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“Damn it! Hey! You lot! Go kidnap that girl and bring her here! I don’t care if you have to get a little rough with her! But don’t damage the merchandise! Understood?!!”

Without even trying to hide his irritation, Cameron Fourier barked the order at the five guards he had brought with him.

“The rest of you, come with me and protect me! We’re heading back to Cope Town! You two bring the girl there afterward!!”

After rattling off those commands in rapid succession, Fourier immediately turned and strode quickly down the corridor toward the direction of his room.

Of the five men, two exchanged glances and promptly went after Fourier. Another two grinned at each other and nodded before heading off in the opposite direction.

The last man remaining, Joule Gnarr, furrowed his brow and scratched his hollow cheek with the fingers of his right hand as he stared up at the ceiling with drooping eyes.

This was bad. Really bad. He turned toward the two men who had gone off smirking at the thought of an easy job, kidnapping some little girl, but it felt as though a massive wall of thick steel stood in his path. His body simply refused to move forward. Then he tried to follow Fourier instead, but it felt as though heavy chains had wrapped around his legs. His feet would not move.

Was he completely trapped?

Scratching at his round nose, Joule let out a deep sigh and muttered in genuine distress.

Joule Gnarr had lived on the dark side of society ever since he was old enough to remember. He didn’t even know the faces of his parents or siblings. He had done whatever it took to survive. Hurting others. Taking from them. That had been natural. His conscience never bothered him for it.

To him, it was no different from wild animals preying on one another. Because for him, that was life.

And the reason he had survived this long in a world as dangerous as that of a beast among men was because of his absolute instinct for danger.

A road he must never walk.
A choice he must never make.

By trusting the almost divine warnings that rose from within him, he had managed to stay alive until today.

When he first took this bodyguard job, he had thought it would be easy money. And in truth, it was. They were surrounded by the knight order. All they had to do was guard the inside. No one would ever break through the knights’ wall. There was little to do while traveling. Most of the time, he was allowed to enjoy himself well enough inside the carriage, where no one could see from outside.

To begin with, their real role on this journey had been to guide and guard their employer whenever he wanted to visit the underworld districts in the towns they passed through.

Their employer had rather particular tastes, and the establishments that catered to those tastes were always deep in the illegal quarters. Naturally, he couldn’t bring the knights along as guards there, much less ask them for directions, so that was where Joules and the others came in.

Apparently, their employer greatly enjoyed tormenting those barely of age. To satisfy such proclivities, one inevitably had to go far beyond any place that operated openly. And yet, despite those tastes, he cared excessively about appearances.

There had been one time when he claimed he had strangled one during the act because she had seen his face in the light. Then he ordered them to clean it up afterward. They had even handled negotiations with the establishment over damages for the ‘product,’ and disposed of the body as well. As Joule Gnarr dealt with the now-silent body of the girl, he had given a bitter smile.

“Those with status really do whatever they want.”

Even such tasks stirred no disgust or guilt in him. To Joule, it was just one more ordinary job. Cleaning up after the employer. Wiping his messes away. That was what most of the work on this journey had been.

Of course, he had also done his duty as a guard. He had survived in the underworld since the beginning. He had great confidence in his own abilities.

Traveling alongside the knight order had also let him measure their strength. Regular members posed no problem. Even if several surrounded him, he could break through. Team Leaders were manageable, too. But that Knight-Commander and Vice-Commander were on another level entirely.

You didn’t see monsters like that often. Only the bodyguards of truly major figures in the underworld, or professional assassins of the highest class, could contend with them. Even Joule, who had crossed blades with many powerful people, could tell they were far beyond anything he could handle.

But even more shocking than that was Amukham itself.

What in the world were the people in this place?

For years, he had occasionally heard stories of Amukham from people in the underworld.

“Don’t mess with the people of Amukham.”
“If it looks like you’re about to cross them, run. Don’t hesitate. Don’t even look back.”
“They’re untouchable.”
“Don’t think numbers or weapons will save you.”
“Stay away from them!”

He had heard lines like that from time to time, usually over drinks, and always took them with a grain of salt.

But after actually coming to Amukham, he realized it had been no exaggeration. People walking around casually in the streets were clearly stronger than the Team Leaders in the knight order. His instincts screamed at him not to go near them. And there were several among them who felt far more monstrous than even that Vice-Commander or Knight-Commander.

How much of this had the others hired alongside him noticed…? At least two of them seemed to sense that something was wrong. Those with sharp instincts lived longer in this world.

But the other two were hopeless. They treated this place like every other noble estate they had visited with their employer, and had even tried to flirt with the maids here. Without letting the men touch them, the maids had naturally slipped past their grasp. The fools merely tilted their heads, not even realizing they had been evaded. The maids here were monsters too. Anyone too blind to notice that would never live long.

And now those same idiots had gone off laughing, thinking kidnapping the lord’s daughter would be an easy task.

Were they stupid?

Easy job? What a joke. On the surface, she gave off the same air as any ordinary young girl. But she was the greatest monster in this entire village. The fact that she gave off no presence of strength at all only made her more terrifying.

And those eyes… Those sea-like cobalt green eyes looked as though they connected to the deepest floor of an unfathomable ocean. Just being glanced at by them made him feel as though the depths of his soul had been laid bare.

Like those endless eyes, he could not see the bottom of that girl at all.

And yet those fools… People who cannot see were truly fortunate. Trying to lay a hand on that would be far more dangerous than crawling into a Queen Hydra’s nest and stealing its eggs. The two who went after her were finished. Their employer, who gave the order, had no future either.

Forward was death. Backward was death. Joule really was trapped. No… this was the tide turning.

If neither forward nor back was an option, then there was only one path left.

Joule Gnarr opened the window before him, wrapped his slender body in his cloak, and silently slipped out of the Amukham House.

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