On the way to the Inn, I went and planned an optimal route.

  With route ready, I went to have a good night’s rest and woke up around six in the morning. This allowed me to be at the pick-up place at quarter to seven.

  It was a rather unassuming-looking house in the middle of the commoner district. It had five floors, each rented by a single family. Karoline walked out of it ten minutes before seven. I knew right away who she was; not only did she fit perfectly the description from the novel, but she was basically a younger version of her mother.

  Seeing her I did what I was supposed to do. I walked up to her, bowed politely and greeted her.

  “Greetings, we have such a nice day! I love the clouds!” It was a password given to me by her mother.

  “Greetings, clouds are indeed majestic.”

  This was the 'all clear' answer I was hoping for. So I straightened up, looked around making sure nothing problematic is going on and turned my gaze back to the girl.

  “Please follow me, we need to move quickly. The sooner you are back to the safehouse the better!”

  She nodded and I started to lead her toward the chapel using the less frequented side streets. I didn’t want to risk using my blade enhancement in busy streets. As we walked I spoke.

  “Young lady, can we make one signal?”

  “What kind of signal?” She asked, curious.

  “Whenever I utter ‘Time to reap has come!’,no matter what is going on or what situation you are in, just lie down face-first on the ground and don’t move until I ask you to stand up. Can we do that?”

  She shrugged. “Sure!”

  “But please remember, it is very important. Lie down flat and don’t move.”

  She nodded. “Yeah I got it!”

  With the signal established, I felt confident in the success of the mission. The whole way to the church went without hiccups. We arrived at the back entrance to the church at seven-twenty, ten minutes before the deadline.

  I went up to the door and used my cane to knock on the door. The moment I did, a priest opened the door in a hurry and ushered us inside. He led us to the front of the church and pointed to one of the side altars. "Please kneel over there, I will be back right away, just let me grab my tools."

  Karoline did as she was told without a word and the priest came back about a minute later holding a metallic censer with a chain attached to the neck at two points. He was holding it by the chain with a thick smoke slowly coming out of it and falling down to the ground.

  He walked up to Karoline and held it above her head with one hand, letting the heavy smoke fall on her. While he held the other hand on her back and started chanting something silently.

  The whole process of chanting and bathing the girl in smoke took about ten minutes. The sign that the ritual was done was that the smoke caught fire and burned away completely, without harming Karoline. Once done, the priest asked, pulling out a tablet similar to the ones the receptionists and officers used.

  “Now that we are done, your full name please!”

  “Karoline Hobsley!”

  “Tether rarity?”

  “Epic!”

  “Tether name?”

  “The Pangolin!”

  The man nodded. “Thanks, now please go! Use the back entrance.”

  I waved to Karoline to follow me; and she matched my pace in silence. We managed to get out of the chapel before quarter to eight, which was a good time. I once again dragged Karoline through the unused streets. I celebrated in my head that I was able to find an optimal route yesterday evening before going to sleep. It would be highly unprofessional to fumble around not knowing where to go.

  We reached a drop-off point, a small park where the nanny was meant to wait for Karoline on a bench and take her to the new safehouse. The nanny was sitting exactly where she was supposed to, waiting, seemingly worried. Karoline ran up to her and hugged her tightly.

  She excitedly told her about the epic tether and her bodyguard. I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention; instead, I kept looking around together with Alrune. That was when she spoke.

  “You were right, there are about six of them. They surrounded the place entirely!”

  I nodded knowingly.

  As I did, Karoline ran up to me and spoke.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “You are free to go good Sir. Thank you for escorting me all the way here!”

  I nodded to her and spoke. “Thank you, but do me a solid and remember what I asked you for today. Would you do that for me?”

  She looked at me weirdly, then chuckled and nodded.

  “Sure Mister, I will do that. I will remember that for a day!”

  I smiled back at her and turned to leave. I could hear the nanny run up to Karoline.

  “What was that about?” she asked.

  “Don’t worry about that! Just the jibber-jabber of a bounty hunter that wants to be dramatic. Let’s go! Show me the new safehouse!”

  [ 3rd person view. Location: Small park ]

  “You are right Karo! Let’s go!” spoke the old nanny, and started to lead Karoline out of the park.

  Karoline started excitedly speaking about her new tether, focused on fencing and light magic. She was so absorbed in her talk that she absolutely stopped paying attention to where they were going, until she found herself in the ruin of a burned-out factory on the fringe of the commoner district.

  Standing there in the middle of what was once a big factory—now just a shell of a building without a roof—Karoline finally realized where she was. She turned to her nanny and spoke.

  “Did you get lost, Nanny?”

  The older lady shook her head. “No I did not, sweetie! We are exactly where we are supposed to be. I am sorry!”

  “What is going on, Nanny? What do you mean that we are where we are supposed to be? Why are you apologizing? I don’t get it!”

