A villain's secret

Chapter 3: The age of death

Nox POV
present day

Once again morning came, bringing with it the sun to annoy Nox as he laid face first on his bed, finally home in the small apartment on the outskirts of the third ring. Golden light fought its way into the room, soaking his body in its warmth as he continued to sleep through the day.

This day has been way too long.

He had taken the newly healed child to a home in the first ring, where the family had gladly welcomed the new addition, in exchange for their lives. It had been hours of travel to make it there and back, even on Nox's motorcycle. The sleek all black bike a small perk of being a reaper, although, he usually preferred the view from the rooftops as well as the silence. But on this occasion it was necessary.

Nox didn't know exactly how long it'd been since he'd closed his eyes, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, before a nagging tapping sound came from the boarded up window of Nox's apartment.

He cracked an eye open searching for the source of his new headache. A small black bird perched on the windowsill, it's pecking growing faster as it tried to rouse Nox's attention. With a loud grumble, he sat up and moved to the other side of the room. Weapons of every kind as well as his clothes covered the floor in a mess. The wood was warm from the sun as he pressed his eye against a hole in the boards covering the window. Nox studied the perky messenger crow with displeasure as it eyed him back.

Maybe the rumours will come true and this damn bird will drop dead from staring at me.

But no matter how much Nox wanted the crow permanently silenced, since the incident where nearly all the reaper's birds had mysteriously died after waking Nox up day after day. He'd been directly ordered to stop killing them. It wasn't in Nox's nature to obey any kind of orders, especially when he'd been woken up, but the guild definitely had methods to make Nox's life miserable.

With a low growl, Nox warned the bird to hurry up. Quickly, it lifted up a wing and plucked a feather with its beak, placing the inky feather in front of a small gap in the glass behind the wooden boards. With a single finger Nox pulled it towards him as the bird flapped its wings and carried on to its next delivery. Each feather a messenger bird gave away held the details of a reaper's target, sent from the guild.

Second ring - Town 2 - Carson Peters
Rank 1

The message stated everything Nox needed to know. The rank telling him this target was meant to be challenging. This Carson Peters was most likely a soldier of high standing, perhaps a captain. It was quite common to find soldiers as targets of the reapers. Their will and determination was generally stronger then most, making their life energy more desirable to the people who harvested it for the good of the kingdom. At least that's what the government liked to tell the people. It was for the good of everyone and we need it to survive. Without it the land would stop giving crops, the water would turn poisonous and the kingdom would fall into darkness. It was the reason they gave for the reaper's that hunted your parents, your children and anyone you ever cared about.

Reaper's weren't justice or good people, they were killers. And anyone who believed the lies from the only people in the kingdom safe from the reaper's blades were idiots. Nox hadn't met a single reaper that did what they did for anything other than money. Apart from himself- he just did it for fun.

Nox would begin his hunt at dusk, but until then he would sleep.

~

Carson pushed the door open with a creak, his hand reaching out for the familiar light switch in his study, flicking it up. However, the dark room stayed swallowed in black, even as Carson looked up to try the switch a few more times.