Within the prison grounds, a huge bonfire was lit. A large number of people gathered for a feast. There were tons of meat and it had to be eaten before it spoiled. Some were eating it raw while others cooked it on fire. The meat tasted bland because no one was rich enough to have salt or spices. After all, people who were currently celebrating here all came from nearby slums. It was bland but no one could say no to free food.

Guardian was enjoying a massive cut of charred turtle meat. He noticed that his guests were sneaking gazes to him. All of the beastmen have already heard rumours about Guardian but most of them haven’t met him personally. After all, it was natural that his exotic looks will attract attention. People looked at him and whispered to each other, probably talking about him. That was it, no one dared to approach him and Guardian did not mind that at all.

He knew that his moment of peace will not last long; he could see an Islander approaching his place.

“Guardian. Where have you been? My men were looking for you all over.” The Islander seemed distressed.

“I have been on a business trip. So what happened with the shipment?”

“The shipment is fine. It is just that we are not able to dock in this town anymore.”

Guardian looked at the Islander questioningly.

“The things with the nobles got out of hand in the sea. There was a fight which escalated leading to a few ships sinking… It is not a war yet but we are in a very bad situation.”

“I see.” Guardian got the gist of it. All good things come to an end and so was their business deal. He handed the Islander his money from the previous day.

“To be honest, I did not think you will honour the deal till the end. But you did and I am thankful for that.”

“Well if anything comes up, may it be legal or not, you know where to find me. Or send a message through the harbour girls, the ones who pleasure the men. The blind one, Iustitia, she works for me.”

“I have met her already. We will contact you in due time. I am not even supposed to be in this town. There is a warrant and a bounty on us Islanders here.”

Guardian looked around. They were surrounded by cash-strapped people, if they knew about this they would be ripping the man apart already.

“You better go then.”

The Islander stretched his arm to shake hands with Guardian, a sign of respect. After the shake, the man carefully navigated past the beastmen away from the prison ruins and towards the harbour.

“Not a war, YET.” Guardian repeated the Islander’s word. It was clear that there will be more trouble in the future. The question was if he could somehow profit from all that. He started thinking about it.

Probably it was for the best if he stocked up on healing potions and salves. There might be an increased demand for those things later. Also, it would be good to store some extra food too.

His toughs were interrupted by Aiu who appeared out of nowhere.

“Who was that? He looked very weird. I have never seen a beastman like that. What did he want? Is he a friend of yours?” Aiu was curious about the exotic stranger who just visited Guardian.

“His people come from an island further away in the see, that is why he looks different. We just finished some business transaction.”

“So it was about the money. Anyway, I am done with my tasks. Shouldn’t we start working on that monster core?”

“I am done eating so I guess we can. Go get Cynthia and find me in my research hall.”

Aiu did as told and went to get Cynthia. Once all three were in the hall they began discussing the best way to do it. None of them had ever refined a monster core so there was a high chance it will not work.

“Shouldn’t we wait for it to harden naturally?” Cynthia knew that the monster core would crystallise on its own with time.

The core was very big and Guardian did not want to wait a few months for that.

“Aiu you should be able to do something about that, no?”

“I can try pouring a few things on it and see if it reacts or not.”

“Go ahead then.”

Aiu poured an acid over the core to clean and dissolve normal flesh away from it. Then she doused it in the alchemical liquid which was used to treat monster cores. For the final step, she poured a mix of different liquids. Guardian did not know what she was using but it seemed to work. The monster core soaked up the liquids and was getting harder and harder with each passing minute. The round and spongy organ was turned into a rough looking crystal.

“The outside seems to be done. I am not so sure about the inside though.”

“This will have to do. The inner core will harden on its own with time. So is it good to be enchanted?” Guardian asked Cynthia.

“There is one way to know and that is seeing if it manages to hold an enchantment.”

Cynthia cast enchanting magic on the crystallised core. And from the dull dark colour it became deep blue.

“It looks like it does. Just let me reinforce it; It will take some time because of its size.”

