Tratbone.
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"Do you think that girl will be back?"
"Which girl?"
"That girl, that one named Carole. Didn't you know her? She's one or the preetiest girl here."
"Ah... But Goffekarg had set his eyes on her. Don't you think she'd run away?"
"You don't know a thing. We had him here, so she wouldn't actually run away even if she could."
Two men were conversing idly while guarding the back door of the mansion, cigarettes smoking relaxedly in between their fingers.
They had never imagined it, that at this seemingly peaceful day, they would be attacked by some intruders!
Before they could even see the figure of the one who attacked them, stems of ice rose had bound them in place, leaving them with no way to move their fingers, let alone their bodies.
Carole and Tizmilly showed themselves up after Tizmilly paralized them. Then, before their horror-filed eyes, Tizmilly raised her dagger, then hit them on the back until they lost their consciousness.
After checking that there was no guards left, and that the was just as what Carole said: there were only two guards positioned here, Tizmilly sheathed her dagger back into its sheath, before picking up a sword from one of the guards.
She checked the quality and the balance of the sword, finding that while not as good as what Theo had bought for her before, it was at least good enough even though it looked cheap.
Tizmilly strapped the sword on her waist and then picked up the other's sword, and presented it to Carole.
"Here, Miss Carole also needs to protect yourself when I couldn't protect you."
Carole hesitated, but she in the end still received the sword even though her face was still looked unsure, like she had just received something she didn't even quite understand yet.
"I don't have confidence in my strength, though..." Carole mumbled as she followed Tizmilly's lead into the mansion.
What welcomed them inside was the kitchen. Inside, there were a lot of people, about ten of them. But they weren't one of the Rats. They were people like Carole, children of people who were indebted to the Rats.
And they were still young, obviously, with the oldest being only at his 14s. They seemed to be cooking something before Tizmilly and Carole entered the room.
They were eyeing Tizmilly suspiciously until Carole showed up from her behind.
"Sis Carole!"
The oldest boy immediately recognized her the moment he looked at her.
"Ben... Everyone, I am back."
And Carole also seemed to recognize all of them.
However, they weren't welcomed her, and instead sending her worried gazes.
"Why did you come back? They will really do something bad to you!" The oldest boy, Ben, immediately asked her in a panicked voice.
"That's right, Sis Carole! I saw it, how that fatty bastard, Goffekarg, mumbling about bringing you into his room!"
"You have to run away!"
And the other kids also started to urging her to run. Their worries looked genuine to Tizmilly, and that was indeed the case.
Carole raised her hands to calm them down, then gave them a reassurring smile.
"Be quiet, guys. Don't worry about me. I am here to save Timmy, and you all. Right, Tizmilly?"
'That was not the plan,' Tizmilly couldn't say that before these innocent children's eyes. So she nodded, before she threw her face away.
"B-but how will you fight them? They were strong, and there were many of them!"
"... We won't fight them, so don't worry." Tizmilly was the one who answered that question, before she tried to change the topic. "More importantly, do you kids know where Miss Carole's little brother's whereabout?"
Carole recalled that they were racing against time after she heard Tizmilly's words.
"T-that's right! We didn't have time!" She gasped, before immediately urged the children to say whatever they know.
One of them, the youngest girl, seemed to know something. She said that she had once ever seen when Timmy was being dragged away by two men into the basement.
Carole's face turned pale after she heard that.
"So they really put him into the basement!" She muttered while gritting her teeth.
Tizmilly wanted to ask her what kind of room the basement was that she reacted so grimly after hearing that her little brother was inside that room, but before she could utter a word, Carole immediately rushed out of the kitchen.
"Timmy is in danger! Let's go, Tizmilly!"
She only said that before she opened the door hastily and stepped into the corridor beyond that door.
"Wait—"
Tizmilly saw a thug in the corridor at the moment, just right in front of Carole. Both Tizmilly and the thug were shocked, but then Carole raised her sword and pierced the man's stomach, which surprised everyone, even herself.
But Carole recovered quickly. Her anger helped her there, as she immediately pulled the sword again, and slashed the man's throat before he could even react properly.
The sight reminded Tizmilly with how Theo killed those five men who were guarding the front door. She knew that at the moment, they were indeed didn't have much choices since time was decreasing every seconds for them, but still, seeing people she knew killing people was still a shocking sight for her.
However, she then noticed Carole's trembling hands. She noticed the fear on her face, the guilt, the nausea, but more than anything, it was anger. Anger toward those people who had destroyed their lives.
Then a thought crossed Tizmilly's mind.
