I stride across the street casually. People look at me suspiciously as I walk passed but then go along their business.

This is very awkward. I notice a poster of my face flap in the wind, as it was stapled to the door to some sort of shop. Drops of sweat start to dot the inside of my helmet. Rainel stares at me, never even once taking his eyes off of me.

I know who the assassin is, but I just now realized I had no idea where she was. We had already checked the old place I'd stayed in for 3 days, but it had been abandoned.

"This better not some type of trap." Rainel audibly says.

I give him a nervous chuckle, we've been walking around aimlessly for almost five hours now. The sun was beginning to set, and I was just as lost as I was in the beginning. Our plan was to have Rainel and I walk around in knights armor, my face obscured by a helmet, and have Crux and Hanafin follow us discretely. So that it just looks like a knight and his underling, patrolling the streets. Since Rainel wasn't as well known as Hanafin or Crux, we could walk around without causing much of a commotion.

My lip begins to quiver. "H-hey Rainel." Rainel tenses up his shoulders and curls his fists. I really don’t want to say this…

"Eh, um... I'm sorry! I have no idea where she is!" I say with an embarrassed fluster on my cheeks.

Rainel sighs, "Well, I figured as much, and it took you that long to finally admit it. For someone who supposedly hates royals you sure act like one."

A long silence passes. Rainel takes note of this and raises his eyebrow at me.

"... Huh, do I now?"

The trio stares at me in silence as I enter the cramped apartment Yesenia was now using as her base of operations. She had kept her word and stepped down from her position as the princess, and was now living the life of an average person.

"Hey everyone! The food is ready, I'm not sure if it's any good though!" Yesenia called from the kitchen. At that moment I felt Hanafin's gaze beat down on me especially hard.

The five of us chowed down on an incredibly bland and uninteresting meal. A couple of cold pieces of bread, an unevenly cooked piece of beef, and a whole cabbage, ripped up into multiple pieces, served as if it was supposed to be a salad, there wasn't even any dressing.

"Ahaha, I don't know how to bake so I just bought the bread directly." She bites into a piece of the meat. "Eh, why is this so chewy?" She put on a fake smile.

I feel Hanafin's eyes drill into me even further.

"Cheer up everybody! We all make mistakes right? We'll just continue the search tomorrow until we eventually find her." Yesenia was trying to stay cheerful.

"Princes- I mean Yesenia, I want you to pause and realize that we're helping a potential enemy, find an enemy, so that that enemy can convince him to join their side." Rainel spoke up.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that. What of it?" Yesenia crosses her arms.

Rainel sighs, "You're the leader, I'll follow whatever you'll say I guess."

"Rainel, we're desperate. If Cain doesn't join our side, we lose, all of us die." Yesenia said.

I throw a crooked smile at Yesenia, silently reprimanding her. However she looks back at me unapologetically.

"Cain... So that's his name." Crux said.

"Oi, when did you give your name to my sister." Hanafin glowered at me.

Rainel sits there silently, non-reactive to the mention of my name

"What's all this commotion about a damn name! Yea he told me. So what? It's a word!" Yesenia stands up angrily.

"I mean, I was planning on telling them my name only if I decide to join Lyster." I shrink down a little bit.

"Yea, if he ends up fighting for the other side, I do not want to give him the courtesy of learning his name." Hanafin said.

"Is that some sort of joke? That just might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard, you think this is some kind of fairy tale?!" Yesenia sits down and sighs. She definitely had a scary side to her.

A couple of minutes pass by without any more conversation.

“Are you sure you guys can stay here without causing any problems? Don’t you have a lot of responsibilities as the last few remaining in the royal family?” I start talking.

“That might be the case, but in reality I don’t really have much influence as to what goes on. I’m just a figurehead, I don’t really know much about the technicalities of war.” Yesenia says.

“Then should a figurehead really be giving up her crown and living in a random house in the city like this?” I murmur to myself.

I feel Hanafin’s eyes burn into me even further, as to say, “And who’s fault is that?” I shrink a little bit as a cold sweat begins to form. Older brothers are scary.

"Where am I going to stay overnight?" I ask. "Outside, searching for that assassin." Rainel says in a sarcastic tone.

"What? You think you're going to have a night of sleep? We don't have enough time to waste on your sorry ass."

"Rainel." Yesenia said in an exasperated tone. "Well, it's true that we don't have a lot of time, but you can stay in this building for the night if you want."

"It's fine, I just got an idea." I wave her offer off as I put on my helmet.

We were back outside walking around. The sun was beginning to set, the moon rising.

"Nope not this one." Rainel and I walk out of the 3rd bar we've checked so far.

