98 Assassins

Blood King recounted everything he experienced against White Fox and his team. "We can safely assume they're passing foreigners."

"Who the hell are these thugs!?" Black Devil sat down. His head ached. He massaged his temples. "First, Hayden. Second, this White Fox. Who the hell are these people…? How powerful is this wolf?"

"If I had not escaped earlier…" Blood King's expression became grave, similar to his tone. "I would have died a gruesome death."

"What?" Black Devil's tone became even more serious.

"The thing is, I can feel that she was kind of going easy on me." Blood King could tell that Sayuri wasn't going all in with her attacks. "It was as if her sole goal was to distract me."

"From what?" Black Devil's eyes behind the mask narrowed.

"She's protecting that White Fox." Blood King's expression said 'naturally.' "Whoever that White Fox is, we cannot touch him. Even Pangkat Anino is protecting them. The strange thing is that they're foreigners, yet Pangkat Anino's protecting them."

"Maybe they've allied up with this strange group of people." Black Devil sighed. "What a headache. Somebody's vandalizing us, but we can't retaliate… How frustrating."

Black Devil was keen on not offending Pangkat Anino at all. Even Forest Giant, there strongest sponsor, wouldn't risk to. They all knew the power of The Boss.

"Call off all the search parties for this White Fox and his eleven companions." Black Devil rested his elbows on the table, intertwined his hands, and rested his chin on his hands. "Anyways, have you met the three prime candidates for the replacement of Crimson Enchantress? Examine them and give us your vote."

Throwing an activated tablet to him, Black Devil continued. "Remember to read every single one carefully. It is quite a hard decision."

"Okay, boss." Blood King took a cursory glance at the three candidates as he walked away. He didn't pay attention to their names, instead his eyes were on their Abilities. "Taunting Turtle? Psh. Discord Sowing? Lame. Devil's Whisper? Now that's something…"

Back in the room, Black Devil removed his mask when the door closed. "When will you come back, boss? Everything's falling apart."

…..

Waking up, Hayden felt that he wasn't only on Eun-ha's arms. There was someone behind him. From the smell, Hayden could tell that it was Sayuri. His head was leaning on Eun-ha's arms and he was faced towards her.

His head was buried in Eun-ha's collarbone with his left arm wrapped around her. His other hand was close to his chest.

As for Sayuri, her left hand was on Hayden's abdomen. Her head was in physical touch with Hayden's back. If he was not tall, Sayuri would've definitely spooned Hayden.

Oddly enough, Hayden was comfortable. He tightened his hug and kissed Eun-ha on the cheek. She woke up from this. She grumbled, "Oh, you're awake…"

The two pecked each other's lips. Hayden whispered, "What's she doing here?"

"Oh, she's like that." Eun-ha said in a matter-of-factly tone as if this was a normal occurrence. "She would climb into bed when she thinks it's comfortable."

"And you're okay with her hugging me in this manner?"

"Of course." Eun-ha caressed Hayden's face. She smiled and looked warmly at him. It was an amazing sight. "It's very alright."

"It is so weird. You know?" Hayden muttered. "Two women? You don't find it weird?"

"Not at all." Eun-ha moved her lips towards Hayden's. "We've talked about this. You're too perfect. It really is what I feel."

"Okay." Hayden smiled. "Just making sure."

At that moment, Sayuri groaned, rubbing her head on Hayden's back. "So noisy…"

Hayden tapped Sayuri's arms. Shifting a bit, Hayden acquired his phone from below the pillow. When he shifted, Sayuri and Eun-ha was now the one in his arms. He hugged the both of them as he opened his phone. "Okay, you can go back to sleep."

"Oh…" Sayuri was partially stunned. Ultimately, she cuddled with Hayden, burying her head on his collarbone.

"She's awfully cuddly." Eun-ha giggled, kissing Hayden on the cheek as she similarly opened her phone. "When's your episode going to air?"

"Later, at night." Hayden tilted his head so that his and Eun-ha's touched. Meanwhile, his left hand was on Sayuri's shoulder. "Are you going to watch it?"

"Of course I will. With all of my co-members in fact.��� Eun-ha laughed at something posted on her social media and showed it to Hayden. Hayden was amused of her behavior. Reading the post, Hayden laughed as well.

"Oh yeah. By the way." On his phone, Hayden was checking construction companies. "My friend and his girlfriend will come with me to the fansign. Should I introduce you to my friend?"

"Oho. That's a big step." Eun-ha turned her head to him. "Are you sure you want to introduce me to your friend?"

"I'm asking you." Hayden locked eyes with Eun-ha. "His girlfriend is apparently a huge fan. Probably wealthy too since she somehow acquired the scarce fansign tickets."

