Eva’s morning that day had begun with Marin’s sudden unannounced visit to her office. He had strolled in so casually that it was difficult, even for Eva, to tell whether it was her office or his. The two of them had parted on a bad note right after the last mission he had placed on herself and Alice about the missing child and interrogations. In fact, she was truly surprised that he had the audacity to come see her as if there was nothing wrong as well. Without a spec of embarrassment anywhere on his countenance, he slowly drew the chair in front of her out and sat down.

The blonde model had to push her annoyance to the far back, smiling politely up at him like a professional. “What may I help you with today, sir?” she asked, clasping her fingers together in front of her op top of the wooden desk that separated them. He looked around the room for a bit and then suddenly sat up, bringing his own hands up to the desk.

“Evangeline san, if I may, I would like to gain your help with something very important,” he told her, making Eva backtrack to the night that he had said almost the same thing to Alice and herself. She gave him a half stare before leaning back onto her chair. “What might that be, Marin san?” For some reason, Eva didn’t feel like putting up her act in front of him. The man had already seen her while she was mad so why even bother pretending to be some cheerful doll now? In the end, she had let her smile slip off to a blank expression, staring the man down greatly.

He seemed taken aback for a minute before sloppily putting back a façade of his own. “Ha, I had a feeling the one I saw that night was the real you. But, I don’t mind. This is actually quite serious,” he told her, taking out a report from nowhere and handing it over. “Read that. If you are up for the job, I’ll see you later with your reward,” was all he said as he got up as simply as he arrived and left.

With not even a single change in her expression, Eva flicked her eyes down to the folder, back at the door, and then back to the folder again. She carefully tore the film printed with the word ‘confidential’ off, revealing the few pages of reports inside. For a while, she sat there reading through the contents until she finally sighed heavily and threw the papers down.

“How annoying,” she groaned out loud. Why on earth was she asked to deal with something like that? Was there any shortage of Rune Knights? She eyes the now sprawled around pieces of paper on top of her desk, sighed again, rubbed her temples and got up to grab a hooded robe off the rack to a corner. She couldn’t believe she was asked to investigate zombies.

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Standing outside the town gates, Eva pulled her hood further over her head, looking left and right as to make sure no one saw her before starting up the climb that lead deeper into the woods surrounding Era. She was actually going to believe the bogus report from Marwin and investigate the area claimed to be their gathering location. Actually, it was no secret or fairy tale that zombies truly existed in their world. Often a product of dark magic like necromancy but sometimes species born of their own accord, these things were a pain to deal with at all moments. So when that report came in, despite it being from that old man’s, Eva was still ready to give it a bit of investigation.

She moved stealthily up the difficult path, dodging all the thorny vines and undesired rocks along the way. It was difficult with the darkness falling heavily upon her and her reluctance to use her magic stemmed from the thought that light usually attracted those things and she was in no way ready for fighting undead things that night.

After what seemed like an hour of searching, Eva stopped, looked down at the report and had half a mind to angrily tear it up and throw it out. That old man had given her a false alarm again and this time, she was going to be very clear of him. She brooded as she got ready to get back, stopping when the figure of something suddenly caught her eyes. It was a long piece of wood with strange carvings on it that resembled the fact of some deity.

She moved up, hidden by the bushes, and picked a spot behind a willow tree, looking over to find several people surrounding the mentioned piece of whatever it was, and worshipped. They raised their hands up, chanted some words, clapped, and repeated. Turning around quickly, Eva tried to push away the sudden ache in her head as she quickly but quietly made her way down. She had seen enough to know that the so called zombie meeting was actually the people of some cult and now she just had to report it back to Awadin.

Running through the dark winds, Eva stopped when she saw the light of a lantern, and met Awadin who was holding it. Quickly pushing the hood off and letting her hair finally breathe some air, Eva approached the man that straightened up on spotting her.

“Did you find something out?” he asked, eagerly awaiting Eva’s report. She sighed heavily but quickly pulled herself together to give him a detailed report on each bit of events she had seen that night. He looked surprised once she was done and groaned heavily, giving Eva a look that said this was going to be trouble.

But without any further words, he handed the rewards over to her before taking the report and going up, promising her that he would bring it to the council’s notice immediately. Eva couldn’t care less.
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