Location: Food Court, Abandoned Theme Park

Time: 3:00 PM, December 29th 2107

That BAA agent, Charles, figured he was safe just because he could teleport. He probably thought I couldn’t possibly chase after him.

Well, he was right.

I’m not the kind of guy to work up a pointless sweat.

Our fight, if you can even call it that, only went on for a few minutes. While it lasted I had a clear advantage, so Charles made a snap decision and teleported away. Then for good measure he teleported around, seemingly at random, a few more times.

Sure, I could always use my hearing to pinpoint his location, but short of a sneak attack there wasn’t anything I could do to trap a man that could teleport at least a hundred meters at will.

In an actual no hold barred fight he couldn’t win. He just didn’t have the offensive capability. The fact that I would always hear him displace the air as he teleported meant he couldn’t catch me by surprise either.

So as long as running was an option, he made the right choice. He could turn a guaranteed loss into a guaranteed stalemate. At least that’s what he thought.

Well, he was right.

The thing is though, I’m the kind of guy who would gladly take the tie. It’s not like I wanted to be a part of this anyway.

And thanks to him, I had a perfect excuse for my uncle.

‘I couldn’t kill the girl, but I prevented her from being detained by the BAA.’

He wouldn’t be happy, but he couldn’t outright complain about my performance.

Managing to just barely slide through passable with as little effort as possible. That’s what I call a great success.

I took my headphones off and strained my hearing. Fortunately, with the exception of a few squatters the park was almost entirely empty, so picking up voices was relatively easy.

Charles was on the phone, reporting what happened to someone, probably his boss. Based on that I could guarantee that he wasn’t acting alone, at least some part of the BAA was involved. If I gave him that information my uncle would be even more accepting of my performance. And after so many complications there was no way Charles would continue going after Emelia, for today at least. Now that he thought Mid was involved he had to back out.

Emelia herself was talking to Hana. The two of them were working out some sort of plan to take out Little Red Riding Hood. Not exactly a partnership I was expecting.

While he was still a threat I was focusing all of my energy on Charles, so I wasn’t listening in on their conversation from the beginning. That meant I couldn’t say for sure, but I could tell Hana’s breaths were inconsistent, and she was walking with a limp. I was willing to bet that she already knew she couldn’t handle Little Red Riding Hood on her own and was forcing Emelia to help her. The only question was whether Hana planned on killing Emelia afterward or not.

I gave it about 50/50 odds.

Little Red Riding Hood was talking to herself without a care in the world, eating pastries while confidently waiting for Emelia to show up.

If she had Emelia’s help could Hana beat her? Maybe, but I didn’t want to let things play out like that. If Hana were to be killed and I did nothing to help her, Vier would probably decimate the entire Oldridge family as payback.

That meant my work wasn’t over yet. As much as I didn’t want to get involved with it, I’d work with Hana and Emelia to guarantee that Little Red Riding Hood wouldn’t be a threat.

Although with me there as well Emelia’s 50/50 odds would plummet drastically. My presence would almost certainly be enough motivation for Hana to finish the job, and it’s not like I could outright tell her not to.

Still, that didn’t change what I had to do. While deciding I’d take some flowers to her grave I started making my way toward the two of them.

At least, that was the plan.

It just so happened that the last person I was listening for in the park gave me an out.

The police officer. He sounded unconscious, and if I had to guess, based on the sound of straining metal he was dangling precariously off the edge of an old ride’s track. I’d initially assumed Little Red Riding Hood would've killed him.

Turns out she was smarter than I thought. Or if what Hana was telling Emelia was accurate, luckier than I thought. Leaving Jaxon alive, and in such a dangerous position, meant that I wouldn’t be joining the offensive against her.

I couldn’t have been happier.

Still, would Vier accept that as an excuse if something happened to Hana? Probably not. I couldn’t imagine him caring about what happened to a troublesome police officer, and I couldn’t imagine him believing that I cared about what happened to a troublesome police officer.

There was one person who would believe something like that though.

I decided to message Karen. Based on the number of notifications I’d received from her, she clearly didn’t buy whatever excuse my uncle gave her to explain my absence.

But if I were to tell her about Hana and Emelia going after Little Red Riding Hood, with the caveat that I couldn’t get involved because I was saving a police officer, she would rush over. And if Karen went to help them Vier couldn’t possibly hold a grudge, no matter what happened.

Of course, I would let her know that I wasn’t involved at all, I just so happened to catch wind of this and decided to investigate out of the kindness of my heart. I’m not sure what kind of excuse Hana would give, or if she was even capable of thinking up an excuse, but that wasn’t my problem.

After sending the message it didn’t take long for me to hear the sound of someone crunching down on freshly frozen grass on a hot December day.

Perfect. All I had to do was go pick up an unconscious police officer, give him a ride back into the city, and drop him off with someone that would take him to the hospital. After that I’d have the rest of the day off.