Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Charles awoke with a start, steadying himself before he fell out of his chair. His back was stained with sweat as a high pitched bell chimed across the plowed field. There was only one bell that did that, especially on a farm.

"Bonnie!" he called.

Bonnie turned. "Grandfather! Heidi is still missing. We haven't gotten any confirmation from fath-"

"Call everyone home," Charles said.

Bonnie started in disbelief. "Bu-"

"Now!"

Leaning his chair down, he shakily stood as Bonnie beat out the code on the bronze bell hanging on the doorway.

Clang! clang, clang!

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

The high pitched chime overpowered the clanging of the farm bell, even though he was standing next to it. The chiming was being spaced apart longer and longer, which was a relief to Charles.

"Father! Why did you call us back? We need to be on the lookout for bandits," his son, Brian called out as he came into view, his farmhands and family behind him.

Charles paused as the dinging echoed out again, but no one but him seemed to notice it. His mood plummeted as he realized why. Though a few had the Class, they didn't have the heart of a Farmer.

"Father?" Brian said.

Charles quieted. "...are all the livestock in the barn?"

"For the night, yes."

"Release the weakest and sickest into the fields. At least half."

Brian cursed as his wife, Maxine, held him back. "Father! They are our money makers right now! I know you hate that we are Ranchers, but-"

Ding.

Charles cut his son off with a glare. "The harvest bell is ringing son. And it's claiming its share of the harvest."

Brian paused, his eyes widening. He shook his head in disbelief. "...I remember the stories, father. You said it's just an old tale from back home."

"It was, son. Not anymore."

Ding.

"What about Heidi? We still haven't confirmed if she was taken by the bandits or not," Maxy replied heatedly. "We aren't stopping until I know she's been found."

Charles glanced over at his son.

Brian hesitated as he looked between his father and his wife, before pulling her gently aside.

"The Harvest Bell rings when a Farmer is in mortal danger, Maxine. But it requires sacrifice as well, which is why father is letting out the weakest livestock. IF the stories are true, Heidi will come home before dawn."

Maxine took that in, turned back to her father in law, and nodded after a few seconds.

"Farmhands, do as Farmer Charles commanded. Separate them out and I'll confirm the selection after. Everyone else, head down to the cellars. Now."

Ding.

Clapping her hands, she directed the rest of the family inside before turning to her eldest daughter.

"Bonnie, be a dear and alert your uncles of the danger as well. We might not be on the best of terms, but we are still family. Let our neighbors know what Farmer Line has commanded as well."

Brian looked over in the direction of the stables. "I'll check over the selection, Maxy. Get everyone situated in the cellar. We'll need to make room for the farmhands too."

"Hurry, dear." Kissing Brian, Maxy turned and walked over to Charles's side. The bell’s frantic ringing was loud, though she seemed able to ignore it.

"Brian's told me some of the old legends… just how true are the stories?" Maxy asked quietly. Already she could hear some of the neighboring farms beating out the same message.

Clang! Clang!

Kling! Clang!

Ding.

Charles counted to ten and sighed in relief as the bell echo faded across the fields. Ten rings. That… that was acceptable for this area. There would be some problems, but if the girl was one of the last Imperial Farmers...and if she could train Bonnie that way…

Charles sighed. It had been nothing but setbacks up until now. And this would certainly raise a few questions as well. But he shrugged after a moment. Let the school face those issues. He listened to his neighbor's bells in the wind. Some of the neighboring farms were clearly hesitant to follow his advice. He walked slowly to the bell and rang out his own message before stepping away. If his old friends and family didn't want to heed his advice, then tough luck to them.

Charles turned and stared at his daughter in law. He could tell that she was shaken. She'dve been a good Farmer in a different life. "...Peter rang the bell a hundred times, and the dragons and their army were routed…" Charles took a deep breath and looked Maxy in the eyes. "It's also the reason my family left and settled down here, all those centuries ago."

Maxine's voice shook. "A, and the cost?"

He paused and turned his back, his voice soft against the clanging of the bell.

"They don't call it the Southern Desert for nothing."

"Y, y, you can't be here! What did you do!?"

Paige thought for a moment. "Hm? and here I thought you were just a greedy merchant. I'd start praying if I were you."

Paige smiled lightly as she tapped the man's head, and slowly dragged the unconscious man to the low cellar, his family shivering in fear as she tossed the man in.

