"According to one of the angels, the Holy Kingdom sent a priest and knight to come fetch Dario. Did they ever come?"

"No, Howard, they never came, so you can't pretend to sell their commander back to them for money. And you can tell Glade that he needn't worry about this missing priest, I'm sure he just got lost on the way."

The giant man, Tiny, and the average-sized weasel of a man, Howard, were walking through the town square when Kaen barged out of Jova's guesthouse.

Kaen's hands sliced through the air as he sprinted past the two Boomtown residents, but in his terror he hardly registered their existence.

Howard rubbed his eyes, then swept his fingers through his red hair and scratched his head. "You saw that too, right?"

"Hm? Ah, yes. I believe that's Kandy's father. I found him last night when one of my babies was about to eat him."

Howard shuddered. "You know, calling those things your babies is…"

"They really are just so cute, aren't they." Tiny's eyes shined with pride.

"Well, whatever they are, if that man keeps running, then… isn't he going to run into them again?"

"Surely he's not that stupid. It's daytime now so he should be able to see all of them. Besides, weren’t you in hiding back when he led his army of bandits here? Can't have been leading that many people if he was an idio—"

High-pitched screams of manliness interrupted Tiny’s line of reasoning.

"…I stand corrected. Pardon me, I have to save him before the acid burns off his skin."

With that, Tiny sped off towards the screaming.

Howard looked on with disdain, then craned his head towards the sky and shouted, "See what you've left me here with, Tori? A deranged farmer as the deputy leader of Boomtown!? My naive idiot of a brother? The rest of these buffoons? Let me out, dammit!"

No answer came.

"I know you're listening to me, you damned eagle! Your angels wouldn't dare to slack off any longer with what Karasu was able to pull under your nose, I know that much!" Howard sneered.

There was a brief flash of rainbow light in the sky, but beyond that, nothing.

Howard clicked his tongue and walked north out of the town center, towards the forest. "If you all won't let me out, then I'll find my own damn way."

Howard was a rather unique case in Boomtown. There were, for the most part, three types of legends in Boomtown. Combatants were the most obvious—during their mortal lives they'd made names for themselves through incredible feats on the battlefield. Those such as Hugh and Moon fit into this category.

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Then, there were the classically accomplished. Kaukau, for example, was the grandfather of all magical research. Sepequ was a tailor so renowned that many of his clothes were still passed down as heirlooms and worn by royalty for special occasions.

The third group were the magical beasts. There were the likes of Fluffy, the tiny dragon and giant fire-breathing chicken hybrid, and Milton, the gaslighting pomeranian, able to shapeshift into a giant wolf.

But there were a few, like Howard, who didn't really belong to any of those groups.

What good could be said of him?

He was a capable man, to be sure. He and his twin brother, Glade, had jointly created and ruled a vast Kingdom that lasted a century after their ascension. As the smarter of the two brothers, the vast majority of the Kingdom's dealings had been handled by Howard.

So yes, he deserved credit. There was nary a person in all of Aarde's history as capable… of being a conniving, spiteful, manipulative son of a bitch as he’d been.

At each and every turn of he and his brother's rise to power, he'd lied, cheated, and otherwise manipulated the odds in his favor. His motto had been, "Never fight a fair fight."

And so he hadn't.

One could have hoped that after achieving immortality and living in a village of Aarde's most accomplished individuals might have changed Howard, but it did. His conduct had led the other residents of Boomtown to adopt a "boy who cried wolf" type of mentality when speaking with him… and was the reason he'd been in hiding for the past few centuries. Ever since he accidentally started the Century of Chaos, which had almost resulted in the complete destruction of Boomtown and Tori's sanity, Sweet had banished him from Boomtown.

Now, Howard had never actually left town—instead of doing so, he'd simply sought shelter from his brother Glade, who'd been far too kind to leave his kin to fend for himself in the woods. So, for several centuries, Howard had lived in hiding in Glade's house.

But now that Sweet was gone, on a mission to recover the spirits of several other Boomtown residents from the other side…

He finally dared to show face again.

And with the barrier long gone, he couldn't wait to find a way out of Boomtown.

***

Tiny sighed as he pulled Kaen out of the mouth of yet another one of his baby plants.

They'd grown well, and he was happy that Boom and Sweet had finally allowed him to expand his farm beyond the typical food crops. But it was definitely troublesome for the wildlife and… idiots.

Thankfully, the wildlife had quickly learned to avoid the area… but apparently idiotic humans needed a bit more time and guidance to adjust.

"…Mommy?"

Kaen had passed out again and was muttering in his sleep. With a sigh, Tiny pulled out a cloth from his holding item, a seed pouch, and wiped the plant's saliva off of Kaen. Then, with a fresh cloth, he wrapped Kaen up and carried him back to Boomtown.

"Ah, you brought him back."

Howard had left the town center, but Jova was standing outside of her guesthouse.

"I did."

"He's had a hard life."

"I can tell."

"He's here for his son." Jova stated.

Tiny slowly nodded. "I see. So you were preparing him for the bad news."

"I was."

"I'll bring him back to his room." Tiny moved past Jova and carried Kaen back into the room he’d woken up in previously.

After tucking the grown man into bed, Tiny and Jova retreated to her therapy office on the first floor—Tiny's massive body almost took up the entire couch.

"The last few weeks have been a whirlwind, huh." Jova leaned back in her chair. "I'm going to be a busy bee once this is all over."

"As a therapist or as a guesthouse owner?"

"Definitely the first, maybe for the second. Do you think we will be opening the town up to Aarde again? It was fun meeting those of the newest generations."

"Hope not," Tiny responded, "I'd have to dig up my babies and… I don't know, grind them into feed for Fluffy or something."

"But that would also mean that things would have gone back to normal, right? That Tin, Beth, and the others would be back. That we'd all be safe again. Wouldn't be so bad."

"…Yeah. I guess." Tiny shrugged, then stood up. "But until then, we have a town to defend."

He looked up, towards the room that Kaen was peacefully sleeping in. "And a father to give some very unfortunate news to."