Chapter 147: Recruiter

Late last night—

Deep in South borough of Winged City.

A silvery red arc trailed behind her swing as the exquisite-looking demonic blades cleanly cut through a lesser demon's head as the head lightly dropped to the ground in a dull thud.

The headless body shook violently and then collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The metal armor clanged loudly in the night. He prayed that someone would hear the sound, but nobody would come to Winged City's beggar's district, which had practically been abandoned by the residents after the news of the massacre spread within the southern district. That was why the client had arranged to meet them here, after all.

The man glared at the young woman before him. However, it was clear that he was just putting on a brave front. He had lost the will to fight after seeing the woman casually kill eight of his fellows. Those were men only a little bit weaker than himself and some had even been his equal.

The young demoness who had murdered his colleagues with a playful smile on her face flicked her bloodstained demonic blades as she stabbed it into the head of the last remaining member of his team that had been frozen in place by fear. The ichor scattered in all directions, and the blades recovered their cold shine.

"Nfufufufu~ and then there was one, What to do, what to do, I'm having so much fun~"

The woman revealed her canines with a predatory grin.

"Why, why are you doing this? Don't you know who we are? The organization won't let you get away with this."

He knew he was only asking stupid questions and most likely putting on airs, but the man had no idea why this was happening to him. Why in the world was someone way beyond his league after a grunt like him.

These men were the dropouts amongst Hunters, they were quite literally the scum of the world. After failing to fit in with the Hunter guild rules and regulations, they joined the various underground organizations as the lowest ranking workers. They would usually take on borderline jobs, or sometimes outright illegal.

This might have been the result of some sort of grudge, but this was his first day I the city, and had only just joined the organization so he surely had never seen this girl before. He had only just moved here from the south searching for better-paying jobs with the rumored organization, Numbers so what in the world was going on.

"Ah, why I did this? Well now~ I just wanted you, Mr. I'm in desperate need of your services~"

The man could not understand what the girl was talking about. He blinked several times and then asked:

"What, what do you mean?"

"Oh it's nothing really, I just need you to lead me back to your base so I can enlist your Lil group for a very easy job of mine~"

"Huh, a-a job? Then all you needed to do was ask! Weren't you planning to do that in the first place!?"

While the organization had its secret dealings with the high-class nobles of this city. Their division was no longer a thing to talk about as their boss had up and disappeared a few days ago and all their previous missions and deals were transferred over to the north division.

Without a leader, they were nothing more than common criminals moving and parading themselves around like members of the organization. At this point, grunts like themselves would gladly take any job, be it illegal or dangerous, so he had no idea why this girl was slaughtering them.

"Nonono, this is a very special job that will surely cost you your lives so you might betray me~"

"We will never betray our employer once we've been paid the appointed fee even if the job is a little dangerous!" The man said those words in desperation, choosing to twist the demoness words to fit his logic. Or may he just could fathom the fact that she had basically just guaranteed his death.

"Hmmm~? But that would be too boring. I haven't had any fun for months now isn't that sad? I mean, I like killing people, I love it, but it wouldn't be any fun if my preys don't put up any resistance now would it?" the young demoness added with a giggle.

After hearing this nonsensical reply, the man's face hardened and he said, "You're insane! Why!?"

"Why…?"

The young woman's voice changed. The joking, teasing tone from just now was gone.

"Hmmm… why?"

Her head tilted adorably as she stared at the man with a slightly confused expression on her pretty face.

"Why what? Why did I kill your friends or why do I love to kill? Well, who cares. Perhaps it's because my original job involves lots of killing, maybe I got addicted to it or perhaps I was just born this way… whose to say~"

The girl's expression suddenly sank as though she had just remembered something unpleasant. At first, it seemed as though there was only a little girl before him. But in the blink of an eye, that effect disappeared and a smile bloomed on the woman's face.

"You really don't need to be concerned about me dear. We're gonna have so much fun together from this point on so don't be so scared."

She said that as though comforting the scared lesser demon before her, however, her tone only served the terrify him even more.

The girl released her demonic daggers, which were pulled down by gravity and sank into the ground although the chains attached to her slender waist still remained, Judging by their abnormal sharpness, they must have been made of something other than simple steel.

The girl could see the demon's eyes follow the path of the daggers as she dropped it and asked:

"Interested? This is Duranium~ More precisely, its Duranium is alloyed over Tritanium. Pretty cool weapon right? Although they're not a magic weapon so they have no special effects, still, they do their job excellently and are easier to replace for someone like me."

