The woman gazed down coolly at his back. “Aren’t you a fool? When the demi-humans were having their little spat, there were too many factions at play, and trying to do anything would’ve meant being dragged into an endless conflict. But now that the slums have come together, we take down the head, and the whole thing comes crashing down.”

“Y-You’re right.”

“I’m going to make him dance for me. All of the slums will be ours. I’m getting quite bored of scurrying away underground.”

As he lay prostrate on the ground, his eyes widened with realization. “Wh-What an amazing plan!”

Pleased with his reaction, the woman snapped her fingers. As if released from a spell, the large man finally managed to stand up, swallowing hard. “He looked like an ordinary guy, but if he could bring together and control that deranged demi-human lot, the bastard must be dangerous...”

The woman chuckled. “A little spice makes him all the more worth controlling.”

Enthralled by her sinister smile, the man blushed. “How many men will we need?”

“Not that many. He’s just one man. All we need is to find him; bringing him to his knees should be trivial.”

“You’re incredible, Lady Liz.”

The woman grinned at the praise.

***

A day later, the morning’s work had just finished at the clinic.

“Um, Zenos? Are you okay?” Lily asked.

“What do you mean?” Zenos replied.

“I mean, you were zoning out again. In the middle of examining people too.”

“Huh? Was I?” Hadn’t Lily said something similar to him only recently?

“Were you thinking about Mr. Becker’s letter again?”

“Oh, no, not that...” Zenos scratched his cheek awkwardly and leaned back on his chair, stretching. “Just... Last night I dreamed about my old life at the orphanage, for some reason.”

“The orphanage in the slums where you grew up?” she asked as she poured hot water into the teapot, the sweet aroma of tea leaves wafting through the air. “What was the dream about?”

“Well... Uh, about how like, all we’d get for the day was water with a pinch of salt. Or how we were so desperate for food, we’d eat strange mushrooms growing out of old pillars...”

“Th-That’s terrible.”

It was all just old memories now, though. Dark, musty air. Barred windows. Ice-cold, splintered floorboards. Sounds echoing through the air of the children’s supposed “instructors” shouting and hitting them. Someone’s sobs.

“What an awful place,” Lily remarked.

“I guess so, yeah, looking back.”

Normally, in a situation like that, the children would band together and comfort one another, but their older “caretakers” had disliked any form of unity among their charges, and had created a system to prevent it.

“They divided us into small groups. If one kid in the group messed up, the whole group was held accountable,” Zenos explained. Moreover, the first to report a mistake would be rewarded with sweets and the like. As a result, the children had grown wary of one another, creating a tense, uneasy atmosphere.

“It’s amazing you managed to get through that,” Lily said, shocked.

Zenos shrugged. “Well, that was all I knew at the time, you know. And”—he paused for a moment—“I was actually one of the lucky ones.”

“How was that lucky?”

“No, see, every group had an older kid as a leader, acting like an assistant to our caretakers, bossing the younger ones around.” The leaders had been mostly harsh to those below them, taking out their frustrations over their own mistreatment on the younger children. “But my group’s leader was nice and covered for our mistakes. Thanks to that, our group got along.”

As a result, they’d become friends, or as close to friends as they could’ve been in that environment. Of course, they couldn’t have openly shown how close they were to one another in front of their so-called instructors. Zenos often had gotten corporal punishment for refusing to loot the dead of the slums, thus disobeying the orders he’d received. But his group’s leader had often covered for him, sparing him from worse treatment.

“Oh, wow,” Lily said. “What was the leader like?”

“Hmm. She had long hair and a gentle smile. She was kinda like our big sister.”

“A big sister...” Lily paused, her hands stopping midair, holding the teacup. “Was she pretty? No, I’m sure she was. She has to have been. I just know it.”

“What are you talking about? This is about back when I was a kid.”

“I know. I just know, okay? The women who gather around you are all pretty.”

“Lily?”

A chuckle echoed through the air as Carmilla floated down from the second floor. “I see. So our next contender is a demure woman.”

“Our next what now?”

The wraith chuckled again. “Think about it. We have a young elf. A big sister-type lizardwoman. A werewolf with animal ears. An orc sporting a pair of melons. A taciturn knight. An earnest girl with glasses. What could be next, if not a demure woman?”

“You lost me halfway through all of that, but what’s this about an earnest girl with glasses?” Did she mean Umin, from the Royal Institute of Healing? “Also, why do you always show up when we’re talking about this stuff?”

“Nonsense. This is simply the only place where I ever ‘show up.’”

“I guess that’s true.”

Carmilla grinned wickedly. “So this woman was your first crush, was she not?”

“What?!” Lily exclaimed. “I knew it!”

“Have you considered not jumping to conclusions?” he deadpanned.

As a kid, he’d been too busy just trying to survive to even think about such things. Looking back, though, there was no doubt that the girl’s gentle smile had been a source of comfort.

Zenos leaned his chin on his hand, gazing out the window. “Hope Liz is doing okay out there somewhere.”

***

As night fell upon the slums, a lone lizardman stood at the outskirts of the city.