Penelope stood outside the city guard’s station, located at the outskirts of the slums—at the border between the slums and a richer district. It was a big building. It had two floors and a plain, almost safe looking entrance. This station was the closest one to them. 

Penelope felt sweat dripping down her forehead as she entered, Jack trailing closely behind her. They needed to tell a city guard what had happened quickly. Black mages. Black mages. Even the city guards wouldn’t ignore that. There was no way.

One of the city guards, dressed in uniform—a white shirt with silver linings and golden stars denoting their status being the only compulsory thing all on duty city guards had to wear—looked at them and then asked somewhat roughly, “What brings you two here?”

This specific city guard only had one star attached to his uniform. He was likely a patroller, the lowest amidst the city guards.

With a trembling voice, Penelope replied, “S-sir, that… C-can we talk somewhere private?”

All around her were other civilians and officers. They bustled about in an orderly manner. Talking about black mages here was the perfect trigger for chaos, something Penelope wanted to avoid if possible.

The city guard grunted at that, but nodded nonetheless. He gestured at them to follow before navigating through the crowd and stopping at a door. It had a sign with the name ‘Alben Ruder’ on it, probably the patroller’s chambers.

Penelope had not known that even a patroller would be given their own chambers before, but she was beyond relieved that was the case now.

He opened the door for them, looking at them irritatedly as he gestured for them to enter. The room was a very cramped place. There was barely space for a single desk to be placed, which it had been. The only good part of the room was that the manabulb was shining quite brightly, so the room didn’t feel dark as much as claustrophobic.

Squeezing his shoulders, the guard somehow passed them before moving behind the desk. “Now, tell me. What brings you two here?”

Penelope took in a deep breath as she wiped the sweat on her forehead with her hand, before beginning, “Black mages took my friend.”

—

Cary was having a good day. A really good day. Just yesterday, he’d been given a fat amount by the information guilds, enough for him to comfortably retire even now. Which, he couldn’t, could he? Not when the information guilds would continue giving him money as long as he helped them, for which he needed to stay in his position. But he could still put the money to great use without retiring.

Truly, being a city guard was amazing. He didn’t expect that he’d be able to earn this much, even with him being assigned to a station right next to the slums, but golly. Luckily, he was assigned here!

He whistled a jolly tune as he leaned back into his chair, the grin on his face only spreading wider and wider. He needed to go search for a good location today. He promised his wife he’d buy her a house yesterday, after all. All hail the information guilds, truly!

“S-sir!” The sound of his chamber’s door being opened broke Cary out of his reverie, and the panicked voice of one of his subordinates—What was the guy’s name again…? Alben? Yeah, him—made Cary’s grin fade.

Cary looked at Alben with a raised eyebrow. “Yes?”

“Sir… someone came here to make a complaint about black mages.”

Cary sat up straight immediately, his eyes widening.

—

No wonder the goddamn information guilds paid him and his entire station. They’d expected a lot of trouble. They’d only paid him yesterday, and there was already a complaint today. luckily they’d approached them instead of some other station. Then again, that station could also be bribed—or a cathedral of the Inheritor of Light!

Either way, first, he needed to convince them that an investigation was going to happen and send them off before alerting the god darn information guilds. They’d said they’d done the whole thing cleanly! How did a complaint come in then?!

He should’ve known better. Those slum rats always did things sloppily.

Taking a deep breath, Cary calmed himself and schooled his expression as the door opened. Alben walked in with the two kids who’d filed the complaint.

Cary was honestly tempted to just throw make up some reason and imprison them in the station temporarily right now, but he didn’t know how many people knew about the black mages thing – what if these kids weren’t the only ones? What if there were a lot more people? What if these kids had been sent to come to this station, while the others had decided to go to some other station or one of the cathedrals?

Either way, it wouldn’t be a good idea to make them suspicious. The information guild would take care of them and whoever else was involved. All Cary had to do was pass them the information that a complaint had been filed and then not investigate. And then also burn the complaint so there were no traces left.

That was all he had to do. The information guilds could deal with the rest of the mess themselves.

Cary took in the appearances of the two kids. The girl had red hair The boy, black. They wore shabby yet clean clothes, and they both looked both anxious and unsettled. The way they were sweating made it look like they were being boiled alive.

“Look, kids,” Cary started, and they both looked to the floor, not daring to meet his eyes. That couldn’t do, could it? So he tried to make his tone more gentle as he cooed, “Look at me, kids.”

To their credit, they did. They raised their heads in a tense, stiff manner, and Cary pointed at the stars pinned to his uniform. “You see, I’m the head of this station. And I assure you, we will find your friend and bring her back safely. We have faced such situations before, and we’ve brought both the black mages and their associates to justice, and rescued the victims.” He turned to Alben and ordered, “Go tell all our officers to get ready – we shall proceed with a deep and thorough investigation and check, and find this kid before the day is over.”

Alben paused for a second, seemingly pondering whether Cary meant what he said or not. After Cary gave him a look, he realized his superior definitely did not mean what he was saying, and nodded fervently.

Then Alben turned to the kids and said, “See kiddos? We’ll find your friend and have her back to you safely. Now hurry along. The orphanage must be in chaos after what happened to your poor matron. You, as the older kids, must help the other kids. Get it?”

The two nodded, seeming very, very surprised at Cary’s response.

They were all but pushed to the door by Alben when one of them, the boy, turned back to Cary, bowed deep, and said, “Thank you so much, officer. Thank you so, so much. Thank you so, so, so much.”

The girl joined him in bowing. Cary barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes, but they only did so for a few seconds before leaving.

Alben, however, hadn’t left. Cary gestured for him to close the door before ordering, “Send two of our men to tail them. If they go anywhere but the orphanage, tell the men to stop them. Arrest them if required.”

He couldn’t have the kids blabbering to a cathedral.

Sure, it wasn’t unlikely that some other kids also knew about what had happened and had already babbled to the cathedral… But, eh. At least he could prove his ‘diligence’ to the information guilds—maybe get some more money. Because, truly, it seemed like they were very, very sloppy.