Despite the fact that she was in the capital of Fiore, Kaiser was still continuing her dirty work as she was a greedy person. She would rather be making more money than wasting time and being unproductive. These days she had been thinking about things...how the world was changing, how people were changing and all this crap that humans and supernatural beings were at conflict for. She felt like she needed a change too, not like a drastic one, but something to spice up her life a bit. It was kind of bland right now. She did not have friends, except for Zane whom she had not spoken to in ages, but she had quite a number of enemies. The ‘friends’ she did have, were people she used for certain things, and she did not care for any of them like you would for a ‘friend’, so could you really count them? Nah.

The pubs were closed the night before because of some stupid religious holiday, so the vampire was quite thrilled about tonight. She could have gotten her hands on some booze by other means but being the lazy bitch she was for things like this, she decided to let it go. But before she went on a drinking spree, she had some tasks to accomplish. They were quite easy, but every one of them involved illegal activities, not that Kaiser was new to those or anything. She had just never taken any jobs in Crocus, well illegal ones to be specific. In fact, she had never even been to the capital. Only recently had she been interested in making connections before she embarked on her little journey of becoming a leader, while also attempting to gain some reputation and raising her net worth before beginning said journey.

These days she likes to sit down for some coffee and maybe a croissant or something at a cafe early in the morning before she starts her work. And today she arrived at the cafe near her hotel at seven thirty. The weather was nice, kind of chilly but nice enough for her to be wearing only one layer. Vampires could probably withstand the cold better than humans could, which was very likely the reason she did not have many warm clothes in her wardrobe after the transformation. In the cafe—or ‘Rozan’s Cafe’—there was a bunch of people even though it was still early in the morning. Well it probably was not that early, but the main reason was because it was one of the best cafes in the area, which was kind of obvious considering Kaiser only chooses the best in everything. She was tired of the instant coffee she was drinking all the time that she got from the hotels.

Being the only person at her table for two, Kaiser was soon accompanied by a man who decided not to show his face by always keeping his line of sight downwards. With one eyebrow raised, the vampire placed her coffee back on the table. The man did not appear as a threat to her considering the woman was scared of hardly anything, but it was pretty damn awkward, the way he came to sit at this table and did not even ask her for permission or greet her by looking at her damn face. A few seconds passed and the blood began to boil under her skin. “Excuse me, but do you have any business with me?” she asked, trying to sound less rude in the first attempt although the first chance was the last chance with Kaiser.

The man did not speak. Instead, he slipped a piece of paper towards her on the table and looked away, as if he was afraid of something, or someone. Kaiser exhaled sharply, grabbing the piece of paper and scanning what was written on it quickly and then balled it up since the message was only meant for her and she had read it. “You could have just left it at the hotel, are you being serious?” It turned out to be nothing important. The only reason he was being super secretive about this meeting was because his boss was one of those sissies who were excessively scared of being noticed, and that attitude seemed to have been passed down to his subordinates. Kaiser, on the other hand, was pretty much all over the place. “You can transfer the payment, actually. No need to pay in cash. I gave your boss the account. He knows.” And with that, the shady man left her table. This was not really how she planned to start the day, but at least the knowledge of money coming into her account felt nice.

Kaiser proceeded to finish her coffee while she watched what was going on outside the cafe window. It was the usual scene of people rushing to work or school, nothing out of the ordinary. And after she finished her coffee, she wasted no more time at the cafe. Her first task awaited. Have you ever heard of Old Ma? Well if you followed Kaiser’s story, you would know that she had a funny little incident at her gambling house back in Era. To be frank, it was more ‘bloody’ than ‘funny’ if you really think about it. That lich went nuts. Anyway, her first task was assigned by Old Ma herself in Crocus.

It was not really like Kaiser to take work from fellow gamblers but this one was an exception because Old Ma had one of the biggest gambling houses in Fiore and Kaiser wanted Old Ma to be indebted to her. That was one way to make people do things in her favor. She only did things for people so that she could use them later, and that was how she got by. So the thing that Old Ma wanted her to do was pretty simple. Since she owned one of the most infamous gambling houses in the country, of course she had competitors. She was not just a player; she was a host, and hosts had more problems than players. In fact, one of these problems was right here in Crocus—Nine Ball. If you have never met Nine Ball, you would think she was just a street rat and probably ignore her presence because she was not worth your attention. But in reality, Nine Ball was a sassy little genius who knew how to run a gambling house. She had more money, and more players too. That was a threat to Old Ma’s business, because the two cities were close. If Old Ma did not get players, it was probably because they were going to Nine Ball’s house. And Old Ma has had enough of that.

“This little bitch is taking all my players, you better teach her a nice lesson or I’ma get you too.” She remembered Old Ma’s words. The threat in the end did not mean a thing to Kaiser, but she was doing it for the aforementioned reason. She had nothing to lose and maybe something to gain from this. Being a friend of Old Ma had its benefits too. And those were in Kaiser’s interest.

