Arc 2: Chapter 13: Wizards
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During the afternoon, the furniture Merlin had ordered had finally arrived; after some arranging, this empty house started to look like an actual home.

Merlin withdrew some money from the bank card Fury had given him, and he took Sitwell along to buy some daily necessities.

He even bought a new computer for Sitwell because his job required one. He swiftly assembles the computer and tidies a proper workplace for himself in the garage.

It's good that Merlin was not crazy enough to make Sitwell self-cater.

"In advance, here's your allowance."

Merlin stands next to Sitwell and places several hundred dollars onto the table beside him. He points to the house and tells the energetic Sitwell:

"Your room is on the second floor; if you want to eat anything, prepare it yourself in the kitchen. Occasionally a distant cousin of mine would come live here, next time I'll bring you along to have a meal with him, to introduce you to each other."

"Oh, right, and this!"

Merlin takes his holster and pistol and places them in front of Sitwell, then he says:

"Keep this with you whenever you go out."

"Err, sir, I'm not an official agent yet."

Sitwell strokes on what little hair he had on his head and says:

"Regulations say I can't be keeping a gun yet."

"Listen, Sitwell, this is for your good."

Merlin says with a sincere tone:

"Hell's Kitchen is a bad place, the order here is terrible, it's incomparable to your time in the academy. I do not wish to receive news of you being hurt in a robbery while I'm out on the field."

"You are also a public official now, you work for me, so I have to guarantee your safety. This thing isn't for you to harm people with it, it's for self-defense."

"Okay then."

Sitwell stores the holster and pistol in the drawer of this second-hand office desk, he tells Merlin:

"Then, sir, when will we be starting our mission?"

"Tonight."

Merlin looks at the time on his watch and tells Sitwell:

"I'll be going out now, I'll be back around midnight."

"What about me? What will I be doing?"

Silvey was surprised, he asks cautiously:

"I don't need to go out with you, right?"

"Why? Are you scared of going on field missions?"

Merlin asks back and Sitwell smiles embarrassedly.

Merlin opens the car door and tells his partner:

"You can go take a rest now, make yourself some dinner, and start organizing data starting from tomorrow. Or even...help me clean my room if you have nothing to do."

"Vroom"

Merlin starts the engine, pulls down the car window, and enjoins Sitwell:

"Call me if you have any problems."

As he finishes, the car zooms out of the garage, turns the corner, and soon disappears from the block.

As he sees Merlin off, trainee agent Sitwell puts his hands on his hips and stands in the garage. He looks at the slightly shabby office in front of him, and mumbles to himself:

"Not that hard to interact with, albeit a bit stingy. What should I do now?"

The trainee agent contemplates, and after a few minutes, he picks up the vacuum and enters the room.

Mmm, we'll do some cleaning then, as the first mission of the agent life he was about to embark on.


Merlin drives his car and wanders around the night of Hell's Kitchen.

The car was not moving that quickly, and as the car moved, Merlin's dark senses were like an irregular radar passing through the streets. He's using this method to look for hidden irregulars.

It's not the most efficient method, but it is the best method Merlin could think of right now.

Irregulars are good at hiding themselves, like the guys he met before in Hell's Kitchen, they weren't exactly dark beings.

Most are just corrupted by phantoms or small demons, they're essentially humans, but they've crossed the line for supernatural events, so they more or less have some abilities.

These people are the unstable factors in Fury's eyes, and the targets he has to find from the people living in New York.

Aside from these weaker irregulars, there are also some stronger ones.

Some dark beings that stormed into the human realm from hell or some other place, like physically existing pure-blooded demons and devils.

Some mythical creatures hide among the people, like vampires and werewolves.

Theoretically, Atlanteans like Vulko are also needed to be recorded into his mission.

But it's risky to approach these beings hastily.

Merlin has to keep himself hidden, then silently approach and observe them.

Lastly are some dangerous beings that he has to avoid for the moment, they're quite powerful.

Like for example in Manhattan's Wall Street, Merlin discovered the presence of a very dangerous half-demon. That guy gave Merlin a feeling as if he was facing a Greater Demon head-on; its demonic presence even enshrouded the entirety of Wall Street.

It did not hide its existence, as if it's extremely confident in its capabilities and is warning its kin not to provoke him.

Merlin had collected that guy's data before, Merlin knows that the half-demon is called Daimon.

His surface identity is the owner of an investment company in Wall Street, and he frequents the upper classes of New York.

And powerful half-demons like Daimon are not rare, there are several in Manhattan alone, they have clear boundaries and do not easily trespass on each other's business.

"Kack"

A light snap resounds and Merlin retracts his spy camera.

On the street opposite to him, a couple was having a passionate kiss, the female seemed to be very pretty, yet Merlin could sense the dark man coming from her, must be a young Succubus.

"Mmm, good luck, pal."

Merlin looks at the man with pity, he shakes his head, turns the steering wheel, and leaves the crossroad.

He's only responsible for recording, not for saving.

And from Merlin's personal experience, those who are related to demons aren't worth saving.

In the next block, was a place on the edge of Manhattan, a place he had never been to before.

But it is here, where he discovered something unexpected.

He parks his car by the side of the road and looks at the bar, or nightclub, sitting on the edge of the street.

In Merlin's eyes, he could see all types of weird mana emitting from it, more importantly, Merlin could barely see a green halo binding the mana and keeping them from spreading out.

