It was time to determine whether the supporters were friends or foes.

  After all, humans were still the biggest predators for other humans even as the world is now.

  They were near the dead Infector and were looting it.

  It was not a bad idea.

  It might contain useful stuff, like ammo, as it seemed to have been turned into a zombie not that long ago. Unless they harm themselves with its nails or teeth, they should not get infected.

  My vision was a bit hazy. The adrenaline subsided and the wound on my leg made me lose too much blood.

  I would need to patch myself up before doing anything and I had to be fast.

  I got out the medical supplies from my largest pouch. It contained all I needed.

  The one-use first aid kit “mercenaries” use, even the basic one, consists of three things at the minimum: bandages, painkillers and the thing most needed to me right now – a syringe with some antifibrinolytic.

  First, I prepared the syringe and used it. I had to reduce the bleeding and get a move on.

  Second, I sterilised the wound on my right leg with wound cleanser and bandaged it. Also to reduce the bleeding and protect the wound from worsening with additional infections.

  I already had something waiting for me that needed all my attention… I must not waste additional time bedridden…

  Third, I took some pills for the pain I felt all over my body. They were weak, but even a slight reduction in the pain I felt was worth it.

  The first aid was done. Nothing impressive, but still better than dying due to bleeding out. My bandage immediately got soaked in blood. Even if the bleeding was not that severe, it was unpleasant.

  During my treatment, I saw that my leg had three big and one smaller claw marks. If I looked closer, I could see my muscles. It was not pleasant since it was my insides. No symptoms of the infection emerged, but in less than a day, the skin around the wound would undergo necrosis.

  It was not pleasant seeing my insides, even on the leg…

  Under my bandaged leg, there was a small puddle of fresh blood – my blood. I could determine where I were before by the drops of blood on the floor.

  I had stabilised my condition. It was not great, but I would not die without further intervention.

  Seemed like my “saviours” were also done with their “resupplying”.

  As my vision got better, I realised the features of the humans walking towards me.

  They had longish hair with some … “womanly charm”.

  “You are alive?” one asked with close to no emotions.

  “You ARE alive?!” the other said with surprise, happiness and some regret in her voice.

  Those two sound familiar… Could it be Mary and what was her name? Cold queen Lily?

  These two were alive and were watching me in hiding while I was fighting for my life…

  Interesting. Would keep it in mind.

  “Alive is a strong word to describe me. A better one would be “walking dead”,” I said jokingly at the wrong time.

  “If you have the time to joke, then you are fine. Let’s go!”

  Cold.

  “Could you walk? Need a helping hand?”

  Goddess!

  “I will walk myself,” I refused the alluring offer.

  It might have been a trap…

  Although not as trashed as me, they had some blood on them and some scratches and bruises here and there. Their hairs were also dishevelled.

  Their clothes were mostly in one piece, which meant that the blood on them was not theirs.

  Seemed like they had a better time than me.

  We reunited and the strongest creature in here was killed. If that was not a completed mission, I had no idea what would be. It was time to leave this place.

  “How is your ammo?” I asked them.

  I knew I was almost empty, but how were they?

  “My rifle is empty. As for my pistol, I have three magazines,” Lily replied.

  “Only pistol, two magazines,” Mary said.

  “I have… less than 15 shots left,” I told them after checking my situation.

  We all made distressed faces.

  “Let’s hope nothing stops us.”

  “Ye…” Lily replied, while Mary lightly shook her head up and down for a yes.

  We could only hope that no obstacles would obstruct our path to the surface. With the limited ammo we had, praying was also an option.

  I tried to walk, but it was painful. I tried to lean on objects or the walls with one hand and move with my healthy leg.

  We went to the corridor from which the girls came.

  “Let me help you,” Mary proposed again.

  “No need. I need to get used to this. What would I do if we get swarmed?”

  “Well… I can shoot a handgun with one arm! Not that I have much to shoot… And the next level is too dangerous to cross with how you are walking.”

  “I will use your help if I cannot deal with what comes next.”

  “Got it. Feel free to ask any time.”

  The corridor led to stairs and the next level. After climbing a floor, I knew why she insisted on helping me.

  The floor had numerous holes, some large, others small. I could do it myself, but getting help would have been ideal.

