around the room.

"W-What are th-"

Just as someone asked, the balls caused an explosion of black smoke which blinded everyone.

"S-Smoke bombs?!"

"What the hell!?"

In the midst of the confusion, the duo had snuck out of the room and were currently at the roof of the building. Maude was stunned by the sudden change in environment, but when she looked up, all she saw was a hunched up Grimm puking his guts out.

She sighed and wiped the blood off her hand, before wearing her gloves again.

"How are you still not used to it?"

She stood up and dusted herself.

"Gaaaaaahhhhhh…. *HIISSSSS*."

She noticed the hissing sound and looked up at him. From the corner of his face, she noticed the red eyes glowing violently and staring at her hungrily. His mask wasn't on his face anymore. Slowly stumbling towards her caused her to reflexively put her hand to the sword on her hilt. Grimm however stopped in front of the mask and picked it up, wearing it quickly and calming himself.

"Phew… for a second there I thought you were going to g-"

Before she could finish that sentence, her body was lifted over the ground. Grimm was grasping her collar and growling angrily.

"Damn it, Maude! How many times?! How many damned times do I have to tell you not to pull such stunts before you realise that showing me blood will be the end of you? You'll die one of these days you know?"

While looking angrily at her, he noticed her eyes were expressionless, with a blank smile on her face.

"Didn't we already agree that we were going to die anyways after what would come next?"

His grasp on her collar loosened and he slowly lost his temper.

"He… I thought you knew that I already died before, so you doing so wouldn't really affect me."

Having been dropped, Maude promptly straightened her shirt. The air around them both was a bit awkward, but this wasn't the first time they had argued like this about this very matter, so it quickly cleared up.

"So? What did you want?"

"Sorry for ruining your date, but it would seem like some monsters are in the city."

"Huh? So why are you telling me? You know I don't care about Adventurer stuff anymore."

"True… except that this isn't adventurer stuff. The city's Adventurer Guild doesn't even know of its appearance."

"Hmm? Get to the point."

"Well… this is a sort of unfinished business for you. Remember when you sent that squad into Larm to retrieve the experiment?"

"Ah… the monster that markari spoke of?"

"Yep. I got reports of such a creature appearing through a portal gate in Old Co's Bar."

"Tch… am I supposed to go subjugate them?"

"No… just watch it. It could prove useful to my plans. If possible scout its strength too."

Grimm scratched his head and walked towards the edge of the roof.

"Anything else?"

"Nope. Just make sure not to confront it."

After receiving that order, Grimm jumped off the roof.

"Oi! Get me off here first! It's freezing cold ya bastard! Grimm?! Oi! Oi! Get back here!"

Her screams just went out into the cold night. Some noticed her and threw their empty bottles at her to shut her up.

------------------------------------

"We didn't mean to startle you guys. We just wanted to talk to you."

The elf in front of me said. She looked quite distressed. Since she wasn't human, I assumed I could just use [Telepathy] without raising any suspicion.

'Why?'

Her eyes widened after hearing my voice in her head, but they calmed down.

"Y-You're searching for someone, right?"

'Ulva.'

I dug my leg into her stomach.

'Where are you keeping my sister?'

"W-We don't have your sister!"

She grunted out the words. With her skill set, escape from me was practically impossible. Stalling for time was useless since I had proved to her that sneak attacks were useless against me. I even used [Devil's Miasma] in order to scare the answer out of her.

"P-Please… I-I d-don't know."

She begged, crying in front of me. I almost wondered what she was seeing to break her morale so quickly.

I dropped her then looked at her unconscious partner. She kept shivering on the ground and I moved on to Yokino.

'Yokino. Did you find anything from him?'

I got no response. I moved to edge of the building and looked down. She wasn't there. Even on my map, I couldn't track her. Her sudden disappearance got me so angry I just snapped and my magical aura burst.

'Damned spider. Now isn't the time for pranks!'

I was just going to leave them there, but then the guy from before called out to me.

"Hey! Tori, right?!"

I moved to his side quickly and looked him in the eye.

"How… do… you… know… my… name?"

I asked and even though he was blindfolded, I could sort of sense a bit of fearlessness from him.

"We know where she is. Your sister."

I tore apart the web from his eyes and he screamed in a bit of pain. I grabbed his shirt and brought him down to my eye level once again.

"Go… on…"

I ordered and he looked down.

"Hehe… can't I just see you without your mask?"

He said then I just punched him in the face, certain that I knocked him out. I let out a sigh and looked around. Their organized attack made me assume that they were working together. And they knew about Ulva, meaning I couldn't just ignore them here. So I shoved them all into the spatial storage that the suit carried and decided to find somewhere to hide out for the night till they all woke up.

I ended up moving about the entire night and even stumbled upon the red light district of the town. They didn't pay any attention to me since I was a little girl, although there were some drunk weirdos like that.

Someone eventually came up and asked why I was standing there. They were two succubi carrying bottles of wine. They said they had been sent to go buy the wine for some clients. Why they told me this? I had no idea, but I decided to ask where I could find an inn. They pointed me in the right direction, so I managed to get to an inn. They even gave me two silver coins to get myself a nice apartment for the night.

I was really weirded out, but I simply took it and moved, so I rented out a room for one night in a sort of luxurious inn. I got myself a really comfortable room at the top floor of the building and even some people came to attend to me with nice room service.

At first, I was suspicious, but after piecing one and two together, I realized that the two women from before thought I was a little succubus, so they were trying to be friendly with me. I was surprised that they would go out of their way to give me two silver coins though. That felt abnormally generous.