Naph welcomed himself into the main street of Sevenren.
A parade or announcement was being presented to the public some distance further. Naph avoided it by turning his unique and eye-catching obsolete vehicle into another by-street.
He kept dodging one announcement or another happening simultaneously in the city.
"It looks like they are making some prep party for your demonstration, lad!" Naph mocked back to the severed dead head.
After several jarring abrupt turns and back alley travel and speeding, he arrived at the one spot he identified as the best place to cash in.
His favorite bar-cum-crash out place. The Outro Restro.
Unique name, unique customer base.
His humour matched the owner's penchant for throwing people out of the bar. The place as he recalled had attempted getting some sort of certification…. or pardon? For making the bar a real restaurant.
Every time the same thing happened, someone was sent for inspection. And they would get thrown out because the owner didn't like their vibe.
Naph, however, kicked the door in full force.
"Hey, Owner-Doner! Look who's back with a new kill!" Naph exclaimed over the silence that prevailed his proclamation.
"Uhh! Just don't slam the door in! Do you happen to have enough to get that fixed, huh boy?" said a voice from behind a counter.
As the owner of the voice rose, a burly figure could be seen. The man had enough muscles to pick and pack Naph thrice over and kick him out.
"Yeah, yeah. Just help me in getting this bounty kill collected. And take the share for the door and your next attempt at making this a real restaurant." Naph assured the man behind the counter.
"Oh…so you have been able to kill something other than some caestres. Well, go on show us," called out a man sitting in a corner.
"Why should I show it to someone who's going to obviously puke on the head or steal it?" Naph countered continuing, "do you perhaps not have a brain? See a brain is very important for processing when to do what. Do you have it?"
The man in the corner rubbing his face, spoke through his fingers. "Naph, for the last time, get your jokes in order."
"Joke? It's a flair. Flairrr!" Naph proclaimed in a dying whisper.
The burly owner got out from the counter in the meanwhile. He tapped Naph on his shoulder, "let's go, and tell me of the details of this hunt of yours. Do I need to re—"
"No, no, I remember the whys. I'll explain every bit as possible without losing you on the details." Naph went along with the burly owner whistling a tune as he rocked back and forth a metallic case in front of all the bar customers.
Naph wanted someone, anyone to attempt to take the case from him. He wanted to just have enough reason to murder someone. He was feeling it in the moment, quite the hearty feelings he had.
The burly man, the owner of The Outro Restro, is the only one in that crowd Naph didn't want to kill. He needed his middleman status.
Both walked into a gallery then into a room on the right. This one had another secret door, that opened into the space between the walls. Not completely, just enough for a few stairs to go down.
And so they did.
Then another gallery. The burly man and Naph were navigating a maze only the burly guy knew the path of.
It was just a precautionary measure. He didn't have to worry about the bar, who would be foolish enough to get into a fight in a bar filled with bounty collectors and a staff that deals and throws them out in the regular.
Not any normal human would.
Naph and the burly man reached the end of the maze. A short maze but well made.
"The exchange will happen within 10 minutes. Then run out the window or take the door on the left. Not the one we enter from, understood Naph?" The burly man confirmed his orders with Naph.
Naph nodded, asking, "by the way, is Bulwark's bounty still at 10 million Tarna or not?"
The burly man stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around, looked Naph dead in the eyes.
"Did I hear you correctly? Does that case have that exact requirement?" His voice was calm. Calmer than usual.
Naph didn't react to it. Yet he understood the reaction well, "I showed it as it is to the guards at the gate. They confirmed my kill."
The burly man slammed himself awake. "Just to confirm again. We are right now dealing with Bulwark?"
Naph nodded. He was sure, if earlier he wasn't. Bulwark's bounty wasn't just due to her having destroyed the castle in the capital. No, he was certain of it. He was standing at the very precipice of his life either changing or ending.
And Naph knew damn well one thing, his heart was wild enough to keep him on this precipice long enough that death will look like a mercy.
The burly man exhaled, "Anaphol, no matter what happens. Run. Away. From. Severen."
Anaphol looked the burly man in the eyes. He replied to their depths, "Don Extea, I have ran enough. I want to move forward, not around."
Don Extea stared back. The exchange was over even before it had begun. The answer was settled.
Naph's decision to kill Bulwark was unknown to all. Only thing they guessed was he was planning to kill an old caestre. Not some little girl nicknamed, "Bulwark".
Naph knew she wasn't some little girl. Their fight spoke volumes of what the girl could do. But the result of the devastation was still him walking away with Bulwark's head, and her mangled, butchered body left to rot in a ditch of her own making.
Anaphol knew the world was a place filled with errors, but it was more filled with dead and the death.
The exchange of the head case was just as tense as his talk with Don Extea. He could sense some heated conversation from across the room's walls. Yet in the end, Don Extea returned with two duffle bags filled with the bounty reward. He divided them fairly this time, not taking his cut.
Naph didn't insist. He understood. It was Don Extea's way of saying, "Stay safe, and you'll need this more. Count on the world's madness for money."