My Grim Reaper Class: I can kill anything.

Chapter 24: What Matters Tonight

The room Selene led them into was small, tidy, without unnecessary adornments.

A dark wooden table in the center with four chairs around it.

A shelf on the wall with well-kept books whose spines had no visible titles.

A small fireplace at the back with a low fire crackling with the calm of one recently attended to. Thick dark curtains covering the windows. No magical lamps. Just candles, placed in specific positions that illuminated the room but left certain angles in deliberate shadow.

Selene closed the door behind them. Walked to the table. Indicated the chairs with a gesture.

"Sit," she said. "And before we begin, I’m going to establish rules."

Nathan sat. Liaraen sat beside him, her back perfectly straight despite the chair—which would have been comical if the situation weren’t so serious.

"I’m listening," Nathan said.

Selene sat across from them. Placed her hands on the table. The candlelight illuminated her hazel eyes with that specific attentiveness Nathan had already identified as her most distinctive feature.

"Rule one. Tonight, in this house, I’m going to talk to you about two topics. Who is looking for you, Hunter, right now, and what can be done about it before dawn. I’m going to deliberately avoid other broader topics I know you have on your mind. That conversation will happen, but not tonight."

Nathan tilted his head slightly.

"Why not tonight?"

"Because the big information is attractive but dangerous. If I tell you everything I know about your Seal, your Class, and the origin of the deal you accepted in the alley, you’re going to spend the next six hours processing that information instead of sleeping. And tomorrow, when Brenwick mobilizes every resource at his disposal, you’re going to be emotionally exhausted and make bad decisions." Pause. "What you need tonight is clarity on the immediate problem and rest. What I have to tell you about everything else can wait until the immediate situation is resolved."

"Acceptable."

"Rule two. Lady Sael’thoryn is under my protection from the moment she crossed that door. That’s non-negotiable. Any decision we make tonight will be made with her safety as the absolute priority."

Liaraen looked up at Selene with an expression that combined surprise with caution.

"I appreciate the gesture. But may I ask why?" Liaraen said. "We don’t know each other."

"My network has been looking for you for three days," Selene replied. "We didn’t find you. Hunter Voss found you by accident. That doesn’t change the fact that your recovery was one of our active objectives. That you arrived through a path we didn’t expect doesn’t make you less of a priority."

"Why was your network looking for me?"

"That’s a question that falls under rule one. We’ll save it for another day."

Liaraen frowned slightly but didn’t insist.

"Rule three," Selene continued. "The information I’m giving you tonight is asymmetrical. I know more than you do about the overall situation. That’s not going to change tonight. I’ll share what’s necessary for you to make good decisions. I won’t share everything. If after a few days you decide you want to know more, that conversation can be arranged. If you decide you’d rather leave and forget this house exists, that’s also fine. That decision I leave in your hands."

"Understood," Nathan said.

Selene nodded. Leaned forward slightly.

"Good. Let’s begin."

---

"Your contractor is named Brenwick," Selene said, looking at Nathan. "You know that. What you may not know is that Brenwick isn’t the owner of the operation. Brenwick is a local coordinator. He runs the Greywall branch of a larger organization that moves sensitive merchandise across the continent. The full organization has no official name, but internally its members call it the Table."

"The Table?"

"As in a gaming table. Members sit, put in their stake, collect profits. It’s a deliberate metaphor. Merchants, minor nobles, some corrupt priests, a couple of private guild captains. All contribute a specific resource, and all collect from the collective profit." Pause. "The symbol of the circle divided by the diagonal you saw on Brenwick’s wax seal and on the body of the encirclement leader is the Table’s internal mark."

Nathan nodded slowly.

*Confirmed. Brenwick and the assassin guild aren’t competitors. They’re partners in the same organization.*

"Which brings us to the question," Selene continued, "of why partners in the same Table would send a team to intercept another partner’s package."

"Why?" Nathan asked.

"Because the merchandise stopped being Brenwick’s property four days ago. Brenwick paid for the initial capture. But a southern noble offered the Table a significantly larger sum to acquire the full package before its delivery to the final client. The Table accepted the noble’s offer. And the Table, internally, decided that the cleanest way to transfer the merchandise was to simulate a robbery on the road, let Brenwick collect the insurance, and let the package reach the southern noble without anyone having to formally admit ownership had changed hands."

"So the Draken team was going to intercept me."

"By the Table’s orders, yes. Without Brenwick knowing in advance. Brenwick was going to receive notice of the ’robbery’ after the fact, and since the operation includes internal corporate insurance, his monetary loss would be minimal."

"Then why is Brenwick now looking for Liaraen and me?"

"Because something broke in the plan. The Draken team never reported to the transfer point. The Table didn’t receive the merchandise. The southern noble is demanding explanations. Brenwick is being pressured by the Table to recover the package before the incident escalates—because if it isn’t recovered, Brenwick is individually responsible to the southern noble, which is a position he prefers to avoid."

"So Brenwick doesn’t know I killed the Draken team."

"Not officially. He has the hypothesis. One of three, according to my information. But he doesn’t have confirmation."

*That matches what Brenwick told Larian. Selene has someone inside Brenwick’s office. This woman has a wider network than she appears to.*

"How many men can Brenwick mobilize tonight?" Nathan asked.

"Within Greywall, about twenty-five. Most are hired guards, not bearers. There are three with active Seals among them. Their strongest Class is D-Rank."

"And tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow he can triple that number if the Table authorizes reinforcements from neighboring branches. Authorization takes between six and ten hours to arrive. Which means you have from roughly midday tomorrow onward for serious people to start showing up."

"So I have a window."

"You have a window. Yes."

Nathan leaned forward.

"For what exactly?"

Selene looked at him for a moment.

"That depends on your objective, Hunter. And to talk about objectives, I first need to know what you want to do with Lady Sael’thoryn."

---

There was a silence in the room.

Nathan looked at Liaraen.