Rain pelted my face as I ran. My breath was heavy and I watched as my stamina bar drained. Running was hard. Running when your clothes were weighed down by rain was even worse.

  Lia and I made good time over to Falvel Road, mostly because I was too focused on Juliette to care about my awful physical conditioning. Getting there was easy, finding Juliette proved a bit harder.

  You see, in my rush and the panic of my realization, I failed to get detailed information on precisely which building Juliette lived in. The section of the laborer’s quarters was borderline slums territory. Gone were the nice, easy to navigate roads of the nicer parts of the city and buildings here were grown from fast maturing cypress trees.

  Lia and I ran across a pothole filled street pooling with standing water from the rain. The two of us stood out substantially from the usual crowd, what with me in my purple suit peeking out from under my leather armor and pink boots with Lia in a butterfly mask closely following me from behind. I’m easily the first Noble to step foot in this part of town, let alone the slums a block or two the north just beyond Floral Way, in centuries.

  We skidded into the fourth building on the street to a surprised building manager. Tenement buildings in Leoren were designed similarly to cheap motels. The building superintendent, who were predominantly city employees, worked out of a ground-floor apartment. Their apartment doubled as an office with a large barred window opening to the workspace behind.

  The superintendent was in his office with his feet propped up on the desk. The coyote-clan man looked at me and blinked a few times like he was seeing a phantom. It made sense that he wasn’t quite all there with the partially-empty bottle of cheap liquor on the desk. He was clearly sloshed.

  I rushed up to the desk. “Is there someone named Juliette living here?”

  It took the super a few moments for the words to work their way past the alcohol molecules in his brain. Then he fell over backwards when he realized who I was. “Baron!? What are you doing here?” the man slurred.

  “I’m looking for Juliette,” I repeated. I was getting annoyed, but I had to hold my temper since this man didn’t expect someone to bust in asking about a resident.

  “Sorry, Baron, we have three. Can you be more specific?” The super barely got the words out as he stumbled to his feet.

  This was one of the downsides of not having family names for commoners, especially in a city this large. Thankfully, with 18 different clans in Vialina, we could boil it down a bit. “Fox-clan girl, 18 years old. You’d see her leaving in a dark blue blouse with a black skirt most days.”

  “Oh, her,” the man said as he steadied himself and set the chair back upright. “I haven’t seen her in a few days.”

  “I need a key and her apartment number,” I said.

  The superintendent pulled a key off his belt and handed it to me. “Here’s the master key. She’s in 1032. If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, can you bring the key back after you’re done?”

  I took the key and remarked at how easy this was. Vialina didn’t have anything remotely like the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution or something similar like the Magna Carta. I, being in the nobility and a member of the ruling class, could pretty much do whatever I wanted. The only places with a 4th Amendment-like rule were places owned by Nobles.

  Otherwise, I could walk into the richest merchant family’s house and rummage around the kitchen if I wanted to. Not that it would be a good idea, abusing power was a great way to get censured by the Noble’s Council, but I could without anyone stopping to complain.

  “Thanks man. I’m not going to do anything bad up there, promise,” I said after I took the key. The super just shrugged. So long as I didn’t rape Juliette, he wouldn’t care what I was doing up there.

  I nodded to Lia and we ran up the stairs. I was pushing hard to keep moving even though grey was building in my stamina bar. I couldn’t waste any time taking breathers because my fat-ass didn’t do enough cardio.

  The halls of the tenement were bland wooden passages. Each one looked the same save pyrography numbers burned into the surface to differentiate the units. A few of the magic lights had failed overhead, casting the hall in gloomy shadows. There weren’t even welcome mats out because they’d likely get stolen.

  We came to a halt outside 1032 and paused. I nodded to Lia. “Can you hear anything in there?”

  While clans were by and large the same, each of them had minor differences between them. For instance, bear and jaguar-clan people were a little stronger than the others while deer-clan could run a little faster. Lynx-clan people had better hearing.

  Lia leaned against the door and focused. “I hear two people talking. One is a man and the other is a woman.” She paused for a few moments to listen. “We have to hurry! They’re talking about Juliette and saying Zelda is late!”

  I pulled my rapier and carefully slid the key into the lock. “Stand behind me.”

