Chapter 24 Silhouettes

It was a dark night—darker than usual.

The moon's light was dimmed and the clouds covered what was left of it. The breeze that blew indicated the coming of a storm.

Within the huge mansion in the dark garden was the well-lit office. The man seated at the owner's side of the desk was busy. Piles of paperwork were before him, and he diligently looked at them—at least the ones he could look at—either signing or writing another draft as a reply to the senders of the letters and documents.

As he began writing a new draft, all the lights suddenly went out. They buzzed and flickered, and then in a few seconds, resumed their brilliant display.

The man looked up, and saw his visitor, already on his seat and smiling comfortably at him.

"So... how did it go?" The man sternly asked the visitor.

"Eliminated... as requested." The cheerful, but shady man answered.

"Good. I hope 'he' didn't give you much trouble." The man asked, narrowing his eyes to show himself more serious.

"Who? Netherlore? Na! He's sly, that one. I never could figure him out." The cheerful man responded.

"No, I mean the other one. The man who saved the Rare Bloodline girl, Knight of Black." The serious-faced man asked.

"Oh, him? Yeah to be honest with you, I avoided him till the end. I had a whole unit of one of our elite assassins go after him though, while I watched from a safe distance, using a Rune scroll." The man spoke, a bit less cheerful than how he started.

"And?" The serious man asked curiously.

"Well, he was what we expected. He swiftly dealt with the assassins just as predicted." The Cheerful man said, then his expression tensing up a bit. "The problem was with what happened afterward."

"Hmmmn?" The serious man mumbled impatiently, hoping the visitor would hurriedly tell his story.

"I planned for the assassins to distract him while the Mages used the special Spell to transport the girl, along with her residence to the agreed location."

"He interfered?" .

"Yes. More than that, even. As soon as the Transport Spell was activated, the rune scroll turned dark and buzzed. The next thing I saw after that was just the man, with the building intact. I couldn't see, or even sense the mages at all. Then the Rune scroll lost transmission entirely and I lost eyes on him." The cheerful visitor said.

"Interesting... sounds like a lot of possibilities, but there's no doubt about it now." The serious man said, half talking to himself.

"About what?" The visitor asked with curiosity.

"That man... he is definitely not a simple one. For him to even have 'HIS' attention."

"H-his attention? You're kidding right?" The visitor said with a fearful smile on his face.

Sweat dripped from his forehead as a very grim image appeared in his mind.

"'HE' contacted me through the usual means... concerning your next mission, and the usual payment for your previous one." The Host quickly chimed in.

"Nice to see the Boss never fails.But never mind that. More importantly, about the Knight of Black. Tell me—" As the visitor was still speaking excitedly, regaining his cheerfulness, he was cut short.

"That's not your business. Here are your orders." The host spoke sternly, passing to him a scroll, tied with a certain red ribbon.

The item looked quite luxurious and special.

"As usual, It can only be opened by you, so take it and verify your acceptance." The man added.

The visitor collected the scroll and as soon as he received it, the ribbon glowed and gradually disappeared—turning into tiny fragments of red light.

He smiled, opening the parchment in his hands, and quickly started to read its contents.

The stern man waited patiently for the visitor to finish with his reading, not paying mind to the pile of work that remained on his desk at the moment.

The cheerful visitor smiled, as he finished reading it.

"I accept!" He said, suddenly causing the parchment to burst in red flames, reducing it to mere particles of dust, disappearing from sight.

The Host sat still, waiting for more words from the visitor, as he always did.

"Looks like you're going to have to tell me more about our mystery Knight after all!" The cheerful visitor declared with a rascally smile.

"You don't mean...?" The host responded, a bit surprised.

"Yes. The next mission... Noir Novo!"

Suddenly lightning struck through the skies and the deafening sounds of thunder followed.

The wind blew more aggressively and the trees, as well as other vegetations and thin structures, shook and danced with the wind. Then the downpour started.

The storm had begun.

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[A/N]

I welcome you all to the second arc. The Magic Institute Saga should be quite the exciting adventure for you all, as you experience the story both from Noir and Ciara's perspectives (Not POVs though. It still remains a Third Person Narration)

Thanks for reading this far. Cheers!