  A dry laugh sounded from the other side of the ruin. Karoline’s eyes shifted towards the sound right away, only to find a thug-looking man with a scar running from the top of his forehead all the way down across his right cheek to the jaw. The scar was deep and visceral, dominating his entire face.

  “Let me explain the situation to you, oh sweet Karoline,” spoke the scarred thug. “You see, your nanny over there sold you to the baroness for two hundred G. She was meant to bring you here and disappear, start a new life somewhere in the boonies. While we,” the man pointed around and five more thugs jumped into the ruin from all sides, using holes and what once were windows, “are here to do you in, you see.”

  Karoline started looking around at the thugs tightening the ring around her slowly. They all carried weapons, from a spiked club the scarred one was holding to arming swords and daggers. They brandished them, looking at Karoline with predatory smiles. One of them spoke, looking at Karoline.

  “How about we have some fun before we kill her, boss!”

  The scarred one answered quickly. “Are you stupid? She is just a kid, when you really have to do it use the nanny. We are meant to kill her anyway, to tie up the loose ends.”

  “Thanks, boss!”

  The words of the scarred thug made the nanny flinch. “That’s bullshit! The baroness promised me she will let me leave!” screamed the nanny, her voice filled with fear and confusion.

  “And you trusted her? A person that is scheming the murder of the daughter of her own husband? You must be going senile, woman.”

  The scarred thug came back with a smile.

  “No, no, no, she promised. She really promised!”

  This time the six thugs just started laughing. Several seconds later the scarred one retorted. “So naive, so dumb. Makes me want to kill you so much more. You betrayed your charge, the kid you were meant to protect. The kid you spent fifteen years with. Who do you think would trust a skank like that?”

  The words hit the nanny like a hammer. She stood there, slowly backing off from Karoline with small steps. One after the other. Backing away from the scarred thug.

  “The fear in your eyes is so sweet! Not like that kid’s defiance and hate, that’s no fun! Fear—that’s the proper food for my soul! Fear and despair, more for me. Maybe I will keep you for some time, if you do a good job!”

  “Boss, no fair, you already promised her to me!” spoke the thug from before.

  “Ah right, sorry! I already promised you to Mike. And once he is done with you, you will be too broken to be any fun. So that won’t do! Nevermind, I will find a bitch that would be scared of me some place else.”

  The other five thugs just chuckled and slowly inched forward. That was when the words she was so hoping to hear came.

  “Time to reap has come!”

  [ Vic’s 1st person view. Burned out factory. ]

  I followed the thugs; wanting to be sure what their plan was. After watching them surround the old burned-out factory and enter, I got close to it and listened to the conversation intently.

  “... bitch that would be scared of me some place else.”

  Listening to them, my blood was already boiling. Before I could move, Alrune made sure to encourage me.

  “Go ahead and clean up that trash, Vic!”

  A small, almost imperceptible smile nestled itself on my face just hearing that one sentence. Before I stepped out of my hiding spot, I spoke.

  “Time to reap has come!”

  Karoline threw herself at the nanny, tackling her to the ground, while the thugs froze for a moment in confusion.

  This was the clue for me to enter the stage. I activated my body enhancement and charged to the middle of the group. Without even giving the group of thugs a chance to react, and after I made sure that both the nanny and Karoline were down on the ground, I slashed.

  As I was pulling the sword, I could feel it. Alrune’s mana reacted to my anger and disgust towards the thugs. It was about to rush out and level the whole block just to make sure the annoyances were removed. This scared me a lot; I was about to pull back the sword when Alrune once again let go of her emotions, covering me in her possessive love. Just basking in it made me calm down; and the moment I calmed down, Alrune’s mana followed. I was able to slash around using just a minuscule amount of it.

  Right after the slash, I stood there for a minute, fingers crossed that it worked. The thugs long since fell to the ground, done for, and the factory ruins... they were still there. Standing, not chopped in half. I sighed in relief and whispered.

  “Thank you, Alrune!”

  “Anytime, Vic. Anytime!”

  I enjoyed a little bit more of her possessive love before she retracted it. It was hard for me to interact with other people while in that state, however much I loved it.

  I turned to the pair—the young girl and the traitorous nanny. I found Karoline standing up, looking down at the kneeling nanny who was pleading for mercy. I just shook my head, not wanting to be part of this; it was honestly none of my business. I just walked up to them, planning to do my part and leave.

  “Do you have a solution if your safehouse gets compromised?”

  Karoline thought for a second and nodded. “I am meant to contact Mom directly!”

  “Go ahead!”

  She pulled out a communication tablet and explained the whole situation to her mother. Her mother responded right away, suppressed anger and worry filled her voice.

  “Is the bodyguard guy still there? Give him to me!”

  She handed me the communication tablet and the woman spoke.

  “Thanks for taking care of that. I will make sure you get something extra for it. Could you please lead my daughter and that traitorous bitch to a safehouse? I will give you an address.”

  “Sure!”