Picking the Wrong Mark
Erso had far too many questions burning in his chest.
"Senior, what exactly is the work you're going to assign me?"
"We will discuss that once we obtain a skin mask."
"Understood. Then under what identity are you living here, Senior? What is your name?"
"I told you earlier. An elective instructor. My name is—"
"Wait, hold on. Elective instructor, elective instructor… wait, what?"
Erso's eyes went wide as saucers.
"Don't tell me… Xiel Steel… heart?"
"Correct. You knew. When did you find out?"
It was the exact turning point where Erso's life had begun spiraling out of control.
Right then.
The moment he had raided that workshop and delivered his mission completion report to the Southern Branch Head.
It was a capture mission, wasn't it?
A staggering bounty of six million Sel.
"There was a bounty of six million Sel on your head, Senior. A live capture contract. I had a bad gut feeling about it, so I passed, but… uh, Senior, did anyone come looking for you?"
"Assassins came."
"…!"
Erso's hands trembled violently.
"Don't tell me… those assassins—"
"They are all dead."
At what he had thought was the worst crossroads of his life—
It was the single greatest decision I ever made.
Erso had survived.
He had come inches from death without the syndicate even needing to execute him!
Then all those rumors about the Black Blade recently becoming House Kundel's primary target… don't tell me…?
Erso made a silent, unshakeable vow.
Never, under any circumstances, would he betray this senior.
"Senior, I shall dedicate my absolute loyalty to you."
"Why?"
"Because… you are an incredible person!"
A wave of pure exhilaration washed over Erso.
My future is paved in solid gold. So long as I craft a solid undercover identity!
Scores of possible aliases were already dancing through his head.
A brand-new syndicate life, cleverly disguised under the guise of an academic teaching assistant, was about to unfold before him.
Meanwhile, Xiel was recalling a stray comment Tyron had made.
He said teaching assistants usually dedicate their loyalty to their professor.
He had never learned the reason why.
Yet according to Tyron, that was standard practice.
His mindset as a teaching assistant is commendable.
Xiel felt a quiet sense of satisfaction.
It seemed he had acquired a rather fine assistant.
"This way."
Cloaked in the deep shadows of the imperial capital, the two slipped toward District 33.
The night ran late.
"Is there a skin mask artisan around here?"
"Yes. Nearby."
Normally, Crows were required to wear skin masks manufactured directly by their syndicate.
Damned service fees.
Naturally, an exorbitant commission was deducted each time. Looking back, leaving had been the best choice he could have made. Commission fees, various deductions, taxes on top of taxes—and the syndicate never offered a single scrap of real support in return!
"Here."
While Erso grumbled inwardly, they finally arrived at the workshop.
It looked like an ordinary residential house. Circling around to the rear, Xiel tapped on the back door in a measured, rhythmic sequence.
A moment later, the door creaked open, revealing a gaunt, hollow-cheeked man.
"It's past hours. You'll have to pay double."
Clink.
Two Dikelen silver coins dropped neatly into the man's palm.
"Come inside."
Visiting an illegal skin mask workshop for the first time in his life, Erso found every single detail mesmerizing.
"Whoa…"
Stepping past the threshold revealed a grotesque and unsettling spectacle. Unprocessed hides covered nearly every inch of the walls, and the sharp, chemical stench of preserving agents stung the nostrils. Bizarre ingredients and a chaotic, cluttered workbench rounded out the scene.
"Whose face am I making? You're already wearing one."
At the artisan's question, Xiel pointed toward Erso.
"A skin mask for him."
"Take a seat over there, then. It'll take roughly a week. Pay a little more, and I can finish it in four days."
Chink.
This time, five silver coins clattered into the artisan's hand.
"Three days."
"Ah, a premium customer. Leave everything to me, esteemed guest."
The moment the five silver coins touched his skin, the man's tone and demeanor flipped like a coin. Erso was simultaneously astonished and profoundly moved.
Five silver coins just for me…?
The exclusive black-market currency of the underworld, the Dikelen silver coin. To spend five of them without batting an eye!
And that was not the end of it.
Clink.
Xiel dropped two more coins into his hand.
"This carries a different meaning."
