Five days have passed since the death of Inalim.

Inalim Drumyl was the ‘master’ to eight girls including Claris, Hila and Plenty. After his death, these girls would have no other option but to offer their bodies as independent street walkers.

Without protection, the girls would suffer from their clients’ refusal to pay, from violent and cruel patrons who hurt them without restitution and from those who view their professions as vulgar and seek to harm them.

Furthermore, although Claris is no longer addicted to Dead Snow, there are three other prostitutes among Inalim’s girls who became addicted after they started working for him. Claris had gotten clean without telling Inalim and with Hila’s help.

Without Inalim there anymore, these girls finally have the option to stop taking Dead Snow themselves. However, they started to experience withdrawal symptoms.

As a result, for the past five days, Ajax and Shaula have accompanied the seven girls, not including Plenty, to a nearby cheap inn in order to help them through their withdrawal symptoms.

The three girls in question have needed help through the anxiety, the restlessness, the aches and pains, the tremors…

Still however, the biggest problem has not been dealt with.

Five days ago.

“Why!? Why did you do that!?”

Hila screams at Shaula who looks over her hands, now completely spotless. The body of Inalim lays on the floor, spilling more and more blood. Shaula has just killed Inalim for stabbing her through the heart, through the neck and through the spine.

The answer to Hila’s question about why Shaula decided to kill him should have been easy. Shaula scoffs.

“He killed me first so I merely returned the favour. I also didn’t like his attitude, I didn’t like him trying to kill Claris and I didn’t like his pompous cult-like shit… Need I say more?”

“Shit… Shit, shit, shit… Oh no…”

Hila looks at Shaula in deep panic. A panic that comes from having seen a person destroy the skull of someone she’s known for a long time, as well panic over the inevitable aftermath.

“Hila, i-it’s alright… ”

Claris comes to Hila’s aid; Claris also has a fear for Shaula as a result of the actions she’s just taken; however, her trust in Ajax is still fairly high even after what she just saw.

Claris doesn’t even know what Shaula is. Certainly not human; a human harmed like she had been would not live to see another day.

Shaula looks at Hila, not understanding Hila’s concern. Ajax tries to speak calmly to her since she isn’t very receptive to Shaula right now.

“Hila… Are you alright? I… I’m sorry you had to see that. I… I wish she didn’t have to do that in front of you but…”

Hila looks at Ajax with a slight hint of disdain. She may fear Shaula but she doesn’t suddenly like Ajax in comparison. But she places aside her bad first impression.

“Ugh… it’s n-not that… it’s because of his uncle, Brai Drumyl. H-He’s a powerful brothel owner in Linis… when he learns that Inalim is d-dead, he’ll send people after us, after all of us, until he finds out what happened! You… Thank you for saving Claris… but… our lives are just going to get harder…”

“...Is that all? Ha! Your name’s Hila, right?”

Shaula speaks confidently and Hila nods affirmatively in confusion. Shaula isn’t very worried about the aftermath of this. She and Ajax can do something about it.

“We’ll protect you, Hila. We’ll protect all of you while we do what we came here to do. You’ve seen me strength right? Ajax and I can do at least that much.”

~

So, Ajax and Shaula have for the past five days defended the women from the wrath of Brai, the unknown brothel owner. They’ve stayed with them in a room at the nearby slum inn while the girls go through their withdrawal symptoms.

They keep a look out for anybody looking to harm the girls or take them away from each other. Ajax feels it’s the least he can do for them after radically altering their lives as he and Shaula have just done.

Meanwhile, Shaula wishes to use this opportunity to understand how the underworld operates. In her home world, organized crime and racist groups have been intertwined in very complicated ways, so it might not be a bad idea for her to see what’s going on in this city.

Confronting Brai Drumyl to do so, might be an ok place to start while also taking care of the problem that Claris and her friends face.

Claris paid for one room for Ajax and Shaula (who politely refused while Claris refused their refusal) and two rooms for the seven girls. Their concept of space is quite different from Ajax and Shaula’s so they don’t hate the idea of sharing rooms in this manner.

Each room came with a flushing toilet, a sink as well as a large bed. Ajax was impressed with the fact that the city does have running water and a sewer system apparently.

Right now, Ajax sits with Claris and looks at a coin in his hand. They are on the bed in Ajax’s inn room with Ajax sitting with his back against the headboard and Claris at the lower edge of the bed looking at him. Claris is nervous.

