“What the hell, Jeff! Why’d you stab him?!”

I’m asking that same question, but I’m sure—I’m sure I had good grounds to do so, “He deserved it. Definitely a bad influence on you.”

“Haah? I make a friend and that’s bad?”

Ah, the woes of a parent. A child will never be able to see the sacrifices of their guardians, even if I myself don’t know what sacrifices I’ve made… But if I had to guess, it’d probably be my sanity.

Making friends in itself wasn’t inherently bad, but making friends with the wrong crowd were. And he must’ve really rubbed me wrong for past me to go for a day light stabbing. He would definitely only drive Lily down a path with much conflict, more conflict than this heretic cult could garner if that was even possible. But that was what my intuition said, and I trust myself! Sometimes… Most times. Maybe?

No, stop the doubt. I trust myself. Period. I trust You, Me.

“That degenerate would drive you to ruin, little birb.”

“Degenerate? Funny words coming from you, huh?”

“They are funny words, but as the person by his side the most, you should understand Jeffrey’s whims the most, yes?” Savage interjects coldly.

It feels like the first time in forever. Savage actually took my side —I think—. Although he didn’t join me in the confrontation, he still observed from the sidelines, and like me, that degen must’ve also rubbed him wrong.

But now that I’m thinking about it, that’s depressing. Like, actually sad.

Yeah, so apparently, my man, Savage, was an undead… I know, the drunken revelation really surprised me, like, my only friend back in Sharne, was a legitimate cadaver. Barring that I usually worked at the death row, I would instead spend most of my free hours with an actual skeleton… But Savage wasn’t just any skeleton thrall, he was a natural undead, which differing from thralls birthed through artificial means, were you wouldn’t guess it… natural.

Granted, there were some stringent facets that must be fulfilled, but it was yet another eye opener to me. I didn’t think that undead could be naturally birthed. Back in the day, if there was an undead, then there was a necromancer prancing about. Simple as that.

I mean, Lacer never said nothing about it and basically never spoke about undead. Which was strange, until I found out that that forgettable girl, whose name I forgot was a necromancer…

I remember the sleepless nights whenever an undead threat was reported… To think I worked next to one all along.

What a strange twist of fate.

“What in the high hell?! Savage?!”

Ah, I forgot this is Lily’s first time meeting Savage since the incident.

“You aren’t dead?!”

“Yesn’t, Savage was always dead.”

This garners an even more bewildered reaction from the birb.

“My lord, did you two idiots never suspect anything about me before?”

Why would we? “You gave us bread,” the white kind at that.

It was an act of saints, nay, an act greater than that of saints. To bequeath such venerable morsels to the poor without any reservations, is no doubt needed, of the highest order of charity.

Nothing could possibly outshine such an act, so how could we have ever suspected that such a shining man of valor was a rotten undead? Like do you even need to eat? Wouldn’t an undead presence make bread decay? So how could we even have such a suspicion?

Lest we were scum of the lowest ground, we couldn’t have. Scorn me if I harboured such vile designs!

“It looks like your skewed values haven’t changed. Is that why you joined these bastards? Did they hand you a slice of bread, racked over a fire and now you’re all over them?”

I hate to admit it but, “Yes…”

“… You really haven’t changed.” He ends with a pealing sigh as he casts his gaze low, “You still stab random people on the street…”

“No?” I’m quick to jump at that statement but from the question mark, I’m not entirely convinced myself. Before I can even have the mind to think of further rebut, I feel a stabbing sensation concentrated on my left foot.

It’s like being stabbed with a red hot blade burning at 1000°C, because it is. I can’t confirm the actual temperature, but the hissing of my blood nad how I'm not yelling in agony as I should be is enough to tell me that I’ve probably had my nerves disassociated from me. Which is good. But also not good.

Good, because it means I can calmly analyse this ridiculous turn of events.

Not good, because I got stabbed in the foot. The left one mind you. This one was the one that had a dagger plunge through it back when I was ambushed by vigilantes. It still hurts from time to time but now it doesn’t, which is concerning.

“Do you need help to resolve the problem?” A raspy voice orates me.

And I wished he didn’t say anything. Because that’s when the pain properly registers in a flood. A deluge of hurt springs from my foot as the nerves in my leg flare up. In flame that is. You’d think that fire wouldn’t be too bad in this snowy weather, but fire is actually my weakness, alongside a strew of other ubiquitous things that I won’t mention at this current moment.

I would stop, drop and roll, but being pinned in the foot is a great inconvenience to any disaster averting actions.

“I won’t let you!” The adolescent at my feet yells with burning passion —literally— as his strength grows with his octaves, clinging strongly to my leg.

Sigh, I don’t remember doing anything to deserve this…

Savage sighs with me as he peels the boy from my leg and kicks the fellow back a couple metres. He does so with such ease that I can’t help but suspect that he may be Steel ranked, and not Silver like me.

“You good?” He rasps while patting down my charred skin.

I’m not sure how to answer this question. “Maybe.”

“You feel good?”

“I don’t feel.” Not just the feel of pain, I haven’t had much tactile or receptive stimulus for a while now, before we even entered this city.

“Jeff, I think there may be a problem,” he stated the obvious, “Do you know where those… friends of yours are?”