  “If you would,” I asked, slightly embarrassed for admitting my need for help.

  “Sure thing! Give me your arm!”

  I leaned on her shoulder with my right arm. Lily was the one keeping an eye on our surroundings. We were dead if we got ambushed.

  Mary helped me pass through the third floor. It would have been challenging and time-consuming to do so alone with my injury.

  Not all parts of the floor had holes, but I got used to leaning on Mary.

  I also realised what the light was. The electricity was restored and the working lamps lit the area. The light went through the holes and shone on the level below. Most lamps were broken or blinking. The flashlights were the most reliable source of brightness.

  At some point, I asked them how they were doing after our separation.

  “Say, what happened after we separated?”

  “First, Mary panicked and thought you died.”

  “Lily!” Mary blushed a little.

  “After she calmed down, we rushed to the next floor. After being unable to find a staircase in the next five minutes, we went down by jumping in the first hole we saw, fighting everything in our way without looking around.”

  “You sure were brave.”

  “It was her idea. I wanted to look for a safer way, but that idiot was so worried about you.”

  “Sorry…”

  “Whatever. We managed to find you without losing body parts, but I have to admit that we had close calls.”

  “I thought with the lights on, we’d be fine…”

  “Were you?” I asked.

  “The third floor had fewer undead than the second one. We encountered Bombers. They made the already pierced floor have more holes. At some point, we could not put away the gas masks.”

  “Sounds tough. When did the electricity come?”

  “The electricity was restored before Mary proposed to jump. Most lamps on the second floor worked.”

  “By the way, how did you do?” Mary asked me.

  “I am not sure what I can tell you. I went unconscious and woke up soaked in cold water. After regaining some sense, I moved. I encountered threats along the way, but they all paled compared to the fight with the Ruler. Initially, there were two Brutes.”

  “That’s awful! You had to fight them alone?!” Mary exaggerated, but there was not a hint that she had just lied.

  “We only saw one. You must’ve put up a fight,” Lily somewhat praised with her cold tone.

  If I had not noticed them spying, I would have thought that they came to my rescue the moment they arrived.

  “I almost paid the ultimate price for this. Glad you showed up at the last moment.”

  “You’re welcome,” Lily replied nonchalantly.

  “Yes…” but Mary showed remorse.

  We walked silently after that.

  Despite my sluggish walking speed, Lily did not complain about it. And we already climbed to the second floor!

  Why was that? I thought she would bitch about it.

  “You have no problem with my snail-paced speed?” I wondered.

  “Not at all,” the dear Goddess replied first.

  “Why would I? We won’t make it to the deadline either way,” Lily replied nonchalantly.

  I froze.

  Deadline? Now that she reminded me, there was a time limit.

  I looked at my hand watch and… 15 minutes after the deadline. We were already late.

  I wanted to curse at that moment, but panicking was not going to help one bit.

  The officer said that he might wait for us for 30 minutes after the initial two hours if he felt like it. There was a minuscule possibility we would make it.

  Leg, you would be forever remembered!

  “Let’s move on faster!” I exclaimed while stopping to lean on Mary and giving my best to “sprint” with both legs.

  Most of the pain subdued, but I barely used the wounded leg.

  It was a blessing that no “living” obstacles found us.

  By the time we reached the normal ground level, we had three minutes to spare before the additional time limit ended. I hope we will find them still there.

  The girls knew the optimal ways to climb up. With them leading, we might be able to make it in time before they leave. If they had not already.

  When I exited, the sunlight blinded me. I used my right arm to cover my eyes.

  The stench of rot and blood hit my nose, but I was already used to it.

  After I got used to the light, I took a look around me.

  Numerous scavenger birds were enjoying the fresh corpses. One raven looked at me while an eye was dangling from its beak. It soon continued to munch on.

  A raven was watching Raven. Funny…

  Its eyes were red. It was an infected animal.

  For the first three decades, the virus affected only humans among the life organisms. Yes, if an animal were to attack a zombie, it would retaliate, but animals could not turn into zombies.

  The virus evolved two decades ago, which was one of the reasons for the reclassification that occurred approximately ten years ago.

