Author notes: This is actually one of the big changes between the first draft and final release version. This interaction between Thomas and the hunters never occurs, and the game Dragon’s Awakening isn’t to be revealed until the next volume. Thomas never receives these tickets, and they also don’t exist!
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*Ding-a-ling*
The bell on the front entrance of Thomas’ Private Investigator Office for the Supernatural and Mundane rang as two visitors entered.
Thomas perked up in excitement thinking that his business was finally gaining popularity as more and more clients were entering his out of the way store, but he became visibly disappointed when it turned out to be the two hunters posing as agents from the Department of Homeland Security.
They were dressed in suits but without ties.
“Welcome, welcome, how can I help you this morning?”
The bald and overly cautious in nature Agent Mason cleared his throat and spoke seriously as he showed an official DHS badge, “Mr. Smith, we are here on official business.”
Thomas had expected them to have dropped their lie after it was all but exposed when they crossed paths breaking into the local police station on the same night. He found them to be still trying to stick to their false identity to be disappointing.
“Enough of the act. It is already established that you are hunters so you have no official business. Just tell me what it is that you want.”
“See, I told you it wouldn’t work,” False Agent Patterson commented with an annoyed and impatient expression. “I want my gladius back. I already know you are the one who stole it.”
“Gladius? I have no clue what you’re talking about~ I do offer services to help look for lost items if you are interested however.”
“Do you wanna fucking fight, huh?! That female monster isn’t here right now, so do you honestly think you can take on both of us at the same time?”
Thomas grinned widely at this as his soul weapon, the obsidian winged spear, materialized in his hand and pointed towards the two hunters.
“You are welcome to try at any time~”
False Agent Mason’s brows creased and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead as his danger senses rang in warning.
“Enough, we are not here to fight you. What my partner here said is not meant to offend, but we do want the weapon back. It cost us a lot of money and has saved us many times. Don’t pretend you don’t have it.”
“Is that all you are here for?”
“Yes.”
“Well that’s disappointing. I thought you were here to employ my services.”
“…”
“Why don’t my two esteemed guests tell me their actual names? I’m sure it will make us much better friends.”
“Scott Adams,” The bald False Agent Mason introduced his real name, resulting in Thomas nodding his head and commenting that he looked like a Scott.
“Sean Brand, and I would like my blade back.”
“Woah, don’t be in such a rush,” Thomas raised his hands and indicated to stop with his open palms before the two, indirectly admitting that he indeed had it. “If you want to get it back, you need to give me something first.”
“What is that?”
“I want to know all the information that you know on the case of the missing boy, Adrian Nikolic, and especially why two hunters have deemed this case to have supernatural causes.”
Scott reached into his jacket and pulled out a couple sheets of paper that had been folded in half long wise to fit into the internal pocket before dropping them onto Thomas’ desk.
Upon seeing this, the detective rose his eyebrows in surprise.
“You are very well prepared, Scott. I can call you Scott, right?”
“It’s fine.”
Thomas opened the sheets of paper and rose his brows in surprise. They were all missing person reports, for both children and adults. The one commonality they had in common was that they were all male.
“Eleven cases in the past ten years, all male, and all either a student or an employee of Laurence Academy of the Gifted. The school reached out with its own connections to have a Third Circle Mage investigate these incidents, but it was found that there was no relation to the school.”
“Interesting~ But if people have been going missing for so long, how come hunters have only shown themselves now?”
“Because the cause is unknown. It could be some sort of monster returning to an old feeding ground, a curse reactivating, or simply a person with an unknown motivation kidnapping them.”
“Well, I will just have to go check out the school and see if I can find anything.”
“We have already done that. There was no ghost activity, no territory markings.”
“What about a curse or a cursed object?”
The two hunters had awkward expressions on their faces, which Thomas understood and waved his hand dismissively.
“Whatever, you hunters should focus not just on the monster side of things, but also curses. They are just as dangerous to people.”
“If we can identify it and how to stop it, we may do so, but it is outside of our specialty and not our responsibility.”
Thomas audibly scoffed at this and rebutted, “Monsters are not your responsibility either, but you target them like mad dogs, don’t you?”
It was less of a question and more of a statement. Hunters were commonly known to be individuals with do or die attitudes and deep seated grudges and or repulsion towards monsters.
“What about my blade?” Unable to suppress himself any longer, Sean demanded in an irritated tone, “I want it back.”
