Shaula moves quickly. She can still hear the voice now. She can still hear it. In fact, it’s close enough to pinpoint the general area. If she can get to that area then she can search street to street, home to home for where the voice is.

The voice of Arthur.

Arthur is a nice person. This is the most Shaula can say about him; she doesn’t remember his last name either but she knows that he was in her class prior to the summoning. Now, he’s in this world of Omicron.

He’s speaking to someone in English? He’s referring to Christa as Ms. Rowfield, meaning... he’s speaking to someone as if she’s their teacher too! That means that he’s speaking to another one of the students, someone from our world! Well… it’s possible he’s just talking like a kid who refers to his teacher formally… only one way to find out.

There has to be someone else there. She missed that person’s voice. In truth, when Shaula was at school, she didn't remember names of her classmates or their voices. Hardly anyone ever talked to her, even though many talked about her.

Arthur is slightly different. He is someone who normally didn’t talk to Shaula and Ajax but didn’t talk about them either. He would even warn the two of them when rumours circulated. Shaula had first met him when Ajax made a fool of himself and apologized to Arthur for…

Well, nothing all that serious.

It was at that moment that Arthur became connected to the two of them. Something as small as that made all the difference to both her and Ajax. Such is the reality of human connection.

Tori notices Shaula’s sudden desperation. She has been holding Lanov’s, the young beastkin boy’s, hand, trying to act in sympathy and care towards his still traumatized mind.

Behind her and Lanov, stand the red-haired human woman, Milinu, who views Shaula with concern and love, as well as the light blue-haired beastkin woman, Adelhyde, who remains to the side and examines the surrounding clean streets and odd landmarks of the Linis core.

Meanwhile, Plenty, the dark-blue curly haired beastkin woman, looks on with fear towards Shaula. She understands the depths of Shaula’s monstrous strength. She sees an odd expression on Shaula’s face, a slight panic perhaps? Plenty speaks up.

“Shaula? Are you alright? What happened?”

“It’s… there’s an emergency right now…”

“Wh-What!? Have the guards found us? Have they discovered the house!?”

Plenty considers that perhaps the place they were in earlier where Shaula had left a great deal of death has already been discovered. They were hardly thirty minutes away from it by foot, how could the guards be so quick?

“No, nothing like that. It’s… it’s more like… well, you all don’t need to worry about it, it’s my own business. Sigh. Ok, fuck, now I have to find an alternate plan.”

“...What does that mean, Shaula?”

This time Tori speaks up in question to Shaula. This frantic behaviour of Shaula’s doesn’t bode well to her. All of a sudden, Shaula relaxes. She takes a deep breath. She sighs.

“It’s alright, follow me. We’re going to have to move quickly, so is everyone able to run? Should I carry Lanov?”

Lanov looks a bit surprised at Shaula’s suggestion. He is a bit tired and his feet are aching. Lanov shakes his head no. He’s alright, he can run. He’s not going to be a deadweight.

“C-Can you carry me, Shaula? I’m kind of tired right now?”

The human woman, Milinu, speaks up to Shaula. Shaula looks at her. Milinu’s physical condition seems fairly good. Milinu hasn’t been starved at the brothel, she’s in a state of fitness that most women would desire actually.

Shaula obliges her anyways. But, she carries Milinu on her back rather than in a princess carry; Shaula is still holding onto the heavy sack of gold and silver coins after all. Milinu doesn’t let her displeasure leak to the surface.

However, the other girls can see Milinu’s true feelings as obvious as the red moon above.

As soon as Shaula has Milinu secure on her back, she commands the others to start running with her. They run for about five minutes continuously through a snaking path of streets and alleyways.

They eventually reach an area in the city that is something like an intersection with many roads and side alleys leaving it. Shaula stops at this intersection and sets Milinu down, who feels sad at not being able to embrace the woman she loves.

Shaula doesn’t recognize Milinu’s attitude towards her, she’s oblivious to feelings of love from anyone but Ajax. Would she understand why Milinu feels this way about her?

Shaula had saved Milinu from being completely broken as a human being, as a woman, saving her from absolute despair and the destruction of her soul at the hands of a depraved man in that circle of hell… 

“What’s here, Shaula?”

“Nothing, Tori, it’s just a simple escape point. I’m going to be calling someone right now and when I do, the guards are going to come from somewhere, some direction. Wherever that somewhere is, at this intersection, we can find a road to go in the opposite direction to escape this area… or something like that, it’s a bit hard to put into words. Everyone, would you mind covering your ears?”