Dusting her hands off, she looked at his two kids and frowned slightly. She wasn't used to being the bad girl in any given situation.

"Wha, whatev-" the man’s wife stuttered.

"Hush. The bandits are already close by. Lock the inner cellar door and wait until dawn to get help."

Without waiting for a reply, Paige closed the door and covered it lightly with dirt before turning toward the north.

The clangs of frantic bells filled the air as Paige stopped to listen. Every farm was beating out the same instructions. Hide and leave the livestock outside. She narrowed her eyes in thought as she continued walking.

'Hrm… Farmer Line probably knows what I'm doing. If that's the case…"

She sighed as she looked up to the stars. '... Twelve generations, he claimed. Assuming marriage at twenty, that's two hundred and forty years, give or take… so either his ancestors were from the Fertile Plains… or he was. I mean, that’s where the ceremony originated from so it’d make sense he’d know about it.’

She thought hard about the possibilities before shaking her head. 'Probably his ancestors. I've never known a Farmer who lived quite that long.’

But putting aside Farmer Line’s unusual background, Paige smiled as she counted her blessings. Luckily, her opponents had no intention of attacking her, so she decided to prepare a special surprise. And she hardly had to use any of her mana to do it! Of course, she would absolutely not tell Zenith anything about what she was going to do, either. Not after that last fiasco of a ceremony.

Even she was surprised that her mana was dropping at a slow, steady rate. After all, it was based upon an old, old farmer’s tale, one of the few she remembered hearing as a child. A simple enough ceremony, and it was even created just for Farmers! Untested, of course since she wasn't a Farmer before, and she had never seen it in action; but even though her memory was spotty on the specifics, she knew the important parts.

Use some mana, ring a bell a few times, pray for help. The part about the harvest decreasing was a tad problematic, if it was true, but that could be resolved easily enough with one or two harvest festivals.

So, in theory, it was a net benefit for herself. After all, as Zenith would tell her, 'the less you do, the better!'

Paige tapped her hoe on the ground as she walked through the rippling fields of wheat. She could still sense a few eyes on her, though some had clearly withdrawn back to their main camp.

The Scouts were good, though not quite up to her level. She caught the sight of a crimson tunic and leather armor as one retreated and sighed. It was that team, Blood something. Shavie had antagonized them, somehow or another. But why on earth would they risk fighting this close to the Academy?

Paige stopped. ‘I’m missing something. This is too coordinated for a sudden ambush....’ She smiled. ‘Heh, but is it something I have to be worried about?’

Paige waited a few minutes before chuckling to herself. 'That should be enough of a headstart.' She leaned forward to find the answer.

[Blink]

The world blurred for a second before she stood in the cloaked girl’s last location. Taking a glance around, it took her a few seconds before she started to follow the same path. The girl was okay for her age, Paige realized. Maybe a little worse than Nick, but it would be enough to befuddle Markus and Sara at least. Though, in Nick's defense, to compare a Scout in a field against a Ranger in the woods was a tad unfair on many levels. It was like saying Elves are worse at hiding than Rangers in a forest.

Still, the crimson cloaked girl took enough precautionary measures to throw off any would-be followers off her trail, so she had some common sense at least.

As Paige took her time following the trail, she noticed that the Scout’s Skills were rather varied. Tracking and stealth were a given, but she was also starting to lay traps down before moving forward, too. Not enough to slow her down, but it was surprising to see it done on the go like this.

She heard a gasp of pain in the distance and stopped. Whoever was waiting to ambush her was fairly bad at this.

Moving at a crouch, Paige slowly inched her way forward.

‘Time to see what this is all about.’

Heidi gasped in pain as she curled into a ball. She winced as another kick landed on her back, though that wasn’t the only reason she was afraid. She had a distinct feeling that none of this was her fault though.

“Damn girl, you better hope your new teacher comes,” a man whispered angrily. “I have a score to settle with her.”

Heidi stiffened for the incoming blow, but nothing happened. She could feel her bruises along her body and shuddered in pain. But with the reprieve, a small piece of her mind focused on her surroundings.

The ground was freshly tilled, Heidi realized. Not as well as she would have done it, but it pained her to be ruining someone else’s hard work. With her eyes closed, it was hard to place how many people were around her, but she knew most of them were angry about something. Or someone, rather.

“Stop beating the girl, Drew. We need her alive.”

