Gathering Husbands with a System in a Game Like World [BL]
Chapter 25: The Fox warrior (A fourth husband candidate)

Chapter 25: The Fox warrior (A fourth husband candidate)

The first thing Kai learned about investigating a city the size of Voltra was that walking was a terrible way to do it.

The second thing he learned was that Elias had absolutely no concept of what constituted a reasonable walking speed.

"Slow down."

Kai’s voice was flat.

Elias, who was several steps ahead of him, glanced over his shoulder.

"I’m walking."

"You’re practically sprinting."

"That’s because you walk like an old man."

Kai stopped.

Elias stopped too.

They stared at each other in the middle of a busy commercial street while people flowed around them. Kai adjusted his hood and reminded himself that he had agreed to this partnership of his own free will. The first assignment from Seris Vane had been clear enough. Investigate the most recent disappearance. Speak with witnesses. Verify the timeline. See if earlier teams missed anything.

"I still say asking questions is the fastest way to tell the whole district we’re looking," Elias said.

"And I still say we have to start somewhere."

"We could just watch."

"For how long?"

Elias shrugged.

"As long as it takes."

Kai exhaled and kept walking. They settled on a compromise. Kai would handle the interviews. Elias would watch the surroundings.

The first witness they marked down was an old merchant sitting outside a narrow shop, sorting through a crate of dried goods. His hair was thin and white, his hands gnarled, and his eyes sharp with the permanent suspicion of someone who had lived too long in a city like Voltra.

Kai approached.

"Excuse me. I’m looking for information about the man who went missing from this street last week."

The old man didn’t even look up.

"Don’t know nothing."

"His name was Harlan. Medium build, dark hair. He bought supplies from you regularly."

"Still don’t know nothing."

Kai held out two gold coins.

The old man’s eyes flicked to the coins, then to Kai’s face under the hood.

"Might know something. Depends how much you want to hear."

Kai handed over the coins. The merchant pocketed them immediately.

"Harlan started acting strange about ten days ago. Jumpy. Kept looking over his shoulder. Said someone in a dark cloak was following him. I told him he was drinking too much."

"Did he describe the person?"

"Nope. Just the cloak. Long. Dark. Hood up the whole time. That’s all you’re getting for two gold."

Kai produced another coin.

The old man took it without shame.

"He came in the day before he vanished. Bought dried meat and a waterskin like he was planning a short trip. Kept muttering about ’eyes in the alleys.’ I told him to sleep it off. Next morning he was gone. Shop locked. No note. No nothing."

"Anyone else notice the stranger?"

"That’s another coin."

Kai paid. The merchant leaned closer, voice dropping.

"Two of the night guards said they saw a cloaked figure near the eastern warehouses around the same time. Same description. Dark cloak, never showed a face. One of them swore the figure didn’t make any sound when he walked. Like the ground itself was avoiding him."

Elias, who had been leaning against a post across the street, finally spoke.

"Useful."

The old man squinted at him.

"You two together?"

"Temporary partners," Kai said immediately.

"Partners," Elias corrected.

The old man snorted.

"Whatever you are, you can take yourselves out of my Shope front" he sneered.

Kai clicked his mouth and groaned

"You don’t have to be rude about it, let’s go Elias"

"No" Elias said "we have to teach him a lesson" his expression darkened, Kai was instantly terrified. It really looked like the assassin was going to attack.

Then...

Slap!

He landed a hard smack on Elias’s cheeks. He instantly snapped back to his predatory deamenour.

"That was hot, slap me again" he growled and Kai received the biggest ick.

"What? Ewww"

A middle-aged woman carrying a basket of fruit had stopped a few steps away, openly staring at them.

"You two always argue like that?" she asked. "My sister and her husband sound exactly the same. It’s exhausting just listening."

Kai’s face burned under the hood.

"We are not—"

"Sound married to me," the woman continued cheerfully. "Especially the way that tall one keeps looking at you like he’s deciding whether to kiss you or pick a fight."

Elias grinned.

"Both options are open."

Kai turned away before he said something regrettable. They left the merchant with one final coin for any future information and continued deeper into the district. Several buildings along the route bore a strange carved symbol near the doorframes—simple, deliberate, and clearly not part of the original architecture.

"Those weren’t here last month," a young street cleaner said when Kai asked. The boy leaned on his broom, curious. "Started showing up after the first few people went missing. Nobody knows what they mean. Some say it’s a gang mark. Some say it’s a curse. I just wash around them and mind my own business."

A baker’s apprentice sweeping outside a shop added her own opinion without being asked.

"My cousin said the symbols appear the night before someone vanishes. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m not walking past any of them after dark."

Kai and Elias followed the trail of marks farther into the district, arguing the entire way about whether the symbols were genuine clues or deliberate misdirection.

"You’re overthinking it," Elias said. "Someone wants investigators looking at the marks instead of the real trail."

"Or the marks are the trail."

"Or both."

"That is not helpful."

A pair of porters carrying crates walked past them. One muttered to the other, loud enough to be heard.

