Ezra’s mouth quivered open.

“Y-you bitch,” he said. “I was this close to t-trusting you. How did I even get poisoned? I didn’t even drink.”

Prise watched him with her breath coming in and out unsteadily. “White Mint is so poisonous that the mere fumes are enough to cause paralysis in someone if they don’t have any kind of poison resistance.”

[Because you’ve been poisoned, you’ve gained the skill ‘Poison Resistance’!]

Thanks so much, System. That would’ve been helpful, oh, he didn’t know, one minute ago?!

It was probably like [Hunt]. He needed to be poisoned multiple times for him to pick up the skill. Damn it.

“This absolute piece of garbage,” Filamenta said. “I can’t believe this.”

“So, why do it?” Ezra said. “Villscha was on his way out already.”

Prise shrank into herself.

“There was no guarantee that the next guildmaster would honor the contract and pay for my mother’s illness.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m so, so sorry, Nameless.”

Oh, cry a river. Ezra glanced at his health.

1437/1500

Okay, he had time. Looked like his Constitution was coming in clutch. There had to be a way to get out of this. After that, Prise would be ripped to shreds. Did he still have access to his skills?

“[Restrain].”

Nothing happened.

“[Entangle].”

Nothing happened. He sucked in a hot breath.

“Filamenta, you can use your abilities without me, right?” he whispered

“Of course, but what do you have in mind?” she said.

Ezra growled.

He was going to put this woman through hell. He wanted to break her arms with [Entangle]. He’d tell her that unless she gave him the antidote, he’d hang her from the ceiling and beat her like a pinata. His blood grew hot at the thought and his heart started to pound.

“It’s a shame that this had to happen,” Filamenta said. “But she brought it on herself.”

Threads started to shift from the walls and crept toward Prise from behind. By the time they were noticeable, it would be too late for her.

“Prise? What are you doing—oh my gods!”

Ezra’s eyes shot toward the new voice. It was an older woman with greying hair. Her figure was thin and her cheeks were hollowed out, like she’d been starving for the past several weeks.

Filamenta paused the threads.

Ezra narrowed his eyes. Where was this going?

Prise jumped back against the wall. “M-mother!”

Oh, so this was Prise’s mother? The woman that he was expected to die for?

The mother scrambled toward Ezra. She leaned down, picked up Ezra’s head, and looked into his eyes. After a few seconds, she sniffed the air. She looked at the tea stain on the ground.

Prise took a step back.

The mother’s eyes shot toward Prise. “You poisoned him. Why?”

Prise stood there, her mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish. “Because I… you don’t understand, his bounty—he’d fix everything, mother!”

The mother marched over to Prise, her expression crackling with lightning.

“How dare you!” the mother yelled. “You’d use these things I taught you to take a man’s life for such a petty reason?!” The mother looked back at Ezra. “Not only that, but this is that man you’ve told me about. The tenant you’re working together with.”

“No, Mother, please, I—“

“No excuses! I’ve never been more ashamed of you right now. If you have even the slightest shred of decency left in you, you’ll give him the antidote right now!”

Prise looked down. She gripped her fists, then turned her head up.

“Don’t you get it!?” She knocked a chair beside her to the ground. “If I don’t do this, there’s a good chance you’ll die!”

The mother shut her eyes. When she opened them, the sharpness in her eyes decreased.

“Prise,” She said. “I understand what you’re trying to do. I really do. But think about this. What happens if you succeed?”

“I-if I succeed?”

Oh? Was this woman really going to break through to Prise? Ezra got ready to jump up and attack.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Let’s say you get that damned money,” the mother said. “You’d forever live with the guilt of knowing you killed an innocent man. I’d forever live with a similar guilt of knowing that the only reason I live is by another’s death.”

A tear trickled down Prise’s left cheek. “But… but it would be worth it if you lived!”

The mother shook her head and grabbed Prise’s hand. “Prise, we don’t play games with people’s lives. Do the right thing.”

Prise’s breathing went in and out for several seconds before she marched over to Ezra. She fell to her knees and reached into her right pocket. She pulled out a vial.

What are the chances this is poison?

“No, it’s real,” Filamenta said. “I can smell it in the air.”

Prise put the antidote to Ezra’s nose. Ezra sucked in a single whiff of the vial.

[Lost status effect “Paralysis”!]

[Lost status effect “Spell Lock”!]

[Lost with status effect “Poison”!]

[You’re no longer poisoned with “White Mint Tea”!]

A cool sensation washed over his entire body. He glanced at Prise by tilting his head.

She looked at him, an expression of horror on her face. “What did I just try to do?” she muttered. “Oh gods, I’m a monster. I’m so sorry, oh gods—“

Then he burst forward, grabbed her neck, and slammed her into the ground hard enough to crack the wood.

He raised Filamenta in the air to stab her.

Prise’s mother winced and averted her eyes. Prise’s face started to turn redder and she grabbed at his hand still wrapped around her neck.

“Wait, please, I’m sorry, I know it was wrong, I’ll never betray you again—“

For a few seconds, they stayed like that, Prise blathering while Ezra held his needle in the air, ready to stab down.

Should he kill her?

Filamenta’s voice whispered in his mind. “I think you should do it. Traitors deserve nothing less. If I were in your shoes, I’d kill her and carry a few of her fingers around as a trophy and a warning to all who’d dare to betray me.”

“But?”