  The infected animals are classified into the class ‘Monsters’. An infected human more or less resembled a human, but the animals could morph their body structures to an unrecognisable degree. It was often hard to determine what the animal was before it got turned.

  Some infected animals hunt humans, others are harmless unless provoked or are even beneficial to nature.

  Fights between infected humans and infected animals could happen, with the winner eating the loser.

  It was peculiar. How could an infected, a plague for humans and the world, be helpful?

  The ‘Infected Raven’ or ‘Red-eyed Raven’ is one of the infected that has a positive effect. They eat only the carcasses, zombie ones included. Unless provoked, it would not attack, but even if it did, it was only slightly stronger than a normal raven. Unless it pecks an eye out or a baby, it does little harm.

  Animals do not get infected when they eat the carcasses, because the strong acids in their stomachs neutralise the virus. Only scavenger animals with strong digestive acids would eat the zombie meat, because it is rotten and poisonous.

  We continued to “run” towards the starting point.

  I did not care about the other teams.

  As long as mine was successful with the mission, the others could go to hell for all I cared.

  I wanted my pay after all this!

  We rushed out of the base.

  Some of the birds retreated, but other brave or smart ones saw no threat in us.

  When one minute was left before the 30-minute mark, I started to count in my head.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  60 seconds until half an hour had passed since the deadline. 59 seconds, 58, 57…

  …23, 22 and we made it in time! Hallelujah!

  Even if he said they’d go regardless of how many came, I thought that if no one had returned, they would wait for at least 30 minutes.

  Yet the short burst of happiness lasted for seconds.

  Where we were two and a half hours ago, mass zombie genocide had occurred.

  I should have expected it, given the blood on the grass on the slope and the scavenger birds looking at the top.

  I could see hundreds or so corpses littering the ground at the top.

  The commander was smoking a cigar, somewhat relaxed, with his gun next to him and a few blood spots littered his uniform. His two guards had blood all over them and had their assault rifles in their embraces, ready for more.

  They aimed at us. After realising we were not hostiles, they relaxed and sat down.

  Only they themselves knew through what hell they went.

  I was too tired to speculate.

  We were not the first to come back. I could see six others besides my team or a total of nine people.

  12 if I count the “Zombie Slayers 9000”.

  “You back? Took you long enough. By the time you managed to clear the place, we slaughtered a horde,” was what greeted us.

  From the looks on the faces of everyone on the mission, we were all surprised.

  “I feel generous enough to let you treat your wounds, so I’m giving more time for the others to come back, regardless of them being late,” Jeff continued and puffed some smoke.

  In my opinion, it was YOU and YOUR people who needed the rest; however, since I was in no shape myself, I accepted the offer without complaint.

  I would not have rushed if I had known it 15 minutes ago.

  The painkillers could not take care of all the pain and my leg’s activity renewed it.

  I leaned against a tree and took a bite at the tasteless “mercenary food” I had in me. I had just a few blocks. Mary and Lily went to talk with their friends.

  My number one rule was always to have some food supplies with me.

  If worst came to be, I might have been buried alive in that place for a longer period than two hours…

  I did need to regain some of my blood and energy before the pill’s effect ended completely.

  I had not realised it before, but moving was so hard. Even chewing was painful.

  Seemed like my adrenaline had ended completely.

  As for the littered ground, I took a glance.

  Most of the corpses were either Walkers or Runners, but there was an occasional Brute.

  Was all this a plan from the Overlord? Or was this just a coincidence?

  I did not care. Not at the moment, that was. And I would never know.

  I wondered if my performance was bad enough for participants to consider me as an ordinary, unranked “mercenary”. It was not yet time to show my all. The situation got slightly dangerous at some point. If I had not noticed the ones watching me from the shadows, I would not have sustained my leg injury.

  I was not used to going easy. I was one of those who used all their might to crush an ant.

  Whatever. I saw no one extraordinary nor anyone who could be a danger to my life. Sadly, I could not see how well Lily fought, but I assumed we would not meet again. Thinking more about this was a waste of time.

  I had some thoughts about the past – the reasons why I joined the organisation I belonged to, the reasons why I was doing what I intended to…

  30 minutes later.