From Daniel's words, he deduced that Scarlet didn't seize the tickets conventionally. Rather, she got it from someplace else.

"Heh, okay." Eun-ha returned to browsing on her phone. "Are you giving us gifts?"

"Yep." Hayden smelled Eun-ha's hair. It had a fragrant flowery scent. It brought Hayden into a field of flowers.

"What are the gifts?" Eun-ha curiously asked Hayden with bubbly eyes.

"As much as it is tempting to tell you…" Hayden took placed down his phone on his chest and tapped on Eun-ha's nose. He enunciated each word. "It's a secret."

Eun-ha pouted adorably. "Fine. Will I like it better than this ring?"

"Er…" Hayden was speechless. "If I'm correct, since my gifts to all of you are personal. With yours being more so. Yes. Yes, you will."

"Heh, I'm looking forward to it." Eun-ha touched Hayden's forearm with her left hand. She kissed it. "You know, if you told me I'd be dating a 16-year-old, my old self will laugh."

"If I were to inform the past me that I'd be lying in bed with two of the CHORUS members, cuddling with them, he would've killed me." Hayden's rejoinder topped Eun-ha. "And worst of all, I'd let him kill me."

"About that date." Sayuri suddenly talked.

"Thought you were sleeping?" Hayden pulled her to him closer by tightening his hug on her. "Can't sleep?"

"Yeah, you guys are too noisy." Sayuri kissed Hayden on the cheek. "About that date. I wonder where you're taking me, Hayden-kun?"

"Where do you want to go?" Hayden messed Sayuri's hair. "It's your date proposal. Also, I'm still not that keen on you being my girlfriend."

"You're not?" Sayuri sat up. She twisted and knelt beside Hayden, staring at him with those puppy eyes. "Why not?"

"That won't work anymore, Sayuri-san." Hayden pinched Sayuri's left cheek with a faint smile. "You see, last time, I was fighting the flow. This time, I'm going along with it, being flexible and bending like a bamboo stick in the wind. Nice try though."

"Uh…" Sayuri rapidly blinked. She laid back down on Hayden's arms in dismay. "Tsk, jeez. At least I get to lie down with you."

…..

Wearing his former outfit of plain black shirt, black denim jacket, black slim cut-jeans, and black boots, Hayden sat in his car. He drove out of the basement parking lot. It was 4:00 AM by that point in time.

The car ride was smooth and finally without any interruptions. In the car ride, Hayden was jamming with modern anime songs as he texted with Eun-ha and Sayuri in his phone.

Arriving at his house and parking his car, Hayden directly went to his room. Going in, he didn't bother changing clothes and went straight to recording some videos.

He didn't invite Daniel knowing that he had his first actual date with Scarlet. Apparently, Scarlet skipped school for the day to be with Daniel. It was quite cheesy.

All the while he was recording, Hayden was hearing birds from the distance. From the caws, the sound indubitably came from crows. It was rather unsettling for Hayden. As if death was near his doorstep.

When he finally finished recording, Hayden had a cold feeling on his neck. Without a warning, he slid down his gaming chair and pushed it backwards.

Activating his Divine Perception, Hayden heard a thud. From his Heavenly Sense, Hayden sensed that there was someone in the room.

Taking out a Black Piercer, Hayden aimed at the stomach of Comedy. Infusing essence energy into the pistol, he was going to fire when the sound of flapping wings entered his ears from his window.

Abruptly, myriads of black crows swept him off his feet, throwing his aim off. Although he was able to fire, the bullet merely affected Comedy's leg.

'Fuck.' Comedy held her leg as she groaned. That pistol bullet was much sharper than she anticipated. It was also painful. After all, she has never been damaged by a bounty before. 'There's always a first for everything, huh?'

'Well this is annoying.' From his observation the crows' wings were unreasonably sharp, cutting his clothes and body. The crows flew around instead of pecking him. Enhancing his physique, Hayden opted to not use his Indestructible Devil until something truly dire occurred.

Storing his Black Piercer back in his Space Ring, Hayden fished out his ginunting blades. Loud dragon-like breathing sounds came from him as his ginunting blades was sharpened to extreme levels.

His disposition changed as he cut down tens of birds every slash. Outside, Discord was invisible, standing in front of Hayden's house. His eyes were closed. His expression shifted when the number of his birds started dwindling at a rapid pace.

'Holy crap.' Discord was surprised at the speed that his birds went out of commission. 'Nobody has ever been able to kill my birds this fast… What the hell?'

Inside, Hayden moved forward as he twisted his body to evade. In the midst of that, he cut down fifteen crows at once with a lateral slash.

