NOVGO.NET Chapter 201: Bounty
Chapter 201: Bounty
Koya looked at her suspiciously, searching her face for any sign of a lie.
But his perception confirmed that her mana channels were indeed aligned for a core-link transmission.
He let out a long weary sigh. "Fine. Just a quick link transmission. Nothing extra."
"Hehehe... understood~"
Meoni didn’t hesitate for a single microsecond.
Before Koya could even finish bracing himself, Meoni stepped forward, reached her hands down, and firmly grabbed both sides of his rear through his trousers, pulling his hips violently against hers.
"Mmh?!" Koya gasped.
Meoni leaned up on her tiptoes and pressed her full soft lips directly against his.
The moment their lips met, a warm electrical shockwave of purple mana exploded between them.
But Meoni didn’t just keep it brief.
She parted her lips, and her surprisingly long flexible tongue shot straight into his mouth, arching expertly over his tongue and swirling against the roof of his mouth.
She pushed a heavy concentrated thread of her spiritual mana directly down his throat, establishing the core link.
"Mmmph..." A low muffled sound escaped Koya’s throat as her hands tightened their grip on his backside, squeezing his muscles through his pants with possessive needy force.
A small involuntary moan vibrated from her chest into his mouth as the mana synchronization completed, her hips grinding subtly against his front.
After five agonizingly intense seconds, Meoni slowly pulled her lips back with a thin string of clear saliva connecting their mouths before breaking.
Her purple eyes were completely hazy with lust, her cheeks flushed bright crimson, her breath coming in short heavy gasps.
’Testing... one, two, three... Can you hear me in your head, Hubby~?’ Meoni’s voice echoed directly, clearly inside Koya’s mind, completely bypassing his ears.
Koya wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, glaring at her while answering her mentally.
’Yes, I can hear you clearly. Was the butt-grabbing really necessary for the transmission?’
’Hehehe! It helps with the core grounding!’ Meoni giggled telepathically, winking at him as she backed toward the door. ’Goodbye for tonight, Boss’s Husband! Talk to you on the link tomorrow night!’
Without waiting for his response, Meoni unlocked the door, slipped out into the private elevator hallway, and vanished as the doors closed.
Koya stood in the entryway for a long moment, running a hand over his face, letting out the longest sigh of his entire life.
’Every single woman in the Order is completely crazy...’ Koya thought, shaking his head as he turned back into the living room.
Mable was sitting on the sofa, looking up from her game with bright, sparkling crimson eyes.
"Is the secret spy lady gone, Papa?" Mable asked excitedly. "Are we going to be secret undercover agents tomorrow night?!"
Koya’s face softened instantly. He walked over, sat down beside her, and gently patted her silver hair, making her giggle with delight.
"Yeah, sweetheart," Koya smiled. "We’re going to the casino tomorrow night to play some games and trick the bad guys."
"Yay! I’m going to win all the gold!" Mable cheered, throwing her arms in the air.
After spending another hour playing games with Mable and making sure she was comfortably tucked into the massive master bed, Koya walked out to the balcony.
The cool night air refreshed his senses as he looked down at the glittering expanse of Isle Supercity.
He pulled his personal smartphone from his pocket, navigated to his encrypted contacts, and selected Hakai’s name.
He pressed dial.
The phone rang for three slow agonizing beats.
CLICK.
"Good evening, my love," Hakai’s voice echoed smoothly through the speaker. It was a melodic purring tone that was usually reserved exclusively for him. "I trust you and Mable arrived safely at The Sovereign Grand? Has Meoni made contact with you yet?"
She paused, letting out a soft, delicate sigh.
"I must apologize for not being there to welcome you personally, Koya. I was delayed with urgent administrative matters at headquarters... my stomach was hurting quite badly this evening."
Koya stood on the balcony, staring out at the neon skyline. His expression remained completely stone-cold.
"Because you’re pregnant, right?" Koya said flatly.
Silence.
Dead silence fell over the line.
Hakai didn’t answer, hell she didn’t breathe.
The smooth confident Boss of the Order seemed to have completely frozen on the other end of the phone.
Without saying another word, Koya tapped the screen and hung up the call immediately.
He slid his phone back into his pocket, leaning against the balcony railing with a quiet dry exhale.
’It won’t actually hurt her,’ Koya thought, staring up at the moon. ’But she needs to at least feel a little bit uneasy about keeping something so important away from me. Relationships work both ways, Hakai.’
Meanwhile, miles away in one of the Order’s most heavily fortified underground medical facilities...
Amagi Hakai sat on a luxurious, plush medical stretcher in the center of a sterile, white-tiled examination room.
