Confused murmurs could be heard throughout the crowd of beastfolk as they walked into Solis without any issue. Their mayor had told them to be prepared for anything before he left to stay in the hospital in the last town, so they were expecting something.

The ‘anything’ in this case was a few guards eyeing them, a few people waving, and not much else.

They set up a temporary base in an alleyway so they could plan. But they didn’t realize one of them was missing. Priscilla had run off.

---

“Lilith!” Priscilla ran past Malena. “You gotta hide! The others are coming to get their money back!”

Lilith blinked. “What money?”

“The money your parents stole,” Priscilla said.

Lilith raised an eyebrow. “My parents didn’t steal any money.”

Priscilla paused, then huffed. “I guess they didn’t tell you. Your tuition money was stolen from the tax store.”

Lilith shook her head. “No, they wouldn’t do that. My parents are good people.”

“Well the mayor says they did, and now everyone wants their money back,” Priscilla said.

“Huh.” Lilith paused. On one hand, the money was a gift from her parents. On the other hand, she didn’t really need it. So far, she only spent it on some sponges and glass blowing, and she saw some posters in the adventurer’s guild one time asking for help from flight mages, so she could probably get that money back soon, or at least replace the amount she spent shopping. “Well, if it’s the whole town…” she sighed, walked back, and pulled a bag of gold coins out of a drawer.

“Oh, good.” Priscilla sighed in relief. “What's with all these sponges by the way?” She looked around. “And why are you purple?”

“Why are you red? And the sponges are for a cool project. Wanna see?” Lilith levitated a few of the sponges around as she walked back to get the bag.

“That’s magic…” Priscilla stared in awe at the floating sponges.

Lilith picked up the bag and walked back over, then opened it in front of Priscilla. “Does the town really want this back?”

Priscilla looked down and sifted through the coins a bit. “Um, this didn’t used to be platinum, did it?” She asked. “Or is there some platinum in there?”

“No?” Lilith tilted her head. “That’d be ridiculous.”

Priscilla shook her head, paling. “No… this much money is just gonna be an insult!” She twisted and tied the bag’s top shut, then pushed it back. “Take it back.”

“Huh?” Lilith blinked as she held onto the bag of money.

“This is bad.” Priscilla started pacing. “You don’t have the money, and they came all the way out here. This is not gonna go over well.”

“That does sound tough,” Malena, who was now sitting on her bed, spoke up. “Maybe if you go back and explain things, and Lilith apologizes, it could smooth things over… But if it’s a mob that traveled here, they could just attack her. I wouldn’t risk it, Liltih.”

“Then what do I do!?” Lilith panicked.

“Hmm…” Malena thought.

“Oh yeah, who’s the pastel politician?” Priscilla pointed at Malena.

“She’s my roommate,” Lilth said.

“Well yeah I see that.”

“I think we should explain the situation to the Solis guard and have them deal with it,” Malena said.

“What exactly do we tell them?” Lilith asked.

Malena thought about it. “Good question. Let’s get our story straight.” She got up and closed the door.

---

A young blonde fox beastman with one hand walked up to Lagora’s front desk. “Excuse me, could you tell me where Lilith is staying?”

“Oh?” The old man looked up. “You’re the second one that came to see her tonight.”

“Second?” The fox beastman asked.

“Yes. Are you also from the same hometown?”

“Uh, yes. I am.”

“Must be some kind of family reunion.” The old man smiled. “How sweet.”

The beastman paused. “Uh, yep! So, do you have her room number?”

“Yes indeed.” He flipped through a book. “So, is it really a family reunion?”

“Uh, yeah.” The beastman shrugged.

“Oh, right on the mark!” The old man grinned. “So, are you her brother? Her cousin? I could see cousin.”

The beastman grit his teeth in rage when he heard ‘brother’, but luckily, the man was still looking through his books, so he didn’t see it. “Y— yep, you got it. Cousins,” he managed to say.

“Hmm…” The old man frowned, then shrugged. “Well, the room number is 307.”

“Thank you.” The beastman bowed slightly before walking off.

For a moment, he thought about going back and telling the others. However, this wasn’t actually a great hunt, so he didn’t need to act like it was. It was just getting some stolen money back. Lilith might have had her weird magic, but she had to grab his hand for a while for her heat to take effect. He remembered that well. So, if she fought him, then as long as he was quick to strike, he could take her. And then, he would come back with the money, a hero.

Eventually, he found his way to Lilith’s room and knocked on the door.