In that instance, he sensed someone slicing downwards, with what he assumed was a knife, through his Heavenly Sense. Hayden instinctively raised his sword to block. As the ginunting sword was getting sliced cleanly, time completely stopped in his senses.

A figure of a 6-inch black knife appeared in his eyes at the point of contact. It was obvious that the invisibility of the blade gets removed when she attacks. Devising a plan to kill the woman with his remaining sword, the flow of time returned.

Hayden moved sideways a bit, narrowly dodging the knife. Simultaneously, his right hand thrusted the ginunting blade in Comedy's stomach, piercing her abdomen cleanly. She passed out from the pain.

Outside, Hayden finally sensed somebody else. As Comedy was passed out, he decided that pursuing the one outside was much wiser.

At that moment, some of the birds remaining inside stopped mid-flight. They opened their beaks as black energy was gathered.

Going to the middle of his room, Hayden exhaled, black mist coming out of his mouth. At the same time, he took out tens of throwing knives, inhaled, infused life force into the knives, and spun. The knives were thrown at the heads of the crows, killing them.

"What the fuck?" Outside, Discord panicked. It was only now that he noticed he was not invisible anymore. "Shit."

He turned around, wanting to escape. One step in, he stopped, clearly hesitating. As someone from the underworld, he knew the dangers of this mission. Any of the two of them can die at any time without a warning.

The thing was, he had no obligation to save Comedy at all. On the other hand, the two of them had forged a bond through their one year of picking off bounties. He could tell that Comedy was a good person at heart. And with her strength, she may become unbeatable in the future.

Nevertheless, in the present, Comedy was weak. He can beat Comedy without much effort. Yet, she was top-notch among Level 2 wielders. Which is why he didn't expect that Comedy would fall prey to Hayden. Hayden's strength as a Level 2 wielder was too unexpected to the point that his Level 3 power was unable to withstand it.

In his moment of hesitation, Hayden has opened his window and jumped out. Without any time to react, Discord fainted from a singular kick of Hayden targeted at his temple.

"Idiots." Hayden's face twitched. Confirming that there was no people watching him, he lifted Discord on his shoulder. He took Discord in his room.

A pool of blood from Comedy was now spilled on Hayden's floor. "Great…"

He discerned that although her pulse was weak, Comedy was alive. This was despite the blade perforating her. He attributes this to the generally powerful vitality of wielders.

Contrary to Hayden's character, he carefully princess carried Comedy. Meticulously, Hayden brought the two people down the basement.

Laying down Comedy on the floor and Discord on the couch, Hayden executed the Breathing Technique. Touching the wound around Comedy, he stimulated her cells as he slowly pulled out the sword.

The wound healed at a visible rate. A few seconds of inhalation and exhalation later, the wound finally closed completely. Tying the two up, Hayden placed a piece of Voidstone on each of the ropes.

Discord's face was well kept. His eyelashes were femininely curled. His lips were beautiful. His high cheekbones were something else. All in all, he was feminine. Kind of like those men in anime that can easily be mistaken for a woman.

As for Comedy, her face was one word: Stunning. She had a high nose. A heart-shaped face. Lips that were neither too thin nor too thick. Thin eyebrows. And her light brown skin completed it all. Regardless, Hayden wasn't the least bit affected.

He had the most beautiful Korean girlfriend and one of the most charmingly cute woman in the world was trying to win his affection. What else has he not seen?

His eyes wandered back at Discord. "Why does he look so familiar?"

The face of Scarlet popped up in his head. Immediately afterwards, he felt silly. Lookalikes are common. Why should he think deeply into this matter? It was a pointless task.

Gathering life force into his fingertips, Hayden tapped Discord's head. He slowly opened his eyes. He was startled to see Hayden's face up-close.

"Dark Haven." Hayden said one word. "What can you tell me about them?"

"Uh…" Discord was uncomfortable without his mask. When he attempted to activate his Ability, he found out he couldn't. "I-I can't talk."

A karambit knife materialized in Hayden's hands. He forced Discord back with the knife. "Talk, or I'll kill you."

Scanning Discord's aura with his Heavenly Sense, Hayden was perplexed. It was lighter than gray. Much, much lighter. What was more surprising was that Comedy's was quite white as well. "What's your name?"

"J-Jacob Zacharias!" 'Jacob' gulped. Hayden's eyes were too intimidating. Those eyes were much worse than Jacob's!

"You're not going to inform me of your real name?" Hayden could tell that Jacob was lying due to the upsurge of fear. "Your funeral."

