"Do you think that girl will be back?"
"Which girl?"
"That girl — the one named Carole. Don't you know her? She's one of the prettiest girls here."
"Ah... But Goffekarg has set his eyes on her. Don't you think she'd run away?"
"You don't know a thing. We have him here, so she wouldn't actually run away even if she could."
Two men were conversing idly while guarding the back door of the mansion, cigarettes smoking lazily between their fingers.
They had never imagined it — that on this seemingly peaceful day, they would be attacked by intruders!
Before they could even see who attacked them, stems of ice rose and bound them in place, leaving them no way to move their fingers, let alone their bodies.
Carole and Tizmilly revealed themselves after Tizmilly paralyzed them. Then, before their horror-filled eyes, Tizmilly raised her dagger and struck them on the back of their heads until they lost consciousness.
After checking that no guards were left, and that it was just as Carole said — only two guards were positioned here — Tizmilly sheathed her dagger before picking up a sword from one of the guards.
She checked the quality and the balance of the sword, finding that while not as good as what Theo had bought for her before, it was at least good enough even though it looked cheap.
Tizmilly strapped the sword to her waist and then picked up the other's sword, presenting it to Carole.
"Here, Miss Carole also needs to protect yourself when I can't protect you."
Carole hesitated, but in the end she still accepted the sword even though her face still looked unsure, like she had just received something she didn't quite understand yet.
"I don't have confidence in my strength, though..." Carole mumbled as she followed Tizmilly's lead into the mansion.
What welcomed them inside was the kitchen. Inside, there were a lot of people — about ten of them. But they weren't part of The Rats. They were people like Carole, children of those indebted to The Rats.
And they were still young, obviously, with the oldest being only in his fourteens. They seemed to be cooking something before Tizmilly and Carole entered the room.
They were eyeing Tizmilly suspiciously until Carole showed up from behind her.
"Sis Carole!"
The oldest boy immediately recognized her the moment he looked at her.
"Ben... Everyone, I'm back."
And Carole also seemed to recognize all of them.
However, they didn't welcome her, and instead sent her worried gazes.
"Why did you come back? They'll really do something bad to you!" The oldest boy, Ben, immediately asked her in a panicked voice.
"That's right, Sis Carole! I saw it — how that fatty bastard, Goffekarg, was mumbling about bringing you into his room!"
"You have to run away!"
And the other kids also started urging her to run. Their worries looked genuine to Tizmilly, and that was indeed the case.
Carole raised her hands to calm them down, then gave them a reassuring smile.
"Be quiet, guys. Don't worry about me. I'm here to save Timmy, and you all. Right, Tizmilly?"
_That was not the plan,_ Tizmilly couldn't say that in front of these innocent children's eyes. So she nodded, before she turned her face away.
"B-but how will you fight them? They're strong, and there are many of them!"
"... We won't fight them, so don't worry." Tizmilly was the one who answered that question, before she tried to change the topic. "More importantly, do you kids know where Miss Carole's little brother is?"
Carole recalled that they were racing against time after she heard Tizmilly's words.
"Th-that's right! We don't have time!" she gasped, before immediately urging the children to say whatever they knew.
One of them, the youngest girl, seemed to know something. She said that she had once seen Timmy being dragged away by two men into the basement.
Carole's face turned pale after she heard that.
"So they really put him into the basement!" she muttered while gritting her teeth.
Tizmilly wanted to ask her what kind of room the basement was that she reacted so grimly after hearing her little brother was inside, but before she could utter a word, Carole immediately rushed out of the kitchen.
"Timmy is in danger! Let's go, Tizmilly!"
She only said that before she hastily opened the door and stepped into the corridor beyond.
"Wait—"
Tizmilly saw a thug in the corridor at that moment, right in front of Carole. Both Tizmilly and the thug were shocked, but then Carole raised her sword and pierced the man's stomach, which surprised everyone, even herself.
But Carole recovered quickly. Her anger helped her there, as she immediately pulled the sword out again and slashed the man's throat before he could even react properly.
The sight reminded Tizmilly of how Theo killed those five men who were guarding the front door. She knew that at the moment, they didn't have many choices since time was running out for them, but still, seeing people she knew kill someone was still a shocking sight for her.
However, she then noticed Carole's trembling hands. She noticed the fear on her face, the guilt, the nausea, but more than anything, it was anger. Anger toward those people who had destroyed their lives.
Then a thought crossed Tizmilly's mind.
_If Mister Roost had never extended his hand toward me... Would I also have started hating or even killing Lord Agraviel, and my family, even that girl?_
She found that the answer was that it was highly likely to happen.
