My SSS-Rank Grim Reaper System-Chapter 90: KHAR’SETH BY NIGHT

[Afternoon — Path to Khar’Seth]

The descent from the hot springs took less than an hour.

Kira led as always, but differently. Without the active tracker mode, without assessing threats. Just walking with her hands in her pockets and something like anticipation in her ears.

"Why are you walking like that?" asked Raven.

"Like what?"

"As if you’re about to show us something."

Kira didn’t respond immediately.

"Because I am going to show you something."

---

[Khar’Seth — Central Plaza — 5:30 PM]

The evening market was different from the village the team had seen in previous days.

More noise. More color. Stalls open, Beastfolk moving with more purpose, the smell of food mixing with the smoke from torches that were beginning to be lit.

It wasn’t fully recovered.

But it was trying.

"The evening market has been here for three hundred years," Kira said as they entered. "Matthias closed it in the first month of control. It reopened two days ago."

Grim, at eighty centimeters beside Alex, looked at the stalls.

"Smells different."

"Like what?"

"Like normal."

---

[Spice stall — Central market]

Kira greeted the vendor, an old badger with enormous mustaches, with a light tap on the shoulder.

"Toru."

"Kira." The badger looked her up and down. "Alive."

"Always."

"These are the ones who—?"

"Yes."

Toru assessed them one by one. He stopped at Grim.

"The skeleton too."

"The skeleton too."

Toru nodded slowly and began taking out spice samples without anyone asking.

"Try them. I don’t charge those who fixed the Matthias situation."

Raven took a sample. Smelled it.

"What is it?"

"Mountain chili," said Kira. "Heat level four out of five."

"Sounds good."

"Kira," said Toru in a flat voice, "level four made the dragon hunter who came last year cry."

Raven had already put it in her mouth.

Two seconds of silence.

"It’s fine," she said.

Her eyes were watering.

"It’s perfectly fine."

"Raven," said Emily.

"I’m fine."

"Your right eye—"

"I’m. Fine."

Kira passed her water without comment. Raven took it with absolute dignity and drank half in one go.

"Level four," she repeated quietly. "Interesting."

Maya bought three bags of different spices in forty seconds, negotiated the price in twenty, and was already assessing the next stall.

Raven watched her.

"You shop like it’s a mission."

"Efficiency has no context," said Maya without stopping.

"We’re out for a stroll."

"And yet."

---

[Local fauna zone — North market]

Emily disappeared.

Not dramatically. Just that somewhere between the spice stall and the fabric stall, she was no longer where she should be.

Alex found her five minutes later at the north edge of the market, kneeling on the ground, completely still.

In front of her, three small creatures watched her with curiosity.

They looked like foxes. But with two tails each and metallic blue fur that shimmered slightly.

"What are they?" Alex asked quietly.

"Crystal foxes," Kira replied from behind, equally quiet. "They live in the Crystal Mountains. They’re shy. They don’t usually approach humans."

Emily slowly extended her hand.

The smallest of the three sniffed it.

Then climbed straight onto her.

[Luna — reaction detected]

The unicorn appeared partially from the spiritual plane, just her head, looking at the crystal fox with an expression that in a common animal would have been jealousy.

The crystal fox looked at Luna.

Luna looked back.

"Luna," Emily said softly. "No."

Luna disappeared back into the spiritual plane.

The crystal fox seemed satisfied with the outcome and settled on Emily’s shoulder as if it had always been hers.

"Emily," said Raven from behind.

"I’m not adopting it."

"It’s on your shoulder."

"It’s just resting."

"Emily."

"Just a moment."

The crystal fox yawned and closed its eyes.

"Twenty minutes max," Emily negotiated.

---

[Food stall — Market center]

Kira ordered for everyone without consulting.

Five different dishes arrived at an improvised table next to the stall. Mountain meat in dark sauce. Flatbread with something that smelled like herb butter. Roasted fruit Alex didn’t recognize but that worked.

They ate.

No pending missions. No urgency. No calculations.

Grim was on the ground beside the table. He had a plate in front of him too. He didn’t eat, obviously, but he had it there with his usual seriousness.

"Why do you always give him a plate?" asked Maya.

"Because he’s part of the group," Kira said simply.

Grim looked at Kira.

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome."

Maya looked at her own plate. Then at Kira. Then said nothing, but the gesture had landed.

Raven ordered level three chili this time.

She finished it.

Only coughed once.

Progress.

