Hesitation

As Angel walked out of Dunn Smith's office, she felt utterly dazed.

Although she had stayed up late the previous night rushing to finish "Storm Convergence" and exhausted all her spirituality, she did not think that was the main reason.

Captain Dunn's probing had made her feel a trace of doubt.

Putting herself in the Nighthawks' position, it would be practically unimaginable for a mysterious independent Beyonder like her to earn their trust in less than two weeks.

Of course, an Assassin who had obtained her Potion from Mrs. Sharon of the Witch Sect, then betrayed Mrs. Sharon and reported her to the Official Extraordinary, had thoroughly offended the Witch Sect and had nowhere else to go. Joining the Nighthawks for self-preservation was perfectly reasonable.

But looking at it the other way, what if this was the Witch Sect's scheme? A scheme to drive a wedge into the Church of the Night Goddess?

That said, sacrificing a Sequence 6 powerhouse for such a scheme seemed far too costly...

But the key was how the Nighthawks—the Church of the Night Goddess—viewed this matter.

Thoughts churned through her mind as Angel drifted into the reception room. Rosanne was off duty today, and Brett had taken her place at the reception desk. Unlike Miss Rosanne, who liked to brew a pot of coffee and read the newspaper, Brett was the sort of person who could never sit still. Whenever he was on duty, he diligently cleaned the reception room until it was spotless. He also spoke more formally to the other Nighthawks. Compared to a clerical worker for the Nighthawks, he seemed more like a butler.

"Good morning, Miss Granger. Fine weather today."

Seeing Angel emerge from behind the partition, he set down his broom and greeted her with a smile.

"Today's newspaper is on the tea table. The coffee will take a little while longer."

"Good morning, Mr. Brett."

Angel returned the greeting to the middle-aged man with the thick beard, her gaze sweeping over the reception room. There was no one else there.

"Mr. Klein Moretti is off duty today." Brett assumed he had guessed whom Angel was looking for and spoke first.

"No... I wasn't..."

Angel shook her head, then gave a self-mocking smile. Her routine over the past few days had been rather fixed—every morning, she went to the shooting club with Klein to practice. Had that made the others misunderstand something?

"The captain is in his office, so I imagine you already know that. Mrs. Orianna has gone to the bank and will not return until noon." Seeing Angel deny it, Brett listed the whereabouts of the others one by one. "Cornley and Fry have gone to patrol the Western District. Miss Luo Yao is on duty at Chanis Gate today. Mr. Neil is still in the usual place."

"Thank you. I understand."

What exactly she "understood," even Angel herself did not know. Her mind was weighed down with worries, and she had answered only out of habit.

By the time she came back to her senses, she had already returned behind the partition and followed the corridor to the room at its end. There was only a staircase leading down to the basement. The morning sun rose outside the window, pouring in and dyeing the room golden.

Since she was already here, she simply headed down the stairs to the basement, intending to collect training ammunition from Old Neil. This had practically become part of her daily routine.

The gas lamps in the underground passage burned day and night, casting their light in every direction. Their flickering flames made the Goddess of the Night Holy Emblem on the walls seem to sway as though it had come alive. Angel walked forward slowly. In the silent passage, only the echo of her own footsteps remained.

How many times had she come to the basement now?

She recalled the first time Rosanne had brought her down here. She had gone to find Old Neil in the armory then as well. In only a week, had she really become this familiar with Blackthorn Security Company?

Dunn Smith's deep voice still echoed in her ears. "Are you willing to officially join the Tingen City Nighthawks Squad?"

Yes... was she willing?

She had considered this question on the night she killed Mrs. Sharon, when Dunn first invited her. But her experiences as an unofficial member during this period had given her some new thoughts.

When she reached the crossroads in the underground passage, Angel did not turn right toward the armory. Instead, she stopped at the intersection.

Using the dim corridor leading to Chanis Gate as a backdrop, she sketched a simple table in her mind. On the left were the disadvantages of officially joining the Nighthawks, and on the right were the advantages, separated by a dotted line. This was her usual way of thinking through difficult problems. It would have been better to write it down on paper, but she had neither pen nor paper at hand, so Angel did it in her mind.

First, loss of freedom. She wrote the first entry in the left column.

According to Dunn Smith, official Nighthawks members could not leave Tingen City without permission. In other words, they could only operate within their own jurisdiction. Obtaining approval would surely be difficult as well, and she would have to spend most of her time in this fixed area.

It was not only freedom of movement, but freedom of time and mind as well. Unless one grew old like Old Neil, losing most of one's combat ability and becoming a clerical member, official Nighthawks could practically be considered lifelong positions. Unlike clerical members like Rosanne, there was no turning back once one joined.

Otherwise, it would be "desertion."

Then came "supervision." She wrote down the second entry.

Although she could already sense Dunn Smith's wariness toward her, perhaps it was merely habitual behavior. At the very least, aside from a few looks and probing remarks, Dunn had acted like a captain looking forward to a new member joining.