"Understood completely. You two never set foot here tonight. I'll take this secret to my grave."
Erso felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes.
"To go this far on my account…"
"There will be a great deal of work for you to do moving forward."
A teaching assistant had endless duties, starting from lecture preparations all the way to student management.
"I shall dedicate my absolute loyalty to you."
Erso had lost count of how many times he had sworn that pledge tonight alone. Whatever orders or missions Senior handed down, he would carry them out to the letter. Even if it meant cold-blooded assassination!
"Wrap up the sentiment and sit down already."
"Ah, yes."
The artisan punctured the emotional atmosphere without a shred of hesitation.
A short while later, the two emerged back onto the street.
"Ugh, that plaster left my face feeling bone-dry."
After taking the plaster mold of his facial features, they stepped away from the workshop.
"I will return in three days. Wait at your quarters until then. You will also need a cover identity."
"Understood. Then will my first mission begin after that?"
"Yes. You cannot operate without a skin mask. Before that, there is something you must do."
"Command me as you will, Senior."
Erso straightened his posture and listened with solemn focus. What reached his ears, however, was entirely unexpected.
"Study the students."
"Study… the students?"
Right. He did say I was an assistant, didn't he?
"Yes. Familiarize yourself with them beforehand so you can perform your duties as a teaching assistant."
"Understood. You're scouting the talent in advance!"
It was only natural. Sizing up promising recruits before inducting them into the syndicate was of paramount importance.
"Gauging the students' talents is indeed critical. It allows one to determine their potential and the trajectory of their development."
Cultivating them like that to fold them into the syndicate—that's his endgame!
Wait a second.
As his misunderstandings stacked atop one another, curiosity suddenly overtook Erso.
"Then once you've nurtured them, Senior, what do you plan to do?"
"I will become a professor."
"A professor…"
Which meant…
He intends to rise all the way to Headmaster and swallow this entire academy whole?
He truly was a terrifying man. Was he planning to turn the prestigious Edelbein Academy into the syndicate's grand base of operations?
More than that, absorbing young students into the fold and raising them within the shadows… How horrifyingly brilliant.
A shiver ran down Erso's spine.
One could never fathom the depths of this senior's true designs. An unvarying, flat monotone, a face concealed beneath layers of mystery—every facet of him was shrouded in impenetrable mist.
That was the kind of entity he was.
The superior he had chosen to serve.
"I shall dedicate my loyalty to you."
"Is that phrase currently in fashion?"
"Pardon?"
"That is the fourth time you have said it today."
Erso pondered for a fleeting second before selecting the finest answer he could muster.
"I hope it becomes one, Senior."
The following day.
Xiel stepped outside the academy grounds.
There is much to accomplish today.
Visiting a monster byproduct processor. Securing Erso's cover identity. And attending to Erso's additional request.
A boutique.
He was familiar with the word. During his days as an assassin, a handful of contracts had involved luxury goods. Naturally, Xiel had merely executed the assignments; neither luxury labels nor high-end boutiques had ever stirred a hint of emotion within him.
He knew only one thing about them: they were establishments that sold outrageously expensive items.
First, Xiel directed his steps toward the byproduct processor.
District 23.
Situated squarely in the center—neither an upper-crust district nor a slum. It was here that one of the rare monster byproduct processors in Baldrain maintained his shop.
"Welcome! Oh, you don't have an appointment, do you?"
"I do not."
"Well, appointment or not, a customer is a customer. My, aren't you a dashing gentleman?"
"Dashing?"
"You're practically dripping with aristocratic grace, is what I mean! Don't folks turn their heads wherever you walk with a face like that?"
Unmasked, Xiel drew eyes wherever he traveled.
So that is why I felt gazes boring into me the entire walk through the capital.
Because of that constant surveillance, Xiel had maintained a heightened state of alert throughout his commute. He had even been prepared to activate the Breathing of the Polar Night at a moment's notice.
Perhaps wearing a skin mask during daylight hours would be the wiser course.
"At any rate, what brings you by? Looking to purchase? Sell? Or are you here for processing?"
"I have come to request the latter."
"You've come to the right place. What material would you like processed?"
Thud.
The moment Xiel placed the sample on the counter, the artisan's eyes nearly popped out of his skull.
