I was tired from my previous excursion the night before. I slept easily. Even through rain.

  When I woke up my stomach was snug with something tight. I glanced towards what it was and it was an arm.

  The person connected to the arm was Mariel.

  Apparently when I shifted, even just the small amount it woke her.

  She squinted and blinked, adjusting her eyes to the bright sky.

  I began to sit up. “What’re you doing here Mariel?”

  She sat up as well and fixed her hair. “Same thing you were. Sleeping.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Right, I get that part. How did you find me? Why did you find me?”

  Mariel leaned forward and took my hand. “Cade, you are an incredible, strong, perfect person. Everyone you have in your life right now that you consider close feels it mutually.”

  Right, I nodded. “Well yes, but–”

  “No, no but’s.” She started. “That means I am the very extension of you that reflects your best parts and worst parts of you. In other words, I knew exactly what you’d do, and where you’d go after.”

  My eyes widened a little. “But how? I hadn’t slept on a roof before.”

  She let out a soft laugh. “You’re adorable. I know that, but I also knew you never found out your birth was illegal before. It was an unprecedented night, meaning you’d also do something unprecedented.”

  That made a lot of sense.

  I looked out over the rest of the city. “Do we have to leave just yet and go back to people?”

  Mariel took a step closer to me. “Uh-uh.”

  I took a look back at her and even after sleeping, her hair was perfectly golden. Her eyes were an even deeper green than I’d noticed before now. And her skin was absorbing the sunlight giving her a glow more beautiful than the very sun itself.

  My heart melted.

  Naturally my arms drooped into a hug.

  We spent a while on the roof, we were alone but we didn’t even kiss. We talked, held hands, and enjoyed the view and the moment. The rest of the world didn’t matter at that moment.

  Eventually we dropped into a dark, empty alley. We emerged into the city and the clutter of people masked the fact we were emerging from the alley.

  It wasn’t illegal to walk in alleys, and it wasn’t illegal to stand on the top of a roof, but basically everything else I had done the night before was illegal. Not to mention my very existence was illegal.

  So it was a good thing there was such a crowd.

  After a few minutes of walking through the crowd of people, Mariel grabbed my hand and yanked me towards a vendor.

  “Hey! What was that?” I exclaimed.

  She already flew the money onto the vendor's table and flung me away again.

  “What was–” I started.

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  Mariel picked up one of my hands and I looked down at what she was doing.

  She had bought a pair of long, black gloves. She slipped them onto my hands one at a time.

  The glove itself wasn’t thick, but was made from a weave that was extremely high quality.

  They went up to around my forearms, maybe closer to my elbows.

  “What’s this for?”

  She brought her lips to my ear. “If you’re dousing the ground in blood you don’t want any on your hands, also for protection.”

  I nodded. “Makes sense, thank you Mariel.”

  The gloves were resistant to both blades and magic, to an extent of course.

  When I was staring at Mariel someone had bumped into her. I caught her in one hand and pushed the person away with the other.

  First I checked on Mariel and she was alright. Then I glanced at the other person. “Hey man, what was that?”

  The air around me changed. I could feel something was happening.

  It wasn’t good.

  I didn’t care about the man who shoved her anymore. I grabbed Mariel and we left. Dark alley to dark alley. Anything to keep the sunlight off us.

  When I made my way to the source of the issue I examined the scene.

  It was my dirty work last night.

  The scene was far more gruesome than I thought. Wounds looked partially cauterized. At first that doesn’t sound crazy horrible, but that act alone from the blade’s abilities made the scene far more gruesome. Infection spread in some before they died.

  I intended to kill, but this? This was on a whole other level.

  Was I okay with this?

  A soldier nearby grieving his friend’s death grabbed an innocent man from the crowd.

  The man’s spine was broken before I had a chance to say or do anything.

  As the man was cut, broken, slashed, burned, and made a display out in public. It made everyone take a half step back and droop their heads low.

  They were afraid.

  We left before much longer and made our way back to my house.

  I opened the door and there were approximately fifty people inside my house.

  All of them stopped talking immediately.

  “What? Who? Why?”

  I was blanking. Why were there around fifty people in my home?

  Mariel helped me finish my sentences. “What is going on here, who are all of you, and why are you all here?”

  More than ten people started talking and I shot the room a look.

  My mother then emerged into the chaos.

  “Hi sweetie, we were so worried you didn’t return last night. Where were you?”

  I was still pissed. “I was out.”

  She held a smile.

  “Mom?” I started

  She nodded.

  “Why are there more strangers in this room than brain cells that dad has?”

  The room erupted in laughter.

  “I was waiting for Vance’s prodigy to say something like that!” A voice roared from a far.

  What the fuck was going on?

  After a long conversation with food and drinks the story came to be a bit clearer.

  These were the last generation of dungeon dwellers.

  Apparently my parents used to be what is commonly known as a “monster merc” which is a mercenary for monsters.

  That’s where he met the adventurers in the room with me. However, they attempted to change the way the empire worked by capitalizing the other aspects of Krail. For example, running mines, dungeons, even chopping wood.

  They were trying to give the people another supplier of their ores, protection, wood, clothing, etc. In the hopes the people may see another prospect in the empire to give them opportunity.

  It was shut down and all of them were told to find a new job. So most people naturally found their own ways in the world, such as Fenrick picking up smithing and becoming a legendary blacksmith.

  Eric and Taylor were the only two given a pass. That was they at the time were the only A-rank Adventurers in all of Krail. Either the guild was going to spread their S-rank parties thin, or simply allow one A-rank party to exist.

  Given a perfect track record they were allowed to keep their jobs as adventurers.

  It felt too unreal.

  I didn’t even know what to feel.

  This was far too overwhelming.

  “So.” My voice was low, the room quieted. “You were on trial once for defiance and given a way out… but then you turned around and had me. Defying the empire?”

  The room itself held its breath.

  Had they not thought that through?

  My father stepped forward near me. “No, son. Your mother had been pregnant before the trial. This was nearly seventeen years ago. Your mother masked your pregnancy and when the time was right, we forged papers. We weren’t letting you go.”

  I guess that’s an okay reason. I’m still a felon but hey they had a night of fun once and now I’m killing people and pledging allegiance to a goddess the empire clearly knows nothing about. All is well that ends well.

  Right?

  I took Mariel’s hand and walked past the people to my room.

  When I shut the door my eyes naturally walked to the book.

  In the past the booklet revealed itself when I did something pretty major like this. Or when I had a complete understanding of the previous section.

  I’ve done everything the booklet asked of me and even took high risk situations.

  Yet the booklet’s last section remained unchanged.

  Ineligible.

  All of the work I had done felt like I was more unsure of everything than I had been prior.

  My eyes closed and I let out a deep breath. “Mariel, if I wind up losing myself and I become something I can’t stop alone. What would you do?”

  I felt the steps on the floor draw closer to my body.

  Warm hands reached slowly around me. Under my arms, through my coat, through my shirt, and placed on my abs. The rest of her pressed slowly into me as well.

  Her breath fell on my neck. “I couldn’t forget you Cade. I love you too much.”