“Ngh…” Finn slowly rose from the ground, retracting his tentacles. His legs felt weak and it took everything he had just to stand, but there wasn’t much time. He had to get out of here before the dust settled.

“Raiju…” Finn glanced down at the wounded Heavenly Beast, who nodded slowly in response and returned to residing within Finn. This way, it would be a lot easier to hide. A purple aura surrounded him, indicating the Nightstalker Angelica he had copied from Elder Hua, and used an Ability.

‘Invisibility.’

This Ability did exactly what the name entailed. Render the user invisible for a set duration of time. Due to his Ghost Blood’s enhancement properties, Finn’s invisibility lasted longer than usual. He had came across this skill by chance when Elder Hua used it during one of their training sessions to teach them how to sense someone when they are invisible.

Breathing ragged and footsteps uneven, Finn slowly climbed out of the crowd’s line of sight right before the smoke cleared, leaving them to stare only at a massive crater in the ground and the three long claw markings on both buildings’ walls.

After a while, Iris finally regrouped with Finn. It took her a while to finally find him by looking around in the area surrounding the massive crater in the floor, but that time let Finn recover a bit.

Now, the two sat within a back alleyway somewhere near the center of District A, judging from how ‘downtown’ and ‘urban’ this place looked in comparison to the slums.

“Finn… are you sure you’re alright?” Iris asked in worry, sitting down beside him and not caring that her beautiful white clothes will get dirty. “We can’t go to the hospital since the guild has eyes everywhere, but… I don’t know…”

“Relax,” Finn said, lifting his face a bit. “See? My wounds are already healed.”

At this, Iris’s eyes widened. “Y-You’re right… but… how…?”

“… Why do you think the guild suddenly targeted us like that, going as far as to place a bounty on my head?”

“Erm… the only possibility I can think of right now is that you killed Hurricane…?”

Finn nodded. “That’s part of it… but not the main trigger.”

“What do you mean…?” Iris frowned, tilting her head in confusion.

Suddenly, without warning, Finn activated one of his tentacles, which also was healed already. Iris’s eyes widened, but she didn’t try to scramble away or anything of the sort.

“F-Finn… you’re…”

“… Part Ghost. Just like you.”

“W-What…? But… how…? My bloodline is the only-“

“I was not born this way,” Finn interrupted, resting his arm on his knee and retracting his tentacle. “I was made this way.”

Iris gulped. “Is that even… possible…?”

“With enough Ghost Blood? Yes. When I first encountered a Ghost, I was saved from the brink of death by… someone. However, to do so, they had to infuse the Ghost’s blood into my body, thus inadvertently turning me part-Ghost.”

“So that’s why you didn’t see me as abnormal when I told you my family’s backstory…” Iris murmured.

“After finding out about this, do you still wish to accompany me?” Finn asked, just to make sure of her loyalty.

Iris smiled. “Of course. If anything… this only makes our bond tighter, does it not?”

Finn snorted, then gave a low chuckle. “Maybe so.”

“But… what’s the plan from here on out?” Iris asked after a short silence. “We killed several Ghost Hunters, and injured plenty more. Returning to the guild is hardly an option.”

“It was never one in the first place,” Finn replied. “Regardless of whether or not we killed those Hunters. Someone saw me using my Ghost powers to kill Hurricane. It should have been impossible with all the obstacles in the way at the time, but… someone did. They clearly captured evidence as well, and sent it to the guild.”

“So… what do we do?”

“It’s simple,” Finn said calmly, standing up from the ground and adjusting his cloak. “We go rogue.”

In the end, the two settled on resting at an inn for tonight, as it was getting late. They would begin their travels tomorrow morning, when they would start heading for District B. Apparently, the Emperor-level Ghost there has yet to be subdued, so Finn was going to investigate.

Thankfully, being hunted by the guild wasn’t as bad as the police, in some respects. Yes, the Hunters being sent after them would be a lot stronger than mere police, wielding the power of Angelicas, but Finn and Iris could deal with them just fine. Unlike an arrest from the police, however, Finn and Iris could still go around living life as usual, as normal humans.

They checked in and made the payment with Finn’s card, then headed upstairs to their room. After both showered, Iris got into the only bed in the room. Since they were going rogue now, they had no stable source of income. They had to use their money wisely. Even if Finn did have all those riches from the treasure chest at the end of the Temple, he still couldn’t afford to waste any. He would save whenever it was possible and didn’t bring any significant disadvantages to the table.

But… Finn didn’t get in the bed, and instead sat down on the couch. Iris blinked.

“Um… Finn? I don’t mind, you know… we can sleep together on the bed.”

“It’s not that,” Finn answered. “We have to be alert at all times, in case the guild sends people after us. As such, we will take shifts. Go ahead and sleep first. I’ll wake you up in a few hours to swap.”

“Oh…” Iris sounded disappointed and furrowed her brows, but then, her cheeks slowly began turning red. Why was she feeling disappointed?! Because Finn wasn’t going to sleep with her?!

“… Something wrong?” Finn asked, hearing her hesitation.

“A-Ah, no! Not at all!” She hurriedly cried, then promptly buried herself beneath the blankets of the bed. Thank god he can’t see… otherwise, it would’ve been so embarrassing…

Finn sighed and leaned back on the couch, then ultimately decided to talk with Zelestria in his mind to help himself stay awake.

‘Zelestria. You there?’

[Mhm. I gotta say though, I’m surprised you gave away your identity to Iris so easily, darling.]

‘… Well. There’s no point in hiding it any longer to her. She’s bound to question why we were hunted by the guild, and what would I say then? I am no expert deceiver.’

[Hm… that’s fair. So? What did you want to talk about?]

‘First and foremost… I want to ask,’ Finn thought, then after some slight hesitation, he continued.

‘… Do you know who exposed me?’