Multiple platoons worth of zelkio knights were working tirelessly to clear up all the rubble and debris littered across the village of Humforth, as Zulcrestus created black metal rings around each of the unconscious bandits' arms and torso.

"Hey Zuzu," Callie cheerfully said as she ran over to Zulcrestus while waving at him. Zulcrestus turned around and greeted Callie.

"I must say, Prima and Yumi's fighting capabilities are fairly impressive," Zulcrestus remarked.

"They sure are, but that should be a given." Callie smugly remarked.

"I suppose, and on an unrelated note...". Callie became slightly nervous as sweat started to run down her face.

"W-which is?".

"There's a kid called Suzie who brought me something, and I promised her you'd also give her an autograph," Zulcrestus mentioned. Callie let out a relieved sigh and chuckled.

"Heh... heh, for a sec, I thought you were about to get mad at me.". Callie asked for directions and Zulcrestus told her where Suzie was. Callie bidded farewell to Zulcrestus before hurrying off. Zulcrestus sighed as he turned around and started to walk over to Prima, Yumi and the young bunny wizard as they were talking to each other.

"Is that so? Well, I'm sure..." Prima said to the bunny girl before Prima noticed Zulcrestus approaching.

"What are you up to?" Zulcrestus asked as he came to a stop. Yumi grabbed one of Zulcrestus' hands, with both her hands and placed it on her head.

"Well, Lulu's got an ensavement Cresti," Prima explained.

"I presume you meant to say Enslavement Crestia.". Prima nodded her head before gesturing to the purple collar-looking tattoo around Lulu's neck. Zulcrestus sighed before crouching down on one knee and moving his free hand over the tattoo, making Lulu flinch and in turn making Zulcrestus flinch as well.

"Sorry," Lulu muttered as she raised her chin to give Zulcrestus a better view of the tattoo. Zulcrestus inspected the tattoo and even placed his index finger on it, making Lulu shiver slightly.

"This is a concerningly high-grade Enslavement Crestia, I'll have to have Sera remove it and then I'll have you answer a few questions before sending you back home," Zulcrestus stated. However, the mention of the word home made Lulu look at the ground while slumping her head slightly.

"I see..." Zulcrestus said in a monotone voice as he stood, making the trio look up.

"Prima, Yumi.".

"Yeah?" Prima asked as she and Yumi tilted their heads.

"Lulu will be under your supervision, for the time being, I assume you can handle this assignment?". Prima instantly stood up and did a Zelkio salute, with a serious expression.

"Of course, we can... sir.".

"Good, as I mentioned before, you should take her to see Dr Sera then," Zulcrestus added before he turned away. Yumi tilted her head.

"Who...?" Yumi asked in a perplexed monotone voice. Zulcrestus looked back at them; He placed his fists on the side of his head and straightened out all of his fingers.

"The woman in a lab coat with ears like this," Zulcrestus explained. Yumi, Lulu and, to a lesser extent, Prima struggled to keep their composure and were trying not to burst out laughing, at the sight of Zulcrestus doing something they perceived as goofy. Zulcrestus lowered his hands and walked over to a Zelkio Elite, a more armoured knight, with a large light-magic-infused great-axe. After Zulcrestus was far enough away, Prima let out a relieved exhale as Yumi and Lulu were quietly giggling.

"That was a close one, I almost laughed there," Prima remarked to herself as she wiped her forehead. She looked over at Lulu and Yumi as they managed to stop giggling.

"Alright gals you heard what he said, and if we're quick enough I think we'll be able to go to the airship's café before he's free to do his questioning," Prima mentioned. This incentivised both Yumi and Lulu making them both shoot up to their feet, although they both realized neither of them had been to the place Prima mentioned. Prima grinned before hopping behind the two, wrapping her arms around their waists and flying up to the airship above the village.

Zalroth covered his face, with his arms, as he crashed into the top of a tree. He quickly stuck his head out from the leaves and spat a leaf out of his mouth. Zalroth looked around and spotted the tall medieval stone city walls of Kalthorm in the distance.

"Wow it only took me three launches," Zalroth remarked as he hopped out of the tree and sprinted down the path leading to the city.

Two city guards, an older man and a young recruit, were sitting in their guard booth. The recruit stared intently at the cards laid out on the table. The recruit went to pick up one of the cards but quickly pulled his hand away and put his hand on his chin.

"You're overthinking this, it's just a card game, rookie." the old guard said. The rookie crossed his arms as he thought over his next move but he suddenly looked behind the old guard, which made the old guard look behind himself. The guards squinted their eyes as they saw a small dot rapidly approaching until they could see that it was Zalroth. They managed to realise that it was a person approaching before Zalroth raced through the city gate, the two guards struggling to follow Zalroth's speed.

"Should we report this to the captain?" the rookie nervously asked. The old guard shook his head.

