Phase 8: Zoldyck Matters

"Excuse me, room service." The soft and calm voice penetrated through the thick door of the hotel room. Anyone on the other side of the room was sure to hear it but during that time, no one came to answer the call. "Excuse me, room service," the nice hotel staff said once more but this time, she offered it together with several knocks on the door.

In spite of her dedicated efforts to be noticed, no reply came from inside the room. She waited a few minutes more and it was when she sighted an engraved mark on the elegant wooden door of the room, she suspected that someone might have pushed or opened the door in an offensive way. Well, someone did kick it earlier. But she just shrugged it off and assumed that the current occupant of the room is either sleeping, taking a bath or doesn't want to be bothered.

When she was about to leave, she felt the floor beneath her become a bit slippery and in order to satisfy the demands of her curiosity, she tried to find out the reason why. And that's what she almost regretted doing. Her eyes trailed along the small gap under the door of the room. There, she saw thick, scarlet liquid oozing out and coming from inside. She wasn't sure of what she saw but her heart pounded faster and heavier, she gave it a closer look. Confirmed. It was blood. No doubt about it.

First, the shocked lady panicked internally, not knowing what to say or do in surprise. The sudden fright she experienced might have prevented her from reacting right away after her unbelievable realization. Her breath grew heavier and heavier as each second passed, cold sweat streamed down from her forehead and later on a loud, terrified shriek filled in the air. The horrified lady ran as fast as she could downstairs and perfectly ruined the relaxing tune of the hotel's background music while she revealed the current situation at hand on the 4th floor of the building to the other employees.

Numerous footsteps soon scrammed towards the area of the reported incident. A couple of male hotel employees bulged and opened the room. They were astonished with what their eyes caught as they barged in the room. A reasonable amount of blood spread and clotted on the exquisite carpet of the room. It was more than what they could even imagine and finally, all of them noticed the uncanny scenery within the vicinity.

A couple of hours before the incident, during Illumi's search for Lacroix…

"I will make you regret your refusal to cooperate!"

The furious scream of the lady resonated throughout the eerie ambiance of the night. Illumi heard her words clearly as he carefully increased the distance between both of them. He erased his trace to escape, making sure that he won't be detected as he went on his way to pursue his own interest.

"What an annoying woman," he muffled to himself. "I would have had some fun killing her though."

Once he was out, he ascended himself on top of the abandoned building and waited there for several minutes, inquisitive of what the woman will do after he left. A little later, he saw Amaranth running in a hurry but he, too, detected a foul stench of aura from her.

"Looks like she's about to go out of control," he said, observing.

The expressionless guy started to get curious about the lady. She was somehow different from his previous adversaries. Well, at least, he considered her as one of the leads to find his real target. So, he concluded that she was to be benefited from, in order to finish his current mission and at the same time, satisfy the questions in his head about her.

Should I follow her, and then kill her? Or should I kill her now?

He thought to himself for a couple of minutes, but was interrupted by an incoming phone call.

"Yo," he greeted in his signature way of speaking as he placed the mobile device next to his ears. "Is there something wrong?"

"Are you done with your current mission?" A strong, lucid tone replied. "Your mother told me that she gave you something to do just to keep you occupied for the mean time."

Illumi recognized the voice on the other line. It was Silva, his father. "Yes, you are right but I am not yet done with it. There's no need to ask anyone else in our family to help out. I'll be done with it sooner," he said with complete confidence.

"Good," he approved. "In that case, I've got to ask you to do something crucial. This is more of a favor," his father said right after giving praise to him.

The expressionless guy accepted it without complains, "What is it then?"

Silva paused for a couple of seconds before speaking. He doubted himself about asking Illumi whether to do it or not. But in the end, he managed to utter his request to his son, "I need you to go after someone."

That's too simple. He concluded at the back of his head."Describe," he firmly said as a sign of acceptance.

"Female. Silver hair. That's all I can say. Even my own client here doesn't really know well how she looks like at the present time."

After hearing the description, he already had an idea of who he's going after. "Alright. No problem."

"Don't fail, Illumi. Consider this a task different from the others you've handled before," Silva uttered with the deepest concern.

"Understood. I will definitely kill her as soon as I see her." He felt his accomplishment right away.