  I had to make this fast. I had no idea what the layout inside was or how strong the two people talking about Juliette were. Worst case scenario is I got killed. We’d just loop and come back here immediately with Void and Tizek to help out.

  I turned the lock and then, in a quick motion, opened the knob and shouldered my way into the room.

  The apartment was a small single-room studio. There was a small kitchenette to my left and a bed to my right atop stilts. A dresser and a desk were nestled under the bedframe. In a corner was an open toilet and a small sink with a single tap. There was a single pane-less window currently closed with shutters and the room was illuminated by a single dim magic light in the ceiling.

  By the window were two people, one a rabbit-clan woman and the other a badger-clan man. They were both rough-looking individuals in their early 30s. Tied up under the window was a fox-clan girl. It was Juliette. She was stripped bare and looking terrified.

  “What—” the rabbit-clan woman started.

  I didn’t wait. I lunged across the small room and surprised her by introducing her chest to the tip of my rapier. It was love at first sight since the woman gushed at the meeting, mainly her blood all over the clean wooden floor. I followed up with a punch to her face which slid her off the sword and against the wall, leaving a trail of red down the surface.

  I had zoned in on the woman in rage. Even though she was black-and-brown, she reminded me of Lisa and it triggered my memories of those two months. It proved to be a huge mistake when my head rocked to the side when something struck my temple.

  I was seeing stars and I was feeling disoriented from the blow. I heard a quick scuffle, a grunt and then a crash of wood. With the crash of wood, I heard a brief scream which was quickly cut off. The noise was accompanied by the room becoming significantly brighter.

  A hand steadied me and helped me to my feet. I then heard Lia’s voice. “Oliver? How bad is it?”

  I glanced at my health bar and saw about 20% shaved off with half of it grey. “I think that guy had an Advancement. What happened?”

  “I saw him hit you and I rammed him out the window,” Lia replied.

  “Ah, shit,” I replied as I steadied myself. “I meant to keep you from having to do that again.”

  “I had to. They were bad people,” Lia whispered.

  I patted Lia on the shoulder and turned my attention to Juliette. “Sorry to look at you like this, but they didn’t give us much choice.” I pulled my dagger, quickly cut her bindings and removed her gag.

  Juliette rocketed up and pulled me into a hug. She started to sob. “Thank you, Oliver.”

  I held her as she wept into my chest and thought about how long she was in here. She was out sick the day I proposed to Void and we hadn’t seen her since. Had she been in here the last few days?

  “Did they do anything to you?” I asked as I rubbed her back.

  Juliette shook her head. “No. Their boss, Zelda, told them I was insurance. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  “Did they feed you?”

  Juliette shook her head again. “Only some water. I’m really hungry.”

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  I helped Juliette stand. “Get dressed. We’re taking you back to the Teeth.”

  Juliette nodded and turned to her dresser. Lia had already collected a set of clothing from there and handed them to Juliette.

  I turned to look at the body on the ground while Juliette dressed. I rummaged through her things and came up with nothing. There were a few coins, which I left because I wasn’t about to rob the dead, no matter how foul she may have been, and a dagger. Otherwise, she was just a slums dweller wearing donated Advancement 0 clothing.

  I returned my attention to Juliette who was now wearing a simple beige blouse and a faded blue skirt. She was shaking from her ordeal and looking at her bare feet.

  “What happened to your shoes?” Lia asked as she rifled through the drawers and looked around the room.

  Juliette pointed at the rabbit-clan woman slumped dead against the wall. “She tried to put them on and complained they were too small for her feet. She cut them open and then said they were ruined before throwing them out the window.”

  These cartel whackos really loved needling their victims. I found myself quite glad Void wasn’t around because she’d insist on giving these two a prayer. They didn’t deserve it. The only reason she didn’t back at the cistern was we needed to get out of there before Lisa tried to turn me into her concubine.

  “We can help carry your things,” I offered. “We need to get back to the Teeth where you’ll be safer.”

  Juliette pointed to the dresser. “All I have is my uniform. Zelda stole the rest.”

  I growled and held back the urge to kick the corpse. I retrieved my rapier and wiped it off on the dead woman’s shirt before sheathing it. I then collected and folded Juliette’s uniform. “Come on, let’s get you back to the pub.”