  I calmed down, putting aside the reminiscence of the mistakes I had made in the past. They were the reason for who I was now. Even if I considered them as mistakes, they forged the present me.

  No one else came.

  The sunset was approaching. The sun would soon take on a reddish hue and the darkness would descend.

  “Time’s up. Let’s go. Every team will report to me what happened there. You’d either do so on the move or give a written report later. Until you do, no payment will be given.”

  It took a lot of time to get back.

  In truth, it took the same time going in and going back, but when the effect of the pill ended, every step I took was torture.

  Mary saw my discomfort and offered me her shoulder yet again. I reluctantly agreed.

  Excluding the reports, there was not much talking. My team was the last one to report.

  We all told the same story until somewhere around the second floor.

  Wait… Did I not think about hitting Mary for “helping” me with the “flying lessons”?

  I forgot and now it was too late for that.

  Oh well, maybe another time and another way.

  Maybe killing her and her teammates when they expected it the least…

  “You fell? Two floors? How’re you still alive?” he asked while giving me a dumbfounded look.

  “The fall I survived with luck. As for the engagements on the fourth floor, I tried my best to be unnoticed. It saved me a lot of trouble, but I was forced to fight a couple of times. The threats I usually had to fight were singular or in groups of no more than three. However, they were all armored. I assumed they were the soldiers who died. As for where we united, it was by sheer luck, or more precisely, lack of it, that I managed to find the hiding place of the Overlord: two Brutes, the Overlord and one Infector.”

  This was everything I needed to report.

  “And you look so well after all that?”

  Well? Well my rear! I felt pain in places I did not know existed!

  “There are some minor to medium injuries I must treat later.”

  “Noted. And what happened to you two after he fell?”

  The story took a lot of time to be told.

  The short version was that they searched for another way to get down. At some point, the electricity was restored. The officer clarified that one of the other teams managed to find the generators and they were the ones who restored the electricity.

  How kind of them. Would it have killed them to do so 10 minutes earlier?

  Along the way, the girls had frequent skirmishes with Walkers and Runners, with the occasional Bomber. There was also one encounter with a Brute – when reuniting with me. Lucky for them.

  The third floor had a few infected, but the path there was challenging to trek on due to it often being unstable and filled with holes. At times, there were more holes on the ground than places they could step on.

  It took them a long time loitering to find a suitable place to proceed downwards. When they did find one, it was a narrow path leading to where the Overlord was. There they found me battling with all my might and came in to help me.

  “We saw the predicament our member was in and our first action was to open fire at the undead. He fought with all his might while we did our best to cover him. And thus, we were victorious and we reunited!” Mary finished her report, concealing the minor details in her story.

  I could see a tear or two in her eyes. What an actress...

  “On our way back, we found close to no resistance,” Lily added.

  “Noted,” he said while we were finally entering the stronghold.

  It was already night by the time we managed to come back.

  The guard saluted. The officer saluted back.

  He then took a paper from her.

  “I wanted you all to line up and do an ‘X’ after your name, but I know you all want to go home and rest. The equipment we gave you before the start of the mission is a gift – no need to return it. We are all tired. Dismissed. Tomorrow at noon, 12:00 p.m., we’ll meet at the guild. Then you’ll get your pay according to your contributions.”

  No one had objections.

  And so, we all went to rest.

  Mary proposed to escort me to my staying place, but I refused.

  I somehow managed to get to my accommodation, ate, gave a ‘proper’ aid to my wounds (used more bandages on my leg) and went to bed.

  Tomorrow would be an interesting day.

  The next day. Morning. Or more precisely, 30 minutes before noon.

  I woke up at around 11:30.

  My body was still hurting, but less so compared to yesterday.

  I got up and went directly into the guild. I had no time to clean myself or my clothes.

  Even limping, I arrived there five minutes before 12:00. My walking speed was still reduced, but it was better compared to yesterday.

  I was also the last one to come.

  As the last time the officer was here, the guild was silent, but this time the exaggerated table was nowhere to be found.

  I walked towards them.

  “Good day!” Mary greeted me, sounding a bit apologetic.

  “Greetings,” I replied.

  Despite my condition yesterday, there were no attacks while I was sleeping. I feared an assassin or two might have tried to take my life.

