We all stared at Ati’s uncharacteristic outburst; he showed more emotion now than he did ever since we’d known him.

“Ati, are you alright?” Jezibel asked.

Ati smiled darkly.

“If the victim herself is asking me that, I must be in quite the state.”

He took a deep breath, then his expression returned back to normal.

“I apologize for startling you. This isn’t about me; it’s about you. Like the others have said, you have my support. We will get your father back safe and sound. I promise you that.”

Jezibel shuffled nervously but nodded all the same.

Clearly, Ati wasn’t alright, but this wasn’t the time to address it.

“Okay, how’re we going to do this? Do we go straight to the bandits and start searching?” I asked.

“No, there’s a few things we need to handle first. First, we need to stop Jezibel’s family from self-destructing.” Nico said.

“Yeah, that’s true. We also need to learn how and why the adventurer team before us failed. They were a gold-ranked party, so each of their members was capable of fighting a rank B monster alone. That means they aren’t pushovers, and yet they were killed all the same. How did mere desert bandits manage that?” Nisos added.

“Why would desert bandits ambush Father’s caravan then demand a ransom far beyond what we own? Something’s not right.” Jezibel said, and we all sank into deep thought.

“In any case, we can’t answer these questions without getting there. We should probably leave the Maiden with the guild; time is of the essence. Nisos can climb on my back, and the rest of you can fly directly to the Hiram family home with me. Any objections?” I said as I looked over the party.

“Just one. I am not sure we all have the stamina to fly all the way to Tyr. How’re we going to manage that?” Ati asked.

“Easy. I am more than capable of flying that distance many times over without stopping. Anyone who gets tired can rest on my back behind Nisos, then start flying again when they’re fully rested. Make sure to do it in shifts, because I am not sure there’s enough space for three people at once.”

With no more objections, we stored the Steel Maiden with the guild, then took off towards the Beast-Nation of Tyr.

***

Nearly six hours later, the coastal city of Tyr appeared on the horizon.

“Jezibel, is that your home?!”

The Tyrian girl, who had merged with her owl to gain flight, got closer so that she could speak without shouting.

“Yeah, that’s my home! You can tell by the mountains that protect the green lands behind the city from the surrounding deserts!”

As she had said, a large coastal city that was even bigger than Hebnopet was ahead of us, with thousands upon thousands of vessels entering and exiting its ludicrously large port. Behind the city were a bunch of tilled fields covered in crops, and behind those were a mountain range that separated the peninsula from the rest of the mainland, which was all desert as far as the eye can see.

“My home is on the outskirts of the city; follow me!” she said as she flew ahead.

“Thank goodness we’re almost there. My thighs and rear are killing me.” Nisos said.

“You’re tired? Imagine me!” I laughed, and Nico flew closer.

“You should learn how to ride properly; it’ll make your trips on horseback, or in this case, dragonback easier.”

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As we bantered, Ati maintained his silence like he always did. This time, however, it felt different. The comfortable feel he was exuding was all gone, with a grim tension taking its place.

I just hope we can get this done quickly so we can settle down and figure out what’s wrong with the falconman.

***

Jezibel landed at a fairly large but not too extravagant manor, and she’d already released her owl and turned it back into tattoo form. The rest of us landed nearby, and we could hear shouting from the manor.

“Looks like we’re just in time. Let’s go!” Nisos said.

We followed Jezibel as she moved to the front door and knocked on it. The arguing voices did not stop, but we heard the sound of footsteps approaching the door. It wasn’t long before it swung open, and a smaller, adorable version of Jezibel stood at the door.

“Jezibel?! You’re back?!” the girl said in surprise.

Jezibel didn’t say anything but hugged the girl instead.

“Of course, I am back, you dummy. I read your letter. There’s no way I am leaving you to deal with this alone. Thanks for telling me about what happened, Tanni. I promise I am bringing dad back home.”