  By now, a few curious residents were investigating the noise. After they took one look at me, they decided it wasn’t their business and vanished back into their apartments.

  When we reached the ground floor, a large crowd was outside the building. Juliette’s room was facing Falvel Road and Lia tossed a man 10 stories down to his death from a window. Of course it was bound to gather onlookers.

  One of the onlookers was the superintendent trying to get a better look from the safety of his office cage. I walked up and put the key back on the counter. “Here you go.”

  His eyes shifted to me and then to Juliette. He noticed she was barefoot and looking terrified.

  “Don’t worry, we just saved her from some abductors.” I nodded to the front door. “That guy out there is my doing, too.”

  The super only nodded in shock and took his key back.

  Outside, a pair of city Guards had already arrived at the scene. The two, a beaver-clan woman and a cougar-clan man, looked annoyed at the disruption. They wore expressions like they’d seen this a few too many times this week and were tired of the interruption.

  Their eyes then passed to me and they gave crisp bows.

  “Baron! What are you doing here?” the guardswoman asked. With the announcement, the crowd also fell into a bow.

  “None of that bowing around me. Get up.” I pointed at the body lying in the street. His head had split open when impacting the uneven ground and his blood mixed with rain was pooling in a pothole. “That fellow there abducted one of my employees and kept her captive in her apartment. You’ll find his compatriot upstairs in 1032. She’s not in much better shape than this one.”

  The two Guards visibly relaxed when I said that while the rest of the crowd stood and watched.

  “Thank you, Baron. That’ll make our paperwork far easier,” the guardsman replied. “If it’s no trouble, who were they?”

  “A pair of Gully Jack’s people.”

  The two Guards scowled. “Her again,” the Guardswoman spat. “We just spent the morning cleaning up another one of her ‘examples’. I wonder why she’s getting so violent lately.”

  “Her identity was leaked,” the Guardsman replied. “She needs to remind people she’s still terrifying even if she’s a young woman.”

  “Damned rabbit-clan,” the Guardswoman groused. “I wish the King would send them back where they came from. Maybe poke a hole in the boat while he’s at it so they don’t get the idea to come back.”

  As much as the crook I killed upstairs reminded me of Lisa, I really hated the casual racism going on here. “You two! Quit your jawing and clean this mess up!”

  “Yes, Baron!” The two Guards gave me another bow before starting to get to their hard work poking the body with a foot and seeing if the dead guy was still alive.

  “Come on, let’s—” I came to a halt when I saw Juliette kneeling in the street behind me. Her skirt was getting muddy as she knelt in the rain. “What are you doing?”

  “Apologies, Baron, for my familiar tone,” Juliette said with her head bowed. “Please forgive my breach of decorum, I wasn’t aware you were a Noble.”

  I was about to tell Juliette to stand when Lia beat me to it. “Oliver’s really nice. You don’t have to kneel.”

  Juliette glanced at me with an unsure expression. I nodded and motioned for her to stand. “Come on, we need to get you something to eat and you can rest.”

  The three of us walked away from the apartment building with Juliette trailing behind. She was still hesitant around me. To be fair, I was barely at the Teeth this loop, so she wasn’t used to my presence. Maybe I’ll show her my uniform – or wear Void’s – to help her recognize I don’t bite.

  As we left, I listened to the gossip in the crowd.

  “You sure he’s a noble?”

  “All the papers are saying it.”

  “But he came out here and threw a guy out of a building to protect his worker.”

  “Not just some guy. Said it was Gully Jack’s man. The Baron has a mahogany pair on him.”

  “You think he’ll claim the slums? None of the other houses want it.”

  “Shh! Don’t say that. Do you want a war in the city?”

  “If someone like him can take it? Maybe it’ll be worth it.”

  I must say, it’s rather nice to hear gossip that’s positive about me. I didn’t even think about the optics of the situation – all I did was come out here to make sure Juliette was safe. Some optics professor I am.

  On the way back, I gave Juliette a silver Sovereign and had her go into a cobbler’s shop to buy a new pair of shoes. While waiting for her to get out, I nudged Lia. “You can talk to me.”

  Lia unconsciously reached back and touched the grip of her sword. She hadn’t drawn it in the enclosed space of Juliette’s studio apartment, but it was the symbol of the things she had done. “I’m afraid I’m going to become a bad person.”