She was stripped down to a soft black silk robe that hung loosely over her shoulders, revealing her pale skin and her slightly swollen, rounded lower stomach.
Attached to her lower abdomen were several high-tech diagnostic scanners that hummed with blue mana-light.
Hakai held her smartphone in her right hand.
Her knuckles were white, her grip so intense the reinforced glass casing of the device was hairline-cracking under her fingers.
Her teeth were clenched tight.
Koya had hung up on her.
He had discovered her pregnancy through Meoni, called her out directly, and cut the call without giving her a single chance to explain or soft-launch her romantic reveal...
It wasn’t supposed to hurt this bad.
Hakai was the ruthless Boss of the Order so physical pain meant nothing to her.
So why... why did this tiny sharp coldness in her chest hurt so profoundly?
Because she was utterly attached to him.
She loved Koya with a terrifying intensity that consumed her entire soul and Koya knew it.
He knew exactly how much his approval meant to her, and he was deliberately using that connection to make her feel bad for keeping secrets.
And the worst part? It was working... Hakai felt genuinely guilty.
"Alright, Boss. The diagnostic scanners are fully calibrated and good to go."
A voice broke through her internal spiraling.
Standing near a massive glowing holographic computer terminal on the other side of the room was a striking woman with cascading crimson hair tied into a loose lab-coat ponytail.
She wore a pristine white medical coat over a sharp black corset, her sharp amber eyes scanning the scrolling streams of genetic data on her screens.
This was Professor Sakiya... Order No. 9. She was the chief medical officer, genetic researcher, and grand alchemist of the Order.
Sakiya tapped a few keys on her console with her eyes widening slightly as she analyzed the reading.
"Fascinating..." Sakiya murmured, turning around to face Hakai with a broad, impressed grin. "Boss, the preliminary scans are phenomenal... The fetus is extremely healthy, stable and developing at an unprecedented rate. Given the massive density of nutrient-rich mana you’ve been pumping into your core, she’s growing roughly three times faster than a baseline human child."
Sakiya walked over to the stretcher, checking the scanner pads on Hakai’s stomach.
"At this rate of genetic acceleration and mana absorption, you’ll likely be fully ready for delivery as early as five months from now. The special nutritional supplements and bloodline catalysts you’ve been taking are doing absolute wonders. This child... won’t be a failure at all."
Hakai’s purple eyes softened slightly as she looked down at her rounded stomach, resting her hand gently over her womb.
The Order was exceptionally well-versed in reproductive science and genetic engineering.
In fact, many lower-tier operatives in the organization had been artificially force-grown from the harvested genetic samples of senior members.
The last time Hakai had attempted to bear a child... it had resulted in Numb.
And Numb, despite his terrifying physical strength, was a broken, emotionally stunted and genetically unstable creation... a failure in Hakai’s eyes.
But this time... this time was completely different.
This child growing inside her wasn’t a cold laboratory experiment created in a glass tube.
This child was the fruit of genuine overwhelming love between herself and her Husband.
The combination of her own supreme Hoshigaki bloodline and Koya’s special bloodline would produce an entity far superior to anything this world had ever seen...
This child would surpass Hakai in every conceivable way.
Hakai let out a long quiet breath with her fingers gently caressing her stomach before she looked up at the crimson-haired scientist.
"Sakiya," Hakai asked, her tone carrying a rare hesitant edge.
Sakiya stopped typing, turning her head. "Yes, Boss?"
"What... what do you usually do when your Husband is angry at you?" Hakai inquired, genuine curiosity and anxiety mixing in her purple eyes.
Sakiya blinked.
She tilted her head to the left, then to the right with a thoughtful expression on her face as she tapped her chin with her manicured finger.
"Oh! Boss, you mean my past husbands?" Sakiya asked brightly, offering a cheerful totally casual smile. "Well... whenever they got mad at me or tried to argue about my research, I usually strangled them to death in their sleep! Then I dissected their corpses, preserved their heart cores in formaldehyde jars on my bookshelf, and used their residual spinal fluid to synthesize high-tier mana poisons!"
Sakiya threw her head back and let out a high-pitched maniacal villainous laugh that echoed loudly through the sterile white examination room.
"AHAHAHAHA! Dead men don’t stay angry, Boss! It solves the problem every single time!"
Hakai sat on the medical stretcher, staring at Order No. 9’s cackling, genuinely insane expression with a look of utter deadpan fatigue.
She slowly raised her hand, pinching the bridge of her nose, letting out a long, weary sigh.
’Right...’ Hakai thought bitterly, looking up at the ceiling tiles. ’I am surrounded by crazies.’
...