The girls place their hands over their human and beastkin ears respectively. Right as Shaula is about to move, Plenty asks her,

“Who are you calling? Is it…”

Plenty remembers when Shaula first came to meet her. There was a young human man with her as well. Plenty doesn’t feel that afraid of him, rather, she knows little to nothing about him at all.

“It’s Ajax.”

“Ajax? I think you mentioned him earlier, who is that?”

“He’s… he’s my beloved Ajax.”

Shaula smiles.

With that, Shaula leaps to a three floor building adjacent to this intersection in one bound. She looks over the roof of it and estimates where the largest population of guards are currently. There are three groups within two blocks of this intersection, it seems.

She now has an idea of the best direction to escape through to make sure she doesn’t encounter those groups and risk tying the girls here to that mass of death left in Shaula’s wake. The less risk to the group there is, the better.

Furthermore, if she did encounter any guards, she would have to kill them and the sight of that might further traumatize Lanov, the little beastkin child.

Back when Shaula carried Lanov outside, she dealt with the guards and the other patrons of the brothel out of sight. Then, she went back for him, wrapped him in the blanket to obstruct his vision, and carried him back through the hole to be looked after by Plenty and Tori.

Even though Lanov heard the organs of that sick old man under Shaula’s feet, he never saw any of the gore (although he did see some blood). Shaula has to be careful. He’s already quite traumatized by what the man did to him, he shouldn’t have to add to it.

Shaula raises her hands to the sky in a diagonal direction. Rather than straight up, she points her hands at a very large cloud quite far away in front of her. Shaula then places energy into her arms; as much energy as she can manage, nearly four-fifths of the energy she has left.

She imagines a beam of power escaping her arms and making its way into the sky, towards that large cloud. She imagines it leaving her arms all at once and--

Crackow! Crackow! Crackow!!

Shaula fires one lightning bolt. Then three seconds later, she fires a second lightning bolt and three seconds after that, a third one.

Each lightning bolt is accompanied by a correspondingly powerful thunderclap.

In an instant, Shaula returns to the girls. Shaula senses the movement of the guards coming to investigate the area where three thunderclaps have appeared out of nowhere under this stormless sky.

“What was that ab--”

“No time, the guards are coming from three directions. We have to go through here to avoid them.”

Shaula prompts the girls to start running as fast as possible through an alleyway in order to avoid the guards currently running to find them. She notices Lanov’s fatigue and picks him up, placing him on her back (Milinu pouts).

Shaula keeps them running for five minutes straight until she finally lets them stop. She pays attention to Milinu to make sure that she isn’t left behind; Milinu doesn’t appear to be that tired after all it seems?

Adelhyde is out of breath, but speaks anyway.

“What… was… that… about…”

“Don’t worry, he’s almost here.”

Shaula places Lanov down and moves to a spot a bit far from everyone. She’s expecting someone to drop to her and she doesn’t want them to be hurt.

“Who’s almost--”

“Shaula! Are you ok!?”

Landing from the sky appears something. It lands on the ground softly. A man? At this man’s appearance, the air grows colder than it originally was. This man hugs Shaula tightly.

Shaula hugs the man back. Somehow, her clothes don’t freeze upon touching this iceman. The girls may not see it but Shaula absorbs strength from this man. She regains all the energy she lost since finding the women in that place.

The man is covered in white. Thick patches of ice cover the man’s body with spaces and thinner patches at the joints allowing for movement. His head is completely covered by this pure white ice, about two inches in thickness.

The ice helmet on his head is separated between his lower and upper jaws allowing him to speak. The women don’t understand what they’re seeing but they fear it.

This man then examines Shaula to check her physical condition. He sees that nothing’s wrong with her.

“Shaula, what happened? What did you need to call me for?”

The women are scared of this man. They dare not approach. Plenty understands who this must be but she didn’t expect him to be so… imposing. He’s dangerous, as dangerous as Shaula, isn’t he… 

“Ajax, sorry for this but it’s an emergency.”

“Whew… Well, right now, I’m just glad you’re not fighting anyone! Who is it, who should I cut down for you?”

“Ajax, that sounds… really sexy honestly, but it’s not anything like that.”

“Shit… how can you say something like that without getting embarrassed… wow…”

Ajax slowly saps temperature from the atmosphere around him to replenish the energy Shaula took from him. Everyone around the two of them notice the change in temperature. Milinu and Adelhyde shiver.