'If Mister Roost had never extended his hand toward me... Would I also started hating or even killing Lord Agraviel, and my family, even that girl?'
She found that the answer was that it was highly likely to happen.
...
Carole calmed down after she inhaled some more breath. She then turned to look at Tizmilly.
Tizmilly finally returned to reality when her eyes met Carole's determined eyes.
After a pause, they nodded to each other, and advanced into the building after telling the children to hide somewhere until they returned to the kitchen to fetch them.
That's right, after she hesitated for while, Tizmilly decided to also save these children.
She had made her mind up.
If previously she was just wanted to save Carole and her little brother because she thought that they were too pitiful, now it was different.
Now she know, that there was darkness even inside the very city she had grown up until now, and accepted it as a fact. Carole and the children were living inside the shadow until now. It didn't suit them, and they were suffering inside it, so she would extended her hand toward them, just like when Theo had extended his hand toward her.
They met some more thugs on the way to the basement, but Tizmilly handled them all swiftly with her sword. No one was killed, but she had wounded them so bad they wouldn't be able to fight for a while.
She felt somewhat spent by the time they reached the door leading to the basement, but they were mostly unscatched even after encountered more than 20 thugs on the way.
The opened it and was greeted by a descending stairs with Gem lamps placed on the wall as lighting.
They walked down the staircase carefully.
The place was quiet. No sounds could be heard. And as they descended further, the air started to become damber and damber, and at some point, the metallic tang of blood grew thick enough to taste.
"Timmy..."
Carole's worry multiplied after she realized that the place was even worst than she had imagined before.
Tizmilly herself was not in a better state. She wanted to throw up and immediately fled out of the filthy place. But she endured it, because she had decided to face her reality.
Then they stepped on the stone floor of the basement.
The basement was wider than they expected, but with the atmosphere that fit their imagination.
Damp air, lack of light source, and bloodied floor surface. Instead of a basement, the room looked more like a torture chamber.
Carole's eyes immediately locked on a small, silhouette shackled to the cold stone. She wanted to rushed toward him, but a hand clutched her shoulder from the side to stop her.
It was Tizmilly's hand, and when she looked at her, Tizmilly was unsheathing her sword while sharply looking at a man who was sitting on a chair that was placed at the middle of the room, whose eyes looking at Timmy as if he was admiring a piece of art instead of seeing a dying boy.
Slowly, Tizmilly and Carole's eyes then met the man's eyes as the man shifted his gaze toward them.
The man was bald, with big figure and belly folded with fat.
Tizmilly instantly knew that the man was different from the thugs she had been fighting until now.
Instead of a thug, this man felt more like a monster. Big monster.
And for some reason, she felt like she was facing a Boss Floor like The Rain Serpent when she was locking eyes with the man.
"What do you think?" The man suddenly spoken.
"Do you two prefer soulless vessel, or living vessel?"
He was asking about something to the two of them, but non of them understand what he was talking about. They were speaking the same language, but still, they couldn't get what he meant by saying these words.
Instead, Tizmilly more focused on whether the man would attack them or not.
Tension was at the peak point.
They kept staring at each other. No one voice a word. Not the man, not Tizmilly, not even Carole.
Then—
At that moment.
The ceiling of the room collapsed.
""Huh!?""
Everyone inside the room startled by the unexpected event.
"Miss Carole, face down!"
Thinking that it was a trap or explosive set by The Rats, Tizmilly racoiled and urged Carole to follow her. They lay their bodies down to avoid debris and stones fell from the collapsed ceiling as they protected their heads with their hands.
Once the debris stopped falling, dust filled the room.
Tizmilly cautiously pushed her body up with her sword in hand, her eyes scanning her surrounding.
Finally, the dust curtain subsided. Tizmilly looked at the center of the room, and saw the culprit behind the collapse.
It was a muscular man in tuxedo, who almost looked like a giant with his height of over 2 meters.
Then, in front of him, a man with slimmer build stood like with a Gemgun in hand, reloading it swiftly. Falling from the higher floors seemed to be nothing for him. And more importantly, Tizmilly knew him. It was Theo.
"Mister Roost!" Tizmilly called out to him.
Theo turned to looked at her, then to the room, to the tuxedo man before him, to the fat man across the room, and lastly, to the boy who was shackled to the wall.
Then he aimed his Gemgun toward the man in tuxedo.
The man slowly turned his fists red, like a heated steel, in response.
Behind Theo, the fat man also didn't want to be left behind. He picked up a battleaxe from the floor, his cataracted eyes glared at Theo.
"I'll face them, go get the boy and Carole out of the building!" Theo yelled at Tizmilly as he pulled the trigger.