But after becoming an official member, she might face the scrutiny and supervision of the entire Church of the Night Goddess, including the mysterious Holy Cathedral. Could her crudely fabricated identity truly withstand the Church's painstaking investigation?

She did not believe that the Church's Beyonder force, the Nighthawks, was an organization that was strict in entry but lax in departure. Whether to prevent Beyonders from going Out of Control or to stop members from deserting, internal scrutiny and supervision would only become stricter after joining.

If anything unusual was discovered after she became an official member, the consequences awaiting her would not be as simple as dismissal.

Angel recalled the Church's internal Wanted Notice she had seen a few days ago. A Bishop who had deserted three years ago had even taken an important Sealed Artifact from the Church. His name seemed to be something like Zanger?

But he had been a high-ranking Bishop. A small fry like her would probably be dealt with on the spot. She would not even qualify to appear on the Church's Wanted Notice.

Putting an end to her wandering thoughts, Angel added the third entry to the table in her mind: danger.

This was something Dunn Smith had explicitly mentioned. As an official Nighthawks member—and an expert in close combat like an Assassin—she would inevitably have to take part in fighting Beyonder criminals and handling all kinds of mystical incidents. She would likely be on the front line.

The risk was obvious. Ordinary criminal cases would be handled by the Tingen City Police Department. Only serious cases or those involving Beyonder factors would be handed over to Church forces such as the Nighthawks. In other words, the low-difficulty tasks had already been filtered out, and what she would face would all be difficult, dangerous assignments. And any case involving Beyonders would involve at least Sequence 9—the level she was currently at.

Thinking of the Sequence 9 Assassin she had encountered during last week's "ordinary commission," she realized that if she officially joined the Nighthawks, she would likely often encounter opponents like that, or even Sequence 6 powerhouses like Mrs. Sharon. Several Nighthawks would have to fight together for a chance at victory.

If she made a mistake, she was no tougher than an ordinary person. One bullet or one dagger could end her life in an instant.

Dunn, Leonard, and the others might go to and from work every day like civil servants, but Angel had learned from Rosanne that among the Official Extraordinary of the Three Great Churches in Tingen City alone, people were sacrificed or went Out of Control almost every year. Rosanne's father, an official Nighthawk, had died in the line of duty five years ago.

Considering that the Nighthawks had only six official members in Tingen City, and that the Punishers and Heart of Machinery had roughly the same number, this mortality rate was already staggering.

Ah, right. There was also going Out of Control...

Angel added another note to the left side of the table.

This was not a risk unique to joining the Nighthawks. Any Beyonder could go Out of Control at any time—while consuming a Potion to advance, during an ordinary battle, or even after accidentally coming into contact with a mystical item or suffering some stimulus. They could become Monsters with dead minds and collapsing bodies.

According to Dunn Smith, a quarter of the Beyonder incidents handled in Tingen City each year involved Beyonders going Out of Control.

After thinking it over, Angel still crossed out that entry. Even if she did not officially join the Nighthawks, the possibility of going Out of Control would remain with her as a Beyonder. It would not be fair to count it as a risk of joining the Nighthawks.

Cole Granger, Angel's "former self," had died from going Out of Control while consuming the Sequence 7 Witch Potion. Unlike the horrifying scenes of loss of control recorded within the Nighthawks, she had merely expelled part of her characteristics and returned to being a Sequence 9 Assassin instead of becoming a corpse. That was already a miracle.

Thinking of her Potion sequence, Angel wrote down the final entry in the table: "Restrictions on improving her strength."

The Church of the Night Goddess controlled a complete Potion pathway from Sequence 9 to Sequence 1, beginning with Sleepless—the Potion pathway Dunn Smith, Leonard Mitchell, and the others followed. The reason most Nighthawks chose this sequence was simple: as long as they completed their tasks step by step and contributed to the Church, they would not need to worry about subsequent Potions.

The Church also possessed some incomplete sequences, such as Fry's Corpse Collector and Klein's Diviner, but it did not possess the subsequent Potion Formulas for the Assassin pathway. As for her, already a Beyonder, consuming a Potion from any other sequence, regardless of which Sequence it was, would inevitably lead to going Out of Control. It was practically a dead end.

Of course, because she had inherited Cole Granger's memories, she already knew the Potion Formulas for Sequence 8 Instigator and Sequence 7 Witch. Once the timing was right and she had fully mastered and digested the Assassin Potion's power, she could consider advancing.

But the prerequisite for all that was how she would explain where she had obtained the subsequent Potion Formulas.

If she were an independent Beyonder all alone, she could patiently gather Potion ingredients and advance when the time was right. But once she joined the Nighthawks, her teammates, who spent every day with her, would not fail to notice changes in her strength. She would either have to remain at Sequence 9 forever or continue advancing while risking exposure. Neither was a low-risk choice.

Looking at the row of disadvantages of joining the Nighthawks on the left side of the "table," Angel almost wanted to return to Dunn Smith's office immediately and refuse him.

She should keep looking at the advantages...

Suppressing the impulse, Angel turned her attention to the right side.