  Could it be that they were not what I feared they might be?

  “Seems like you all managed to get here earlier. Might as well get things started earlier,” the “boss” said so.

  “I’ll be giving your pay. Only those who managed to return alive and are present here will be paid. I won’t get into unnecessary details – all of you will be paid 500 dollars.”

  “WHAT!?” some exclaimed, dumbfounded, while others gave him a cold look, some with bloodlust.

  I was one of the latter.

  “Everything is in accordance with the contract. You can get your payment now or go check the contract,” he said flatly.

  “What do you mean only half the pay?! We checked everything there that we could and found everything that could have been found!” someone objected with a roar.

  It was the one who made fun of me when we first met. What was his name again?

  “And put down all the zombies we saw!” another one added, in a gentler tone.

  This was the woman with him. Her name was also missing from my memory.

  “But can you be sure that all targets were eliminated? The mission was to find and destroy, if you don’t remember. Can you say for certain that you did find and kill everything in there?”

  A silence ensued.

  Truthfully, no one here could say that we did and prove it.

  That was why no one dared to object to this specifically.

  Even the greenhorns, if they did not all die, dared not to object.

  Still, none of us was happy about it. Some of us even popped a vein out of anger.

  “But… where in the contract was it written that?”

  Our last lifeline was used, albeit uselessly.

  “On the back.”

  “WHAT THE HELL! WHO LOOKS THERE!” someone shouted angrily.

  Seemed like most of us here did not.

  “Here, look. It’s written: If the conditions of the contract are NOT fulfilled, the pay at the end will be lower than the initial. If you ask me, you should be thankful for getting that much to begin with.”

  What a dick move.

  It sounded like he was telling us that if we had more survivors, we would have been paid less.

  “Any other objections?” he continued, his arms crossed.

  Mary’s group and I had no objections. Some of them were even calm, as if they expected this, but Rich and Roosevelt tried to wear a dissatisfied expression, while Mary listened closely.

  I knew why I myself had none, but why were they so calm about it? Were they in cahoots?

  Some of us were red with anger, while others could not argue anymore and took their pay and left.

  Eventually, all of us were going to do so.

  Thus, I felt no need to waste my time.

  Before I fully got up, Mary asked me something quietly, while some were talking with the officer.

  “Where are you staying?” she whispered.

  There was no need for a reply or to give her genuine information.

  “When you leave this building, you walk frontally. On the second street, you turn right. Walk forwards. You look for the sign “World’s End”. I stay there. Ask the receptionist for my room if you need to see me. They do need to make some money themselves.”

  But I saw no need to lie this time. She seemed like a gentle and kind person. Either she was the best actress in the world or a saint. Let’s not forget her decent looks.

  I might not have been attacked since they did not know where I was staying.

  If my speculation was correct, I would better deal with them sooner rather than later. Even as I was right now, I was ready for a life-or-death fight.

  After replying to her, I went to the guild’s bathroom.

  I was thinking of spending some time there until most of the crowd dispersed, but not until I relieved myself.

  The law regarding official contracts states that as long as the payment is not received, appeals are permissible.

  Five or so minutes later, I came out.

  Seemed like only the guards and the soon-to-be ex-boss were left.

  The guild continued to be dead silent. His sole presence was the reason for this. Just how scared was this garbage from him? Have they not seen a real danger? As usual, a contractor must not leave until the payment is made or all appeals have been addressed.

  “You got appeals?” he asked me.

  “I do. Got a private room?”

  “Follow me.”

  He got up and started walking, with the guards behind him. I went with him.

  The people all watched us. Great. More attention.

  We met with a man who bowed politely to the officer.

  “We’ll be using a private room. The key.”

  “Yes, Capitan Primero Jeffrey!” the man said while bowing and giving the key.

  Such worms were not even worth remembering.

  The four of us, the officer, the guards and I, went into a room with no one else in there.

  After Jeff and I sat down, we started to talk. His guards were upright behind him, ready for any and all unexpected confrontations.

  “So, what is it?”

  “The pay. Give me the real amount.”

  “I was already about to pay you according to your contributions. Here, 500. Was that all? You could’ve taken it with the others.”

