Ryan once more didn’t have to think about the answer too much. “Dangerous or not, this is something I have to do. I can’t not do this.”

  “… Alright. In that case, I’m staying as well,” Modak replied, though the answer seemed to be coming with quite a bit of concern. Nonetheless, Ryan knew that Modak was just as curious about all of this as Silvia was, even if he showed it less than the elf.

  “Thank you, guys. I cannot tell you how much it means to have you guys here with me,” Ryan smiled lightly. “This shit is so weird and tough to wrap my head around, and not having to do it alone means a lot. And Maximus, you—”

  He turned around and looked at the small knight, just to be quite taken aback by what he saw. Tiny figures just barely reaching a little above Maximus’s knees. There were seven of them, roughly humanoid and completely ink black. Their bodies were practically a “blank slate”; no eyes, ears, or mouth. Their heads were perfectly round and their limbs round and straight.

  These things were all standing in front of Maximus and staring up; even the knight himself didn’t seem to have noticed yet, as he was focused on Ryan. But realizing that something seemed to be wrong, Maximus glanced down, finally spotting the figures.

  Startled, he took a step back, where another one of them was standing. As Maximus’s leg hit that figure, it fell apart into a black smoke that unnaturally moved around the knight’s body, gathering in front of him and turning back into that figure.

  “What are those?” Silvia took a step forward and squatted down in front of the table. “They’re kind of cute!”

  “I think those are … sprites?” Modak suggested, also squatting down next to the table to take a closer look. “Yeah, yeah for sure! I still have a children’s book with these in it that my mom would always read to me; they helped the main character with something … Finding some jewel in the forest or something?”

  “Are you talking about The Hundred Tales of Shazir?” Ryan asked, a bit surprised to hear it brought up. It was a story that he loved as a kid; rather, the one memory that he had of his father was being read this story by him. “Right, they helped Shazir find that gem … that massive ruby; Tiar, or something, right?”

  Modak quickly nodded his head. “Yeah, that’s them, right?”

  “I think so?” Ryan responded, glancing down at the small figures.

  Runar jumped up a few steps at a time, sighing with an annoyed expression on his face. He already had plenty of things to deal with, so why were those meddlesome bugs here to waste his time?

  Once he got out of the stairway and the floor closed back up behind him, Runar quickly stepped out of the basement. He didn’t even bother locking the door behind him; this wasn’t going to take him long.

  Runar held the fountain pen in his hand forward, drawing something in the air. It was a series of runes floating in front of him in a soft green; the color of Runar’s mana. Droplets of magic were detaching off the writing, and he let out a long sigh. “Man, I should really get some more sleep. My mana control’s completely out of whack.”

  As if triggered by it, an exhausted yawn left his mouth as he pulled back the pen from the runes in the air. The mana began to glow for a short moment before dissipating in a flood of individual droplets, spreading all throughout the building. And before he knew it, Runar could see the outlines of everything beyond the walls of the break room he was in. The counter, the tables, and the chairs pushed up against them; the shards of broken glass on the ground; and of course the seven men that were standing inside the café.

  “Two Awakened …” he muttered to himself as he spotted the large quantities of mana in two individuals, one of them being a twisted purple he recognized. “Those damn sparrows really don’t hold back, do they?”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The Patriarch

  Oi, quiet it down, will you?” Simon barked with an annoyed glare, watching the grunts walk through the café.

  “Don’t tell them what to do,” responded the man next to him, speaking for everyone in the room. Simon glared at the man’s feline face and the graying fur around the tips of his muzzle. “It’s already bad enough you called us here so short notice.”

  “You’re being paid well enough, aren’t you? And for the record, I didn’t pay you to smash a fucking window.”

  “What does it matter? We’re trashing the place anyway, right?”

  “Yes, but a broken window can be seen from the outside. If anyone calls the police, then it will make things a lot more troublesome.” Simon clicked his tongue, but the other man shook his head.

  “Not like this is going to take long. The only guys that live here are some random middle-aged weirdo and a freshly awakened kid. This many people’s already total overkill.”

  “Don’t underestimate that ‘freshly awakened kid.’ ” Simon touched the plaster still on his nose. The swelling had gone down quite a bit, but you could still see that his broken bone was healing.

  “Exactly, you can’t underestimate him. Plus, thirty-nine is not middle-aged. I’m technically still in my thirties, you know?” Runar added, throwing his arms around the two men from behind, as if he were casually joining two friends.

  He noticed Simon flinch as the felisad’s fur stood on its end. They both wanted to move, but their bodies were completely paralyzed.

  “Who—Wait, you’re that kid’s uncle, how the—”

  “Shut it,” Runar interrupted Simon, who had alerted the grunts to the situation. “You’re paying for the window, by the way.”

  With a casual stride, Runar took a few more steps forward while the grunts were looking at him, confused. From their point of view, it was just another guy that had joined in, and seeing neither their boss nor the guy that was paying them do anything made them hesitant about what they should do. However, the felisad quickly changed that.

  Baring his sharp teeth—his fangs covered in a thin layer of gold—he hissed a command at his men, “Get this guy already, you absolute imbeciles!”