Cynthia treated the core with her magic for longer making sure that it is stable and won't shatter once exposed to high amounts of magic.

“It just keeps soaking it up, this is a good sign of a high quality. It means it will conduct magic well.” She handed the core back to Guardian, “I am done. So what you will do with it? Sell?”

The core of such size would fetch a big fortune.

“No. I am keeping it.”

“You aren’t making a stave shart with it, are you? It is too big to be of any practical use. Not to mention that it will take forever to charge with mana.”

Little monster cores in their crystal form were used in staves to focus and conduct magic better. Also, they could be made into talismans to strengthen various spells or used in equipment to power an enchantment. Monster cores at the size of a large pumpkin were rarely obtained if ever, so Cynthia did not know any practical use for such big crystal.

“I have a purpose for it, do not worry. And no I am not telling you, that is a mage's secret.”

“This is not fair. I helped you to obtain and refine it. You have to tell me.” Cynthia pressed her lips into a pout as she was complaining.

“I am not sure if it will work. If it does I will show you the end result.”

“Fine, I guess. I will come and check about it later then. I will be going home, all this magic work drained me. Where is Ithayiga? I will be taking him.”

Guardian remembered that he promised to let her borrow his assistant.

“He should be around. Just shout for him, he is outside.”

Cynthia waved a goodbye and ran away to look for a beastboy.

“Right… Aiu I have to show you something.” Guardian knew that he will need to expose Aiu to his research sooner or later.

He led his assistant past thick wooden doors and towards a small cramped room. Once he opened the door both their noses were assaulted with a putrid smell of stale air. Guardian lit a torch illuminating the dark room. It was lined with rusty iron cages. The cages were not empty, they had beastmen inside them. The men were bound with ropes or chains and gagged with leather strips. They were very filthy and looked sickly.

Stolen story; please report.

“What… What is this?”

“Prison. Don't worry they are not innocent, all of these men are bandits. Perhaps some were even killers.”

“Why? Why are they here and not in the normal prison?”

“Because I have a better use for them here. I use them for my research.”

Aiu was very silent, she had no words to say.

“Let me demonstrate.”

Guardian approached a random cage and the man within it stirred. He had an idea of what will happen to him and he tried to resist his fate. The resistance was futile and the beastman was dragged on the altar and chained to it. Guardian put his brand new crystal next to it.

Aiu was observing unsure of what Guardian was trying to do.

“Stand behind me. We do not want the spell to latch on you instead of this man do we?”

“You're doing magic!?” Aiu hoped that he will cast a spell to heal the poor man.

“Something like that.” Guardian opened the leather-bound book and started to read an incantation from it.

Aiu observed the ritual quietly unwilling to interrupt him. She was unsure why he needed her presence, but she was glad to be included in his work. She was listening carefully trying to make sense of incantation, but she failed, the words sounded like a garbled mess. The only thing she noticed was that the intonation of Guardians voice got stronger with each word and carried more and more power.

Blue beams of light shot from Guardian’s body; the light resembled long worms. If worms could be ghosts they would look like these beams. It was not a beautiful sight to Aiu, she was terrified. The worms floated towards the beastman and plunged into his body. The light beams concentrated mostly around the head wriggling deep into the body through mouth and ears.

More and more of wispy light was absorbed by the bound body. All of the batsman’s muscles contracted at once, sending him into a spasm. He let a scream full of fear and despair. Aiu had never heard a man or an animal scream in such a terrifying way.

As the man was screaming his body started to shrink. The flesh melted into nothing leaving only skin and bone. A ghastly spectre formed above the dead corpse. For a moment Aiu tough that she was dreaming. Her whole body was shaking and wet in sweat. She pinched herself just to be sure; the pinch hurt. She kept pinching her arm harder and harder; it hurt and she even pierced her skin. Aiu refused to accept that this was a real thing.

The spectre screeched just like the man did minutes ago. It was being sucked into the crystal. Strings of its spectral body were pulled apart from its body bit by bit and becoming one with the crystal. The pull got stronger with each passing second sucking the rest of the spectre in one big gulp.

