MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin



Adam was very much surprised by her words,

"France? Are you serious?"

France was a country that was quite romanticized in more or less all states of America. Adam, of course, knew that there was no country that was only filled with light and sophistry as they say. Like any other country, there was a fair share or even an excessive share of darkness in that place too.

But that did not really change the rose-tinted views people still had of this country of romance which France is renowned as.

"Take this as one of the perks of having one of the thirteen Zodiacs as your mentor. This was supposed to be an official mission that would have been placed in the mission board columns by now but I snatched it up for you and it will only appear tomorrow on the board if you refuse to take on the mission now."

Medusa looked quite smug as she spoke those words and she had every right in the world to be proud of that, in fact. While she could no longer access her full powers as a Gorgon without immediately ascending as a Constellation and was also limited by the age of her current body, she was still extremely influential in the human world. Be it in America or in the international scene.

"You are really incredible."

Adam praised her without hesitation. Praise was cheap and it cost him absolutely nothing to praise others for their worth. He had no reason to hesitate on this matter.

"As long as you understand, it's fine, I suppose."

Adam chuckled in his mind, wondering if he should tell her that she looked like a little kid hungry for praise right now but decided not to do that, in the end.

He looked at the mission information that was being shown in the hologram of Medusa's band; it was a mission to recuperate a small Statuette from the city of love. The statuette depicted the image of a winged woman wearing a classical robe in the style of the ancient country of Greece with a staff in one hand and a laurel in the other.

"This statue is a depiction of Nikke— the goddess of victory."

There was quite a bit of disdain coloring Medusa's voice as she uttered the name of the goddess. Knowing her history, whatever version of it ended up being the truth, there was no way she would hold any good feelings for the goddess that was the most associated with Athena— the goddess of wisdom and war.

"The way the gears of Fate run is quite intricate, don't you think?"

Medusa chuckled as she continued her thought process, "This is a recuperation mission alongside an elimination one as a bonus. This statue had been showing signs of supernatural activity in the recent past. Our agents were about to retrieve it but it was stolen before we could do anything about it."

The picture blurred and then a new display was enacted before him, showing the pictures of two people— a man and a woman. Both of the individuals had some similarities in their appearance, indicating that they may be related by blood.

"The Shadow Twins. Two individuals that are estimated to be in the gold ranked hunters' level. Both are suspected to have a contract with a powerful god, which increases their danger rating greatly. They have been a pain in our asses for a very long time but this time they have really passed the limit of our tolerance and the association has designated them as prime targets of elimination."

"Why?"

"The statuette is suspected to be an unawakened Divine Weapon related to the authority of Victory. If that turns out to be true, it's a weapon that can affect probability itself. While it might lack any level of offensive power, it certainly is not something that we can allow to be left in the hands of anyone."

A third picture was then displayed on the screen, depicting a large house in the vicinity of a rich neighborhood, "La Louvre des Ombres. Or The Dark Louvre to make it simpler for you. In Paris, the Louvre is one of the most important museums to ever exist in the history of France. The person who established this Dark Louvre is a master in the Dark Market. The statue will be part of a major auction in the underworld."

She smiled and gazed into his eyes, "I must say this first… I was only able to snatch this mission from the Hunter Association of America. Other countries will have the same mission or something similar designated to them too at this time. It is pretty understandable since any Divine Weapon is a tactical piece of immense value. The others won't give a shit that we lost it and akin to shark-smelling blood, they will swarm to it so that they can take it for themselves."

Her eyes showed unconcealed glee as she delivered her next lines, "Furthermore, considering the importance and the way this mission is being spread throughout the world, the leader of the Dark Market, as well as most major forces of the supernatural world, will also get a sniff of this… This will be a true and absolute bloodbath."

Adam could only laugh awkwardly at the excitement Medusa was uncharacteristically leaking from her, "You seem quite… happy, for some reason."

"Haha… Of course, I am happy."

The smile on her face deepened, "Growth can only be attained through hardship and endless fights. Humanity has only shown signs of stagnation in times of peace and only when humans face true danger do they explode with the greatest potential.

"Also imagine, in your very first mission, you will face tens of high-ranked hunters. Going from Silver to Gold and even perhaps Executor level hunters, though the chances are pretty low for an Executor to be deployed there still remains some chance of their appearance. You will fight, fight, and fight on against many powerful enemies and finally, you will prevail above all and stand proud with the prize in your hand.

"How magnificent! How wonderfully epic! Is this not the perfect picture of the Odyssey of a Hero!?"

"Firstly, calm down for a bit."

"Ah…"

The crazy light in her eyes immediately died out as she seemed to realize where she was right now. She was practically inches away from his face while screaming about how much this situation was exciting for her, and while they could not hear the two of them, all the clients in the cafe were looking in their direction, most likely wondering what the hell was happening between them.

"Ahem~!! I am sorry once again. I have lost control of myself for an instant there."

Thankfully, Medusa had enough shame to blush and quietly went back to her seat, fanning herself a little before calling one of the waitresses.

"We talked so much but ordered nothing in the meantime. This is really bad on us. Shall we take a little break while you read the details of the mission?"

The sound-blocking barrier was deactivated and after the waitress came, Adam simply ordered the blend of the house while Medusa asked for some whiskey.

The pause was welcome and Adam was looking at the information that was transferred to him. All in all, the budget allowed was in the hundreds of thousands just for the travel and the allocation alone.

There was also a supplementary budget for the situation where he would have no choice but to try and buy the statue in the action. Finally, there would be an entire team of Bronze ranked hunters prepared as his hands and feet for the success of the mission. But all of this did not really interest Adam. What really caught his attention was the Divine Weapon itself.

Probability manipulation. Even if it was only a weak one, this still seemed very useful for him. If he wasn't wrong someone would say something in…

3

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2

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1

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0

[Let's steal it for ourselves.]

—And as always, Genesis never failed to deliver.

'Hello, the devil on my shoulder.'

[Do not talk as if you did not already consider this yourself]

This time, Adam had no comebacks for the book spirit.

'Sigh. You are corrupting me.'

[I am simply opening your eyes to the most efficient solution available to your path to Ascension.]

The banter between them had become lighter, and more natural. But this did not change the importance of their situation.

'All jokes aside, stealing the weapon should be possible with my 'The Magician' skill. But you never know… They might have a counter for that. So what I was thinking was a bit different.'

[What is your proposal?]

'Do you think… Would it be possible for me to steal or copy the authority of that statue through my innate authority — Origin, as I did with Asmodeus?'

Rather than a statue that might be found out later and cause him trouble, if he could completely steal or simply copy the authority, this would really be marvelous.

Until now, all the skills he obtained thanks to his innate authority— Origin, had been EX ranked skills with limitless potential.

'If it's Probability and Luck, perhaps I should call it… The Wheel of Fortune?'

He had started naming his skills following the Major Arcana more as a joke. But now, he felt like it would be weird to not continue.

'So, what do you think?'

[...This might be possible and it's indeed an even more efficient procedure that will leave us with no future problems. I am impressed by that thinking process.]

'Just how dumb did you think I was?'

[You—]

'Forget it, I don't want to know.'

There was no need to ruin his good mood now for no reason.

(AN: Adam won't necessarily have skills corresponding to the 21 Major Arcana. But he will have many of them. Though honestly, The World or The Magician alone are enough for Adam to become a god and much much more.)