"Don’t let him get away!"
"Corner the left and call in more men!"
In the middle of the barren field just outside Blackwater city, several silhouettes chased after a man with red hair, his figure blurring as he tore across the open ground, dust kicking up behind his heels.
The moment he’d noticed the Punishment Hall arrive, he’d scooped up the old man and bolted for the hills without hesitation. Fighting a handful of kids was one thing. The Punishment Hall was another matter entirely, one of the kingdom’s most elite forces, and no amount of pride was worth staying to test that.
"Hey, kid. The boss said he was able to secure a few of your ritual requirements. But the last one’s proving difficult." One of the Punishment Hall’s men approached Ethan, a worn leather bag slung over one shoulder, his tone casual despite the chaos still unfolding across the field behind him.
At the forefront of the pursuit was Kang himself, too occupied leading the chase to deliver the materials personally.
"Ah, okay." Ethan bowed with genuine gratitude, one arm still pressed tightly against his stomach.
That punch from the Algar clan leader had done real damage, internal bleeding at the very least. Standing upright already felt mechanical, like his body was moving through instructions rather than instinct, each breath drawing a dull throb from somewhere deep beneath his ribs.
A tier 5 wasn’t something to underestimate.
If Honger Algar had wanted him dead, a single strike would have been more than enough. That thought alone was sobering enough to keep Ethan quiet for a long moment.
Minutes later a set of carriages from the Warden’s office arrived and carried them back into the city, where the streets had transformed into something unrecognizable. Groups of individuals were being pulled from homes and shopfronts, hands bound, faces caught somewhere between fear and resignation. The clatter of boots against stone echoed down every alley they passed.
The Algar scandal had sparked a fire across Blackwater, and the city guard had been deployed in force to answer it. For those with no real involvement, the arrests came quiet and orderly, a formality more than a punishment.
For the others, the approach was considerably less gentle.
’This will undoubtedly force the rest into hiding once again.’
Ethan thought it grimly, a frown settling over his face as the carriage rolled past another cluster of guards dragging someone from a side street, the woman’s protests fading behind them.
Buron, the summoner from the Lumberg Republic, was almost certainly long gone by now, slipped through whatever cracks remained before the net closed around the city. And the other one, the one they knew was somewhere in Blackwater but couldn’t yet name, remained a shadow they hadn’t managed to corner.
"Wait a moment."
As the carriage rolled through another block, Ethan’s eyes caught on a familiar face and he ordered the driver to stop without a second thought.
Through the window he watched her, wrists bound in chains, being herded toward a holding line with the others, her posture nothing like the confident young woman he remembered.
He couldn’t recall her name off the top of his head, but he remembered clearly enough the trouble she’d caused him with Jacob’s family, the false core, the ambush in the forest that had nearly gotten him killed.
She was one of the Algar clan’s recognized talents.
But more importantly than any of that, Ethan felt no trace of the Blood Serpent God’s presence within her. If anything, she looked haggard and diminished, a far cry from the composed young woman he remembered from the forest, someone whose status should have kept her untouched by circumstances like this.
"Hm?"
She felt the weight of eyes on her and lifted her head. Her gaze met Ethan’s directly, and for a moment neither of them moved.
Shock crossed her face first. Then, just as quickly, she shut her eyes and looked away, feigning that she didn’t recognize him, quietly praying he would simply move on and leave her be.
’This guy made it out. He should just leave and not complicate things further for himself.’
She thought it with a kind of tired resignation, the words heavier than she wanted them to be.
The Algar clan’s fortunes had truly collapsed. First their stronghold lost. Then their people nearly enslaved by Demi-humans during the chaos that followed. And now, after finally scraping free of that disaster, they were being rounded up en masse like common criminals in the streets they had once ruled.
A noble clan reduced to this. If Ethan had any real sense, he would walk away now, change his name, and never speak the word Algar again. There was nothing left in that name worth carrying, nothing but weight and suspicion.
"Let her go. Have her follow behind us."
Ethan’s voice carried clearly through the street, cutting through the noise around them.
"Yes sir." The guards nearby responded with brisk salutes, already moving to unfasten her chains without question.
She had no idea what was happening as the cuffs came loose and she was led toward the back of the carriage, still too stunned to form a proper thought, her legs moving on instinct alone.
From beginning to end, her eyes stayed fixed on Ethan, wide with disbelief.
Why was he different from everyone else?
.
.
.
.
Later that day, a citywide curfew went into effect as the unrest continued to spread, and searches sprang up in every district seemingly at once, guards moving door to door with lists in hand.
The Algar clan’s remaining businesses were seized, temporarily, by the city’s administration, a measure meant to prevent riots from spilling further into the general population rather than any real judgment on guilt.
Everything was moving.
Fast.
Ethan spent those five days recovering in a room the Warden’s office had quietly arranged for him, the internal bleeding fading slowly under a mix of potions and rest he couldn’t afford to rush. Hela checked in twice a day, Fin and Ella less often, each visit shorter than the last as the investigation pulled everyone in different directions.
And on the fifth day after the incident, Kang returned with news.
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