The unholy light show came to a stop leaving the room in an unpleasant silence. Aiu was still shaking, she did not think magic could be this scary.

“Yes! It worked!” Guardian cheered observing his fruits of labour.

The crystal went from deep blue colour to a dark red. It absorbed all of the energy released by dying body but it was nowhere near to being full. Guardian touched the crystal feeling the mana pulsing deep inside it.

“I can feel it. The power, it is there! Magic is amazing is it not?” He turned to Aiu.

She did not know if she should congratulate him and cheer with him. She did not feel that amazing at all. In the end, Aiu just nodded meekly.

“Well then, let's continue. This will not fill on its own.”

Guardian went to grab another beastman to use as fuel.

“G-Guardian… Is it fine… if I go to work in a workshop.” Aiu did not want to witness this hellish ritual again.

“I wanted you to observe this as an alchemist and give me your opinion of what you think. The changes in the body are fascinating no? What if we can add alchemy to this ritual and make it more efficient?”

“I am unsure what to make of this… it was terrifying. I would rather work on herbs.”

“I would like you to think about all of this. You can go for now, but if you have any ideas let me know. Think about it and tell me later.”

Aiu nodded in agreement and ran to her workshop. She did not want to think about it at all, quite the opposite. Aiu hopped that work will help her to forget about this.

She was aware that she was ignorant about magic but the finding of this truth that mages killed people casually like that still shocked her. She wondered if the mages killed people in such rituals to get stronger. In the end, Aiu wrongly assumed that what Guardian did was a common practice for all of the mages.

Guardian worked hard throughout the day to juice the crystal up. He had enough beastmen in store to finish this task. The result was a brilliant dark red crystal which glowed slightly in the darkness. He took the crystal into his hands and carried it carefully to the workshop where Aiu was working.

“All done. Look at it, is it not beautiful?”

Aiu did not know what to say about it. How such a thing can be beautiful. Well, it did look like a giant glowing gem and was worth a castle worth of coins, but Aiu failed to appreciate the sight in front of her. Just like when it comes to food, sometimes knowing the recipe and seeing what actually comes inside ruins it. Like that time during the dinner then she ate delicious and juicy orbs with gusto. They had been delicious until she found out that they were unhatched fish eggs, the idea of eating unborn babies slightly disturbed her.

“So did any ideas pop into your head?” Guardian asked Aiu who was spacing out.

Aiu shook her head, “No, but I finished today's work processing herbs we got in the swamp.”

“That is good. I will be heading out to the city. I have some matters to attend.”

“Ok…” Aiu was still deep in thought. She began thinking about what she saw again.

Guardian left his assistant and headed towards the harbour. It was getting dark and it was a good time to check the situation regarding this Islander and noble incident with his informant. He hopped that Iustitia will be at her place and he will not need to wait for her there. He knew that other women would bother him too much if he decided to idle there.

He opened the doors to the establishment, letting himself in.

“I am here for Iustitia. Can you get her for me?” He asked a random girl.

“Yes, one minute.” She walked swinging her hips seductively and disappeared into one of the corridors.

“Guardian, what a pleasure. What brings you here?” Iustitia greeted him.

“I want to know some things about what is happening with the foreign merchants and the nobility. You have the details, no?”

“Ah… I knew you would ask something like that.” Iustitia hoped that he came to visit her as a friend, but this was yet to happen, “I heard some rumours. Let’s go somewhere more private.”

She took his hand and led him to one of the bigger rooms. Guardian once again was surprised by her ability to do this perfectly without the need to touch the walls and the like. He had almost forgotten that she could not see. Once inside the room, Iustitia lit some incense and they sat together on a big matt in the middle of the room.

A familiar smell filled Guardian's nose, but he did not want to get distracted, he came to do business, after all. Iustitia touched his chest and face with her hands, her fingers caressed his skin.

“What are you doing?”

“I want to see you. It had been so long since I could see you with my hands.”

