Biscuit with the Ponytail Arrives as Promised

Gelman watched a charred hand reach out from the raging sea of fire. Only after he could no longer sense the presence of the leeches and the Earthworm did he turn his gaze to the updated projection of the Hunter Badge.

Physique: 28→30
Energy: 20→21
Stress: 62→65
Items: Sleeve Blade of the Wriggling Leech (New)

"Are you done?"

At that moment, a head poked out from the hole in the ceiling. The large eyes behind a pair of black-rimmed glasses observed for a moment, and only after confirming that Gelman's battle had ended did she continue to speak.

"Gelman, do you need me to pull you up?"

Gelman shook his head and replied, "No need, I can jump up myself..."

However, Shizuku didn't wait to hear the rest. She wiped a bead of blood from her forehead with the back of her hand, retracted her head, and made the decision on her own.

Her question had truly been just a question.

Then, she lowered Blinky down. The large, pink tongue dangled like a rope.

"Hurry, I'll pull you up."

Gelman had no choice but to walk directly beneath Blinky, jump lightly, and grab onto the rough, slightly barbed tongue with his fingers.

"Alright, pull me up."

Shizuku exerted force with both hands, as if she had hooked a large fish with Blinky, and reeled Gelman up from the floor below to the room above—Gelman's original room.

Gelman steadied himself, let go of Blinky, and looked around.

Owl lay on the floor, his head bearing the clear, crushed marks of Shizuku's finishing blow; there was no way he could still be alive after being smashed like that.

"Shizuku, were there any other enemies who broke into your room?" Gelman asked to confirm. "Did you finish him off, or did he get away?"

"You mean that strange guy with a pair of wings? I was reading in the living room just now when he suddenly flew in and greeted me..."

Gelman raised his palm, interrupting her. "No need for the details. What was the result?"

"He died." Shizuku adjusted her glasses, and Blinky vanished from her hand. "He wasn't very strong."

Gelman nodded. He heard the sound of more and more footsteps surging into the corridor outside the room, and shouts of "Put out the fire!" rising from downstairs, so he pointed toward the windowsill.

"Let's leave this place first."

"Aren't you going to wait for your friends?" Shizuku asked, looking puzzled.

"We need a quiet place. More people will be swarming here soon." Gelman took out his phone, drafted a new text message, and sent it to Biscuit. "Meeting point changed again."

"Do we need to leave Saba City this time?" Shizuku asked this because they had previously moved from Yorknew City to Saba City; it wouldn't be strange to move to yet another city.

"That won't be necessary." Gelman pointed at Owl's corpse. "Our warning should be clear enough by now. If they continue to bother us, they should consider the fate of these six Shadow Beasts."

Shizuku rubbed her chin, nodded, and said, "Indeed. The Mafia will surely understand our reminder and make a wise decision."

A minute later, a group of people flooded into Gelman's room, consisting of both anxious hotel staff and onlookers curious to see the commotion.

However, after scanning the room, they realized there were no living people left—only a mangled corpse. The balcony's floor-to-ceiling window was open, and the sea breeze billowed the curtains.

The time was eight o'clock in the evening.

Jelba Port was the other port in Saba City besides Dore Port. The seawater was as black as ink in the night, with bright, shimmering waves visible only in the areas illuminated by the lighthouse's dual beams.

Gelman sat at the stern of a dilapidated fishing boat he had bought on a whim. He held a box of crackers with the packaging torn open, popping them into his mouth one by one, his dark eyes fixed on the direction of the port.

Nearby fishermen, vendors, sailors, and tourists had all left one after another, or simply crawled into their own boats to rest. The surroundings were deathly silent, as if a funeral had just taken place.

The chaos at the Dore Port Hotel seemed not to have reached Jelba Port on the other side of the city. Or perhaps, people had simply grown accustomed to the violent crimes that occurred in the city every single day and night.

The deaths of a mere four people—if one wasn't involved—would only elicit a mental sigh of, "The city's security is getting worse by the day; the police are truly a bunch of tax-thieving parasites," before being tossed to the back of their minds.

Gelman was just about to finish the crackers in the plastic packaging when he saw a petite, familiar silhouette emerge from the shadows.

This time, she no longer wore her hair in twin tails, having switched to an equally cute single ponytail. She held the hem of her wine-red princess skirt with both hands, tapped her toes, and leaped lightly onto the fishing boat.

"You and your companion really have no intention of letting things rest, do you?"

Biscuit put her hands on her hips and laughed. "The news of six Shadow Beasts dying in a row has already blown up on the Dark Web."

"If they possessed any significant strength, I would have already been dead back in Yorknew City."

Gelman handed the last cracker to Biscuit.

"As professional killers and bodyguards, if you misjudge the opponent's ability, you have to pay the price. I don't think they should be unaware of that principle."

Biscuit took the cracker, pretended to be a lady as she took a small bite in front of Gelman, and nodded while chewing gently.

"Losing six out of ten Shadow Beasts at once is a huge, heavy blow to the Ten Dons. To the point that, even if it means losing face, they have withdrawn the bounty on you."

Gelman led Biscuit toward the fishing boat's cabin. Gelman had to stoop to enter, while Biscuit was able to walk in with her back straight.

"If they still insist on being stubborn and pestering me, I don't mind taking care of the remaining four Shadow Beasts as well... Sit wherever you like. I'm going to the cockpit."

"I'm coming too."

Gelman walked toward the cockpit, but Biscuit had no intention of waiting in the cabin. Instead, she followed behind him at a leisurely pace.

"The probability of that is very low. I believe they have learned their lesson well. The two most likely things they will do now are to replenish the members of the Shadow Beasts and hire professionals."

Biscuit had finished her crunchy biscuit while Gelman wasn't looking, and she even took out a small square handkerchief to wipe the corners of her mouth, maintaining her perfect young girl image.

She tilted her head slightly and saw a young woman with short black hair and glasses standing at the helm; she must be the "companion" Gelman had mentioned earlier.

A hint of jealousy couldn't help but rise in Biscuit's heart—jealousy over "youth," "beauty," and a "good figure"—but that was as far as it went.

Gelman patted Shizuku on the shoulder. She turned to look at him, her eyes filled with a sense of bewilderment and innocence—emotions that shouldn't exist in the eyes of someone from Meteor City.

"Are you really capable of steering a fishing boat?" Gelman confirmed once more. "I'm handing it over to you; there won't be any problems, right?"

"Of course." Shizuku nodded expressionlessly. "I've steered one once before, and I just spent five minutes reading the Crew Manual."

"Then I'll leave the steering to you. Take it out to the open sea."

Shizuku adjusted the glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose and said, "No problem."

Listening to their conversation, Biscuit couldn't help but mutter to herself.

"Steered once before," "spent five minutes reading the Crew Manual"—these things sounded far from reliable.

Is it really going to be okay?

One of them was daring enough to answer, and the other was daring enough to believe it. If the boat capsized in the open sea, there might not be anyone around to rescue them in time.

If her lifelong reputation were to end by drowning in the seawater, she wondered how Master Netero would mock her.

Under Biscuit's watchful gaze, Shizuku began to operate the fishing boat's controls and helm with some clumsiness.

After the entire boat let out a rumbling sound, as if it were about to fall apart, the fishing boat slowly crawled out of the harbor and disappeared into the darkness beyond the reach of the lighthouse.