Shrugging, Hayden's hands flashed. 'Jacob' flinched and shouted, 'Noah! My name is Noah!"

Hayden's knifepoint stopped in literal contact. "Last name?"

"T-that, I can't tell." For some reason, the smell of sadness reeked out of Jacob. When he saw Hayden's threatening gaze, he curved immediately. "Gintong-Langit!"

"Oho?" Hayden's right eyebrow raised up. It seems that his suspicion wasn't based on nothing. He twirled the knife away from Noah's neck. "You're a Gintong-Langit? How come you're in Dark Haven?"

Hayden has never had the chance to ask anything regarding this Gintong-Langit Family name. Notwithstanding, something as domineering as 'Gintong-Langit', or Golden Skies in English, was irrefutably not a common family name.

"H-huh?" Noah was confused of Hayden sounding familiar of the Gintong-Langit name. Something clicked in his mind. A countenance of epiphany appeared in his face, which quickly became fear. "Y-you're from Puting Araw?"

"That's obvious." Hayden shaped essence energy to form a chair. "Be thankful that my friend's girlfriend is related to you. Otherwise you'd be dead."

"Uh…." Noah was speechless of Hayden's act. When he had a clear glimpse of Hayden's face, a wave of attraction was felt within him.

"Oh, so you're homosexual?" Hayden had a whiff of the air of Noah. "Is this why you left the Gintong-Langit Family?"

"W-what?" Noah's eyes widened. "H-how did you know I left?"

"You're so easy to read." Hayden shook his head. "I didn't. It's standard interrogation tactics. You kill people for a living yet you don't have knowledge of this? Okay, let's get straight to the point. What can you inform me about this Maestro of Death?"

"Nothing." At the mention of Maestro of Death, Noah sobered up. "Dark Haven is not an organization. It's more of a… Guild. Well, it is a guild. It's named Dark Haven Guild."

"Huh. Tell me more." Hayden's curiosity was piqued. "Remember, you, I cannot kill. But her? With a flick of a hand. I can…"

Noah gazed at Comedy. "Holy crap she's beautiful."

"So, willing to save your friend or not?" A throwing knife actualized in Hayden's hands.

"Fine, fine." Noah sighed. He explained how there's this big city-like guild in Caloocan City. If you want something illegal? The place sold all your illegal needs.

"Thank you for the info." Hayden moved on to Comedy. He tapped her forehead. She groaned as she opened her eyes.

She was started when she woke up. Obviously, she thought she was still back at Hayden's room. When she realized that she was in a different environment, her eyes darted back and forth between Hayden and Noah.

"Discord?" She squinted her eyes at Noah, ignoring Hayden's presence. That's when she remembered that she was stabbed. Grasping her situation, she innocently asked, "Wait… How did we get here?"

Hayden slapped his forehead. "Let me get straight to the point. Why should I not kill you right here?"

"I-I…" Comedy bit her lip. "I have a sister… She borrowed money from a slave trader in Dark Haven. Which is why I had to join and get her out myself…"

"You're trying to use sympathy, huh?" Hayden sighed. Not from annoyance. But because it was working. He can tell she wasn't lying. 'Why do I have to have a soft heart at times like this?'

Nonetheless, he ignored his own feelings, compartmentalizing it. He rationalized everything. "What's your name? The real one. I can sense if you're lying."

"Harper… Harper Lilim (Shade)." Harper muttered disappointedly.

"Okay. Let me ask, Harper." Hayden reined in his feelings, displaying his rationalistic, logical, and realistic side. "What do I care of your sister? You tried to kill me. If you're in my stead, would you show mercy to me?"

Comedy stared at the floor in guilt. Indeed. Why would somebody show compassion for those that attempted to take their life? In their world, that would be the most idiotic thing to do. Which is why Hayden's following words were all the more shocking.

"That's why I have an offer." Hayden's cold calculating eyes pierced through Harper. "I'll buy the freedom of your sister."

"What?" Harper and Noah simultaneously exclaimed. Harper furrowed her brows. "Why would you do that? What do you want?"

"I simply want one thing." Hayden smiled. "I want-"

"I-I'll do it." Harper's eyes filled with determination. "I'll give you my body as long as you free my sister. Do anything you want to me. As long as my sister is set free."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Hayden nearly couldn't resist slapping Harper. "I'm not a pervert."

"Then what do you want?" Harper blinked. Men, although isn't as bad as it was back pre-World Government, mostly has one strongest desire: Carnal. It was one of the few ways that they can easily be manipulated. "Don't-"

"Let me fucking finish." Hayden was enraged of getting constantly cut off. When Harper ceased her mouth, he continued, "All I want is your cooperation."