"Probably not, the id scanner didn't go off after all." the old guard mentioned as he quickly moved a few cards around before the rookie looked back at the table. The rookie looked at the cards and got a surprised face. He quickly picked up one of his cards and placed it on one of the older guard's cards.

Zalroth rapidly decreased his speed as he ran through the streets of the medieval-styled city. He ran past a hot-food cart before quickly running backwards and stopping in front of the cart. Zalroth was about to ask for something but sensed something and suddenly looked down an alleyway.

Further in the alleyway, four adventures, although one was further away, were surrounding two seven-year-old-looking girls in ragged clothes with shopping bags around them. One of the girls was a pink-skinned humanoid with short bright pink hair with six long plaits with pink bows on them and glowing pink ring-shaped eyes with black Scleras. She also had bright pink chinchilla ears and a spiky tail.

The other girl had dark grey skin, short black curly hair with six large, long, plated tendrils hanging off the sides of her head, and irises that resembled the night sky with moving white dots in them. She quickly clung to the girl with the chinchilla features as the chinchilla girl was glaring at the buffest adventurer

"I don't know about this boss, they're just kids after all, is it really appropriate to get so mad over spare change?" one of the adventurers asked. The buff adventurer, in expensive-looking armour, angerly looked over at the adventurer who just talked.

"What do you mean spare change that miruku and chinchillia took a whole gold coin!" the buff adventurer bellowed, making the miruku cling even harder to the chinchillia. The kinder adventurer instinctively closed his eyes as spit hit his face.

"But you make ten times that much money with one commission, I'm sure you can live without it-". The buff adventurer punched the kind adventurer in the face, making everyone flinch, and knocked him into a wall. The kind adventurer pinched his nose to stop his nose from bleeding. The buff adventurer looked back towards the girls before a terrified look grew on his face. The two girls looked confused before they looked behind themselves and saw a giant shadow looming over the two adventurers. The two other adventurers tried to turn around but two tails slammed their heads together, knocking them out and the two slumped to the ground.

"Now this is quite sad, adults acting like children, well most of you at the very least," Zalroth remarked as he looked over at the kind adventurer. The two girls quickly picked up all their shopping bags and ran over to the kind adventurer. The buff adventurer gritted his teeth and made a break for it, causing Zalroth to disappointedly sigh. Zalroth took a bite from his hot dog as he gathered wind magic into a small green ball. He flicked the green ball at the buff adventurer's neck, knocking him out and making him face plant into a wall with a separate wind shot.

One of the miruku's tendrils moved towards the kind adventurer's face before the gaps in the plating started to glow white and a light magic circle formed at the tip of the tendril. The miruku casted a lifelight spell on the adventurer and an aurora ring formed around his head. The adventurer opened his eyes and took his fingers off his nose as he felt it stop bleeding.

"Thanks." the adventurer said before standing up.

"No probs, and thank you for trying to convince the shiny adventurer to stop." the miruku said as she bowed.

"Your gratitude is misplaced, you should really be thanking the other guy.". The miruku shook her head and said the adventurer deserved to be thanked as well, which made the adventurer embarrassingly rub the back of his head. The three of them looked over at Zalroth as he was dropping the buff adventurer on top of the two adventurers.

"It's always the flashy ones who're the most stingy," Zalroth remarked. Zalroth suddenly turned around, when he felt like someone was staring at him, and spotted the two girls staring at him in awe, even the adventurer was looking at him with a slight amount of astonishment.

"Fei-Fei, it's a real kitsune!" the miruku excitedly shouted.

"I know, he's just as cool as big sis said they'd be!" Fei replied, with equal excitement. Zalroth awkwardly, and slightly endeared by their excitement, rubbed the back of his head.

"Thank you Mr hero for saving Mei and me," Fei said as the two bowed.

"Don't mention it, just don't go stealing from adventurers in the future, ok," Zalroth said to the two girls.

"But bandits and thieves are ok right?" Mei asked. Mei's comment made Zalroth uncontrollably grin.

"I mean they can't really complain now can they, but don't go looking for trouble in the future," Zalroth remarked. Mei and Fei nodded.

"No promises." Fei joked as she hopped on her large tail and floated in place. Zalroth shook his head dismissively with a grin. He told the three to take care before he parkoured up the walls of the alleyway and disappeared onto the rooftops.

"What a rare sight." the adventurer remarked before walking over and checking on the knocked-out adventurers. Fei watched the adventurer and waited until she was sure he wasn't paying attention to her and Mei. Fei raised one of her hands and two small black pellets formed at the tips of her fingers. The adventurer suddenly darted his head when he heard a glass-shattering sound. He rapidly looked around for Fei and Mei but the only thing he could see was a rapidly dispersing black mist. He scratched his head and defeatedly sighed.

"What a hassle." the adventurer complained as he spotted and hurried over to a passing guard.