“Hey!” shouted Sophie, running toward the beatdown. “Stop!”

The three standing men stopped kicking the grounded one and looked over at Sophie, clearly not impressed by the scrawny 13 year old.

“You’re a long way from home, little girl,” said one. “This ain’t none of your business. Head on back and pretend you didn’t see nothin’.”

Elise ran up behind Sophie and used {Inspect} on the three men.

[ Adept Carpenter, lvl 12 ]

[ Carpenter, lvl 19 ]

[ Adept Carpenter, lvl 18 ]

Frowning, she then used it on the man on the ground.

[ Adept Burglar, lvl 13 ]

“What are you doing to him?” demanded Sophie.

“Business,” said the same man, the highest level Adept Carpenter, stepping forward. “Run along. This ain’t got nothin’ to do with you.”

“That’s not business! You’re beating him up!”

“Sophie,” said Elise, putting her hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Listen to your sister,” said the carpenter. “Don’t get involved in things you don’t understand.”

Sophie looked up at Elise in confusion, but before she could say anything, Elise cut her off with a {Whisper}.

“Let me handle this.”

Elise stepped forward first using {Charm}, then using {Forced Feeling} at the weakest she could make it with a sensation of fear. Even at its weakest though, it was still more than enough to make the faces of all four men pale.

[ {Forced Feeling} has leveled up! 12 - 14 ]

Elise followed that up with a smile and a question.

“Would you mind explaining what’s going on here?”

“W-we ain’t done nothin’ wrong,” said the carpenter, his demeanor suddenly submissive. “We was just teachin’ this punk a lesson.”

“A lesson on how to handle pain?” she asked.

As she spoke, she noticed the burglar start slowly creeping backward while the others were distracted.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she sent with {Whisper}.

The man froze as the carpenter started speaking again.

“He was stealin’,” said the carpenter. “Tried to take Pa’s money. We caught him and brought him out here.”

“Shouldn’t you have taken him to the proper authorities instead?”

“Well…”

None of the three carpenters made eye contact. Sophie, who had looked confused, now nodded along in understanding.

“How about this,” said Elise. “You take him in, and we’ll pretend that we didn’t see anything.”

She activated {Fey Bargaining}, but none of the carpenters responded. None of them could refute her, but they still all seemed reluctant to agree with what Elise believed was a perfectly reasonable request.

“What you’re doing currently is illegal,” she continued. “If you’d like, I could also simply turn all of you in.”

“N-no!” said the carpenter. “It’s just…”

He trailed off, still without accepting the deal, leaving Elise more confused.

“Is he your brother?” asked Sophie.

Elise looked at Sophie in surprise, then back at the men in front of her. She looked closer at the carpenters and realized that they actually all bore a strong resemblance to each other, and that even bruised and bloody as he was, the one on the ground looked similar too. As the carpenters nodded to Sophie’s words, the final pieces clicked into place. However, that didn’t mean that she was going to change her mind. Even if his brothers were reluctant to put him in prison, the man on the ground was undoubtedly a career criminal, and no amount of beatings would change that.

“Even if he’s your brother, that doesn’t mean you can take justice into your own hands,” said Elise.

“We know,” said the highest-level carpenter, who also seemed to be the eldest brother. “But what would Ma think?”

“What would she think about you beating him half to death?”

They all looked down at the ground, shuffling their feet. The one on the ground still looked like he wanted to escape though, so Elise sent another warning {Whisper} to him before turning her attention back to the carpenters.

“I’ll say it once more. Take your brother in to the proper authorities, and we’ll pretend like we didn’t see anything.”

The oldest brother hesitated for a few seconds, then sighed.

“Alright,” he said.

The other two mimicked him a moment later, and Elise felt the familiar sensation of the deal being made. She then turned to the man on the ground.

“And you,” she said. “You will let yourself be turned in. If you try to run, you’ll regret it.”

He looked around as if hoping for an escape, but another {Forced Feeling} filled with fear killed that idea, and he nodded meekly.

[ {Forced Feeling} has leveled up! 14 - 15 ]

[ {Fey Bargaining} has leveled up! 60 - 61 ]

“Let’s go, Sophie,” said Elise, turning around.

“Huh?” she replied. “But-”

“It’s done. They’ll bring him in. They’ll regret it if they don’t.”

Elise hit the four men with a final {Forced Feeling} to kill any final thoughts of going against her, bringing the skill up to level 17 as they walked away. She felt a little bit proud of the conditions she had set on her bargains that time. She had been idly thinking about different penalties she could give, and the more she thought and tested, the more she realized that {Fey Bargaining} was an utterly unfair skill.

