Some time went by and Guardian got informed that he has a message from one of the guilds, it was urgent and very important. He had to go to the guild house to check it out.

Unfortunately, it was bad news. The caravan with goods Aiu had sent for him got ambushed. He had asked Aiu to send more of her produce so he can sell it here. All of the precious stuff was stolen. This was a huge blow to his pocket.

However, the letter Aiu send him with the goods survived. The writing was messy and barely legible, but he understood what Aiu was writing about. She wrote that she will need some time to make a test potion from the monster core and that she was sending some of her goods now so that he has money to survive. She also wrote that she will let him know when she has the potion.

It was good that he had insisted on taking the treant corpse with him to sell, otherwise, he would have no money. He pocketed the letter and headed back home. Then he was back he has found that he has a guest, it was Iustitia.

“Welcome back beautiful.”

“Hello…”

“You sound surprised. You were not expecting me?”

“I did not know you knew where I live.”

“It was very easy to find it out. You tend to stand out.”

“So did you bring any good news?” He was hopeful.

“Yes. I was able to piece some useful information together.”

“How much do you charge for it?”

She did not do it for money, she had expected to get another type of reward. However, she was in need of some money.

“Whatever you think is appropriate.”

“Well… how about six silvers now and a bit more later. Depending on what I will hear.”

This was already many times more than she expected.

“I will take it. So what I have found…” beastwoman shared her information.

She had found out that there are a group of mysterious humans working in the shadows. All of them were rumoured to dabble in magic. Their activity was clouded in mystery but she had found out that they were recruiting people who have the magic affinity. They promised a good pay to whoever comes to them and remains loyal to their cause, whatever it was. This sort of indicated that they had the tools and means to teach magic.

Guardian asked what sort of magic they had at their disposal but she did not know. What she knew however, was that this group was quite wealthy and dangerous and some people were going missing because of them. Especially those who went against this shadowy group of humans.

She kept the final piece of the information to the last moment. She had found out there their headquarters were. The group had their base directly in the middle of the slums. It was under a collapsed prison. The building itself was in ruins but its dungeons and cellars were intact. That was where the rogue mages were. Rogue because they operated in the shadows.

“I will have to check on them. This is very good information. You deserve this.” He placed the gold coin in her hands.

“Wow, are you sure? You know there are other ways to thank me.”

“You did well. Think of it as an advance payment when I will need your services again.”

“Come and visit me sometimes. I would really like if it was not for business either.”

“I will think about it.” He had no intentions of visiting her as a friend or something like that. He had better things to spend his time on.

Guardian asked Ithayiga to escort the lady of the night away. He had to make plans and prepare for the evening. He will try to investigate this group today. He took off his fancy robe and went towards the lair of the rogue mages.

Seeing Guardian leaving a person approached his home. The only way she would be able to achieve her nefarious goals was then Guardian was not there.

+++

Tamia was running as fast as she could. She has never run this fast before in her life. This was because her life depended on it. She was taking in big breaths of air, her entire body was wet from the sweat.

The woman was doing her best but her pursuer was gaining on her rapidly. She did not expect someone so big to be so quick. Not to mention that her pursuer looked like a monster pursuing his prey. Initially, she pushed off Guardians description as blown out rumours, now she knew those were not rumours at all but the grim truth.

Guardian came back earlier than expected. As soon as she had seen him her stomach cramped up out of fear. She tough he will eat her or do something worse if he catches her.

The relentless sprint had a negative effect on her body, there was only so long she could keep this up. Tamia’s muscles started to cramp up, she did not know how long she will be able to keep her pace.

“Help! Somebody help!” she shouted out of desperation.

People heard her shouting and took their time to look at who was asking for help. Then they noticed the creature running after the one who was shouting; closed their blinds and minded their business as usual. It was just another usual day in the slums.

“I will rip you to shreds! How dare you damage my property?” Guardian was chasing after her. Getting closer and closer with each passing second.

“Ahhhh, no! Somebody, please!” She yelled through tears.

There were only a few metres between her and him.

“I will set an example out of you. You are a dead meat now!”

He was extremely angry. This was because the house robbing woman knew exactly whose house she was trying to rob. Guardian warned the slum dwellers, disciplined them, made concessions not to kill. All this to avoid unnecessary trouble. Yet someone still dared to offend him.

Tamia’s back was within his reach. He stretched his arm and pressed his palm over her back. He pushed and forced her out of balance. Woman fell hitting the ground face down. She slid for a few good steps, the momentum driving her body. Her skin got cut and bruised in the process, she was bleeding all over. Her face was in a terrible shape, street pebbles ruined it as she slid forcefully through them.

