Hiro pronounced Lucia’s name in a flat voice that carried no familiar inflection.
“Lucia. Come here.”
It was not a request. Not a friendly suggestion. A discreet but absolute order that left no room for hesitation or negotiation.
Lucia slowly turned toward the door, surprised to see Hiro standing there in the frame like a dark silhouette cut against the gray light of the street behind him.
What is he doing here?
But as she looked at him more attentively, something deeply unsettled her.
He was different.
His usually warm and slightly embarrassed eyes had taken on a darker shade, almost black in the dimness of the entrance, and his voice held absolutely none of the clumsy softness she knew.
It is as if I am suddenly discovering a facet of him that he has carefully kept hidden all this time.
A part of him that I had never seen before.
The man at the door looked at Hiro with a questioning expression that gradually transformed into calculated understanding, then he glanced at Lucia before smiling.
“Ah I see, you two are together then.”
He introduced himself in a thick and breathless voice.
“My name is Teddy, pleased to make your acquaintance young man.”
He gestured vaguely toward the inside of his house.
“Your friend here had simply entered to retrieve something that belonged to her, an apple that unfortunately rolled into my place through the open window, nothing more innocent than that I assure you.”
Hiro did not introduce himself.
He said absolutely nothing, simply continuing to stare at Teddy with that empty and hard gaze that did not even blink.
I saw him very clearly trying to close that door.
He swept his gaze over Lucia who stood slightly back, then the disgusting house with its scattered clothes and rancid smell, then Teddy.
This reminds me of dark things I had seen online on shady sites when I was still on Earth.
I might be paranoid.
But the similarities are too striking.
The common points and the pattern are too identical to be a coincidence.
Teddy’s gaze constantly slid over Lucia as if he had already mentally undressed her ten times during this short conversation, his eyes lingering on specific parts of her body with a disturbing intensity.
I could cut him down right here.
It would take only a second.
No one in this deserted street would see us.
But Lucia was present and conscious of everything.
Hiro closed his eyes for three full seconds while breathing deeply to regain some semblance of control over his violent impulses.
“We’re going home. Now.”
Teddy reluctantly stepped aside to let Lucia pass, his body still partially blocking the passage in a suggestive manner.
Outside in the street now bathed in sunlight, Lucia walked quickly to catch up with Hiro who was already moving away.
“What were you doing here exactly, did you follow me from the guild?”
Hiro had regained his usual expression as if someone had flipped a switch in his head, a slightly embarrassed smile replacing the hard gaze, his shoulders visibly relaxing, that familiar warmth gradually returning to his eyes.
He tried to deny it by desperately searching for a plausible excuse.
“I… I was just… in the neighborhood… by chance…”
But he found absolutely nothing credible.
He finally confessed timidly while scratching the back of his neck with a sheepish look that could have softened anyone.
“Okay yes I followed you, I had a very bad feeling since this morning without logical reason and I couldn’t help coming to check that everything was fine.”
Lucia looked at him in silence for several seconds.
Instead of being disappointed or annoyed like a normal person would have been facing this admission of unsolicited surveillance, she lowered her eyes slightly with her cheeks taking on a subtle rosy tint.
“You worry about me to the point of secretly following me all over the city.”
Her voice was almost a whisper.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“That’s… cute.”
Hiro was himself surprised by this completely unexpected reaction.
She does not find me weird?
Nor creepy?
Nor intrusive?
He slowly thought that perhaps he could allow himself to relax a little more often without fear of being judged negatively.
Maybe I really worry for nothing.
Maybe the girls will not find me as strange as I constantly fear.
He felt a fragile but real confidence begin to sprout in his chest.
---
The next morning, Cassian slowly woke up in a comfortable haze that enveloped her still-sleepy mind.
Then she noticed she was not alone in the bed.
Again.
Fuck.
This is the second time.
The second fucking time this happens.
Lena was pressed against Hiro’s left side, an arm wrapped around his waist as if it were the most natural position in the world.
Lucia slept peacefully against his right side, her face nestled against his shoulder, her long hair cascading over Hiro’s chest.
