『Hey, good work.』 It was a message from Phon. She must have been watching the entire time as Jaid confronted the king. 『Let me know when you’re ready to come back. But you’re forgetting something. Can’t count the mission as completed just yet.』
『I had a feeling that Tize would make you do this, so I had something made while we were running around past few days. Check your back.』
Jaid whirled around, expecting Phon to be standing behind her, but there was nothing but the collapsed bodies of the fallen kingsguard. So the knight then checked herself, but found nothing on her back but her usual sword pouch. Though that prompted her to check inside, and she found a single card all the way down at the bottom, so deep that tips of her fingers could just barely reach it.
Phon must have slipped it inside when she slapped her on the back at the castle gates. Jaid pulled up the card and took a look. It was a crime card with ‘Regicide’ scrawled across the top. There was no associated criminal score, because the act itself was such a specific crime, and there were so few kings remaining, that it actually wasn’t listed as a crime in any country’s database.
The picture depicted a dead king collapsed on the ground, who suspiciously looked a lot like King Guzmeir with a few artistic liberties. And sticking out of his back was a bloody broadsword that looked suspiciously like Jaid’s. Of course, standing in the background was a silhouetted figure with her blue eyes. Phon really had made this special just for this event.
Jaid flipped over the card and what was pictured was an elegant knight standing proudly with their sword. ‘The Paladin’. It was a lot more flattering than her previous ‘The Warrior’ persona. And there at the bottom was her name, ‘Jaid Luciri’ right next to a Fiends For Hire logo.
She understood that Phon expected her to place it, and the knight had no problem with the act. But once she did, there was no more hiding it—publicly announcing her betrayal. Depending on who found it, the news would spread like wildfire. Though even if it was tried to be covered up, surely the news would spread soon anyways, either by the internet forums or from Chorus.
Jaid didn’t exactly want to approach the severed corpse of her former king, but she had to make sure the card was displayed prominently, or she’d surely get teased about it later since Phon was undoubtedly still watching. The knight placed it down in the king’s lap that was still sitting limp in the throne.
And when she went to leave again, there was another buzz on her phone. Jaid expected it was a message to prepare for teleportation, but it was something else entirely. 『By the way, you might want to check the dungeon.』
That confused Jaid a bit. It had been the one place in the castle that she’d avoided visiting, mostly to not relive the time she’d spent there after the prince had died. Did Phon just want to torment her a bit—perfectly reasonable given her sadistic personality—or perhaps there were political prisoners that she wanted her to free.
But first, Jaid let her mainself dissipate, becoming the clone that had been scouring the prince’s room. She then made a few more clones to speed up the work. They were flipping through the records and ledgers while recording them. Speed didn’t matter for legibility since they’d have Feyjrusa comb through it all later.
However, they did make sure to send their videos to servers. Since when the clones recombined, Jaid wasn’t sure what would happen to her phone if they all had different files on them. At best, they’d all be in one place, at worst, the device could blow up. She hadn’t done enough tests with tech and her powers to be certain of anything.
When she was satisfied with her data collection, the knight headed down to the dungeons, wanting to be quick about it since her Soldiers of Ruin standing watch at the gate had begun engaging with the military. So Jaid became the closest available clone—still having a few around the castle in case any guards regained consciousness and wanted to play the hero.
The dreary, abysmal prison was just how The Paladin remembered it. As they always had been, the dungeon was kept completely dark, so Jaid had to light it up with her phone. Surprisingly, every cell Jaid checked was empty, wondering more and more why Phon had sent her down there. That was until the knight got to the very last cell.
Her eyes bulged and she dropped her phone in surprise. Jaid scrambled to pick it back up, desperate for the light to confirm what she’d seen. “W-Worry?!” The knight didn’t actually have the keys to the cells but with brute strength, she ripped the door open. Jaid then rushed in and collapsed to her knees, inches away from her best friend, Worretta, who was chained to the wall.
“Hmm, Gem, is that you?” Worretta stirred to consciousness, her voice dry and raspy. She tried to look around for Jaid, not quite matching her eyeline, and that only twisted the knight’s stomach more. One good look at Worretta’s eyes and it was obvious. She was blind. And not only that, her body was covered in bruises and scars.