The coin in Ajax’s hand is a copper coin with the image of a man’s side profile, much like coins in his world.

He has wanted to learn about the currency that Claris used to pay for the rooms in this inn but Claris was too busy for him to ask about things like this as she took care of her friends over the past five days.

“Claris… Who’s this guy on the coin?”

“Wh… Wh-What!? Y-You don’t know!?”

“Oh… W-Well, I-I’ve seen this coin before but I don’t know who t-the guy on it is supposed to be, that’s all! N-Nobody really explained it to me!”

Ajax makes up this fabricated excuse for why he doesn’t know something as simple as the face on the currency. The man on the coin has long hair and a somewhat undefinable face. Handsome, of course.

The man doesn’t have a crown. He doesn’t have any distinguishing features. Ajax can’t even tell the man’s hair colour or eye colour.

“Ajax… That is Sapiora.”

“...Huh?”

“The God Sapiora. That is Sapiora! The image of Sapiora that the churches use!”

Ajax freezes solid. This might be what kills him.

Ajax realizes the depth of the ignorance he just displayed before Claris. He knows that the country he’s in right now is a theocracy but… he didn’t think that God would have his face on money even.

Imagining the face of Jesus Christ on the dollar is a completely odd concept to him. How was he to guess?

“O-Oh, sure! I-I knew it was on the tip of my tongue…”

“What is with that, Ajax? When you say stuff like that it really makes me question you two… where are you even from?”

“...It’s just a farm village a bit far away, that’s all!”

“I don’t like that pause you took before saying that...”

Ajax squirms as Claris ‘interrogates’ him about his past. Claris sighs. Ajax moves on.

“A-Anyways, Claris, I did want to ask you about the currency here while we’re meeting, then we can get to your questions.”

“Ok… What about it then?”

“Well, I know that you paid for one of the inn rooms with four copper coins but what other currencies are there? Like the types? Copper is one type but what else?”

“Hmm… Well, other than copper there’s silver… I think one silver coin is about twenty five copper coins… I’ve been paid one of those very very rarely. Uh… there’s also gold. One gold coin is about twenty five silver coins. Hmm… Ah! Also salt.”

“Salt? That’s used for currency?”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen it used too often myself but it can be used in place of gold… I think… Yeah, salt should be equal in worth to gold, weight by weight.”

Ajax stares at Claris, in complete disbelief.

“Wh-What? Did I say something weird?”

“Salt? Salt is equal in value to gold? You… Don’t you have oceans here? Salt water seas?”

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“Oh yeah, I have heard that the ocean is salty. There’s probably a lot of salt in the oceans but the process to extract it is difficult and requires a lot of people or highly skilled mages. Especially in war times, it isn’t a priority now so salt prices have gone up quite a lot. We also don’t live anywhere close to a sea so the shipping costs for any amount of salt is--”

“Expensive, right… Wow, this place is really different compared to where I’m from. Every single meal I’ve eaten in the past has salt in it… What a weird place…”

Claris narrows her eyes.

“Ok, come on now, there’s no place where salt is cheap across any human territory. Where are you from, Ajax...”

Another mistake. The small mistakes are what get to Ajax.

“Uh… Uh… Let’s hold off on that… So, what did you want to talk about?”

“...Sigh, alright. Might as well. Ajax… Do you know anything about my past? Has Hila told you or anything?”

“...I really get the feeling that she doesn’t like me at all so she hasn’t told me anything about you. She loves you though… she really does remind me of Shaula in that way...”

“Yeah, she’s my best friend after all…”

Claris displays a soft smile while thinking about Hila. Even though they’ve both found themselves in a more precarious place than before, Claris is happy that she can still have Hila in her life. If she had died by Inalim’s hands…

“Well, I was born in… Honestly, I don’t even remember at this point. The village I came from is so far from this place that I wouldn’t be able to find my way back. My parents sold me to a peddler who…all I’ll say is that he wasn’t a good human. I lived a terrible life for so many years… Then when I turned, I think, fourteen, that man sold me to Inalim.”

“When you say sold… What exactly do you mean? Is slavery legal here?”

“Well, I think my parents had debts with the merchant and I was what they gave him in exchange for forgiving the debt.”

“Hm. I see. So like… collateral, I guess? Slavery by debt is legal then...”