The conditions she set this time were that should any of the men fail to uphold their end of the bargain, they would be cursed with migraines until they did fulfill their end of the bargain. And though she wasn’t sure if it completely worked, she had also attempted to include a bit of inspiration from {Suggest} so that they would recognize that they were cursed for failing their end of the bargain. It felt a little like cheating, since she had more or less set the penalty for failing to uphold their end of the bargain to be that they now had to uphold it anyway, but the deal had taken, so the System must have recognized it. Either that, or her aether was interfering with it and making it accept things it shouldn’t have been…

Regardless, she felt quite pleased with how the exchange had gone. Even better, it had given her some strong inspiration for the kind of urban legend she wanted to create. She had long felt that in the long term, she wanted to do something with justice. She always found it difficult to sit by when someone else was suffering, and with her skillset, she was perhaps uniquely qualified to take on the role of dealing out justice. Between {Inspect} and clever use of her mental skills, she could find out the truth of any situation, and with {Fey Bargaining} and her high aether capacity, she could more or less guarantee that the consequences took hold without unnecessary bloodshed.

She was a little concerned that she would make mistakes, possibly punishing the wrong person, but this incident in particular had taught her a valuable lesson. Not all things were as they seemed. Without {Inspect} it would have taken her much longer to figure out that the man being beaten was a burglar, and she might not have found out at all if she was too hasty. She wasn’t under the delusion that she would now never make such a mistake, but she would make sure to practice caution to both prevent herself from any further misunderstandings, and to make her curses such that if she turned out to be wrong, they would not have permanent consequences, unlike what she had done to Robert.

Elise was in a good mood as she and Sophie made their way back to the castle. After the incidental vigilante justice, Sophie finally admitted that she didn’t remember the map as well as she thought she did, and they went back the way they had come until they arrived at the castle. They read in the library together for a little while after returning, then went back to their rooms for the night.

While laying in bed, Elise struggled to fall asleep. She had a strong idea of what she wanted to do to create her urban legend now, but she still wasn’t sure how she wanted to appear. She couldn’t pick anything that tied back to her too directly. Or at least, it couldn’t be something that tied back to the Grays. That meant that her black-haired, green-eyed half elf form was not the one she would continue using. She felt it wasn’t quite memorable enough either.

She ran through a list of different possibilities in her head. An old woman, a young girl, a burly giantess, an angelic Ainar, and more for humanoid forms, and then some animal forms as well. She snorted to herself as she imagined using an Omnivorous Cyclops Cow form. Just imagining one of those creatures standing in an alleyway staring down a thug was too comical for her to take seriously.

She leaned a bit toward bird forms, since she liked the idea of a raven or something watching over the alleyways and dishing out justice, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt it was somewhat impractical. Birds had good vision and good mobility, sure, but no matter what she transformed into, all her forms had the same issue: time limit and cooldown.

Why not just be a rabbit? she thought.

It didn’t have the cooldown issues at all, and it was memorable enough. It also probably stood out too much… but she didn’t need to start as a rabbit. She could always start as the old woman or the little girl or the giantess or the Ainar, and then change to the rabbit for the actual work.

The more she thought about it, the more she thought it worked out perfectly. It would actually make for an excellent urban legend if she always shifted back to the rabbit, because the rabbit was highly memorable, but starting as multiple different forms gave the impression that she could be anyone. It was pretty much exactly what Oberon had told her to do. The rabbit form would stand out a lot, but the form before the rabbit form wouldn’t.

She still laughed to herself as she imagined her rabbit self dishing out justice in an alleyway, but perhaps because it was her natural form, it didn’t seem quite as ridiculous as the cow form. Or maybe, the ridiculousness just felt more fitting, and a bit less absurd.

When she fell asleep, she was smiling. It had been a good day, and tomorrow, she would start her work as a Rabbit of Justice.

----------------------------------------

In the dungeon below the royal palace in Everspring, Robert Robertson felt oddly satisfied. Part of it was that despite being captured and having all his plans ruined, it was cathartic to finally tell someone about all that he had done. Revealing his whole plan like that had been foolish, but at the same time, it felt good. Even if he spent the rest of his life in prison, he might still become a legend.

