The hunter and his freshly flattened uniform flew back inside in an arch. A wooden table received him, then promptly snapped into pieces under his weight. He collapsed in its splintered wood, where he lay unconscious. Blood spurted from his nose, some having made it to Vivi’s fist.

  She looked for something to wipe her hand with. Her eyes panned to the Sylva Bloods’ uniform, and she wiped the blood onto the cleanest white of the man’s clothes.

  “Sorry,” she then said to Essi. “Maybe I’m a little evil, after all.”

  Essi snorted. “The punch was deserved. He’s a murderer.”

  The foyer of the town hall looked more like a small souvenir shop. Shelves displayed pins, booklets, novels, decorative knives—and religious items of course: rosaries, prayer beads, and tiny ether containers used to toss into a river for the gods to collect. There was a small counter in the corner, but clerks or any staff were missing. Vivi guessed the shop acted more as an interesting reception for visitors.

  A door opened to the side. Vivi was ready to call her sword, until Lortel came out. She dragged a third ether hunter on the floor, clad in the same Sylva Bloods uniform.

  “This man is probably an enemy,” Lortel said, tossing him onto the same pile with the plump-faced man. He was the third of the five cloaked men. “The family is in that room. They seem to believe I’ll eat them.”

  Essi nodded. She still seemed wary of Lortel’s appearance, but the nod had clear appreciation in it. She and her father stepped into the room.

  A woman’s surprised voice called, “Essi?” This was followed by hugs and tears, which Vivi probably wasn’t invited to.

  Vivi closed the door and let the family have their reunion in peace. She turned to Lortel instead. They still had a lot to plan and discuss. Vivi would have liked to sit down, but the table was unfortunately crushed and bloody.

  The sight of the two unconscious hunters placed doubts in her head. “It’s going to be hard to clear Essi’s reputation, isn’t it?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t help with that,” Lortel said, “considering every human wishes to toss me into a fiery death at the sight of my face.”

  “Escape would be a much easier option,” Vivi said. “We could bring Essi and her family to the fifth level right now.”

  “If that is what you wish, that is what we will do,” Lortel said. “Escaping would not be a challenge. But do remember that the humans here have families as well. Extended stay in human lands could be dangerous for us.”

  That was a good point. Vivi still wasn’t certain what the best thing to do was. The humans here weren’t evil. Essi’s family had good people. Forcing them to abandon their lives here would be regretful. She tapped her finger on the counter, then said, “Lucius… What if we try to clear my reputation as well?”

  Lucius appeared from her core. “That’s always possible. We just have to… change your usual strategy a little bit, Vivi. It won’t work.”

  “What do you mean?” Vivi asked.

  “You’re a nice person, Vivi,” Lucius said. “You want to apologize. That won’t work. We can show up in Surchester again to present ourselves and beg for forgiveness, and at most, we’ll be placed under someone’s boot to perform labor.”

  “That’s… true,” Vivi said. “But I don’t want to apologize. I’m beyond that.”

  Lucius nodded. “Then, you must understand how the ether hunters actually operate, Vivi.”

  She waited for him to continue.

  “It’s simple. It’s in their name.” Lucius sat on the counter, forming a nonchalant loaf. “They want ether, Vivi. Every single hunting company wants ether. Some exceptions like Essi might actually want to protect humans as well, and a lot of hunters enjoy killing monsters, obviously, but the single most important objective behind every hunting company is earning ether. A lot of it.”

  “So you’re suggesting that I should pay my way out of this?” Vivi asked.

  “That could work,” Lucius said. “But you also wouldn’t gain anyone’s respect. If you share your ether reserves, you’ll only be treated as a walking ether container.” His sharp eyes met hers. “If you want to gain the respect of hunters, you must force them to respect you. And you must prove to those weaker than you that their only option to achieve their own goals, to obtain ether, is to follow you.”

  “That sounds nice and optimistic,” Vivi said. “If we were selling apples, we’d be looking for a starving town. But where is the starving town? Everyone is already well fed here. How are we supposed to convince any hunters to follow us instead of their hunting companies?”

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  “We have big guns now,” