The ambulance siren shattered the silence of the night.
The deserted main boulevard allowed the white van to speed toward the hospital without obstruction. Who knew how serious the condition of the patient they were carrying was? One thing was certain: the patient's condition couldn't possibly be good.
On the rooftop of an apartment building, a woman in a black hoodie stood watching the vehicles passing below. Her gaze paused briefly on the speeding ambulance before becoming blank again, as if she held no emotion at all.
A black mask covered most of her face, leaving only a pair of unreadable eyes exposed.
Slowly, the corners of her lips lifted.
Someone finally came.
She could sense that person's presence even before the footsteps stopped right behind her.
The woman turned around.
A middle-aged man stood several steps away. He was breathing hard. His body was covered in wounds, while blood ran from his temple and soaked the collar of his shirt.
Despite his terrible condition, his grip on the pistol remained steady.
"I should have killed you that day."
His voice was low, filled with anger that was nearly boiling over.
The woman only smiled faintly.
"Oh, yeah?" she said calmly. "Just do it... or never."
She raised her pistol.
Without hesitation, the barrel was aimed straight at the man's head.
The night wind blew softly, carrying a silence that felt increasingly suffocating.
There was no other sound.
No movement.
Only two people aiming their weapons at each other.
Then...
Bang!
Clap... clap... clap...
The sound of applause shattered the silence of the shooting range.
"Nice shot, as always."
Adrian Nicholas Ashbourne stood several meters behind his niece. His gaze was fixed on the target at the end of the lane. A bullet hole sat exactly in the center of the black bullseye.
Nearly perfect.
Elara Vivienne Ashbourne calmly lowered her pistol. Her expression remained blank. There was no smile, no glimmer of pride. As if hitting the exact center of the target were nothing more than a routine she had performed countless times.
The shooting range was no unfamiliar place to them.
Nearly every weekend, Adrian brought Elara there to train. For years, he had taught her shooting, martial arts, archery, and racing.
None of those abilities had been acquired overnight.
They had all been forged through training that was almost never skipped.
"Your abilities have developed much faster than I expected," Adrian said.
He paused, still gazing at the shooting target in front of them.
"If you keep this up, you're ready to become part of Dominion."
Elara set the pistol on the table.
"I want to join now."
Adrian finally turned his gaze toward her.
"Now?"
"You said before that I could only join after I was seventeen years old."
Elara looked at Adrian without hesitation.
"Today, I'm exactly seventeen years old."
A brief silence settled over the room.
Adrian did not answer right away.
His gaze returned to the shooting target. His fingers tapped lightly against the surface of the table before he finally let out a long breath.
"You've grown faster than I expected."
His voice was calm.
"But becoming part of Dominion isn't the same as winning a competition."
"I know."
"No."
Adrian's answer was startlingly brief.
"You don't know yet."
Elara did not look away.
"I still want to join."
Several seconds passed in silence.
Then Adrian smiled faintly.
A smile whose meaning was difficult to read.
"All right."
Just one word.
There were no congratulations.
No refusal.
No explanation.
As if he had made that decision long before Elara voiced her desire to join.
Elara never knew why Adrian allowed her to join.
The only thing she knew was this:
Dominion was the only path that could bring her closer to the killer of both her parents.
For the past ten years, she had never found a clue that truly mattered.
Yet there was one belief she continued to hold on to.
The killer had to be connected to the mafia organization that had once been her father's enemy.
That was why Elara was willing to do anything.
Even if she had to take a path just as dark.
To her, finding the killer of both her parents was far more important than saving herself.