  Seeing their boss’s expression and hearing his command, the grunts—a group made up of more felisads and the doglike canirs—quickly came rushing at Runar. However, Runar simply stretched out his hand and wrote a single rune into the air. The moment he closed his eyes, that ancient symbol lit up in a bright light that fully illuminated the room in a flash for just a moment, as if he had summoned the sun to him.

  As they were recovering, Runar closed in on one of the canirs, grabbing his arm and twisting it around with a clean motion. Together with the clean snap of some bones, a whimpered yelp sounded out.

  “Seriously? You’re gonna try to break into someone’s place despite being this weak?” Runar sighed as he pushed the canir back, making them fall onto their back. As this was happening, one of the felisads got to Runar, swinging a baseball at his back. But Runar just stood there, unamused, not even flinching at the impact. He grabbed the bat, closing his grasp around it. The aluminum was crushed easily, and the cat-man let go of the bat nervously.

  “What the fuck?” he let out, backing away. The other grunts also seemed very hesitant at attacking Runar; he was an Awakened, and a powerful one at that. Figuring that he should just finish this, Runar held his pen forward and drew patterns into the air. The green writing fell apart into droplets that quickly flowed toward each of the five grunts, forming metal bands that wrapped itself around all of their ankles. As this was happening and the grunts anxiously tried to get rid of them, Runar wrote something else into the air.

  “S-Stop him, you morons!” their boss yelled out, but before they were able to do anything at all, Runar was finished. One of them tried swinging at Runar, but he fell forward as the metal bands were locked into their position. They weren’t heavy; it was just impossible to move them now.

  Now that this was taken care of, Runar turned back toward the two men that he already locked down with another method. From Runar’s own point of view, they were both enveloped in a thin layer of his green mana. Simon was clearly trying to do something to free himself, but the quality and density of Runar’s mana wasn’t something a guy like him would be able to go up against.

  “So, what was the plan supposed to be here? Trash the place, threaten Ryan, and get him to give up his class?” Runar asked, staring into the elf’s face, who was overcome with nothing but confusion.

  “Y-You’re not supposed to be an Awakened. You’re not registered, you—”

  “And you’re not supposed to break into other people’s places or fucking jump a kid, you little piece of—” Runar stopped himself and tried to calm down. The protective ward he secretly placed on Ryan already broke down today, so the idea of something else happening to him was more than just infuriating. “Who told you to do this?”

  “… I acted on my own. Getting our company a unique class? That kind of thing’s worth a hell of a bonus,” Simon said with a nervous grin. Runar knew that he was lying. There was no way that even Bluesky would go this far without being pressured by someone, and considering what Ryan’s class was, that was even more obvious.

  Runar looked toward the felisad next to Simon. “Did he tell you anything?”

  Instead of saying anything, the man just spat at Runar. He dodged it, of course, but it still annoyed him.

  Runar rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to go insane over this … Alright, so. You’ve got a couple of choices. First, you tell me everything you know, swear to never let me lay eyes on you ever again, and then get out of here with nothing more than a few bruises or broken bones. Second, I call the cops on you and let the legal system handle this. Or third, you refuse either of those options, and I make you regret ever crossing the Aglecards.”

  Simon flinched. “… What? But … that kid’s not … he said he wasn’t related to those Aglecards, so I checked the registry and every record I could find … there’s no connection between that brat, his father, and the Aglecard Foundation!”

  Runar sighed, annoyed, “You really think records can’t be changed? Who do you take us for?” He clicked his tongue. “I’m just saying this once, as the current patriarch of the Aglecards, that my nephew is under my personal protection.”

  The elf’s face went pale. “Patriarch?”

  “I could explain, but why would I even bother? You know what, you’ve annoyed me too much, we’re going with choice number three.” Runar snapped his finger, and the startled yelps of five grunts could be heard as the metal bands wrapped around their legs forced them to approach Runar.

  He wrapped his fingers around the first grunt’s throat, pulling his hand up until he was fully in control of the position and movement of that felisad’s head. Even though he tried to do everything he could to pull Runar’s hand away, the Rune Mage didn’t let that happen. Instead, he started writing something into the air right in front of the cat-man’s face. It was a complex collection of runes that came together into an intricate pattern. Once Runar activated it, the felisad’s eyes rolled back until only the whites could be seen. His hands fell to the sides of his body. It was like he was unconscious, yet still standing.

  Runar repeated this same thing with the other grunts, and then looked over at their boss. “Let me guess, he only hired you for this?”

  The two locked eyes, and the felisad hesitated to respond. His instincts were telling him one thing; run. Usually his fight-or-flight response leaned toward the fight side, but that wasn’t even an option here. That attempted spit earlier was a rebellion against his instincts, but what followed was nothing but a deep, biological fear.

  “I-I … I’m just doing my job, I …” the felisad nervously whimpered, and Runar sighed, starting to write that same pattern into the air in front of him.

  “Fine. I can get all my answers from this stuck-up sparrow, then.”