One of the things I learned about Thork was that he absolutely loved alcohol. Whenever they had extra money to spend on themselves, Thork would undoubtedly 100% of the time spend it drinking in some cheap bar. At least, that's what they told me, and with him getting the biggest bounty of his life with my capture, I would bet that some of it is going to go to alcohol.

"How many bars are in this city?" I asked as Rainel leads me to the fourth location.

"Twelve I believe. We're going to check out the newly constructed one next." Ah, that one huh? If I remember correctly I'd already been to this place when I was gathering information on the war and city.

We walk into the bar I take a good look around to see if that man was here.

"Found him." There he was, in the middle of the room chugging down what looked to be his 5th beer as there were 4 empty bottles laying around the table. Thork, the leader of the ragtag group of thieves, and the one who betrayed me and cashed in my bounty.

I sit down at his table, my helmet still obscuring my face.

"Hey mind if I sit down and have some drinks with you?" I say in a lighthearted tone, I change up my voice to the best of my ability making it hard for him to recognize me by voice.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"Sure thing! I'm feeling like I can do anything right now!" Thork does a deep belly laugh and then hiccups.

"Waiter! One mug of-" I start talking.

"Two of your best shots! For this gentleman and I!" Thork interrupts.

"Are you sure? You don't have to pay for me."

"Come on, don't be like that. I don't know who you are, but we're the best of friends right now!"

"I suppose so." I say casually.

A waitress carrying two jugs of beer comes by and sets the two mugs down on the table.

"Hey that helmet is gonna get in the way, mind taking it off and showing off your ugly face to the world?" Thork said.

"Well, I suppose I should."

As Thork takes a deep swig of beer, I take off my helmet and set it lightly on the table.

"Pwhaaa, that was a good one... Huh? You look familiar..." Thork tilts his head and squints at my face.

"...Oh."

Thork flings his beer at my head and bolts away. It bounces harmlessly off a pocket of air without making any contact. Just as he dashes through the door, Rainel sticks his hand out and grabs Thork's by the face. Then he slams him to the ground, knocking him out cold.

I take a swig of the beer. “Bleh.” I instantly recoil from the intense flavor. Why would people ever drink this stuff?

"I presuming you're the one who's going to pay then?" A man comes up to me as I strap my helmet back on.

"Sure, I don't know how much he drunk but this should be enough to cover it." I take out a silver coin I got from Yesenia and put it in his hand.

"Oh my!" The man hold the coin close to his eye.

"What, you're not satisfied with that?"

"Oh no this is plenty! Have a very good day sir."

"Heh, I'll try."

Now... I crack my knuckles, it's time to settle some things.

“Hey what’s going here? I thought that boy right there was a criminal who murdered 13 people. Why are the royals working together with him. Actually what did I even do wrong? I was just the one who caught him just like you guys wanted.” Thork complained, It the morning already, Thork having been knocked out the entire night, all four of us were back at Yesenia’s place, gathered around this single man bound in several ropes.

“Ahaha, this is making me feel bad.” Yesenia nervously chuckles. “Don’t do anything bad alright?”

“I think we’ve crossed that line already.” Crux says.

“Yea you have! When I get out of here you better pray to God that I won’t be able to find a way to expose everything you maggots are doing to me right now.” Thork struggles violently in his ropes but they won’t budge.

“Then what if I don’t let you get out?” I sweep in close and cradle his head in my hand.

“I have a lot of pent up anger for what you did to me you know? To be honest the biggest reason I captured you was to get some sweet payback.” I hold my finger to his face, a flame enveloping the tip of my finger like a match. Thork’s eyes widen at the sight, the tip of his nose beginning to singe from the heat

“Please don’t kill me! I’ll do anything you ask! I spent every night since then regretting what I did to you!” Thork unexpectedly immediately breaks under the pressure.

I blink a couple times. surprised from his willingness to comply, then start talking. “Are you sure? You’ll do anything? I don’t believe you.” I try pushing it a bit further to make sure he doesn’t rebel.

“Yes, yes, yes, now please get that finger away from me. We’re friends right? I let you stay at my place for a couple days.”

“Sorry, I can’t do that, you might get too comfortable after all.”

Thork gulps and stares at my finger, beads of sweat were beginning to form on his neck. “Tell me what you need.” He nervously says.

“Alright, then tell me. Where is Gleek right now.”

Thork gives me a blank stare for a couple of seconds, surprised by what I asked. Then his expression turns back to its original normal state as he gives me a relaxed smile.

“So that’s what you’re after huh?” Thork lifts his hand, raising his index and middle finger, making a motion like he’s about to point towards a direction, before lowering his index finger and pointing his middle finger at me.

