After tailing the baronet and his sister from above for a while, Nagisa and Akari decided to get a bit closer. The siblings were starting to walk into small alleyways and making a lot of unnecessary turns as if they were afraid of being followed.

"Hey… when we make our move later, try not to kill but restrict him." Nagisa suddenly whispered while they were quietly sneaking after the two of them.

"Why would you want to keep him alive?!" Akari frowned and asked a little bit disturbed.

"I don't, but now that he's outside, we have the chance to get more information out of him. There might be more nobles involved in the slavery business. We didn't have the luxury to ask him questions if he stayed in his mansions surrounded by guards, but now we have enough time." Nagisa explained calmly.

"I see…", Akari answered after thinking about it for a while, "I'll try my best."

"If it's too hard for you to hold back on him, why don't you suppress his sister?" Nagisa suggested, "Don't worry, I won't let him get away."

"… I guess, but don't you dare let him escape." Akari agreed after letting out a sigh.

- something is seriously wrong with her hatred for slavers. -

"Relax, our mission has become quite a bit easier now that he has left his fortress on his own accord." Nagisa reassured her.

Akari nodded and said, "He's been walking into rather small and less used alleys for a while now, it feels like he's going to meet up with somebody."

"… You're right. Get back on a roof, I'll try to get even closer and listen to what they say." Nagisa told her, "I have a Unique Skill that helps me to hide, I won't be able to get as close if you're with me." He explained.

"Alright." Akari nodded and quickly took a turn and disappeared form Nagisa's sight.

- I have to admit that she's skilled… very inexperienced but skilled. -

After making sure that he was out of Akari's sight, Nagisa quickly dove into a shadow. He was really thankful that the baronet was taking these small alleys since they also provided him with huge shadows.

Nagisa didn't have any problems following them since they were walking in a fairly slow pace to begin with, so even with the speed reduction from being in a shadow, he could still keep up easily.

When he looked around and found Akari in the blind spot of the siblings, he almost had to laugh. The look in her eyes made it obvious that she was slightly frustrated that she couldn't find any trail of him.

He could tell from the beginning that Akari was pretty competitive. The fact that he kept giving her orders and pointing out some of her mistakes up until now made her wanted to prove herself.

Before Nagisa could decide if he should let her discover him on purpose by leaving the shadow for a second, the baronet siblings had come to a stop. It was only now that Nagisa noticed that they were getting close to the city wall after all the turns they've taken.

"Alright Celica, that's the furthest I can take you." Nagisa quickly closed in on the siblings and heard the baronet say to his sister.

"Can't you come with me?" the sister called Celica asked her brother with a worried expression on her face.

"I would love to... but with the sudden destruction of the slave camp in the mountains things got a little bit complicated." The baronet shook his head and answered gently.

- Last deal? Wait, is he trying to escape the capital? Destroyed slave camp in the mountains… no way… -

"Just be careful Lucas…" Celica struggled for a while then gave up and sighed.

"This is the last deal… with this, we'll be able to live our lives without having to take these damned orders from the royal family… we'll disappear from this world and live in some small village far away." Lucas sighed and promised.

- …Shit, this is getting really complicated… -

"Your ride will be here in a second, I'll come to find you once this is all over." Lucas said while moving closer to the city wall and crouching down.

- Wait… is that? -

After removing a few loose bricks, a tiny tunnel appeared in front of the baronet! There was a tunnel under the city wall!

- Crap… we'll have to strike before they get out of the city! -

Nagisa instantly realized after recovering from the initial shock of the tunnel in the city wall. He quickly moved to a spot where he was no detectable by either Akari or the siblings and submerged out of the shadow, took a deep breath and then showed himself to Akari, signaling her to attack.

Akari was carefully observing the siblings. While she could see that the baronet was crouching there and busy with something, she couldn't see the tunnel from her angle. At the same time, she was also trying to spot "Jerk" as he suddenly out of nowhere stepped out of a corner she had been eyeing for a while now!

- He's been in that corner the entire time?! That's impossible! There is no way I could've missed him getting in there from up here! -

Akari's eyes widened as she pouted a little under her mask but quickly concentrating again after seeing "Jerk's" signal to strike. Without hesitating for a second, Akari dove down from the roof with both her daggers in her hands.

