In the Old District of Wraithos City there was an abandoned warehouse. It rusted due being unused for over a century. The Old District was the remnants of the time before Humans discovered the myriad realms. The Old District was a place that almost no one visited anymore. It stood the test of time, but it was slowly withering away as the years passed. Someday the old buildings would surely collapse and this place would simply become a place of nothing but ruins.

Within a nondescript warehouse of the Old District, three people were chained together. They were stripped of all their equipment and shivering due to the cold atmosphere.

“What’s going on? Did one of you owe somebody a debt?” The leader of the group asked.

He didn’t understand what happened. One moment he was at a club drinking beer and liquor, the next moment he was here. He didn’t even remember fainting. He always prided himself on his ability to hold his alcohol. The fact he couldn’t remember anything led him to believe he was drugged.

The second person –the healer- finally managed to sputter out a few words after he finally stopped crying. Snot and tears were sliding down his face.

“Someone ambushed me on my way home from the library. Everything went black after that.” He moaned pitifully.

As for the third person of the group, he couldn’t even speak. His body was covered in bruises, and his neck was swollen to the point it was a miracle he could breathe. When he was ambushed, he tried to fight back to no avail. He was brutally beaten for trying to resist. A few of his ribs were probably severely broken due to how malformed his chest appeared.

“Where are we?” The man who loved alcohol began to look around.

There was nothing, it was only an encroaching darkness. The faint light of the moon seeped through cracks of the walls and ceiling. There were no windows.

A musty and almost moldy smell pervaded the atmosphere. It didn’t matter if the three of them tried to breathe through their noses or mouth. The smell and taste of the air were equally horrible. It was extremely nauseating.

The three of them were chained together, hanging off of the ground. How high they were, none of them could tell. Only the faintest outline of the building could be seen.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared in front of them. This light was blinding. Shutting their eyes, the captives waited until it faded. Once again opening their eyes, they saw this place for what it was.

They were suspended twenty feet in the air, held by black chains engraved with runic symbols. They watched as the floor beneath them split open, revealing a dark green liquid beneath them. An acrid smell even worse than the moldy atmosphere wafted upwards, causing them to gag. Their eyes watered and burned. The skin on their bodies grew irritated.

The next thing they knew, they heard the clicking of heels against the ground. At the entrance to this building a woman walked in. Dressed in a casual business outfit, she was surrounded by guards.

Lara looked at the three people whose only lifeline was the chains they were bound to. With her resources, it was child’s play to get the information of these three. It was precisely the party that had thrown Keith to the wolves. Only a day after she created a verbal contract Keith, she already found their locations.

The first one –the alcoholic- was a 19 year old youth by the name of Arlington. He dropped out of high school to pursue the life of a Hunter. He naively thought he was destined for fame. But his Inherent Skill known as Rock Hide was mediocre. It made his skin as hard as any normal stone that could be found. It was nothing special.

Since he never finished his education, and was a failure as a Hunter. Arlington was destined to be a bottom feeding rat that did nothing but drink and go to clubs when he was not hunting the weakest of creatures in E-Rank Realms to barely scrape by financially.

The other two people of Arlington’s group had similar stories. The support of the group, he was an Ex-Young Master of a wealthy merchant family. He was the oldest son. He was useless. He never gave respect to his parents and was leeching off the family fortune. Cast out, he had to make use of his meager magical abilities. Eventually after a strange turn of events he entered Arlington’s group.

The beaten young man, he was the worst of the bunch. He was an individual anyone would deem as someone to avoid at all costs. No one would want their children around this person. He simply wanted to kill things. His interests were in dissecting creatures of other realms as well as humans, but he’d never been caught doing the latter. However Lara could still find out every horrible thing he’d done with ease. There was little to no information of how he ended up joining Arlington, but Lara didn’t care about this point.

Lara gazed at the group without a shred of sympathy. She wasn’t someone that would speak of justice and act as if she was the embodiment of it. She had done her fair share of cruel things. Regardless, she did not like these people. In her opinion they were the filth of society. She was glad to dispose of them; they were a waste of air for others.

“Do you know why you are here?” She said.

“No. We did nothing wrong. We do not belong here.” Arlington said hastily. He wanted to escape. He didn’t care about the other two, as long as he survived that was all that mattered.

