Along the streets of Aramaya, a man in a ruffled suit shuffled along. He had a small black hat on his head, which covered one of his ears and grey hair that reached past his shoulders, though he wasn’t quite an old man. He had a nervous expression on his face as he walked through the street. The expression on his face grew worse and worse as he neared his destination.

  The man stood up straight and straightened his suit before the door. The door was inconspicuous, and the house it was attached to even more so. A complete normal house. But it was what lay inside that scared him.

  The lights were off. That meant he’d have to wait for him to arrive. The man took a deep breath and opened the door. He carefully closed it behind him.

  But just as he was about to reach over to the light switch, his foot hit a small bump and he fell forward.

  The man did not fall however. Something caught him, and this something wrapped itself all around his body. The man froze at its touch.

  “Careful. That’s my tail,” a man’s voice came from within the darkness.

  The tail flicked the light switch on, and its owner was illuminated. It was a man with white hair and slit-eyes, and he was wearing a fine suit. But his most prominent feature was, of course, his blue snake tail. It reached all around the room, snaking through couches, chairs, and tables, and finally wrapping itself around the ruffled man. It was a tail of such length that it was utterly impossible for a man to live with.

  “B-boss Scias…” The man gasped.

  “It’s just a little hello. I like being affectionate with my subordinates.” Scias unwrapped his tail and shot it back. The tail rapidly slithered its way backwards through the room, as if rushing to re-enter Scias’ body. When he was done, he flicked his tail in the air.

  Scias made his way to a table and sat down, acting as if what just happened was normal.

  “Now, tell me how you messed up.”

  “Y-yes… I, not to put it on you, boss, but, the mantis monster woke up while I was waiting for the truck to carry it. It broke out of the coffin and went crazy.”

  Scias raised his eyebrow. “Mm, yes. I was the one who administered the sedation. I triple-checked the dosage even. Now, do you think I got it wrong or that you jolted it awake?”

  “I-um!” The man locked up. “Humbly, I don’t think I did anything wrong.”

  “Well then. That’s quite an attitude to have.”

  Scias stood up from his chair and his tail lengthened. His tail rested itself on the man’s shoulders, the tip lightly swinging back and forth.

  “Are you confident?” Scias suddenly appeared right before the man, right in his face.

  “…” The man recoiled at the suddenness of the question.

  “… Yes sir.”

  At that answer, Scias took his tail back, shortened it back to a normal length and laid it onto his own shoulders.

  “Alright. I’ll let you off. You’ve been doing okay so far, and this isn’t the end of the world for us.”

  Scias opened the door with his tail. “Keep up the… mediocre work, Tam.”

  Tam practically dashed outside when it was offered, leaving Scias to close the door. Now that he was alone, Scias placed his laptop on a table and entered a video call. The other two people in the call were Gilliam and Leona, his dear companions.

  Gilliam was a goatkin, sporting the ears and the horns. He had black hair, in contrast to his white goat ears, and he wore a goatee on his face. He looked quite annoyed. Leona in comparison had brown hair styled in dreads, her lion ears matched her hair, though the hair on the tip of her tail was dyed white. She had a serious expression on her face.

  “Hah… It’s such a chore to be all menacing in front of a new hire,” Scias exclaimed with a smile on his face. “I really don’t get how you two can do it.”

  “I should be asking you how you can be keeping a smile on your face,” Gilliam retorted. “You just lost the Serration Hermit Mantis and now what?”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “I wouldn’t have to be the one doing this if you didn’t mess up with capturing Lemuel Salas’ kid.”

  “I told you everything I know about that monster and you still couldn’t capture it. Brat.”

  “Maybe I’m due for some punishment then.”

  “Hah…” Leona sighed. “Let’s not get into it. I don’t wanna have to break this up again. Or watch. Are you going to be able to capture another one before Dwyn’s deadline?”

  “No, he can’t,” Gilliam answered. “Serration Hermit Mantises are solitary creatures that live deep in mineshafts for metal ore. If two of them meet in the same one, they duel until one of them dies. You’d have to find another mineshaft.”

  “Hooh… Looks like I’m gonna be punished after all,” Scias muttered.

  Leona said, “It won’t be as harsh as Gill’s if you get the Egotist. So you better get this done or you’ll be in the shitter like him.”

  “You’re in here too…” Gilliam grumbled.

  “I’m in here so you two don’t have to spend all day wrestling monsters. But Gill fucked up so now you’re the only one on the outside. You better get this right or I’m gonna punish you real bad.”

  Scias nodded along. He certainly didn’t want to go back to chasing down powerful monsters for days in the wilderness and jamming control crystals in them. This was no way of building up an actual army. One bad battle and all of them could break free. This was a very risky method of building up power that he wanted no part in. He had no idea why Dwyn wanted to do it this way of all things, but he was the boss. He commanded them and there was no way to squirm out of his grasp.

  “I’ll get that Egotist even if I have to kill those kids,” Scias declared.

  “Hey!” Leona almost yelled. “Cut that shit out. We don’t wanna invite more trouble on us.”

  “Cut what out?” Gilliam seethed. “Our boss is making us kill people left and right and now we have an issue killing those kids? They’re not even actually kids, they’re Hunters. They’re adults so they’re in our playground now.”

  “Anyhow, we’re not exactly in a position to say no to the boss, yeah?” Scias jumped in. “If it’s what it takes, then I have to do it.”

  Leona groaned, which caused the other two to follow suit. She held a hand to her head.

  “Just try not to kill Plue Salas. If her father finds out we’re all screwed. That bastard would drop us at his doorstep if it helped him.”