Koya let out a long sigh as he wiped his hands with a cloth napkin.
Between Mable’s seemingly bottomless stomach and his own high-tier Awakened metabolism, the mountain of dishes on the dining table was completely cleared.
He neatly stacked the silver platters, crystal bowls, and cutlery onto the service cart.
Walking over to the wall-mounted intercom near the entryway, he tapped the chime.
"Yes, Lord Albano?" the front desk operator responded instantly, her tone practically vibrating with eagerness. "How may we serve you?"
"I’ve finished dining," Koya said smoothly. "Send someone up to collect the cart and trays."
"Right away, My Lord! A server will be at your door within two minutes!"
Koya stepped back from the intercom and let out another quiet exhale.
’I just need to stay focused on the mission,’ he thought to himself.
Even if the mission required him to play the role of an arrogant mega-billionaire named Albano Shirou and go out of his way to befriend a ruthless Isle City Mafia Boss... a man who was apparently not too different from Hakai herself in terms of sheer paranoia and ambition... he still had a job to do.
It was a crazy absurd setup, but the stakes involved a world-altering divine relic and a trillion Crowns.
He couldn’t afford to mess up.
"Papa!" Mable’s voice chirped happily from the living room.
She had untucked herself after a two minute nap... Didn’t dragons need sleep?
She was sprawling on the oversized velvet sofa, holding the sleek hotel remote control in her hands. "I’m gonna turn on the big screen and watch cartoons, okay?"
Koya walked into the living room with a warm smile, bending down to gently pat her silver hair. "Sure thing, sweetheart. Enjoy your shows."
A polite knock sounded at the mahogany double doors right on cue.
Koya walked over and pulled it open. Standing outside was a different female server... a young, sharp-looking woman with neatly pinned hair pushing a small clearance trolley.
Koya offered a faint nod of approval.
The management was at least smart enough not to send the same maid back up.
If a regular hotel employee suddenly received a hundred thousand Crowns as a tip, any sane person would immediately hand in their resignation, quit on the spot, and go find a better life.
"Good evening, Lord Albano," the server bowed respectfully, stepping in just enough to collect the stacked cart. "Thank you for using our premium dining services. Would you or the young lady care for any late-night desserts?"
Koya was about to politely shake his head when Mable’s energetic voice echoed from the living room couch.
"I want dessert! More cake, Papa! More sweet stuff!"
Koya let out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head with fond exasperation.
He looked back at the server. "It seems my daughter wants dessert after all. Bring up a selection of your finest sweet pastries and cakes."
"At once, My Lord," the server bowed deeply, wheeling the empty cart out into the hallway. "They will be prepared immediately."
Koya closed the heavy mahogany door, sliding the deadbolt back into place. He looked around the vast quiet entryway of the Imperial Penthouse.
’While those desserts are being prepared... I should use this time to calm my mind and refine my core,’ Koya thought.
He walked over to an open space on the polished marble floor, not too far from the entrance, and sat down cross-legged.
He lowered his eyelids, taking a slow rhythmic breath, and began circulating his internal mana channels.
Beneath his current silver-haired, crimson-eyed disguise, Koya was a never seen before dual-crest Awakened... possessing both a Blue Crest and a Red Crest simultaneously.
Because he possessed a Red Crest, he had access to foundational Red Crest mechanics like Bide, allowing him to store kinetic energy and physical impact within his muscle fibers to unleash later in explosive bursts.
As he meditated, a thought crossed his mind.
’Red Crests get physical enhancement and traits like Bide... but what about Blue Crests? Do Blue Crests have their own unique, passive ability that I haven’t fully unlocked yet?’
Unlike standard Red Crest users who relied on explosive physical martial techniques and aura, Koya hadn’t naturally inherited a standard physical magic technique.
Why was that?
Was it because his dual-crest nature altered his core’s output, or was it because his newly awakened Vampire King bloodline overwhelmed standard human magic systems?
He deepened his meditation, guiding his mana through his blood vessels.
SHHHH!
As he pushed his core’s output, Koya’s crimson eyes ignited beneath his closed eyelids, glowing with a sharp blood-red light.
Crimson droplets began to seep directly out of his skin’s pores. The liquid blood didn’t fall to the floor... Instead, it defied gravity, levitating in mid-air and beginning to spiral around his body like a delicate, dark red web.
Ever since he had absorbed the Vampire King’s core and inherited the royal bloodline, blood magic had become as natural to him as breathing.
He didn’t need complicated incantations or runes as the blood answered his thoughts instantly.
He extended his right hand with his palm facing upward.
The spiraling threads of blood converged above his palm, coiling tightly into a perfectly smooth, hovering sphere of liquid crimson.
