After Kuma and Blake ran away, the awakeners arrived at the ship port. Levi was tired and sat down beside the unconscious Lark, putting his hands up.

"He's the one behind all of this."

Quite a robotic answer, that made the awakeners even more suspicious of him as they took out their weapon.

The awakeners looked at the church's logo on his hand and retracted their weapons, but they didn't trust him yet. Also, the female awakeners on the scene were mesmerized. That charm he had, beaten, burned but still confident made them feel many things to the point they stopped their male colleagues from treating him harshly.

They took Levi into custody and brought him to the island-only prison.

The guards then opened up the crates and never had they imagined finding the lost kids there. The scene possessed even more horror, though the children were asleep and calm.

Their first priority was to make sure the kids were safe, though their lives weren't in danger. Even though their life wasn't in danger, the guards sent them to the hospital to be on the safe side.

Lark also was sent to the hospital as the first cause of the injuries. The healers hated to heal the person behind the recent incident, according to Levi's reports.

But he was needed to rat out the rest of the other culprits. As soon as he was healed, the guards waited only two hours at the hospital.

Lark didn't wake up, so they channeled low-voltage lighting magic to his body, giving him the best and worst wake-up call of his life.

The guards questioned him and were ready to torture if he resisted, but Lark didn't hide anything. He told the name of the seventeen kidnappers he commissioned and how he did so and why he did it.

He left nothing out, and at the end of the investigation, he said,

"I don't care what happens to me, but please, even if I am in the wrong, my daughter is innocent. Please find her. I beg you."

Some of the guards then headed to Violet's house. The room she stayed in was relatively empty, except for gold coins, luxury clothing, and a lot of beauty products.

When they were going through the closet, they found two pieces of a girl that quite didn't match the size of Violet, according to Lark's confession. They brought those clothes to Lark.

He gulped and looked at the clothes and then at the awakeners' faces. It was clear that they had failed; he had failed to get her back, or maybe it was just too late.

Lark stared at the handcuffs on him, even in the hospital bed. No matter how optimistic he was, finding his daughter was now a fever dream. Trusting Violet, that she would give his daughter back, chained him like a dog to a collar, except the dog never got a treat for all the work it put out.

Now the dog sought revenge, biting the hands of the owner that never fed it, but Lark knew his fate was sealed. He could imagine a guillotine slicing his neck and dreams apart.

And maybe because of what he had done, meeting his daughter in heaven wasn't possible for a sinner like him. His consciousness sank into the bottomless pit of darkness, filled with regrets. But in the lifeless pit, he was a face came to his mind.

Not a complete face, but just the eyes. Beautiful, like a red moon, mesmerizing, yet lifeless. But those eyes provided him hope, more than he has in himself.

Lark turned to the guards on the right and asked,

"For my last wish, can I get a pen and paper?"

After that, Lark wrote his final wish and asked them to give it to someone, though he didn't know the person's name. He also confessed about the 15 kidnappers he had hired and blackmailed to do the work.

The guards then arrested all the kidnappers. Of course, some were shocked. The people they used to meet, share a drink at the local pub, walked down a sinister path. What if these people befriended them to get a chance and kidnap their children? It was too much for them to think about and handle.

The awakeners wanted to keep this silent until they were escorted to the ship port, and then to the capital for their punishment.

But someone leaked the information and now all the residents of the island were shouting and throwing curses. Some had stones in their hands ready to throw them out, but if it hit the guards, then they also would be joining the line of criminals.

Levi watched the crowd, the criminals, and the guards march towards the ship port and the street, empty.

Nio, though she scolded Levi, even threatened him, found it hard to believe the mess he fixed and created. She could tell he received some help, even so, by the looks of it, he did most of the work.

He wasn't normal, and that was exactly why Siras chose him. At first, Nio wanted to ask if he chose Levi. Never had she heard about him, his achievements or any rumors of him being a genius, an uncut gem.

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Nio watched the criminals being pulled to their death.

"What do you think? Do they deserve to be killed?"

Levi looked at her and back to the slipping crowd.

"I don't care and don't get to have a say, do I? But I won't resent myself even if they die."

Nio smiled. The answer was quite similar to the light in his eyes.

"You did well and there is no need to feel guilty for such filths. Now let's go."

"Go? Where?"

"The pope has asked me to bring you to the headquarters."

'What?'

Still, his expression remained stoic, but going to the headquarters, he couldn't afford to go there. Well, the work he had done must have accumulated quite some headache for the pope, that he wanted to meet Levi in person.

Three days of his thirty-day holiday had gone by. It wasn't much but for him, and the plans he had, even these remaining 27 days, didn't seem enough.

He promised Harper to train together, but that was if the plans went smoothly and from the start, he went astray of the path.

Also, Nio's orders were absolute. He was in no position to deny, especially when the head of the church, the Archduke, called him.

Only one thing came to his mind, and he sighed. If he met Nio ever after what he was about to do. Nio, by then, would chop his head off.

Levi sighed at the predicament in front of him.

Levi then took out a key from his left trouser pocket. "If we are going to the headquarters, can I bring some of my stuff back? It is still in the inn that I stayed in the night before."

