Fatal
Chapter 1: The Encounter
When I first came to the Sanctuary to see the Pope as the Lacerta Silver Saint, I was surprised to be assigned to work part time at the finance office. I scratched my head but told myself I had pledged to serve the Sanctuary in whatever order that was required from me. As days went by, I found that the goddess's territory functioned just like a business and much of the saints' time were spent on running the day-to-day functions rather than being sent out to save the world (or destroy the world if that was the order from the Pope's Temple). On an ordinary day, I would spend the morning in the training grounds supervising trainees training and after the lunch break I would work in the finance office. After I worked at the office for a while, I had the chance to meet many saints and others in the Sanctuary when they came to the office to submit their expense reports (travel expenses reimbursement forms of saints who were sent outside the Sanctuary on missions). Most of the time, it was a pleasant thing to know and sometimes befriend with different ranks of people.
One day I was looking for some information in a pile of invoices when Dante called me.
"Misty, can you cover me for ten minutes? I need to talk to the purchasing department about this purchase order."
"Sure." I gathered the invoices and went to sit at the front service desk. Shortly after I sat down, I heard a cold voice.
"Are you the one taking the expense report today?"
"Yes." I raised my head and saw the man standing in front of me. He had spiky dark blue hair and was wearing a sleeveless shirt with tight jeans. "You can leave the report with me." There was something about this man that made me uncomfortable. I got the expense report he handed over and quickly checked the reimbursement items against the receipts attached. He was well built and looked pretty handsome but he gave me a strange feeling. I finished checking the receipts and found a 305 Euros expense item without receipt.
"Please wait a second." I spoke up, "There was an expense item on your report that doesn't have the receipt."
The man stopped on his way walking to the office door and slightly turned his face but still with his back to me: "Excuse me?"
"There's a travel expense item in the amount of 305 Euros that doesn't have the receipt attached." I said.
"If it's not there, then I lost it." He said.
"But it's over 100 Euros and it's required to have a receipt for reimbursement." I explained, "If the receipt is lost, we can't…."
"Deathmask Sama," Dante's voice cut me off; he just came back to the office. He slightly bowed to the man, "we'll take care of the expenses."
"Very well." The man started walking to the door again.
I looked at Dante: "Dante, but the amount…."
"It's all right." Dante cut me off again. I didn't understand why he acted this way because he was the one that always followed the rules and requirements without exceptions.
"What is your name?" The blue haired man suddenly asked and we noticed that he had turned to face us.
"Deathmask Sama, he's new…." Dante said.
"I wasn't asking you." The man threw a look at Dante, who stopped talking and looked at me worriedly.
When Dante said his name for the second time, it started to sound familiar to me but before I could spend more time searching this name in my memory, the man spoke again. This time his voice was colder.
"I'm not hearing an answer."
"Misty." I answered, "Lacerta Misty." When I finished saying my name, I realized how quiet the office was. People were all looking at us but no one spoke any words.
"Deathmask." He introduced himself and seemed to match the way I introduced myself, "Cancer Deathmask."
I suddenly remembered who he was. He was the most heartless assassin in the Sanctuary – the Cancer gold saint. In fact, he was not only an assassin but was actually a crazy serial killer because he would kill whenever he felt like it. The number of people he had killed was countless and half were probably killed just because they were in his way or he didn't like the way they looked at him.
My facial expression must have changed as I recalled what I heard of the Cancer saint because Deathmask's lips curved up and formed a cruel angle.
"So now," He slowly spoke, "what do you need from me?"
I felt my heart pounding in my chest and I became aware of why the man made me feel uncomfortable the first moment I laid my eyes on him. His whole presence seemed to emit waves of death. I had never seen someone like this.
Deathmask's eyes were like needles pinning on my face. He enjoyed seeing me struggling. My colleagues were watching me – both my peer silver saints and my subordinate bronze saints. Everyone was watching to see what I would do next. I knew I could not back off now even if that meant to cost my life, otherwise I would never be able to stand straight again in the Sanctuary.
I took a breath and said: "Receipts are needed for all expenses over 100 Euros."
If I had ever said something that aroused such radical responses from others in my whole life, it would be this sentence. Dante closed his eyes for a second and reopened them again. I heard someone sighed. It was still quiet in the office but I felt the shocks from others in the air. I always knew I would die fighting someday but fate played a little joke on me today; instead of dying fighting against specters of Hades, I would be fighting against an Athena's saint.
Deathmask's eyes narrowed when he heard me and I stared at him in the eyes. I did not know how long I stared at him. My eyes started to get dry from not blinking at all. The silence in the office had formed a type of pressure and I felt a little difficult to breath. I started to wish that someone would make some kind of sound because the silence was weakening my will as each second passed.
All of sudden, Deathmask chuckled: "If I you dare to talk to me like this again, I will kill you." There was a strange look in his eyes. Then he just turned around and walked out.
I blinked my eyes and my eye lids were tired. Dante petted me on the shoulder and said something about me being lucky today. I stayed in the office till closing time but my mind was off from work. What did he mean by saying if I talked to him like this again, he would kill me? What about this time? Is today's thing really over? If Deathmask was so easy to forgive people, then he wouldn't have his reputation and the name Deathmask.
"Misty," Dante called me when we were about to leave for the day. There was hesitation in his voice: "Maybe I should not say this, but it may be a good thing if you try to avoid Deathmask for a while."
I smiled a little: "When did you start to become so diplomatic with me?"
"Don't take it as a shame. No one will look down upon you if you act a little humble in front of Deathmask." He sighed, "It doesn't worth it, especially when it will be considered fighting over personal conflicts."
I smiled at him: "I know. Thank you for the advice."
He smiled too feeling glad that I did not take his words wrong: "Then have a good night."