The main reason he felt satisfied though was that, despite the fact that he was rotting in a dungeon, he was still gaining levels. They weren’t constant, but since being imprisoned, he had already gained two, and as a late-middle 7th tier, all levels were hard-earned. And the fact that he was still earning them meant that people were still being conned by him somewhere, even when his identity and actions should have been revealed by now.

He also wasn’t too worried about his future. Though he would likely spend the rest of his life in prison, it wouldn’t be too bad. He had no doubt angered quite a few people, but since he hadn’t killed anyone, there was no chance of execution or more corporeal punishment. He would plead guilty to lessen the punishment, and likely spend the rest of his life in a cell. If he was lucky, they might let him out early after a decade or two of good behavior. If he was luckier, someone might get him out before then to try to use him. Even if he was a career criminal, he was still a 7th tier with a Legendary Class, and his skills were useful.

On the night that Elise went out with Sophie, he was humming in his cell, wondering why he was all alone down there. There weren’t even any guards. Unfortunately, he had come from a businessman line, rather than a criminal line, so he didn’t have any lockpicking skills, but if he did, he might have been able to just walk out. He was looking around for any debris around, just incase he could do it anyway when he finally heard footsteps approaching. When they arrived in front of his cell, to his surprise, it was the king.

“Hello, Mr. Robertson!” said the king with a smile.

Robert knew that the king wasn’t human. He assumed that the man was some kind of fey. It would make sense. Corunia was the only nation in the world that allowed fey to roam at all even if they did need to be monitored and register with the kingdom. The fact that the king was a fey himself would explain how that law had ever gotten passed.

“I greet Your Majesty,” said Robert, bowing as best he could from his seated position.

“Oh, no need for formalities,” said the king, crouching down so that his eyes were level with Robert’s. “You see, I’m actually quite a big fan of your work.”

“Oh?”

“I think you have a lot of potential to shake the world up a bit,” continued the king. “And I love when the world gets shaken up, and I would feel absolutely terrible if I knew that I had been the one to cause your career to be cut short. You see, little Snowberry is an apprentice of mine, you could say, and you unfortunately got caught up in her training.

“Originally, I was just going to play a little prank on you. Lure you in with the promise of a naive young noblewoman, then have her vanish after you had fallen in love and make you wonder if you had perhaps gone crazy. Just a bit of heartbreak and confusion.”

Robert frowned.

“That didn’t end up happening, of course. I decided to use my little prank as the setup for her training, and then she went ahead and arrested you! Not that I’m angry about that. Not at all. It was well within her rights to do that, and I am very proud of her for making that decision without my input. It was an excellent display of freedom.

“However, I also want you to be able to continue your work. As I said, it would be a great shame if your journey was cut short here. Therefore, I haven’t actually told anyone about you yet. In fact, I don’t plan on telling anyone. I plan on letting you go.”

“Really?”

“On one condition,” said the king, raising a finger. “One simple little condition. It won’t even be difficult.”

Robert was intrigued, but wary.

“What condition?”

“I want you to hold onto a treasure of mine. You don’t have to protect it, or keep it secret, or really do anything in particular. In fact, you’re even free to sell it if you want to. The only thing you can’t do is give it to my apprentice.”

“I’m confused.”

“It will be easier to explain if I show you.” The king snapped his fingers and the manacles fell off and the cell door opened. “Follow me.”

Robert got up, rubbing his wrists, then followed as the king led him to a seemingly solid wall that opened up to reveal a secret passageway as they drew near.

“Did you know that the entire underside of Everspring is filled with these little tunnels?” said the king as they walked.

“I knew there was an extensive tunnel system, yes,” said Robert.

“Well, did you know that I was the one who commissioned them to be dug?”

“I did not. Were you also the one who set up the weather-controlling array?”

“No, actually. I have no idea who did that. This place was like that when I arrived. A beautiful pocket of spring in the middle of the coldest mountain range on the continent. That’s why I decided to settle here. It was nothing but nature at first, and I’ve tried my best to maintain the general aesthetic. I’m sure you know that the population here is very controlled. Even the population in the slums is controlled. I can’t have the city expanding too far out and ruining the valley, after all.

“Anyway, I’ve gotten a bit sidetracked. I commissioned these tunnels back in the early days of the city, before it could even be considered a city. Back when there were only a few hundred people living here, these tunnels were being dug all throughout the valley, all centered around the spot where my palace now sits.”

Robert stayed silent for a few seconds. He wasn’t a history expert, but as far as he knew, Everspring was many centuries old. Maybe even over a thousand years old. If this fey was not just the one who ruled the country, but the one who founded it, Robert had drawn the attention of someone far more powerful than he had ever considered. It almost made him shiver.

