The Extra's Rise

Chapter 257: Second Mission (3)

"God, he's really crazy, isn't he?" Kali said, leaning back in her chair and lazily stirring her tea. It was a rich, fragrant blend, the kind that was probably meant to be appreciated in silence, but she had never been much for subtlety.

"Just a bit," Jin shrugged, picking up his drink—a chocolate mocha drowned in whipped cream, an abomination of sugar and caffeine. It was the sort of thing that would have given a nutritionist an aneurysm.

Kali raised an eyebrow. "I didn't expect the Prince of the Dead to be drinking something that has more sugar than an entire bakery."

"Sugar is the only pleasure in my life," Jin replied flatly, taking another sip.

Kali shuddered. "Right. That wasn't ominous at all."

Her gaze flickered over him again, and she frowned slightly. "Anyway, I'm surprised you broke through to White-rank." She could sense it easily—his mana had sharpened, his aura denser than before.

"I forced it a little," he admitted, setting his cup down. "But it won't mess up my growth. I'll still reach Integration-rank at the right time."

"Makes sense," Kali mused. Even though she was still stronger, the gap had narrowed. That meant Jin would have a bigger role to play in Arthur's plans, which was… honestly a terrifying thought.

"I can't believe he's making us play babysitter," Jin muttered, his dark eyes landing on the reason they were even here in the first place—a young woman with violet hair, sitting alone at a table near the window.

She was two years older than them but noticeably weaker. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that for some reason, Arthur had decided she was important.

"I don't see what's so special about her," Kali admitted, narrowing her eyes.

Before Jin could reply, she stiffened. Someone was approaching her.

"Look," Jin murmured, voice calm but alert. "A guy's coming closer to her."

Kali turned her head slightly, just enough to get a good look without being obvious. The man was tall, well-built, dressed in casual but practical clothes—the sort that wouldn't stand out in a crowd but had enough flexibility to throw a punch if necessary. A small insignia was stitched onto the sleeve of his jacket.

"Redknot," she muttered.

The man stopped next to Reika's table and leaned in slightly, a smile on his face that was just a little too wide to be friendly.

"Reika," he said smoothly. "We need to talk."

Reika didn't even look up from her tea. "I already said no."

"Come on," the man pressed, still smiling but with less patience now. "You know the guild would be good for you. You've got potential."

Reika sighed and finally glanced at him, expression bored. "If I had potential, you wouldn't be trying this hard."

Jin chuckled under his breath. Not bad.

The man's smile twitched. He was still trying to play nice, but there was a tightness in his shoulders now, a flicker of irritation in his eyes. "You don't want to make this difficult," he said, voice lowering just slightly. "We're giving you an opportunity."

"And I'm giving you an answer," Reika shot back. "No."

For a second, there was silence. Then, the man reached out. Not violently, not yet—just a simple, firm grip on Reika's wrist. The kind of move that could be excused later as just a misunderstanding.

Kali and Jin moved at the same time.

Kali's hand landed on the man's wrist before he could tighten his grip, her nails digging in just enough to be felt. "I really wouldn't do that if I were you," she said, voice light, almost playful.

Jin, meanwhile, just stood up and took a slow sip of his mocha, watching the scene unfold with the vague interest of someone observing a mildly amusing street performance. But beneath the table, hidden by the café's dim lighting, his fingers twitched ever so slightly.

The man didn't notice.

He didn't notice as something slithered through the shadows beneath his feet.

Didn't notice as it coiled, unseen, waiting.

Didn't notice that Jin had just placed one of his summons directly into his shadow.

Kali, however, did. And for the first time in a long time, she shook.

She didn't see the summon—Jin's ability was far too refined for that—but she felt it. The moment it happened, the atmosphere around him shifted, like a door had silently creaked open to something vast and terrible, just beyond the veil of normal perception.

'The Ashbluff Gift…'

It wasn't just powerful. It was unnatural.

'I only felt it because he wanted me to,' Kali thought.

The man, blissfully unaware of his new predicament, jerked his arm away with an annoyed grunt. "Tch. Fine," he muttered. "Not worth the trouble."

