The cafe was peaceful and quiet. The sun seeped right through the ceiling-to-floor window, casting its golden glow on their faces where they sat right next to the window, sipping hot coffee.

Selena placed her mug on the table.

"For an annoying prick like you, I must say you’ve got balls," Selena muttered under her breath, her hands folded over her chest.

"I heard you," Nicholas replied back.

"Well, at least you’ve got good ears. You just don’t use them properly."

Selena didn’t know whether to be frustrated or just annoyed. She didn’t expect Nicholas to be so eager to go for his first mission, and now she had to leave her house and come to a quiet cafe where they could discuss what mission they would be taking on.

"So, about the mission," Selena started, placing her coffee mug on the table.

"Yes, you said I shouldn’t pick any one without your approval," Nicholas calmly replied.

"Of course! Who knows what mission you’ll pick? You don’t expect me to go die with you if you pick some dangerous mission."

"It seems the missions from the association are rather ridiculous, they would require more strength than usual." Nicholas took a calm sip from his mug. ’I must’ve underestimated the type of crimes that a world with insane beasts and corrupted humans would have.’

"Oh? So now you’re surprised? Which idiot wanted a direct upgrade to Rank B? Huh?! Do you see why we rank heroes?" Selena couldn’t help but facepalm.

She knew for one how difficult missions above D-rank were. Most even required groups of heroes and not only one. Nicholas had tossed himself straight from easy to hard and dragged her along with him, since she would have to supervise him through all his missions as a beginner, help where she could, and learn more about his abilities.

Hence why she couldn’t let him pick just any mission.

"Let me see what’s on the forum now," Selena said, stretching out her hands for his phone.

"I don’t give out my phone to strangers, it breaches privacy," Nicholas replied coldly, his voice holding no room for negotiation.

"Of course you wouldn’t give out your phone. Who knows what dirty history you have there... Perv." Selena rolled her eyes.

Nicholas felt a brow twitch with discomfort. "I would rather you call me by name than that. I’m not a pervert, and even if I was, I wouldn’t waste it on someone with a bad attitude like yours."

"You son of a—!" Selena held her words as she noticed the crowd turning in their direction. "Gimme that!" She yanked the phone out of his hands, entering the forum.

She scrolled through the missions, most of which were missions that would require skills and expertise.

Stopping a very slimy villain, literally. Mr. Slime had escaped from the association confinement and been on a rampage since then.

He had killed several civilians and even a C-rank hero.

The impure had the desire to eat up everything and absorb more liquids to grow.

She didn’t have much knowledge on the said villain, but putting Nicholas up against an impure supervillain didn’t feel like the ideal start.

’Something that could ease him up into the business would be better... so he doesn’t have to face something too serious on his first day.’ Selena skipped the mission, heading over to the others.

Another mission caught her attention, a group mission exploring the town along the mountain area for the strange occurrences.

Pets, guard animals, and livestock had all been going missing, with people as well, and they usually disappeared in groups.

’I would’ve picked this, but there’s no one to go with, and I’m not even sure anyone would want to work with this asshole. Heck, even I don’t want to work with him.’ Selena let out an exasperated sigh. ’I’m meant to be at home now.’ She felt her muscles grow weak for a moment, craving the comfort of her couch back at home.

Most of the heroes under her supervision decided on a work break, and some weren’t even around, so they couldn’t go on the mission even if they wanted to.

’How am I the only one stuck with this guy?’

....

"If you’re looking for something easy... I did see one mission that piqued my interest," Nicholas said calmly, seeing that Selena had given up on her search. ’She clearly doesn’t want me going into any hard missions for now. She might be overbearing, but can be professional at times.’

Selena glanced at him for a moment, her gaze filled with annoyance, but with a tinge of curiosity as she asked, "What mission?"

She handed Nicholas the phone. He quickly scrolled to where he’d seen the mission in question before showing it to Selena.

Selena read through the mission. It was a mafia group that had been trafficking people, particularly girls, and using them as members of a brothel. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Any lady who tried to escape was caught and killed later on. It was a high-end mafia group and had so many weapons in their arsenal and was also quite influential.

They had killed a couple of officers and even an E-rank hero.

’Sounds like work the police just tossed to the association. Those lazy-ass officers.’ Other heroes must’ve ignored it since it didn’t seem so serious.

Selena let out a deep breath. "This can work. It’s a human group, so you won’t have to do much. If we talk to them and warn them, we’ll use force if we have to, or threaten them. With the association backing, they should stop with this. " Selena said calmly.

"So we’ll work on that?" Nicholas asked, raising a brow.

"Yes, but we’ll just have to branch by HQ and get your costume first. If you’re going to go out, we can’t have you looking like that." Selena rolled her eyes at him. ’It’s not like your costume is any different... Although I must say he is good-looking,’ she thought, peeping from the side of her eyes.

His sharply chiseled chin gave him a sharp jawline like that of a modern Greek god, with his black hair slicked to the side and sharp blue eyes.

"You look at me like that and call me a perv? Well, I can see who the pervert is now."

Selena snapped right out of her daze. "Shut up!"