Santiaga didn't come from a good home, so looking at himself now, this was exactly what he thought he would've turned out to look like.
Making his way to the Hero Agency late at night, Santiaga walked into the hall to the receptionist with the huge sack on his back.
"Hey, I would like to sell a monster carcass," he said to the receptionist.
It was the same woman who took care of him when he came the first time. She seemed quite surprised to see him that way.
"Ah, I see. Go to the door at the other end and you'll meet the man who handles it," she directed him.
Santiaga nodded, looking at the door beside the reception desk.
The lady at the desk swallowed. She was quite nervous to ask him this after she forgot to do it before.
"Um, excuse me. I forgot to register your brand the last time you came. You can stop by later and update your information," the woman said with a nervous smile.
Santiaga nodded toward her, walking into the door.
Within the door, there was a large storage room, and there were shelves with various items placed in jars.
'Monster parts?' he thought, curious as he got close to the shelves and confirmed it for himself.
'Ugh, organs,' he shook his head, walking deeper into the large room.
Soon, he found another open room, and he heard the sound of pounding inside. He walked into the room to see a man with a butchering knife cutting a monster leg with his large knife.
The room was dimly lit, with large hooks holding monster meat in the air. The stench of blood in the room was very thick.
On the table, there were various tools that looked like surgical instruments placed there.
The man, on the other hand, was a mess. His apron was all bloodied, and blood was splattered all over his face.
This is not a bad job at all.
"Ahem, excuse me!" Santiaga finally spoke up.
"Hm." The man looked at the person at the door, then looked down at the piece of meat he had just chopped off.
He then looked at the door again.
"A–Ah! Welcome!" the man hurriedly put the knife away and cleaned his face with a towel.
"I didn't intend for you to see that, I was just carried away," he smiled, walking toward Santiaga who stood at the door.
Santiaga pulled in the large bag he was carrying, which was almost as tall as him. He dropped it on the ground and brought out the large golden snake, placing it on the table.
"How much can I get for this?" he asked.
He didn't want to waste time here at all. There was simply no time.
And he meant it.
...
In a large building which looked like a castle, there were priests wearing white robes standing in an arc, facing a singular person who was on her knees.
The woman looked to be beaten and was bleeding from various wounds.
"Emira, you and your party failed to retrieve an ancient sealed egg. This one you retrieved is fake." One of the priests pointed at the egg in his hand.
All the priests were wearing masks, so their faces were hidden.
"I–I didn't know. I took it off of Elden's body," she explained, visibly scared.
"Your brother would be very disappointed." One of the priests said, looking down on her.
Emira could hear her heart beating loudly inside her chest. She had failed her mission—someone must have taken the real egg and left.
"Someone else must have been in there," the priest said, looking at the knight beside Emira.
The silver-armoured Inquisitor Leonard.
"Un, now that you speak about it, I did see a person go inside the dungeon after them. But he was just a normal person, so I expected him to die inside," Leonard explained, his gaze going to Emira and then back to the priest.
"Your gaze suggests that something happened. Speak," one of the priests demanded.
Leonard cleared his throat before he spoke.
"Well, the guy came out all bloodied. And I didn't pay attention, but he held a sack with him. And he also killed a high C-class creature." Leonard's words slowed the more he talked about the guy he saw.
He facepalmed as he said his final lines, realizing how stupid he was.
"He must have hidden his aura. Why did I think he was normal when he brought a dead C-class creature by himself there?"
The priests all looked at each other, talking amongst themselves as they decided their movements from there.
Emira, on the other hand, kept her head down. She knew that her career and dream to serve the Church and become an Inquisitor were over.
Sealed eggs like that are given to special A-rank heroes called Inquisitors after they reach a specific rank. It was a very important mission that she had to complete to secure her future.
After a moment of talking, the priests finally finished, and one of them walked ahead of the others.
All of a sudden, the air became thick, and it became hard to breathe. Emira looked up to see one of the priests coming toward them.
The air was barely entering her lungs, making her vision go blank slightly.
"You saw him, right? I'll see what he looks like," the priest mumbled, his soft voice echoing in Leonard's head.
Leo got on his knee in that instant, allowing the priest to place a hand on his head.
Soon, the entire place became quiet.
The other priests were anticipating how they would be able to fix what happened just now and retrieve the particular creature back.
Soon, the priest who was in front of Leonard staggered, taking a step back.
"What–what power is this?" the priest stammered, mumbling something in another language.
"What did you see?" A priest who was dressed in white and red stepped forward.
He seemed more special than the others, as he wasn't wearing the white the rest wore.
"Right where he was looking at the so-called person, there's a blank space there. I'm not able to see the person in his memories," the priest described.
"Anti-divination magic."
"Impossible, that's only taught to A-class heroes and above," Leonard blurted out. Even he was familiar with this.
"Leonard, check the list of A-rank heroes registered. The one that fits the description you saw. Find them!" the priest shouted, making Leonard quickly stand up.
He walked away, looking back at Emira, who still had her head down.
"Poor girl. She has much talent." He shook his head.