Captain Ketil and his men arrived earlier than expected. He was inside the massive warehouse, preparing maps and warrants. The resources provided to him by the syndicate leaders appear to connect with their own information.

The mining compound was massive and fortified like a fortress. Watchtowers manned by armed riflemen, heavily fortified gates, dozens of fully armed criminals, and nearly fifty civilians held hostage. Ketil double-checked the report on the civilians and discovered that the majority of them were abducted women, the elderly, and children of various races, all of whom were being used as slave labour to mine magicores.

Ketil was well aware that this was not unusual.

Slavery is only illegal in Braenarim and Aspana, so he shouldn't expect anything less, but as he read the documents and put faces to the reports, he realised how important this mission was. If it were up to him, every slaver in that compound would be executed on sight. They deserve no mercy for this crime, and yet the bounty hunter, who led the operation, instructed him to only prepare non-lethal weapons for the operation.

He remembered what had happened earlier, when they had convinced him that he was about to execute someone. When Ketil dropped the gun, he expected them to strike him down, shoot him, or at least berate him. He had no idea the syndicate's leader and the bounty hunter would stand up and congratulate him on his bravery in the face of adversity.

Ketil was unsure how to react; he was mostly angry but secretly relieved. It was a staged gag, especially when the bounty hunter took up the gun and fired it into the air, revealing it was loaded with a blank bullet.

However, Ketil noticed that he wasn’t the only one furious. The other members of that meeting were clearly suppressing their shock, rage, or indignation as well. By the look of things, it seemed as though only the shadowman and the bounty hunter were in on the joke and the rest of them were merely their audience.

A sudden knock from the warehouse door snapped him back to his current task.

“Hello there, friend!” It was a fair-skinned young man with sleek black shoulder-length hair and dressed as though he was going to watch a play. Ketil could smell his musky cologne and assumed he was probably just some rich noble that got lost.

“May I help you, sir?” Ketil replied.

“I’m working with you tonight, Maxene le Meilleur, at your service.” He said as he approached.

“Ah yes. You are the other bounty hunter assigned to this operation. My apologies for not recognising you sooner.” Ketil said, but Max waved it off.

“No problem at all. I know the image you may have when people mention bounty hunters. Certainly not someone like me.” Max said as they shook hands. “So you are a detective, huh?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You can skip the formalities if it's just between us. I’m not that fancy.” Max checked the wanted posters on the table. “So captain, before we start, I will just say it: are you comfortable taking orders from bounty hunters?”

“Yes, sir.”

Max continued to prod. “You’re answering as a captain, not as their leader. I will ask again, are you comfortable letting us take control of your forces?”

“Yes, sir.” Ketil was unsure of what Maxene wanted him to say.

“Even if we put them in harm’s way? Luna has a specific code she follows diligently, and it may greatly put your men in danger.”

“You are referring to the use of non-lethal force in our raid, Sir Maxene?”

“Just Max and yes, The enemy is armed to the teeth and will kill us on sight. Meanwhile, we are using nothing but pure non-lethal. Are you comfortable with that decision?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Your honest opinion, Ketil.” Max said, clearly not satisfied with his responses.

Ketil closed his eyes and breathed out through his nose. “Fine. Honestly, Max, no. No, I am not. It would put my men in an unnecessary and dangerous position and would severely give us a massive disadvantage. The enemy we are facing will not hesitate to kill us, and yet we are using batons, shields, and stun rounds. It’s a joke. A total joke.”

He felt a light weight vanish from his chest when it came out.

Max smiled. “Good, someone with actual sense. It’s nice to see you are not just blindly taking orders, Ketil, and know that I fully agree with you. This plan is ridiculously absurd and suicidal. But I would also like to say that, despite all this, I hope you will trust in the plan and help keep your men in line as well. I know that some will not hesitate to pull out their weapons when they are cornered, so I would like to ask your help to keep their trust in the plan that is laid out.”

“I know my orders and I will follow them, but may I ask, why ask me if my... our opinion does not matter anyway?”

“Because I want you and your men to understand why we're doing things the way we're doing them, captain. We want you to know that we are aware of the dangers of going in armed with only non-lethal weapons. We are not just tossing lives into this operation without regard to the cost or loss it will cause if it fails. Your men deserve to know that we will go to any length to keep them and the hostages safe, while also minimising casualties as much as possible.”

“Will this plan work even?”

“Trust me, Ketil. I know the people who planned this assault personally. It will work.”

They started assigning ground teams based on their dossiers, and after a half-hour with Max, Ketil can tell that the bounty hunter is truly committed to keeping everyone safe. As he discussed finer details such as breaching formations and tactics, Ketil could see that he truly meant what he said, and he couldn’t help but respect him a little bit for it.

“Captain!” An enforcer entered and saluted them. “There is someone on the outside who wishes to come in. However, he is not part of the operation but claims he is an associate you met this afternoon.”

“Did they give you their name?” Ketil looked up from the map he was charting.

“Maurius Dor, Sir. And he is accompanied by another person as well.” Ketil looked at Max, who was also not sure what was happening.

“Send them in.” The guard rushed outside and escorted two men, Maurius and the dark skinned man from earlier in the inn. He also carried a large heavy steam gauss rifle. Ketil knew that the rifle was heavily modified with outlaw tech, as no country in Aelmion would allow the rifle to be legal to use. Ketil can’t help but feel anger towards the man with metal teeth, especially after he attacked a bestian worker.

“Captain Ketil.” Maurius greeted him and clearly ignored Max. “Is everything organised for tonight’s operation?”

“We are well prepared for tonight, Maurius-”

“Sir.” The dark skinned man interrupted him.

“Excuse me?” Ketil asked.

“You will address him as Sir.” The dark skinned man threatened Ketil as he gripped the rifle with two hands. But he did not react.

“Who is this?” Ketil ignored the man to look at Maurius for clarity.

“His name is Treese Batts.” Maurius raised his hand and the man relaxed his pose. “He is a bounty hunter. He and his guild will be escorting you in this operation.”

“The shadowman said that only two bounty hunters would be escorting us.” Ketil looked at Treese. “Why the sudden need for more men?”

“We feel that it will be more beneficial to have more professionals in the raid. Treese and his guild can provide you with much needed firepower to make sure that tonight’s mission is a success.”

“Didn’t Lady Luna-” Ketil can see that Maurius showed a hint of anger on his face when he heard that name. “-specifically stated that this is a full non-lethal operation? Why change it now?”

“You ask too many questions, boy.” Treese was the one who answered.

“What's the point of sending blanks into this operation?” Max addressed Maurius, but when Max said "blank," Ketil could clearly see that he touched a nerve with Treese. “Can we even trust someone who barely has any experience with retrieval and rescue contracts?”

“Blank?” Treese just smiled at him. He approached him casually, and when they were face to-face, he surveyed him up and down. “So you’re Max, huh, the leader of the Golden Hand guild?”

“You know me?”

“Yeah, I know you. Word is your guild almost reached shadow status. Came at number eleven, almost there, almost but just did not make the cut.” Treese smiled.

“Better than being a contract thief blank.”

“Seriously? You think you can talk that way back to-” Treese pulled out a coin from his pocket and revealed a silver Braenarim coin. “-your better?”

Max did not reply as Treese lightly slapped him on the cheek. “I got the skills to match my bragging rights, boy. And I’ll make sure to remember you.” He smiled as he turned around and both of them left. It seemed that was the end of the discussion, which left Max silently furious and Ketil a bit confused.

Ketil knew what type of person Treese was the moment he threatened him, and if he couldn’t control his influence over his men tonight, there would be a lot of dead slavers and surely more dead hostages.