Just long had she been down here, tortured and deprived? Had they realized that Worretta was the one who let Jaid escape and punished her for it? Had she been here the entire time? All the years that Jaid had been running around living a free life, had her dearest friend been suffering in her place?
“Yes, it’s me!” Jaid’s words were heavy. Tears flooded down her face and she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around Worry and squeezing her tight. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!” No amount of apologizing would ever make up for it, but Jaid would say it until her voice was hoarse—another victim of her selfish actions, but she’d be damned if she didn’t do everything she could to make it right.
And yet there wasn’t a word of hate or blame in Woretta’s voice, and she responded as she always did, just sounding happy to see her friend. “I always knew you’d come back for me.”
That only caused the tears to flood even more, but Jaid couldn’t just sit there the whole night sobbing until her tears ran dry. No, she owed it to Worry to save her as quickly as possible. Jaid unsummoned every clone as soon as she broke off Worretta’s restraints, and she was about to scramble and get her phone to text Phon, but there was no need.
The world changed around the two of them, and they were suddenly back in the Fiends For Hire’s secret lab. “Huh, are we somewhere else?” Worry questioned. “It feels different.”
Before Jaid could begin to explain, a confused Ahvra appeared as well. The knight then blathered an explanation to the tiny scientist, her words still mumbled from the panic and tears, barely coherent. But just one look at Worretta and the intentions were obvious, so The Witch got the gist.
“I understand,” Ahvra gestured to the lounge’s table where Worry was instructed to lay. “Would say we’d need to discuss a price, Squire Factory—Favorite name so far—but you have already paid me in blood and service. Not only will I heal her wounds, will give back the years that were stolen from her.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
The Witch held out her hands and Worretta de-aged in front of them. Years of physical abuse melted away, but surely the ones in her mind would linger, only healed by time. Seconds later, the spitting image of Jaid’s young friend emerged, exactly how the knight remembered her, the girl’s eyes bright once more. Worry had just enough energy to give Jaid a beaming smile before she passed out from the physical toll of the transformation and years of neglect.
Jaid then picked up her friend and took her to Ahvra’s bed. The Witch insisted that she wouldn’t be sleeping for a few days and that it would go unused otherwise. She stayed a bit longer, watching her friend sleep peacefully, but then the idea of heading to bed herself took over every thought.
Of course, that was when she received yet another text from Phon. 『This meeting ran really long, but we’re just about done. Why don’t you come up and say hello?』
That was the last thing Jaid wanted to do, but before she could respond, she found herself teleported once more, right in front of the doors to the throne room. Absolutely no part of her wanted to go inside, but it was obvious that she didn’t actually have a choice in the matter. The knight pushed open the doors and stepped into the room.
Heads of uniquely colored hair and eyes all turned to look at her. They were sitting in rows of chairs split by an aisle that led up to the throne. Going entirely on past instinct at this point, Jaid pushed forward, walking down the aisle until she reached the front. The knight then knelt down before the throne, before Drim who was reluctantly sitting upon it. “The mission’s complete.”
“Very good,” Phon stepped forward, having been leaning against one side of the throne. “As you can see, everything we’ve said about Jaid is true. She was the one who freed us from prison, rejoined as a member, and gave us our job to take over the world. Hell, she even just killed her old king for us.”
“So I ask that everyone get along and put any old feelings aside. Treat her like any other member. And if you have issues to work out, I don’t know, go fight at the gym or something. That’ll be all for tonight everyone. We’re back to work in the morning—remind the world just how capable the Fiends For Hire are. Dismissed.”
On that notion, Jaid was quick to vacate the premises. Even if she had the stomach to stick around and deal with hellos and remembrances, she just didn’t have the energy. But from there, she wasn’t quite sure where to go. Her first instinct was back to the lab, but now that her rejoining was public, surely she didn’t have to hide away any more. So her mind was set on heading to her old room in the member dorms.
The knight ascended the stairs and went to the end of the hall, all the time wondering if her room was still as she left it. But what she found was no longer her room at all. It had been reassigned. Jaid had a good hunch that would be the case, but a part of her had been hopeful.
