Chapter 1407

“Just call me the bagel guy, everyone does.” The man had his hair greased back and a remarkably cheeky smile considering the fact he claimed that someone had tried to murder him only twenty minutes ago. “If you ask around, I’m kinda a big deal. Everyone knows me.”

Hydie Mordath tried her best to control her emotions in the face of this overly confident man. Because when she lost her cool, her passive ability to influence the surroundings negatively would greatly expand in scope and potency. As much fun as it would be to have the building around them collapse on this greasy ‘bagel guy’, she was also in the same room as him. “Mr. Deetz, if you would just answer-”

“Call me the bagel guy, sugar. How many times do I have to say it before it gets through your pretty little head?” Gary Deetz glanced at Derek Moss and chuckled as though he had said something funny. With his good hand, he continued to dab at the wound on his left shoulder with a rag.

The three of them were standing inside Deetz’s Bagels, the scene of the attack. Bagels were strewn across the floor of the shop, making an already cramped interior feel especially cluttered. According to Gary Deetz, the assailant snuck in through the front door and attacked him. Privately, Hydie wondered how coming in the front door counted as sneaking. But the prospect of the investigation was enough of a positive jolt that she had carefully noted down everything the man said.

According to him, Mr. Deetz responded immediately and engaged in a valiant struggle, ultimately fending off the superior image of the attacker due to several insightful strategies. After failing to subdue Mr. Deetz in a short amount of time, the assailant turned around and fled before help could arrive.

Hydie and Derek had already interviewed the textiles shop next door. From the owner, they had learned all about how Mr. Deetz had been shrieking like a pig staring down a butcher’s cleaver even after his attacker fled.

Hydie’s smile was brittle. “Mr. Deetz, do you recall any distinguishing features of the assailant…?”

Mr. Deetz released an exaggerated sigh. “Didn’t we talk about this before? Honey, I’m not going to indulge in your ditziness and repeat myself.”

Two emotions warred in Hydie’s chest and anger won. If this bagel-baking piece of shit thought that the most dangerous threat to his life right now was a random act of violence from a stranger, Hydie would take great pleasure in educating him about his very murderable face. Also, if the assailant really was eight feet tall, how the hell would he fit through the door of this dinky little-

“Smells like your next batch of bagels are burning,” Derek Moss said, sniffing the air. He glanced lightly sideways at Hydie. “Seems like this just isn’t your lucky day, Mr. Deetz.”

“Shit.” Gary Deetz dashed into the back room, leaving the two provisional Order Ducis members alone. Under Derek Moss’s mild look, Hydie didn’t have the shamelessness to cover up her blush. She idly kicked a poppyseed bagel by her foot.

But then Hydie let her other dominant emotion in her chest to the surface: excitement. “We… we are practically detectives right now… I used to love those crime shows... “ She gleefully rubbed her hands together to hide her earlier embarrassment. “Now we are going to need to gather clues and interview suspects and if we are lucky there will be a chase- Oh! And the twist! Probably the real culprit is someone we’ve spoken to already- that woman who owned the textiles store seemed like a real cool cucumber-”

“Calm down,” Derek Moss said as he rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a murder, maybe not even an attempted murder. Just an assault. New Earth is a violent place, and a lot of the new arrivals to Kharon are used to a chaotic environment and are now trying to find out where they fit in the pecking order. This could just be someone lashing out. And apparently they were evenly matched with this… bagel guy. So perhaps they went to sulk and reevaluate their choices.”

“Ah, so you agree this guy’s a giant piece of shit?” For a second Hydie’s face broke out into a grin. Then she pouted. “Maybe we are just ahead of the game with the investigation. So when this perp finally commits his first murder-”

“Do you think we would be sent to investigate if it wasn’t just an assault?” Derek asked. “If someone really lost their life randomly in Kharon, this job would be passed to someone way above our paygrade.”