---

“No, that won’t go over well.” Malena frowned. “We can’t say we had anything to do with stealing—”

There was a loud knock on the door.

Malena stared.

Priscilla stared.

Lilith got up. “I’ll get it.” She walked over and opened the door. “Oh, hi Taro.” Her friendly smile turned into a glare.

“You stole the town’s money,” he said flatly. “Give it back.”

“I didn’t.” Lilith turned and spoke into the room. “Can you give me the money?”

Priscilla ran over and handed the bag to her.

“Here you go.” Lilith handed him the bag.

He furrowed his brow, then opened the bag with his teeth and sifted the money around some. “Where’s the rest?”

“There is no rest,” Lilith said.

“This isn’t funny,” Taro said, “people are gonna get hurt. They’re gonna starve. Just give back the rest of the money.”

“You don’t listen.” Lilith shook her head. “You never did. Do I have to break your other hand too for you to get this through your thick skull?” She glared.

Taro leapt back into a fighting stance and pulled out a knife, glaring. “Where’s the money Lilith!?”

“There is no money,” Lilith said, still standing at the door, not bothering to move at all.

“Bullshit.” Taro thrust his knife at her.

Lilith slowed time and dodged it easily, then held her hand up to his and forced lightning directly into him.

Taro pulled back his smoking, twitching hand, which was now locked onto the knife. “What did you do, you damn mage!?”

One student peaked out of their room around then. Seeing the knife, they panicked and hid back inside.

“There’s no money,” Lilith sighed. “Give up already.”

“Fucking mage liar.” Taro backed away. “I’ll tell the others you’re trying to keep it all to yourself. I bet you can’t survive the whole town hunting you!”

“I probably couldn’t.” Lilith nodded, then leapt forward and wrapped her hand around his neck.

Taro held up his knife, but Lilith grabbed the arm without looking.

Then, she looked around with her mana and cut all the nerves in his neck. He slumped, so she levitaged him in her magic as she brought him back into her room and laid him against a wall. “I think the mages here can heal you. So, if you don’t want to stay paralyzed, you’re going to agree and tell people the truth, that I don’t have the money. I never did.”

Taro’s eyes rolled back into his head, his mouth foamed, and he fell over. His knife was still tightly clenched in his hand.

“Huh? Are you listening?” Lilith knelt down and checked over him with her mana sense. His heart wasn’t beating. Oh. The heart was a muscle too…

“Is Taro… dead?” Priscilla gaped.

“Uh, y— yeah.” Lilith turned. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. I just wanted to paralyze him!”

“No. No no no no no…” Malena said. “We can’t become criminals. We can’t have a dead kid in our room!”

“W— what do we do now?” Lilith asked. “Are all the villagers gonna come after me now?”

Priscilla nodded, wide eyed. “I think so…”

“Your backwoods villagers are the least of our problems!” Malena said, having trouble keeping her voice down. “We can’t be seen near that dead body! The Solis guards will hunt us down as murderers!”

“Huh? But I already told William I dealt with Bandits,” Lilith said.

“Bandits are outside of Solis,” Malena said. “Any violence in Solis is questioned a lot more, and you’re a mage, so he shouldn’t have been a threat to you. If we get caught with this guy anywhere near us, we might all go to prison!”

Lilith nodded, looked around, then spotted the window.

She grabbed Taro by the neck, put rings of magic around him to lift the rest of his weight, walked over and opened the window, and threw him out. Then, she closed the window. Maybe if it was a stranger, she would’ve hesitated or risked trying to explain things to whatever guards arrested her, but Taro was just garbage.

The others stared.

“Lilith what the fuck did you just do!?” Malena squeaked as she struggled not to scream.

---

A few beastfolk watched and waited as Taro went in. He was supposed to check whether this was the right school, and if so, where Lilith was in it, then head back out. But it was taking too long.

And then one of them spotted Taro falling until he landed with a loud thump.

They all got up and ran over. But a nearby knight on patrol also ran over, his halberd and sword clanking against his sides.

The knight saw the knife in Taro’s hand, and looked up to see what window he came from, but couldn't tell. Then he saw the group running up to him. He yelled something in another language, his voice somehow amplified as runes glowed on his helmet.

The small group stopped.

The knight yelled a few more things, made a pointing gesture at the ground, made a slitting throat gesture, and then turned and yelled something in that language none of them could understand.

Another knight in similar brass armor ran over, his helmet off. “What happened here?” He asked the small beastman group.