’I can make this denser...’ Koya analyzed internally.
Blood was naturally thicker and denser than water due to its cellular composition.
But what would happen if he forced his mana to compress the liquid further... condensing the blood’s density to a molecular level?
He focused his mind, squeezing the mana surrounding the floating sphere.
The blood ball shrank from the size of an apple down to a marble, turning so dark it was almost pitch-black.
He pushed it a step further.
He compressed it so severely that oxygen and atmospheric gas couldn’t even circulate inside the dense crimson shell.
POP!
The hyper-compressed blood marble destabilized, exploding in a mini shockwave of liquid pressure that splashed violently across his face, his unbuttoned shirt, and the surrounding white marble floor.
Koya sat there in the quiet entryway, covered in his own blood, blinking stupidly.
’Well... that was genuinely stupid on my part,’ Koya thought, dryly mocking himself.
With a soft sigh, Koya activated his Vampire King authority.
The blood splattered on his face, shirt, and the floor instantly liquefied into a vaporous red mist, flying backward through the air and absorbing seamlessly back through his pores, leaving his skin and clothes completely spotless.
Just as he finished cleaning up his self-inflicted mess, a polite knock sounded at the door once again.
Koya stood up, smoothed down his shirt, and opened it.
The server returned with a silver tray bearing an array of exquisite desserts... layered chocolate mousse, fruit tarts dusted with powdered sugar, and small vanilla sponges.
"Your desserts, Lord Albano," she presented them with a bow.
Koya took the tray with a simple thank you. He didn’t write another hundred thousand Crown cheque this time... one life-changing tip per night was enough.
He carried the tray into the living room with a playful flourish.
"Taa-daa!" Koya announced, setting the tray down on the low glass table in front of Mable.
"Yay! Cake!" Mable cheered, kicking her feet on the sofa.
For the next twenty minutes, the two of them ate desserts while cartoons played on the massive wall screen.
Mable giggled cheerfully, picking up a small silver fork to feed Koya bites of strawberry shortcake, which he happily accepted.
Just as Koya was beginning to lean back against the cushions, relaxing into the quiet domestic moment...
’Mmm... having fun with your sweet little daughter, Hubby~?’
Meoni’s melodic voice suddenly echoed directly inside Koya’s mind through the spiritual core-link they had established earlier.
Koya didn’t react physically.
He kept his face calm, leaning his head back while answering her telepathically.
’I was, until you interrupted. What’s wrong, Meoni? Is there an update on the casino?’
Meoni let out a dark purring giggle inside his head.
’Oh, nothing wrong with our plan! But your night is about to become quite eventful. It seems one of the high-and-mighty nobles you unceremoniously kicked off the 89th floor earlier didn’t take kindly to your little display of wealth. He just posted an open bounty on your head on the Isle City Underground Registry.’
Koya raised an eyebrow mentally. He had kicked out dozens of powerful, arrogant elites so he fully expected someone to throw a temper tantrum.
’How much?’ Koya asked dryly.
’Five million Crowns,’ Meoni replied, her voice filled with amused mockery. ’And it’s currently trending at number one on the local hitman forums. Half the mercenary guilds in the sector are scrambling toward your hotel right now. Would you like me to take the post down? I just have to trace the network IP and cut the noble’s throat. It’ll take me five minutes.’
Koya let out a slow, quiet exhale through his nose. He looked at Mable, who was completely absorbed in her animated dragon show.
’Don’t bother,’ Koya told Meoni, a cold edge entering his mental tone. ’I was getting bored sitting around waiting for tomorrow anyway. Let them come.’
Meoni giggled delightedly in his mind. ’Ooh, confident! I love a man who doesn’t run from blood. Good luck tonight, Lord Albano~ Don’t break the hotel furniture!’
Her voice faded and the spiritual link went silent.
Koya sat on the plush leather sofa, staring out the floor-to-ceiling glass balcony doors at the neon city below.
’Five million Crowns...?’ Koya thought, his lips twitching into a flat, unimpressed line. ’Honestly, I’m worth way more than that. If someone is going to put a price on my head, it should at least be high enough that I’d be tempted to turn myself in to cash the cheque.’
This wasn’t the first time an open bounty had been placed on him but right now, after absorbing the Vampire King’s core, achieving a dual-crest breakthrough, and spending hours suppressing his strength... a strange dark itch was beginning to scratch at the back of his mind.
Koya unknowingly raised his hand, his tongue briefly flicking out to lick his upper lip. His crimson eyes gleamed with a sudden primal hunger.
He didn’t just want a fight to pass the time...
He wanted to see blood.