“Also, Ajax, can I get rid of this ice helmet now, it’s scaring them.”

“A-Alright, sorry about that.”

Shaula lights up her hands in gloves made of fire and picks off all the pieces of ice forming the helmet on Ajax’s face. Shaula runs her burning hands through Ajax’s hair in order to get rid of all the little bit of frost still left on his head. His hair is a bit longer now than when Plenty met him.

As soon as the plates of ice leave Ajax’s face, Ajax kisses Shaula lovingly on her cheeks. Regardless of Shaula’s teasing, they’re tied together as family right now. They only have each other. A bond deeper than anything either of them have had before.

Milinu looks at their relationship with jealousy but doesn’t voice it. The girls can see her obvious feelings though.

Plenty looks at Ajax and recognizes his face to be the one she had met before. She… she wasn’t aware that he was powerful enough to not be hurt by Shaula’s fire. She may not have been aware of the depths of his power, but it wasn’t exactly shocking to her either.

With the helmet gone, Ajax looks to be a more normal human being, however, the white armour covering him from neck to toe still appears quite intimidating to them. Although it is white, the red light of the moon above paints it a more ominous colour.

The women and young boy under Shaula’s protection all look at Ajax in fear of him for another reason. This group was in an ordeal involving disgusting, depraved men that they never wanted to experience again. Shaula noticed their attitude towards Ajax.

They are afraid of him, not just as a powerful being, but as a man.

Shaula had initially wanted to find Arthur and the other student (or students) herself while Ajax escorted this group home for her. However, these women would only panic if she told them that she wanted to leave them alone with him.

“So, what is it you want me to do?”

“Ajax… you remember our high-school, right? Well… I found Arthur.”

“Arthur… Arthur from school…”

“Yeah. He’s… I can point out the area for you actually. If you listen over there, you should be able to hear him. Pay attention to the women while I lead you there, alright?”

Shaula takes Ajax’s hand and leaps about a block away from their group. She focuses on remembering exactly where she heard the voice of Arthur while Ajax focuses on making sure the women in the group are alright and free of harassment from the city guards.

Ajax can tell that they’re going to be ok. He does notice fast movement a few blocks away but those people aren’t moving into the area where the girls are. Soon, Shaula leads Ajax to a building about four stories tall. She leaps to the roof with him accompanying her.

She then points to a general direction; this is the direction where she is certain Arthur is going to be.

“Ajax, try listening there. Do you hear anything?”

“Wait, let me try…”

Ajax spends three consecutive minutes listening for anything that might sound like Arthur Jameson. Ajax recognizes Arthur’s voice well, especially compared to the cacophony of unfamiliar voices of the people in this world.

He stumbles across a small group of people in the distance. They’re talking amongst themselves, three of them.

“...it’s ...weird thunderstorm? Harry, what…”

“...I don’t… Arthur, it’s… need to take a closer…”

Ajax opens his eyes wide. Shaula sees that Ajax has made his discovery.

“Shaula, you can head back with them now. I’ll… I’ll see what’s happening with them. It’s Arthur and Harry, someone else from our class.”

“Harry… oh, that guy?”

“...You really remember him?”

“Yeah, he’s… not sure really, I know he isn’t anyone I really disliked, but I think he’s the one who hung out with Arthur all the time, right?”

“Yeah. He’s blonde, tall… handsome, etc.”

“...What’s with that, Ajax?”

“A-Ahahaha… it’s nothing.”

Shaula stares at Ajax for a moment.

“O-Ok! It was… just a bit of envy. Nothing too serious. I think he’s not that bad a guy. Just a bit too ‘popular’, I guess?”

“...I think I get your meaning but… you’re gonna be alright then, going after them I mean?”

“Yeah. I… I do feel bad we left everyone all alone there with those religious scumbags. I mean… it felt like if we stayed, we’d just kill and kill and kill which, to be fair, we’ve done anyways but at least here we’re in a place of our own will, rather than that place we were kidnapped to and, you know--”

“You’re rambling a bit there.”

“Oh, sorry. Anyways, yeah, I just want to see what’s going on with them. If they’re in some kind of bad situation, I’ll make my move.”

~

“Harry.”

“Hm?”

“You think you could move a bit faster?”

“Ah, sorry, sorry.”

“I know that’s a good sandwich, but we’re on patrol now.”

