What we have done today is something that will have rippling effects on the rest of our lives. I don’t need the ability to see the future to know that much.

Under my initiative, we’ve killed people that have plotted against us. While I’m sure we could try and hide the truth, I’m not going to.

Just like with wild animals and beasts, I need to let others know that my territory and my people are protected by someone willing to slaughter their enemies. It’s a political tool used both by territorial beasts, and by the political leaders of nuclear armed nations. The simple truth of nature is that if you present yourself as weak, others will be more willing to attack you.

Of course, it’s also important to avoid poking at sleeping bears or tormenting others to the point that they attack regardless. This show of violence doesn’t make for some impervious defence, it’s just one more wrench in the toolbox of diplomacy, and one I’d rather not rely on too heavily.

Unfortunately, this particular tool offers me no defence against our most imminent threat, that of the welfare officers. There are no political tools or weapons at my disposal that can hope to keep them at bay if they deign to pursue me. Even escaping to the deeper parts of the ruins beneath this world might not even be enough to protect me if I give them reason to come after me.

Melting the collar out of one of their own might possibly be reason enough.

“Do you think they’ll know that you’re uncollared?” I ask Adler as she straightens her clothes. While the cleansing stones have done wonders for everything from bloodstains to body odour, it doesn’t straighten clothes or brush knots from hair.

“I don’t think so.” Adler replies, “The only orders that I’ve received were when I was first given the collar, and I’m not aware of any other way to check if a person is collared.”

“Nothing to track you with?” I ask.

“No, I don’t believe so.” She replies, “Those who are collared are not meant to escape in the first place. That includes us welfare officers…”

“So, they put a collar on you?” Vii asks, fluttering over, “I was thinking that the support devices were really all collars and it’s just no one gave us any special orders, or something like that. I mean, they don’t look any different and if no one tells you to do anything, you wouldn’t know.”

“I suppose,” Adler says thoughtfully, “At the very least, I was given a new collar, so unless that was some nature of deception… which could be possible…” She runs her fingers through her hair, clearing it away from her cute little cat ears before rubbing at the side of her head.

“Are you okay?” I ask her one more time, “I mean, your attitude about the welfare officers seems a little different now.”

“I lost my collar; you removed it for me, for which I’m incredibly grateful.” She says before letting out a deep sigh, “I suppose it’s best to go over a few things with you. First. I… I still hate the way you dealt with this.”

“I know.” I reply, “But I cannot allow villains like Orsa to threaten my people and get away with it. This was the best way to ensure that the threat was eliminated.”

“That sounds almost reasonable, but that avoids the fact that you enjoyed this.” She replies staring into my eyes as if daring me to say otherwise.

“I did.” I acknowledge, Vii is the only one on our side to react to that. Hoping a little bit and looking over at me hesitantly, before shaking her head and returning her focus to Adler.

“I still thought things through, though. I am not a beast of passion, and while I certainly enjoyed being powerful enough to blast that smug face all over the room, I know I can’t… I shouldn’t deal with all my problems the same way.”

“It’s wrong. It hurts you as well, but putting that aside for now,” Adler says with another long sigh, “I was discussing the welfare officers. There are aspects of the organisation that you’ll want to know, and that I’d like to talk about.

“To begin with I must discuss my own collar, and the reason why I’m… Why I wasn’t entirely myself before now.”

“I don’t see much of a difference.” Eshya says, playing with a lock of hair.

“I’m not that much a changed person.” She replies.

“Yes, your views on the moralities of murder remain largely the same.” Nel says, “Inconveniently enough.”

“Yes, being good does tend to be inconvenient.” Adler growls back, “But enough of that. My collar was repressing certain… aspects of me. It’s not as if I was braindead, but my ability to question and consider my actions as a welfare officer were compromised.

“As a low ranking officer the effect was minimal but it was still enough to be… uncomfortable. The order that a welfare officer first receives is to completely reject the realization that they are wearing a collar, even now I’m not sure how many of my memories have been compromised by that order.

“After that we receive progressively more extreme orders to restrict us. For example, I was ordered to be more receptive to the rules of conduct. The light phrasing of the order might make it seem like it’s not so bad, but when it’s something forced into your mind, it affects you in ways you don’t expect.

“The higher-ranking officers get far more serious restrictions. If you’re unfortunate enough to meet them, you’ll find that they have some rather quirky behaviours. As they slowly lose their free will to the rules that their forced to follow, they’ll tend to express themselves in the only ways that they can.

“Though such people rarely get promoted further.” She sighs, “It’s only now that I’m not collared that I can see and feel how wrong all of it is.”

“So you’re on our side now?” Esya asks, leaning casually against the wall as she watches Adler carefully.

“It’s not so simple…” Adler says, losing her steam and slouching down in apparent defeat.

“You won’t throw us to the welfare officers and get your collar back?” I ask.

“No, I won’t.”

“You’ll help us to continue living free here at the academy, and work alongside us to free others from their collars?” I ask.

“I will, but I will not help you to murder people like you’ve done today.” She replies, “To be quite honest I’m wishing that there was someone else to work with who isn’t quite so prone to violence.”