“Peh, I’ve barely touched her, Chloe.”

“All of you, shut it. She’s coming this way slowly. I give it another ten minutes at her current pace”

“There’s thirty of us here, Geoff. If we can’t kill within the first minute, I’ll kill myself,” Drew said with contempt. “Simon, tie her to the stake. We need our hostage to stay still.”

A hushed voice responded. “Touch her and I’ll kill you, Simon.”

“Give it your best shot, Helen. I’m not afraid of your Party, even when it’s not at full strength!”

A multitude of voices swirled around her, though most were too quiet for her to hear. But the soft chime of a bell in the distance somehow made her feel safe. Well, as safe as she could feel while still being beaten, that is.

But she kept quiet and remembered her grandfather’s teachings, ‘Stay quiet, don’t look at anyone and don’t show fear, Heidi. Stay quiet, do-’, repeating them endlessly in her mind lest she succumb to fear.

Heidi started as hands grabbed her, though they were gentler than before.

“Up you go, girl. It’ll be all over soon, and then you can get back home.”

Opening her eyes for a brief second, she saw tender eyes staring at her but she knew better than to believe the woman standing in front of her. She was going to die tonight, Heidi knew that much was certain. She didn’t need to be good at math to know one or two people couldn’t stop the other twenty-eight from killing her.

“What’s your name, little girl?” the lady said.

“........” Heidi closed her eyes and shook her head.

“Stop socializing, Helen.”

Helen snarled. “Hey, Drew, how about you go and f-”

“Helen! Remember Kevin’s instructions! We need to be nice!”

Heidi gasped in pain as someone wretched her off her feet and instinctually slackened her body to lessen the pain of the fall.

“Joseph! Get your hands off her!”

“I’m gonna get some answers out of her. Why did the bells change their signal, girl?” a gruff voice said.

“It’s getting dark, what do you think will happen when a child is missing?” Helen replied.

“Sandra’s said something is wrong with the signals now. They’re not making sense,” Joseph said.

Heidi could smell the heavy stench of alcohol on the man.

The kind eyed lady spoke slowly. “So? Get. your. hands. off. her!”

Another voice interrupted “Helen. Back up, they’re serious.”

Joseph spoke slowly. “Girl, tell us what those signals mean. Now.”

Heidi winced as someone shook her. But she only shook her head and repeated her thoughts to herself again.

A sharp shooting pain pulled her out of her thoughts. A thin blade attracted her attention, and she watched as a bead of blood dripped from the point. Gasping in panic, she could feel her blood flowing down her arms in a slow stream.

“Signal. Now.”

Heidi panicked as she listened. “Th, th, th-”

“Out with it!”

“The bells say stay inside and keep the animals outside! Danger is coming!” she replied honestly.

“Tch. Sandra, is that true?”

The man looked past Heidi warily, though she could still feel his gaze on her.

“Yeah, Simon. But why would they change the signals?”

“Heh, they’re just Farmers. Everything is dangerous to them,” The violent man said with a chuckle.

Heidi bit her lip as the people around her laughed. Farmers were not weak! Her grandfather was way stronger than them! Well, maybe not her grandfather. But her great, great, great grandfather had been!

Ding

Heidi paused as she heard the soft ringing of a bell, this time much closer. She looked toward the east and looked for the source of it. There was something about the sound of the bell that troubled her. Maybe it was because the sound was getting louder over time, Heidi realized.

“How much longer do we have to wait for Jules and his team? Our prey is almost here. That is, if Chloe isn’t pulling our leg,” someone behind her said testily.

With her eyes opened, Heidi glanced over toward the nice lady as her friend responded.

“She was taking her time to hide the Farmers on her way. It seems she is using the warning bells to figure out our relative location. And I know Jorge’s party by reputation; he should be coming back soon.”

An old, tired voice called out. “No one attack until we figure out who she is working under. Agreed?”

Helen turned to look and spotted the speaker. It was a very old man. He looked almost as old as her grandfather, though instead of a cane, he had a wicked looking ax in his hands.

He paused as he noticed Heidi’s gaze. Her heart stopped as she made eye contact. “Drew, kill the girl. We don’t need her anymore”

Heidi tore her gaze away and held still as she noticed the nice lady and the violent man had somehow moved right to either side of her.

“Now wait one damn second. I didn’t agree to killing an innocent girl!” Helen said.