  He put a money stack on the desk. He continued playing innocent, even if we were alone, which was fine with me.

  The guards were watching my movements, but without any orders or seeing me threaten them with a weapon, they just stayed there menacingly.

  “Is that so? Do tell me then, why was this “mission” so unusual? Settlements and forward bases in the contested zones get destroyed often and no one cares about them. Even more so in the South, where the zombies from the North give you close to no pressure.”

  “Orders from above. I cannot tell you,” he evaded answering while keeping his poker face.

  “You may try to evade, but should I go ask around the guild’s executives? They should more or less know.”

  “Feel free to do as you wish.”

  “You sure are confident they will not say anything. I sure hope they will not spill things too fast. I do need objects on whom to experiment the art of torture. Tell me honestly, how much budget did you have to begin with?” I said all this as if I was talking about the weather.

  “…”

  He did not give me a reply.

  We stayed silent for a while, having a stare contest. The bodyguards were doing their best to intimidate me, but I did not consider them a part of this talk.

  The officer was the first to speak.

  “You sure are ballsy. An advice from me: ignorance is bliss,” he said with a bitter smile.

  This was getting nowhere.

  I really wanted to keep this hidden, but oh well. There goes my low profile.

  I was about to pull something out of my tattered clothing that was proof of my skills.

  When the guards saw my movement to take something out, they aimed at me.

  I stopped my actions and prepared for a fight...

  “Let him continue.”

  They relaxed but still kept their eyes on me.

  What I intended to show them was something that showed that I was no pushover.

  It was a tag with a broken chain. It had some human blood on it. However, it was not mine. I just did not feel like cleaning it.

  I got it from a corpse some time ago – red “mercenary” rank. I also took the name of the previous owner.

  “Since when did you know you had to put up the mission?” I asked coldly, swaying the said object lightly left and right.

  He gave in. Not that he had much of a choice.

  His rank was not high enough to have bodyguards who could take on red rank.

  If he did, something was not right.

  “Two days ago, late at night. Then I still hadn’t got any concrete budget. All I was told was to clear out the place you had to go to and it had to be done fast. I had no intention of lying to you, but were I to give you all 1 000 dollars, it would have made me go above the limit.”

  “How much budget did you have to begin with?”

  “5 000 dollars.”

  “Is that not a bit too little for, let’s say, 20 people?”

  “I never thought that many would have an interest nor that there would be this many survivors.”

  “Lastly, I still hold a copy of the mission. Do tell me, why is nothing written on the backside?”

  “Made it yesterday at night to counter some attempts for rebuke.”

  “I see. You are telling me you lied to us. Tell me, do you know what the penalty for doing so in an official contract is?” I told him coldly while looking him in the eyes.

  The official penalty was death.

  His bodyguards were trying to put pressure, but until ordered, they were as scary as chained, mute dogs.

  He was keeping his poker face, but I saw some drops of sweat on his forehead.

  I did not want to reveal this identity much more, so I would not have gone that far. Killing him with my arms was faster than having the authorities do so.

  However, he did not know what my intentions would be.

  I was unsure whether the rules would apply to the army he was part of.

  But one was for certain – he would be penalised in one way or another.

  “Here is what we will do. You said you had 5 000 in total? You were supposed to give 500 to nine, meaning 4 500. Pay me the other 500 as it is my due, or a total of 1 000, and we will keep this under the rug. Got it?”

  He agreed and soon gave me my full due. I counted it. 1 000 LC.

  I decided to stop asking around. I was able to push my luck this far, but going for more might be dangerous.

  “You were quite impressive yourselves,” I added while getting up.

  “We just got unlucky. A small horde came out of nowhere. We just had to deal with it.”

  “Also…” – I spoke before I exited the room while looking at him with one of my eyes – “…were you to say about what you saw now… You know, right?” I said like I would kill him.

  A nod was given and I left.

  He seemed more scared than I thought. Too scared even… Maybe it was all an act?

  I would not have killed him were he to tell.

  After all, how would I know he did? And even if I somehow managed to know, how was I supposed to find him?

  Only if he were to attack me, I would have fought back with the intent to kill him.

  In conclusion, I more or less said empty threats.

