"A-are we perhaps interrupting something...?"
The wimpy voice belonged to Neil, who was standing in front of Nina, Carl, and Randy. Clad in his knight gear, Neil nervously entered the room whose door was already open. And while Jay and Scarlet only widened their eyes for a moment, the tension on Luna's body lessened after seeing her friends.
"Neil, are you here for the quest?" Jay asked, looking at the group indifferently. If anyone besides Erik arrived at their room, that person should be considered an enemy. And yet, Scarlet and Neil and his group came there. Scarlet might have been an enemy, but not in the quest's context. Meanwhile, Neil and the others were good friends with Luna, so there could be hope that they were not there for the quest.
"Y-yes! No! I mean no!" Neil stuttered, feeling the pressure in the air. His stance was upright, but also too stiff and awkward.
"W-we're actually here to help!" Nina chimed in, knowing that Neil failed to explain to Jay what their intentions were.
"That's correct! We already talked with Erik below! He told us where your room was!" Carl added.
But even though what they said made sense to Jay, he still had some doubts.
"Our party received the quest to claim [The Jay Family]'s territory, but when we realized that it was your party, we decided to help you out." Randy elaborated clearly without any emotions affecting his speech.
"Even if it means failing the quest?" Scarlet wondered, genuinely confused. Despite not having anything to do with the quest, she could not help but question their reasoning. As a Challenger, one's priority should mostly be to ascend the tower by clearing the quests. But now there were people who volunteered to fail just to help friends.
"Even if we fail the quest, it's still better than betraying our friends!" Nina declared, both confident and nervous. She and her friends hung out with Luna a lot, and they quickly became good friends. But that was not all. The group also owed a lot to the trio. Therefore, they easily made the decision to help them out.
"Our quest is to protect our territory. We are the target of countless other Challengers. Are you sure you want to help?" Jay asked, his gaze sharpening.
Hearing that, Neil cleared his throat and walked over to Jay's bed, earning the glare of Scarlet. Taking her by surprise, Neil grabbed the blade of her sword and pulled it away from Jay's throat, even if it now dug deep enough into his palm to make it bleed.
"Let us help you!" he declared. Neil tried to form a determined grin, but it ended up shaky. Still, it caused Jay to let out a small snicker.
"I'm counting on you then." Jay replied, smiling at him.
Scarlet, who watched the scene right in front of her, grew more furious.
"You've got guts to treat me like air." she scoffed.
Neil immediately let go of the sword when he sensed that it was about to be pulled by Scarlet.
"Guah!"
But when he did that, Scarlet followed with a heavy kick into his abdomen, slamming him to the wall. The others, including Luna, hurried over to him as he fell to the ground.
"Back to you." she stated with a wicked grin, not fitting the image of a righteous policewoman. Using her sword, she playfully tapped Jay's lower chin, with the tip lightly poking his throat.
However, before she could continue, Luna put some distance between them as she thrust her spear at Scarlet.
"You're attacking an officer...?" Scarlet said, acting surprised after stepping aside.
"An officer wouldn't treat a defenseless person like that...!" Luna retorted, albeit nervously. She had never thought that she would see the day when she would actually attack a policewoman. But she was not the only one, as Nina and the others backed Luna up.
"Didn't you all learn not to cause trouble when an officer is working?" Scarlet reprimanded them, her expression hardening.
The group remained silent and followed Luna when she took the first step and charged at Scarlet once more. She knew that this would be a difficult fight. Not only was she facing a police captain, but also a person who had reached the higher sections. Scarlet's power was nothing to scoff at, and yet, Luna had to fight her.
However, she was not fighting her with the mindset of losing. Even if the chances were high of losing, she was only focused on doing her best. The goal was not to beat her, but to get her away from Jay.
"Why are you so stubborn...? It's just a damn status window!" Scarlet grumbled, her sword clashing with Luna's spear. During her career as a policewoman, she had to go through many status windows—especially from criminals—and in most cases, no one made a big deal of having their windows revealed. But now, for the first time in her career, Scarlet witnessed people desperately trying to protect the exposure of a single status window.
She clicked her tongue.
"Just who are you?!" she yelled, pushing Luna back effortlessly. Even though she did not see Erik's status window, she was not as eager to see it as Jay's window. That was mainly because she had a rough grasp on Erik's identity, whereas Jay was still a big mystery to her.
