"Alan, I'm going to be honest with you. Many Exorcists doubt you're truly the Monkey King's disciple.

"Letting you join a mission this important would be risky for us."

He paused for a moment, then sighed.

"But you saved my daughter. So I'll put my trust on you, and give you a chance.

"If you and your colleague reach Rank 3 before the Leviathan Hunt begins, I'll personally approve your entry."

Rank 3 in five years.

That was a lot to ask.

I licked my lips and thought for a second.

I was a Rank 1 now, and I planned to evolve all my classes into Hidden Evolved ones. Each rank-up would take far longer than usual because of that.

I had multiple paths to balance—Assassin, Mage, Swordman, Mechanic—but still…

"Alright," I said finally. "Rank 3 it is."

He smiled faintly. "Good. You've got spirit. I like that."

'Reaching Rank 3 in five years is going to be hard. That's why it's a good target.'

Nico stood up. "Alright. Thank you for your time, Alan. I'm sure you've got plenty of things to handle."

I stood too and shook his hand.

His grip was firm, and confident.

Then I left the room.

The air outside the Underworld branch in Thessaloniki felt colder than before. The underground tunnels always carried a chill, but this time it lingered.

I didn't return home yet.

'I still have to find Carlotta's brother,' I thought.

Since I was already here, it made sense to start searching.

I had found several records of child kidnapping organizations connected to Dusk Hand during my visit there.

But after the Exorcist Union raided Dusk Hand, they must find those records too, and would have wiped those groups out.

If Carlotta's brother had been taken by one of them, he should've been rescued already.

But there was still no news of her brother.

That meant he was somewhere else.

'Let's start looking for clues.'

I already knew where to begin.

The person who had told Carlotta about the Exorcist world.

A normal human like Carlotta should never have learned about Exorcists.

Yet she knew about memory wipes, Cursed Spirit's domains, and even the way Exorcists operated.

That meant someone inside the system had told her.

"Lord of Shadows," Yuna said suddenly.

"What is it?" I asked, stepping into a portal that led across the city.

"Carlotta's brother was a normal human, right? Why would an Exorcist kidnap him? Even Dusk Hand's groups only kidnapped children of Exorcists."

"That's what I'm wondering too," I said quietly.

The portal opened into a dark alley, and I stepped out.

Once I made sure no one was nearby, I entered the shadows and started moving toward the night district.

Thessaloniki's night district was loud even from a distance. Music, laughter, and flashing lights.

Carlotta had told me in her past life that she worked there for a while as a bartender or a server.

The pub owner, she had said, was the one who first told her about Exorcists.

I slipped through the shadows until I reached the street she had described.

The pub stood near the corner, old and half-hidden between taller buildings.

Its sign flickered weakly under the streetlights.

Through the window, I saw a few people drinking and talking.

The air inside looked smoky.

'Found it,' I thought.

Without making a sound, I stepped through the shadow of the doorway and entered the pub unseen.

The place was quiet except for low music and laughter from the other room.

I moved along the walls and entered the pub owner's office.

He was there.

Marco.

I watched him from the shadows, silent and still.

Hours passed. My patience didn't waver. Being an assassin had trained me well for this kind of waiting.

Observation was always the key before action.

The more I watched him, the deeper my frown grew.

'This guy isn't an Exorcist,' I thought.

It was obvious from the way he walked, from how slow and careless his movements were.

He was just a normal human.

'Then how did he know about Exorcists? Carlotta told me was the one who told her about Exorcists.'

A possibility came to my mind, but I needed proof before confirming it.

From that day, my routine became simple.

I slept most of the day, woke up at night, and used Shadow Eater on the Exorcist trainees living in the estate dorms to increase my stats.

After that, I would leave the estate, go deep into the forest, and bring out the Cursed Item Security Guard.

I would chain it down, submerge it in a bath of Positive Energy, and then head to the pub where Carlotta used to work.

There, I would hide in the shadows and observe Marco.

When morning came, I returned to the forest.

I sealed the Cursed Item back inside my Inventory Rune and erased all traces of my presence in the forest.

Then I rested and repeated everything the next night.

This went on for days.

Then, weeks.

The Cursed Item's will was breaking down slowly.

In the first week, it had resisted fiercely.

It lashed out at every attempt I made to form a Binding Vow with it.

In the second week, it still resisted, but it stopped attacking me directly.

My hands no longer got zapped whenever I tried to approach it.

By the third week, it had grown quiet.

It no longer spoke about recapturing the Subject, and didn't zap my arm.

It simply resisted silently.

Bathing in Positive Energy could be torture for Cursed Spirits and Cursed Items.

But I wasn't trying to torment it.

I adjusted the energy levels to make it mildly irritating, just enough to make it uncomfortable, not unbearable.

We were going to work together one day. Torturing it would only make that harder.

Right now, it was probably feeling something like standing next to a giant concert speaker, being forced to listen to deafening noise for hours.

It was nothing painful, but exhausting nonetheless.

Seeing its resistance weaken, I estimated it would accept my Binding Vow in two or three more days.

Meanwhile, my nightly search at the pub finally gave results.

Unpleasant ones.

One night, when Marco wasn't in his office, I emerged quietly from the shadows.

I was in my Shadow Assimilation state.

My body was covered in shadows.

Even if anyone saw me, Alan Veritus wouldn't be linked to it.

I checked his desk, pulling out drawers carefully.

Then I noticed a hidden compartment.

I opened it.

Inside, there were three pills.

Small, smooth, and glowing faintly with a strange hue.

I frowned and picked one up.

I had seen Marco take these before.

'So this was the answer,' I thought quietly.

My guess was correct.

Marco was involved with Illegal Exorcists.

I sighed.

I finally knew where Carlotta's brother was.

And it wasn't good news.

'This explains a lot.'

'In my last life, Marco disappeared before Carlotta could question him about how he had information of Exorcist world.'

'Now I know why he disappeared.'

He was probably killed to erase the evidence.

"Lord of Shadows, why are you looking at the pills so intently? Did you find something?"

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