  As for me… I would need around three days to recuperate.

  Before that, I had some annoying tasks to do.

  One was to repair my wear or outright to get a new one. Finding ones with so many pockets was hard.

  The second would be to restock supplies – both ammo and for daily necessities.

  Lastly, my firearms could use some maintenance and I must buy a modification that enables me to put a flashlight on my AK-47. I did not want to repeat the situation from yesterday.

  After all that, I would start my healing while lazing all day.

  But before doing any of them… I had to be the bringer of bad news to someone.

  Sigh… I hope I got the wrong person.

  I went to the door before the guild hall. I intended to go directly to the receptionist, but the waitress stopped me.

  “Hello, hello! It looks like you’ve sustained an injury during your last mission,” she looked for a moment my right leg.

  “Yes, my mood is to the ground ever since.”

  Today she wore a short-sleeved waitress uniform with a skirt to her knees and black pantyhose on her legs. Her brown hair was loose. Her “backpack” on her back. She had her fake smile and cheerful demeanour. Let’s not forget the apron. Today it was spotless as well.

  “Say, do you happen to have free time right now? I have a lunch break right now, so would you like to eat something?”

  Something felt off. I did not see her coming in here. Yes, she might have come for something while I chatted with Jeffry, but she came to me directly afterwards. Or she was in one of the rooms, saw me and decided to start a small talk with me

  Sure, she might have wanted to get laid later, but picking someone wounded like me while there were all healthy males in the hall felt off. Unless she fell for me out of the blue or had an ulterior motive, I could not see another reason for approaching me.

  I was not one to refuse a woman, but my gut told me that having her in bed had high risk. Not the risk of an unwanted pregnancy, but the risk to my life.

  And my health condition made me rethink about mating with someone. My leg should have necrosis by now and I fear I might infect someone if I did have them for a night.

  I feared that this place’s quarantine zone was the dungeon where criminals are put.

  “I will have to refuse.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “That’s so bad. Any last words?”

  I tilted my head. ‘Last words’? Let’s take it as a joke.

  “You said you had a break right now, yes?”

  “Yes?”

  “Can you comfort the receptionist?”

  “Sure, but she seems fine.”

  “I may have bad news for her. I hope I am wrong, but… if I am correct, could you support her?”

  “… What news?”

  “… The death of a loved one.”

  “…”

  She fell silent and her expression turned serious, devoid of any traces of her smile.

  “Go on, I will do my best,” she let me go.

  I went to the receptionist.

  “Greetings! Congratulations on your safe return! Why do you look so serious?”

  “I have to ask you a few private questions.”

  “Well… you have a good reason for that. Ask away.”

  Let’s get this over with.

  “You said you had two children, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “A son and younger daughter?”

  “Yes…”

  “Your husband was a soldier. Is your son also a soldier?”

  “Yes… How do you know that?”

  She realised I had something serious to tell her and her cheerful expression was gone, replaced with worry and anxiety while also impatiently awaiting my next words.

  “Is…” I had my words stuck in my throat.

  “Yes?”

  “Is your son’s name Alfredo?”

  “Yes…”

  I took out the military dog tag and the paper. I put them on the reception desk.

  She looked at what I gave.

  “I really hope you are not the one this letter was supposed to go to, but if it was… My apologies.”

  She looked at the tag. Her eyes immediately filled with tears. She soon started reading the paper.

  I left the guild. I did more than I usually would for a stranger.

  I started with the plan for the day.

  I had a bitter feeling in me. I was not one to get sentimental about strangers. What did I feel when I realised it really was her son who died?

  I had a dark mood the entire day.

  When did I become affected by the death of strangers?

  Have I ever cared if the ones I killed had a family or not? Whether they had a wife, a husband or a small child? How would their family feel or how would they survive?

  No, I never thought like that. The times I took lives were too far to remember. The grievance the families were feeling became uncountable. The sobs of children could have made rivers by now…

  Heh… What a scum I am.

  When was the last time I spared someone who enraged me for something minor?

  Why did this have an impact on me?

  Get a hold of yourself, myself. You, no I… How can this little tragedy affect me? The reason for my coming to this forsaken place was to provoke thousands, no tens of thousands, of times worse deeds…