Meanwhile, while all of that was happening, Viv found himself unexpectedly at a loss staring between two doors.
The map and delivery address he was given weren't specifically clear on which door of building 3806 to deliver to.
He had long exited the Eternal Night, slinking back into the ordinary world as he wandered through alleys, avoiding drunkards and suspicious people.
There were two choices that he could make, either guess and deal with the suspicious awkwardness of bothering some random guy with a package, or travel back to find out.
...I'm definitely not going back there.
If he went through all that effort, all his sleeping time would be gone by the time he returned.
He was already struggling trying to pay attention in class because of that old substitute and was not about to be caught falling asleep mid-lecture to become the next laughingstock.
"..."
Let's just knock on a random door and just try again if it isn't them...
Thinking about it this way, Viv felt better about himself.
After all, it's not like he wanted this job...and it's not his responsibility if erm, some trouble came to the receiver of the package after knocking on the wrong door...
If it's something relating to the Einsvul bombing, then that would be bad wouldn't it...?
"..." I-It wouldn't be that bad even if it was, right?
Quickly shaking his head, Viv steeled himself and chose the left door.
Tap tap.
There was a silence, as no sound or indication that anyone inside was present.
Waiting for a few minutes, Viv concluded that no one was probably going to answer, and went to the right door.
Tap tap.
This time, a shuffle from within could be heard, something clattering to the ground as a faint light began to emit from the window. It seemed that whoever it was, was expecting him.
Relieved, Viv straightened himself as the door slowly creaked open.
"Package deliver-."
A hand reached out from within, and whisked the boy inside, the door slamming shut behind him.
...
Back at Sid's study, there was a tense silence as all three leading members of Black Hydra stared at the lady on the desk, who still hadn't spoken a word.
"Hag..."
Muttering under her breath, Phantoma's eyes shone dully as she repeated what Sid said.
She had a sense of calm around her, as if her head wasn't worth hundred millions of gold coins, and observed Sid with visible scrutiny.
"..Why are you interested in Einsvul?"
Speaking lightly, Phantoma hopped off the table and made herself comfortable on the couch. The piercing gaze that followed her lessened as Sid didn't see his precious table get soiled any longer.
"And why should I tell you my reason?"
Sid dropped pretenses, unceremoniously walking forward and plopping himself down on the couch across from Phantoma, much to Alamis's dismay. He held almost a tone of disbelief in his voice, not expecting such a person to come here for this reason.
"I'll tell Krattel to give you some leeway." Expecting such a response, Phantoma crossed her arms and replied back smoothly.
"Ah yes, the information broker." Sid resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Do you think Black Hydra can't afford his prices?"
"If you refuse, I'll ask him to demand more."
"How annoying...I see that you're 'buddies' with him but the rule of the underworld is to leave alone neutral parties." Clicking his tongue, Sid gazed at her.
Phantoma was a big shot even before Sid came to power over BH, she was quite active in her prime, being an infamous pain in the ass for her crimes.
From priceless relics to even a magic artifact locked away within the Imperial Palace's treasury, she made history after pulling off one of the most expensive high stakes heists of all time in her youth. Because of her alone, did anti-theft magic security measures began to be put in place everywhere.
She was daring before, but many thought she had calmed down now after reaching her older years, word being she preferred to stay low profile nowadays.
Calm? Yeah right...The look in her eyes is anything but.
Thinking this, Sid's eyes narrowed slightly. There was too little information about her actual personality, and only Krattel was known to have direct contact with her.
"Ah yes, those so called rules established by the three named organizations..."
Phantoma waved her hand dismissively.
"Your kind always likes to input rules to benefit themselves, playing dirty cards against others and ignoring their own laws. It's the black market for goodness sake, what right do we under dwellers have to make rules of our own?"
"Hah, it's true we may not have the right as under dwellers...but even among the dirt there is power. Also, some rules are better than no rules, is it not?" Sid tilted his head. "And even the great thief Phantoma has weaknesses of her own...especially her friend."
"Crude, I thought you said the rule was to leave alone neutral parties."
"Crude?"
He grinned.
"You have one thing wrong, if a neutral party without any backing is daring to provoke the sleeping snake...Then it is simply the consequence."
Another silence descended upon the room, as now John stood at the doorway, leaning against it as Alamis stood protectively behind the couch next to Sid.
"At least Krattel has some backing to him, but the other organizations will turn a blind eye if any form of...intimidation is done under Phantoma's name."
