While Evelyn slept soundly afterward, completely exhausted from the night before, the entire mansion naturally knew what she had been up to.
Whispered gossip drifted through the halls like a morning breeze—soft at first, but impossible to ignore.
Doors had creaked open in the middle of the night, footsteps had paused, and more than a few ears had perked up at the unmistakable sounds echoing from Riley’s room.
Sarah, Ivy, and Grace gathered in the pantry early that morning, each pretending to busy themselves with chores while stealing glances at one another.
It didn’t take long before the topic slipped out.
"What was that last night?" Sarah finally whispered, unable to hold it in any longer.
"Soone was screaming... for hours," Ivy murmured, her face already turning pink as she rembered how loud it had been.
Grace leaned in, lowering her voice even more.
"I—I think it was Evelyn. And I’m pretty sure she and Master Riley were..." She didn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t have to.
The implication hung in the air like a spark.
The three of them froze, staring at each other, and then—slowly—their expressions shifted.
Realization sunk in, coloring their cheeks a deep, fiery red.
Sarah covered her mouth, Ivy fidgeted with the hem of her apron, and Grace’s eyes widened in flustered disbelief.
None of them dared say more, yet their racing thoughts were written plainly on their faces.
Curiosity. Embarrassnt. And just a hint of sothing else they refused to acknowledge aloud.
By the ti they finally dispersed, all three were blushing so fiercely it looked as though they had spent the morning standing too close to a fire.
***
The day passed peacefully as Riley and the others continued familiarizing themselves with the vast mansion they now called ho.
Servants bustled through the halls, furniture was rearranged, and everyone explored rooms they had never seen before.
But while the mansion felt calm, the city outside was anything but.
Riley’s na had spread like wildfire.
Word of how he had been personally saved by the strongest duke in the city circulated through taverns, markets, noble households, and even the slums.
People speculated endlessly.
"What is their relationship?"
"Why would a duke personally intervene?"
"Is Riley soone important? Soone hidden?"
Rumors layered upon rumors, but none of them held any weight.
No one possessed even a shred of concrete information, and that mystery only fueled the city’s curiosity further.
Naturally, these whispers reached the Night Watch Gang as well.
In a dimly lit warehouse near the riverside, nearly thirty n had gathered.
The air slled of alcohol, smoke, and barely restrained rage.
"Boss! Aren’t we going to avenge our brothers?" one man shouted, slamming his fist on a crate.
"Those fifteen n died because of him!" another yelled. "We can’t just let that go!"
"Vengeance!" several voices echoed, the room swelling with anger.
But it all stopped the mont a thunderous voice cut through the noise.
"Silence!"
The shout ca from a towering man seated at the center—the leader of the Night Watch Gang.
His presence alone made the others quiet down instantly.
He let the silence hang for a mont, forcing every man in the room to et his gaze.
"You fools," he growled at last. "Do you want to die?"
No one dared answer.
"That man—Riley—is backed by a Duke. The strongest Duke in this entire city." His voice rumbled like distant thunder.
"If any of you are tired of living, if any of you are so desperate for death, then go ahead. March out there and take revenge."
The gang mbers stiffened. The anger in their eyes dimd, replaced with uncertainty... then fear.
"Because if you raise a hand against him," the leader continued, "YOU are the ones the Duke will hunt down. Not . Not the gang. YOU."
A heavy silence fell across the warehouse. No one shouted. No one protested.
Every man lowered his head, swallowing his rage along with the bitter reality of their situation.
By the ti the eting ended, the Night Watch Gang had gone quiet—not out of respect, but out of survival.
As for Riley, who had already received information about the Night Watch Gang’s indecision and anger, he rely chuckled.
Their bluster amused him.
These n—who terrorized the helpless, extorted entire districts, and walked around the city as if they ruled it—were now panicking because fifteen of their own had died at his hands.
They had no idea how lucky they were.
Even if the entire gang gathered their full strength and marched to his mansion in broad daylight, not a single one would survive the encounter.
Riley knew it. And deep down, the smarter mbers of the gang knew it too.
A quick death at his hands would have been far kinder than what they deserved for all the misery they had inflicted on the city.
He stood by the window, eyes wandering over the lights flickering across the capital.