And Cassian, stuck in the middle of the three, found herself crushed between the two women and Hiro’s warm body, like a living sandwich in the heart of the bed.
I am seriously starting to worry that this is becoming normal.
She had deliberately gone to sleep in a different room this time to avoid exactly this kind of situation.
But it seems that going to bed earlier than the others does not help at all.
They still find me like heat-seeking missiles.
She slipped out of the bed with extreme care so as not to wake anyone.
I am going to have to start sleeping late from now on.
Wait until they are all asleep before going to bed myself.
It is ridiculous but I see no other solution.
After getting ready for the day, Cassian left the quiet lodging and headed toward the training arena.
I want to exert myself physically.
To sweat and hit things until my muscles burn.
She was surprised, as she approached, to already hear sounds of combat echoing in the empty corridors.
Constantine was currently facing a dozen golems of human morphology and size that had surrounded him in an impressive tactical formation.
There were already more than twenty scattered defeated on the training ground, their bodies cleanly severed lying in various positions.
Constantine deflected a blade aimed at his neck toward another golem behind him, using the force of the enemy attack against another enemy.
He ducked under a horizontal strike, then sliced behind the knees of the golem which immediately collapsed.
An upward cut that simultaneously severed the arm and head of a third opponent.
A fluid sequence of three lethal strikes in less than a second that created an arc of destruction around him.
His micro-movements were completely unpredictable, changing direction at moments impossible to anticipate.
He turns this chaotic melee into a series of ultra-fast mini-duels that he completely controls.
Cassian approached slowly, watching with fascination.
In about two timed minutes, Constantine had finished defeating all the remaining golems, his blade tracing precise arcs that methodically dismantled each opponent.
He remained motionless for a few seconds afterward, his gaze lost in contemplation of their severed bodies scattered around him as if mentally evaluating his own performance.
He finally noticed Cassian and smiled at her while sheathing his sword.
“You are early.”
Cassian shrugged slightly.
“I could say exactly the same to you.”
She swept her gaze across the deserted arena.
“Are you here every morning like this?”
Constantine thought briefly.
“Almost every morning yes, but not systematically because rest is also extremely important for long-term progress.”
Cassian nodded.
“The training ground is completely empty at this hour.”
She paused.
“It is quiet. I really like that.”
Constantine smiled more widely.
“I also greatly appreciate this morning calm.”
He grimaced slightly.
“When there are too many people here it becomes frankly disturbing.”
He crossed his arms.
“I sincerely hate crowds and crowded spaces, it makes me nervous and negatively affects my concentration during training.”
Cassian asked while looking around.
“Where is Charlotte this morning?”
“She will come a little later in the morning.”
Constantine laughed lightly.
“She needs a lot more time than me to find the strength and motivation to get out of her cozy bed in the mornings.”
Cassian stepped over the defeated golems, then went to take two wooden training swords from the wall rack.
“As long as you are already here and available, you can teach me to better reinforce my body with mana, it is clearly my main weakness in close combat.”
Constantine had a specific program planned for his usual morning training, but he spontaneously decided to modify it to accommodate Cassian.
---
It was now ten o’clock in the morning.
Hiro stood in a private room reserved exclusively for adventurers of rank C and above, a space much calmer and more organized than the chaotic public hall.
Adventurers from rank F to D could only access the public quest board located in the main hall of the building where everyone constantly jostled.
There were a few adventurers present in this private room, but not enough to create that suffocating feeling found downstairs.
Hiro observed the proposed quests on the board with great attention, looking for something that would match his current objectives.
But he was slightly distracted by the adventurers around him who were acting in a… particular way.
An adventuress was doing repeated squats in full armor in the middle of the room without any apparent embarrassment.
CLANG.
CLANG.
CLANG.
The metal creaked with each movement.
A mage was carefully reading a quest description, then suddenly summoned a mini three-dimensional illusion to better visualize the described monster.
A realistic 3D projection of a nightmarish creature appeared floating above his hand.
It scared at least half the people present in the room who jumped violently.
A weird adventurer with a pointed hat was discreetly removing the pins from the various displayed quests without anyone really noticing what he was doing.
