Places where little light reached.

Secluded, dark, and damp, with poor visibility and passages too narrow to move freely. Places known as back alleys, or slums.

Every city had them, and the larger the city, the larger they grew. Naturally, Cambria, the City of Opportunity, had slums of its own. A vast maze where failed adventurers and mercenaries ended up, and criminals went to hide.

Anyone in their right mind.

Anyone who led an honest, respectable life.

Simply setting foot in such a slum would send a chill through them. Their nerves would sharpen, their movements would stiffen, and instinct would tell them to leave immediately.

That was what slums were like.

But the boy who stepped into this one was a little different.

Najin felt as though he had come home.

His mind, exhausted by ten days of seeing nothing but unfamiliar things, seemed to stretch out at leisure the moment he entered the back alleys, declaring, This is home. His tension eased, and his body moved freely.

This environment resembled the underground city of Atman.

Breathing in the foul air, Najin gave himself a light shake. After a few deep breaths, he narrowed his eyes. His sunset-colored eyes gleamed in the dark.

'Found you.'

-... What?

With that inward murmur, Najin took a few light steps forward. He was making his way slowly deeper into the alley when a faint tap in the distance betrayed someone's presence. He slammed his raised foot down.

THUD.

A forceful step. In the next instant, a current flowed through his body. Najin could now strengthen his body with mana at will.

BANG!

Putting his weight into his planted foot, Najin kicked off the ground and sprinted. He accelerated in an instant. The hidden man belatedly noticed something was wrong and tried to flee, but Najin was already right in front of him.

"Ghk!"

Najin reached out, seized the man by the back of the neck, and lifted him. The man looked fairly solidly built, but as Najin raised his arm, he rose helplessly into the air. Realizing that his feet no longer touched the ground, he looked down.

And met Najin's eyes.

Gleaming in the darkness where scarcely any light reached, those eyes resembled a wild predator's. The man's legs trembled, his knees going weak.

"Why were you watching me?" Najin asked.

The man did not answer immediately. Najin took hold of one of his fingers with his free hand. He knew very well how to make someone talk.

CRACK.

A scream rang out. Najin repeated the process a few times. Only when no more than two of the man's five fingers remained intact did he spill everything he knew. Once Najin had heard all the information he needed, he punched the man in the jaw and knocked him unconscious.

He tossed the limp man aside carelessly and murmured inwardly.

'Looks like they hired a few people and posted lookouts, then kept their distance whenever a bounty hunter entered the alleys. That's how they've stayed hidden.'

The man had revealed only a few simple facts.

Yet Najin had worked out how the fugitive had been evading capture. Watching him deduce so much from so little, Merlin spoke in disbelief.

-You figured all that out from those few scraps?

'Once you've caught and beaten answers out of enough people, you find their methods are all pretty much the same.'

Najin moved on.

He knew exactly how to catch people who used these tactics. There was a slow, safe method, and a fast, dangerous one... He chose the second.

'How did they do that again?'

Najin steadied his breathing.

Conscious of the pace of his steps and how much of his shoe sole touched the ground, he took a step.

'I think it went something like this.'

The covert operatives who had pursued him in the underground city.

He had watched from a distance how they moved and concealed their presence. Recalling their movements, he stepped forward.

One step, then another.

At first, there was a faint sound, but by his third step, there was none. Once he grew accustomed to the movement, Najin began running while keeping his presence concealed.

-... What?

Merlin blinked as she watched. The boy's movements, so heavy only moments earlier, were now as stealthy as an assassin's.

In silence, Najin began running, kicking off the walls. Even when he passed directly over the head of someone who appeared to be a lookout, the man failed to notice him. After passing several more lookouts, he reached the center of the web of interconnected alleys.

There, he spotted a man laughing and joking. The man was playing cards with what appeared to be hired bodyguards. Cards and coins lay scattered across the table.

The wanted criminal, Lopes.

His appearance matched the portrait on the wanted poster Dieta had given Najin. Having confirmed that much, Najin dropped silently toward Lopes's head.

Then he seized it hard.

Grabbing Lopes's head as he landed, Najin immediately drove it into the table. The table shattered, sending cards and coins flying.

