The soundly and tranquil night flew by in an instant, and when Heimfher opened his eyes at the next moment, he finds himself looking at the run down wooden ceiling that is inside of his humble home.
.
.
Tomorrow, 9:00AM, at the Bureau—
Heimfher walked into the bureau building with his brown coat, after being mistaken for a student, he had to explain to the gate officers that he was a member of the division 0, it took a lot of convincing, considering that there's barely anyone in the bureau that knew him yet, but in the end he was allowed to enter.
Step!
Step!
"Morning, miss Vitra." Heimfher said, he waved at the woman who was sitting beyond the glass wall, she was a receptionist in the bureau, one that handled reports and helps for any curious or uninformed civilians.
"Morning, Heimfher." Vitra replied with a smile.
After saying his greetings, Heimfher then went to the hallway and walked towards the wooden door that was at the other end of the hallway.
Creakk!
Heimfher opened the door to see a spiraling staircase leading underground, he then wasted no time before he walked along the downward path, entering the underground part of the bureau.
As he arrived on the floor below, a few officers greeted him, and Heimfher looked at his surrounding, it turns out, the basement of the bureau was the prison room for inmates that have been captured.
Multiple cells was presented at both side in a long straight path, and each one of the cells was filled with either a person or a beast.
'Many of the inmates here have a choker to their mouth.. It must be because they're an awakened, without their mouth, they can't chant and thus unable to use magic..' Heimfher thought while he turned his head to see the jailed inmates.
Some of the inmates were chained, while some only had a choker on their mouth, beside the two, there were also a few that doesn't have any restrain put into them, most likely because they're just a normal human that have done a crime.
'To think that i could've been jailed here..'
Heimfher kept walking, until he reached a metal door after turning to the right, he opened it to see Murph and the rest of his colleagues standing in the middle of the room.
Beside them, there were also a few officers that he didn't recognize.
"Morning." Heimfher said, causing Murph and everybody else to turn towards Heimfher, then Duskiell spoke to him out of nowhere.
"Yo, Heimfher– A bit late?"
To which Heimfher replied with.
"I woke up later than i expected.."
After exchanging the short conversation, Heimfher then walked to where his teams are standing and that was when he noticed that they were looking at a map on a big table.
"What is this?" He asked, with Murph replying shortly after.
"The map of the entire east district."
Heimfher's eyes widened at the reply Murph gave, he then focused his attention to the map and realized that it is indeed the map of the east district.
'The academy... And the slums, it's the same as how i remember it.. Then that means, my house must be somewhere– There.' Heimfher said to himself.
Just then, an officer walked out of the opened wooden door that leads to another room, and he approached Murph while wearing a face mask.
"We've cleaned it, sir." He said.
Murph nodded at the officer's words and gave his confirmation.
"Understood, thanks for your hard work."
"No problem." The officer replied before he went back to Dan and his group.
At first, Heimfher couldn't exactly understand what Murph was talking about with the officer, since he only responded with one word, Heimfher felt curious.
Fortunately, his curiousity doesn't last long as moments later, Murph averted his gaze to Heimfher and everyone else around him and said.
"The hearts have been cleaned, and since Heimfher haven't been told yet, should we restart our vote?"
Heimfher tilted his head in confusion, but he was also shocked to hear that Murph was talking about the awakened hearts from yesterday's cult members.
'Hearts!? So they killed that guy!?– Does that mean he didn't give any information? Or did the bureau purposely killed him after they got the information they needed?..'
Puzzled with what had happened with the bureau and the cultist that they've captured, Heimfher shook his head to ignore all of the questions in his mind, he then looked at his other colleagues beside him.
"Ehh, do we really have to? Not like Heimfher would disagree anyway.." Carlessa said nonchalantly, she vaguely sighed at the end of her sentence.
"Yeah i agree." Duskiell also added after Carlessa's words.
"I think it's already fair."
"Me too." Harith replied to Duskiell, he seems to be having the same opinion aswell.
Seeing all of his teams reacting like that, Heimfher became more curious and he eventually couldn't resist his curiosity, so he asked to Carlessa.
"What are you talking about?"
Soon, Murph interrupted Carlessa's respond by taking it for himself.
"Before you came we were discussing about who should eat the cultists hearts, and those four, including me, decided that it should be You and Lena—
"You and Lena haven't ate a single heart yet, so this is a perfect time for both of you to grow stronger."
