"So, what do we do?" Ida asked.
"Well, we can go back to headquarters and get an official mission, or we can just go hunting," Hyperion replied.
"I'd rather we took an official mission, they pay more," she suggested.
"And what's the point of working if the whole world can't find out how amazing you are?" he finished for her, pointing out her true intentions.
"Who, me?" she smiled guiltily.
"No matter, you're half right. We do need emergency funds. I'll go and get the mission; you prepare for us to leave."
***
Hyperion headed to headquarters and showed his coin to the receptionist. "Where can I get a mission?" he asked.
"Here," the unusually chipper receptionist replied. "Well, Mr. Wyatt said to give you a special mission if you ever came." She took a piece of paper from the drawer and handed it to him. After taking a long look at the poster, Hyperion turned to the receptionist.
"Isn't this a little bit too complex?" he complained.
"Weell…" she stretched the word. "It depends on how you handle it. Anyway, Mr. Wyatt promises the pay will be worth your while." Hyperion sighed before leaving the hall.
***
"Good day, what can I do for you today?" said the cartographer in one of the shops he decided to take a detour to.
"I'd like a map of Fodina, with the states inclusive."
The man handed him a map, and Hyperion studied its contents. After verifying it, he paid. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about a certain band of people known as the 'corvus aurum', would you?"
"Thank you for patronising my shop, but I believe it's time you leave." The cartographer shook his head as if warning him of impending danger and closed the door behind him.
After getting home, Hyperion slumped on the couch and took a deep breath before spreading the map on the table.
"So, what's the gig?" Ida asked as he got back.
"Bounty hunting," he replied.
"Seems fun," she said excitedly.
"The best is always the most fun," he replied sarcastically. "I don't think it's even legal to give a novice this kind of mission." He turned the poster for her to see.
"Before coming back I thought to myself, hey, why don't I do some pre-mission digging, but every single citizen I asked about these guys either knew nothing or ran away, even the ones in the fancy suits," he said, heaving a loud sigh as he sat. "I expected them to be cooler than that.
"The brave ones were the ones who said, 'Oh, we don't talk about that,'" he added in a mimicked voice.
"So, are you having second thoughts?" Ida asked.
"Meh. Just because some powerless bunches of people are scared doesn't mean anything. Power factor and fear factor are two different things.
"Plus, the true bad guys are never the popular ones. I can bet this particular one is either the lackey of some guy in the shadows or at best he's not that big a deal.
"But notwithstanding, this mission does have its complications." He took out the map he had gotten from the cartographer. "First, we're not finding them in any of the big cities."
"What makes you think that?" Ida asked.
"A surplus of mystery novels read," he replied.
"Anyways, they are in Or," he said. Ida let out a chuckle. "How ingenious. Did you manage to track them down in this short span of time too?" she asked.
"No, the receptionist told me I'd find them there. Which brings us to our second problem: he's running some kind of cliché syndicate, which tells me there will be a lot of fleeing wild geese," he stated.
"On the bright side, since the eight cities have been eliminated, that takes more than seventy percent of Fodina off our radar," she commented.
"The syndicate will definitely be in Or." He tapped the poster. "Our mission is the leader and he could be anywhere."
"Guess you can't laze around anymore. We don't have the time or resources for constant public transport," she said.
"I realise that already, and yes we do. We leave tomorrow," Hyperion said as he took the bag with the food items he had bought to the kitchen.
After eating their supper of rice cakes with fried quail eggs and venison sauce, they went to bed.
Six hours later, Hyperion woke up, already thinking about how the mission would go.
"Ugh, this is what I hate about bounty hunting," he thought. "It requires a bit of critical thinking. But to make this fast, we need to find out this douchebag's trade first. A prison would probably be the best place to start."
***
After arriving at Or eight hours into the day, Hyperion looked around. He hadn't expected it to be a wonder like Iadica, but he certainly hadn't expected the place to be this run down.
Since dictatorship wasn't really something a syndicate could do without intervention from the Octad, this already gave him a solid guess of what these people did.
"Come on, we need to find the main station in this place," he said, motioning for Ida to follow.
Ida gave out a loud laugh as they got to the entrance. "Penitentiary for the truly deranged. The head of this station must be a real jester to give his precinct such a hilarious name. Come on," she urged.
As they got in, they saw an officer pass by.
"Excuse me, you wouldn't mind helping us get to the head enforcer's office, would you?" Ida asked with a captivating smile.
"Sure, head right in, walk straight through the wards and you'll find his office at the left of the very end," the man replied with quaking knees, as if he were talking to his superior.
"Let's go," Hyperion said, grabbing her hand and pulling her away.
"We are looking for someone, not trying to get into a brothel," he muttered.
"But it was fun seeing his face. I guess respect isn't all about age," she replied.
"Forget I said anything. Move along."
They got to the head enforcer's office after minutes of walking and listening to septic words from the mouths of inmates.
***
"Jorge Weshault. Rather fancy name," Hyperion remarked as he opened the door.
"Ssh," he said to the fat man behind the desk, putting his right index finger to his lips as he tossed his coin at him. The man clumsily grabbed it and looked at it.
"It's a lunite inscription," Hyperion said. "Don't pretend you need any more information than that."
"I still need to verify its authenticity," the man replied.
"Look at it this way," Hyperion said. "Even if it is fake, I'm stronger than you and every other person in this station, so you can't do anything to me either way. And if you don't realise how much stronger I am, you truly don't deserve your position. And I'm also very aware of the secret operation you're running here," Hyperion said slowly.
"Or not so much a secret, since I believe every enforcer here knows," Hyperion added in a whisper. "Anyway, I'm a rather selfish person, so I don't actually care what you do with your position here. Considering when I'm done, your secret will be moot anyway."
"How dare you come in here and start throwing fallacious accusations!" the man bristled. Hyperion quirked a brow.
"Even if you outrank me, you have no right to disrespect me," the man said, probably summoning all the courage his ancestors left him, obvious from how fast his heart was beating.
Hyperion gave a short laugh. "Really, what was the point of what you just did? You're scared of me and we both know it.
"Accusing? I didn't accuse anyone," Hyperion raised his hands in surrender. "I could mean any secret, like you put a match in your mouth and let it burn out to pretend you're smoking like little children, or you're actually forty-nine, not forty-eight."
"I don't think those count as accusations. But no matter, I'm talking about your real secret." Hyperion said as he passed his hand across the desk and pushed the fat man back into his seat.
"You are a conniving piece of rotten human garbage. It's rather obvious to anyone with a little bit more than a quarter of their brain intact.
"Every single detainee here is so weak even you could beat all of them. I didn't even see any enforcer on my way here, and only a handful are on ground.
"Either ninety percent of them fell sick, are on a day off, or they don't have anything to do here. The only ones here are probably those righteous ones, or your main partners in crime.
"The fact you're committing such a serious crime this stupidly proves you're one of those quarter-brained ones." He shushed the man again as he was about to speak.
"No, you mistake me. I'm not here to bring you to justice. I haven't really seen the condition of the inhabitants of this place yet, so to me you're not a criminal, you're just a fat man playing a risky game.
"Now, a nod is all I require from you. Do you work with Corvus Aurum?"
The man nodded in affirmation.
"Perfect. Now I don't really need anything concerning them from you. One of them probably just came to your house and offered you loads of money for your cooperation, which you shamelessly accepted.
"What I need from you is to immediately call every enforcer breathing in this town back to this place."