“What?!”
“And Gerald… he is gone!”
Dovidan turned to Matissa baffled. “Are you implying that Gerald helped them break free? That’s impossible!”
No, it’s possible… and it was my fault…
I should have taken his disobedience more seriously. But after spending so much time leveling him up, adding upgraded armor and gears, and reconditioning him to be my obedient little soldier, I just couldn’t let Gerald go. I’d invested so much in my titan slave that the idea of killing him made me cringe. He was the ace up my sleeve, and now, my reluctance cost me the ice wolf.
If I hadn’t been recovering, I would have brought him to the fields for reconditioning again. One wasn’t enough. My lack of discipline allowed him to regain self-awareness, and his humanity helped those two escape.
He revolted, and this time, I was going to break that war machine for good!
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Silas
The first thing I did when we arrived to Ezdalise was find a goddamn bathroom. I’d been holding it in for so long in that pantry closet that I thought my bladder was going to explode. Rechet’s Inn had a lavatory across the lobby, and while Rufian charmed the receptionist, I made friends with the bathroom stall. After I washed up and walked back out, I noticed Rufian asking for directions for a collection point. The only criminal affairs building that was noted on the map was long condemned, and Rufian was crossing his fingers that another was built during his absence.
This afternoon we were lucky, and the lady by the desk gave him directions. We went off seven blocks north.
When we reached the collections office, I quickly noticed how empty and unkept it was. Cobwebs lined the corners of the ceiling, and the smell of dust and mold filled the air. The clerk behind the counter was an elderly woman with a sour expression behind her thick reading glasses, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else than here.
Rufian approached the long desk, where Marjereet was lazily thumbing through some papers. He cleared his throat and asked, “G’afternoon, ma'am. We're here to collect the bounty of one Clave of the Deo Guild.”
“Are ya now?” she cawed in a drone voice.
Rufian handed her a wanted poster and said, “Yes, we have the paperwork here.”
Wait a minute, where the hell did that come from?
I hadn’t seen a wanted poster in his inventory…
The clerk snatched the poster from his hand and squinted her eyes at it. “This is outdated. We don’t have any bounties for Clave at the moment.”
Rufian chuckled nervously. “You might have to check again.”
“No.”
I could see the frustration building in Rufian’s eyes. “There is no date on this bulletin.”
“I'm sorry, but we can't process this bounty claim,” she said bluntly, continuing to be difficult with him.
“Here's the warrant for his arrest and the bounty notice,” Rufian continued, pulling out a warrant and pointing at it forcibly. “Are you blind? Or just careless?!”
She gave him a ‘fuck off’ look and then rolled her eyes. “All right, all right. You win.”
Rufian beamed. “Thank you!”
“But I doubt you killed him.”
I cocked my eyebrow up.
“His body is rotting in The Forfield Temple of Imerssia.” Rufian said and smiled. “I can teleport you to him, if you’d like.”
She chuckled, a kind of chuckle that made me nervous. “Yeah, okay…”
“You seemed pretty damn skeptical,” I said. “Why?”
“Because the very limited few who have walked through my doors claiming to have killed him never have. He’s a master at deception, with his shadow magic and shadow puppets and all.”
“You don’t understand, we watched him blow up.”
“And you’re positive that it was the real him?”
“Like I said, we are willing to show you his carcass left in pieces!” Rufian insisted.
“And did you fry him out in the sun and watched his shadowy bowels turn into ashes?”
I winced. “Say what?”
“Are you saying you didn’t know about Clave’s immortality?”
Rufian and I traded confused looks.
“You two gentlemen seem unsure. Well, let’s just say that Clave is not an easy man to kill,” she said with a somber nod. “But if you did manage to do it, then I suppose you deserve the bounty. Give me a moment to check.”
She rolled off of her crickety chair and stretched her back, my eyes noticing a ferret crawling from the back of her neck to her shoulder. “Looks like we’re going on a little adventure, my friend,” she said with a smile, stroking her pudgy finger along the animal’s cheek before she reached into her inventory and pulled out a white stretchy egg. With a quick incantation, she disappeared right before our very eyes. The receptionist left a puffing cloud of fairy dust, the glitter shower forcing me to take a step back from the desk. But she wasn’t gone long. After only a few seconds, she came back, this time emerging from the back room with a shifty grin on her face.