The fact that she bore such exotic weaponry and brag about being able to replace them easily was a sign of the woman's prowess, status, and backing. In other words, not only did he had no chance of victory, there was a good chance the organization wouldn't even bother to save him.

"Then~ oh right… While I'd love it if you try to escape. You should know that even though you wouldn't be of much use to me wounded, my Lil sis can use healing magic so no matter how much I hurt or torture you~ she'll be able to fix you right up, isn't that nice? Say, why don't you try running huh~ I haven't tortured anyone in years, I'm getting hot just thinking about the ways I'll stop you… I might just break a leg, slice an arm out, crush your balls or slowly dice your thing while you watch~ muumuu…. I'm getting excited."

As she uttered those bone-chilling words that would surely terrify any man, she drew a single short blue blade from under her robe.

"This should be good… sorry if I miss~ well, throwing weapons are not really my specialty."

It was adorable, the way she stuck her tongue out at him. However, there was no trace of goodwill in those eyes of that and her filthy personality would make anyone's skin crawl.

The man's mind went blank with fear. Surely he had heard what she had said and he should have known that running would not save him but bring him more pain so why did he do it. If asked he would have to answer for it as he could not even think at this moment. The fear that gripped his heart could not allow him to remain still.

He quickly turned his back to her and ran. Although he heard an exaggerated gasp of surprise from the young woman, he still ran with every ounce of strength in him. He was proud of his agility and as a thief, he was geared for maximum quickly so naturally, he used everything at his disposal to the fullest.

However, there was a clattering noise from behind him, followed by the woman's calm voice.

"—Too slow~"

Searing pain filled his shoulder. His first thought was that he had been stabbed by a knife, and then his mind went hazy and a shadow fell over his thoughts.

His mind was being invaded by something and he could actually feel it rewriting his thoughts. It was mind control.

The man desperately tried to resist, but that only mired his consciousness further in darkness. He was about to be lost in the dark abyss when a shred of hope suddenly pulled him out of it.

The voice of "a beloved friend" came from behind him.

"Ah~ Are you all right? You seem to be bleeding, is the wound deep?"

"Mm, no, it's fine," the man smiled as he turned to face his most precious friend. A friend he was even willing to die for.

"Is that so? That's wonderful~"

Hearing that, a dreadful smile bloomed on the young woman's face.

••••••••

••••••••

*Knock knock knock

A few minutes after the knock was placed on the thick metal door of the large two-story building by the side of an alley in the lower districts of the south borough. A pair of dull green eyes peaked out through the opening or peephole in the door and saw the familiar figure of a lesser demon with pale grey skin tone, two small horns by the side of his head, short messy black hair, and an almost sparkling green eyes— standing outside smiling ear to ear at him.

"Ah, you're back, what's with that look on your face? Did the job pay that high? Darn, I shoulda tagged along, what a shame."

As the man inside the building continuously rambled on and on, several heavy and enchanted locks on the door were immediately undone.

However, before the demon behind the door could even open the door, his head was slammed into the wall by the force of the large metal door being kicked out of its hinges and flying through the large room until the force of the wall on the other side of the room cut off its momentum with a loud bang.

"Yahaloo~ I've come for recruitments, any volunteers?~"

More than 50 men were stationed in this building right now even. Their numbers were still so high even after losing more than 30 of their colleagues in the massacre only a few days ago. This showed the state of the south as it was the birth and breading place of the lowest of lowlifes.

Half of these 50 men were seated scantily inside the large room — that served as a dining hall as well as a bar— whose door had just been kicked in. Being startled by the sudden intruder, their eyes followed the path of the flying door and landed on the young demoness with a pretty face and a bone-chilling and menacing smile on her face, their instincts immediately screamed danger and they all hastily rushed to get their weapons.

However, Citrus wouldn't let them. Her lips curled into a smile watching the bunch scurry around like cockroaches as she took out multiple blue blades from within her cloak and in less than a few seconds, the blade had pierced into various body parts of more than twenty men.

She giggled slightly to herself as she slowly skipped forward airily as she moved further into the building with a carefree expression on her face.

Screams of horror and despair followed but lasted only a few moments and in less than ten minutes, every single remaining member of the south district's Numbers branch of winged city had fallen under the influence of the mind control daggers in her possession and with a satisfied expression, she marched them away from the building and disappeared into the night.