Old Neil

As Angel stepped out of the room with the contract and requisition slip in hand, Klein Moretti was chatting with Miss Rosanne outside. The girl had covered her mouth and snickered at something he said, but the instant she saw the door open, she coughed awkwardly twice and resumed her deliberately serious expression.

Klein noticed that Angel had finished speaking with Captain Dunn as well. Smiling, he asked, "All settled?"

Angel nodded with a smile. "Yes, the captain asked you to go in."

"The captain..." Klein froze for a moment, then glanced at the contract tucked beneath Angel's arm and immediately understood the meaning behind that title. He extended his right hand to her. "Congratulations. We're colleagues now?"

"Thank you!" Angel readily shook his hand.

Without exchanging further pleasantries, Klein quickly straightened his clothes and hat, knocked twice on the door, and only pushed it open after Dunn gave permission.

He was quite polite...

Angel watched Klein until the closing door blocked him from sight, then turned and handed the requisition slip to Rosanne.

"Miss Rosanne, the captain asked me to collect some materials."

The brown-haired girl in a light green dress seemed to snap out of a dream. She answered with several quick "ohs" and took the slip.

"You... really joined us too? I didn't expect that. I thought you had come to see the captain about some personal matter." Her eyes scanned the contents of the slip as she nodded slightly and spoke.

"Yes, the contract has already been signed." Angel waved the rather thin contract.

The girl looked up expectantly and asked again, "Is it a clerical position?"

The moment the words left her mouth, she seemed to realize something was wrong and hurriedly added, "I just thought that with one more person, our shifts would be easier." She waved the slip in her hand for emphasis.

Seeing Rosanne so worked up, Angel could not help laughing. Although Captain Dunn currently seemed to be assigning her only the task of making Special Ammunition, he probably would not have a Beyonder like her work as a warehouse keeper.

Once the captain submitted the report on this battle next week and investigated her identity, there would probably be further arrangements.

Or perhaps he would discover her forged identity and reserve her a seat at the Church's Arbitration Tribunal?

At that thought, Angel's mood immediately sank. She forced out a smile and replied, "Sorry, but the captain probably won't arrange for me to do clerical work."

"Ah..." The anticipation on Rosanne's face instantly turned to disappointment. "I never expected Mr. Moretti to be clerical staff, while you're instead..." Halfway through, she seemed to realize something. Her eyes widened as she looked at Angel in surprise. "Could it be that you're already a Beyonder?"

Angel did not hide it. Since they would very likely become colleagues, these things would sooner or later become known. "Yes. Before this, I was already... well, in your terms, an unofficial Beyonder."

"Wow, that's amazing! Are you a Sleepless, or a Mystery Pryer?"

The girl's brown eyes gleamed with the adoring curiosity of a fan seeing her idol.

"...An Assassin."

"..."

The two fell into an awkward silence.

"That... that's impressive too! Ah, right, I still need to take you to collect the materials. Come on, the warehouse is in the basement."

Miss Rosanne stiffly changed the subject, holding up the slip.

Angel had assumed they would enter the basement from the first floor, but Miss Rosanne led her straight to the end of the corridor and into an office against the wall.

Other than a stone staircase leading downward, the room contained no furniture. The two descended the winding stairs, and after rounding two corners, the sunlight above vanished completely, replaced by the light of exquisite Gas Lamps on both walls, which cast rings of shadows beneath their feet.

After circling down an unknown number of times, leaving the Stairs and entering a long passageway, Angel estimated that she was at least ten meters underground.

The passageway was paved with smooth stone slabs, and a great many Gas Lamps had been lavishly installed on both sides. Angel also noticed the holy emblem of the Church of the Night Goddess embedded in the walls. Though she had known the Crimson Moon for only a few days, it already gave her a sense of peace that reached Deep Within.

After passing through the corridor, they reached a crossroads. Rosanne, who was leading the way, introduced, "Straight ahead is the 'Chanis Gate.' Mr. Fry is on duty today. The left leads to Saint Selena Church, and the right leads to the material warehouse we're going to. Mr. Neil is there."

The Chanis Gate was the place Leonard had intended to seek refuge during Mrs. Sharon's attack? It seemed to hold some important Beyonder items, important enough to require a Beyonder to guard it at all times. And Angel had not expected Saint Selena Church to connect directly to the Nighthawks' base. They truly were an armed force directly under the Church.

As Angel recalled the church's location, she followed Rosanne right through the intersection.

"By the way, you haven't met Mr. Neil yet, have you?"

Angel recalled Leonard Mitchell's rapid-fire introduction of the Nighthawks' members yesterday and shook her head. "Mr. Mitchell mentioned him to me, but I haven't met him. Was he originally one of the team's combat personnel too?"