He turned and walked off, his irritation clear in the way his steps were just a little too forceful.

Jin sat back down, finally setting his cup on the table.

"That was stupidly easy," Kali muttered under her breath.

And when he did, well—he'd wish he had never walked into this café.

"Thank you for helping me," Reika said, her voice soft but laced with unease. She hesitated, as if debating whether or not to say more, then sighed. "I'm sorry, but that man was a scout from the Redknot Guild. I… I worry that they might come after you now."

Kali snorted, the sound light and almost amused. "Don't worry. A mere Silver-ranked guild won't touch us."

Which was an understatement. Touching an Ashbluff and a Maelkith was the kind of thing that could turn a minor inconvenience into a full-blown war. Even one of the Twelve Diamond-ranked guilds would think twice before trying something that suicidal. Redknot, for all its posturing, wouldn't dare.

Of course, the problem was that Redknot wasn't just Redknot anymore.

Kali's gaze flicked over Reika, watching her carefully. 'I still don't get why Arthur is so insistent about her.'

Dark Yellow-rank. Barely three-star adventurer level. Maybe, maybe, with effort and luck, she could scrape her way up to Silver-rank someday. Useful, sure, but not worth the amount of interest Arthur was throwing her way. Not worth the trouble of personally dealing with a corrupt guild for her sake. Ouroboros needed strong people, but they also needed people who could become strong.

Reika didn't look like one of them.

"Thank you," Reika said again, bowing her head slightly.

"We're from the Ouroboros Guild," Kali said, smiling just enough to be friendly but not enough to be trusted. "You must have met one of our scouts in Avalon, right?"

Reika stiffened, her expression subtly shifting. "Yes…" she said carefully.

Ah. Now she was on guard. Good. She wasn't completely naive.

"We understand you rejected our offer," Kali continued, raising her hands in a disarming gesture. "We're not here to pester you about it. We were just… concerned about Redknot continuously scouting you. We thought it was best to handle it before it becomes a bigger issue."

Reika's fingers curled slightly around the edge of her teacup. "Will this… require me to join your guild?"

Jin's eyes flicked toward her, his grip on his mocha tightening just slightly.

'Smart girl,' Kali thought. That hesitation, the slight tremble in her voice—she was genuinely considering walking away from the protection they were offering just to avoid being tied to a guild she didn't trust. That took guts. Most people, when offered a way out of a dangerous situation, wouldn't think twice before grabbing it.

But Reika did.

"No," Kali said simply, shaking her head. "You have no obligation to us."

Reika exhaled, her shoulders easing ever so slightly.

As their conversation wound down, Kali slipped a business card across the table with the casual ease of someone who had done this a hundred times before. Jin, meanwhile, took a rather less conventional approach—silently embedding one of his summons in Reika's shadow without her so much as twitching in response.

"Nobody will notice, right?" Kali asked, though she already knew the answer.

Jin nodded, finishing off the last of his sugar-laden monstrosity of a drink. "Only if my summon needs to reveal itself, or if someone with a supernatural detection ability gets suspicious. Ascendant-rankers with particularly sharp senses might pick up on it. Ordinary Immortal-rankers will, of course, but they have better things to do than snoop on random café patrons."

"And you can swap places with your shadow whenever you want, yeah?"

"Part of my Gift," Jin confirmed, stretching his fingers idly. "So if something does go wrong, I can be there instantly. The chance of her actually being in danger just dropped significantly."

Kali nodded, satisfied. It was a ridiculous ability—half teleportation, half living nightmare fuel. Every Gift had different layers to it, like some overly complicated magical onion, and the Necromancer's Touch that ran through the Ashbluff family was more like an entire cursed library of abilities stapled together under one banner. No wonder they ruled the Western Continent. People tended to avoid picking fights with those who could rewrite the rules of life and death on a whim.

Now, all that was left was to set the trap.

After all, a good hunter always brings good bait.

And the best bait? The kind that doesn't even realize it's on the hook.