Sid folded his hands on his lap.
"You see, even though you may have left the underworld scene, you seem to have many enemies who still have old grudges..."
Sid didn't mention that he was one of them, one of the reasons why he called her a hag was because of how much trouble he encountered, running into anti-theft magic protection mechanisms built for blocking her.
Phantoma seemed to be levying her options as she processed her information, her eyes curling and looking away as she went into thought.
"Fine, one high class magic relic."
Finally, she spoke. Her gaze returning back to Sid as she gave her proposal.
"Tell me why you are investigating the rumors of Einsvul's bombing and how likely it is to happen, and I'll hand over the relic."
Sid's eyes slightly widened at the offer, before a low whistle escaped his mouth.
"As expected, the Great Thief sure has some interesting things."
After many wars on the continent, old high class relics were nice treasures to come by. If it had survived for so long, their production quality must have been of the highest tier available back then.
Most of the time it was something useful, but even if it weren't, it would still sell at a pretty decent price to a museum or relic collector.
"Deal or no deal?"
Phantoma's eyes narrowed, not wanting to waste any more time at BH's young leader.
"Deal." Sid straightened his back, a genuinely pleased smile gracing his lips.
Who knew the little monster could draw in big fish like this...?
"I'm investigating the rumors behind the terrorist attack because of a deal with another person." Sid said amusedly. "As for how likely it is to happen...I can't say exactly but it may be over 40%?"
Phantoma seemed to be stunned briefly, as she inquired further.
"Another person? Is it someone from Einsvul?"
"That answer isn't apart of the deal." Sid tapped his finger against his leg. "Now cough it up."
A clicking of a tongue could be heard as Phantoma muttered something under her breath, before reaching into her robe and throwing a small object at Sid, who caught it swiftly.
She then stood up, preparing to leave as she dusted off her clothes. Despite the short and costly answer, it seemed Phantoma had her own ways of finding out information as a thoughtful look appeared in her eyes.
"Oh? Not asking any more?"
Sid examined the thing in his hand, assessing the quality to be somewhat well, his attention was totally gone from Phantoma.
"You wouldn't spit anything else out even if you were dying tomorrow." Phantom said curtly, rolling her eyes as she walked towards the door, John immediately making way.
"...heh."
Sid didn't deny her as he watched as the door open, and Phantoma's figure disappeared in an instant the moment her foot hit the ground, only the shallow passing wind being left behind.
It seemed she was going to deal with things herself, not wanting to cough anything more valuable up for subpar information.
It was a completely boring conclusion for something that seemed exciting in the beginning, which made a bad taste linger in his mouth.
"Now..."
He casually threw the small object into the air, catching it gently as it fell back down.
"Time to see what I got."
—-
Viv felt himself coughing harshly as a sudden darkness surrounded him, the sudden decrease in light not allowing him to make out anything at all, as his eyes struggled to adjust.
For some reason after knocking on the door, a hand had reached out from within, pulling him inside and slamming the door shut behind him.
Just like that, he found himself suddenly trapped.
Urgh...
"How marvelous..."
A voice belonging to a woman whispered hungrily into his ear, a shrill joy that couldn't be concealed tainting her speech.
"It's been a while since I've had a little boy...ready to play with..."
A hand grasped his shoulder, caressing it.
..What the fuck?
Frozen in place, Viv didn't know what emotion strongest was flooding through him, disgust or appalment. The sheer absurdity of the situation made him briefly short circuit, allowing the brazen creep to grip his shoulder tighter.
".."
Not wanting to know what sort of expression his face was making, Viv silently whipped around and swung his fists, surprisingly colliding with something soft.
"Ouch!"
A woman's cry was heard, as the dim lantern she was holding fell to the floor, clattering before the flame died quickly on the ground.
"Ugh great, now what was that for...? Now I need to turn on the main lights..."
A groan was heard, as footsteps faded away from the weary Viv, and he was left alone in the stuffy pitch black room.
"..."
I need to ditch this place.
He quickly began to feel around the room, trying to find the door to escape from, or a window he could open and climb out of.
His hands brushed everywhere, many of the times his fingers making contacts with flower pots and many weirdly feeling plants.
Why are there so many plants...
Not knowing when that pervert would return, Viv's searching became more hurried as he struggled to find the door.
Suddenly however, purple flames ignited all over the room in little lantern cages, lighting up the dark room. It was then the interior of the room was revealed, plants of all different variety and types placed into flower pots scattered all over the room.