Nio had never thought of that. He already had a place to stay, and she was forced to sleep in the same room. Maybe she didn't force her and he just wanted to be with her.

"But if you had your own room, why didn't you tell me yesterday?"

"I simply forgot about that. I could barely move and properly think. Also, I never thought of meeting you, and that put my mind off."

Levi wasn't lying.

Nio thought and gave him the permission to go.

"I will wait for you at the port and be back by exactly an hour. If not."

Nio then gestured, slicing his throat, as she walked off.

'Does being an executioner have awakened a fetish for her to slice throats?'

Levi kept his thoughts to himself and started jogging towards the inn.

"I missed this feeling. Being out in the open, near the sea…Ahh.. the smell makes me want to be a pirate again."

[First of all, we are in a pouch. How can you even smell the sea? And you aren't a pirate but just an annoying, squeaking ball of green feathers.]

"You are insulting me? You must have grown some balls. Oh sorry, I forgot, you don't have one, or should I say two."

Rika and the central eye were bickering with each other as usual, inside the white waist bag Levi tied from his shoulder to his waist.

Levi brewed up quite some excuses to the innkeeper while getting these two back, but in the end, everything worked out after paying some extra fees. Even when he entered the room, Rika and the central eye were insulting each other. To the point, both didn't even recognize Levi entering the room and putting both inside the bag.

Since living couldn't be stored in a spatial ring, he had bought a small bag, well-ventilated and of good quality just for this. Keeping Rika in his pocket for the entire journey seemed unhealthy for the parrot.

'This two. I can't tell if they were matches made in heaven or hell.'

As Levi walked through, pushing the surrounding crowd, as they marched to the island's port to bid good death to the criminals.

Even though he was there for something else, Levi couldn't help but check the stats of everyone in his vision. The information load burdened his brain, and he got a nosebleed. Levi reached for the handkerchief from, he still hadn't returned to Eliza.

Nio was waiting for him, just a few meters away from the crowd.

"What's up with that weird bag?"

"This is fashion, you know."

Levi said, as he smirked, holding the pouch. Nio frowned and wondered what use can such a small holder have.

The sailors near the ship port were pulling in two ships, one for the criminals and the other for Levi and Nio.

They needed to wait until the ship was on the water, so they could travel, and by the looks of it, doing so was going to be time-consuming.

Nio sighed at the thought of traveling on a ship for two days straight. The teleport gate, broken, would still need a few days to be fixed, and they couldn't wait. Traveling by the ship was the best option.

The fierce and beautiful executioner didn't want to waste her time just waiting for the ship to be in place. Looking around, her eyes caught onto a small clothing shop that piqued her interest.

Her love for clothing was calling her. Maybe looking around for a while wouldn't be bad. Nio then ordered Levi.

"You stay here and wait. I will be in that shop over there. Call me after the sailors finish their work"

Levi looked at the shop, and the weird hats and accessories displayed outside.

"You have quite a unique taste in clothes."

"I know."

Nio smiled and walked to the shop, taking light, confident strides.

'That wasn't a compliment.'

But Nio going away made things easier for him. He didn't wait and walked to the ship port, but one awakener guarding the port stopped him.

"I think it's clear that you can't go there, seeing us standing here."

The awakener's voice was stern, a warning to not cross the line.

Levi took a step forward and whispered.

"I think one of those ships is for The Executioner and you might face consequences, stopping her assistant to check on the ship."

The awakener froze stiffly and watched the logo of the church on Levi's wrist. He moved out of the way, and none of the other guards dared to stop Levi. They didn't want to be facing the wrath of the Walking Reaper herself.

[The next time you meet her, I hope you come out of it alive.]

The central eye was concerned by what his master was doing again. Taking risks, unnecessary ones, that didn't give him anything in return.

"I just have to make sure we never meet again."

Levi said as he was now at the ship port, with another lie up his sleeve and also a paper.

Inside the clothing shop, Nio was changing into every cloth she liked and having her fun. The clerk, with a smile, kept showing her new clothes as Nio had bought out almost half of the shop.

Time flew by for her, but once she realized her shopping haul had gotten too much, she stopped herself and headed out.

"Huh?"

She looked around, and Levi was nowhere to be seen. Even the crowd was gone.

"I can't believe I got absorbed in shopping. But where is he?"

She said and looked ahead. Both of the ships also were gone, and she didn't feel good about this.

Within a blink, Nio was at the ship port, in front of an awakener, startled seeing her this close, in an instant.

"Where are the ships?"

"They, umm- departed an hour ago. Both of them together...no, the smaller one departed earlier. And this-"

The awakener then passed a piece of paper to her.

"Your assistant asked me to give this to you."

"Assistant? Since when did I have one.... that son of a-"

In a hurry, she opened the paper.

"Sorry, Nio. Please don't kill me for this."

It was written in clean handwriting, a one she had never seen but it was clear who wrote it.

The paper crumbled in her hands. She should have known when the bastard didn't ask any question or retaliate going to the headquarters.

"Don't worry, Levi. Next time we meet, you will be facing the worst death, then anybody else from my own hands. You are quite the annoying junior to have."