“They’d be crushed the moment they offended someone like me.” I reply, “That sort of strategy might be effective when you’re trying to sneak under the radar of the welfare officers, but it’s not nearly as effective down here where it’s lawless.”

“But we need laws, Kyra.” Adler says, “Do you think that it’s preferable to live like beasts?”

“We do need laws.” I agree nodding in appreciation, “Any good empire does have laws, but those laws should not keep you from dealing with a foreign threat.”

Adler lets it drop, thankfully. It’s a conversation we need to have, but not right now.

“Do you know why the welfare officers don’t enforce the rules down here?” Nel asks, “It’s always seemed rather strange to me.”

“I… I don’t know.” Adler replies, “Even with the collar limiting me I was trying to figure that out, but no one would give me a straight answer. What I did find out was that these ruins are treated the same as we treat wild worlds. Which largely means that we do not interfere, with the exception of regaining control of collared individuals.”

“So, we’re safe down here?” I ask.

“That’s… uncertain. I’m not sure how the rules apply to someone who has had their collar removed. It’s not something that happens often. So… I’m guessing we might be alright?”

I’m quite happy to hear her say ‘we’ and including herself in our growing little faction.

“We are still known to invade wild worlds though, as you should already know.” Adler says, “It is acceptable to hunt down a threat that resides on such worlds. Though the threat has to be capable of striking at a first grade world to be recognised. Usually that’s something quite difficult, but for us… it’s literally opening a few doors.”

“So, we might qualify as an equal threat to the rebel camp that you guys plucked us from?”

“Potentially.” Adler admits. “It’s unclear how seriously this threat will be taken.”

“What about the students that go missing down here?” I ask, “Why isn’t something done about that?”

“Sometimes people wonder outside their villages and get killed by beasts. It’s not the responsibility of welfare officers to stop them, or to protect them.” She says this with a depressed sigh, clearly not impressed with the rule.

“So… if someone goes missing, it’s possible that they’d be considered simply lost to wild beasts?” I ask, trying to consider just how flexible these rules really are.

“That is how it’s generally treated.” Adler admits, not realizing my current murderous thoughts. I glance over my own group, and I think Nel is considering the same things as me.

If a person is murdered in a dark alley, and no one hears them scream, were they even really murdered at all?

I’m not planning to imitate jack-the-ripper anytime today, but there are certain risks that come with us returning to school, and the freedom to silence troublemakers could prove useful.

It’s especially useful considering that we still need to plan an escape for Red and Bessy. I can break them free from their collars, but that’s worthless if I can’t get them to safety. It’s the last thing we need, to succeed in freeing them just to be pursued all the way down to the centre of the planet

“So, you would agree to be part of a plan to rescue some people who have been collared?” I ask Adler, who hesitantly nods.

“I am somewhat worried though, many who were collared were collared for good reason.”

“Oh, I know.” That’s definitely true in Red’s case, but as I figure it, if we can get her out and convince her to stay on side, we could have her guard our base down here. That’s based on a few heavy assumptions though.

“You say that as if you think it’s possible.” I say, “If we break their collars and bring them down here, you think everything will be okay?”

“Perhaps, but there is something more we can do to alleviate the risk.” She says, “There is something strange about these ruins, especially the deeper down. I was told that under no circumstances could I travel to ‘the depths, where our domain ends’ as I was told. Though I don’t fully understand what that means.”

“We’ll have to ask around about that, maybe Rudolf or one of the others might know something.” I say, “You think that if we could get down there that we’d be safe from pursuit?”

“I think so, yes.” She replies, “Though, there’s no way to know for sure.”

“Good enough.” I say, slowly letting a few plans roll about in my mind. “Do you know how much longer Red would have before she’s used for parts?”

“If she’s resisting? Still a while yet I should think.” Adler says, but not with as much certainty as I’d like.

“So, what does everyone think?” I ask. “Are you ready for a rescue mission?”

“We’ll need to properly claim this new territory first.” Nel says, “We should get some support from our allies, and make some preparations.”

“Sure,” Eshya says with a shrug, “I’m guessing we’re planning on being quiet rather than picking fights?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be first in line if anything needs killing.” I say, and she smiles appreciatively.

“How, though?” Vii asks, “We’ll have to take everyone who sees us, otherwise they’ll tell people about us. We can’t afford to get caught with so much attention on us already.”

“Ah, so there will be killing.” Eshya cuts in excitedly.

“It may be best to get some sort of disguise?” I suggest, “Adler you know of something that should work, right? Being on the other side of the law as you were.”

“I don’t think any special measures are required.” Adler says while glaring at Eshya, who just smiles back happily, “Welfare officers mostly only deal with those already collared so it’s rarely ever an issue that someone actually tries to evade us. So long as we aren’t found by the reclaimers—those who hunt us after those collared escapees—then ordinary measures should be fine.”

“Masks, hoods, and cloaks?” I ask.

“There are magics that might assist also, but yes that should be enough to disguise your identities.”

“It almost sounds too easy.” I say.