But much to his surprise, his father replied with a bothersome statement, "You're not going to kill her."

"What?" Despite being caught up in surprise, his tone remained at ease.

"You're not going to kill her," his father's words didn't change. "Whoever that is, all you need to do is to go after her, watch her actions. Observe. Nothing more. We need that person alive, well at least, my client does."

"This is against our family business."

"I know, I know…" Silva knew that his eldest son would react this way so he tried his best to convince him. "But this is for our family as well. Trust my words Illumi."

"Hmmm…"

"Can you do it? Can I trust you with this matter?" his father inquired.

"OK. I'll try not to kill that woman," he declared while doubting himself if he could control his bloodlust later on.

"Try not to?" He sure wasn't pleased with the way his son answered.

"Alright, I won't kill her," Illumi finally said, he didn't want to disappoint his father after all.

"I'll remember your words well." Their conversation ended with his father's acknowledgement. Illumi slid the phone back in his pocket and pondered about the weird conception running about.

This is odd.

He sure was puzzled with the sudden turn of events. Accepting the new task was against his will but he had to comply with his father's request. Illumi looked around, seeking for the silver-haired maiden but unfortunately, she was gone. There and then, he began his quest as he skipped from one building to another, now, looking for his two targets.

On the other hand… At the Zoldyck's residence…

Silva disconnected his call with Illumi, hoping that his son would be true to his words. He placed his mobile device on the table next to him and rested his elbows on the surface while situating his knuckles under his chin.

"So you asked your eldest son to go after my lady?" A man, about the same height and age as the Zoldyck's patriarch, talked while comfortably seated at the guest room of the infamous assassin family, his fingers held tobacco in between. The man dressed himself with a long coat and elegant ruffles puffed out of his collar. His face appeared calm and relaxed despite his thick and high-arching eyebrows. He possessed raven hair which extended down past his shoulders. In addition, he was wearing a monocle on his left eye.

"Yes, it would be best if he's the one who would deal with her," Silva uttered with assertion.

"I thought of the same. Indeed, great minds think alike." The man laughed with poise, maintaining his aristocratic composure. "That's the best way to deal with this matter, I firmly believe that."

"Honestly, our family is only engaged in assassination missions. But as for you, I'd be glad to make an exemption, Mister L'Estrange."

"I am most relieved to hear those words coming from you. But, there's no need of being too formal. I know that we haven't seen each other for a long time already but we've known each other for more than a decade, together, in this kind of business." L'Estrange puffed out smoke and stretched out his lips to form a smile. "You can just address me by my first name."

"As you wish, Abel." Silva let go off of the formalities, he continued talking in a less conventional way which he was more comfortable at. "But are you really sure that woman is still alive?"

"Yes, I certainly am. We never got any news of her death and it makes me more worried. My instincts tell me that she's still out there on her own, freely roaming around in this vast world."

"You never change, visionary as usual. I do hope you're instincts are correct. That woman was always on the loose ever since." He looked straight into the icy blue eyes of Abel. "I don't like wasting our family's precious time and efforts."

"Aye. I know that by heart." He lifted his weight and stood up. "Fare-thee-well, Silva. I still have some personal business to take care of. Inform me about this matter whenever necessary."

"Alright. Farewell," Silva said in return.

The man named Abel L'Estrange bid goodbye as he commanded his feet to venture the path leading out of the Zoldyck's residence.

Going back to the present…

"Hey! Cookies! Are you alright?!"

"Uh… What the… hell…?" She instantly regained her vision and consciousness before he could've slapped her cheeks to wake her up. The surroundings were now different; she wasn't in the same room as before, that, she realized. She saw her superior sitting on the chair next to her bed. "Where am I?"

"You're still in the hotel but this is a different room," Dalzollene explained. "I thought you were going to die."

"Die?! What?!" she asked furiously despite her unstable condition. "What… exactly happened?!"

"Well, you see…"

Her eyebrows furrowed in dismay, "No I don't see anything. At all." She pointlessly answered for she expected that Dalzollene was not going to tell her right away what she wanted to know but now, Amaranth knew that she was somehow relieved from her awful state earlier.

He released a sigh in response to her attitude. "You've been unconscious for an hour."