The man sneered. “You gonna go against Sir Alan’s wishes? I don’t think your boss would like that very much.”

“Hmm, so not all of you are in it together. That’s... disappointing.”

A clear voice rang out in the darkness. Heidi turned her eyes, but she could hardly see in the dark. But she had noticed something peculiar. Everyone was warily looking in the same direction.

“Drop my apprentice or there will be hell to pay.”

“Hmph. Sure, whatever you say, Farmer.”

Heidi felt drowsy all of a sudden. The voices swam around her as she was dropped to the floor. The puddle she fell into was warm. Struggling to keep her eyes open, she could barely see was a blurry face off in the distance.

Ding.

—

Paige frowned hard as her apprentice was dropped into a puddle of her own blood. That… was going to pose a problem, Paige thought.

‘That is definitely not supposed to happen! Isn’t the ceremony supposed to protect the Farmer in need? Shit! Even my divine mana decreased somewhat, so it should’ve been a real ceremony… Perhaps she's not in bad shape?'

Eyeing her apprentice's wound, she judged that she'd live for a few minutes without help. Was it just to rile her up? Her eyes wandered about the field as she finally took stock of her opponents.

Paige narrowed her eyes slightly. Back at the school, she had hardly paid attention to the people she was facing. It wasn’t a battle to the death, so she simply played around a bit, but now she recognized more than a few of them under the moonlight. Her eyes flicked to the closest person to her dying apprentice.

“...Helen Divinksi, I would count it as a favor if you saved the girl before she bled out. Please save her.”

All the eyes shifted toward the cloaked woman standing in front of Drew. Helen paused, though she slowly knelt down. “How do you know my name?”

Paige ignored her question as she eyed a few others. “Chloe Tive, Alan Henderson; Maximillion June, Barry Idelt…”

Seven of the thirty she knew from reputation as good people. Were good people. The rest were… problematic, to say the least.

“So you know of us. Big deal,” Drew said with a smirk on his face.

Paige looked at Drew with displeasure. It shouldn't have astounded her, but seeing dead people continue to cause problems around the Empire was grating on her nerves. Why couldn't dead people stay dead?

But her eyes were drawn to a single person. The old man.

He was going to be a problem, Paige knew. Especially since she knew who it was. And who he represented.

The old man stood up and pulled at his necklace. With a flourish, Paige watched dumbfoundedly as he pulled out a tiny glowing shard.

“I, Imperial Servant Alan Rook, hereby order you to state your Status, Farmer.”

Paige waited as she looked at the tiny Imperial Wardstone. No, she could hardly call it that. Maybe a Shardstone? If that was even a thing. Hell, if she hadn't known who he was, she would have doubted his claim that he was an Imperial Servant with a stone that small.

“Well?” Alan responded haughtily.

“Why the hell would I tell you anything? Imperial Servant, my ass. Let me find a sapphire and I’ll order you around.”

Paige scoffed with indignation, though inwardly she was worried. Barring it's size, she knew it was genuine. Glenn’s reaction should’ve been a clue to that, she realized far too late. She had previously used a dead Scion’s wardstone to do her little stunt with her Status. Perhaps… Servants were just that now? Or worse, Imperial Wardstones really were rare.

“I order you, as the Chief Imperial Servant under Imperial Consort Julia Maffei, to reveal your Status!”

Paige stilled before she glowered. That was all the confirmation she needed.

“You’re lucky I’m not here to fight anyone, you bastard. I still have a score to settle with Maxwell over what he did to my goddaughter. Don’t add on to it by throwing his mom’s name into the mix,” Paige snarled.

She had a history with Julia, and it wasn’t a good one either. Even before she had escaped, Paige knew that Julia had been burning with jealousy over the attention she had received. Not to mention what had happened after she escaped.

‘She already hates my guts for killing her son once. She’s persistent too, which makes things even more bothersome. Ugh, why can’t she learn from Mira and have a better temper. And personality.’

“You heard her. She has smeared the name of the Imperial Family. I don’t care who your Scion is, but you are dying tonight,” Alan said.

She knew it was the wrong thing to say, if she had been a real Servant, but she hardly cared. Over half of the people readied their stance. She looked at the others and raised a brow at a fellow Warrior.

“Even you Maximillion? You have ties to the Imperial Family now? I'm surprised that your wife hasn't killed you for that... Or does she not know?”