  I knew exactly where Lia was coming from. We’ve had this conversation a few times in prior loops which was something I wouldn’t bring up. “What makes you think that?”

  “I didn’t feel so bad about killing that man,” Lia whispered. “It’s scaring me. What if I start to like it?”

  “I doubt it. I don’t like killing,” I replied. “Like you, I did what was needed back there. I didn’t kill that person because I liked it. I did it because I couldn’t be certain she was a threat or not. It wasn’t worth putting Juliette at risk to ask if her kidnapper had different motives.”

  I decided to conceal my other reaction. I didn’t like looking at rabbit-clan women because it triggered bad thoughts I’d rather not have. Just because Lisa and her two sisters abused me didn’t mean the rabbit-clan people were evil.

  Lia looked down at the ground and dug the toe of her boot into a pothole. She was deep in thought as she worked my words in her head.

  “Lia? I wish I could fix this with words. Thing is, our world is complex. We should always look for ways to deescalate without resorting to violence, but we also need to be ready for it. You saw how Lisa’s people were in the cistern. They were as fanatical as the cultists were. I’m afraid this is something we don’t have the luxury to talk about.”

  I felt terrible telling Lia that. The kid had spent her life up until joining Gerry’s gang trying to escape her fate. She didn’t want anything to do with the slums or the criminal life so many like her were funneled into.

  Lia leaned against my side and pressed her head into my arm. Her posture looked defeated to me, which bothered me tremendously.

  “Lia? I’ll do whatever I can in my power to keep you away from this life. Just tell me what you want out of life and we’ll work toward that goal, loop or no,” I said.

  “I don’t know,” Lia responded. “I just want to feel…important to someone. The little things don’t matter.”

  I wrapped an arm around Lia and pulled her in tight. “You are important. I engineered a series of events to get you out of that castle and did it thousands of times. Everything I’ve done was for you, Tizek and Void. Don’t think you have to force yourself past this.”

  Lia put her arm around my waist and squeezed me back. “Can we sign up for a dungeon run? I want to do something useful.”

  “You got it. Let me look and see what’s available so we can all talk about it later. Maybe Silk Caverns so we can get Void the materials for a wedding dress?” I asked.

  That perked Lia up tremendously. She pulled away and her ears subtly tilted forward to face me while her pupils dilated. “Let’s do that!”

  “It’s the makings of a plan. Let me check,” I pulled out my Exterminator’s Guild card and juiced it with my pitiful mana stores. My little blue sliver in my status bar winked out when I did.

  I thumbed the section on the back of the card which connects to the main Guild server. When I tried to connect to the dungeon reservation system, an error came back. See the Guild Administrator.

  “I’m getting an error,” I grumbled. “Lia? Mind trying it?”

  “I don’t know how to read,” Lia replied.

  “I’ll walk you through the steps. How about we start spending our evenings learning to read? You and Tizek can be my students,” I suggested.

  Lia nodded and smiled at me. The prospects of learning to read improved her mood even more.

  She pulled her card out and energized it. I then walked her though the steps to get to the dungeon reservation system while explaining what the symbols meant. Lia wasn’t going to pick up reading this fast, but it would help to familiarize her with as many symbols as possible.

  I frowned when the same message came back when Lia tried to access the system. See the Guild Administrator.

  “One more thing to waste time,” I grumbled when I saw the notice. I was about to complain more when Juliette came back out of the shop. She had on a pair of simple city shoes and she had her coin sack in her hand.

  “Here’s the change,” Juliette whispered when she handed her sack out.

  “Juliette? I gave you a silver Sovereign,” I said. “Why did you buy those cheap things?”

  “I didn’t want to waste your money,” Juliette responded.

  I really had to be more specific in the future when dealing with people. I spent way too much time alone these past few centuries.

  We made our way back to The Gnashing Teeth where I explained the situation to Mira and Doun. The entire time, Juliette stood near the door looking ashamed.

  “My goodness, Juliette!” Mira exclaimed. She was still wearing her wooden breastplate armor and had her barbed whip at the ready. “You can stay here as long as you like.”

  Doun was wearing leather armor and had his crossbow in his hands. “It’s not the usual arrangement, but who am I to complain? This is the Baron’s place now.”