For a second, Helen’s lovely, slightly crazed smile filled Hydie’s mind and she couldn’t suppress a shiver. She kicked another bagel. This one skipped off another bagel and knocked into the coat rack by the door, which teetered and then fell toward Derek. The man caught it and straightened the piece of furniture without batting an eye.

“So for now, just focus on capturing the image remnants that the killer left here, alright? I’ll handle the rest of the interview.” Derek continued.

Once Gary Deetz finished in the back, he returned with his wide smiles and greasy hair. But Derek Moss professionally stepped forward and urged Gary in a low tone, saying that Hydie was busy using a special Skill of the Order Ducis and should not be interrupted under any circumstances.

So Hydie had the time to spread out her senses and brush against the edges of the images from the brief earlier clash. Immediately, it was obvious that Mr. Deetz had grossly exaggerated his own exploits. There was only a single, small image from him being steadily corroded by the waves of violent image remnants left by the killer.

Immediately, Hydie’s excitement was reignited. The only reason that Mr. Deetz was able to survive was because his doughie, gooey image perfectly countered the blade-like image the attacker used. Jackpot. Hehe, finally something interesting to focus on while I’m blending in here...

Trying not to let herself get too excited by the fact that someone had nearly died, Hydie left her hyper-vigilant state and gave Derek a subtle signal. With a military brusqueness that Hydie couldn’t help but admire, Derek Moss announced that they needed to follow up on clues and marched out of Deetz’s Bagels without a backward glance.

As her partner stepped out from the shop into the chilly wind, he just as quickly took a step to the side, avoiding a sharp icicle that had dislodged overhead dropped silently downward at the top of his skull. Derek dispassionately watched it crack against the ground to make sure there was no more misfortune waiting in the act. Then he continued walking forward as though nothing had happened.

Hydie hurried after Derek in order to keep up with his long strides. Despite her points in Vitality, the cold made her very uncomfortable. “Don’t you want to know what I found? Heheh, if what I sensed is true, it was only by luck that he was able to survive-”

“You know I don’t believe in luck,” Derek Moss said as the duo came to a busy intersection. Snow drifted lightly downward around them, but most of the accumulation was already present on the ground, stamped into slush by the flow of bodies through Kharon’s streets. "Besides, you know that we will need to pursue this in our free time, right? We won't be exempt from training duties because of it."

That reaction surprised Hydie. "You are willing to let a violent individual just wander around Kharon...?"

"Have you been to Kharon? It's hard to be scared of a random criminal after meeting our superiors," Derek said seriously. His eyes were intense as he scanned the flow of people around them. "I doubt a serious threat would remain at large for long in this city. Images are too easy to trace once you catch ahold of them."

After making sure that there was no likely source of accidents coming from around him, Derek crossed the street and walked into an alley. From there, he wiped away the few inches of snow, pulled up a manhole, and descended into Kharon’s underbelly.

As she climbed down the ladder, Hydie changed the conversation topic. “How can you say you don’t believe in luck after partnering with me for these three weeks? Everyone else gives up after two days due to my Aura of Misfortune- Eeep!”

Hydie’s hand shot out lightning fast as a rat skittered across the pipe next to her head, smashing into the rodent’s body and turning into liquid gore that exploded outward. Derek glanced upward, calmly wiping some bloody fur that had been flung onto his cheek.

“It could have been one of the Level 30 Sewer Vermin,” Hydie muttered in her defense as she reached the ground. Due to the nonexistent luck, none of the rat’s remains had ended up on her sharply tailored Order Ducis uniform. “If enough of them gather, even someone as strong as us would be threatened.”

Derek simply pointed down one of the side passages nearby. From the darkness, Hydie could see hundreds of glowing red eyes in the darkness, carefully studying the details of her person so that the lurking horde could avenge its fellow vermin in the future. As Hydie’s face warped into a look of horror, Derek had already tossed three glowing green orbs into the passage.

