“NO!!!” Kino aroused his body and found himself on a single white bed. Before he could process where he was, the green curtains on his left swiftly slid to the side and he was greeted by Henrietta’s stunned expression.

“Y-You startled me…” The girl muttered. As if catching the curiosity written all over his face, she added. “You just suddenly collapsed in the library when you were about to go to the washroom, so I brought you here. You were suffering from a fever.”

Kino’s face heated up in shame. That’s when he felt the fever pad on his forehead. He couldn’t imagine how embarrassed she must have felt trying to bring his body to the infirmary down the first floor. “T-Thanks, and I’m sorry.”

He didn’t miss the rolling of her eyes. Her hatred for him probably increased because of this incident. “Just get your part done so we can submit it tomorrow. I’ll get going.”

“Yeah.” She closed the curtain and quietly left. Kino bit his lip and slapped his forehead in a repeated manner. He wanted to scream.

Ah! Why did I have to collapse like that?

After updating his temperature, which had lowered more than an hour ago, he was sent home to rest. There was one more class for the day, but he was afraid of collapsing a second time, though the pain on his forehead had subsided by now.

He took a quick shower as soon as he reached the apartment. As much as he could, he avoided looking in the bathroom mirror, or even the full-length mirror in his room, afraid that his nightmare may come true. Kino shook himself and blow-dried his thick, black hair.

It was just a dream. It was just a dream.

The whole time, he distracted his mind by contemplating whether to show up at the headquarters or not. In the end, he decided to show up to clear his thoughts.

Unlike yesterday, one simple raid mission was assigned to Parker’s Team for the day. It was to patrol in a children’s park 15 minutes from the headquarters.

“Is this for real?” Solar looked in Parker’s direction exasperated while holding a cat in her hand she’d just rescued from a tree. The captain was casually sitting on a bench puffing a cigarette.

“If you think rescuing a cute kitty isn’t a hero’s job then you’re not fit to be a hero in the first place,” Julius needled her as toddlers pulled his hair and climbed over his body like little circus monkeys.

The orange cat approached Kino and purred on his leg. He squatted down on the ground and played with it.

Solar gritted her teeth at Julius’s remark. “I’m aspiring to be a hero AMONG the wraith hunters. The top wraith hunter hero. We’re meant to do wraith hunting-related work, not Supermoon’s work.” She reasoned out. Julius chose to roll his eyes and focused on playing with the children.

“We’re here to patrol the area because apparently, there has been a wraith sighting here since last week. Many residents claimed they spotted a slime attacking children around here.” Ellis interrupted.

“A SLIME?” Solar exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. “Seriously? Even a dying old man can slaughter a slime!”

“Why? You got a problem with that?” Parker joined in the conversation. No one noticed he’d stood up from his seat, and stood facing the female herald. He stepped on his finished cigarette and fixed his glasses. “Be thankful we're still getting good pay for hunting a single harmless slime.”

“Heroes don't care about pay.”

“Then it’s your problem and not ours.”

“We could be hunting H-type wraiths lurking in the shadows right now saving citizens, but here we are, wasting our time hunting a slime that doesn’t even seem to exist----”

“Well, if the higher-ups had detected H-types around the city then we would be hunting them for tonight and not this. Maybe you should complain to them and not me?”

“Who says I’m complaining to just you, four eyes?”

“Then who are you talking to at this very moment, Miss Heroine?”

“Here they go again,” Julius muttered to himself. Kino, who ended up getting towered between the two figures as he played with the cat, watched silently.

Calix smirked. “Are they always like this?”

“Yeah. You and Kino should get used to it. You’ll witness more of this comedy in the coming days.” Ellis yawned. The three watched the two quarrel over a pointless argument, while Kino, who was squatting on the ground between the captain and his subordinate, felt like it’d be neverending so he decided to stand up with the cat snuggled in his arms. Both stopped the dispute as soon as they realized they’d been arguing for minutes with someone between them.

“G-Guys, please calm down. W-We’re here as hunters, not toddlers.”

Parker and Solar gave him a straight face as if to say ‘they’re not in the mood for jokes.’ Kino instantly started to sweat hard. Meanwhile, Julius and Calix prevented themselves from laughing after hearing the rhyming words that he’d just said.

“Shut up, moonhead!” The two yelled in unison.

“M-Moon head?” Kino couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. His cheeks and ears reddened as the sunset skies.

Calix and Julius couldn’t help but burst out in the laughter they’d unsuccessfully tried to conceal minutes ago. Ellis avoided their gazes to stop himself from giggling as well.

“Hey! Over here! I found a suspicious hole in the grass in a little garden to the east! Maybe we should check it out?” That's when Aran appeared. His eyebrows immediately raised in confusion upon seeing his team, but wisely he chose not to ask questions to get the work done as soon as possible.

“Okay!” Calix went ahead to the garden to break the awkward tension surrounding everyone. Kino quietly followed the team. The name they called him remained on his mind.

Maybe I should grow my hair from now on.