  “Speaking of drop. I’m all set to use the key, right?” Scias asked.

  “It’s cutting it a bit tight, but it should be fine,” Gilliam answered with a thoughtful face.

  “It’s the only way to safely extricate it so you’ll have to. Control crystals don’t work on Egotists,” Leona said.

  Scias lamented, “What a mess. Why move on from normal monsters to Egotists? They’re way harder to manage.”

  “Don’t ask me what that bastard’s thinking. Until we get her back, we’re his lapdogs. Now be a good dog and fetch that Egotist.”

  Scias silently watched as the video call with his companions turned off. He almost wanted to reach out, hoping that they could talk longer. But about something else, anything really. Their most recent projects, what the scenery was like where they were respectively at, even just what meal was for dinner. Anything. Anything that wasn’t… his dirty work.

  Scias solemnly stood up from his chair. His tail closed the laptop and placed into his bag.

  ‘Just how long… have we been living like this?’

  Scias looked out the window with a troubled gaze. If she saw them now, what would she think? Surely, it would be contempt, maybe a look of distaste.

  There was no real point to those hypotheticals. He knew that. He was a hardened criminal now, what was important was the current job. One day, they’d take back their lives from that bastard and live together happily again. All they needed was one crucial member of their little family.

  ‘If only we could have you back… we could be happy anywhere.’

  ———————————————————————

  “Mmhmhm…” Toolbox hummed as she prowled around the market. Another day, another meal. And it was delicious too, probably one of the best meals of her life. And she didn’t even have to beg for it or steal it.

  “I think I’m forgetting something though…”

  “Yeah. Us,” a voice startled Toolbox. She leapt up to a nearby fence, about to dash off, before she realised she recognised the voice.

  She turned back to spot an irritated Machua with her hands on her hips. From a distance, the rest of the squad followed behind her.

  “Ah… aha, yeah I did recruit you guys yesterday didn’t I?”

  “How do you even forget that we paid for your food!?” Machua almost yelled. “It’s on our tab!”

  “Sorry!” Toolbox clasped her hands and bowed.

  “Get down here already and let’s get hunting,” Carmine commanded. Toolbox acquiesced.

  “Another expedition is leaving for the buried City today. That makes today the perfect opportunity for Chimaera to capture more monsters. We plan to join them,” Rasa explained.

  “Sounds good. I’ll… trail after you all secretly. Yep!” Toolbox nodded rapidly.

  Plue rolled her eyes before holding out a small stag beetle. “Keep Kirikiri with you so we know where you are.”

  Toolbox received the little stag beetle on her palm. The stag beetle, Kirikiri, had large mandibles in iridescent colours. Its shell had what looked like a small flower drawing, and when it opened is shell, its wings were coloured like a field of flowers.

  “What a cute little guy.”

  “Heheh. I designed her myself,” Plue said proudly.

  “Wait, you made this little guy!?” Toolbox exclaimed. She held up Kirikiri and looked between her and Plue.

  “Of course. I’m her summoner. I make every bug I use myself.”

  “We can talk on the way. The expedition’s leaving the City soon, so we gotta hurry up,” Machua said before walking off, leading the squad to follow.

  “Shame Machia’s all butthurt about his girlfriend getting hurt,” Carmine began. Machua gave her a dirty look. “You should’ve made him come with us.”

  “He has… his own investigations to do. I trust him.”

  Carmine rolled her eyes.

  “And besides. Toolbox wouldn’t go with us if he was there.”

  “Meh, whatever. If he gets in trouble again, it’s on him. Again.”

  Machua looked to the side in a moment of deep thought. When she thought about it, Machia had made quite a few ‘mistakes.’ But some part of her, no, she knew that he could handle whatever he was doing. For all the time she had spent with him, she had never seen him working at full power.

  “Yeah. It’ll be on him.”

  ———————————————————————

  “Hah…” A Phantom sat atop a table in a warehouse. To be more precise. They had grabbed a chair and placed it on a table before sitting on it themselves.

  All around them were collapsed bodies. Most of them were awake but quite a few were already unconscious. Towards the back of the warehouse were animal cages, each holding a monster. The monsters ranged from an egg to a fully grown adult and all of them were sedated.

  “Well, that’s that. Now how do you feel about telling me what I want to hear?”

  “We’ll… urgh… never betray them,” one of the men groaned. They picked themselves up and leaned on a wall.

  “You’re pretty loyal aren’t you? What a nice employee you are,” the Phantom spoke, their voice distorted, “I already have good intel though. Sorry, I’m an info broker.”

  “Then why the hell did you attack us…?”

  “Just wanted to mess up your operations a little bit. Also, I wanted to work off some stress. You get it.”

  The man wanted to shout no, he didn’t get it, but he felt as if whatever he said would be ignored by the Phantom before him. Even earlier, when they were fighting, the Phantom seemed preoccupied with something else.

  “Alright, I’ll let you boys go now. The Bureau’s been notified already and I think I can hear their sirens.“

  Leaving behind only those words, the Phantom dashed out of a window. They arrived on a nearby rooftop and waited until the Bureau Hunters had taken in every single one of them. Seeing that that was done with, they moved to disappear, but just when they were about to, someone called out to them.

  “Hey~ Is now a good time?” A question that was supposed to be cutesy turned a bit disturbing thanks to the distortion of the Phantom garb.

  The first Phantom glared at their contemporary. Not that the other one could know, though perhaps they felt it as their words became a little trembly.

  “I did a good job, didn’t I? Didn’t… I…?”

  The Phantom set up a sound suppressing barrier. One of considerable strength.

  “We are going to have a very long talk.”

  “Eep.”