“Rape! He wants to rape me! Help!!!”

Her shouts confused Guardian for a moment. He said he will kill her, where was no mention of those indecent things she was spouting about.

“My uncle is a noble. Whoever saves me will be rewarded in plenty.”

This did get people’s attention, but it was a wrong kind of attention. No one believed her second half of the sentence, only in the first one sounded probable, the one about the rape. People who bothered to poke their heads out to look at the unfolding scene were mostly deviants.

“Shut up already.” He was looking down on her. The chase was over.

Tamia gathered her strength and tried to run away from him. The attempt, of course, was futile. Guardian kicked her while she was trying to stand. He hit her on the side of her leg, directly below the knee, breaking it.

“One leg - broken, one more to go.”

“No, no, no…. Please do not hurt me!” She clutched her broken leg and begged to save another.

“You ask this yet you were beating up my servant boy badly. I assume he begged for the similar thing. How did you respond?” He knew what she must have done, she had beaten Ithayiga even more. He was shocked at the woman’s hypocrisy.

He stretched his arm and slashed across her chest, his claws ripped through fabric and flesh. Four shallow wounds were spewing blood. The thief was in agony, regretting her life choices.

“I am sorry. Please let me live. I will repay you for my bad actions.”

“Yes, you will. In blood and pain.”

“Anything but that. I will do anything.” She begged.

Guardian stepped on her hand, crushing it. He wanted her to suffer.

“There is nothing you can do for me.”

“There is, there is, please… I know things, I can go into places and do things others can’t…”

“Can you?” He stepped away from her crushed fingers.

“Yes. Yes.”

“You might be useful after all. Let’s go back to my ransacked place and talk about this.”

“Yes Sir, thank you!” she yelled through tears, she was in an extreme pain.

Tamia was too quick to thank him. He grabbed her by her good leg and dragged her body all the way down to his place. Her leg was broken and he could not be bothered with a slow limping pace of that thieving and child-beating woman.

Few minutes felt like hours, the journey was a horrible torture.

“Ithayiga look what I have brought! Wanna squeeze a punch or two?”

The young boy was in a very sorry state. His face was swollen and covered in bruises, his nose was still bleeding. The house was in a rough shape as well. Furniture and belongings were scattered all around the room, shards of pottery covered the earthen floor.

Ithayiga did not want to lose an opportunity to repay the woman for what she had done to him. The boy let himself loose, his anger took him over.

“I told you, you will have to learn how to fight. This is the reason why. These damn fools are always after me or my things. Then will they learn that actions have consequences!”

The thief coughed loudly, blood leaked out of her mouth.

“That is enough boy. I need her alive.”

Guardian pressed his hand on the thief’s chest and let his magic do the ‘healing’. He burned through cloth and skin haphazardly, closing the bleeding. His prey could not bear the pain anymore and passed out.

Then he took the herbalist salve and tended to Ithayiga’s wounds.

“What did the thief want? Money?”

“Yes, Master. She burst out of nowhere and attacked me. I told there is no money in the house but she did not believe it.”

The Guardian kept all of his coins on his body or did a good job hiding it. He never told the boy where the money was so Ithayiga was telling the truth.

“Of course she did not. I am sure she knew who she was robbing.”

He did not blame the thief for disbelieving the boy. He was dressed like a rich tradesman, anyone would not believe that there were no money or any valuables in his home. Sure he lived in the slums, but there were quite a few shady and wealthy characters doing the same. Everyone had their reasons.

“She beat me up, again and again. Then she started to smash things looking for valuables. Sorry, Master, I couldn’t do anything.”

“It is fine. You will get stronger later. Will you? Or will you get beaten by a human woman again?”

“Never. I promise.”

“Good boy.”

“And… and if ever you see my father, please do not tell him that I lost to a human. It is a big shame for us beastmen.”

“I do not think I will ever meet your father, but okay we have a deal.”

Guardian went to look for a pot of water to wake up the thief. Everything was broken, including all of the pottery and he got annoyed. He came back and grabbed hold on a thief’s face, preventing her from breathing. Within seconds her eyes opened and looked like they will pop out.

“Good morning sunshine. Tell me why you did this?”

Tamia knew what was on the line, she told everything truthfully to the last detail. The local thugs did not like the Guardian moving here. The first thing he did was to beat up any troublemakers making them lose their homes and territory. The thugs planned their revenge, they have sent a band of their fighters to ambush Guardian. This was a big mistake, they lost a few good men that day. They got even more vengeful, but they knew that direct approach is not an option so they had a plan. They would send a skilled thief, one of the best, to ransack his home. They knew that anyone would move out if they got robbed persistently. They did not care where the guardian moved so long it was not in their territory.

