“What do you mean they’re not here!?” Erin shouted at the trembling bug-eyed dwarf. She shook her fist at him. “Where’d they go? Tell me or I’ll turn you into a turtle with no legs!”

Dupey glanced at his assistant, the elf standing in the corner, but she was looking away. The dwarf gulped. “I, I told you,” he said. “The horned woman and Alice Lowenherz were here two days ago, but they vanished without a trace! I heard they went back to Anfang.”

“You stupid dwarf! Aren’t you supposed to be an expert at coercion and kidnapping? How’d you let them escape?” Erin gritted her teeth while wringing her hands together. She threw her arms up into the air and sighed. “What about the man and the fairy? Where’d they go?”

“They didn’t even attend the tournament,” Dupey said. “They were teleported away by a silver light according to the berserk librarian. It’s most likely the Gemstone Merchants Clan who did that. You know how they are.”

“Those fairy-kidnapping rockheads?” Erin asked with a scowl. “I don’t believe you! Where’d they really go!?”

“M-Mrs. Koller,” Dupey said as he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. “Why don’t you believe me?”

“I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!” Erin said and pointed at the assistant in the corner. The elf yelped as she shrank in size and turned into a turtle shell. A reptilian head and tail popped out, but no legs appeared. “That’ll be you next if you don’t tell me exactly where they went! I flew nonstop for two and a half weeks from Anfang to your dingy little place. I’m not going to fly back to Anfang just to be told they came back here; do you understand?”

Dupey fell silent. Erin was completely irrational and unwilling to listen to the truth. Maybe she’d believe a lie? But the backlash he’d receive if she found out he lied to her…. Was it better to accept his fate as a legless turtle? Dupey sighed. “Alright, I’ll tell you the truth,” he said. “We imprisoned all four of them in the Dwarven Dungeons of Doom, Despair, and Decay. They were too powerful. People like them shouldn’t be allowed to run around outside of our influence.”

Erin lowered her hand and smiled at him. “See?” she asked. “Was that so hard? You could’ve told me that from the start. For your punishment of wasting my time at the start, I’ll only turn you into a turtle.” She snapped her fingers, and Dupey fell out of his chair while writhing around. His body shrank into a small ellipse.

The turtle that formed in Dupey’s previous position sighed. At least, I still have my legs.

Erin nodded at her handiwork before flying outside of the governor’s building. Fairy wings were too small for long-distance flights. She rubbed her chin before nodding. With a snap of her fingers, her body grew in size, feathers sprouting from her arms while her legs transformed into talons. If fairy’s were too small, she’d become a roc. A screech escaped from her beak before she pumped her wings, her body soaring beyond the clouds.

***

“Hey. Skeleton,” Alice said as she marched up to Mr. Skelly from behind. The armored skeleton turned his head around to face her without moving his body. Alice took a step back and wrinkled her nose. “Don’t do that. Anyways, what the heck are those!?” She pointed beyond the town walls at the two massive piles of bones, towering over the highest buildings in Anfang.

“Those are dead leviathans,” Mr. Skelly said with a nod as his body turned around as well. “One of them’s a bit wonky since some of its bones had been removed, but the other one is in perfect condition.”

“That answered my question, but why are they here!?” Alice shouted, smacking Mr. Skelly’s head. This time, his skull didn’t fall off as it was supported by a neck brace made of mithril.

“They’re our fancy forms of transport,” Mr. Skelly said. “Look, you can see our flag on them.”

Alice’s eye twitched. She hadn’t been able to remove the skeleton’s flags from all the buildings they had planted them on. “And where are you going? Modes of transportation imply transportation.”

Mr. Skelly reached into his armor and pulled out a map. It was marked with clear red lines and arrows along with numbers. “Here’s the plan Henry wrote up for us,” he said. “We’re heading south to the territory of the elves to bring them to our side first while some of us head east to the dwarves.”

Alice snatched the map out of Mr. Skelly’s bony hands. “No plans to go north?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “So you’re not declaring war on the holy dragons. That’s—”

“Yet.”

“…I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Alice said. “But, wait, why did Henry even make this map for you?” She folded it and tore it to bits.

Mr. Skelly tilted his head. “Henry’s our bishop,” he said. “Of course, he’d work in our best interest. But why did you rip the map apart?”

“I’m not going to allow you to keep a map that’s titled world domination!” Alice threw the ripped pieces into Mr. Skelly’s face.

“Well, that’s okay,” Mr. Skelly said as he plucked bits of paper out of his eye sockets. “We have plenty of spares, more than our flags actually.” He placed his hands on Alice’s shoulders. “Why don’t you”—he flinched as his arms were shattered into pieces, but continued speaking anyways—“join us for a bit? You’ll see we aren’t bad people at all. Who knows? You might even join our cause.”

“I highly doubt that,” Alice said with a snort.

“Give it a try? You won’t know if you’ll like it until you try it,” Mr. Skelly said as he squatted beside his shattered bones. They flew into the air and reconnected to his arms with the help of purple strands of mana. “Tafel said she’s coming.”

“Really?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. “…I might consider it then.”

A few moments after finishing his conversation with Alice, Mr. Skelly went to a small café in Anfang where he found Tafel sipping on tea while reading a book about cursed swords. “Hey, Tafel,” Mr. Skelly said, taking a seat across from her.

Tafel placed the book down and raised her head. “Mr. Skelly,” she said. “What’s up? You normally pop out of the ground.”

Mr. Skelly nodded. “Can’t do that. I’m unfamiliar with the lands here,” he said. “Anyways, want to join us on a crusade to the south?”

“Not really,” Tafel said. “Apparently I can make this sword evolve”—she patted the sword by her side which was staring at Mr. Skelly—“I want to do that first.”

“Oh,” Mr. Skelly said. “Alice said she really wanted to go though. You don’t want to accompany your party member?”

“Alice did?” Tafel asked while blinking. Her brow furrowed as she lowered her head. “Well, if she really wants to… I guess I can delay this a bit.” She raised her head. “Yeah, I’ll go.”

“Excellent.”