“Yeah… The abolition of demihuman slavery was a step forward but… a lot of things still stayed the same…”

Claris thinks about how many she has met who work as prostitutes in this city with very similar backgrounds as her. Those humans in charge certainly don’t take equality seriously, no matter what they’ve said.

“Anyways, Inalim gave me Dead Snow at that age and I wasn’t smart enough to know then what it was or what it would do to me. It’s… quite a wonderful drug. It made me feel so… complete… content even… I’ve never cared about what I did to pay for the drug. About… About anything at all except continuing to do what Inalim wanted. Just…”

“Claris…”

Ajax notices Claris tearing up while having a soft smile on her face; she has mixed feelings even now about Inalim’s death. But thanks to his death, she is still alive.

“I’m alright, Ajax… ”

“How old are you now, Claris?”

“I think… I’m nineteen? I don’t remember the month or day of my birth but… ”

“Nineteen years? Twelve months in a year, three hundred and sixty something days in a year? That kind of year?”

“Yes… You’re so weird, Ajax...”

“Well, yeah.”

Ajax asks her to explain the concept of ‘year’ to him. Merely to verify that years are the same here on Omicron as on earth. Ajax looks at her and gives her an awkward laugh.

Hm. So this world also has months in a year. And it seems the concept of ‘year’ here is identical to the ‘year’ back home. That’s too much of a coincidence… How closely related is earth to Omicron? Perhaps… Perhaps heroes in the past brought back the Gregorian calendar for--

“Ajax… I’ve told you about my past… Can you tell me about yours? Y-You don’t have to give me any details if you don’t want to but I… I want to hear about the life that my saviour has had.”

“Saviour, huh… You don’t have to call me that… just call me a good Samaritan.”

“‘Good Samaritan’... I’ll have to call you the ‘best Samaritan’ at least.”

Ajax stifles his laughter while Claris shows confusion towards what she said that was so funny. The idioms of Earth simply don’t translate well, it seems.

“Sigh… No details, right? Alright… Well, you know, I was raised in a very happy home. I have a mom, a dad and a sister. I love them all more than anything in the world, as much as I love Shaula even. They raised me to be a good person. But back then I didn’t really know what that meant. I thought it was about the golden rule, you know?”

“Golden rule? Worship Sapiora and hate the demons, that rule?”

“Dammit, idioms again. No, there was another version where I came from. It’s basically, ‘do unto others as you wish for them to do unto you.’ Something like that. It’s a really common expression where I’m from.”

“Oh. And you were always that kind of person? Even towards… towards demihumans?”

“I-I guess so? I just thought it was common sense. But really… if you want the truth, I used to be a really pompous person.”

“Pompous? You?”

“Yeah, I always thought because I was good at school that I was smarter than everyone else, better than everyone else.”

“School? ...Just how rich are you, Ajax? What are you even doing in the slums of Linis?”

“Well, I can only really say that I was taken from where I used to live. There’s… There’s no way for me to reunite with… my family and...”

Ajax’s eyes start watering. He holds his head up to prevent his tears from streaming. Claris realizes she’s crossed a line she didn’t want to cross.

“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to pry into your life like that--”

“N-No. It’s alright. I’ve… I’ve made peace with it. I’ll see them again but only after… after a long time.”

“I see…”

“Anyways, I used to be a certain kind of asshole. I didn’t like people who had their lives figured out, who had friends to hang out with… I normally just spent time at home and watched an-- I mean, read books a-and drew art and shit.”

“...”

“Then, Shaula and I met for the first time for a school assignment. We spent a lot of time together working on it. She really didn’t like me at all while we were working but… she tolerated me, I guess. But, she was like me in a certain way. She didn’t have any friends either.”

“Well, that… makes more sense… Don’t tell her I said that, please…”

“Calm down Claris, she’s not so bad once you get over her strong side.”

“...I’ll take your word for it.”

“So, during the assignment, I would talk to Shaula about what I really thought about some random kids in my class. I knew she wasn’t going to talk to them so my thoughts would never get past her. Once, I was talking to her about some guy in our class… Arthur, I think was his name, a good guy, but I was all petty and shitty towards him when I barely even knew the guy. Shaula didn’t care about him either but… she erupted that day. She stormed off because of what a little shithead I was being… Just a real ass for no reason besides spite, I guess?”

“Huh… So, what did you--”

“I really thought about it. I guess I never had someone to tell me off and be right about it like she was at that moment. I knew she was right.”

