For the second time that night, the city of Shieldhold was rocked by an explosion with me right in the center of it all. Business as usual.

But unlike the previous explosion, I didn't even come close to being dead. The barrier's explosion was weaker than the one that leveled Siren's Call by several magnitudes, and it didn't produce any heat or flames. Instead, the explosion consisted of a powerful shock wave that felt like a giant hand punched me, sending me flying through several walls until I emerged from the mansion itself.

Despite all that brutal punishment, the only injuries I incurred were bruises all over my body which were already disappearing by the time I landed in the garden outside. My landing sent dirt flying everywhere and crushed the well-maintained hedges that decorated the garden.

If I had a nickel for every time I was sent flying into the air, I'd already have several. Thank fuck my Class Evolution made me durable as a tank.

I stood and patted the dirt off my torn clothes. From how I was consistently getting battered and bruised, I didn't even bother wearing armor anymore. It would just be a waste of good armor. Besides, I could turn my flesh into metal now, making me far more durable than any armor. Heck, I hadn't even tried out using my Skill Hard as Fuck while my body was transformed into metal yet. That combination was going to make me indestructible.

I made my way to the mansion that was still mostly intact. The parlor was fortunately located far to the side of the building, leaving the rest of the structure intact from the blast. Still, what the explosion did manage to reach was now nothing more than rubble. I went over to check the source of the explosion, only to have my jaw dropped.

The area that had been enclosed by the barrier was completely untouched. Amidst the rubble was a perfect circle of clean ground that the explosion hadn't reached at all. Carmen was gone, along with the cushioned chair, table, tea, and even the fucking carpet. All that was left were magical-looking scribbles on the ground written in glowing blue lines.

I had a bad feeling that Carmen just escaped from right under my nose.

When Morgan floated over to where I was, he shook his head. “A teleportation enchantment. More expensive than having the entire City Hall constructed ten times over, but we should have expected it from the richest man in the city.”

“Can we use it to teleport where Carmen is?”

“That is out of the question, I'm afraid. Teleportation enchantments are just vehicles. It can get you to places, but without a proper destination in mind, we will not be able to follow our quarry.”

Now that is just great. All this bullshit just to have our target escape our grasp. If I Sucked the barrier right away instead of conversing with the bastard, would I have managed to kill him? Doubtful. He would have had the same reaction time as he did when I began messing with the barrier and would've just teleported right away without finishing his villain speech.

Before I could further stew in my thoughts, Morgan floated down beside me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Now is not the time to dwell on this, Mister Bob. The Governor… I believe Camille needs you.”

When Morgan said that, I thought Camille just needed to debrief me or something. What I didn't expect was for the woman to be bawling her eyes out in the war tent set up just outside the Grayshield estate.

The tent was completely empty save for the crying Camille, a table with a map laid out on it, and the large mirror setup that transmitted my livestream from earlier. When I left earlier, the tent was filled with several operatives and even some Guard Captains. Now, all that was left was Camille.

Now, first of all, I'm gonna say one thing: I was not good at comforting people. I was a pro at the opposite, but telling me to console a devastated woman was like ordering a bear to breastfeed baby Tarzan. I was just not the right person for it. If not for Morgan pleading with me outside to just try, I wouldn't have taken a single step inside the tent.

But you gotta do whatcha gotta do.

I approached the trembling Camille, who was sobbing her heart out on the ground right in front of the mirror. The usual stoic expression was gone, replaced with a tear-stained face with snot dripping down her chin and hair sticking all over her sweaty skin. Camille looked disgusting.

When she saw me, she crashed into my chest and cried hysterically.“Oh, Bob! Please! Tell me it's all a lie! Please!”

I patted her head, trying my best to be consoling. “I don't know what to tell you, Camille. You're the one who could tell the truth from a lie. I don't know shit about anything that's going on. I didn't even understand half of what Carmen was going on about back there.”