A taller beastman with antlers stepped up. “Our friend came here to see someone that stole our money, and now he’s like this!” He gestured.

“Your friend?” The knight turned and saw the knife in Taro’s hand. “Hmm.” He turned back. “Can you all come with me for questioning?” He asked the group, then said something in that other language to the other knight.

The other knight picked up Taro’s body. He tried to pull the knife out, but even when he tugged he couldn’t get it out of his hand. So, he just left it and carried him.

“Hey, what are you doing to him!?” The beastman yelled. “Let us see to his body!”

“No.” The knight shook his head. “All of you, come with me.”

“Unhand Taro now!” The beastman pulled out a spear and aimed it at the guard’s head.

The guard glared. “Lower that stick now, or I will lower it for you.” He put his hand on a halberd at his side.

The other beastman all pulled out their spears.

The guard grabbed the spear at his throat and runes glowed on his armored arm, then the spear snapped with a flick of his wrist. As more runes glowed, he pulled his halberd out with one arm and swung faster than should’ve been possible, beheading the beastman with its axe head before they could react and pointing the tip at the next beastman. “Drop your spears and come with us.”

They all dropped their spears.

---

“The guards are gonna come up here and arrest all three of us.” Malena took a few more calming breaths.

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“I don’t think anyone’s coming,” Lilith said, looking back from the window. “The guards just left with the other beastfolk and Taro. And they just killed that antler guy. They’re a lot more brutal than me!”

“Well, maybe it won’t be today, maybe it won’t be tomorrow, but we’re all gonna get arrested.” She breathed in and out.

“But I’m innocent,” Lilith said, catching a bit of Malena’s panic. “I didn’t even mean to kill him!”

Malena paused. “Innocent! Yes. Innocent until proven guilty!” She pointed. “That’s what you are. But who’s gonna believe it was a mistake?” Malena looked away. “Who would believe you knew how to paralyze someone with some weird magic, but not that it could kill him. Actually, how did you even do that?”

“Oh, it’s just some minor healing magic, but reversed. Healers can reattach nerves, I think. I just separated them.” Lilith shrugged.

Malena’s eyes widened. “That’s—”She shuddered”—That’s dark magic! Never tell anyone what you just told me! Never! Never ever!” She held her arms in an x. “No no no!” She held her head. “This can’t be happening.”

Lilith hurriedly walked over and held her hands on Malena’s shoulders. “Hey, calm down. You panicking is making me panic, and I don’t wanna panic.” She glanced at some of Malena’s textbooks that were still out. “Oh, you know all the laws here. Tell us what we should do!”

Malena followed Lilith’s eyes to the textbook, then nodded. “Right. We… We gotta get our stories straight. No dark magic. He just attacked you with a knife, you fought back, and he went out the window. You sometimes leave it open. Yep. And if they ask about his neck, the fall broke it. Yeah.”

Lilith nodded. “So you want us to lie?”

“Yes!” Malena balled her fists. “Lie or you might get executed for that dark magic!” She paused. “And I might get executed for helping you. Oh no…”

“So, I just gotta lie well.” Lilith nodded.

“Should I be hearing this?” Priscilla asked.

“Can you lie well?” Malena asked, ignoring Priscilla. “Have you ever acted before?”

Lilith thought. “Sometimes in combat training, we’d act out stories.” She cleared her throat, held one hand to her heart, and held her other hand out as if holding a sword. “Begone, foul dragon! I, Lilith, will vanquish you!”

Malena grimaced, then glared. “Do not act like that in court.”

“Well, how should I act?”

“Just… act normal. But the other thing happened, not you accidentally killing that beastman with dark magic.”

“W— what should I do though?” Priscilla spoke up again.

Both Lilith and Malena stared at her.

“Maybe just stay here?” Lilith said. “Or go back. Does anyone know you’re here?”

Priscilla shook her head. “No, I don’t trust that crazy mob.”

“Oh,” Lilith said, “Well then, I guess you can just hide out here until things blow over then.” She walked over to her bed. “Well, it’s late, I’m gonna sleep.” She let out a long breath, carrying much of her anxiety with it.

“What do you mean you’re gonna sleep!?” Malena held her palms out, then looked to Priscilla. “Is this normal?”

Priscilla shook her head, wide eyed.

“Oh, there’s only two beds.” Lilith patted her mattress. “So you can sleep in mine.” She held up the covers for Priscilla.

Priscilla shook her head again. “I don’t think I’m gonna be able to sleep for a while.”