With a large grin growing on his face, Thomas casually replied, “And what are you offering in return?”
At this moment, the bell on the front door rang again as Senna entered in her school uniform. She glared at the two hunters and Sean, who had previously been thoroughly beaten by her, instinctively broke eye contact.
With a light snort, she decided to ignore the three and left to go to her room, placing her school bag away whilst also changing out of her uniform and into something more casual.
Sean Brand let out a long breath of air that he didn’t realize he was holding in his lungs before turning back to Thomas.
“Didn’t we just give you something? Is that not enough?”
“Hmm? But that was just so we could discuss the matter. That seems a bit cheap for a cursed item, don’t you think? So…” Thomas tilted his head to the side and gazed at Scott, previously known as Agent Mason. “You seem well prepared, so what did you intend to exchange? Oh, and don’t try any credit cards under false identities or forged credits.”
Just as he predicted, the hunter had indeed prepared something in exchange for the cursed item. He reached into another pocket inside of his jacket, or possibly the same one, and extracted a pair of white metallic cards with platinum embroidery before dropping them onto the Thomas’ desk.
On the card was a unique QR code along with an invitation in beautiful and flawless cursive writing.
“Invitations for the new virtual reality full dive gear tech and corresponding MMO, Dragon’s Awakening?! This is quite the surprise, considering they were sold out within days and are now impossible to buy.”
“Several months ago, Sean and myself were working a case in Seattle where employees of the developer, DragonByte, were attacked by people possessed by asrai. It was so uncharacteristic for fae to have been the culprits of multiple freak murders that we never expected it until one attacked us itself. Once we finally expelled the asrai from their hosts and killed them, we were given these two invitations as thanks.”
Senna returned at this moment and commented, “Humans are just a dirty stain on this planet, constantly destroying the ecosystems of fae whilst exploiting them for their magical properties. They obviously hate humans, so why would this be surprising?”
She then languished herself on the couch with a block of chocolate and turned on the tv.
Thomas had previously tried to purchase this new full dive equipment and game after the pre order sale went live, but he had been too late and could only feel regret. With these two invitations, all he had to do was scan the QR code with a smartphone and the encrypted message hidden inside of it would take him to a page where he could put in his details to receive a free set of the gear and game as soon as it was released.
Scott sighed and stated, “This was beyond even that. Seattle is currently a hotbed of fae with multiple overworked B Rank heroes permanently stationed there. Last I checked, the number of fae attacks in that city was forty times that of the previously most active zone ten years ago.”
The only current method to acquire an invitation was to be a company employee. He had pursued this in the past, leading him to make multiple failed attempts at being recruited into the company. They never even called him for an interview, just directly responding with rejection letters.
With no other method, he would have traveled to Seattle under the guise of “work” if Senna hadn’t had enough of it by that point and stopped him.
“Very well, I won’t accept this gift!”
“…?”
“Whilst I wouldn’t mind some Dragon’s Awakening invitations, that weapon had a pretty nasty curse attached to it and is too dangerous in the hands of others. You should be thanking me for sealing it away.”
The skin on Sean’s head turned taut as his brows dropped whilst Scott didn’t know what to say. There was indeed a curse on the blade, which meant it also produced a degree of curse energy which made it so useful against supernatural creatures.
These two invitations were something they wouldn’t be able to use due to their lifestyle of constantly being on the road and having no fixed home.
Instead, Scott had been holding onto these to exchange them for something valuable, and while reluctant to use them for reclaiming their own item, there had been no other opportunity to use them and their value was rapidly coming to a deadline that was known as the release date.
Once the game was released, a new sales wave would be unleashed and the existing invitations would no longer hold the same value.
“Is there no way?”
“Nope. If that is all you are here for however, you can shoo now~”
With faces full of reluctance, Scott and Sean turned around and departed through the door.
Thomas then languidly moved from his desk and locked the front door before sitting down on the couch beside Senna.
“The curse is too dangerous for others to use… Since when did you start caring for humans?” Senna asked with some spite in response to Thomas’ earlier remarks on her caring for humans.
“I have always cared, but what does that have to do with anything? The more important issue is how could I possibly give away my new toy!?”
“For someone who doesn’t think twice about killing someone, you say the strangest things.”
“Don’t be so negative, death is not the end. It’s just the beginning of a new journey.”
“So why aren’t I allowed to kill people?”
“It is the action and how it affects you. Killing humans will only make you degenerate further.”
“…”
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