“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.

“I’m just making small talk,” said the king with a shrug. “It’s rare that I get to give anyone a tour, so I like to give a little history lesson when I can. Speaking of history, did you know that Archmage Anne Jelor actually grew up here? Most people don’t know much about her early life, but I had the privilege of knowing her as a child. She was quite precocious, as I’m sure you could guess. I was quite sad when she passed away…”

They walked for at least two miles, and all the while, the king kept talking about historical figures and events important enough to be remembered even after centuries as though they were fond personal memories. The further they went, the more Robert questioned his decision to keep following. It sounded like he was getting tangled up with someone who was practically on the level of a deity. Then again, if he didn’t, his Path might end there. And who knew? Perhaps working closer with this immortal fey was exactly what he needed to be able to reach the envied 9th tier and beyond.

When they finally started going upward again, Robert was sure that they had gone all the way to the edge of the city, though he never got a chance to confirm that suspicion. They didn’t make it all the way to the surface. Instead, Robert found himself in a large, circular room, the center of which was taken up by a dais that he recognized as a teleportation pad, though it was larger than any he had ever seen. On top of the dais was a nondescript carriage drawn by two horses.

“We’re here!” said the king. “Now, let me show you the treasure you’ll be taking care of.”

He walked up to the carriage and opened the door. Inside, rather than the normal seating Robert would have expected, the interior had been stripped, turning the carriage into little more than a crate on wheels. Inside this crate was something that he instantly recognized as the finale item from the auction. If not for the fact that he had seen it at the auction, Robert might not have thought much of it. However, knowing how much it was worth, he suddenly felt nervous.

“You recognize it, right?” asked the king.

“Yes,” said Robert. “You want me to hold onto this?”

“Yes! And as I said, you can do whatever you want with it. Sell it, give it away, open it… Whatever you want. You just can’t give it to my apprentice. Understand?”

Robert recalled the half-crazed look in the false noblewoman’s eyes when she was bidding on it, and nodded.

“Perfect!” said the king. “Before I let you go though, there are a few final details about this item that were not revealed in the auction that I feel I should inform you about. First, this box is in some way related to the gods. I don’t know how, but it is. Second, there is a very real chance that whatever is contained within the box is incredibly dangerous. Calamitously so, even. However, there is equal chance that whatever is inside is the most valuable item in the world. And even if it’s not, if you can figure out how to open the box, the box itself is highly valuable.”

Robert frowned. When the king used the words “calamitously dangerous,” he suddenly understood why he had been given all those history lessons on the walk over. Hearing those words from anyone else would have been concerning, but hearing them from the mouth of someone he now knew was likely over a thousand years old was a whole order of magnitude more serious.

“Why me?” asked Robert.

“Because I think it could be interesting,” said the king. “Anyway, this is your last chance to back out. If you turn down this offer, we can just walk back to the cell and pretend like none of this ever happened.”

“...You said I could do whatever I wanted with it, right?”

“Anything but give it to my apprentice, yes.”

“Does that include dumping it into the ocean?”

“Y’know, funnily enough, that’s exactly what my apprentice wanted to do with it. Yes, you are completely free to do that if you want.”

Hearing that the false noblewoman had wanted to do the same thing made Robert frown. He wasn’t usually one to hold a grudge, but he also wasn’t just going to forgive her so easily, and would gladly act to spite her. That didn’t mean he would unleash something “calamitously dangerous,” because of it, but doing exactly what she wanted still felt wrong. Besides, if it was that important, doing something with it might be the key for him to reach 9th tier…

“I accept,” he said.

“Perfect!” said the king. “In that case, you are now free to leave. Just tell me where you want to go, and I’ll calibrate the teleportation pad. If you have coordinates, even better. Ah, and before you go, take this.” The king handed Robert a scroll. “I’ll handle your auction purchases when the time comes. Just send me the details of how I should do that, and I’ll get it done and send them over to you. And if you have any further questions, feel free to write to me whenever you want.”

The king split in two, and both smiled at Robert while speaking in unison.

“I always have free time.”

Robert nodded, then gave the king the coordinates to the hideout he had prepared to retreat to after his Franz identity disintegrated. As the teleportation pad gathered mana, he got up into the driver’s seat of the carriage and grabbed the reins, his heart pounding. He had no idea if he had made the right decision, but it was far too late for regrets. The last thing he heard before the teleportation was the king’s voice again.

“Have fun!”