Leaning against a stand selling something called ‘Fleck’s Tape,’ I’m about to ask Lily for some help but to my chagrin, the bird has already excavated her presence, along with the guy who stabbed me. Damn. And now the guards are here.

“That’s a non issue right now. More importantly, you think they’ll believe I’m the victim?” I nod toward a couple sabre wielding footmen.

“What happened here?” The lead footman scans the two of us, as well as the stand owner behind, before his eyes double back on me, “Oh! Are you quite alright? Where’s the assailant?”

It seems he already had a brief clue on what may have transpired, and as I suspected, I knew I could trust myself. Good on me for not breaking the law —And if I did, at the very least, it wasn't consciously done—.

They go around asking a couple streetside hawkers on the exact details, but well, the situation escalated real quick from when I allegedly stabbed that guy and his fire display. And although there is bloody knife still in my hand… “Self defence.”

“Mmm, okay, understood,” The lead footman nods at me, “And this escalated because the assailant attempted— well, succeeded in kidnapping a winged child?”

I nod.

“Alright, we’ll raise the Vigilance on this matter.” He leaves, briskly marching off.

Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t get arrested, and he even got a facial composite of my assailant. These guys are skilled!

It feels like the stars have aligned, now if I could stretch Luck’s blessing a bit, it’d be nice if my leg could be patched up…

“Did I hear something that could be fixed with Fleck’s Tape?” The chapman behind us immediately chirps up with a gleam in his eyes, as soon as the guards leave, “I’m Doctor Phil Fleck, with an honours degree in remediation sciences, and I’m sure that with the power of Fleck’s Tape, there’s nothing that it can’t patch, seal or repair!”

I have my doubts, but I’m willing to give it try, Mr. Fleck.

…

Whilst Jeffrey put the conflict behind him, Lily was working her arse off trying to nurse someone, when she wasn’t the least bit qualified. In fact, she was even less qualified then the random bystander considering how she was still a bird a couple months back.

Making space under a small bridge, she waited for her friend to wake up, positive that at the very least, he wouldn’t suddenly die.

And stirring amidst recollecting thoughts, he remembered some key points before he was stabbed malicious.

Who was this guy? Reon had thought hearing words laced with poison.

He seemingly rocked up out of nowhere and started saying some strange things, but it was still fact that Lily and the man shared a history. In his newfound presence, she visibly stiffened up, her processes refusing to function. Reon’s enhanced senses were able to detect the abject, unblemished fear in her eyes.

She was scared. Scared of this fiend in front of them. Completely and utterly scared.

Scared of the berating she was about to get, that is, not that Reon knew that.

“A-Ah, mm,” Words could barely form through her lips. He couldn’t let this pass.

Putting a hand on her quivering shoulders, it was a small comfort, but it was the most he could do for the moment, considering that Reon had basically no people experience, in all his lives.

Looking the bandit square in the eyes. The dark, inimical swirls Reon saw were a testament to the fiend’s wicked lunacy and criminal intent and not because he was just an asylum patient.

To Reon, it was obvious what was happening here. Like was it not obvious to you? C’mon guys, just connect the dots.

Lily’s family must've been in some sort of financial trouble, and her parent’s as a last resort, had to rely on the aid of shylocks and loan sharks. However, after the definite and unfortunate passing of her parents, alone and unable to repay them, Lily was forced to be placed under their possession as collateral. And she probably definitely had siblings she had to look after as well because screw it, why not?

And so, with these facts in mind, Reon made his firm resistance, before he was shanked senseless.

Good job.

“Dumbass! Why would you try to fight him?”

However, the hero’s welcome he received was less than what he expected.

“Uh-Uhm I think I-I,” Stuttering to lucidity he blurted out a string of incoherencies, ending with, “I nearly beat him.”

“Yesn’t,” Lily immediately rejected the notion, “That could barely be counted as a flesh wound.”

“But he was on fire?”

“He’s also Silver ranked heretic.”

“He’s an adventurer? Heretic class?”

Lily was regretting this already. The guy didn’t know the least about common sense, but if her hunch was right, and this guy was a god’s summon then she could put it behind her.

“That’s irrelevant. What isn’t is that you’ve probably been flagged on Vigilance,” She sighed.

Lily wasn’t too sure about the circumstances of this fellow, but it was never good to be flagged on Vigilance. She and Jeffrey had played with the Vigilance of Joost a couple times and things got serious real quick. This was because Vigilance was a scrying array set up in every city with any policing force and it connected to the deeper Auspice of the Kingdom, whereby any flagged entities would be quickly identified and given a threat rating and review before a subjugation unit was autonomously sent out —Usually star summons; a specialty magick of the Kingdom—. That being said, Vigilance was by no means omniscient. Scrying was all well and good, but it was rather slow and in addition to face recognition mysticology being in its infancy stages at present, wearing a thick cloth over oneself was sufficient to avoid detection.

This was the reason why the Astra Kingdom wasn’t to be trifled with despite being pressed by two major powers.

But well, Reon being the lackey of some god meant he most certainly had some divine aura. Vigilance was especially receptive to divine powers.

Lily couldn’t help but look at the monumentous task ahead of her. Then looking back at the still dense, clueless gaze of Reon, she nearly had the feeling of abandoning him. Nearly.