From the corner of her vision, she could also see how "Jerk" basically flashed through the shadows towards the crouching baronet!

- Don't kill her… don't kill her… -

She kept reminding herself as she rammed her knee into the back of Celica while dropping the dagger in her left hand and grabbing the left wrist of the baronet's sister. With a swift movement, Akari pushed Celica to the ground keeping her knee on the baronet's sisters back, pressed the arm that she had grabbed onto Celica's back and placed her right dagger next to Celica's throat.

The second she was done with her target, Akari lifted her head to see how "Jerk" was doing. To her surprise, he was simply standing behind the still crouching baronet with his right hand placed on Lucas' shoulder. Honestly, it looked absolutely ridiculous, a 1,50m tall child was suppressing a fully-grown man with a single hand. But for some reason, the baronet's face was starting to turn pale and slightly purple as he started shivering.

"Good evening, my lord." Akari heard how "Jerk" greeted him, "You were talking about something quite interesting there, care to share?"

"W-what are you t-talking a-about?" The baronet's voice sounded as if he was freezing as he helplessly stuttered.

"Spare me the act, I've heard every single word you said. What's the last deal about, hmm?" "Jerk" asked as he tightened the grip on the baronet's shoulder.

"I-I don't know w-what you're t-talking about." The baronet gritted his teeth and stubbornly refused to talk. Akari could feel how her anger was starting to boil up inside her.

"Akari if he doesn't answer the next question, break the girl's arm.", "Jerk" sighed and told her, "Make sure she can't scream though, we don't need unnecessary attention."

- H-huh? -

Akari blanked out of a second… while she didn't mind killing people like the baronet, she felt a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of torturing his sister to make him talk. "G-got it.", but she still nodded a bit hesitantly.

"The slave camp in the mountains that has been destroyed, which mountain are you talking about, were you in charge of that slave camp?" Akari heart stopped for a second as she heard the question, he right arm was starting to shake slightly as he tightened the grip on Celica's wrist.

"… T-the heaven hills, a-and yes… I-I was in change o-of that camp." The baronet finally gave up and answered with a sigh after struggling for so long, "P-please don't hurt my s-sister, s-she's i-innocent."

Akari's mind went completely blank as fragments of her memory started to play in her brain, "Heaven hills… you were in charge of the camp on heaven hills?!" Akari could hear how her voice was shaking. "I'm going kill you… I-I…"

"AKARI!" she was pulled back into reality when "Jerk" suddenly hissed her name, "Calm down, or you're going to kill her."

"Huh?" Akari quickly took a glace at the girl in front of her. The dagger that she was holding in front of the girl's neck was already touching the skin of the girl and has already left a shallow cut there, her grip on the girl's wrist was so tight that the girl was already shivering in pain was sweat drops were falling from her forehead. "Sorry… I'm fine now." her eyes widened as she gave "Jerk" a quick nod after taking a deep breath.

"Jerk" kept looking at her for another few seconds before he returned her nod and turned back to face the baronet, "You also said something about the royal family, what's that about?"

"T-the entire slave m-market belongs to the royal family." The baronet started, his stuttering became a lot better after "Jerk" had softened the grip on his shoulder, "A few years ago, minor nobles like me were asked if we had any interest in it, they had p-promised me the Viscount title if I worked for their goal."

- The royal family?! -

Both her and "Jerk's" eyes widened as the baronet kept talking, "The s-slave market is nothing but a cover for their true g-goal… they have employed r-royal guards into the slave business with the g-goal to capture y-young dragons. It is a w-well-known fact that the dragon tribes were g-growing weak due to the lack of children. The royal family w-wants to speed up this process and take control of the younger generations of the tribes at the same time

"You've got to be kidding me…" Akari heard how "Jerk" silently muttered to himself in disbelieve. But she had to admit that she felt the exact same… never had she thought that a simple assassination mission would end up revealing something this grand? "Why are you trying to run then?", "Jerk" asked.

"The camp that was under my charge made a huge mistake a few years ago, they lost 2 young dragon hatchlings." By now the stuttering of the baronet had already stopped, even though his face was still slightly purple, and he was still shivering. "Apparently, the royal family had already been using them for some kind of negotiation, so by losing them I basically messed up their plans big times. Ever since then we've been getting in all sorts of trouble, we get punished for something that we have nothing to do with…"

"I see… so you want to do one last job, take the money and disappear.", Akari ended the sentence for the baronet, "Heh… that's so pathetic, you decided to join the slave market and screw over other people's lives just for a title and wealth. After getting in all this trouble you're still going to sacrifice hundreds of lives to ensure your own future..."