She reached out her hand toward Jay, on the verge of activating [Appraisal], but then arrows came flying. Scarlet dodged them, although one arrow managed to graze her cheek lightly.
Carl and Randy emerged, with Randy trying to hold off Scarlet. Randy grabbed her hands tightly, allowing Carl to strike her cleanly. However, before Carl's sword could even touch her hair, Scarlet kicked Randy's chin with her knee and swiftly swung her sword to block off the incoming attack. She flicked Carl's sword away and followed with a punch to the face, sending him right to the barely standing Randy.
Nina frantically shot her arrows when she noticed Scarlet's fixation on her, but her arrows were deflected with ease.
"I don't like to hurt you, but if you disrupt my work..."
With the back of her hand, Scarlet slapped Nina to the ground.
"...then I have to show you what the consequences are." Scarlet stated, her indifferent gaze shifting between Nina, Carl, and Randy.
"P-please stop this!" Neil yelled as he attempted to tackle and push her down. However, he was mercilessly stomped, with Scarlet's heel digging into the back of his head.
Following that attempt, Luna attacked again. This time, her spear had sparks of lightning.
"This is still a hospital, so don't get too carried away now." Scarlet remarked, unfazed by Luna's technique. And just like she did with Carl, she easily flicked Luna's spear from her hand and kicked her outside the room.
The entire group was at Scarlet's mercy. Small crumbles fell on Scarlet due to Luna's spear being stuck in the ceiling, but she did not care.
"I'll put it on Miss Alice's bill." she muttered with an amused expression as she headed patiently toward Jay, whose gaze was grim and fierce.
"W-wait...!" Neil murmured with a strained voice.
"It would have been wiser to stay down." Scarlet commented indifferently, turning around to Neil.
He did not know exactly why everyone was stopping Scarlet or what her goal was, but he knew for sure that she was an enemy.
Scarlet tightened the grip on her sword and lifted her foot to take the first step, but when she did that, Jay grabbed her arm.
"You want to see my status window, right? Then, spare those guys." he said sternly.
"I-I can still-"
"It's okay, Neil. You've done enough."
Initially, Jay was reluctant to show his status window to other people he could not trust yet, as his window would only cause chaos—especially among people related to the Conqueror Families. For people who liked to uphold law and order inside the tower, someone as mysterious as Jay could pose a threat. That was one of the reasons why he did not want to show her his status window. However, seeing his friends in that state made him rethink his decision.
"What is under your blanket?" Scarlet asked, glaring intimidatingly.
Jay did not reply and kept trying to look unfazed. But that did not work against her. Not wanting to wait any longer, Scarlet threw the blanket away and immediately noticed the phone that Jay was hiding from her. It seemed like Jay attempted to call for Erik, but he was unfortunately one tap away from making the call.
"Busted, I guess..." Jay admitted, laughing wryly.
"Even to the very end, you try to find a way out, huh? Quite admirable." Scarlet said, her tone nowhere impressed.
"I can exp-"
"Appraisal."
In front of Scarlet, Jay's status window was displayed. And just like he predicted, Scarlet was utterly shocked.
"What in the world is this...?" she murmured, baffled. Her eyes were wide open.
She shifted her gaze to the nervous and frowning Jay, while hesitating to raise her sword. If his status window had been similar to what she imagined Erik's window looked like, then she would have been satisfied and let them be. However, his status window made her instincts scream danger.
And it was not due to his stats and skills that her hand was itching to strike him down on the spot, but rather it was because of the general information about him. His name, level, and title were censored. According to her knowledge, there was no skill inside the tower that allowed a person to censor information. If he had a skill that could change information, then he would have chosen concrete information instead of question marks, meaning that it was not his own doing.
Why were they censored? Was he an important person? Was he wanted? Someone dangerous? Could he be a threat to the people?
And just when her imagination ran wild, Scarlet received a phone call from Alice.
[Scarlet, I know what you are thinking right now, which is why I am trying to stop you now.]
"M-Miss Alice, who is that person...?" Scarlet asked, not questioning Alice about how she knew what she was doing. She was just too eager to learn the truth, also neglecting her fast heartbeat.
[Captain Scarlet, you do not want to know the truth about that person.]