From small common flowers to an exotic looking multicolored pitcher plant, it seemed the pervert who had dragged him inside was some sort of plant junkie.
Though, Viv had no such time to even admire the sight as at that moment the problem came back.
"Hahhh...That feels better..."
A woman's voice emerged from another room, and Viv's head snapped towards the direction of her voice.
Yawning as she entered the room, a quite tall lady with black hair and sky colored eyes walked in, holding a now unlit lantern.
"Oh? Strange little mask boy, where are you trying to go?"
A sinister smile appeared on the pervert's lips, her eyes narrowing as she walked forward, her hands wriggling like caterpillars as she approached.
"Don't be scared, this Auntie will treat you nicely..." The woman laughed wickedly.
"..."
Viv kept his hand steadily concealed under his robe, which laid a small dagger that John had given to him as self protection just a few days ago. It was only an extra spare that was offhandedly given to him, but it was like his saving lifeline.
It was during this one way standoff that Viv forgot he had been given some sort of magic item just earlier that day.
Fully focused on the task at hand, Viv didn't expect to have to use his dagger so soon, and in such a ridiculous situation as well...
Once she's in striking range, I'll aim for her eyes first...
Plotting silently in his head, Viv felt as if it were slow motion seeing the woman approach him with dark intent. It felt strange having the intention to harm someone personally for the first time in this life, but he comforted himself, stilling the fact that the 'person' in front of him was still apart of a game.
Just as she came into striking distance, Viv clenched tightly around his weapon and swung forward.
"Oh?"
A clank was heard, as the dagger hit the woman's face, but bounced off as if colliding with metal. Not only that, a crisp clang and vibration could be felt, as the dagger shuddered from the sheer force it hit. Viv's hand as well felt like it had collided into a hard steel.
"Why are you carrying around such things?"
She muttered confusedly under her breath, as she plucked the dagger out of Vivillian's hand like taking candy.
Throwing it away carelessly into some corner, the woman went back to business as she grabbed him and began to tie him to a chair.
?!?
Bewildered, Viv's mouth gaped a few times as he stared at the lady's face with wide eyes. He struggled fiercely as well, trying to escape but would be helplessly pinned down by her hands, ropes entangling him and then tightening him to the chair.
"Whew, the association likes to send them struggling nowadays huh..."
She muttered, and dug into her pocket, before pulling out a massive saw bigger than Viv's head.
"..." Viv immediately stilled.
"It won't hurt." The woman grinned as she put on a pair of googles, and reached out her saw towards his arm, preparing to work.
I'm dying to a psycho.
Viv tried to struggle but the ropes had no such mercy on him, leaving him to only close his eyes and brace.
"Hm? Why are you guys pestering me?"
The woman seemed confused as her actions stopped, causing Viv to open his eyes, as he didnt feel the expected pain.
Instead he was greeted by a strange sight before him.
In front of him, a few small ivy plants had wrapped around the woman's boots and calves, sprouting through the wood seams of the floor and making it hard to remove her foot from the vines.
Not only that, her arm that was holding the saw was tangled in a messy brush of plants along with her legs. Many of the exotic plants on the shelves extending their small tendrils that made up the sudden unexpected obstacle.
"Ergh, Mama is busy! She can't play right now..."
Slightly exasperated and clueless to why her magical plants were acting like this, the woman furrowed her brows as she carefully tried to unwind her body from the brush without harming them.
Tap tap.
A knocking on the door was heard, as a young man's voice could be heard.
"Hello? Ms Peira, why are the lights on? Did something happen..."
Along with those words, the doorknob seemed to rattle as well.
"E-Eh?"
The woman named Peira froze, her long black hair lightly shaking in the room.
"L-Lex why are you here...? I thought the association already sent the experiment here for today...?"
Muttering quickly, Peira freed herself from the plants and walked over to the door.
"What? The experiment for today is me for the rest of the week..."
As the person called Lex responded back, the door was opened by Peira and he instantly spotted the unfortunate soul trapped on the chair.
"...A-Agh?!"
Rushing into the house, Lex quickly unsheathed his sword around his waist and cut the ropes binding Viv, which fell to the grind lifelessly.
"Why is there a person of Black Hydra tied to the experiment chair...?!"
Lex was appalled as he scanned the mask Viv was wearing, recognizing it as one of BH's works.