"Where is he?!" The tone of her voice became more demanding than usual. Her eyes were fixed on her superior as she tried to persuade him to speak up. "Tell me now!"

"All I'm sure about is that you got knocked out by that someone you're talking about," he speculated. "You have lost a reasonable amount of blood but the doctor said you're lucky to have received a shallow wound and you'll be able to recover soon," he said, fixing his eyes on her while saying the truth.

"That's not exactly what I wanted to know."

"Sorry but… That's all I know."

"Haven't you got any leads about him?" She saw his superior tilt his head a little, making her realize his uncertainty. Despite that, she insisted to ask. "Tall. Long hair. Scary eyes. Needles and pins. Silent type. Don't any of those ring a bell?"

His face slumped in curiosity, thinking that she just said a bunch of random things. "No idea. I don't even know anything else about him other than the fact that you badly want to get your hands on him."

"I see…" she replied hopelessly. "So… What about boss and his… uhh… ugly guest?" She suddenly remembered.

His face gave an expression of reassurance, "They're both fine, there's actually nothing to worry about at the moment. Our boss, as usual, is busy with his own private matters. As for Lacroix, he said that he'll be leaving York Shin in the next couple of days."

"That's good news! Then I won't be doing anything for days, right?"

"Yes. Unless urgency gets in the way but let's hope not. You're not in a good condition to help out." He said, seriously. "Anyway… You can rest here for a given period of time. We won't be suspending you from your job despite what happened. And to top it all, I wish to apologize for not trusting you."

"Hah. Don't worry about it, but I must admit that it made me a little upset," she bit her lip as she said expressed the bitterness she felt before. "Nevertheless… Things like that make my life more exciting, so I have to thank you for that."

"Is that so?" He doesn't seem to understand her way of thinking but he just shrugged it off and continued. "Anyway, as compensation for all the trouble you went through, boss would like to give you an advance payment." A certain amount of cash was handed to her by Dalzollene, making the lady bolt out of the blue in surprise.

"Woah! Wicked sick! This much?! I wasn't asking for any… Yet…"

"Just take it and try to recover sooner." His superior cut her reasoning as he stood up from his seat. "I'll be leaving you now."

"I'll be able to, I am not some sort of a weak moron, you know? And yeah, off you go sir. Have a nice journey outside." Amaranth waved at her superior like a child while Dalzollene approached the door. "Hey, wait!" she cried. "Let me tell you something first, my name is not Cookies. You'd better ask our boss if you want to know my real name," she teased.

"Right." A soft creak created by the door followed after his last words came to her.

"Lucky to have a boss who's kind," she said to herself. As the door stayed open, a timid-looking hotel staff was left standing on the entrance of her new room, waiting to be noticed. "And… Who are you?" she asked.

"I was ordered to–"

"Hey! You've got some food! Come in!" She already knew what was in store for her. Her eyes feasted on the mouthwatering gourmet brought by the hotel employee. "Splendid! Can I have more of that?" The silver-haired lady pointed her slender finger on the soup.

"A nice looking lady with an appetite of a bear," the hotel staff whispered as he entered her room and served her late dinner.

"What did you say?!"

"N-Nothing," the hotel staff wasn't prepared to argue with her. "I-I'm leaving. Enjoy your meal."

"Good, the door is always open for you to leave. I don't like it when someone's watching when I am about to eat." With that, the hotel staff made his way through and shut the door.

Amaranth chuckled at the nervous expression of the hotel staff but right after she was left alone in the room, she suddenly recalled everything that happened earlier. She heaved a disappointed sigh. "He didn't kill me. Why? I don't understand." The new confusion made her lose her desire to fill up her stomach. "Well, back to my reality." She rested her back on the bed while talking to herself, ignoring the food she was given. "Ugh. I don't feel so comfortable in this state. I need to go out and stretch some muscles but this damn injury wouldn't let me move at my best," she groaned. "Oh well…"

Amaranth slowly closed her eyes, letting in darkness as she rested her body and mind.

Author's Note:

I had to insert another OC here (will do the same on the future chapters), pardon me but I have to. Anyway, I'm sorry for the late update (specially to Razorblade Mistress). I apologize for making you guys wait for quite a long time. I couldn't squeeze my schedule and find time to read and write fanfics but I do hope you'll continue enjoying this~ ^^