”Pssst!!! Over here!” A voice seemingly whispered out of nowhere. Kenzo was startled to say the least. Looking around through the main hallway of the mansion, the mercenary tried to locate the direction where the voice came from. ”Around the corridor. Hurry. And try not to make a sound” The completely devoid of tone voice echoed through the hall once more. Intrigued, Kenzo walked slowly towards the origin of the summon. From the lack of expression that he could perceive by the voice, Kenzo could make a guess as to who was calling for him. ”Is it another of lady Merlin’s homunculi?” The man had met Abbadon the watcher the night before. He had found the poor armor wandering through the streets malfunctioning. After taking it to Merlin, she was able to fix it by cooking up a rather potent potion in an instant. From this meeting, he had noticed that the homunculi’s voice was completely devoid of any emotion. With that line of reasoning, thinking that perhaps this was yet another one made total sense to the man. Specially considering that he was now walking through the main hall of the sorceress’s mansion in Mercurius. However, this seemed to instantly dissatisfy the owner of the voice.

A sharp burst of pain surged from Kenzo’s shin. Lowering his head to notice what kicked him he was surprised to be met by a pointy hat and a, eye-patched girl. ”Who are you calling a homunculi? Don’t lump me with those lifeless things.” Rubbing his shin, the man answered. ”And you are?” The assaulter was a small child, barely a meter tall. She had blond hair and wore a red with white patch over her right eye. A wizard hat almost bigger than her head complimented the looks of her dark cloak. However, the expressionless face she had was the most striking aspect of her appearance. Simply turning around and walking away from the mercenary, she continued. ”I’ll have you know that my name is Luciel. And I’m daughter of the great sorceress Merlin. It is I who called for you this day.”

[351/1000]

Kenzo was confused. He had clearly received a letter from Lady Merlin. Her magical signature was present in the message that arrived at Batra’s inn that morning. As he took out of the envelope and showed it to Luciel, she instantly grabbed it with his left hand. Without Kenzo could mutter a word, the girl continued leading Kenzo to a room at the end of the corridor. Swiftly, she rose her right hand and ignited a spark with a snap of her fingers. The letter instantly caught fire and disintegrated into ashes. ”I saw you yesterday after bringing Abbadon. From your appearance you look like a mercenary, and from what I have read, mercenaries are only loyal to loyal. That’s why I called for you today. I need someone to take care of something for me. But I also need absolute discretion. I presume this amount of money will be enough to buy me both?” Forgetting instantly the matter of being catfished to accept a quest, Kenzo smiled as he saw the girl take out a sizeable bag of money. "You presume correctly young lady. What can I do for you?”

Reaching the room, Kenzo noticed the similarity between it and Merlin’s laboratory. ”Is this your laboratory?” ”You are correct. This over here is my own laboratory.” Luciel closed the door behind her after Kenzo was completely inside before continuing. ”You see… I’m currently researching about the effects of potions in to enhance buffing magic. However, I made a mistake with one of my calculations and accidentally gave the faulty brew to one of my test rats.” Luciel rummaged through her table full of flasks, bowls and other tools as she continued. ”Needless to say, the potion was too strong. I made it too effective and it was still in need of a stabilizer. As such, when the rat was showered in the faulty concoction, the side effects blew out of proportion. Before I could react though, the mutated rat slipped away through the window and into the dark of night.” Finally finding what she looked for, Luciel grabbed a notepad and showed Kenzo a sketch. ”This is what it looks like. Your job is to dispose of it and make sure to burn the body. We wouldn’t want any other animals feeding on the corpse and developing the symptoms as well.”

[743/1000]

Kenzo wandered around the streets of Crocus looking for clues. It had been a couple of hours since he left Merlin’s mansion in search for any hint about the mutant rat. So far, he had decided to concentrate on the area adjacent to the general direction of the window where the rat had escaped. He was not really well versed in hunting even if he’d spent a lot of time in the fields back when he was a full time mercenary. For the most part, other members of the company were expert trackers and were generally in charge with such manners. ”I wish I’d get Levi to at least teach me the basics.” Thinking out loud caught Kenzo by surprise. It had been a long time since he’d thought in his now dead comrades. A bitter smile grew on the blue haired man’s face as he stopped for a minute.

”I SWEAR! I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES. IT TOOK MY FAMILY’S DOG AND RAN AWAY” The sudden scream quickly brought Kenzo out of his thoughts. Intrigued by the words, he approached the crowd that began to form an excited fella. ”You! What’s all this about?” The crowd opened to make way for the mercenary. ”I-It was a beast. A huge rat! Bigger than anything that I’ve seen! It came out from the abandoned house in the western quarters. Near the gate. It took my dog alive. I-Illumin knows what is of him by now!” The inconsolable man burst into tears. However, this didn’t even budge the blue haired warrior, who limited to place his palm on the crying man’s shoulders. ”Thanks.”

Around an hour later, Kenzo was now face to face with the rat. It had a huge tail, almost two meters in length. Sharp teeth and claws dug into the carcass of a now lifeless dog inside the abandoned house. When it noticed the man’s presence it instantly shifted its attention at him and let out a screeching roar. Kenzo unsheathed his sword as he prepared for a fight. ”What a damn ugly beast”

In a flash, the rat’s body laid lifeless. It’s size, strength and speed were surely impressive for a rat. There was no way any regular guy would be able to take care of the beast alone. However, it was still far too slow and weak for Kenzo. In an instant, the warrior lunged forward at maximum speed and swung his sword in an overhead downward strike. Without enough time to react to his velocity, the mercenary’s blade crushed its skull and tore through its face, cleaving it in half. Kenzo was glad it was only one this time. He could only shudder at the thought of having to face an army of mutated rats if it had been left alone for longer. Taking out a torch, he lit fire to the body and the abandoned house alike. The flames would surely take care of dispatching the body. ”I see why the brat wanted to keep this a secret from Merlin”

Stretching his arms, he placed both hands on the back of his head as he walked back to collect his reward from Luciel. ”I wonder if she’d give me a bonus?”

[1281/1000]
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