  “W-Wait, I-I’m sorry, just please don’t—”

  The man’s eyes rolled into the back of his head as his shoulders slumped, unconscious like his subordinates. Runar snapped his fingers, making the metal bands disappear from the grunts’ legs while getting rid of the hold that he had on their boss. “You will all go back to your hideout, or homes, or wherever else you were gonna go after this. You will believe that when you came here, this elf guy … Simon, was it? He told you that the plan changed and sent you off. You will cut all ties with him for wasting your time. You will forget ever seeing me or speaking with me, or even that I exist. Oh, and the reason that guy’s arm is broken is that he got into a fight with the guy with the bat or something, and the bat broke in the process. Now, leave and never come back here.”

  The moment Runar finished talking, the hired brutes made their way out of the café, jumping out through the broken window. They walked down the alley and disappeared without another word.

  Runar walked up to the window, grumbling to himself. He thought for a moment and then started writing a few more runes into the air. After the activation, each shard of glass was surrounded in what seemed to be a thin film of magic while Runar’s eyes were glowing with a similar magic. He squatted down and started picking up the pieces, then put them back together. The shards of glass practically fused back into one piece, but Runar was able to pick out the right parts as if he had the instructions right in front of him. “Should’ve made those guys do it before leaving.”

  While he was repairing the window, Simon was still locked down, unable to move for the most part. However, even though he was surprised and wasn’t able to do anything right away, it didn’t mean that he was weak. He knew how to use magic quite well, and had been pushing the tendrils of his mana through the magic surrounding his body so that he could try and cast a spell.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Runar pointed out, glancing over at the elf.

  “I’m just trying to do my job here, alright? It’s not my fault that the bra—That the kid awakened a unique class. They’re always popular with powerful people, you know?” Simon pointed out. Though it seemed like he was changing tactics into talking himself out of the situation, Runar could still feel the subtle movements of magic as Simon uselessly tried to break out of the spell.

  “But does that mean you have to stalk him and then try to jump him when you find out he can’t retaliate?” Runar asked, locking eyes with Simon for a moment.

  “… As I said, I’m just doing my job here.”

  “Excuse me? I know Bluesky is a scummy, corrupt organization, but I didn’t expect them to openly teach people to act like delinquents,” Runar laughed.

  “… While I admit that some sides of our business should rather stay hidden from the public, I don’t believe that is a correct characterization of Bluesky Industries.”

  “Then you don’t know who you’re working for. Bluesky’s the scummiest of scum. The bottom of the barrel. The dragon’s litter.”

  A frown formed on Simon’s face. Obviously he did believe in Bluesky, but there was no reason for him to completely defend the company even in the face of someone that was so overwhelmingly more powerful than he was. Especially not considering the fact he was unable to move and utterly defenseless. But there was something bothering Simon. “You sound like you’ve dealt with Bluesky before.”

  “Hm? Oh, yeah, plenty of times. Actually, I just went to this auction earlier; it was an underground thing where they sold drugs, weapons, magic beasts, and even people as pets. Though I guess you might not consider them people just yet. Anyway, it’s almost exclusively funded by Bluesky. Well, legally there’s no connection, and they hid the paper trail far, far too well to do anything officially, but everyone kind of knows who’s the big shot over there,” Runar explained. Simon wanted to protest; a group as prestigious as Bluesky Industries would never stoop to running some sort of illegal auction like that. But at the same time, the fact that he was being told this so openly made the elf anxious.

  “… Why are you saying all this? Are you going to …” Simon asked, though he wasn’t even able to finish the question. With a loud laugh, Runar looked over toward him and shook his head.

  “At least you’ve got a sense of humor, huh? No, I’m not going to kill you; we don’t do that kind of thing. Though, you are going to forget everything that happened tonight, just like those guys earlier.”

  “… What?”

  Runar chuckled to himself, “Well, tonight, plus the past … hmm, what sounds good … the past seven weeks? Yeah, seven sounds pretty good.”

  “… Alright,” Simon let out, closing his eyes for a moment. Frankly, losing memories of the past seven weeks was much preferable to dying, so if he had to choose, it was obvious. Though, it looked like neither was going to happen. The tendrils of Simon’s mana had escaped the restraining shell around him, and he was able to start casting a spell. It was a very simple one too, one of the Arcane Trapper’s staples. It was quite destructive, but one of Simon’s class traits allowed him to completely ignore the magic damage from his own traps. Though, it would take a bit to set it up, and some conditions needed to be fulfilled by Runar.

  “I figured you’d complain about it a bit more. Losing your memories isn’t a fun thing, you know? It’s not the kind you usually hear about either; this type is permanent.”

  Simon couldn’t help himself but laugh. “Permanent mental interference? Please, that’s just a myth.”

  Runar shrugged. “So are pixies, and I have one in my basement.”

  The elf’s heart skipped a beat. Runar was serious. He was so clearly serious about what he was saying. Simon was going to forget the past seven weeks without chance of recovery? That was … insane. Still better than dying, but insane.

  “Anyway, before that …” Runar started, taking a seat on the table behind him while looking at Simon, “let’s get started with you telling me exactly who told you to ‘acquire’ the Spirit Keeper class.”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Simon replied, a grin forming on his face. Runar was close enough to activate the trap.