“Aw, okay.” Lilith yawned. “It sounds like we’ve got everything taken care of though. I don’t know why you’re both still panicking.”

Malena paused, then nodded. “Y— yeah, I guess we do have everything under control, don’t we. Heh, hehe…” She laughed deliriously. “I guess we do…”

---

After her dreams, Lilith stared up at Wispy again.

“Wispy!” She ran up. “How do I lie!? I made sure to fall asleep as soon as I could. I don’t want Malena to go to jail! Help!”

“Your lie is decent.” Wispy nodded, wasting no time. “You’re lucky your interaction with Taro was short, and that he had a knife. A longer story would be harder to believe. And you need to believe it.” He reached out several tendrils which opened up into various images of his teachers. “You’re going to tell them exactly what really happened: Taro attacked you with a knife after you said you didn’t have the money, you fought back with electricity, but the fight carried on into your room. You fell back, he tried to stab you, you kicked him off, and he flew out the open window.” One of the images opened up showing what ‘really happened’.

“You need to believe in the lie. You’re not fooling the court, you are innocent. You were attacked. Remember that when you talk to them.” Wispy moved a tendril holding an image of Rosina up to Lilith.

In a perfect copy of Rosina’s voice, Wispy spoke as the image moved. “Lilith, what happened? I heard you killed someone!?”

---

The next day continued as normal, like nothing happened, except for Priscilla staying in their room and reading their books. Also, Malena wasn't at lunch.

There were no guards arresting Lilith. No one came to her classes to pull her out. Nothing out of the ordinary happened at all.

That was until another group of beastman showed up in the group watching Lilith’s training with Cyla, and only Cyla. Alec was missing today.

The beastmen all glared at Lilith at first, but their looks turned to dread when they saw two of the mages casually flying, and Lilith and the harpy playing catch with a giant log.

Lilith acted like she hadn’t seen them. But once her training was over, she ran as fast as she could back to her dorm, jumping over rooftops to get a more straight path.

She was about to run into a dorm room, but she slowed when she saw a brass guard readying a halberd at her with three beastmen in handcuffs behind him, thankfully none of them Priscilla. She raised her hands up in surrender as she approached.

“Lilith, right?” He asked.

“Yeah?” She glanced behind her, still worried about the other beastmen.

“Come with me.”

Lilith nodded. “Okay.”

---

After a mostly silent walk, since the guard readied his halberd whenever any of the beastmen spoke, and since Lilith remained silent so she wouldn’t give any info, they walked into Solis castle and through a few halls, then arrived at a court. It was a great room made of marble, with marble chairs, desks, and stands, some lined with gold. There was already a crowd of beastfolk surrounded by humans and knights gathered in the audience stands.

There were three large stands up front. Hana was sitting in one of them for some reason, some old man judge was in the middle one, and Lilith was being brought to the other one.

“Sit,” the knight ordered, then stepped out into the open space, opposite of where Alec was standing for some reason.

Lilith sat.

“Beastfolk,” the judge spoke to the crowd. “Have you elected your representative yet?”

“Yes.” A muscular, gray haired gorilla beastfolk stepped forward. “I will be representing SlimeFrost in our mayor's absence.”

“Very well. Then please answer my first question: why are you all here?”

“Lilith Smit’s parents stole a significant portion of the town’s money. We came here to get it back. Peacefully, if possible, and forcefully if not.”

“How forcefully? Do you mean you would kill for it?” The judge asked.

“If necessary,” the beastman said. “That’s how we deal with thieves in our village.”

“This isn’t your village.” The judge narrowed his eyes. “Anyone that tries that here will either be brought to jail or executed on the spot, as many of you have been.”

Several of the beastfolk grit their teeth.

“We understand the difference, your honor.”

The judge glared. “Good. And I will forgive you for not knowing the court procedure.” He turned to the knight and Lilith. “Lilith, do you swear to Haven that you will speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”

Lilith nodded immediately. She didn’t, but Wispy prepared her for something like this line, so she answered automatically. “I do.”

The judge nodded, surprised. “Good. Honored knight of Voldia, you may begin your prosecution.”

The knight nodded and turned to Lilith. “Did you steal their money?”

Lilith shook her head. “My parents gave me the money when they sent me off with a caravan to get here. They said they saved it up for a while. Some of the villagers said they stole it, but I trust my parents over them.”

“Bullshit!” Some of the beastmen yelled.

“Order!” The judge banged his gavel, and several knights readied their halberds.