"… You're right." The baronet was startled by Akari's speech for a second but then let out a self-mocking laugh.

"Should I? Or do you want to do it?", "Jerk's" question surprised Akari a little. She didn't expect him to ask at all considering how he was giving all the commands before.

"I'll do it…" Akari gave him a thankful nod before removing her dagger from Celica's throat.

"No! Please! Spare my brother! He was only following the orders from the royal family! Please don't kill him, I'll do anything, please!" It took the girl a while to understand what was going on, but when she did, tears instantly started to burst out of her eyes as she started pleading.

"You want me to spare your brother? Heh… and who was there to spare my brother… I would give anything to have him back…" Akari's heart suddenly felt really heavy as she let out a sad and self-mocking laugh while gritting her teeth. She didn't even have the chance to plead for her brother's life…

With a swift hit with the hilt of the dagger, Akari knocked Celica out and slowly walked towards the baronet and "Jerk". "It was your own choice…", were Akari's last words as her arm with the dagger flashed past the baronet's throat.

"Come on, let's leave.", "Jerk" let out a sigh as he let go of the baronet's shoulder leaving him standing there completely confused.

Akari only gave him a short nod and quickly followed him onto a roof to head back to their hideout.

10 seconds had passed after both of them had left. After being sure that the two assassins were gone, the baronet hurried to his sister only to suddenly feel a sharp pain in his throat. Before he could understand what was happening, blood started to burst out of his wound as his body started to drop lifelessly right onto his sister's body.

With a loud thud, the corpse of the baronet fell right onto the body of his sister and bounced off in a strange manner. Her body was hard like stone and completely frozen from the inside, there wasn't a single drop of liquid blood left in her body.

"Are you alright?" Nagisa finally asked Akari after they've been jumping from roof to roof for about 10 minutes.

"More or less.", was her answer, but the sad and tired look in her eyes was telling Nagisa something else.

"Why did you kill him like that?", Nagisa hesitated a bit but decided to ask. Akari had left an extremely thin ring of wind around the baronet's throat with her swing and had tightened it 10 seconds after they had left. Forming such a thin wind blade in a ring shape, maintaining it, keeping it around the baronet's throat and then activating it from quite a distance is extremely taxing on one's mind, even if she's a high-level stage 3 mage.

"I don't want to see or have his blood on me… it disgusts me.", Akari answered after giving him a strange look, "Why did you kill the girl?"

"You've noticed…" Nagisa let out a sigh, "I told you that we can't afford to reveal ourselves or the entire branch is in danger, the girl would've been a living proof." Nagisa hesitated for a second and answered.

"I'm not judging you… even though the baronet was the one doing it, his sister clearly knew what he was doing, and even then, she didn't try to stop him from doing one last job. She didn't do anything herself, but she subconsciously approved that it's fine to ruin other people's lives to ensure her own future."

"I see… hey, want to take a break?" Nagisa sighed when Akari's body started shaking from anger again. "Just sit down for a while."

With a small nod, Akari followed him on a spacious and rather flat roof. Following his lead, Akari took a seat next to him.

The two silently sat there for a couple of minutes looking at the city without anyone saying a single word. "I'm sorry… for your brother.", Nagisa suddenly said.

Instead of answering, Akari just slowly shook her head, "I'll have to report what we've found out to the Dusk.", she forcefully changed the topic unwilling to speak about it.

"Yeah… I still can't believe we've stumbled across something this crazy…" Nagisa covered half of his face with his palm, "That's an insane scheme the royal family is having."

"What bother's me is that people might not believe us… I think you already know, but the Dusk does not have a good reputation among humans." Akari snickered forcefully and said.

"Well, I'd be surprised if it were anything else." Nagisa rolled his eyes. The dragon tribes are mainly divided into three factions, the Dusk, the Dawn and the neutralists.

The Dusk, which Akari belonged to, believes that it was impossible to negotiate with humans, so for them, the only solution was to be stronger and superior. This, of course, led to several violent confrontations which were the reasons that humans strongly disliked the Dusk.