“But you’d regret it. You had nightmares about the first time you killed those mercenaries,” she said. “You’ll probably have nightmares about the other ones you killed today, and all of those were justified self-defense against total strangers. If you kill Prise, though, you’ll never forget it. It’ll hang over you for the rest of your life… even though it shouldn’t.”

Ezra mulled the matter over before he pulled away from Prise and stood to his feet. Prise breathed in quickly, tears streaming down her face.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you—“ She curled into a ball on the floor. “I promise, you won’t regret this, I’ll never—“

“Oh, shut up,” Ezra said. “I’m not doing this for you. I never want to see your face ever again.”

Prise’s mother looked back at Prise, then back at Ezra. She bowed her head.

“Thank you for sparing my child,” she said.

“No offense, but your daughter is pretty crap,” he said.

The mother’s lips thinned out.

“I wasn’t there for her teenage years,” she said. “Due to my evergrowing sickness. The father died a long time ago, and she somehow got it into her head that she’s the one responsible for taking care of me, rather than the other way around. And I couldn’t do anything about it, because I was sick—“

“That’s no excuse.”

She looked at the ground and shut her eyes.

“It isn’t. I should’ve tried harder. I’m sorry,” she said.

They were in silence for several seconds.

“I need a way out of the city,” Ezra said.

Prise’s sobs reduced to a few pitiful sniffles and she pointed at a section of the floorboard behind the desk. “T-there’s a trapdoor under the carpet there. It leads to the outside of the city.”

Ezra nodded and stepped over to it. He pulled away the carpet and opened up the trapdoor underneath, then hopped in.

----------------------------------------

The next two hours passed by in a blur. Ezra’s mind kept on wandering back to his… interaction with Prise. There was, actually, a small part of him that was horrified at himself. Prise had her reasons for what she’d done, and she’d helped him over and over again. Shouldn’t she receive some small measurement of mercy?

Ezra grabbed that part of his brain and throttled it till it died and shut up. Prise was a traitor. She’d taken advantage of his trust and poisoned him. She was lucky that he hadn’t decided to turn her brain into mincemeat.

“Compassion isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Filamenta’s voice echoed in his mind. “When misapplied to enemies, then I have a problem with it. But Prise, for the longest time, was an ally. No one can blame you for having conflicted feelings about her.”

Oh, shut up. Did Ezra ask for her opinion?

“…you’re touchy. Of course, you are—I’m a fool.” Her tone turned softer. “I’m sorry, Ezra. I’ll be quiet now. But know that if you need me, then I’m here.”

Her voice faded from his mind. Ezra breathed a sigh of relief. He needed a little bit of space to process what had happened. Soon enough, he’d come to the end of the tunnel. Overhead, light shone in through a crack up above. It looked like there was a wooden frame placed over the hole to prevent people or animals from falling in.

Ezra scurried up the hole and lifted the frame to look around. Trees as far as he could see. He hopped out and put the frame back carefully along with all the twigs, leaves, and soil to hide it.

He picked a random direction and walked. If he had any luck, he’d run into Dumrivil, or at least, some trace of the guy. This continued for several hours. He’d come across signs of a traveler, follow the tracks, and then find some random stranger. Along the way, he had to duck and avoid the mercenaries roaming the countryside, looking for him. He could’ve fought them, but Ezra didn’t much feel like fighting right now. Besides, it was an unnecessary risk.

Eventually, he saw another set of tracks. He followed it, fully expecting that he’d only find some random person again.

And there was Dumrivil, staring at him with wide eyes, chewing on a piece of meat on a skewer.

He jumped up. “One-Eye! You’re alive!”

“Did you expect otherwise?”

Dumrivil blinked. “Well, when you put it that way, I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised.”

Ezra walked Dumrivil through how he’d returned back to the guild only to get ambushed. He mentioned how he managed to escape and get back to the inn. There, he’d paused and avoided Prise’s betrayal. It really wasn’t something he was interested in discussing with anybody at the present moment.

“Damn, you had one hell of a story,” Dumrivil said. “I’m glad you made it out okay.”

“Uh-huh.”

At this point, Ezra was half-waiting for Dumrivil to offer him a poisoned meat skewer.

“For me, I was a bit luckier,” Dumrivil leaned back. “I was on my way back when one of my allies in the guild intercepted me. He told me to stay out of town and showed me the bounty. You’d better believe I hightailed it out of there.”

Okay, Ezra was starting to get why Filamenta had suggested getting allies.

He felt a rush of satisfaction come out of nowhere and frowned. Oh god, these random emotional rushes… they were coming from Filamenta, weren’t they? Because the connection is two-way. Of course.

“Oh, yeah, I guess with our connection getting stronger, you’re going to feel some of what I feel, even though you shouldn’t be that sensitive,” Filamenta said. “Sorry.”

A skittering awkwardness filled him up, making him want to avert his eyes from Dumrivil. Damn it, now that he’d noticed it, it seemed impossible to ignore!

He did his best to focus back on his conversation with Dumrivil.

“So,” Ezra said. “Do we have any good news?”

“We do!” Dumrivil leaned in toward Ezra. “The Ravenwing guild got back to me on my way out of the city. They told me the location of the main base, the place where Villscha is doing all his experiments and where all the real documents are stored!”

Ezras’ heart pounded in his chest. “Where is it?”

“It was under our noses the whole time,” Dumrivil said. “It’s beneath the city!”