“Times were tough, you understand,” Tize popped up behind her, his voice making Jaid flinch. “It was still your room for a long time, left untouched with all your things. But once the siege happened, and we were running low on space, we couldn’t justify having a vacant member room when others were sleeping in makeshift hovels.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Jaid sighed, annoyed by how sensible it was.
“But there’s still a room for you,” the man was quick to follow up. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but you were never actually removed as a member. Only Drim has that authority, but he never committed. The king was certain that one day you’d come back to us no matter what anyone else said. No matter what I said. And he was right.”
“Because of that, your rank was also never reset. If you recall, you were at Rank 9. And do you remember the condition to become Rank 10? That is, to beat another member of that rank. And you have already fulfilled that condition when you defeated me in the tournament.”
“So, Jaid Luciri, Rank 10 of the Fiends For Hire. Your new room is in the mansion with the other generals. Come on then, I’ll show you to it.”
And Jaid eagerly followed along, never happier to be following Tize anywhere. She even had a smile that she was failing to hide, but it did fade away briefly because of the man’s next remark. “Oh yes, I should mention that your room is right next to mine. We’ll be neighbors again, just like the old days.”
◆◆◆
At the same time as Jaid was being shown to her new room, Drim finally reached his, exhausted from the events of the night. Several members wanted to catch up with him after the meeting, but the conversations were thankfully cut short once it sunk in that he genuinely couldn’t speak to them in return. And when the right moment came, he finally managed to slip away.
“Oh it feels good to be home again!” the ghost of his mother, Eleen, popped out of his body and stretched her corporeal body. The specter then floated over to the shelves and inspected them, checking the condition. “Hmph, for someone who was in a coma for months, I guess Mallea did a decent job cleaning up.”
The ghost then turned back to her son. “So you’re still not talking to me, huh?” she pouted. “Look, I know I had a single guard kill themselves, but we’re out of prison now! It’s behind us, time to move on! And yes, I understand that you literally can’t talk, but you can speak to me in your mind in case you’ve forgotten! Which I know you haven’t! Which means that you’re just ignoring me!”
And so Drim continued to ignore her. He plucked Pox off the back of his head and set the fluffy creature down on his bed. The man then went over to his wardrobe and began to undress, freeing himself from the suit that he was still wearing from the debate. And as he undid the buttons, he glanced over at his reading chair.
Drimini was slumped in it, asleep with a book in her lap. She had likely been waiting up for him to return. The man felt bad that they’d taken so long, but he also wasn’t going to wake her. So after he changed into pajamas as quietly as possible, he slipped into bed.
“Babuu!” And that was when Drim’s face was whooped with the spine of a book. A now-awoken Mini floated over to his bed and flailed her arms angrily. “Babuu, babuu, BABUU!”
Drim wanted nothing more to apologize to her, but even though his throat had healed, the words still wouldn’t come. And he knew what she wanted, something else he couldn’t give her. The man picked up the book, an encyclopedia of plants. Before he was thrown in prison, every few nights they’d flip through the book, and Drim would read the plant names to her. He didn’t quite get her fascination, but her eyes would light up with joy seeing them every time.
While it wouldn’t be quite as she remembered, he at least had to try. Drim pulled back the covers, inviting the small plant girl into his bed. She dove in quickly—still angry, but her tantrum was quelled when she snuggled into Drim’s lap and he put his hand on her head, stroking her floral hair gently.
“Babuu,” Drimini pointed to the plant on the first page, and when he didn’t say the name, she impatiently tapped the book, repeating again with more force, “Babuu!”
Drim really tried, but all that came out was barely a grumble. It killed him not to say it, but for whatever the reason, his mind and throat just wouldn’t connect, the words nowhere to be found. However, a different solution came to mind.
He held out his free hand, and green light twinkled. A second later, the plant spawned in his fingers, laying delicately. “Babuu!” Mini gasped, her eyes sparkling with glee. She then opened a portal of her own, making the same plant as she giggled with happiness. They then turned the page and repeated the process.
A few more pages later and Pox came over, wanting to join in on the fun. He started sniffing each plant they made, gagging and making a disgusted face for each one, unable to bear the stench of life, but he kept doing it anyways because it made his sister laugh every time.
And then they kept going, Drimini forcing them to go through the entire encyclopedia before she finally let them go to bed. Then, late at night, the three of them all snuggled together and drifted off to sleep.