"Those two. Bet you five copper they’re married and just won’t admit it."

"I’ll take that bet. The short one looks ready to strangle the tall one."

Kai’s eye twitched. Elias looked like he was having the best day of his life.

Kai wondered if there was a special marriage guessing day today because why did the random assumption come twice?

Then suddenly out of nowhere, the atmosphere on the street changed.

"Catch him!" The raw sound of a whistle bust through the streets.

A tall figure in a dark cloak burst through the crowd at impossible speed, something clutched tightly under one arm. Guards shouted and gave chase. People scattered. A fruit seller screamed as her cart nearly toppled. A child was yanked out of the way by a panicked parent. Kai’s didn’t need special revelation to know that this was no ordinary thief.

The System reacted at once.

[High-level individual detected.]

[Combat power significantly exceeds current Host parameters.]

The figure was lean, athletic, and moved with fluid precision. For a fraction of a second a pair of fox ears flashed beneath the hood. A Fox Beastman. The thief glanced back while running and Kai caught only a blurred impression of a sharp profile before the stranger vanished around a corner. Elias’s smile appeared instantly.

"No," Kai said.

Elias was already moving.

Kai cursed and followed. The chase tore through crowded streets, over obstacles, across rooftops, and under carriages. Elias was fast. The thief was faster. Eventually Elias launched himself in a flying tackle that brought both of them crashing to the ground. He tried to pin the stranger. Then everything went wrong.

The thief twisted with terrifying efficiency, used Elias’s own momentum against him, and threw the assassin into a nearby wall. Elias hit hard and rose with a rare absence of humor on his face. The thief’s cloak was rumbled from the little brickering. As he turned to flee again the hood slipped back completely.

Kai saw him clearly for the first time.

The man was tall, broad-shouldered, and athletic, handsome in a dangerous, almost predatory way. Fox ears stood alert atop his head. A long, luxurious tail moved behind him with lazy confidence. His expression was amused, his eyes sharp. Before either of them could speak the chase resumed. The thief bolted. Kai and Elias pursued. In the chaos of the second sprint Kai’s own hood was yanked back by a low-hanging sign and the sudden turn of a corner. His face was fully exposed for several critical seconds.

That was when the System flared.

[Critical Individual Identified.]

[Husband Candidate Identification Protocol Initiated.]

[Candidate Number: 04]

[Name: Dexter Runt]

[Race: Fox Beastman]

[Occupation: Thief]

[Combat Classification: SSS-Rank Warrior]

[Threat Assessment: Extreme]

[Current Affinity: 35%]

[Warning: Candidate Affinity exceeds previous recorded initial values.]

[Cause: Immediate psychological and emotional resonance detected after visual contact.]

[Primary factors: Physical attraction, instinctive fascination, curiosity, and candidate recognition.]

Kai’s heart stopped. Thirty-five percent. Higher than any first encounter he had ever recorded.

Dexter stopped running the moment he fully processed what he had seen. The playful amusement vanished from his expression. His eyes locked onto Kai with focused intensity. He began walking toward them. Elias immediately stepped between them.

"What’s your name?" Dexter asked.

Kai refused to answer. Elias moved to block him further. Dexter laughed once, low and almost fond, and then the two of them clashed again. This time the difference in power was painful to watch. Elias was an S-Rank Assassin of genuine skill. Dexter was an SSS-Rank Warrior. The gap was enormous. Dexter disarmed him, dodged every strike, overpowered him with almost casual movement, and threw him aside a second time.

The System delivered a blunt assessment.

[Combat Analysis Complete.]

[Candidate Dexter Runt possesses overwhelming physical combat capability.]

[Estimated threat level: Extreme.]

[Direct confrontation not recommended.]

Yet Dexter never tried to finish Elias. The entire fight had been a diversion. While Elias was occupied Dexter retrieved the object he had stolen. Kai used Arcane Eye on the item as Dexter secured it and felt the same faint anomalous energy they had been tracking.

[Anomalous energy detected on target object.]

[Similarity to Emeraldwood corruption signature: Present.]

[Probability of direct causal relationship: Unknown.]

Dexter finally turned his full attention back to Kai. He approached, but stopped the moment Kai instinctively stepped backward. Unlike Elias, he did not invade the space. He simply watched.

"You’re an Adventurer?"

Kai gave a vague non-answer. Dexter’s smile returned, quieter this time.

"Keep the hood down if you want. I’ll still remember the face."

Before Kai could respond Dexter vanished into the crowd as if he had never been there. Elias immediately moved to pursue. Kai caught his arm.

"Don’t. He may be connected to the case. That object carried the same strange energy we’ve been finding."

Elias’s irritation sharpened into focus. They now had two reasons to find the fox.

The System offered a final summary.

[Recommendation: Do not underestimate Candidate Dexter Runt.]

[Candidate possesses sufficient capability to kill Host before defensive measures can be activated.]

[Additional observation: Candidate appears significantly interested in Host.]

Kai exhaled.

"I noticed."