The siblings shared a moment before Jezibel released her sister.

“Are the rest of our idiot siblings here? Get them all to the guest room, we’ve got help.”

The girl looked at us briefly with intrigue but obeyed her elder sister and rushed upstairs to call for the rest of the family.

“Sorry you have to see this, guys. Please follow me.”

We took off our boots at the door and followed her into the manor’s guest room, when the yelling had stopped, and multiple footsteps approached. The door swung open, and a whole bunch of Jezibel’s siblings followed suit.

“Wooooaaah… Who would’ve thought there would be this many Jezibels out there in the world?!” I asked, only for Nico to smack the back of my head.

“Be serious.” She said curtly.

Jezibel’s sister, the one that opened the door for us, heard us and giggled before she walked away to sit by her sister’s side. I grinned at the girl then at Nico.

“I regret nothing.”

She rolled her eyes, but finally paid attention to the Hiram family, who had taken their seats on the couches. We were arranged in a half-circle, and I could count roughly 6 other siblings, besides Jezibel herself and her younger sister.

“Greetings, sister, guests. My name is Arvad. I am the eldest son of the Hiram family.” The young man named Arvad introduced himself.

He looked like he was a little less than a decade older than Jezibel, but otherwise shared an uncanny resemblance to her.

“Jezibel, Tanni said that you have returned to help us with the aid of these guests. Is that true? And how do they intend to help us?” Arvad asked.

“Greetings to you as well, brother.” Jezibel said in a stiff and formal tone.

“These are my companions from the Kengir Academy; we are all silver-ranked adventurers, and they have talents that may aid us in finding father.”

The young man frowned.

“I am not sure if you know this, Jezibel, but we hired a team of sympathetic, gold-ranked adventurers to rescue father. The only thing we received out of that is their severed heads, along with father’s right hand. I am skeptical that a silver-ranked team will succeed where they have failed, no offense.” He said tiredly.

“And what’s your idea, Arvad?! We should take their help!” a young woman seated next to him said.

“We can hire another team to aid them in fighting the bandits! There’s no guarantee they’ll release father even if we could meet their outrageous demands; what’ll they do if we give them even less than that?!”

“And your idea is to just repeat the same with more numbers?! It’s already failed once before, Adonya! They have no reason to keep holding father when we pay their ransom!”

“You’re right, they might as well kill him after they take the money!”

The two descended once again into a shouting contest as the other four siblings in the room backed the sibling they agreed with in a staring contest.

Nicotris sighed.

“This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“HEY!”

Jezibel then yelled at the two of them, interrupting their yelling with a scream of her own.

“You’re not listening to each other! You’ve already set your gods damned minds on a solution and you’re refusing to consider anything else! Put your bloody egos in the bin for once in your lives; dad’s life is on the line!”

Arvad looked to her with anger.

“And what would you know, Jezibel?! You left home because you weren’t satisfied with what we had! You didn’t have to deal with this as long as we di-”

Before he finished the rest of his sentence, I smashed a fist into the table, shattering it into pieces.

Everyone quieted down as I got up from my seat.

“Listen, Mister Arvad.” I said, as I began walking towards him.

“I understand that you are dealing with a tough situation, and that emotions are running high.”

I slowly began losing my human form after I activated my transformation skill to turn into my bipedal dragon form.

“But Jezibel is a treasured friend of mine, and I saw her nearly collapse at the news of her father’s kidnapping.”

I lowered my head to meet his face, my eyes mere centimeters from his own.

“I will not tolerate you making light of her suffering or her love for the rest of your family. Do we have an understanding?”

The man was stunned into silence, and the other siblings had eyes as wide as saucers.

The man closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

“You’re right, I was out of line. I should not have said that or taken out my frustrations on Jezibel. I am sorry.”

I snorted, and black smoke came out of my nose.

“Don't apologize to me. Apologize to Jezibel. Now, let’s sit down and start over.”