Chapter 67: success
Mara stared at the shattered plate, then back at Fin’s unnervingly calm face. "Hana tried to kill you? Fin, this... this is insane."
"Is it?" His voice remained flat. "Or is it just Tuesday in the life of a Hunter?"
She took another shaky step back. "Okay. Okay, let’s say... let’s say I believe you. The team is dead. Hana betrayed you. You somehow survived. Now what? You can’t just walk into the Guild like this."
"Exactly," he confirmed. "They’d lock me up. Dissect me. Or worse."
"So what do you want?" she asked, dread pooling in her stomach.
"A cover story," he said simply. "One that fits. One they’ll accept."
His plan unfolded with chilling precision. He wouldn’t report back immediately. Instead, he needed to be found. Near the dungeon site. Critically injured. Barely alive. Suffering from trauma-induced amnesia. The sole, miraculous survivor of a mission gone horribly wrong.
"Amnesia?" she whispered, horrified. "Injured? Fin, you’re talking about—"
"Injuring myself," he finished for him, the words holding no weight. "Severely. It needs to look convincing. Broken bones, internal bleeding, near-death trauma. Enough that amnesia is plausible. Enough that they won’t question how a D-rank survived when A-ranks didn’t."
"No." she shook her head vehemently. "Absolutely not. That’s crazy, Fin! You could kill yourself!"
"No, I won’t." The certainty in his voice was absolute, unsettling. "Pain is... manageable now. My recovery is accelerated." He didn’t elaborate on what he meant. He didn’t need to. The implication was clear enough.