“Right about… what?”

“Well, she told me before she stormed off about how everyone is… a unique person. Everyone, every single person, has aspirations, dreams and complicated lives. Every person… is a separate world in and of themselves. I really thought it over because I never had anyone really get mad at me like that…”

“And? What then?”

“Well, I apologized to both her and the guy I was talking about when I met them the next school day.”

“...That’s it?”

“I-I mean, I poured my heart out. I gave as sincere an apology as I could. The guy, I think was Arthur something… he turned out to be a cool guy. After that point, Shaula slowly became my friend… but after the apology, she stopped hating me.”

“Huh… I thought there was something bigger involved.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I thought if it was Shaula concerned you had to grovel or punish yourself or… something more fitting someone of her power. She just accepted your words?”

“Oh, well, this was before either of us gained the strength we have now… but I guess it is kind of boring. I-I don’t know what to tell you, friendship starts off in boring places where I’m from! That’s all!”

“Honestly, Ajax, you two have lived very… blessed lives. This just makes me even more confused…”

“Huh? About what?”

“Well, really… I wanted to really ask why you would save me. Why would you take care of us all like this… not just me but also Hila and the rest of the girls… I… I don’t think you’re trying to take advantage of us but… it’s really hard for me to believe that you’re doing all of this out of good intentions. Why are you and Shaula here in the first place? Don’t you have to deal with that first before taking responsibility for our lives?”

“Oh… So that’s what you wanted to know then… Well, we do have a purpose in this city. We just got a bit sidetracked, that’s all.”

“What is it? I hate to pry into this but… I have a feeling it’s going to be important to us.”

“Well… I can’t say it right now. It’s better if you and the girls don’t know just yet. But I am sincere when I say that it doesn’t have anything to do with you. It wasn’t even my idea actually, but… we couldn’t stay where we were for much longer. The… The contradictions of this place were starting to get to both Shaula and I…”

“...Sigh… I feel like that’s the best answer you can give me now, right?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid so… But I will also say that… I wanted to save you because… even back then… even when I started trying to become a better person when Shaula prompted me… I still wasn’t as good a person as I could have been. In this place, after I got separated from my family, I met someone. Someone who cut through how I saw myself and… pointed out my hypocrisy. He told me that if I try to help someone I can’t be… I can’t be half assed about it. If my intentions are shallow, they’ll get hurt and I don’t want anything like that to happen.”

“...I don’t think you’re being fair to yourself, Ajax. I think that helping someone is fine just so long as… I mean, you must have your own life, right? Helping someone indefinitely because you feel you’ve affected their life by the act of helping them is… reckless.”

“I get what you’re saying but… I mean, in this situation for example. What if Shaula and I are what stops you and your friends from suffering at the hands of Brai? Wouldn’t you… wouldn’t you think I was a bad person for abandoning you after Shaula went and killed Inalim?”

“I… I think I easily could have… but… at the same time, I’m alive for five days now. Five more days than I would have been if you hadn’t intervened. Shouldn’t that tell you that… Honestly, it’s just complicated and there’s no easy answer. I don’t think I could have done what you did though.”

“Yeah… it’s not an easy path but it’s easier than the thought that I could have done something… at least to me.”

“Well then… all I’ll say is that… I trust you, Ajax. Honestly, what else can I do but trust you? But… now that you’ve made your pledge for us to protect us... I expect you to keep your word, human.”

“I will, Claris… I will be sure to protect you. I will protect all of you.”

Claris rises from the bed and paces. She stretches her legs and takes a few deep breaths.

“...Also, where’s Shaula right now? She’s been with you for the past five days but I haven’t seen her in the inn since the evening… I don’t really need to say this but it’s not safe at night in Linis, you know?”

“Well, Shaula is taking care of the issue that Hila mentioned. The one about Brai.”

“...What? What does that mean? What is she doing about Brai?”

“Shaula is currently trying to find his location. She hopes to at least discover where he is and identify him by scent. If she can do that, then she and I can pay him a visit together whenever we want to.”

“You… You two are quite dangerous, aren’t you...”

“No, no, we’re not. I-It was Shaula’s idea but I think it’s a good one, at least, a better one than waiting for him to come to us.”

“Sigh...”

Claris sighs at Ajax’s nonchalant declaration that they’re taking on Brai Drumyl by themselves. For any other two, such an action might be suicidal but… not for them.