The beastmen all froze, then stepped back.

“Actually,” Lilith continued, “Taro came by asking for the money, and I gave him the bag my parents gave me. I didn’t need it since I got a scholarship, and he said the village would be hurt without the money, but when he looked through it he said it was too little.”

“This is the same Taro you killed?” The knight asked.

Lilith nodded, frowning when she remembered her panic. “I didn’t want to kill him. He came at me with a knife after he said the money wasn’t enough, I zapped him with my magic, but he still held onto the knife and knocked me over, so I kicked him off and he fell out the window.”

As practiced, she managed to resist the urge to smirk as the knight nodded at her lie.

Hana stared at her.

“Is that the whole story?” The knight asked.

“Yes,” Lilith said. “He knocked on my door, asked for the money, said it wasn’t enough, and attacked me with a knife.”

“When we recovered his body,“ the knight said, ”the knife was stuck in his hand and his arm was covered in burn marks. Wouldn’t that take a lot of magical power? Couldn’t an attack like that alone have killed him?”

Lilith tilted her head. “No? It’s not that much power.”

“How much electricity did you use?”

Lilith held her hand out. “Hmm. About this much.” Lightning arced around her hand in the air, making loud cracks as it buzzed.

“Not that much power!? Isn’t that a lot!?” The knight flinched back.

“No? I think I could do a lot more.” The arcs turned into rings, the buzzing grew louder, and the cracks and pops grew deafening.

“I— I see.” The knight stepped back to a safer distance. “How did he go through the window? Your window was closed when we sent a knight to your room.”

“I sometimes leave it open,” Lilith said.

The knight paused.

“Is that the end of your questioning?” The judge asked.

The knight shook his head. “Could you not have been less lethal?” He asked Lilith. “That amount of magic is clearly deadly.”

Lilith shook her head. “I was holding back. You just saw that.”

The knight paused, then turned to the judge and sighed. “That’s the end of my questioning, your honor.”

The judge turned to Hana. “Telepath, do you have anything to add? You should’ve been in close enough proximity to all of this.”

Lilith paled as she looked at Hana, but she tried to keep any other expression from happening.

Hana stared at Lilith, squinting. She was… confused. Lilith was overjoyed as she told her story. Malena had been there earlier and was clearly trying to tell a practiced lie, which was the same as Lilith’s. Luckily the judge didn’t know their relations, so she was able to cover for her. But Lilith was different. Whenever she’d say something, some memories backed it up. And when she looked in Lilith’s mind, she could see a scene of the event from third person. She could also see her teachers asking about the event. If it was really a memory, it should’ve been from Lilith’s eyes, not third person, and the talks with her teachers never happened because Hana was there in magic class with Lilith..

And then she saw something else. Around the images Lilith spoke to was a blue outline, and attached to it was a long tendril, leading to some great monster.

“Telepath?” The judge questioned.

“S— sorry.” Hana shook her head. “I was… looking in her mind.” She paused. She clearly wasn’t as good a liar as Lilith, or even Malena, so she had to think things through.

Lilith and Malena were both lying, but both about the same thing. Lilith used some ‘dark magic’ to restrain Taro instead of killing him, but otherwise the events were mostly the same. If they’d actually killed him when he wasn’t a threat, she’d hesitate a lot more, but now? They were all just avoiding some dumb witch hunt. It reminded her of something she’d rather forget.

“She’s telling the truth.” She turned to the judge.

Then, she turned back to Lilith and projected her thoughts, ‘I’m covering. Please don’t use dark magic again here, and try not to kill people.’

Lilith teared up and Hana heard her thoughts back. ‘Thank you Hana I love you I’m sorry I won’t do it again I don’t wanna get exiled or executed or exploded thank you so much... ’

Hana smiled and shook her head. ‘Oh, and keep your hat on.’

As they were communicating, the judge spoke. “There is no need for a defense. I’m concluding this trial now.”

Alec nodded.

“We searched her room, and the telepath confirmed she wasn’t lying. We will be taking the bag of gold entered into evidence as payment for this trial, along with the weapons you beastmen entered Solis with.”

“Corruption!” A beastman with leopard spots yelled, grabbing a halberd and stabbing another knight in the neck with it, killing him. “We will fight back!” He held the halberd up.

Another knight beheaded him, and the rest of the knights held their halberds out.

One of the beastmen feigned jumping at them, only to get a halberd jammed through their face.

A few more beastmen ran forward at that, but their hearts were pierced.