  “Remember? You make the rules. I’m just the owner on paper,” I admonished.

  Mira gestured to the bar. “Go sit, I’ll have something made for you in a bit. You must be famished.” Mira then hurried back toward the kitchen and disappeared through the door.

  Juliette sat at the bar and looked down at it. “I can’t afford it right now. Zelda took all my money.”

  “Just sit,” Doun said. “Food’s on us. You had a rough few days.”

  “Can I have a shift tonight?” Juliette asked as she tapped her fingers together at the bar.

  “We’re closed tonight. It’s Danesday. You sure you want to work tomorrow?” Doun asked.

  Juliette frowned. “I lost track of time. I just want things to be normal.”

  I set the uniform down on the bar next to Juliette. “Sure thing. Would you like a message sent to your family?”

  “No,” Juliette shook her head. “I don’t want them to know. Dad is already upset I quit school to work as a server. This will make him want me to move back home.”

  “Who’s your dad?” Lia asked as she sat next to Juliette at the bar. I noticed a strange look in Lia’s eyes when she glanced at Juliette. It felt…no, that didn’t make sense. That sort of thing didn’t exist here, only Carolina was interested in other women. It must be me imagining things. The mask made it hard to read Lia's expression.

  Juliette didn’t reciprocate the look. Instead, she looked morose. “He’s a merchant in the upper-class district. He wanted me to go to the Royal University to learn Magineering. It was mostly because mom was a Magineer and he wanted me to follow in her footsteps after she passed ten years ago of miasma.”

  I took a seat at the bar and Doun slid three glasses of juice to each of us. “Were you no good at it?” Doun asked.

  Juliette nodded thanks and sipped her glass. “No, I’m really good at it. I just don’t feel satisfied with it. I didn’t think mom wanted me to be miserable. I want to work with people and maybe run a pub like this someday.”

  “You can apprentice under us if you want,” Doun suggested.

  “You’d do that? I’d be a competitor,” Juliette whispered.

  Doun snorted. “With Mira’s cooking? Not likely.”

  “I’d try your tavern out,” Lia said as she kicked her feet at the bar.

  “Thanks,” Juliette smiled in response and sipped her juice again.

  I gulped mine down when I started to smell the savory odors of ham frying on a pan. Mira came out shortly after the scents reached my nose with a plate piled with ham coated in brown sugar with a side of carrots. I realized I hadn’t eaten today and Mira plated up enough for everyone.

  After eating, I looked over at Lia and she was engaged in small talk with Juliette. I figured now was a good time to bow out and go visit Willem.

  “Doun? I’m heading out to see Willem. Do you mind asking Void to check her Guild card? I was looking at Dungeons and both mine and Lia’s were not working,” I said.

  Doun nodded. “Sure. See you later, Baron.”

  I rolled my eyes at him, though to be fair, Juliette was here and not appraised on the situation.

  Lia also stood. “I’ll come, too.”

  I gestured back to the seat. “Nah, you seem to be enjoying time chatting with your new friend. I think Juliette would like someone her age around to feel comfortable.”

  “I’d like that,” Juliette added. I could tell she was still shaken up by what happened and needed the support. Plus, it looked like Lia wanted to stay and talk, too.

  “Are you sure?” Lia asked. “Lisa is still out there and you could be in danger.”

  I shrugged. “You know me. It’ll just be a minor inconvenience if it happens.”

  Juliette gave me a strange look. Doun snorted. “Don’t worry about it. The Baron is a little odd and no one is foolish enough to attack a Noble.”

  Of course, I didn’t tell him about Kelly yet. I only had a few minutes to give my story and that little detail wasn’t part of it.

  I gave my farewells and exited the pub into the rainy afternoon. I glanced once more at the alleyway to see if Hespeth and the others were hanging around. Still empty. It made sense. Zelda had already hatched her plot and those four wouldn’t have much reason, or sense, to hang around after that.

  I had to put Lisa’s little attack to the back of my mind. While it was the opening salvo of a declaration of war, the end effects weren’t as intended. I didn’t have a power base to do anything about it right now, meaning it’s a back-burner issue at the moment.

  For now, it was time to figure out Willem’s place in the Anti-Slavery League and offer my services as a new member of the Nobility. After that? Dinner with the Prince tonight. It was turning out to be a very busy day.