---

[Main street — 8:00 PM]

The market torches were all lit now.

The village at night had a different character. Softer. The Beastfolk who during the day still wore that expression of a gap were beginning to relax with the warmth and familiar faces.

Kira led them down the main street, greeting almost every person she knew.

"That’s the blacksmith. He started working again yesterday."

"The woman at the blue stall is a teacher. Her students returned today."

"The building on the corner is the council house. Matthias used it as a base in the early days. It’s already been cleaned."

It wasn’t tourism.

It was something else.

It was Kira showing that the village was still standing.

Alex walked beside her in silence for a while.

Then Kira asked without looking at him:

"Does the group have room for one more?"

Alex thought about how to answer.

"That’s not my decision alone."

"I already asked the others." A pause. "And Grim."

Alex looked back. Grim was three meters behind with Emily and the crystal fox still on her shoulder.

"And?"

Kira finally looked at him.

"He said ’welcome’."

Alex looked at Grim.

Grim looked back.

"She’s a tracker. Useful."

Two-second pause.

"Also a good person."

Alex looked at Kira.

She looked back with her usual direct expression. No nervousness. No urgency. Just waiting.

"Do you know what you’re getting into?" Alex asked.

"I have a general idea. I’ll learn the details as we go."

"The details include a Reaper Fragment, a Temple looking for us, and a high probability of situations like Matthias but worse."

"I know."

"And still?"

"I’ve been alone for five years doing dangerous work with no backup." Kira shrugged. "I prefer danger with a team."

Alex nodded.

"Welcome to the Nightshade Team."

Kira didn’t exactly smile.

But her ears perked up.

Enough.

---

[Tavern — 10:00 PM]

They ended where they always ended.

The same badger owner. The same cups. The same table at the back.

But different.

Maya had bought something at the market—a kind of Beastfolk board game with stone pieces—and laid it out without asking anyone if they wanted to play.

Everyone played.

No one fully understood the rules in the first three rounds.

Kira won the first three rounds.

"You’re making up rules," said Raven. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"The rules are the rules."

"You just said the blue piece can move diagonally if there’s a full moon."

"There’s a full moon."

Raven looked out the window.

There was a full moon.

"This is a trap."

"It’s strategy."

Emily lost every round with a constant smile because she was more focused on the crystal fox that had decided to stay on the table than on the game.

Grim watched the pieces attentively. In the fifth round, he moved a blue piece diagonally.

Everyone looked at him.

"Full moon," he said.

Kira nodded with approval.

Maya won the sixth round with a move no one understood but had clearly been calculating since round two.

"You shop like it’s a mission and you play the same way," said Raven.

"Is that a problem?"

"It’s unsettling."

Maya collected her winning pieces without further comment.

---

[Outside the tavern — 11:30 PM]

The group left when the owner began extinguishing torches.

The village was quiet. The full stars above the Crystal Mountains. The cold mountain air that felt clearer after the days at the hot springs.

They walked back toward the cabins.

Emily literally fell asleep walking, and Kira redirected her twice before they arrived.

The crystal fox had disappeared at some point in the night.

Luna re-emerged from the spiritual plane as soon as it left and pretended no fox had ever existed.

Maya said goodbye at the fork in the path — she had her own cabin on the other side.

"Early training tomorrow," she said.

"What time?" asked Alex.

A brief pause.

"Six."

"See you at six then."

Maya looked at him a second longer than necessary.

"Fine."

She left.

Raven waited until Maya was out of earshot and approached Alex.

"There are four of us women and you," she murmured. "How do you feel?"

Alex thought about it honestly.

"Like the luckiest man in the world. I’m not going to deny it."

Raven smiled.

"Good. Because you are."

---

[Cabin — 11:50 PM]

Alex was reviewing his stats before sleeping when his communication device vibrated.

"I thought there was no signal here how...?"

It was a message from Viktor.

He opened it.

Read it.

Read it again.

[MESSAGE — VIKTOR CROSS — URGENT]

We intercepted communication from the Heralds of the Void six hours ago. The fourth seal will activate in six weeks although maybe not even they know if it’s a fragment or something else.

Call when you can.

Alex looked at the message.

Then looked at the cabin ceiling.

Six weeks.

"Master?"

Grim was on the floor beside his bed, eighty centimeters, looking at him.

"Change of plans," said Alex.

"How much time do we have?"

"The same but... Maybe less if I don’t heal quickly."

Silence.

"Then. Must. Heal. Quickly."