"H-Huh? Black Hydra? Why would a BH member be here, isn't he the experiment provided...?" Peira muttered aghast, her eyes turning into wide orbs as her light blue gaze twitched, turning from person to person. The cogs in her brain seemed to slowly turn with each glance.
"..."
Viv stiffly got up, causing the both of them to flinch and quiet down.
Finding the package discarded and unwanted in the corner of the room, he picked it up, lightly brushing off the dust before turning towards them.
"I was sent to deliver a package."
"..."
Peira's face completely paled as she looked like she was about to faint, Lex quickly supporting her as she stumbled.
"I totally forgot..."
"H-Huh?! What's going on...?!"
"..."
The woman dejectedly turned her head to the side.
"I was supposed to pick up my neighbor's package because he was out today...."
"..."
The silence was loud, as Viv was already able to come to that conclusion just listening and looking at their shocked expressions.
A simple misunderstanding was one thing, but why the fuck was she talking about wanting to play with little boys...!?
"U-Uhm, I'd like to apologize for this misunderstanding that happened..."
Lex shakily handed out a small business card, bowing deeply as he held the card out with two hands. "I-If you want compensation for what happened today, please call the number on this card...."
"...Are you guys doing illegal human experimentation?"
Despite knowing better, Viv was unable to resist the thirsty curiosity that within him, and the purpose of such shady practices going on that led to this situation.
"Ah..." Lex considered how to answer. "Hm...well I guess I can say it because BH is also involved..."
"..I do slightly unethical testing on willing half bloods that want to earn money..."
Peira seemed to regain some of her sense, the paleness from her face fading, only leaving a somewhat tragic dejected expression.
"P-Peira..?!"
Lex quickly shut her up, knowing how bad it sounded.
"Uh you see, BH and our association work together to give people of different backgrounds ways to earn good money. One of them is volunteering to provide blood and hair samples to Ms Peira, who researches hybrids of different races."
Lex awkwardly scratched his neck. "As you can see from my light green skin, I'm half orc."
Oh, was he?
Viv wasn't even paying attention to the man's appearance.
It seemed however that maybe that Peira lady was just a very strange and oblivious person. Not the evil, highly crazy child predator that he thought he was facing...
Huh, and who knew Black Hydra worked with other associations to do good things like this.
Vivillian had heard of discrimination against hybrids in passing, but this was his first time seeing a program specifically catered to help them. He began to wonder why beastmen weren't considered hybrids as well, and why they were treated much better.
"Does that answer your question...?"
Lex asked timidly, nervously fidgeting around,
"..Uh, sure."
Viv politely nodded his head, thankful that Lex had arrived on time and saved him from an almost catastrophic disaster. He had also wasn't required to give an explanation of what he was doing either, so he seemed to be an okay guy.
Though he still had many questions of what exactly that woman was made of for metal to bounce off her skin, Viv knew it was smarter to keep his mouth shut then pry any deeper.
"I'm no less than trash...dumber than a can of bricks that almost experimented on an uninvolved party...."
Peira muttered under her breath, still laying faintly in Lex's arms. It seemed she was getting a reality check.
"Ms Peira...please calm down...."
"I'll take responsibility...if Black Hydra is mad at this I won't retaliate....and I'll...-Wait!"
Suddenly springing to life and shocking the already stressed enough Lex, Peira rushed back into her house, things clattering onto the ground as she emerged from within, holding a potted plant in her hands.
"Little deliverer." Peira earnestly held out the small 6 petal flower pot towards Viv, who was in the process of leaving.
"Please take this as a token of my apology, it's a very rare plant."
"I don't need it."
"It's worth 600 gold market price."
"I'll happily forgive you for this incident."
Viv took the plant carefully, which made Peira let out a sigh of relief as she wiped her brow.
"Again, really sorry for this ordeal..." Peira stuttered nervously, as she pulled her googles from her face.
Getting a clearer look at her features, Viv saw a relatively young looking woman with rather pretty features, she bit her pink lip in nervousness.
"..."
Viv would have never expected this to be the face behind the strange googles and setup. He had gotten a vague glance at her appearance earlier but it was certainly different then he was imagining.
Despite the heart attacks he endured, a small sense of comfort enveloped him as he stared at the 600 gold ready to be exchanged in his hands.
That woman shouldn't be lying about the plant...probably.
Pulling the hood over his head, Viv made his way back, as the moon glimmered softly in the night.