"Th-This…"
"It is the hide of a Ruinbark."
"Of course I know that! If I couldn't recognize this, I'd have to shutter my doors! But how on earth did you get your hands on this?"
"I hunted it."
A Ruinbark's hide. To processors, it was as precious as raw gold. Given the beast's formidable nature, harvesting it was exceptionally rare, yet its tough, unyielding durability made it applicable to an astonishing variety of crafts. It was, quite literally, the gold standard of monster byproducts.
"With a piece this size… I reckon I could craft whatever you desire."
"I have roughly 103 pieces of comparable size."
The artisan doubted his own ears for a second. One hundred and three?
"H-How many? A hundred and three? Did you hunt it yourself?"
"There are 103 pieces, and I brought it down alongside others."
Well, of course. No one could take down a beast like that alone.
Even setting that aside, if he truly possessed 103 pieces of such magnitude…
"You must have brought down an exceptionally large adult specimen, then?"
"I would not know."
"Hmm. Very well. A hundred and three pieces… So, what exactly are you looking to forge from them?"
"I require armor."
Xiel handed over a parchment sketch. Though simple, the drawing conveyed the client's specifications with unmistakable clarity.
A sly greed began to crawl into the artisan's heart.
I could easily siphon off about twenty pieces of this size.
Ruinbark hide! High-grade monster byproducts were already strictly regulated and nearly impossible to acquire on the open market. Skimming a generous portion for himself would yield an immense fortune down the line.
"So, how many complete sets are you commissioning?"
"I need fifty."
"Fifty… Factoring in the material shaved away during the refinement process, that's going to be a tall order…"
Putting on the typical merchant's performance of groaning under the difficulty, he carefully watched Xiel's expression.
Why isn't his face changing at all?
He had planned to wait until the client showed signs of distress before sweetening the terms, but the man remained completely impassive.
"Ahem. Well, it's not entirely impossible. I'll do everything within my power to make it happen. The commission fee will come out to roughly this much."
Xiel gave an approving nod. Just like with his previous procurement of equipment, all of these expenses could be billed directly to the department's budget.
"Very well. Can you complete it by this date?"
"It'll be tight, but I'll see to it."
In truth, it was more than doable. Work had been rather dry lately. Even so, a seasoned merchant never exposed their vulnerabilities.
"Then as for the remaining materials…"
"I will arrange for special delivery directly from the academy."
"Aha. You're an academy employee?"
"I am an elective instructor."
"Ah. An elective instructor."
In fact, the reserved client scheduled to arrive shortly was also an academy man, though his station was on an entirely different level.
Now to arrange the cover identity… visit the bank to verify the bounty, and then look into what the Crow mentioned.
Reviewing his schedule for the day, Xiel turned to leave.
"Do take care on your way back, sir!"
Beaming ear to ear at the arrival of such a lucrative client, the processor bowed him out.
I won't have to worry about business for a good long while!
The processing fee was hefty enough, but the prospect of skimming rare Ruinbark hide made him giddy. Wasn't that simply how the world worked? The ignorant were meant to be fleeced.
Just then, the reserved client for the day strolled into the shop.
"Well, well! Welcome, Professor!"
"Didn't I tell you not to call me Professor?"
"Oh, come now, what does it matter? It's not like anyone's around to overhear."
"It compromises my dignity as a professor, that's why!"
Even beneath the voluminous folds of his hooded robe, the pronounced bulge of a hefty belly could not be concealed.
"I'm roasting alive in here. What an infernal climate!"
Pulling back his hood, the face of Professor Elcanto came into view. His silhouette, however, had undergone a distinct change; it was noticeably less round than before.
"Have you shed even more weight?"
"I have to drop more. Why else would a man of my standing hunt monsters outside my duty?"
"And going so far as to conceal your identity, too?"
"Conceal it? What's the point? If even you caught on, half the world probably knows by now."
Though Elcanto grumbled incessantly, his complexion was visibly healthier and far more vibrant than in days past. Vacation had arrived—a lull period where both students and professors enjoyed relative leisure. Having resolved to mend his ways, he had taken up monster hunting during the break to shed weight and earn a bit of spending money on the side. After all, academy faculty received no salary during the holidays.