“Yeah, sorry, Arthur.”

Two young men walk through the streets of Linus. Both of them are tall, physically fit and handsome. One of them, Harry, has dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. The other one, Arthur, who is slightly taller and more muscular, has dark brown hair and light brown eyes.

Both of them are wearing suits of grey armour and cobalt-blue barbute helmets. On their chest is the symbol of the Linus guards, four vertical lines with a forward slash through the lines.

Both of them have sheathed swords attached at their hips. Both of them are divine heroes.

Harry is eating a sandwich right now while they walk towards where their superior officer should be. The sandwich consists of a bun, gursander meat and a semi-sweet sauce. No vegetables, no cheese.

The bun is not made of wheat but a grain known as Trye. Trye grain is most similar to barley from Arthur’s observation. In Omicron, nobody seems to know what yeast is, so the bun bread has a thicker consistency.

It is a lot heavier as a meal and heartier too, but the taste is there.

The sauce consists of various herbs and a fruit known as Ilyoup, which is yellow in colour with a unique spicy-sweet taste. The meat… 

“By the way… Arthur, what’s a gursander exactly?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you know, the street cart told us it was made of gursander, not horned rabbit or miella.”

“Oh, yeah… hm, that’s… I-I really thought you knew what gursander was t-tho, Harry.”

“Hm?”

“W-Well… ok, so I’ll describe to you what the gursander looks like and y-you can make your own judgment, alright? N-No one’s at fault here, haha…”

“...”

“So, it’s a large livestock animal, it’s about the size of a cow actually! Uh... Green eyes. S-Six legs.”

“Wha--”

“No, let me finish at least. It’s also got a large abdomen a-and pincers and… an exoskeleton shell thing…”

“...”

“I was kinda curious why you didn’t, you know, make any comment about what you were about to eat. It was… really confusing.”

“So… it’s like a huge insect thing or more like a land crab?”

“Y-Yeah, it looks like… well, basically a giant ant. I mean, it’s not exactly like an ant since it doesn’t make ant colonies but like if--”

“That’s enough, Arthur. Really, Omicron is a crazy place, isn’t it…”

“Right… Did you really not know that? I thought when you didn’t ask--”

“Forget it. Sigh… Well, at least it doesn’t taste bad. Kind of… kind of like a fishy chicken thing. Pretty good, not gonna lie. Have you ever seen one of these gursanders somewhere or did you learn about it from a book or something?”

“Book. I got a taxonomy type book yesterday with diagrams about different animals. The gursander is actually fairly common and--”

Arthur and Harry turn a corner and see someone familiar to them: their superior officer. This is a man with the same uniform as the two of them. He has three diamond-shaped markers indicating his rank as Linis Guard Superintendent.

Currently, he isn’t wearing his helmet and Arthur and Harry can see his buzz cut brown hair. Arthur greets him while Harry tries to finish his sandwich as quickly as possible.

They are slightly surprised to see him because they normally meet at a designated rendezvous point a few blocks away.

“Superintendent.”

“...Harold, what have we talked about concerning food? Chew with your mouth closed, it’s gross, son.”

Harry quickly scarfs down his remaining sandwich. Then with his head down, he apologizes.

“I’m sorry, superintendent! It won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t. Today is a bit of a special night, boys, so I thought I’d come find you. Someone… someone has been killed.”

“Superintendent?”

Arthur notices the superintendent's grimace. He is angry. Arthur hadn’t seen him angry in a long time. He doesn’t understand what the superintendent means when he says it’s a special night because someone died.

Since Arthur and Harold started shadowing the superintendent about two weeks ago for three hours every night, they’ve seen at least five people dead. The superintendent never thought twice about any of their deaths.

Arthur thought of this as callous at first, but he soon realized that it’s probably more reasonable to separate your heart from the people you’re trying to protect. Otherwise you can get emotional, which will result in impaired judgment when you try to track down the culprits.

“One of us has been killed.”

Arthur and Harold remain silent. This kind of news is somewhat shocking to them. They had always heard that police officers were risking their lives to carry out their duties on the streets, back on their home world.

They thought the rate of death for Linis guards should be even higher, especially considering the more medieval styled society. However, guards specifically in Linis weren’t killed in the line of duty all that often, perhaps two casualties every month according to the superintendent.

When they are killed, the killer is found within the hour, at most.

