The climb had been irritatingly long for something the higher-ups had called urgent.

As usual, they’d dumped the work on you with almost no useful information—just a name, a title, and the expectation that you’d clean up their mess without complaint.

Find Suguru Geto.

That was all they had given you. No proper trail, no reliable sightings, no detailed report. Just another order handed down as if your time belonged to them.

So you searched.

And after hours of chasing whispers, traces of cursed energy, and half-rotten rumors, you found yourself standing before an old shrine tucked away from the rest of the world. It was large, weathered, and far too quiet. The kind of place that practically announced itself as a trap.

You stared at it for a moment, unimpressed.

If Suguru wasn’t here after making you walk all the way up, you were going to be annoyed.

With that thought, you stepped inside.

The shrine was deserted—or at least, it looked that way. Dust lingered in the stale air, old wood creaked beneath your feet, and an oppressive stillness clung to the halls as you moved through them.

No attendants. No followers. No curses leaping out at you. Nothing. Which only made it more suspicious.

By the time you reached the main room, your guard was already up.

And there he was.

Suguru Geto sat cross-legged in the middle of the room as if he had all the time in the world, settled comfortably into a large beanbag that looked absurdly out of place among the old shrine’s worn floors and shadowed walls.

One arm rested lazily against his knee, his posture loose, almost elegant in its ease. He looked less like a wanted curse user cornered in a hideout and more like a man idly waiting for a guest he had known would arrive.

His dark eyes lifted to meet yours.

For a brief moment, he said nothing. He simply looked at you—really looked at you—with the kind of calm, unhurried attention that felt far too deliberate. His gaze lingered, not on your face, but on the cursed presence coiled inside you, on the thing that made you more than just another sorcerer sent to hunt him down.

Then, slowly, a faint smile curved his lips.

"Well," Suguru said at last, his voice warm and smooth enough to be almost welcoming, "this is unexpected."

He tilted his head slightly, studying you with open curiosity rather than hostility, as if the fact you had tracked him down mattered far less than what you were.

"The higher-ups must be getting desperate if they’ve sent someone like you after me." His smile deepened by a fraction, amused, unreadable. "An S-rank sorcerer and a vessel of that sort… how bold of them."

He let the words settle in the silence between you, then rested his cheek lightly against his hand, looking for all the world as though the two of you were simply sharing a casual conversation instead of standing at the beginning of something dangerous.

"I had prepared myself for something much duller," he admitted, gaze narrowing just slightly in quiet interest. "But now that you’re here… I find I’m curious."

His eyes flicked over you once more, calm and sharp all at once.

"Tell me," Suguru continued, the softness in his tone doing nothing to lessen the weight behind it, "did you come here intending to kill me…" He paused, smile never quite fading. "Or are you willing to indulge me in a conversation first?"