“Oh, okay. So what is the deal with those nobles?”

Iustitia caressed his body with her hands while talking about what she had gathered so far. It was as his business partner said. There was a lot of trouble in the sea. Nobles had a full intention of fighting with the Islanders. They wanted to sack their ships and confiscate all of their goods. They even prevented the foreigners from sailing further down the sea away from their home island. Iustitia told that it is likely that the things will be settled on the land eventually. Nobles knew that and were preparing for it. They were hiring men for the upcoming battle.

“Will you join them? I am sure they will pay you generously? You are very strong and intimidating.” Her hands were all over his abdominal muscles.

“I have no intentions of joining them. I do not think that would be good for business.” Guardian had a hunch that Islanders might win and overthrow the leadership here. Before he picked sides he had to think things through very carefully. Otherwise, he would be expelled from the city or even killed.

Iustitia let out a sigh of relief, “That is good. I would hate to see you hurt.”

“Here, this is for your trouble. And this is for acting as a middleman between me and the merchants.” He handed her sixty silver coins. A large sum of money but he knew that she will have to share it with other girls.

Iustitia weighted the coin pouch in her hands, “This is more than I have expected. Thank you.”

“I will be leaving. See you next time.”

Iustitia hoped that he would stay with her to chat for longer but she could not force him to do that. She did not feel like bothering him, not after she was paid so much.

“Ah, let me escort you out.” She offered and grabbed his arm.

“I see you are done. Why so quick? Was she not good enough?” Britta taunted Iustitia as she passed her in the corridor.

Her taunt was ignored. It seems that Iustitia learned how to deal with her.

“Hey, Guardian did you know that Shazzara disappeared?”

“Who?” He got confused for a moment.

“Brita!.. You were not supposed to tell this and ruin the mood!”

“He would have found out eventually.” Brita shrugged it off, “Oh and please do not take the fancy room if you are not getting paid!” Brita assumed that Iustitia attended to the Guardian for free.

Guardian looked at Iustitia questioningly.

“It is as she says. Shazzara went missing quite a while ago. I fear she might not be within the living. This job is dangerous after all.” Iustitia remembered the night she was raped, she was lucky Guardian saved her or something even worse might have happened.

“Ohhh, the lizardwoman.” Guardian finally remembered, “Let me know if I can help somehow.”

“Thank you… If I find the man who did it I will let you know. But…” but she feared that she never will.

Sooner or later, men talked and boasted about their unsavoury deeds. But this time, she heard no one talking anything remotely similar. She could not even find who the last Shazzara's customer was.

“Well then, I am off.”

“No, no. Wait, I will escort you all the way to your home.” Iustitia did not want to part with him, “Oh, and I actually got paid. Look at how much he likes me!” She threw a coin pouch at Brita.

Tigerwoman opened the pouch and her jaw dropped. She could not believe anyone would pay this much for a slut. Brita thought that either Iustitia tricked him or that she could do something special to him no one else could. Brita was so jealous and she vouched to find why it was Iustitia Guardian choose and not her.

“Do as you wish.” Guardian did not mind a bit of company.

The pair walked down the streets, Iustitia was almost glued to him, unwiling to let go. She was happy that he was not pushing her away. He seemed in a good mood and she was capitalising on it. She wondered how much she can push forward with him.

They walked all the way like that to the prison ruins. Iustitia planned to ask if he could invite her inside. Just before her mouth could open to ask the question something else distracted her. She was feeling danger. She wondered what it could be as it should be safe, they were almost at Guardians home. Then she smelled unpleasant agitation in the air.

“Guardian, you are back. And with a company.” Hissed out Tiramisu. She surprised herself, her voice sounded more displeased and threatening than she thought it would have. She did not like seeing another woman clinging to Guardian like that. She was jealous again.

“Ah, could it be, Tiramisu?”

“That is right. So what do you want?”

As far as Iustitia knew Tiramisu was only a friend to Guardian. Iustitia wondered if she should bail here and now or stand her ground and see what happens.