Heimfher's jaw fell ever so slightly as he couldn't really believe that he was the one that got chosen, while Lena only nodded as her response, Heimfher tried to find a reason as to why they chose him.
"Wait wait.. Why me though?! I only joined the bureau a few days ago.. Shouldn't the awakened hearts be given to Duskiell? Or Bentley? who contributed a lot to the case?" He said, expecting Murph to change his mind, but instead he only got a chuckle from him.
Duskiell then responded to Heimfher all of a sudden and pinched his cheek in the process.
"You're underestimating your influence, kiddo." He said with a smile.
"Who do you think saved me from that three Dead Deity cultists? And who do you think killed those two other robed kidnapper in that basement? Not to mention who light up our surrounding with fire when we entered the sewer?—
"I'd be mad if anyone else in this division got the awakened hearts you bastard."
Right after Duskiell stopped his speech, Harith then spoke to Heimfher from his further left of the elongated table.
"Even if you reject it, we all would feel bad since it was you who undoubtely helped more than us."
He continued with a quiet whisper that could still be faintly heard.
"Unlike me who did absolutely nothing at all.. Huuu– And i thought back then that i would be able to use my magic to trap those cultists in a badass pose—
"And those chimeras too.. If it weren't for that old geezer or the people from the capital, i would've had an opportunity to use my magic.. Why do they have to kill them that fast."
Hearing Duskiell's compliment and Harith's words, Heimfher was unsure how to take it all as he never would've thought that what he did was that important, but after seeing the reaction of everyone around him, Heimfher was flustered and ended up accepting the gift.
"F- Fine, i'll accept it.." He replied as his lips twitched.
It was decided that Heimfher would receive two of the awakened hearts while Lena received one, although they were previously planning to organize a meeting with the map of the east district, it seems like that meeting was going to be inevitably delayed for the cannibalism gourmet that was about to happen.
Heimfher and Lena was then brought by Murph to the other side of the room, while Duskiell, Harith, Carlessa, and Bentley stayed on their spot, looking at the map intently.
The other side of the room looks more like an autopsy room rather than a meeting room, it startled Heimfher for a few seconds, but he quickly adapted.
In there, blood stains were covering the floor, and the officers that was standing there, including Dan, were all wearing a mask.
As soon as Dan saw Murph walking into the room, he greeted him with a hand wave.
"Ah, Murph! Over here" He said.
Murph, Heimfher and Lena then walked to Dan who opened his mask and revealed his lips.
"We're done with the heart cleaning, it should be safe to consume now."
Murph nodded at the information and thanked Dan.
"Alright, thank you as always." He said as he tapped Dan on his chest.
"Well, this is my job after all." Dan replied, he noticed Heimfher and Lena that was beside Murph and asked.
"Is these two the one that will receive the hearts?"
"That's right." Murph answered, he then added.
"Did you find any abnormality in those hearts?"
"Hmm, im not sure.. Well, if you're talking about curses and hygiene problems, then don't worry, it's safe." Dan replied with a smile, he gave Murph a thumbs up.
A few moments later, Heimfher and Lena saw Dan turning around and walked a few steps, he seems to be grabbing something among the mini crowd of officers in the room, when he came back, Heimfher and Lena was frightened by the three human hearts that Dan brought.
'What.. the hell..' Heimfher said to himself, the human heart looked hideous, but it was somewhat clean and a bit glossy.
"Do i need to cook it?" Heimdher abruptly asked.
His question was answered by Dan after he laughed at his innocence.
"Ahh, this must be your first time eating an awakened heart, well good luck.. Because you'll need to eat it like that, raw." He said with a smirk.
"R- raw?.." Lena even had to question it for herself as she held the human heart with both of her hands.
Heimfher also stared at the two hearts infront of him, he would have to eat it if he wanted to grow stronger.
While he was holding the awakened hearts, Heimfher noticed that there was still blood that hadn't been cleaned yet, and his hands was bathed in bloods after he held it for a few seconds.
"You'll get used to it." Murph said out of nowhere, he intended to motivate Heimfher and Lena as his lips slightly curved to form a smile.
"U- Ughh.. Whatever, im not afraid!" Heimfher said before he went for it and took a bite out of human heart.
Chomp!