He carefully put them in a small metal box he kept in his pocket.
Adventurers are supposed to be more professional and serious as they advance in the ranks.
But I rather get the impression that they become more and more weird and eccentric.
In the end Hiro found nothing interesting among the rank C quests displayed here.
He went down to the public hall to also check the lower-rank quests.
Once in the crowded and noisy hall, Hiro meticulously scanned the various proposed quests, carefully reading each description.
Several quests caught his attention for the wrong reasons.
[Quest – Rank E]
Name: Recurrent Disappearance
Description: My sister disappears every Thursday evening for a full month. She tells me she is going to help a poor old sick man in need. She systematically comes back with strange marks she calls insect bites. I am sincerely starting to hate insects.
Reward: 12 gold pieces
[Quest – Rank E]
Name: Discreet Investigation
Description: My daughter tells me she spends time at a friend’s house to learn sewing and embroidery. I do not believe it at all.
Reward: 18 gold pieces
[Quest – Rank F]
Name: Looking for Domestic Help
Description: Looking for a kind and discreet young woman to help an old man living alone. Light work: cleaning, cooking, pleasant company. Very well paid for few hours.
Reward: Generous payment + daily meals
Hiro’s teeth audibly ground as he read these descriptions that formed a pattern too obvious to ignore.
Again that pattern.
He left the guild with a hurried step that left no doubt about his destination.
---
Constantine was outside with Cassian and Charlotte after several hours of intensive training.
They were buying grilled meat skewers from a street vendor who served them still steaming.
“You really learn incredibly fast Cassian.”
Constantine bit into his skewer.
“Body reinforcement with mana usually takes days of practice before showing visible results, but you have already understood the basic principles in just a few hours.”
Cassian shrugged with casual arrogance.
“Obviously.”
Charlotte enthused over her own skewer.
“It is absolutely delicious, the meat is perfectly seasoned and grilled exactly right.”
Constantine was talking calmly with the two girls when he suddenly spotted Hiro in the distance walking quickly in an adjacent street.
What is he doing around here?
And why does he look so hurried?
He quickly invented an excuse to the girls.
“I just remembered I forgot something important at the guild, I will be back in a few minutes.”
He moved away before they could ask questions.
Constantine quickly caught up with Hiro and managed to follow him discreetly for several minutes without being noticed despite the decreasing crowd.
Why am I doing this exactly?
Curiosity?
Mistrust?
The streets gradually became less frequented as they ventured deeper into a run-down residential neighborhood.
Finally Constantine saw Hiro stop in front of a particularly dirty house with broken shutters, then abruptly open the door without knocking and enter inside.
Constantine hid behind a wall at a safe distance, wondering what was happening.
Blood suddenly spurted out of the house through the open door.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Repeatedly like someone shaking a paintbrush soaked in red paint.
What the…?!
Constantine rushed toward the house in total incomprehension.
Hiro inside slowly turned toward the door upon hearing the hurried footsteps.
Blood was starting to stain Hiro’s boots, forming dark puddles around his feet.
Constantine half-drew his sword while accusing Hiro in a voice trembling with contained rage.
“I already found you weird for a while now.”
He tightened his grip on the pommel.
“Dangerous for Cassian in a certain way. Like a bad influence, a bad close one who could corrupt her or put her in danger.”
He shook his head.
“But I thought it was completely unjustified on my part, just small paranoid remarks I kept to myself. I did not want to meddle in affairs that did not concern me.”
His voice became harder.
“But now, the murder you just committed in front of my eyes has completely changed my perspective on you and on the threat you represent.”
He pointed his sword at Hiro.
“You are a public danger that must be stopped immediately.”
He took a step forward.
“Cut all contact with Cassian now, you are far too dangerous and unstable to stay near her.”
He raised his chin slightly.
“Cassian will be much better off with me for now, I can protect her from people like you.”
Hiro’s gaze was completely empty, almost extinguished like a flame that had been blown out.
As if all his rage had condensed into a tiny burning point at the bottom of his pupils that no longer reflected any light.
