Old Neil

As Angel walked out of the room with the contract and authorization slip in hand, Klein Moretti was chatting with Miss Rozanne outside. The girl had been covering her mouth and snickering at something Klein said, but the instant she saw the door open, she coughed awkwardly twice and resumed a deliberately serious expression.

Klein also noticed that Angel had finished speaking with Captain Dunn. He smiled and asked, "All settled?"

Angel smiled and nodded. "Yes, the captain asked you to go in."

"Captain..." Klein froze for a moment. Glancing at the contract tucked under Angel's arm, he instantly understood the meaning behind the title. He extended his right hand to her. "Congratulations. We're colleagues now?"

"Thank you!" Angel readily shook Klein's hand.

Without any further pleasantries, Klein quickly straightened his clothes and hat, knocked lightly on the door twice, and only pushed it open after receiving Dunn's permission.

He was quite polite...

Angel's gaze followed Klein until the closed door blocked him from view. Only then did she turn and hand the authorization slip to Rozanne.

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

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

"You... really joined us too? I never expected that. I thought you'd come to see the captain about some private matter." Her eyes scanned the contents of the slip as she nodded slightly and asked.

"Yes, I've already signed the contract." Angel raised 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 they were inappropriate and hastily added, "I was just thinking that with one more person, our shifts would be easier." She waved the slip in her hand, emphasizing her point.

Seeing Rozanne so excited, Angel could not help laughing. Although Captain Dunn currently seemed to be having her make special bullets, he probably would not assign a team member who had already become a Beyonder to manage the warehouse.

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

Or perhaps they would discover her false identity and reserve her a seat at The Arbitration Tribunal?

The thought immediately dampened Angel's mood. She forced out a smile and replied, "Sorry, but the captain probably won't assign me to clerical work."

"Ah..." The expectation on Rozanne's face instantly turned to disappointment. "I never thought Mr. Moretti would be in clerical work while you're..." Halfway through, she seemed to realize something. Her eyes widened as she looked at Angel in shock. "Could you already be a Beyonder?"

Angel did not hide it. They would likely be colleagues in the future, and these things would have to become known sooner or later. "Yes, I already was one before this. Um, in your terms, an unofficial Beyonder."

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

The girl's hazel eyes shone with the enthusiasm of a fan seeing an idol, full of curiosity as she looked at Angel.

"...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 Rozanne stiffly changed the subject, holding up the slip.

Angel had assumed the basement was entered from the first floor, but Miss Rozanne 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 spiraling stairs. After rounding two corners, the sunlight above completely vanished, replaced by the glow of exquisite gas lamps on both walls, which cast rings of shadows at their feet.

After circling an unknown number of times, they finally left the staircase and entered a long passageway. Angel estimated that she had descended at least ten meters underground.

The passageway was paved with smooth stone slabs, and a lavish number of gas lamps had likewise been installed on both sides. Angel also noticed the holy emblem of the Church of the Evernight Goddess embedded in the walls. Though she had only known the Crimson Moon for a few days, it already brought her a peace that reached deep into her heart.

After passing through the corridor, they reached a crossroads. Rozanne, who was leading the way, introduced the area. "Straight ahead is Chanis Gate. Mr. Frye is on duty today. The left side leads to Saint Selena Cathedral, while the right leads to the materials warehouse we're going to. Mr. Neil is there."

Chanis Gate... was that the place Leonard had intended to take shelter in during Mrs. Sharon's attack? It seemed to store certain important Beyonder Items, important enough to require a Beyonder guarding it at all times. And Angel had not expected Saint Selena Cathedral to connect directly to the Nighthawks' base. As expected of an armed force directly under the Church.

As Angel recalled the cathedral's location, she followed Rozanne right through the crossroads.

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

Angel recalled the Nighthawks Leonard Mitchell had introduced yesterday as though pouring beans from a bamboo tube. She shook her head. "Mr. Mitchell mentioned him, but I haven't met him. Was he originally one of the team's combat personnel as well?"

"Yes. He's also a Beyonder, a Sequence 9 Mystery Pryer. But he's old now, and his health isn't good enough for field work, so he transferred to clerical duties." Rozanne nodded as she explained while walking.

Angel silently noted down the name of the Mystery Pryer Potion. It should be different from the Sleepless Potion of the others and belong to an entirely new pathway.

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

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

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

The narrow room held a set of table and chairs. An elderly man in black robes sat at the table, carefully studying several yellowed pages before him while casually writing something in a notebook beside them. Behind him was another tightly closed iron door.

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

Angel stepped forward and briefly introduced herself, rescuing the careless girl from her predicament. Even so, Rozanne's face was flushed red. She hastily handed the slip to the old man and left.

Holding the slip signed and stamped by the captain, the old man—Old Neil—shifted his gaze from the pages on the table. He squinted at Angel for a while, then grinned. "You're the newcomer who caused such a commotion upstairs last night? And even took down a Sequence 7?"

Unsure what sort of rumors he had heard, Angel could only explain, "I only 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 special kind of ammunition different from Demon Hunter Bullets." As Old Neil spoke, he pulled a brass shell casing from his robe pocket. In the flickering gaslight, Angel saw that it was the Storm Convergence she had used yesterday.

"Very peculiar patterns. They're similar to Demon Hunter Bullets, but the details are different."

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

Angel nodded. "Yes. I need to hand him eighty such bullets next week, so I need quite a lot of materials. Accounting for the chance of failure, I need at least one hundred and twenty pistol bullets, preferably .45 caliber, 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—um, I can prepare that myself—and finally, fifty grams of Star Crystal."

She had already calculated the supplies she needed on the way here. Considering the success rate and material loss, she had increased the amount she requested. There were still Auxiliary Materials left in the basement at home, but she intended to collect all the expensive Main Materials directly. Since she was working for the organization, she could hardly spend too much of her own money.

Old Neil dipped his fountain pen in ink. Angel named each item, and he wrote it down. However, when he heard the final item, Star Crystal, he paused.

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

With that, Old Neil stood up, took a key from the drawer, opened the iron door behind him, and went inside. Soon, the creak of rusty hinges and the scrape 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 one by one and placing them on the table. Four were paper boxes, while two smaller ones were made of tin.

"There are one hundred and twenty pistol bullets here," Old Neil said, pointing at the paper boxes. "And twenty Demon Hunter Bullets." His finger moved toward the tin boxes. "They're all .45 caliber. I need to get the other things from the Alchemy Room, so 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 these were clearly more finely made and better maintained. She could even smell a faint scent of oil. The two tin boxes each held ten silvery-white bullets engraved with intricate patterns. They looked like silver ammunition, though they might have been made from some kind of alloy.

After inspecting the ammunition, her gaze drifted toward the yellowed pages to one side, the pages Old Neil had been reading when she arrived.

She had assumed they were private letters and had not intended to examine them closely, but that single glance made her freeze completely.

Though the characters were separated one by one, though they looked like the clumsy copying of a child, she still recognized those square symbols at once as writing from some Asian country. Perhaps Chinese, or Japanese, but at the very least, she could be certain that this was absolutely not any writing system commonly used in this world!