"At any rate, what did you bring in this time… Good heavens, look at all this! You've brought in nothing but prime cuts today."
Thud.
Peering into the sack Elcanto set down, the processor grinned broadly.
"I can give you a very handsome sum for all of this. Today has been quite the bountiful day for me."
"Has it? I thought you said business was in the gutter lately."
"Well, some days fortune simply smiles on a man. Ah, right. Professor, there was something I wanted to ask… By any chance, have you heard of someone named Xiel Steelheart? An elective instructor at the academy, so I'm told."
"Instructor Xiel? How on earth do you know him?"
"Oh, just picked up a rumor or two floating around recently."
Glossing over the fact that Xiel had been standing in this very shop moments ago, the artisan skillfully brushed the matter aside.
"Good grief, his name has spread all the way to a byproduct workshop…?"
"I happen to have ears in many places, you see. So you do know him, then?"
The reason for the artisan's casual probing was simple.
I need to make him a regular client.
Anyone who could haul in Ruinbark hides in bulk was a customer whose future patronage would be pure gold.
"Mmh. He is an extraordinary instructor. For starters, he took down a Ruinbark entirely on his own."
"Pardon?"
"Hard to believe, isn't it? Slaying a Ruinbark single-handedly."
"Uh…"
Wait… Didn't he just say he hunted it with others?
"There was a bit of a mishap during an academy field exercise, you see. In his own words, he claims he took it down alongside the students, but that's just polite humility. Who could possibly believe that?"
"Ha… haha."
"Shocking, isn't it? But that isn't all. That instructor is truly something else. His pedagogical skills aside, powerful factions from every corner are practically begging him to join their ranks."
Professor Elcanto showered Xiel with lavish praise, almost as if he had been waiting for an excuse.
Naturally, all those compliments were merely the prelude to his ultimate point.
"For the record, I happen to be quite close with him. Hahaha!"
A self-aggrandizing boast.
Yet the byproduct processor's mind was snagged entirely on a different detail.
He hunted a Ruinbark all by himself… and towering factions are scrambling to recruit him?
His heart plummeted straight into his stomach.
"I-Is that so…?"
"Mind you, countless dignitaries have extended invitations, and he flatly rejected every single one! Quite impressive, wouldn't you say?"
"It… certainly sounds that way."
Why would an elite like that be working as a mere elective instructor?
No, far worse than that—
I almost stepped straight into an early grave.
If you intended to run a scam, you had to carefully choose your mark. The man standing before him, Elcanto, was a harmless blowhard ripe for a little creative accounting. But that Xiel person…
If he catches me swindling him, I'm a dead man.
Rare though byproduct processors were, commanding widespread respect across the capital, swindling a martial powerhouse capable of slaughtering high-grade beasts alone was a surefire way to lose one's head.
Sweet heavens above…
The processor stole a panicked glance at the invoice draft he had just scribbled.
It looked like it would need a complete, top-to-bottom overhaul.
Not a single strip of hide skimmed.
Absolute, pristine honesty.
He was not particularly eager to die just yet.
"What's the matter with you?"
"Ah, no! It's nothing at all, haha."
"How odd. In any case, remember that he and I are practically inseparable."
"My, your network of connections never ceases to amaze, Professor."
"Ahem. So, how much for all this?"
"The total comes out to twenty thousand Sel."
"…Is that all? Come on, throw in a bit more."
"I'm barely making a profit as it is, Professor."
"Oh, please, with how often I've patronized your shop this month alone—"
"All right, all right. I'll make it twenty-five thousand Sel. But you mustn't breathe a word of this to anyone else."
"I know, I know. My lips are sealed."
Pocketing his coin with a broad grin, Elcanto departed in high spirits.
Naturally, the lion's share of the profit remained with the merchant.
Barely making a profit? I made an absolute killing.
The golden rule of commerce: always know who you are dealing with before pulling a trick.
Without ever realizing it, Elcanto had rendered Xiel an immense service.
Even if he himself had just walked away thoroughly fleeced.
"Well, as long as he's happy, what harm is there?"
It was a heartwarming scene where, ostensibly, not a single soul had been hurt.