Maximillion was perturbed. “It...wasn’t by choice, but yes. And before you ask, everyone here is the same. And we all want to know how you got so strong. I suggest you come peacefully and tell us what you know. It’ll be less painful that way, Farmer Paige.”

Paige sighed. That was the problem with Servants, Paige realized. Of course they’d want to know how she got strong. That was probably the only reason they became a Servant as well. She knew the Imperial Family would have a great carrot to offer to Mages, but what about close combat classes? They would have to be insane to go to the battlefield at their level. She swept through the others and her eyes narrowed. Over half of them had some form of plate armor, with the others favoring light to no armor. That left little to the imagination on what types of warriors they were.

But that was something to think about later though, as Helen had successfully bandaged her apprentice up. She was even thoughtful enough to hold the girl in her arms and was keeping away from Drew and the others.

“Pull out your weapon, Farmer. I have a score to settle with you from last week. I haven’t killed a Spearmaster in decades,” Dave said chillingly. His eyes were crazed, but it hardly mattered to Paige. She looked over and cast a pitying gaze around.

They were all dead to her, after all.

“Why should I fight? I don’t have to do anything but stand here and make sure you all don’t leave.”

“Hm?” Dave paused uncertainty.

Everyone shifted uncomfortably as she smiled. If they had more situational awareness, they might have realized what had silently appeared. Raising her hand, Paige pointed slowly above her.

“The Harvest Bell has been rung. Why should I bother with you all?”

Their eyes’ dilated as they saw a copper bell floating high above them. It was rather conspicuous, as most flying objects were. But only a few recognized what it signified.

Alan’s eyes widened. “I, I, Impossible! That artifact hasn’t been seen in over three hundred years!”

Paige snorted. “You attacked an Imperial Farmer within a few miles of her farm. What did you think was going to happen?”

Paige also glanced upwards at the nondescript bell floating in the air. This sight would go on her top thirty list of strange things, even if she had been expecting it. It didn’t look like a killing machine. From the parts she remembered, it should be shining or some-

The bell shook once; as a clear melody rang out in the distance. Watching with satisfaction, Paige saw the treetops sway violently toward them. The grass and wheat shifted toward them as a gust of wind blew above the fields.

As the gust hit her enemies in front of her, they all doubled over in pain. Paige nodded. That was more-

Ding

She staggered as the sound hit her. Paige blinked as she looked at the bell incredulously.

It had affected her as well?! Paige’s mind spun rapidly. She could feel her own mana core decreasing at a fast rate as another gust reached her. ‘...It’s forcibly sucking in the mana from the surroundings! Even mine? What kind of stupid ceremony affects the person who started it?! She was also Farmer in danger for god-’

Ding

Staggering once again, her eyes darted to Heidi and twitched. She was sleeping soundly on Helen’s shoulder. In fact, only her and the two crimson cloaked girls off to the side were unaffected by the sound of the bell.

‘Threats to a Farmer! Tch, the bell identified Heidi as the one in trouble, so it’s targeting everyone that she identified as a threat! And since I had shown up late and she fainted soon after...!’

Paige ground her teeth. This was not how she expected this night to go. And even worse, she recognized the symptoms. Mana exhaustion. No doubt that is why the close combat classes were having a much harder time than the mages.

Paige hesitated. Mana exhaustion wasn’t a joke, but then again, her mana core was a lot bigger than it had been. And she had a veritable ocean of divine mana she could pull from as well. At the rate it was going, she could probably weather the attack without a problem with her mana alone. Her eye twitched as the third attack hit her. Her mana core started depleting even faster.

Taking a deep breath, Paige felt the flow of her mana in her body and willed it back into her core. With a thought, she quickly hardened her mana around her own core. Though it was a quick fix, it would take weeks for her mana core to recover from her actions. It leveled the playing field for her right now though, since most people who reached High Class would be able to do it, even if it exponentially increased the cost and time it took to use mana.

Having fixed her own problem, she blinked as most of the people around her were barely keeping upright as the bell rang for the fourth time. Surely the others would have known to do the same, though Paige realized quickly what the problem was. If they hadn’t already started the process, they probably didn’t have enough mana to harden it around their mana cores to stop the leakage.