“We received a notification from the Iriae system that one of us died. There’s a three hour maximum delay from when a guard dies to when the system detects it so it’s possible the man might have died more than three hours ago.”

The Iriae system is something that Harry finds extremely interesting. It is a system that runs on magic, literally. If the life signs of a guard with the magical system tag cease, the system calculates that the guard died and returns the name of the guard or guard(s) who died.

It was named after the human inventor in the Federation who constructed such a marvelous detection system, one of the pope’s in the past who was an incarnation of Sapiora, Cappadox Iriae.

“Do you know which of us it is who died?”

“The system named one of the sergeants, a man named Tild Anzhen, as the deceased.”

“Is he under your command, superintendent Budalan?”

“No, he’s in another area of Linis. I’ve never met him before but… a slight to any of us is a slight to all of us. Your mission tonight is to accompany me in my search to find the body… and to find the culprit.”

Arthur and Harry feel fired up. A lot of their work with Budalan has been danger free. They have already gained some impressive powers and it feels like they’re not living up to their potential now.

“Alright, where do we start?”

“Wait, Harry. Sir, we just wanted to know one more thing.”

“Hm? What is it, Arthur?”

“Did you hear that lightning strike from earlier? Where did it come from?”

“Oh, that? Our hypothesis right now is that one of the noble kids was playing a trick or something and launched lightning magic. These things happen.”

“Huh?”

“Well, we didn’t find any traces of anything where it was supposed to have been fired. Nobody was hurt, nobody even saw anything at all.”

Arthur understands what the superintendent is saying. Kids being kids is probably as good an explanation as any. After all, even in his neighbourhood back home, every so often kids would light fireworks and cause a whole lot of noise in the evening or even in the middle of the night.

Harry has a view of mages that makes him slightly confused though.

“Even lightning mages do that kind of thing?”

“...You know, my commander told me that you were some noble kid or something, you’ve never had your friends launch magic as a joke? The superintendent overlooking that wealthy area finds tricksters like that every other week. Normally it’s fire or wind magic though, hahaha!”

“A-Ah, right. Well, Harold and I only really looked after each other. We didn’t really hang out with kids like that, our parents were pretty strict.”

“Well, well, looks like I found the two good noble kids in all of the Federation!”

Arthur and Harry laugh at the superintendent’s remarks. Superintendent Budalan had not been told that Arthur and Harry are heroes sent from another world. The superintendent had only been told that they were important VIPs who would receive special training from him directly.

As a result, he inferred that they were noble children of some kind and Arthur and Harry went along with that inference rather than make things complicated for themselves. They were told already not to let anyone know they were divine heroes under any circumstances.

“So, where do we start?”

~

“So, here’s what you’re going to do. You see… that beastkin over there? Harry, you try what I taught you right now, it’s your turn.”

“Ok, superintendent.”

Currently, Arthur, Harry and the superintendent are in the working class district of Linis. This is the area where they expected the missing officer was supposed to be patrolling and on duty; this area was where the missing sergeant’s teammates last saw him.

Right now, the superintendent sees demihumans, mostly beastkin, walking along the streets. He pointed one out to Harold and told him to carry out a police action, a street interrogation. Arthur and the superintendent had already interrogated three and now it was Harry’s turn.

Neither of them received any information of importance, none of them saw anything at all. This was the first beastkin of the night though. Harry walks over to the beastkin, a creature he is still not used to seeing in reality.

“You there. What’s your name?”

“...”

“I asked you your name, didn’t you hear me?”

“...Could you just let me go? I was on my way home to see my daughters, I finished work just now.”

“I’m afraid not. We’re looking for anyone in the area who might know something about the death of a guard. So, can you tell me your name?”

The beastkin man in front of Harold stood at about the same height as him. He had a thick, blue-haired beard, long blue hair on his head as well, slightly dirty clothes, sturdy work boots and a blue furred tail. 

Other than that, although this man was physically built, Harold knew that he had far more physical strength. Harold had gone through training of quite a high caliber. He gained enough skill to be considered almost archbishop level in strength.

“My name is Ghada Manzir. I’ve just finished a long shift so I don’t know anything about what’s happening in this area.”

“Hm, what do you do?”

“I work for a large alchemy production facility.”

“I see. When did you leave work?”

“...about forty minutes ago?”

“You work far from here, huh. Alright. So how--”

“How much longer is this going to take? I started work in the early morning and I’m shit-tired. I really just want to get home, talk to my family and sleep, if that’s alright with you.”