The problem was that no one dared to rob the Guardian. They had to motivate the right person sufficiently, so they saved a good amount of money. Once they had the money they paid Tamia to rob the Guardian. They even spun some fancy tales of how rich he was, and that it will be an easy job. She will be able to leave with all the valuables she can find in his home plus her pay and disappear.

However, she was caught in the act. Guardian came back before she found anything of value. She took too long, her greed stopped her leaving with nothing.

“Well that bunch is dead now. You know where I can find them do you?”

She did and she told everything, their names, where they were and where their families lived.

“Thank you for that, sunshine, but this is not enough.”

“But I told you everything, You can have your revenge.”

“Revenge has no profit. Look at the damage you did. Who will pay for that?”

“I will. I will give all the money they gave to me to do this cursed job.”

“Still not enough. You said you know people, you can get inside the places.”

“Yes.”

“Ever heard of rogue mages, doing shady business here in the slums?”

“There are only rumours.”

“Ohh no… I checked their place from the distance. There is definitely something going out.”

“Say what can I do and I will do it if you let me go.”

“Well, I want you to observe that place, find about the people who go there and even infiltrate it if possible.”

“I am not a mage this is impossible.”

“Oh so you know you have to be a mage, you must know something about them already. If you want to live you will have to figure it out and get inside their base. Do we have a deal?”

“Yes.” Tamia had no other choice but to agree.

“Good then lead me to your place we will get that money to pay for my damages.”

“I… I cannot walk that well.” Her leg was still broken and she lived quite a distance away.

“Crawl then. Hahaha.” He mocked her in an evil laugh.

“…” Tamia wanted to cry. She cursed the men who offered her this job. It sounded too easy, she should have listened to her reason.

“Hahaha!” Guardian was still laughing. “Just a joke, we do not have time for that. I will carry you.”

He was kind enough to smear the woman’s wounds in healing salve and bandage it with a spare cloth. However, Tamia still looked like a survivor of a bloody battle, her once pristine clothing was tattered and covered in blood.

“I cannot take you like this, you will draw too much attention.” Her current state and look was the problem. He knew that this can be easily fixed so he cut a hole in one of the bigger sacks he had and gave it to Tamia to use as an oversized dress.

“You look better now. And with a face like that, no one will even recognise you.”

Tears streamed down through the woman’s cheeks… Her face used to be quite beautiful, but now it was a mess. She feared that it will not heal properly leaving her looking disfigured for life.

Guardian carried her through the slums while she told him where to go. They have reached their place and secured the pouch full of dirty money. She did not live alone, but her housemates were told not to interfere as this a private matter.

“You have the money. Can you let me go now?”

“Will you investigate the rogues?”

“Yes. I will do whatever is possible.”

“Ha, and I should believe you? A greedy thief, a lying hypocrite, a child beating scum like you? I do not think so. I said I will let you live but you are going nowhere.”

“What do you want from me? Haven’t I done enough? Haven’t I suffered enough because of what I did? I am sorry, okay!”

“Do you want to live or not? I can kill you here and now and who is to stop me? Even if the guards came I would tell them you have robbed me and pay them off for their trouble. With the same money I got from you, hahaha.”

“I do want to live… I do, I do. Stop this torture.”

“Then you will have to serve your time properly until you repay me for what you did. Come let’s go.”

At first, Tamia thought that he was playing with her emotions because he took her to the city hall. She thought he will report her and pay the guards off to see her in prison. She dreaded it as there was no prison just for women, they were mixed.

However, she was wrong. Guardian had a different idea. He took her to the registration office, a place where ‘voluntary’ work contracts were made.

“Sir, what brings you here this early in the morning?”

“We have a work contract to make. Me and this woman.”

“Mhm mhm. I see. She does not look so good.” The man inspected the woman and continued. “I assume you are not from here, traveller. You look fancy enough to have plenty of money but slavery is not allowed here.”

“What are you saying? With due respect, sir, I would do no such thing. You see…”

Guardian manufactured a sob story. He told the officer that he saved this woman from a gang of thugs who were using and abusing her. Apparently, she owed them a lot of money and they were beating her on the street. His heart broke seeing such thing and he offered to pay her debts. On a condition, if she served for him.

“Mhm…” The officer was not buying it.

“What do you have to say? Does he speak the truth?” The man directed his look at Tamia.

Tamia was in the position to tell her side of the story putting Guardian in big trouble.