“Think she’s lying?” Eshya asks.

“No, she’s not. But you don’t know everything about what we might face, do you?” I say.

“I do not.” She admits, “That said, I will not betray you. Not in this, or anything else. My fate is already in your hands. I will try to save you from yourself however, but I will be upfront with all such efforts. I would rather you be a good and kind person.”

“Don’t worry.” I say, petting the soft hair on her head, “I’m good and kind to my own people. So long as you don’t swap teams again, I think you’ll be fine.”

“I’m worried about you, not me.” She insists, her cheeks slightly reddened as she looks up at me.

“Yeah, I think she’s one of us now,” Eshya says.

“I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t insistently suggest at such lewd things.” Adler hisses over at Eshya. I continue petting at her head and she lets out a cute little yelp as I play with her ear.

“I don’t really see how that was lewd…” I say.

Eshya laughs, and Adler quickly pushes my hand away.

“If we are all done here, I think it would be best for us to return to the academy.” Adler says, “We should live our lives normally so as not to gain any extra attention.”

“Wait,” I say, pulling her short, “Two things. First, if there is ever even a hint of a suggestion that one of the other welfare officers is suspicious of you, tell me immediately. Send me a message if you can’t get away.”

“If I do…?” She asks, “Would you kill them?”

“I’d gather everyone together and run for the hills. Or in this case the ruins, or a boat if I can steal one and get away with it.” I say, “We simply aren’t strong enough to pick that fight yet.”

She slowly nods accepting the condition.

“Second, we need to lock up.” I say, “I’d also like it if we could get someone down here to hold down the fort while we’re gone. I can’t have been the only one who was getting a little tempted when looking at those storerooms. I’d rather not lose this territory, the same day that I earned it.”

“We could get the two from earlier involved. I believe that they’d be far too frighted to go against us.” Nel says, “They aren’t the best quality help, I’ll admit, but if we get them some healing to show good will and introduce them to Orsa…”

“Not a bad plan…” I say, thoughtfully. “Let’s go with it. We’ll go see if those two are still around.”

“They will be.” Nel says, “There was nowhere for them to run, and I doubt they’d brave the wider ruins after everything we’ve put them through.”

“After recruiting them, we’ll see about locking this place down, and getting some healing. Come morning we’ll see who we can round up to join us down here.” I say, thinking of all the allies that we had just a little while ago.

“I’d quite like to move down here with Wally, and Sele.” Ria says, holding up a hand. “Though I’ll keep going to classes, so I can’t stay to defend this place or anything.” She quickly adds.

“This would be a treasure trove for you three, wouldn’t it?” I say, only now realizing that the perverted smith has an actual name.

“They’re both ready to join us as soon as we can give them a safe path?” Ria says.

“They’re awake?” I ask, knowing that it has to be well into the night by now.

“We often work late.” She replies, nodding, “And when I told them about all the metal…”

“I see.” I reply, nodding happily as I realize that my first suit of armour might be real sooner rather than later.

“I still need to sleep tonight, so let’s get moving.” I say, leading us away towards the two grunts. Adler, Vii, and Ria all flinch away from the blood and gore when we pass through the slaughter room, but Nel just glares down in spite, and Eshya in disinterest.

It’s going to be a while before we get a rest, but I think we have tomorrow free from class which should give us some time together without killing, hunting, or any other nonsense.

“Oh, I nearly forgot,” I say, “Adler, that strange mana dense staff that you confiscated. Did you find out what it was?”

She hesitantly pulls it out from the belt that she attached it to and holds it out carefully, in case it proves dangerous. With my slightly improved mana sense, I can see the swirling mana inside the device a little more clearly, but I still have no clue to its purpose.

“If I may…” Ria says, stepping close and looking over the device for a moment without taking it from Adler.

“Is it… no, it wouldn’t be…” She reaches out a crystal finger and seems to activate the device.

I hear a slight crackle as an electric shock runs along its length, frighting Adler who quickly drops it. The long rod falls to the stone floor and starts buzzing with electricity and motion. The vibrations are violent enough to make the device roll around with some speed.

Ria quickly reaches out and switches it off.

“Is that…?” I ask, trying to see some other purpose to the device. “Isn’t it a bit violent?”

“What did those two do to Orsa?” Eshya says with a laugh.

“What is it?” Adler asks, looking between us, clearly not identifying the device.

“Should we tell them?” Vii asks, fluttering hesitantly around the device that’s still lying on the floor. Ria picks it up, and uses the cleansing stone to ensure that it’s properly cleaned. After a moments thought she passes the same stone to Adler.

“What? I don’t get it. What is this thing?” Our welfare officer asks.

“It’s a toy used by certain species to imitate the sensations of sex.” Ria says, “It would not be a very good weapon.”

“We should definitely tell them what it is.” Eshya says with a smile as she looks ahead to the pair who dared to wield it against us.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 787 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 0% 24% Muscle 0% 12% Mind 42% 42% Cardiovascular 0% 11% Misc. 0% 10% Efficiency 42% 79%

~Skills:

-