“Sure, probably ten more minutes. Then, I’ll let you go.”

“...Ok.”

“So, you left work about forty minutes ago, did you notice anything odd or suspicious in this area?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Have you passed by anyone who seemed to be loitering in the area? Anyone in a hurry to get anywhere?”

“No.”

“Have you ever heard of the Linis guard Tild Anzhen?”

“Tch. No.”

Harry notices Ghada start to get more and more irritated with him. Harry found his rudeness a bit annoying. Harry is, of course, just trying to do his job.

“Did you hear anything odd? Anything that you might have thought about twice?”

“Sigh. No. Actually, wait, that thunderstrike. It was kind of far but--”

“Don’t worry, that’s unrelated.”

“...Ok. Then, no weird sounds were heard.”

“Then… actually, wait one second.”

Harry returns to the superintendent and Arthur, who both had been standing a few feet away, monitoring Harry’s progress.

“Superintendent, this guy doesn’t know anything. How’d I do with that interrogation?”

“You did ok but, you have to be more firm with these types. If they see you not show strength, they’ll get disrespectful. You’re not done yet though, continue interrogating him; ask him about his home life and where he works more. He’s a bit suspicious to me.”

“Alright, I understand, superintendent.”

Harry walks back to the man and continues his interrogation.

“Sorry for the wait, I had to confirm something with my boss there.”

“...It’s ok, are we about done then?”

“No, I have a few more questions actually.”

The beastkin’s expression darkened. He doesn’t like being interrogated and he doesn’t like an interrogation happening on the street, being carried out by a member of the Linis Guard force. He hasn’t had good experiences with them in the past.

“...Ok, let’s hurry this up then.”

“Sure, I’ll try to be quick: Where is it that you work? What is the name of the company?”

“...It’s called Redfire Alchemical Concern. Do I need to give you directions too?”

Harry notices the snide remark from Ghada. He doesn’t like it. He considers what the superintendent told him; he’s being disrespected it seems. He can’t let his authority be mocked so easily.

“That’s alright, Ghada. No need for any of that.”

Harry feels a bit peeved. He decides to change the topic. He wants to put a little bit of fear into Ghada. Harry doesn’t want to be someone who is walked all over especially by one of the civilians he’s trying to protect.

“Ghada, you’re married, correct? Or are you raising your daughters alone?”

“No… I’m married.”

“So, your wife looks after your daughters at home while you’re working for such long hours to pay the bills, right? All by herself, I’m guessing?”

“She’s helped by her father and mother who we’re living with right now.”

“You don’t own your own home then? Ah.”

“...”

Ghada’s expression sours as he sees Harry’s quiet calm expression.. He understands the underhanded manner in which Harry is speaking to him. What exactly is he trying to say? That Ghada isn’t a good father?

That he’s not capable of looking after his children, that he has to have his wife do that important work with her parents? That he can’t afford his own home for his family?

Meanwhile, Harry sees the expression Ghada is making and realizes he’s going too far. He just didn’t want to be disrespected and now he’s the one being disrespectful. Harry doesn’t doubt how hard this man Ghada must be working.

He isn’t the kind of person that disrespects a man’s circumstances, although he is someone with pride and anger. He decides to move on.

“Forget it. It’s none of my concern. I apologize.”

Ghada calms down but still realizes he only wants to see his family right now. He doesn’t want to be kept here any longer, it’s quite long enough already.

“Sir, I’ve been working a really long shift and my boss barely even lets me have piss breaks… Could you finish this early please?”

“Just a few more questions, I have some doubts and--”

“Sigh… What a load of fucking…”

Harry heard what the beastkin man Ghada said under his breath. It… irritates him. Harry has only been trying to do his job here, there's no need for that kind of language.

“What was that?”

“...I didn’t say anything.”

“I’m pretty sure that you--”

“Forget it, it’s nothing.”

Ghada realizes he has also gone too far; he’s spoken in a manner unbefitting for a civilian talking to a city guard. He feels fear. He raises his voice to apologize when--

“No, please. Repeat yourself, sir.”

“Ah--”

Superintendent Budalan appears next to Harry this time. He heard that last interaction where Harold raised his voice in annoyance and decided to impose himself into the conversation.

Arthur looks nervously at Harold and the superintendent in front of him.

Arthur gets it. Harold was getting annoyed and he felt peeved that the civilian was disrespecting him. He understands the beastkin is annoyed as well. He has every right to be annoyed. Arthur has seen the conditions that beastkin face in this world.