With a crack, each orb blasted out a wave of emerald fire that sent the rodents screeching and fleeing. When the magical flames extinguished themselves a few seconds later, perhaps three-fourths of the horde had been turned into sizzling corpses. Derek continued to walk forward down the main passage.

“Why don’t we just wipe them all out?” Hydie complained as she followed, barely catching herself as she stubbed her toe on a bit of uneven ground.

Derek shrugged. “From what Naffur has said, it’s an ecosystem thing. Plus, they can breed in places that are quite hard for humans to reach. And at least this way, they are a manageable threat to send some of Kharon’s youths after. Gives them a sense of direction.”

To that, Hydie shook her head. They quickly crossed through the passages toward the training area for the new Order Ducis Applicants. “And how do you feel, having your son learning the Skills to be a rat exterminator? How is your son, anyway?”

Derek paused briefly and glanced back at Hydie. A pipe above him leaked at that very moment, causing a spurt of unidentifiable liquid to dribble over his hand. Tsk-ing to himself, Derek quickly wiped the liquid away and continued forward. “Why do you ask so many questions about my son, anyway? It always sounds like you are making veiled threats on his life.”

Hydie flashed the most charming smile she could manage toward Derek’s broad shoulders as he determinedly continued walking forward. “You are so… military-training-guy all the time. It’s only when you talk about your son that… I remember that you probably behaved in a cute manner in the past. Before you became…”

Hydie tried to find the right mixture of accuracy and insult. “...so rigid. Like an oak tree bred and raised by an obsessed mathematician.”

To that, Derek sighed. “I’m definitely not as rigid as you make me out to be. Besides-”

But Derek snapped his mouth shut as he stopped abruptly in the passage. In the next second, the door in front of him burst open. If he had continued moving forward, the heavy metal door would probably have impacted his face and broken his nose. The man who opened the door was wiping his sweat from his salt-and-pepper grey hair when he noticed the two people beyond the door.

“Mr. Moss, Miss Mordath, I-I’m so sorry! I know I’m not supposed to use this set of doors-” The Order Ducis applicant mumbled, but he was lightly nudged to the side as Derek Moss continued forward. As opposed to the bubbling anger of Valor Rend or the fearsome geniality of Ajax, Derek Moss had earned the fear and respect of the applicants with the brief glance he gave the man as he passed.

It was a glance that said: You are nothing to me. I’ve seen you before and I’ll see the likes of you again. Do not stand in my way. You are wasting my precious time with your inferiority.

The applicant, despite being probably twenty years Derek’s senior, stepped meekly to the side and lowered his gaze. Hydie tried to imitate that heavy glance as she passed, but the result wasn’t satisfactory. The man just looked confused when he saw Hydie’s look.

Truthfully, it’s a curse to have such good looks, Hydie thought as she shook her head in mock horror. Then she adjusted her glasses and continued after Derek into the training area. There, Valor Rend was standing with his hands on his hips, looking down at the collapsed figures of the applicants around him in mostly-feigned disappointment.

Hydie secretly memorized that expression as well. Later she would practice both in her mirror.

But Valor’s expression brightened when he saw Derek and Hydie. After a few growled complaints to the exhausted applicants, he walked over to them with a spring in his step. “You two ready to take over? Training these weaklings is such-”

Both Derek and Valor froze and a split second later Hydie felt something… strange in the air. It was an alluring call…

Suddenly she found herself swaying. Blinking rapidly, Hydie stifled a yawn. What the hell was that…?

“Why do I feel so… sleepy…” The Order Ducis applicant that had opened the door for Derek and Hydie had followed after them and returned to his training, and now barely stayed on his feet when he was hit by that energy. Then, as Hydie watched, he collapsed.

“Eidolon Crucible.” Valor said in an excited tone. “And… yes! Word from the top. Now that Heiffal’s boys are back, we can all go in. You ready for some fun?”

Derek Moss reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This always leaves me with such a headache…”