Teddie watched as Maia flung a bandit into the distance with her spear. She was then shortly occupied by another bandit attempting to clash with her again.

  Teddie’s song flowed through the air, and the notes gave Maia as much strength as they could. But there were a lot of people, and Teddie himself wasn’t free from targeting. A crossbow bolt just barely missed his head. Maia moved in front of a second one to cut it apart.

  “This is bad. I don’t know why the whole parade showed up now of all times,” Maia said. “You’re doing great but if you’re a target I don’t know if I can keep up.”

  Maia ran forwards to strike apart that bandit’s crossbow and kick them in the stomach away, but another one got back up and tried to jump at Teddie again. The boy managed to jump out of the way, hoping to dodge the sword strikes until Maia came back to save him.

  And that she did, running forward to stab at the bandit. This forced the bandit to divert their attention to Maia as she tried to disarm him. Teddie took a few more steps back to safety, singing his song in order to boost Maia’s abilities as much as he could. The guard had a second bandit beginning to attack her, but the boost in strength was just enough for her to keep up.

  Teddie backed up a bit, but his back felt like it ran into a person. Then, the cold feeling of a blade was felt across his neck as he was lifted off the ground.

  “Eep-!”

  The poor boy had gotten caught, and had a weapon to his neck as the girl capturing him held him up high. “I got him! Stop fighting or else you know what happens!”

  Maia was in the middle of beating down the two bandits that were attacking her at once, but she saw Teddie get captured and paused. The bandits got back up and surrounded her, as Teddie sweated nervously. This was bad, really bad.

  “What the hell are all your problems?” Maia complained. “We’re just taking a walk? What benefits do you get from attacking a single guard and a kid?”

  “We just said, we’re picking you all off one by one. Though, there was also one thing…” one of the bandits surrounding Maia said.

  “Yeah, this little problem here was a part of that carriage wasn’t he? Twerp and his friends tied down our boss, and we haven’t forgiven him for that!” The girl with the sword to Teddie’s neck stated.

  “That was your boss?” Teddie asked. As a response, the blade to his neck became closer.

  “He most certainly was not happy with you, or your friends!” said the girl. “So. We figured taking one of ‘em would be a great way to pay them back.”

  “Y-You’re kidding…” Teddie said.

  “He’s just a kid!” Maia said. “Don’t you have any soul?”

  “Certainly a powerful kid. I could see him being trouble. We probably aren’t gonna kill him though, he could be useful. Especially when we break down your guard soon enough.”

  “W-What? Where’d you get that confidence from?”

  “Eh. It doesn’t matter,” one of the men said. “You won’t live to see it.”

  The man was about to raise his sword to strike at Maia, but before he could swing it downwards, he was stopped. He looked towards his hand, and saw a vine tying his hand, preventing him from moving.

  “Huh…? Hey!” The man said, before even more vines rose out of the ground to tie them down.

  “What?” The woman holding Teddie hostage said. She went for her sword to attack Teddie’s neck, but before she could move, a golden blur came forward and struck her in the face, sending her flying. The golden cloak flowed as it landed, and the masked-wearing boy stood in front of Teddie. He looked back, and saw even more vines coming out to restrain even more bandits, and a familiar white-haired girl casting magic around them.

  “Teddie!” Adelyn shouted.

  “Sorry it took so long,” Ed said. “Those stairs are a pain in the neck to get down.”

  “Get them!” The few remaining bandits decided to go all-in on attack, as they saw the other kids jump in.

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  Teddie didn’t have time to respond to his friends, as he began to sing another song of strength. Maia, Adelyn, and Edward would all feel their own powers be improved, as the clash with these bandits continued.

  “That should be the last of them,” Adelyn said. They had tied up every bandit that had tried to attack them. Restrained down by Ed’s golden ropes and Viridia’s vines. Teddie looked around nervously to see if there were any more.

  “I’m surprised you two got into so much trouble,” Ed said. “What’s up with that?”

  “They have a vendetta…” Teddie muttered. “Against us… because of that thief we beat earlier. Apparently it was their leader…”

  “You’re kidding,” Adelyn said.

  “Their leader?” Ed said. “No wonder these guys were so pathetic, if they were led by that guy.”