She trembled in my arms as she struggled to reply. Seeing Camille like this was both heartwrenching and awkward. With how young she was, it was like consoling a daughter I never had, except that said daughter was my boss and had the power to dock my pay. But her situation was even made more tragic by the fact that she could identify lies. It seems that everything that Carmen said had been the truth no matter how much she didn't want to believe it.

“I-I… I saw signs,” Camille forced out between sobs. “Back then, Father always m-met… with people outside his itinerary. He said they were just business associates. But some of them had the c-crest of House Hawke.”

“That doesn't prove anything, does it? How sure can you be that they were making illegal deals back then?”

“House Grayshield is not supposed to interact with House Hawke,” Camille sniffled. “House Hawke is part of an opposing faction of nobles. Dealing with them in any way was tantamount to betraying our Provincial Lord, who belongs to a different faction. When I confronted Father about it, he just said it was nothing serious, and I believed him like a fool.”

It was indeed a bit stupid to believe something like that, but then again, I also treated every word from Ma's mouth as the truth and nothing but the truth. I could understand where she was coming from. “I guess your dad got you real good, eh?”

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It turned out that was the exact wrong thing to say. Camille's sobs came back stronger as she hugged me tighter. “Bob, it hurts! Father betrayed us! He betrayed me! I trusted him! He was my hero and he fooled me! He was never the man I thought he was!”

The next few minutes consisted of me slowly rocking back and forth while patting the sobbing Camille's head. I was way out of my league on this one. I honestly preferred having my organs obliterated in the middle of an explosion than being here at this moment. At least that one was way simpler to handle. All I had to do was outlast the blast.

When Camille's sobs finally started winding down, I chose my words very carefully this time. “I never got to know your father, but he's a dick for what he's done. However, he did try to keep you from getting caught up with all the mess he's made, so at the very least, you know that he wasn't all fake with you. His love, for instance. I'm sure that was true. If he didn't care for you, he would've just raised you to be a cold, ruthless ruler. But he didn't. From what I've seen of you, you uphold the ideals you believe in through your words and actions, and I think your father sought to protect that aspect of yours by keeping you in the dark. I would've done the same if I was him. Er, not like I want to be your dad or anything.”

Camille sobbed again, but she suddenly laughed out of nowhere after a few moments. “I don't want you to be my father as well, Bob. That is… a nauseating thought.”

“Well, fuck you too.”

Camille laughed before crying once more. It was honestly getting ridiculous, but I suppose everybody handled grief and stress differently.

It took five more minutes before Camille finally calmed down, though she didn't seem to have any intention of letting me go anytime soon. “I'm… I'm sorry for losing control like this. It's just… everything just happened too fast. Warner's death, and now this. I'm…”

“You don't need to apologize,” I said. “Nobody expects you to be an unfeeling woman. Heck, if you hadn't been affected by all that, I would've started thinking that you were as bad as Carmen. Good thing that I followed the right person.”

Camille smiled softly at me. “Thank you, Bob. Truly. I don't… I never thought I'd still have somebody by my side after everything that's happened. When Father died, my fiancé was there to console me, and when he died, Warner filled that role. And now, Warner left me as well. After that explosion in the red light district, I thought I was finally all alone, but fortunately... I'm glad you survived, Bob.”

“It's gonna take more than a bomb to take out my ass,” I said. “Wanna share your story?”

“I think… not. Next time, maybe.”

“Alright, alright, no pressure. Now, if you're done staining my shirt with your snot, I think it's time to go back to the City Hall. I'm hungry and I need a bath.”

•••••

A month after the night raid on Carmen's mansion, a lot of things changed. First and foremost was the City Guard. The blatant corruption in their ranks was brutally plucked by the root as Camille led a very thorough investigation. The City Guard had been under Carmen's pockets for years, and evidence of their corruption cropped up like weeds when news spread that Carmen was no longer top dog of the criminal underworld. A lot of dirty laundry was aired out, and the next several weeks were a shitshow as dozens of guards and Guard Captains were put under suspicion. Carmen had been protecting them for decades, and when the old bastard escaped the city, there was nobody to stop Camille from interrogating them one by one using her lie-detecting ability.