The beastkin are a special race that is completely alien to him living on earth.

Of course, there were depictions of beast-like people on earth, werewolves and the like as well. Even on popular anime… However, seeing them in person is completely different.

He knew Holy Sapioran Federation history as well, the fact that the beastkin were on the side of the demon oppressors a few centuries ago. Humanity had achieved victory over the beastkin, demons and draconids some time later, resulting in the age of human supremacy.

The demihumans were enslaved while the demons were pushed back to their territory; the centuries of slavery existed until  just a few decades ago when they were freed from bondage with no restitution. Those centuries were filled with untold misery and humiliation.

Now, the beastkin are forced into low pay jobs and treated without dignity nonetheless. Arthur is disappointed in Harry, he wants Harry to understand what the beastkin is feeling, it is at least very obvious to him that the beastkin was in the right here.

Harry had barely started his three hour night shift. This man, Ghada, barely had any rest since finishing his own work not even an hour ago. Now, Arthur sees the expression of his superintendent. It is stern and displaying a quiet anger.

“Please… Ghada, was it? Repeat what you said to my junior, Harold, here.”

“I-I… I d-didn’t mean to--”

“Repeat... what you said.”

“...”

Ghada refuses to speak. Arthur hasn’t seen the superintendent behave in this manner before. Unprovoked hostility is directly towards Ghada. Harry notices the behaviour of Ghada as well. He feels that the situation is escalating in a dangerous manner.

“Superintendent, maybe--”

“That’s it. I’m taking you back to our station for full interrogation.”

Arthur and Harry are surprised at the impulsive actions of their superior.

“Wh-What!? But I d-didn’t… I didn’t do anything!”

“No more talking. Don’t you realize your talking is what got you into this situation in the first place? Shut up and place your hands behind your head.”

“Superintendent, h-he didn’t do anything.”

“Arthur, please. He spoke to a Linis guard in a disrespectful manner. His kind of defiance is suspicious. That’s enough reason to take him into custody.”

“Pl-Please not… not the station. Y-You’ll torture me!”

Harry holds his breath at Ghada’s fear. He’s made a mistake. He’s been too arrogant.

Arthur and Harry understand Ghada’s concern. They also somewhat understand the enhanced interrogation tactics used at the station. They don’t stick around the station often since they’re normally on patrol when they’re working, but they have also heard some unsavoury rumours.

“What did I just say about talking? You’re just digging the hole deeper beastkin!”

“Pl-Please…”

Ghada walks backwards slowly. The superintendent raises his eyes in anger. Is Ghada moving to resist him? To escape?

The superintendent quickly grabs Ghada by the back of his neck and slams his face to the ground. Arthur sees Ghada’s nose break and start to bleed.

“Wh-What are you doing, superintendent!? He wasn’t doing anything!”

“Arthur, don’t backtalk me right now. These beastkin are always flagrantly misbehaving towards the guards. They’re the ones doing all the law-breaking, they should know better than to disrespect us! Fucking mongrel…”

Harold rushes to the beastkin and starts performing healing magic. He isn’t very highly skilled but he should have enough mana to deal with a broken nose and possible concussion at least. The superintendent doesn’t stop him.

After all, the superintendent isn’t so callous as to let a father die in this manner.

Superintendent Budalan just wanted to teach him a lesson about disrespecting his superiors. After all, the superintendent is superior to him not only as a man carrying out justice on the streets of Linis. He is also superior to him as a human being over a lowly beastkin.

Arthur doesn’t know what to do. It feels like today is one of the first times he’s been shown the serious horror of this world. He feels cold looking at the unconscious beastkin man before him. Ghada didn’t deserve any of that. Why did the superintendent do all that?

Would he have done the same to a human?

Arthur feels goosebumps and a chill envelop his body.

A chill? It doesn’t feel like…

“Huh?”

Arthur hears something behind him. Footsteps. Someone is approaching here. All the other bystanders to this interrogation walked away as soon as they saw three guards in the area. Who’s walking over here now?

Step. Step. Step. Step.

Arthur turns behind him. The superintendent turns in that same direction as well. Harry looks at the odd figure as well. He pauses his healing magic. He sees the figure before him clearly when a street light illuminates his shadowy presence.

It is the figure of someone dressed in shining white ice.

A figure who moves deliberately and with rage.