  “I wouldn’t say so. There are a lot of them…” Maia groaned, getting back up. “And they can stretch our forces thin. They were talking about some big attack later, that’s awful. Who knows what would happen if they got the Governor-candidate.”

  “Well, wouldn’t it be safer to move her near the Lovebird?” Teddie suggested. “He seems to like her… so… maybe he would be better protection?”

  “That was our first instinct… but the Lovebird’s protection only goes so far,” Maia said. “That led to her first almost-capture, if Max wasn’t there then we would be in a lot of trouble. That’s why we decided the hotel tower was safer, and more luxurious too.”

  “Well,” Adelyn said. “You also dedicate a lot of guards to her.”

  “We have to. Sorry for all of the trouble,” Maia said, getting up. “This is such a mess, I’m going to have to tell everyone about this. Apologies for making your visit harder than it needs to be.”

  “I disagree,” Adelyn interrupted her apology. “This isn’t harder than it needs to be, we’re here to do exactly what we need to do. And that is to get ourselves a brand new Governor!”

  “Yeah. Don’t worry about us. We’re here to help. Like we’ve been doing for the past few cities,” Ed added.

  “I suppose that’s our thing, now,” Teddie laughed a little bit. “Though, this is a bigger task than we’d expected. We’ll manage.”

  Maia looked at all of the kids, and gave a weary smile. “I suppose you kids are more persistent than I thought. Fine, maybe you’ll be the key that this city has so desperately needed.”

  As all three of them nodded at each other, a new resolve was formed. With their captured bounty, they headed back into the city.

  The four of them headed back into the safezone, and as they did, Maia had split with them to lock up the bandits that they had captured. That left them wandering on the streets, headed towards the hotel.

  They approached the hotel, but as they did, a strange pink glow appeared from the top of the building, flying all the way down. People from buildings nearby began to mutter or look out in curiosity, but the three kids recognized the divine light immediately.

  “Hello, everyone!”

  Cozy landed on the ground, but there was an unexpected tagalong with her. In her stunning dress and glasses, the governor-candidate of Love was holding her hand.

  “Eh? Is that…?” Teddie asked.

  “Oh, you haven’t met her. Phiona, introduce yourself,” Cozy said.

  The governor bowed, introducing herself to Teddie. “It’s… It’s a pleasure to meet you… Teddie. I am the… governor candidate… of Love…”

  “Good, not much of a stutter. We’ll keep working on that,” Cozy smiled at her.

  “It’s… nice to meet you, Phiona… I’m Teddie… and this is Mr. Bear…” Teddie said, putting out his bear for Phiona to see.

  “Good to… meet you,” the two of them looked at each other.

  “Though, bigger question, what is she doing out of her safezone? I thought Max would be hellbent on keeping her there,” Ed asked.

  “About that. I convinced him otherwise!” Cozy gave a thumbs-up. “It’s much healthier for both the city and the people if its governor got out and understood everything going on. So, that’s what we’re doing!”

  “Where are her guards, then?” Adelyn tilted her head. “She’s such an important person that I’d assume we’re gonna need a lot of those.”

  “We’re her guards!”

  “““Huh?!”””

  The three of them stopped confused, as they stared at both Phiona and Cozy innocently smiling at the two of them.

  “Are you serious?” Ed asked. “Guarding someone this important… we’ve never…”

  “Well, then that’s our challenge to overcome!” Cozy said. “We’re never gonna back down from a challenge, and it would be better for her to have more friendly faces than bureaucratic ones around her.”

  “I mean… I suppose we are pretty strong,” Adelyn pondered aloud. “And helping out the governor directly does sound nice.”

  “But… we had a run in with the bandits that we dealt with earlier. They have a vendetta against us,” Teddie said. “Are we sure we can handle it?”

  “Absolutely. I mean, we’ve literally met God, right? A few bandits shouldn’t be a problem,” Cozy responded.

  “I suppose so,” Ed said. “If this is what’s gonna get us our approval, I suppose I’m in.”

  “Yeah. We trusted you to help us solve this, so if this is what we have to do…” Adelyn said. “Then we’re gonna do it the best we can!”

  Teddie relaxed, seeing his friends so confident. It made him feel better, especially with all of their newfound strength.

  “I’m… I’m so glad to work with you all!” Phiona said. “I want to become the best governor I can be!”