“Are you sure? A friend of mine seems to think otherwise. Why… he remembers quite clearly how you all threw him to a pack of Sand Wolves after intentionally injuring him.”

Lara’s voice was steady and quiet. It was nearly a whisper yet it sounded quite beautiful, soft, and seductive. Her words penetrated Arlington and his group. Contrary to the beauty of her voice, dread began to well up from deep within the trio’s bodies.

“Impossible. There is no…” Arlington caught himself before he finished speaking. But Lara finished his sentence for him.

“There is no way he could’ve survived, right? Now you are questioning why a mere courier has a connection to someone like me.” Lara said with a hint of sarcasm.

Arlington almost nodded; this was exactly what he was thinking. Luckily, he managed to remain still. The more he talked, the greater the chance he would fall into the pool of what he could only assume was extremely potent acid.

As for the other two people chained with him, they were quiet. Arlington was trying to escape, but it was all in vain. They knew better. The moment Lara entered, the man cast out by his family already recognized her. He had heard rumors of Lara Windsor who was his age yet commanded powers far beyond his comprehension. Since she was the mastermind behind this, he knew his fate was sealed. Rumors of her cruelty had spread to every corner of the underworld.

As for the beaten man, he also knew his fate was sealed. He was extremely sensitive to negative emotions. Although it was faint, killing intent radiated from Lara. There was no way he was getting out of this alive unless there was divine intervention.

Lara turned to the guard closest to her and said, “Have fun playing with them.” This warehouse, although it was in the Old District it was property of the Windsor Family. Even though it looked old on the surface, it was installed with many of Lara’s favorite “Toys”.

Turning to the captive group once again, Lara smiled, however it never reached her eyes.

“None of you need to know how I have a connection to Courier Keith. But he is alive. I am positive you would all feel relieved to hear this right?”

She didn’t receive an answer, nor did she expect to. Lara could see that two of them had lost the will to live, as for the third, he was trembling. Whether it was out of fear or rage, she didn’t know.

Suddenly, Arlington spoke up, “That Courier… He offered you something right? You’re a businesswoman; surely you would rather make the deal that is most profitable. I can offer my services to you; surely I am far more useful than a mere courier who has no ability.”

Ah, it seemed this one hadn’t given up on living. A cruel glint flashed through Lara’s eyes as she smiled radiantly.

“Sorry. But you are not at liberty to be making a business deal. You do not have anything worth offering to me. Probably the only thing you could give someone is an STD, I’m sure you know all about that right?”

Arlington shut his mouth immediately. His face was red with shame. This woman even had access to his medical records? Weren’t those protected documents?

“Well, I think we are finished here. Unlike you three, I have a life and it’s quite busy. Farewell. Also, enjoy the presents I left for you. Bye-bye.” Lara waved goodbye to them. She turned her back to them and left. The only sounds were the bubbling of the acid and the clicking of her heels which echoed through the surrounding area.

Her end of the deal was concluded. They would die slowly and painfully. Keith never told her to kill them quickly or slowly. She was only told to have them executed. After seeing the trio, she felt annoyed. As she left, she made sure that her subordinates who remained behind would give them as slow a death as possible.

She left the warehouse and climbed into her vehicle. No one would have noticed the cruel expression Lara had. To the general public she was the heiress of Windsor Enterprises, and owner of the Heavenly Wind Auction House. She is gentle and kind. This was what most people thought of her.

However this was only a façade. She was only kind to people she considered herself close with. She was respectful only to those she believed deserved her respect. She had committed her fair share of sins. Many had died simply because she ordered their deaths. At eighteen years old, her hands were already stained with blood, both directly and indirectly.

Leaning against the cushioned seat of the vehicle, Lara rested her head against it as she read the information in the report her maid gathered. The corners of her lips tugged and finally slightly curved upwards into the faintest hint of a smile.

“Oh, interesting. The eldest of the Silvermoon Family became a courier. No wonder he said he had no family…”

Although there were many people in the city named Keith, even though there were surely a few of them who were couriers, she was positive this was the person who she made contact with. She’d heard of the incident a few years back about a boy being cast out of the Silvermoon Family because he was considered a waste.

Lara chuckled as she read through the report, she had found something interesting. Although she had never met Keith personally, she felt that he was an enigma, and a person who held many secrets. All of which she wanted to uncover one by one.