Johnn stepped past Maddy and leaning over the counter with infectious enthusiasm.

"I’ve heard legends about this stuff! If there were a ranking for food, this would be SSS RANK!"

The merchant, who had been seconds away from a heart attack, blinked rapidly. His terror was replaced by a staggering sense of disbelief.

"Y-you... you’re Johnn? The new Hero!?"

"Heh! Hero... well, that feels a bit awkward, even if I’ve been called that a million times today since igniting the golden flames... but yeah, I’ll take the title! In the flesh!"

Johnn laughed, tossing a gold coin onto the counter—far more than the jar was worth. He grabbed a jar of jam, popped the lid, dipped his finger in, and took a massive, theatrical bite.

"Oh man, that’s the stuff! Hey everyone, if you’re not buying this jam, you’re missing out on the best jam in the nation!"

The effect was instantaneous. The customers who had been shivering and calling for guards were suddenly starstruck. The marketplace erupted into whispers of

"It’s him!"

"The new SSS!"

People began crowding around, their fear forgotten in the presence of their new idol. Under the cover of the excitement, Johnn leaned closer to Maddy, his voice dropping so only she could hear, though his smile never wavered.

"You’re not yourself when you’re hungry. I’ll make sure you get some of this slime jam once the crowd settles. It’s on me."

The ridiculousness of his joke, paired with the warmth of his hand, acted like a cold splash of water to Maddy’s face. She blinked, her vision clearing as the predatory slits in her eyes vanished. Her blood cooled and her nerves finally stabilized.

[Maddy, your vitals are returning to normal. That man... he just saved you from a catastrophic exposure.]

Lucy’s voice echoed in her mind, a reminder of how close she had come to disaster. Maddy looked at Johnn, really looked at him, and realized that beneath the naughty boy act, he was far more observant than he let on.

She turned and gave one final, piercing look at the merchant. The man was shaking as he served the surging crowd, his eyes darting anywhere but at Maddy. She saw the sweat on his brow and the way he gripped his jars as if they were life rafts. She didn’t believe him for a second.

She pulled away from Johnn’s grip and stumbled back into the bustling crowd, her ears ringing so loudly she could barely hear the marketplace noise. The cheers for Johnn became a muffled roar in the background as she pushed through the wall of people.

"What is happening? How can he say he doesn’t know her? He is lying... I know he is lying. What did he do? Where did he put Hoppy?"

The image of the little girl’s notebook and her hopeful, soot streaked face burned in Maddy’s mind. She had handed Hoppy to a man she thought was her savior, but the merchant’s terror suggested a much darker truth. As she reached the edge of the square, she looked back at the golden hero laughing with the commoners.

"Where are you, Hoppy? What happened to you?"

Maddy pushed through the guild’s heavy doors, her breathing short and uneven. She stopped in front of the huge quest board, eyes moving across the papers without really reading them. In her mind, the silence broke as Lucy spoke, sharp and cold.

[Maddy, that was beyond reckless,]

Lucy scolded, her voice carrying rare frustration.

[If that, Johnn, hadn’t stepped in, your biological signature would have spiked. You would’ve been marked as a Calamity class threat before noon. We talked about this—staying hidden is our only protection.]

"I know, Lucy! I know!"

Maddy snapped back in her mind, her voice filled with anger and guilt.

"But did you see his face? He looked at me and said he didn’t have a daughter. He erased her from his life like she meant nothing! And I was the one who gave her to him!"

[Strong emotions will not help us find the target. You are an apex predator, not some local vigilante. Getting involved with these Prometheans will only attract the attention of the guild.]

Maddy’s eyes finally landed on a low rank quest notice: Pest Control. Her shoulders dropped, the fire inside her turning into something cold and heavy.

"You’re right... You’re right, Lucy. I told myself I wouldn’t interfere in Promethean matters. I’m an outsider here. I have my own children to protect."

She closed her eyes, but all she could see was the mana distortion map and the terrified face of the little girl.

"But if I caused her suffering... if my presence twisted the mana and led those monsters to destroy her home... then I’m the one who led her to that market stall. I’m the reason she’s lost again."

She gripped the edge of the quest board, the wood creaking under her fingers.

"That’s something I can’t ignore. I can’t be the ’monster’ they fear, then walk away while my own shadow crushes a child. If I don’t find her, then I’m no better than the creatures I’ve spent my life hunting."

[...]

Lucy stayed silent for a long moment, thinking over Maddy’s resolve.

[Risk acknowledged. If we move forward, we do it with precision. No more outbursts. We follow the trail, we find the girl, and we remove anyone who stands in the way—quietly.]

Maddy nodded as she stared at the parchment.

"You’re right. I have to play the part of a normal adventurer first. If I acted out again in the bright daylight, I would draw too many eyes. I need to wait for the cover of darkness. This city is a massive maze, but I have an advantage no human has."

Her Thermal Awareness allowed her to see the heat signatures of the living. Since she had touched Hoppy and the merchant, their specific heat trails were burned into her memory.

She began browsing the list of F-rank quests. They were incredibly boring.

"Hmm... F-rank quests are... no, they involve absolutely no combat at all."

One called for a laundry delivery, while another requested help finding a lost cat. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"This is just... these are nothing but the small, everyday problems of humans."