CHAPTER 24: CHAPTER 23: ZOEY ARRIVES

Early next morning.

The servants and house attendants were going on about their day. Cleaning the house, preparing means, and all that stuff.

They had seen Zaen walking around, but clearly, the overall mood of the household was down.

To them, Zaen was a good boy who, despite suffering the loss of parents, always remained strong for Aeron’s sake, but the determined boy they knew was gone... at least that’s what they thought.

"We must help the young master adapt to the new life," one of the maids urged the others.

"Yes. Young Master has always been kind to us. If anything, we should repay him for everything through our work—"

The lady had barely finished speaking when the doorbell rang. One of the maids hurriedly opened the door, wondering who it was. When she did, a tall, red-haired girl was standing outside, smiling.

Even without makeup, she looked decent, and the way she was dressed screamed of a rich household as she carried a black case on her back.

"Excuse me, is Zaen here?" the girl asked with a smile. "I’m Zoey, his classmate. I heard about the incident and thought it’d be best to meet him."

Keeping up with the act, she quickly placed warm coffee and cakes into the maid’s arms as she walked right inside and made herself at home.

"I... call the master."

"Thank you!" Zoey chirped.

No one could guess that she wasn’t in a great mood after seeing her bright face. In reality, it was her bitch face. How could she not be bitchy when she had to stay up all night all because of Zaen?

Yes, it didn’t take the organization too long to find that Zaen was after the Hell’s restaurant incident.

As much as Zoey had trouble believing it, Karloff swore on his blade that Zaen was the one who took down the D-rank and E-rank anomalies... alone... that when he was blind.

Fricking hell. Because Karloff found him, now I have to act as a recruiter instead of him.

Was she his classmate? Bullshit.

But they had all the data on him for her to act like it was true. Every incident inside his class or school was known to her by heart. After all, she had spent the entire night reading about Zaen and his life.

The only peculiar thing is... regarding his parents.

Usually, the organization had information about everyone swallowed by the mist and forced into the game.

However, although it was publicly listed that his parents were gobbled up by the mist, the organization had no record of that ever happening.

Captain Johann can worry about that. I need to focus on the task.

Her task. It was pretty simple.

First, confirm that the target was indeed blind.

Second, get a confession out... peacefully.

Third, tell the target about the organization and recruit him.

And fourth, erase everyone’s memories for good in case of rejection.

Everyone thought the recruiter’s job was the easiest within the organization, and they wouldn’t be wrong.

Most potential recruits were rescued by them and, when given the chance, most readily accepted, given the benefits they received.

As for those who declined... they had their memories wiped and the process repeated until they ’willingly’ joined the organization.

But for someone like Zoey, who was a trained anomaly hunter, talking with people outside her circle was worse than fighting two A-rank anomalies at once.

"Hello, I’m Mack, Zaen’s uncle," Uncle Mack introduced himself, snapping Zoey out of her thoughts. "And you are...?"

"Hello, Uncle!" Zoey smiled brightly. "I’m Zaen’s classmate. Hina told me he was back home, so I thought, to visit. I hope it’s not inconvenient. I mean, I know it is... just that I wanted to see him."

Uncle Mack looked her up and down before sighing. His lawyer’s intuition was telling him something was off.

The girl was acting like she knew a lot about Zaen, but if she were that close, why was it the first time he was seeing her? After all, he knew all of Zaen’s other friends, and Zoey wasn’t one of them.

Sensing trouble, Zoey carefully reached into her pocket. She had to be prepared to wipe Mack’s memories, since he looked to be suspicious of her.

"I see, please come with me. I’ll take you to his room, since...he isn’t used to his situation yet."

Zoey smiled again and jumped to her feet. However, in her mind, she was calling Mack an airhead.

He isn’t used to the situation? I would have believed you if Karloff hadn’t shown us the footage of him walking across the road all by himself. If he’s blind, then have I awakened Ultra Instinct?

***

Zaen was asleep after all the hunting he had done the previous night. Unfortunately, the rest he wanted wasn’t in his luck as Uncle Mack began pounding on his door.

"Zaen, open up! You have a guest."

Upon hearing the word ’guest’, he shot right up. The only guest he’d receive so early in the morning was...

Hina? But what’s she doing here?

He remembered her frantic confession, and even though he asked for some time, for someone like her, twelve hours were more than enough to make up his mind.

I’m stronger now. Should I try to force her... no, things can go south fast if I do that. Let’s just see what she wanted.

As he got closer to the door, his perception clicked in. He recognized Uncle Mack’s silhouette and the warmth emanating from his body.

However, the girl beside him... she didn’t have a silhouette. Her entire body was marred with red!

Not just that, she had a black box with her, and inside... was a sword similar to the Boning Sword he had obtained last night.

So far, Zaen had understood one thing. His perception reflected slayer weapons in their original state. People who cared about him or meant well were reflected with a plain white silhouette. Similarly, it was static for anomalies.

But it was the first time he had encountered someone with a red silhouette.

Just who the hell is she?