The Dawn, on the other hand, believed that it was possible for human and dragon to coexist as equals and had tried to regain a position in this land by negotiating and mixing in with the humans. Though they hadn't found much success with that, the Dawn Academy, a school for both dragon and human was the first and only achievement of that faction.

As for the neutralists, they were people who were fine with the current way of living. They had no intention of getting along with the humans and they didn't care about the position of their race on this land. They just want to live peacefully in their tribes.

Of course, there were also dragons with some wild and ridiculous ideas, but that was only the minority.

"You don't have to convince the humans, it's enough if our people believe you and take measures in protecting the young ones. Convincing the humans that it's partly their fault is what the Dawn does." Nagisa simply shrugged.

"What do you believe in?", apparently, Nagisa's comment had piqued her interest.

"Me? I guess I'm fine with both." Nagisa shrugged after thinking about it for a second.

"Neutralist?" Akari wondered.

"Really? Do you see me sitting in my tribe and turning my thumbs?" Nagisa rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Anything but that."

"Hehe, you're right. What do you mean then?" Akari giggled quietly and asked.

"I guess I'm somewhere in between… the Dusk is a little too extreme and the Dawn is too optimistic." Nagisa said as he laid down and stared into the sky.

"Hmm." Akari nodded slightly.

"Feeling better, princess?" Nagisa suddenly asked with a cheesier tone.

"Huh? Oh…" Akari spaced out for a second and then realized what he was talking about, "Yeah… a lot." She answered still a little bit startled, "Hehe, thanks."

"Don't mention it, the Dusk is going to gut me if their princess suddenly gets all depressed after teaming up with me for only 1 mission." Nagisa snickered and joked.

"… And there you go being a Jerk again." Akari rolled her eyes and laid down as well, "Hey, I think I found a codename for you.", she said.

"Oh? I thought you already had one.", Nagisa raised an eyebrow and said.

"Didn't know you liked it so much, guess I'll let it be then." Akari rolled her eyes again while also laying down.

"Hehe, alright, sorry. Let's hear it then." Nagisa apologized halfheartedly and said.

"Yoruhiru.", Akari said, "I feel like it suits you, while you act like an absolute jerk, you're actually quite a nice person."

"Thanks… I guess?" Nagisa said a bit unsurely, "Yoruhiru, huh… Night and day. I guess that'll work." Nagisa thought about a bit and nodded.

"But that's a bit long so I'll just call you Yoru." Akari added shortly after.

"… And why not Hiru?" Nagisa wondered.

"You're more of a jerk than a nice person.", she straight up said without even trying to make it sound nice.

"… I guess that's fair.", Nagisa shrugged with a silent snicker, "It's getting late, we should get going if we want to catch any sleep today."

"You're right… you know, it wasn't so bad teaming up with you, even though it's just a one-time-thing." Akari smiled and said while getting back up, "I think I'll head straight home, you can take the reward money, I don't really need it. Hope I'll see you around, maybe we can team up again from time to time."

"Heh, thanks. Oh! Ehh, I won't be taking any missions for the next week, I have some things to take care of. But I'll be at the hideout in 3 days. Until then we'll need to find a way of communication outside of meeting up at the hideout. I'll get going then, have a good night, princess." Were his last words before he jumped off the roof and disappeared into the darkness.

- …Hatred against slavery… lost her brother… huge reaction when the slave camp on heaven hills was mentioned… prodigy wind mage… could it be? No… there's no way Kaede would turn into a killer… there's just no way… but I guess I'll stick around a bit longer… just in case. -

"… Did he just…", Akari stood there startled, "… what a jerk.", she rolled her eyes letting out a small giggle. "He's a little bit like Nagisa… just more of a jerk." Akari said to herself and pulled her mask down revealing a sad smile. "3 days huh… guess I'll ask grandpapa.", she muttered to herself and started to run right towards the direction of the Dawn Academy.

Hey hey :D Another new chapter, hope you guys liked it! Nagisa and Akari accidentally found out something huge, huh? There's not much to say about this chapter since I don't what to spoil anything.

Tell me what you think about this chapter in the reviews! The next chapter will probably take quite a bit longer to come out since I'm getting really busy now.

And as always, thank you so much for your support and I'll see you in the next chapter! ;)