Chapter 153: Enemies of Nustra

For days, Filmos was lost in thoughts. He didn’t know exactly where to start. All he knew was that he had to find his parents.

He looked around with all he could, even getting into the deepest part of the slums he ought not to enter.

But then, nothing really happened. Nothing worked in his favor.

And for days, the hopes of finding his parents became slimmer. The possibility that they were already dead was now high.

He couldn’t get enough rest, sleeping on some sticky floor of the slums beside rats, protected only by his beast, which had shrunk down into a small form to rest on his shoulder.

When he finally decided to return back to the surface of society, he slipped back into their home. He went straight to his destroyed room and even got a chance to clean himself up.

"Finally... at peace and clean," he sighed as his head rested against the cold tiled wall.

After cleaning up, he slipped out of his house and continued thinking again about what to do. Should he just move on and stop looking for them?

Well, the possibility that they had left him for good was also huge. If the syndicate wasn’t on their tails, there was no reason for them to stay with him.

Even though they were his biological parents, they didn’t treat him like one anyway.

As he walked, a digital bulletin on a wall caught his attention, making him drag his steps backward.

With one eyebrow raised, he looked suspiciously at the information posted before him.

’Is this me?’

A picture of him was displayed on the bulletin board alongside an official wanted announcement. He was a wanted person now.

"What the hell..."

...

Back in Nara City, Clame, who had just returned from a mission, received a notification containing information about the Anti-Nustra Legion.

As a primary enemy of the region, she didn’t have any choice but to read the notice.

Sitting in her executive swivel chair at her desk, she took a slow sip from her morning coffee before scanning the document sent to her.

On her digital tablet displaying a holographic interface, she zoomed and swiped around the document, reading it efficiently at a speed far beyond any average person.

Placing her cup back on the table, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

’Hm... Anti-Nustra members were killed in the slums by some unknown kid?’

She couldn’t believe what she had just read, but it was a verified suspicion from the local authorities. Moreover, the high chance that he was also a former Anti-Nustra member who had killed his own comrades wasn’t slim either.

Clame was forming her own understanding of the case. Seeing no other choice, she sipped the last bit of her coffee before rolling her chair to one side of her wide executive desk.

Tapping on the computer resting by her side, she adjusted her schedule and sent the updated itinerary to Nair. As soon as it sent, she opened the profiles of the members from her strengthened Slime Squad.

Browsing for the specific members she would pick for her visit to Hibiscus City, she clicked on their profiles and sent out official mission notifications.

Clame’s Slime Squad was an elite unit. Despite their technical links to the Enemies of the Nustra Region and that infamous Beast Shop, their track record and contributions were higher than almost any other unit.

To be honest, their reputation was far too grand for anyone to suspect them of being linked to tamers who turned into criminals after purchasing creatures from the Beast Shop.

After a while, Clame visited the officers she had assigned to the Hibiscus mission.

Lined up inside a well-lit white facility, they stood at attention as she stood authoritatively in front of them. A heavy, commanding atmosphere radiated around her, reinforcing her natural leadership.

Just a step behind her stood Nair, whose strong, sharp presence was second only to Clame, the Lady Commander.

"Good. There are six people in total, excluding us, Nair. You have all received the brief description of our target, right?"

Everyone nodded in unison, not needing to check the holographic interfaces on their digital watches since they had already memorized and understood the briefing.

Clame nodded, satisfied with their preparation.

"Filmos Lurdous, a newly registered tamer at the Contribution Agency. But I doubt he was entirely untrained before this. With how suspicious his beast is and how he acquired it, there is a high chance he bought it in Suran City," Clame stated firmly.

One officer raised his hand to ask a question. "Does this mean he should be labeled as an Enemy of Nustra as well?"

Clame nodded.

"We have to establish or break through the local department’s initial suspicions. Since they suspect him to be part of the Anti-Nustra Legion—an escapee who murdered his fellow members—we have to thoroughly look into that line of thought as well."

The squad members nodded along.

"Furthermore, Filmos Lurdous could turn out to be an enemy or an ally. If he really bought his creature from that specific Beast Shop, there is a strong chance he might turn to crime after tasting a bit of real power. We have to intercept him before he fully becomes one."

Clame dismissed the briefing after a few more minutes of back-and-forth strategic discussion with her team.

To be completely honest, she was feeling a growing sense of stress over the fact that Terrence, was still missing without a trace.

Despite her repeated attempts to contact him through his digital watch, there was still no answer for her to hold onto.

If only Terrence would stop selling beasts, she might finally stand a chance at taking a vacation. But the Anti-Nustra faction continued to expand, actively recruiting enemies of Nustra who were drawn in by Terrence’s commercialized monsters.

If only she could make sense of why he was distributing such dangerous beasts to people driven by unchecked desires.