"...!"

At the sight of Najin arriving by smashing their employer into the table, the bodyguards swiftly reached for their waists. Their reactions were so fast that comparing them to the underground city's seasoned street fighters would have been an insult.

But speed was always relative.

To Najin, all of it looked far too slow. He stomped on the hand of the man reaching for an axe on the ground. The hand broke with a crack, and Najin spun on the spot.

He stamped down on the back of another man's hand as he tried to draw the sword at his waist, then immediately caught the wrist of a third man lunging at him with a dagger and bent it backward.

Each man's attempt to draw a weapon was set back a beat. That was all Najin needed. He subdued them one by one. There was no need to use his sword. Striking their jaws and driving his fists into their faces was enough.

"Urrrgh..."

Lopes slowly lifted his head from the wrecked table. By the time he regained his senses, all three bodyguards beside him lay sprawled on the ground, their eyes rolled back.

"..."

His gaze wavered the moment he met Najin's eyes. The boy stood among the fallen men, looking down at him. Lopes hastily turned to flee.

THUNK.

A dagger lodged in Lopes's calf.

It was one Najin had taken from the Order's covert operatives and still favored to this day.

"Aaaaagh!"

Lopes fell headlong.

Gritting his teeth, Lopes turned his head. He shouted at the unknown boy.

"You fucked with the wrong guy, you bastard."

Breaking into a cold sweat, he pulled something from inside his clothes. The moment he squeezed it tight, a piercing sound rang out.

EEEEEEEE!

It was a signal to summon his associates and hired guards scattered throughout the alleys.

"This is my turf, and Boss Brom's. Looks like you're a bounty hunter. You're fucked, you little shit."

He grinned confidently.

Najin returned his grin. Seeing the boy's easy smile, Lopes felt that something was off.

"You're saving me some work," Najin murmured.

After all, Brom was another of his wanted targets.

Listening to the footsteps approaching from every direction, Najin drew his sword. It came free of its sheath with a metallic ring. He let it hang at his side and narrowed his eyes.

... It was only a few minutes later that Lopes realized something had gone wrong.

Najin had evaded the professional pursuers known as the Order's covert operatives, sometimes even toying with them as he hunted them down. Having grown through that experience, he found these back-alley thugs nothing more than easy prey.

Five minutes.

That was how long it took Najin to subdue every thug who came swarming in, shatter the knee of Brom, the wanted criminal directing them from a distance, and toss him beside Lopes.

"That makes two."

Brom. Lopes. Two wanted criminals.

Having bound them both and tossed them aside, Najin muttered,

"If I'd known it would be this easy, I would've taken all six posters."

2.

"Ma'am, an adventurer has come to see you."

Dieta blinked at her secretary's announcement early that morning. At this hour? She had only just arrived at the trading house and was sipping her morning coffee.

"Who is it?"

"A gray-haired boy. He says you gave him a commission yesterday..."

A gray-haired boy.

The boy she had bought a meal for yesterday. She had told him where the trading house containing her office was, but he had come this soon? Perhaps he wanted to ask for more information on the wanted criminals.

She had already given him everything she had.

It would be a little disappointing if he was here to ask for more.

With those thoughts in mind, Dieta gestured for him to be shown in. Soon, heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

A short while later, the office door opened.

The boy from yesterday stepped inside.

But the moment Dieta saw him enter, she realized he had not come to ask for more information. He had dragged three wanted criminals here with him.

Dieta's eyes widened.

She was not the only one surprised. Pasion, the knight standing guard beside her, was also staring wide-eyed.

"These are the right three, aren't they?"

Unconcerned by their reactions, Najin pointed behind him. Three wanted criminals stood there, limping. Only their arms were bound, yet they were not resisting, much less entertaining any thought of escape.

When Najin looked back, they merely bowed their heads low, as though trying to avoid his gaze.

"They... are," Dieta murmured blankly.

Brom, Lopes, and Miles.

They were indeed the three wanted criminals from the back alleys, notorious for slipping away like eels. Yet unlike the rumors she had heard, the three men stood meekly in place.

As though they were terrified of the boy standing before them.