So you would probably be wondering why exactly Kaiser was planning on siding with Old Ma instead of Nine Ball since it was kind of obvious at this point who was the bigger player in the game. The reason was simple. Kaiser was not afraid of both of them. Even though Nine Ball was winning currently, Old Ma was the runner up and if by some kind of unfortunate thing happened to Nine Ball—like death, for example—then Old Ma would take her place at the top, and Kaiser was very capable of making that happen, just saying. If Nine Ball came after her for what she was going to do today, the vampire knew how to handle that situation, but even Nine Ball knew Kaiser, not just as a player, but also as the powerful mage she was known to be, an evil one too. Kaiser knew that her actions would be counted for how the people viewed her and she had no problem with the way things were now. If they thought she was a good person for the random good deeds she did on arbitrary whims then so be it, and if they thought she was a bad person for all the random murders she committed, then so be it. This kind of thing was too trivial for Kaiser to give a shit about.

Kaiser was not new to burning things down. She had done that quite a number of times actually in the past, and burning a gambling house with high security down? No problem. Of course she did get some help from some of her connections beforehand because like what were ‘friends’ for, right? She was using some people to do something for someone she wanted to use in the future. It was a perfect cycle.

Call it being resourceful. As a result of being lazy, Kaiser knew how to use the resources that were available to finish the tasks to require the least effort from her. Just allocating the right resources to the right places normally gets the job done, and in this case, she was using the special skills that her friends had to complete the request of another friend. Let’s just call them friends now, rather than connections. Let’s pretend there is a deep connection or bond between herself and these people beyond the uses she has for them. Yes. These were her friends, now planting several bombs inside the establishment that Nine Ball used as her gambling house. It was pretty big and had two storeys. The top floor was used for purposes other than gambling such as...well let’s not go into that. It was better to use these friends to get inside because Nine Ball knew Kaiser and knowing her place at Old Ma’s gambling house, that bitch would never allow the vampire in her house, unless there was an offer or something. But forget that. Kaiser was not going to make herself look like a fool going in there with an ‘offer’. That’s what pussies do.

Everything Kaiser needed to finish the job was in her hands. We’re talking about the detonator. A lacrima powered device that would trigger the bombs when a combination of numbers was entered. Of course, everything was going according to plan. Kaiser watched from a close by building, waiting for the signal. Once she got it, the house would go boom, and if she was lucky, Nine Ball would be caught in the explosion and hopefully die. The weather was kind of chilly, but the following events would definitely warm up the nearby area.

The signal was...nothing she could have ever expected. Her friends did say that she would know it when she heard it, but when she heard it she had to press her lips together to stop the urge to laugh. There was no time for that. After a while sitting there and tapping her fingernails on the window frame, the device in her hand began to sing the Fiore national anthem and that was when she knew to hit it. Kaiser was quick at punching in the combination of numbers and within seconds, several bombs sounded from different corners of the building that Nine Ball operated in, and the commotion that it caused was priceless. Kaiser did not plan on staying there for long, but she wanted to make sure of something. When she spotted a black van going out from the back of the building, she left immediately. Nine Ball would probably be alive, but at least the warning would be received. The job her friends did for her with the bombs was a favor and the favor has been earned. Sometimes you had to wait to be paid for something you have done in terms of favors other than cash, especially when your friend turned client had some special skills that you knew you could use in the near future.

Kaiser brought the detonator to a creek and broke it into pieces before dropping it into the water. This was how her friends told her to get rid of the device, and so she followed the instructions so that her mission went smoothly. Afterwards, she informed one of Old Ma’s messengers that her job was done and the evidence would be soon visible on the news, and that she would really appreciate it if the payment was transferred.

You know, those messengers were really quick these days. Kaiser had returned to her hotel room, taken a shower and changed into comfy clothes to rest for the evening when she noticed that a letter had been slipped into her room from under her door and was laying there on the bright green rug. With a satisfied smirk, she finished drying her thick, long hair before checking what it was about. She kind of already knew what it was about, so she continued finishing her rituals calmly. Even though she was taking her ‘rest’, it was not like she did anything physically demanding for the request. Her ‘friends’ did pretty much all of the hard stuff for her and now her payment was already here! She was really doing life right, was she not? After the relaxing bath, she lit some fragrant candles she bought at the market and went over to pick up the letter. The seal on the envelope was fresh, she could faintly smell the wax, but only because she had a better sense of smell than humans. Tearing the envelope open, she brought the letter to her bed where she sat cross legged. It was a letter informing her that the payment has been transferred to her account. A slip that was the evidence of the transaction was also attached to the letter, and this was enough to convince Kaiser. No one really dared to cross her when it came to financial matters, and she was pretty confident about that.

At the beginning of the day, she used coffee to wake herself up and feel more active, and now at the end of it, she used an eye cream with caffeine in it so that she did not look tired. As a vampire, she barely had to care for her skin since it was almost always perfect, but it was out of habit from when she was a human. She did lessen the amount of skincare products she used now since she pretty much did not need them anymore. She was also able to start spending the money she spent on skincare products for other things now, which was definitely a plus for her. After applying the eye cream, the vampire slipped into the thick, warm sheets of the cozy hotel bed and shifted around until she felt comfortable. She was gonna take a short nap.