Seeing the look of pain on everyone’s faces, Paige realized this was what the ending of the bedtime story was alluding to. ‘If there is no mana, then no monsters would come to the area. And if everyone died from mana exhaustion, then of course a Farmer would be able to go home safely. Why on earth wasn’t that just spelled out in the story!’

As the majority of people fell, Paige locked eyes on the most important person here. Imperial Servant Alan started coughing blood as those who could move gathered around him. Only the five closest Magess to him were barely standing upright as the shard in his hand shone bright as it flashed in time with the ringing of the bell.

Casting a quick glance around her for threats, Paige sighed as most of the other warriors had already succumbed to their injuries there. In fact, more than a few of the bodies were slowly disintegrating as the bell converted their equipment and flesh into ambient mana. A few glass orbs tumbled out of their armor, though they too were disintegrating. Curious, but not her problem right now.

After the seventh ring, even Alan himself was having trouble standing, and Paige realized why. With each flash of light, the shard was dimming.

“Retreat!” Imperial Servant Alan commanded.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Paige dashed toward the old man and stabbed the ground with her hoe. “[Power Till]! [Power Till]! [Power Till]!”

Her breath caught in her chest as her mana shuddered violently within her with the first attack, though she was pleasantly surprised that the other two attacks had pulled from her mana core. Her training was paying off now, or perhaps her luck.

She watched with satisfaction as the ground violently churned in front of her. Paige just needed to distract them and the bell would do the rest. The few who could move tried to dodge, but those that left the faint light from the wardstone fell unconscious as the bell rang for the ninth time.

Alan took a deep breath and swung his cane down. “[[Granite Platform]]”

The ground hardened around him as her attack reached him, and Paige humphed as the soil merely lifted him a few feet before flowing past him.

Alan coughed blood as he took to a knee, and if looks could kill then Paige would have already died.

Paige watched as the Mages who had tried to dodge breathe their last. It pained her a bit seeing Maximillion die, but he had made his choice.

Heidi, Chloe, Helen, Paige, Alan, Albert. The six of them left were the only ones left alive in the clearing. Paige watched somberly as she waited for the final bell toll that would seal Alan and Albert’s fate.

Waiting a few seconds, she blinked in confusion as the bell stayed silent and started to disappear above them. Paige blinked at the sight and frowned. She quickly realized what the problem was.

‘...I only rang the bell ten times. Don’t tell me...’ Paige sighed to herself. Of course it would come to this. She looked onward at the final two enemies and debated to herself whether or not to leave them alive.

“You’re a dead woman!” Alan snarled. Raising the stone above his head, he yelled, “You’re all dead! Once the Imperial Cons- AHH!”

Alan held his arm tight as he looked at his arm. His hand and the stone was missing. Paige lowered her outstretched hand as Alan writhed in agony. She blinked across the field and stopped behind Alan. Bending down, she retrieved her steel spade and stepped forward, the only sound in the field was her footsteps and Alan’s screams.

Looking down at the shard held tight in the dismembered hand, she lifted her foot and placed it lightly on the hand. “You picked the wrong person to threaten, Alan. Maybe in your next life you won’t make the same mistake." She paused. "Or maybe not, since it still came down to this.” Shifting her weight, she crushed both the hand and the stone underfoot.

No, Paige had enough of the Imperial Family and their Servants.

Turning around she stared at the few surviving people. The look in her eyes caused everyone to shudder. She was done playing around.

Mage Albert looked in horror as he raised his hands. “I sur-”

The steel spade pierced his heart a moment later. “Next time choose your friends better, Albert.”

Walking forward, she stopped over the mage’s body to pick up the spade and slowly strode over to Alan. His face was a mask of horror, and became even more realistic when Paige’s spade impaled itself in his stomach.

“Sorry, Alan. But you won’t be going down in a blaze of glory. And too bad, you old fool. Julia probably replaced you the moment you left the capital. She's like that. Not that you've ever gotten to see past her facade.”

Alan face turned pale before shouting aloud, “Long live Imperial Cons-”

Paige flicked the blood off her hoe. “... I’ll deal with Julia later. Someone needs to teach her a lesson. Again.”

She sighed to herself before glancing toward the remaining two problems. Helen and Chloe stepped back as Paige debated what to do. Killing them would be easy, but she had a feeling that wouldn’t work out well for her. Her eyes flickered to Heidi, and Paige let out a slow breath. But perhaps someone else could use some extra hands...

“Now then… let’s talk about the two of you.”