“Stop!” Hana yelled, gripping her head. “Just stop it!”

The knights suddenly shook, gripped their halberds, and held them at their own necks.

The beastmen with claws shakily reached towards their own necks.

Lilith gripped the wood as her vision blurred, but her mind reeled back at the foreign thoughts. She’d been messed with before with that sleep spell, and this was just like those ‘drugs’ Wispy warned her about. She bit her tongue, then looked back up. “Hana, what are you doing!”

Hana looked at Lilith with wide eyes, then turned to the beastmen and knights that had their weapons at their own necks. “I— I’m sorry.” She got out of her seat and walked, then ran out of the court. “I’m so sorry.”

Lilith followed her.

---

“Should we go after them?” One of the knights asked after Lilith and Hana ran out.

“No.” The judge shook his head, still massaging his temple from the headache. “I already gave my verdict. They’re free to go. You’re all free to go.” He said to the beastmen. “As long as you idiots don’t try to kill anyone else, you can stay out of my courtroom.”

The knights and a few mages led the crowd of beastfolk out, but the prosecutor knight, Alec, and the judge remained.

“So you can see now why it’s dangerous to give kids that much power?” The knight pulled out a couple papers.

“You’re capitalizing on a panic attack. How shameless,” Alec said.

“Quiet,” the judge said. “Let me hear what he has to say.”

“Thank you, your honor,” the knight said. “I brought her and her roommates personality test papers in case they could be used as character evidence. But Lilith scores thirtieth percentile narcissism, eighteenth percentile machiavellianism, and thirty three percentile psychopathy. Yet she’s not even shaken after killing a man. I’m starting to think she’s not old enough to even understand the questions we tested all these students.”

“Mhmm.” The judge nodded.

“We’ve already tested at what age people could understand the test questions,” Alec said. “Lilith and all her classmates are well above that age.” Then, he squinted. “And you’re holding two papers. What does the other one say?”

The knight shifted away.

Alec held his hand out, and a microburst of wind knocked the papers out of the knight's hand and into Alec’s. “Malena. Same room number. Ninety eight percentile narcissism, ninety two percentile machiavellianism, and fiftieth percentile psychopathy.” He looked up. “No wonder she wasn’t allowed to test if she had magic affinities. Do you think this could’ve spread to Lilith?”

The knight shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. She’s the odd one out, surrounded by more docile personalities. She was only let into Lagora and near the other mages due to her extremely high scores. Over time, her scores should go down. And Lilith, with the opposite scores, is the best person to bring her down to that norm.”

Alec frowned. “Are you sure? Should we retest her to see if she’s changed.”

The knight shook his head. “She has a machiavellian as a roommate, and time magic affinity. We shouldn’t give any hint that the personality test has a real purpose.” He turned to the judge. “Instead, I think we should use this case as a reason to raise the year people are allowed to practice magic again.”

Alec shook his head. “Then we’ll get more foreigners that are better at magic than everyone here,” he said. “Lilith’s practically a foreigner. The two flight mages I’m teaching are both foreigners. And that telepath that almost killed all of your soldiers is also a foreigner.”

“That telepath is a unique case,” the knight said. “And if she really became a threat, a bow would be enough. The others are even less of a threat to our knights and mages.”

“Your knights and your mages.” Alec grit his teeth. “You’re leaving us as weak as possible.”

The judge shook his head. “I’m sorry, but if we can get their help and not risk mages acting up like that again, I think it’s safer.”

“Since when did we care about what’s safer?” Alec turned. “Every story in our tales and our bible is one of strength and heroism! Not hiding behind some foreign soldier—”He gestured at the knight.”—or fearing our own mages!”

“This is reality, not a fairy tale,” the judge said. “It’s easy to ignore safety and follow stories when you don’t have to worry about your kids and your grandkids dying for no reason. Now, thanks to Voldia, there are no dragons to slay. I think we should let Voldia guide us into prosperity, like they’ve also been doing with their generous trades.”

“There are still dragons out there,” Alec said. “The baleen aren’t trying to wipe us out anymore, but the smaller ones still mistake some of our adventurers for food.”

“We can deal with the smaller ones too,” the knight said. “But if you really want more of your own mages without having to worry about the dangers, you could use our mage rune tattoos, and then you wouldn’t have to worry about them being a threat to anyone.”

Alec grit his teeth. “If Lilith had one of your damn slave collars, she wouldn’t be alive right now!” He threw his arm out.

The judge nodded. “I’m against it as well.”

The knight backed down.