Chapter 418: A New Mission
Four months had passed by since the infamous Bleeding Smile raid and Serah’s annoying encounter with the man known as Marcus.
In the weeks that followed, Serah returned to her normal grind—hunting down dark mages deemed too dangerous to be left to ordinary units—after taking her short, well-earned break that barely lasted a week.
Her new assignment, alongside a freshly assembled squad, led her into the rising heat of suspicion festering in the city of Heyh, located in Zone 16.
Heyh—glittering with wealth and excess—was a place where even the beggars wore silk. The streets shimmered with polished stone, the air perfumed with incense, and its citizens strutted with pride, untouched by poverty. Sitting comfortably in the heart of all that glam and grandeur was one of its prized gems: a nobleman named Vaelen Drosmir.
Drosmir wasn’t just rich—he was practically swimming in wealth. Some even whispered that he might be the wealthiest soul in Heyh, period. His gold had built roads, healed sick children, and even boosted the Solara Kingdom’s military with generous donations of coin, enchanted armor, and refined myst supplies.
But about a month ago, something cracked the polished image.
During a completely unrelated mission in a far-off province, a noble’s daughter—believed dead in a bandit raid—was found alive. Barely. She had been enslaved, her body pumped with toxins, and her mind fogged under the weight of a memory-altering spell, a dark magic spell. Once she came to her senses, she began to speak—and what she said started to spark serious questions about Drosmir.
She recalled being sold at an underground auction, surrounded by masked figures kneeling before a man whose voice gave her chills. Smooth, confident and too familiar. The way she described it—it sounded exactly like Vaelen Drosmir.
King Tharion didn’t brush it off.
Though Drosmir was publicly known to possess only water affinity—with myst resonance records backing that claim—Tharion didn’t like loose threads. Especially when dark magic might be involved.
So, without hesitation, Tharion dispatched Serah and her unit to infiltrate Heyh and quietly start poking around.
Serah led a small team of five, slipping into the city under new identities, setting up base in the upper ring, and beginning a slow, methodical surveillance campaign on Vaelen Drosmir.