When Hannah woke up, Edali was quietly sitting next to her. The men were gone– or rather, they were replaced by new ones. Allies from the Mob. They were on the walls, chatting, laughing together. Some were just looking on the horizon, fearful of seeing an army approaching. Hannah wondered when they'd come, and if they did, how many? What was the size of an army in medieval times? Fifty thousand? One hundred thousand? Surely not. She wished she had looked this all up online before coming here, but her train of thought was interrupted by Edali.

"Hey. Finally awake?"

"What? Oh, sorry. How long was I out? No, wait. Why was I knocked out?"

"Looks like your skill used up a lot of energy. Guess there's a limit to how many you can charm at a time. Oh and by the way, it didn't last that long. Barely two minutes. But that was enough for me to kill most of them. I got stabbed though."

Hannah was about to panic but her mentor showed her an empty healing potion vial. The [Mage] exhaled a sigh of relief and got up on her feet. She stumbled a little and she had to lean on Edali for support.

"So what's the plan now?"

"Well, think! Why would Skull want access to an exit?"

"To escape? In case of an emergency when the army comes?"

"No! Why would we escape when the safest place we can be during a siege is in the city. That's the basics of warfare. It's to send [Scouts] to track them down. Then we can estimate the time we have left to take the city and dig in."

Hannah nodded. That made sense. Right now they were totally in the dark, and reinforcements could be two hours away or one month away. They had to know. Hannah was curious about who would go.

"So who's going?"

"Well, that's above me. Skull will pick."

Hannah wanted to go on top of the walls and look at the landscape, but Edali refused so they went back to get some rest. When Hannah got back to her room, to her pleasant surprise Esme was nowhere to be seen. She spoke to herself.

"She's probably just wandering around..."

Hannah was a little worried, but she decided to not panic and wait instead.

-------------------------------

Esme was... well, depressed. She had spent the last twenty-four hours crying on her bed until she ran out of tears and she just laid there silently. She had been pulled from her room by Kayden, her [Rogue] teacher. She hated him.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Relax, I'm just taking you to Greg. Skull's orders."

"Can't you just tell me?"

"I don't even know! Skull keeps a lot of things private. Greg knows the most out of all of us– hey don't glare at me like that!"

"Hmph."

She was uneasy. She had been ever since Hannah left to do... whatever she was doing. Esme didn't know, and she didn't like it. Killing the adventurer had made her level up twice in her [Rogue] class, and getting out with the [Mayor]'s belongings leveled her up once in the [Thief] class. She didn't mind it, it was just that she felt like the system was actively rewarding her for murder and encouraged her to do more of it. It was sickening.

"Gregory."

"Hey, kid."

Before she knew it, they made it to Gregory. The bald burly man was sitting on a table and he had around twenty men with him. It seemed like he was never alone on the surface. He always had his goons.

"Whatever. I brought you, Esme. What's going happen now?"

"Skull's got a special job for us."

The [Rogue] decided to stay quiet and let Gregory explain.

"We took the northern exit two hours ago. Hannah and Edali did."

Kayden gasped and so did Esme. The last news they'd heard was that they were in a bloody stalemate on Main Street and that they were slowly conquering Upper Winsor. This was fantastic news. Kayden cheered.

"Ha! I told you the city guard was incompetent! Bunch of useless fools–"

Gregory lifted up a hand and frowned. The [Rogue] understood now that there was more to come.

"Listen up. Skull's gonna send a scouting party to the east. The army should be coming from New Draele. That's about seventeen days away. Maybe twelve to fourteen with a good [General]. Could even be ten if they march at a good pace. I want you two in the group."

Esme's jaw dropped. There was no way she was going to get herself killed out there!

"What the hell! I am not going out there to meet an army that could have tens of thousands of [Soldiers]! You might as well call me dead! Kayden, tell him!"

To her surprise, however, Kayden was smirking. Her teacher nodded.

"Fine. It should be doable. You want me to lead right?"

"What else could I ask from you? You're our best [Scout]."

"Hold on, you're a [Scout]? Both a [Scout] and a [Rogue]?"

"Yeah. When are we leaving?"

"Two hours ideally. Gather supplies to last you a week and a few days, gather a crew and take some horses we managed to capture earlier. Good luck."

Kayden nodded, and Gregory left. Esme was left aghast. She needed to find Hannah! If she had to go, she needed to tell her at least. It would be dangerous, and the [Rogue] didn't want the last thing they'd done together to be stealing an artifact and killing an adventurer.

"Hey. Where are you going?"

"I'll meet you at the gates! I won't be late!"

"Wai– no! Come back here!"

Kayden was going to chase her, but for some reason, he did not. Esme was thankful. Maybe he wasn't so bad.

It was at moment like these she wished she had learned a movement enhancement skill. Kayden had shown her his, and she had instantly become jealous. It was so... efficient! So useful! All she had movement-wise was [Dodge Chance], and that was a passive skill. Hell, It didn't even work during her fight. She had [Lesser Endurence] as well, if you counted that as a movement skill. Even Kayden had been impressed to learn that she had it. It was apparently a pretty weird skill for a [Thief] to learn, and it usually was given to [Warrios] or [Soldiers].

She ran on, feeling the wind in her dark brown hair, looking around every corner she passed through. Soon, there was no more wind, and she was underground. Where could Hannah be? Gregory said they had taken the walls, but she wasn't anywhere close to it. She went to the school, to the food distribution line. Hannah was nowhere. But in her rush, Esme had forgotten the most obvious place to look. Their home.

She opened violently opened the door and saw Hannah practicing her magic by playing around with her [Light] spell. Hannah jumped and the spell quickly went out. Esme sighed, but she was smiling. They had only been apart for a little more than two days, but she missed her. It was like she hadn't seen her in years.

"Esme! There you are! I was worried about you!"

Esme just smiled. She smiled so much her mouth hurt.

"Why aren't you saying anything? Something on my face?"

Hannah got up and got closer to her. The feeling of relief and happiness was slowly washing away when she remembered her task. Her mission.

"Hannah. I missed you."

"Uh, me too!"

Esme hugged Hannah, which surprised her once more. She felt emboldened. She felt like she had to do it now. It was now or never.

"Hannah, I–"

She paused. This was far awkward for her liking. She just had to say it!

"I'm being sent outside for a week or so. In a scouting party"

"What!? No! There is no way you are going out–"

"I've made up my mind. I'm going. I thought I had enough guts for this, but it turns out I don't. If I don't leave now I'll be late. See you."

"Esme, wait!"

She had failed to tell her what she wanted. Esme felt humiliated. The [Rogue] left in a hurry, leaving Hannah behind.