"Irregulars' hangout?"

Merlin closes the car door and squints his eyes:

"And that halo...some type of magic?"

Merlin was interested, he looks around, puts on his baseball cap, and walks towards the bar.

But Merlin was intercepted at the bar entrance. A bald, muscular man wearing a white vest looked at Merlin and says:

"First time?"

"Yes."

Merlin nods, the muscular man then takes a card from the box in his hand and raises it in front of Merlin. He asks:

"What's on the card?"

Merlin squints his eyes, there was a weak glow on the odd-looking card. With his second sight, Merlin could see some kind of reflection on the card.

On the card, was the reflection of a demon.

"Demon."

Merlin answers, which the muscular man lets out a smile and turns sideways, he tells Merlin:

"Please, sir. There'll be a fantastic show tonight."

A young man standing behind Merlin sees him walk into the bar and he steps forward excitedly. The muscular man holds the same card and asks:

"What's on the card?"

The young man answers with Merlin's tone:

"Demon!"

"Shwaa"

The card was then flipped over, it was a picture of a humorous frog, this made the young man's eyes go wide. He saw that the muscular man never changed the card in his hand.

"You cheated!"

He screamed as he tried to barge into the nightclub, but then he was dragged out by two indifferent-looking muscular men.

Merlin who had already entered the nightclub did not know of this tiny incident.

He follows the red carpet on the ground and walks towards the interior of the nightclub, and as the noisy music begins to resound in his ear, he sees the chaotic insides of the nightclub.

In it were people who're having fun.

Their appearance was no different from a regular human, but that's only on the surface.

In Merlin's eyes, this nightclub was practically an irregulars' exhibition hall. Dancing corpses controlled by phantoms, devils disguised as girls, drunk vampires, demons with large wings arm-wrestling with werewolves, beautiful creatures like the spirits from legends, and other weird-looking beings Merlin can't name.

Merlin even saw a long-bearded dwarf drinking beer with an elf.

Even Merlin, who thought himself to be quite knowledgeable, was stunned at what he saw.

He had never seen so many irregulars gathered together before, yet he told Fury that there weren't a lot of irregulars in New York. Now, it would seem that it's just Merlin's hallucination.

He never found the hangout spots for irregulars, now that he found one, he realizes that there is a large number of irregulars in the city and that they have their social circles, that is if you find the right spot.

Right now, Merlin began to have a headache.

He belatedly discovered that he was a bit overly optimistic about his mission.

He told Silvey that the mission would be complete in at most a year. But now it seems that the watchlist Fury wants would have to take several years to be preliminarily complete.

"Hey, handsome, wanna have a drink?"

Behind him, a scantily clad beauty reaches out, holds Merlin's arm, and gives an ambiguous invitation. Merlin turns around and looks at her, then he shakes his head, politely loosens his hand, and gently declines:

"Sorry...I'm not interested in phantoms."

As he finishes, he leaves the corpse lady and walks into the crowd in front of him, like he entered the irregular sea.

He's here not to have fun, but to complete his mission!

20 minutes later...

"Fuh"

Merlin finishes a large glass of odd wine, he feels that the wine tastes great, so he places the wine glass on the table and tells the half-angel bartender in front of him:

"Another round! Same for my fellow friends!"

As Merlin says so, the irregulars around him let out a cheer.

Making friends here is as simple as such, Merlin takes out his spy camera and asks the people beside him:

"Marty, have a smoke."

"No, my friend, I dislike the smell."

The handsome man who was a phantom, declines Merlin's offer, the latter shrugs and keeps the cigar box; the light 'Kack' sound was undiscoverable as it was covered by the noise around the nightclub.

And in this camera were no less than 30 pictures of irregulars, this was the result of Merlin's 20-minutes' work.

"Give me a smoke."

As Merlin kept the spy camera in his pocket, a lazy tone resounds next to him:

"I came out in a hurry and forgot to bring mine."

Merlin turns around, next to him was a slightly pale, handsome-looking young man wearing a yellow coat. messy hair and a carefree temperament. To Merlin's surprise, he wasn't irregular, he was human!

An actual human, who had no trace of being corrupted by demons nor devils, yet he had a scent of mana emitting from him.

Merlin squints his eyes.

"Here, friend."

Merlin takes out his cigar box from his other pocket and gives it to the lazy young man, the latter takes it, looks at it, and blows a whistle.

"Silk Cut Cigars, my favorite!"

As he finishes, he skilfully takes out a cigar and puts it into his mouth. Merlin timely extends a lighter, and as the man lit his cigar, Merlin lightly asked:

"What's your name, friend? Are you a wizard?"

"Fuh"

The man spits out a pretty smoke ring, he makes a hand gesture to the bartender in front of him, then he leans his body against his arm and looks at Merlin. Under the cigar smoke, this odd-looking young man replies:

"Call me Constantine, and...I guess I'm somewhat of a wizard."

"Also, friend, you're taking pictures too obviously, quite a few people have you in his sights. Are you looking for something?"

Merlin's expression changes slightly, he looks around and spreads out his dark senses. Sure enough, a few unfriendly gazes were aiming at him from the corner of the bar.

But Merlin did not panic that much, he takes the cocktail handed over by the bartender, and tells Constantine:

"I am looking for something, and I already found it."

He raises the wine glass at the young man in front of him and says:

"To the first wizard I've met thus far, can I interest you in a talk?"

 

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