"Yes, he's also a Beyonder, a Sequence 9 Mystery Pryer. But he's old now and in poor health, so he's no longer suited to fieldwork and transferred to clerical duties." Rosanne nodded as she explained while walking.

Angel silently noted down the name of the Mystery Pryer Potion. Unlike the Sleepless of the others, it should belong to an entirely new pathway.

The two arrived before a half-open iron door and knocked.

An aged voice came from behind the door. "Come in."

Rosanne pushed open the iron door and entered first, with Angel following behind her.

The cramped room contained a desk and chair. An elderly man in a Black Robe sat at the desk, carefully studying several yellowed pages in his hand while casually jotting something down in a notebook beside him. Behind him stood another tightly shut iron door.

"Hello, Mr. Neil. This is the newly hired... um..." Rosanne politely greeted the old man, but stumbled while introducing Angel—she had forgotten her new colleague's name.

Angel stepped forward and briefly introduced herself, rescuing the careless girl from her predicament. Yet Rosanne's face still turned bright red, and after hurriedly handing the slip to the old man, she left.

Holding the slip bearing the captain's signature and seal, the old man—Old Neil—shifted his gaze away from the pages on the desk. He narrowed his eyes and studied Angel for a while before grinning. "You're the newcomer who caused quite a commotion upstairs last night? And even took down a Sequence 7?"

Uncertain what sort of rumors he had heard, Angel could only explain, "I merely assisted from the side. The main credit goes to Ms. Daly and..."

"I know, and that brat Leonard. He told me all about it this morning. He also said you used a kind of Special Ammunition different from Demon Hunter Bullets." As Old Neil spoke, he took a brass cartridge case from his robe pocket. In the flickering Gas Lamp light, Angel saw that it was the Storm Convergence she had used yesterday.

"Very peculiar patterns. Similar to Demon Hunter Bullets, but different in the details."

He stood the cartridge case upright on the table, tucked the slip into his pocket, and took out paper and pen from the side. "Looks like the captain sent you to collect materials to keep making this ammunition?"

Angel nodded. "Yes. I need to hand him eighty bullets like these next week, so I'll need quite a lot of materials. Accounting for the chance of failure, I need at least one hundred and twenty pistol rounds, preferably .45 caliber. I also need three hundred grams of Screaming Grass, one hundred grams of Luminous Lizard scales, two hundred and fifty milliliters of alcohol, at least five hundred milliliters of Etching Fluid—though I can prepare that myself—and finally, fifty grams of Star Crystal."

She had already calculated what she needed on the way over. Taking the success rate and material wastage into account, she had increased her requested amount somewhat. There were still some Auxiliary Materials left in her home's basement, but she intended to claim the costly Main Materials directly. Since she was working for the organization, she could not spend too much of her own money.

Old Neil dipped his Steel Pen in ink. Angel named each item, and he wrote each one down, but when he heard Star Crystal at the end, he paused.

"There are as many bullets as you want, and the Alchemy Room has all the other items. But Star Crystal... that's a Main Material for certain Potions. I'll have to make a trip to the Chanis Gate. Hopefully, there's some left there."

With that, Old Neil rose to his feet, took a key from the drawer, opened the iron door behind him, and walked inside. Soon, the creaking of rusty hinges and the scraping sounds of drawers opening and closing came from within.

When silence returned behind the door, Old Neil emerged carrying several boxes of ammunition and kicked the iron door shut behind him. Seeing this, Angel stepped forward to help, taking the ammunition boxes from him one by one and placing them on the table. Four were paper boxes, while the other two were smaller tin boxes.

"There are one hundred and twenty pistol rounds here." Old Neil pointed to the paper boxes. "And twenty Demon Hunter Bullets." His finger moved toward the tin boxes. "They're all .45 caliber. I'll get the other things from the Alchemy Room. Wait here for a moment."

Angel nodded and opened the boxes to inspect them. The paper boxes contained gleaming brass bullets like the ones she had used before, but they were clearly more finely made and better maintained. She could even smell a hint of grease. Each of the two tin boxes held ten silvery-white bullets engraved with intricate patterns. They looked like silver ammunition, though they might have been some kind of alloy.

After checking the ammunition, her gaze drifted to the yellowed pages nearby. Old Neil had been reading them when she arrived.

She had assumed they were private letters and had not intended to examine them closely, but that single glance left her utterly stunned.

Though the characters were separated one by one, and though they looked like a child's clumsy imitation, she still recognized at once that these square Symbols were the writing of some Asian country—perhaps Chinese, perhaps Japanese. But she could at least be certain that they were absolutely not any script currently used in this world!