As the day came to an end, Ashton had solved most of his problems. As far as the question of joining the special force was, he had already made his mind up. He was going to join them. After all, it was too good of an opportunity to gain some kind of influence for him to pass up.
Also, he never knew what kind of adventures and resources he might end up gaining after joining them. He would call the captain in the morning and discuss the details later. For now, he was tired and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
However, while he slept, the members of the special force were working tirelessly to figure out just how deep the resistance had sunk their jaws within Contingent. To them, it seemed as if the city had been turned into some sort of operational base for the humans as they were continuously capturing them one after another.
However, after hunting down vampires for most of their service, hunting humans for a change was more than welcomed by them. It wasn't as dangerous as hunting high ranking vampires, at the same time, it was adventurous enough for them to not drop their defences completely. All in all, a proper trade from them as most of them were looking to retire now.
"Another one down." Scarlett, the vice-captain reported, "I think we are done for the day, what do you think, Cap? Wanna hunt some more?"
"Nah, it's fine. It's not like they are going to pay us more even if we capture a few more humans." Cap shook his head before lighting a cigar, "Why waste our resources if it's not worth it? We'll continue tomorrow after collecting the paycheck. Good work everyone. The drinks are on me tonight."
"Woohoo!" Most of them exclaimed and began packing up their equipment while Scarlett headed towards Cap.
"Something bothering you, James?" She asked.
Captain, or James as he was called, just nodded and took another drag and hold it within before letting out all of the smoke. In his life, only three things could make him be sane, hunting, tattoos, and cigars. Everything else in his life was optional, including values such as loyalty, kindness and pity.
Well, he was loyal to one thing. The most important thing that was needed to have the three most important things in his life, money. As long as he was paid enough, he and his crew would do whatever their employer would want, even assassination of werewolves, their own kind.
Since most of the crew were saved or rescued by him at one point or another, they simply followed James' lead. Although he wasn't loyal to anyone in the group, he wanted them to be loyal to him. At least on the surface level. Call him a hypocrite, but he didn't care.
"Do you think that brat will accept the deal?" He asked Scarlett back, "I feel like we should have tried to convince him a bit more."
"You already did enough. The drama you orchestrated with help of a prisoner should be enough to convince a teenager. If anything, we are his heroes."
James nodded and continued to smoke. His plan of infiltrating the academy on the Conundrum's behalf was going good so far. That being said, he had not seen a single member of the mysterious organisation yet.
It seemed like while they trusted him enough to let him do the job, they were most certainly aware of what kind of a man he was. Thus, the Conundrum was keeping their distance from him. All he had were the letters in which their orders were passed down to him and the money that regularly got deposited in his account weekly.
"Living this dual life is a bit taxing," he mumbled to himself.
Although James was working for the Conundrum at the moment, he was also earning money on the side by turning in bounties. Bounties that he got by hunting humans.
"It'll come to an end soon. Now that we have found a way inside the academy." Scarlett chimed in.
She was the only one in on the Conundrum's plan and was willingly helping the captain to fulfil the contract he had signed with them. A contract to find dirt on the director as well as to eliminate her if such an opportunity presents itself in front of them. That too within a year or else... it'll be someone else's turn to hunt them instead.
Why did the Conundrum want to find dirt on the director? The captain didn't know, nor did he care enough. As for the question of the assassination of the director was concerned, they were not going to do it. Mainly because it was too risky for them to do something like that.
The director's reputation was legendary. So much so, that she had connections with all five stars of the werewolf empire. Going against someone like her was not the best decision they could have made. Gathering dirt on someone was a different thing, but trying to assassinate them... nope, they were not going to do that.
However, for that purpose, they needed someone within the academy to work with them in secret. As they had realised, the director would not let outsiders roam around the campus without supervision. That's why they staged a scenario with a human prisoner to surround the first student they saw out of the academy.
It was their plan to let the human bump into the student, followed by them framing the kid as a traitor. That way, the kid would subconsciously go to any lengths to prove his innocence to them. Even if it meant betraying his fellow students, professor and even the director.
They wanted to get the student worried and nervous so that the cap could influence him into working with them. Mentioning the venom was also a part of this trickery. After all, the Venom was something even kings have a tough time getting their hands on. How the fck would a simple human be able to get some by himself?
However, what they had not expected was for the young lad to actually attack the human himself.
But that only made the captain solidify his decision even more. He could probably easily influence that Vince kid to do their bidding. That is if he agreed to their request.
"He will agree... the opportunity is too good to pass on." Cap once again mumbled to himself and threw away the cigar, "Let's go. We have a big day tomorrow."
***
The sun rose as usual, but with it came some good news for Ashton. The punishment imposed on him had been lifted. He was now allowed to attend physical training and sparring classes as per his schedule. However, he was warned to take care of others' well-being during the spars, or else he might face some other form of punishment every time he permanently injured someone.
With this notice came another one. Well, it wasn't a notice but a request, from the director herself. A request to meet her after his classes were over. With all of this sudden and new development, Ashton completely forgot about contacting the captain to accept his proposal.
He immediately freshened up and threw on his uniform, before rushing towards the arena. He knew for a fact that if he did not get there early, that witch Amaira would not allow him within the class, even though he had the notice with him.
"Run, run, run!!!" Ashton storm through the campus repeating those words inside his head.
Sure enough, he reached the arena around fifteen minutes before the class was scheduled to start. However, almost all of the students were already there. But there was something strange going on. The first-years weren't the only ones there... the second-years were there as well.
Everyone was awfully quiet in front of the seniors. Even the S-rankers. However, when Ashton showed up there, all of the attention was immediately diverted on him. It took a moment before even the second years started pointing fingers at him while whispering in each other's ears.
'Hm... looks like I'm gotten famous even among the second-years. Not sure if that's a good thing or not.'
A few of the second-years made took a few steps in his direction when the doors to the arena were thrown open. A familiar face they all dreaded could be seen through the doors. Amaira was there but unlike her usual buffed self, she looked quite frail. This form of her was something all of the first-years had seen for the first time. Hell, some of them could not even recognise her at first.
"The hell are you, idiots, looking at? Get inside I have something special planned for you-" She was in mid-sentence when she saw Ashton and stopped, "The heck are you doing here?"
"My punishment has been lifted." Ashton confidently replied before handing Amaira the notice.
Everyone around them was stunned, for it was the first time the director had revoked a ruling given by the disciplinary council, that too when the princess herself had given the punishment. Honestly, none of them had ever expected something like this to happen, but it did... as a result, the students couldn't help but feel if Ashton and the Director were close or something.
Amaira crushed the notice into a ball and threw it in the trash can before walking inside all huffing and puffing. While she did all that, Ashton had the biggest smile on his face.. He knew Amaira was pissed beyond her limits and he was more than happy to be the reason for her dismay.