...
Carole calmed down after she took a few more breaths. She then turned to look at Tizmilly.
Tizmilly finally returned to reality when her eyes met Carole's determined ones.
After a pause, they nodded to each other and advanced into the building after telling the children to hide somewhere until they returned to the kitchen to fetch them.
That's right, after hesitating for a while, Tizmilly decided to also save these children.
She had made up her mind.
If previously she just wanted to save Carole and her little brother because she thought they were too pitiful, now it was different.
Now she knew that there was darkness even inside the very city she had grown up in until now, and she accepted it as fact. Carole and the children had been living in the shadows until now. It didn't suit them, and they were suffering inside it, so she would extend her hand toward them, just like when Theo had extended his hand toward her.
They met some more thugs on the way to the basement, but Tizmilly handled them all swiftly with her sword. No one was killed, but she had wounded them so badly they wouldn't be able to fight for a while.
She felt somewhat spent by the time they reached the door leading to the basement, but they were mostly unscathed even after encountering more than 20 thugs on the way.
They opened it and were greeted by a descending staircase with Gem lamps placed on the walls as lighting.
They walked down the staircase carefully.
The place was quiet. No sounds could be heard. And as they descended further, the air started to become damper and damper, and at some point, the metallic tang of blood grew thick enough to taste.
"Timmy..."
Carole's worry multiplied after she realized that the place was even worse than she had imagined.
Tizmilly herself was not in a better state. She wanted to throw up and immediately flee from the filthy place. But she endured it, because she had decided to face her reality.
Then they stepped onto the stone floor of the basement.
The basement was wider than they expected, but with the atmosphere that fit their imagination.
Damp air, lack of light sources, and a bloodied floor. Instead of a basement, the room looked more like a torture chamber.
Carole's eyes immediately locked on a small silhouette shackled to the cold stone. She wanted to rush toward him, but a hand clutched her shoulder from the side to stop her.
It was Tizmilly's hand, and when she looked at her, Tizmilly was unsheathing her sword while sharply eyeing a man who was sitting on a chair placed at the middle of the room, his eyes looking at Timmy as if he was admiring a piece of art instead of seeing a dying boy.
Slowly, Tizmilly and Carole's eyes then met the man's eyes as the man shifted his gaze toward them.
The man was bald, with a big figure and a belly folded with fat.
Tizmilly instantly knew that the man was different from the thugs she had been fighting until now.
Instead of a thug, this man felt more like a monster. A big monster.
And for some reason, she felt like she was facing a Floor Boss like The Rain Serpent when she locked eyes with the man.
"What do you think?" the man suddenly spoke.
"Do you two prefer soulless vessels, or living vessels?"
He was asking something to the two of them, but neither of them understood what he was talking about. They were speaking the same language, but still, they couldn't get what he meant by saying those words.
Instead, Tizmilly focused more on whether the man would attack them or not.
Tension was at its peak.
They kept staring at each other. No one said a word. Not the man, not Tizmilly, not even Carole.
Then—
At that moment.
The ceiling of the room collapsed.
""Huh!?""
Everyone inside the room was startled by the unexpected event.
"Miss Carole, get down!"
Thinking that it was a trap or explosive set by The Rats, Tizmilly recoiled and urged Carole to follow her. They lay their bodies down to avoid debris and stones falling from the collapsed ceiling as they protected their heads with their hands.
Once the debris stopped falling, dust filled the room.
Tizmilly cautiously pushed her body up with her sword in hand, her eyes scanning her surroundings.
Finally, the dust curtain subsided. Tizmilly looked at the center of the room and saw the culprit behind the collapse.
It was a muscular man in a tuxedo, who almost looked like a giant with his height of over 2 meters.
Then, in front of him, a man with a slimmer build stood with a Gemgun in hand, reloading it swiftly. Falling from the higher floors seemed to be nothing for him. And more importantly, Tizmilly knew him. It was Theo.
"Mister Roost!" Tizmilly called out to him.
Theo turned to look at her, then to the room, to the tuxedo man before him, to the fat man across the room, and lastly, to the boy who was shackled to the wall.
Then he aimed his Gemgun toward the man in the tuxedo.
The man slowly turned his fists red, like heated steel, in response.
Behind Theo, the fat man also didn't want to be left behind. He picked up a battleaxe from the floor, his cataracted eyes glaring at Theo.
"I'll face them. Go get the boy and Carole out of the building!" Theo yelled at Tizmilly as he pulled the trigger.