Nathan left the bar, ignoring the stares of the others, and walked a few blocks before entering an alley and pulling out his phone.
He spent a few seconds searching for a contact before putting the phone to his ear, shortly after which a voice came on:
"Everything okay?"
Nathan clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Is everything all right? Of course not! What kind of place is this?!"
Behind the phone, Dilliard scoffed and began to laugh out loud.
"So, you've met her, then?"
Nathan could only picture the woman again.
"You know her?"
Dilliard nodded.
"Yes, she's our contact in the outskirts… the Fire Rose"
Nathan was silent for a few seconds as he leaned his head against the wall.
"So, you're telling me you knew her... but you didn't warn me?"
Again, there was a chuckle from behind the phone, giving Nathan a slight headache.
"Well, I wanted to know how you reacted... her personality is a bit peculiar"
Nathan sighed.
"Peculiar...? She drugged me!"
Dilliard just continued to laugh, which Nathan just accepted.
"He told me the mask would be ready in a couple of days, so I'll be back in a week"
Dilliard stopped laughing.
"Okay, good luck"
Nathan ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket.
"Yeah... good luck"
Everything fell silent and Nathan looked towards the entrance of the alley.
"You can come out now"
Suddenly two men appeared in the alley with broad smiles and beer bottles in their hands. The two men were clearly drunk, so drunk that they couldn't even stand up.
"Hey... Y-you've been in Miss Mary's room... Ah... how jealous!" one of the drunks said before taking a big gulp of his beer.
Nathan remained silent as he watched the drunks stagger away.
"You know... Miss Mary is always cheerful and loves to socialize, but she hardly talks to us... And you had sex with her!"
Nathan frowned from behind his mask.
'They... definitely misunderstood'
Sighing, Nathan approached the two drunks.
"Go away, you both don't want any trouble"
The drunks looked at him like he was a piece of shit.
"Eh... You think we're idiots?" one of the drunks said.
"Yes, yes. Nobody can have their way with Miss Mary and get away with it" said the other drunk as he continued to approach.
Nathan sighed with boredom and stood still, he knew the men were too drunk to think straight so he had no choice but to wait.
The two men continued to talk nonsense as they approached Nathan, then when they were close enough to him, one of them raised his empty bottle and tried to hit Nathan.
Nathan simply dodged and grabbed his arm before throwing him to the ground.
"Ahhh!" The drunkard screamed in pain.
Meanwhile, the other drunk opened his eyes slightly and began to shout at Nathan as he smashed his bottle with a crate, creating a makeshift knife.
"You fucking piece of shit!"
Nathan just waited for the man to get closer and then knocked him out again, then punched them both lightly in the neck, knocking them both unconscious.
Years ago, he had learnt some rules from the outskirts, like no stealing or no fighting. And well... he hadn't really been looking for a fight, it was the drunks who had started it, Nathan had just knocked them out.
Sighing, Nathan started to walk out of the alley after a quick glance at the unconscious bodies of the drunks.
'They're in for a good hangover...'
"Oh? I think I saw something forbidden"
Nathan turned quickly to observe the man standing on a nearby rooftop. He clearly sensed that the man was augmenting his body with essence, forcing him to raise his guard.
"Who are you?"
The man smiled and jumped off the roof, landing softly on the pavement.
"The one in charge of this area" the man raised his hand, pointing at Nathan "And you have just done something illegal, so I need you to come with me"
Nathan watched the man in silence, studying him, trying to understand his strength.
Seeing that Nathan did nothing, the man shrugged and sighed.
"They always choose the hard way"
The man reached into his coat and pulled out a long knife. Nathan just stood there, he hadn't brought his sword because he couldn't carry it on the streets. Besides, this was supposed to be a risk-free mission, he had never expected one of the people guarding the outskirts of town to just catch him.
Nathan prepared for battle as the man slowly approached, knife in hand. The man was slim, dressed in a smart suit worthy of a gangster and a brown hat.
Soon the man was running towards Nathan, who could only dodge the man's attacks without being able to defend himself properly.
The man used some essence to strengthen his body, but not on his knife, which made Nathan think that the man didn't want to hurt him, or maybe he just thought it would be enough.
Nathan himself was not using essence, nor did he see the need to use it. The man might be strong in this place where most of the people were mundane humans, but for Nathan the man was not really a problem.
Seeing that the masked person in front of him seemed to be stronger than he first thought, the man smiled and used more essence.
"Don't resist, it will be worse for you"
Nathan simply continued to dodge his attacks without much trouble, thinking of a way to appease the man. He knew there were more powerful people behind him, and Nathan didn't want to get in trouble with the outskirt's leaders.
It wasn't necessary, because a second later the man's eyes opened wide, and his limp body fell to the ground convulsing.
"What...?"
Nathan saw a wire attached to the man's back and followed him with his eyes to the exit of an alley. There, three people were looking at him each with different expressions.
Among them, a young woman with black hair and black eyes was holding a pistol in her right hand. A second later the young woman ran up to Nathan and looked at him with concern.
"Those bastards always take advantage of weak people!"
Somehow Nathan felt a little offended by the young woman's words. But she had helped him, so he didn't think too much about it.
The young woman saw that Nathan did not respond and approached him.
"You don't have to worry, you're safe now"
The young woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a badge.
"After all, we are..."
The young man behind her, seeing what she was doing ran up and shouted:
"No! Lynn!"
However, the young man's shouts came too late, as the young woman called Lynn showed the badge to Nathan.
"...We are part of the central government."