Corrupt government officials and guards were exposed by the dozens like rats scattering from a burning house. Most were sentenced to many years in prison. A few were sentenced to death.

While all of that witch-hunting for corrupt officials was ongoing, Camille still took the time to reward me for my “exemplary service.” An awarding ceremony was held where she pinned a ‘Medal of Bravery’ on my formal Constable uniform in front of a wide audience in Guilds Plaza and everybody cheered. Some nuthead in the audience even cried out “He'sh the Shavior of Shlaves! Hero of Shieldhold!” and the crowd quickly started chanting “Hero! Hero!”

It was satisfying and embarrassing at the same time.

I wasn't the only one awarded with a medal that day. Morgan was awarded as well for his loyalty to the city, and even Big Mama got to climb the stage. It turned out the large woman could make food with magical effects, primarily healing and strengthening effects, and that food saved the lives of many slayers and guards who got caught up in combat or got hit by a stray brick from the explosion. Who would've thought that her gruel would end up saving lives?

However, as nice as the medal and the fame were, nothing could beat the real reward that Camille gave me. For my ‘heroic deeds,’ she gave me a fuck ton of gold and a free room in the Grayshield estate! Now how fucking splendid was that? From now on, I could stay there as long as I wanted free of charge, and that included breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It was fucking amazing. The food was cooked by a master chef that knew his shit, and I always had a hot bath prepared for me every night by the servants. After every bath, they would give me a nice relaxing massage complete with fragrant incense that helped me forget most of my problems.

It was heaven.

Of course, not everything had been a relaxing walk in the park. I still had my job as a Constable which would last for eleven more months as stipulated in the contract I signed. So I continued doing my job of safeguarding the city by going on missions that Camille issued. Missions were scarce, but they were a fucking pain to accomplish.

In the one month that passed, I accomplished two missions for Camille. The first was eradicating a violent gang in one of the poorer parts of the city. Their leader, a level 29 Gang Boss, had been stupid enough to kill a Guard Captain and attract undue attention to himself. Camille sent me after the bastard like an attack dog, and I had to slaughter my way through dozens of gangbangers who thought they'd be the ones to defeat the ‘Hero of Shieldhold.’ Like the smugglers, the gang made its hideout in the sewers, so I had to fucking wade through knee-deep shit to kill the Gang Boss. The bastard didn't even give me enough experience to reach the next level.

The second mission was more time-consuming. There were reports of a bandit group raiding merchant caravans along one of the roads that led to Shieldhold and witnesses claimed there was an Elite-tier Bandit Lord. Once again, Camille sent me out to search for the bandits in a huge forest, and it took two damn weeks of wandering the forest like an idiot to locate their camp. The raid didn't even take more than a few minutes. The moment I killed the Bandit Lord, his men surrendered straight away.

Somehow, the mission being easier than the journey annoyed the fuck out of me.

That bandit mission was three days ago, and I was now presently lounging around in my room in the Grayshield estate while munching on succulent fruits like a king. I may look like a lazy bum, but two weeks of wandering around in a forest looking for bandits was shitty enough to warrant this. I deserved these days of relaxation, especially after that hectic first week of having nightly visits with assassins. As the youngsters always say: gotta have a work-life balance.

There was a knock on the door, and before I could even answer, Camille entered while carrying a map. She looked worried. I could smell a new mission from a mile away.

Dammit, so much for work-life balance. And if Camille herself met with me instead of sending for a messenger, things must have been really serious.

“Bob, get dressed. We have a situation,” Camille said as she dragged over a table and placed the map over it.

“I hope it ain't some bandits hiding in a forest again. I swear I'm gonna burn the entire woods down if that's the case.”

“By the time you're done with this mission, you'd wish it were bandits,” Camille said as she looked me straight in the eyes. “There are cultists in the city, and they worship the God of Carnage.”

Well shit.

END OF ARC 1