His thoughts drifted elsewhere.
"Hmm... by my estimation, I still have around five years before she arrives."
His tone was casual, almost bored—yet his eyes held a spark of anticipation.
"That’s more than enough to enjoy myself in this little mortal world," he thought with a grin slowly stretching across his face.
The more he pondered, the more his smile grew—sharp, confident, hungry.
"Night Watch Gang... you’re just an unlucky group fated to cross my path."
He didn’t bother preparing. He didn’t need weapons. He didn’t need allies.
He didn’t even need a plan.
When night finally fell, the city darkened under thick clouds. Streets emptied. Lanterns flickered.
And Riley quietly stepped out of the mansion without alerting a single soul.
What followed was swift, silent, and terrifying.
One by one, the Night Watch Gang’s safehouses went dark.
Their hidden dens, underground gambling halls, brothels, drug dens—every place they controlled was visited by a deadly assassin.
Screams erupted, only to be cut off a heartbeat later.
Blood never even had ti to spill onto the floors.
Leaders begged. Enforcers fought. Runners tried to escape.
None succeeded.
By midnight, the last of their informants—soone who believed he had escaped by hiding beneath a collapsed shack—felt a cold presence behind him.
He turned, trembling, and the streets fell silent once more.
By dawn, the Night Watch Gang no longer existed.
Not reduced.
Not crippled.
Eradicated.
The entire organization vanished as if wiped clean from the city’s history.
Only rumors remained—whispers of a single man who walked into the night and ended a criminal empire before sunrise.
And as the morning sun rose, Riley returned ho calmly, as if he had rely taken a stroll.
His expression was unchanged, but his eyes held the quiet satisfaction of soone who had just removed an annoyance from his path.
Another day began.
The city trembled.
And Riley smiled
The entire city trembled when the news broke.
It began as a whisper—one frightened voice in a dark alley, then two, then a dozen—spreading like wildfire through every district.
"What? The Night Watch Gang... all killed?"
"That can’t be real! They had hundreds of n!"
"No way soone wiped them out overnight! Who could do that without anyone seeing a thing?"
Taverns went silent. rchants abandoned their stalls.
Even the city guards, usually loud and arrogant, stood frozen as rumors swirled around them.
For once, no one dared to laugh, boast, or exaggerate. The fear in their voices was real.
"Think about it," another man whispered nervously. "Not even the bone sentinels could handle those thugs. They controlled the docks... the markets... even the slums."
"And now—gone. Every last one of them."
"No witnesses. No clues. Just... silence."
People exchanged uneasy glances.
A few crossed their arms tightly as if trying to shield themselves from an invisible threat.
Then soone asked the question everyone else was too afraid to voice.
"Is it... perhaps... him?"
He didn’t even need to say the na.
The mont the implication hung in the air, the group went quiet—eyes widening, breaths hitching, fear settling like a heavy fog.
There was only one man in recent mory who had clashed with the Night Watch Gang.
Only one whose presence shook the city’s elite.
Only one protected—not just casually, but personally—by the strongest Duke in the city.
Riley.
Riley, the mysterious youth no one understood.
Riley, the man who walked into the city a stranger and instantly drew the Duke’s attention.
Riley, who had killed fifteen gang mbers without flinching.
Riley... who could very well have erased the entire organization.
"Shhhhh! Don’t say his na!" a woman snapped, looking around in panic.
"Are you insane? We have no proof! And even if we did..." She swallowed hard. "Talking carelessly could get us killed."
But the damage was done.
The whispers had already spread to nearby stalls, then down the street, then into the noble quarter.
By afternoon, servants were whispering behind closed doors.
By evening, officials had already issued ’warnings’ to speak cautiously.
And by nightfall, the city had collectively decided—
Riley’s na was not to be spoken lightly.
Children were told never to ntion him unless necessary.
rchants referred to him only as "that person."
Even the boldest rcenaries avoided his na as if saying it might summon him.
From that day onward, Riley’s na beca a taboo—an unspoken threat lingering in every alleyway and marketplace.
The city could not prove he was responsible.
But no one dared assu otherwise.
Because if he truly was the one who wiped out an entire criminal empire overnight...
then Riley was not soone any sane person wanted to provoke.
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