PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

328 Chapter 328 A Small Storm In The Underworld

Knock* Knock*

“I’m going” Two adorable voices of childish origin answered with strange synchronicity from the other side of the door.

Quickly two sets of footsteps were heard before the wooden door swung open revealing a pair of identical-looking brown-haired girls, given the almost perfect symmetry between them it wasn’t hard to tell they were twins.

“Desmond” Once again both girls spoke in unison greeting the unexpected guest.

Smiling at the adorable sight of the twins, Desmond extended a hand giving the girls a jar of goodies, but not before saying, “Don’t tell your mother I brought this.”

Amy and Mellie grabbed the candy jar and briskly ran to their room to hide it while Desmond smirked from the door wondering if he should come in.

Drawn by the noise, Sophia arrived a short time after the twins’ departure only to be surprised by Desmond’s presence.

Looking at the expression of surprise and slight discomfort, Desmond remembered that he hadn’t said goodbye on the best of Sophia’s terms due to him losing his temper with her so he wasted no time and spoke first: “Sorry to come unannounced, I had things to do in the city and thought I’d drop by and say hi.”

Sophia looked at Desmond’s sincerely apologetic expression and that small grudge that still existed within her grew a little smaller.

.....

Wasting no time Sophia invited Desmond in and a short time later the two were chatting in the kitchen like good friends as they shared some experiences and information.

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Sophia mentioned that she was quite surprised when the report came in that Desmond had single-handedly captured one of the fugitive criminals a couple of months ago though it was too bad that person would never come to trial.

She even mentioned that some strange rumors had been spread regarding the death of a said criminal, no one knew who started the rumor but because of it many small gangs and criminals were afraid to set foot in Green Seed Town, which she found quite ironic since the city was having trouble keeping the gangs under control.

Of course, both cases should not even be compared, after all the scale of the gangs in the city of Kars is completely different, these have almost formed a mafia that has been difficult to suppress without resorting to drastic measures because the vast majority of military personnel have been reassigned to areas where mutated beast attacks are most frequent.

Desmond was only slightly interested in the subject, quickly moving on to other topics to chat, even talking a bit with Sophia about her daughters, thus earning a smile from the mature woman.

Sophia simply didn’t know that while he seemed uninterested on the surface, Desmond’s reason for coming to Kars City was precise because of the gangs.

Of course, Desmond didn’t come to join a gang, quite the contrary Desmond came to destroy as many gangs as possible. One might think it strange that Desmond had such a noble task to perform in the city, but Desmond wasn’t here to bring justice or punishment to anyone, no; Desmond was in Kars City because he needed funds.

Desmond needed a huge amount of funds that couldn’t be traced back to him so there was no better target for him than the Kars City gangs.

Due to the rise of credit tokens and esper crystal trading, these two items became one of the best ways to use or acquire untraceable funds and a strong currency in the underworld; so the gangs used to store their assets in the form of one of these.

Under normal circumstances, no one would think of stealing from the gangs, as there was no shortage of relatively strong espers within the gangs, but Desmond was the exception, Desmond was strong even by military standards so from Desmond’s point of view the gangs they were nothing more than cash vaults waiting to be looted.

Perhaps the advantage of lowering crime by eliminating these vermin could be considered a small bonus that Desmond didn’t plan on neglecting.

Hours passed and Desmond ended up staying for dinner with Sophia and her adorable daughters before the mature woman invited him to spend the night at her house, being aware that the woman had no other intentions, Desmond accepted easily.

As night fell, Desmond slipped out of the guest room without any trouble and soon witnessed the nightscape of the city of Kars.

If Desmond had to describe the scene in two words they would be: lively and decadent. Bars and clubs are operating at full capacity selling as much alcohol as possible regardless of whether it is to minors or not.

Drug deals weren’t hard to witness and prostitution was even less rare, and it didn’t take long for Desmond to receive all kinds of offers as he made his way to the slums.

Ignoring the decaying scene, Desmond continued on his way until he reached the slums where all the vigor of the nightlife quickly died leaving only desolate and suspicious alleys.

Taking advantage of the silence and the lack of people, Desmond took the opportunity to take some things out of the hunter’s book and change his current appearance, now dressed in a dark trench coat matching dark clothes and a simple white mask Desmond stopped moving through the alleys and began to move across the rooftops with dexterity and stealth.

Just from the way he moved in a fixed direction, Desmond already had a destination or rather a target in mind.

“Time to pay off old debts,” Desmond couldn’t help but comment to himself with a bloody grin.

Soon Desmond came to a place that looked like some kind of underground casino, swanky looking older men accompanied by young prostitutes who went out of their way to look comfortable and cheerful in their company, some more dangerous looking people and others with scarves tied around their arms; It was quite a sight, but Desmond focused on the people with scarves on their arms.

The scarf was a symbol for a certain gang that Desmond had had run-ins with in the past, even going so far as to work for them to get some extra funds while he tried to keep Claire safe from them.

As a matter of fact, Desmond didn’t have too much personal grudge against them because the people in this gang couldn’t be considered the worst, besides drugs, prostitution, and gambling; This gang is not involved in crimes such as human trafficking or organ sales, so they could already be considered a friendly gang.

Of course, that was only from one point of view, in any case, Desmond had two reasons to start this gang, the first was that this was one of the gangs that Desmond knew better so it was easier to attack; the second reason is that on some occasion the boss of this gang tried to convince Claire to become a prostitute.

Even with his mood being more controlled Desmond still felt the overwhelming urge to slash the gang leader’s throat and watch him drown in his blood for even daring to suggest such a thing.

It was clear that it didn’t matter that Desmond had left behind many demons from his past, managing to heal on a spiritual level and thus obtaining a more stable state of mind; Claire was still his reverse scale and few survive the consequences of touching her.

In any case, Desmond wasn’t going to annihilate these people for a grudge as far as it goes, no, Desmond was going to annihilate them because they were scum with too much money on their hands, money that Desmond needed for his plans.

It may be quite hypocritical of him, but Desmond had little conscience disposing of scum like this, of course, considering that Desmond barely felt anything when he slaughtered an entire military convoy just to ensure his survival and cover his tracks; it was reasonable that Desmond didn’t feel much for killing criminals.

The poor members of this and other gangs simply had no idea that a terrifying demon had come to town coveting their fortunes, but that would soon change, soon a ravenous storm would sweep through the city of Kars.

The corpses are to be piled up and the blood will flow, shaking the foundations of the underworld, leaving them vulnerable by the time the military draws their guns on them, bringing new peace to the city of Kars; Perhaps the only question left for the military after the fact will be about the whereabouts of the hidden fortunes of the gangs.

But that’s all in the future, for now, Desmond will have a little warm-up with the little gang that runs the underground casino.

“You can only blame yourself for having so much money on you”

Not even bothering to hide his sneaky appearance, Desmond used to appear in front of the guards at the entrance, without even waiting for an instant, Desmond punched both guards before they reacted leaving them both unconscious.

“The hard part comes now,” Desmond said unsatisfied for having taken out the guards so easily, he knew that these guards were almost a decoration and that once he entered enemy territory it would not be strange to find some quite strong espers; he was certainly looking forward to it.