“Ah man, I really didn’t know what you guys were after, I thought I could have gotten out of here easy.” He starts. “Sorry, I lied. I don’t care about you one bit. Go to hell. I will not say anything more.”

I sit there in silence for a couple more seconds and then sigh.

“Did you know that I wasn’t the one who killed thirteen people that day? There was an assassin in the castle that day out for my head, and I know for a fact that it was Gleek.”

“So? What of it?” In a instant Thork had went from submissive to defiant after hearing what I had to say. I look back, the three knights were just standing, picking their nails, not offering any help whatsoever.

“Then, it’s time for a painful night.”

“You’d be better off killing me instead of wasting your time. If I sold her out, I would already be dead.” Thork said in a relaxed voice.

“Do you really think I need you in order to find her? Like I said, this is just me taking out my frustrations. I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone but guess I’ll settle for one.”

“Well, then that’s that, life is just unfair to people like me. So, go on, make yourself feel a little better.” Thork closes his eyes.

“With pleasure.” I change my tetsu to wind and then concentrate. Air flows from my hand, like a string, weaving onto itself over and over again until it becomes thick enough to feel like a solid object. It was like a millions of tiny blades swirling and shifting into itself, creating an eerie light howling sound. It was something my sister frequently used, a sword made of pure wind.

“I hope…”

I lift the sword above his head.

“That you…”

I bring my arm down.

“Live a good life.”

I slice off the ropes, freeing him from his binds.

“Wha?” Thork opens his eyes with genuine surprise. He flexes his arms, now freed from their restraints.

“Ah man, you got me.” I walk away with an immature grin on my face.

“Please don’t kill her. I don’t know much about what she does, but all I know is that she’s just a lonely person.” Thork immediately begins talking.

“I might have to.” I then turn my attention to the knights.

“One of you keep Thork here until everything’s over. The other two can come with me if you guys want, I don’t really care.”

The three then look at each other, communicating with each other non-verbally, Hanafin then steps back, decidedly being the one who was going to stay behind.

“Oi, what are you doing?” Rainel said as I walked through the door without my helmet on, I don’t respond and continue down the streets walking in broad daylight.

“Wait! Don’t go out without your helmet you’ll cause a panic!” Yesenia immediately reacts to my actions, but I ignore her and continue walking.

The people of the city immediately freeze up when they see me and quickly scurry away. Some run away screaming in panic, some hold their ground and stare at me silently. I was no longer the hero, but rather, I was a criminal, a very dangerous one at that.

The two knights don’t do anything however, and just follow me silently and out of view. They must have some idea as to what I was doing.

I continue down the street, causing a huge commotion everywhere I go.

“I’ll take you down myself you murderer!” A stranger suddenly appears out of nowhere brandishing a long knife. I look at him in disbelief as he charges me, holding the knife over his head, an idealistic fool. I easily dodge the wild swing downwards with a little help from my wind and blast him into a brick wall.

I hold my hand up, wind courses through my body, making me feel like I was a bird. I’ve been mostly using wind to fight my battles since I’ve gotten here, despite being much better at using fire as it was much less lethal. T

he next time I fight, I don’t know who it’ll be against, but I just know that it’ll be with fire. At the same time; however, I wince inwardly, this situation felt eerily like the aftermath of father’s death.

I continue walking down the street that was now devoid of any people. I start whistling a tune, piercing the eerie silence that permeated the air.

The path ahead of me was totally cleared as well, with the exception of a few stragglers who had no idea what was going on. They quickly ran off as soon as they saw me however. I continue walking until I hit a plaza. A large open area that had various abandoned shops set up all over the place, like a town square of some sorts.

“Alright, this looks like a good place.” I quietly talk to myself.

At the center of the plaza lay a fountain with a statue of some unknown person. I fly up to the top of the statue and begin drawing my breath and covering my ears, I exaggerate the movement of covering my ears to make sure that the people who were following me would get the message as well. The mouth, although a bit weaker than the hands, was another area of the body where tetsu could be channeled from.

I draw in a deep breath.

“YOU HAVE ONE DAY BEFORE I MAKE MY DECISION!” A deafening shout covers the entire city, windows shatter, the water in the fountain shakes violently, spilling onto the ground, the ground begins to shake. Amplified a hundred times by the manipulation of air, it was easily loud enough that even the people on the other side of the city could hear me.

I then plop down on the statue and begin to wait. I can’t say with a 100% certainty that that girl will come. However, I no longer cared. If she doesn’t come by the next 24 hours, I will ally with Yesenia.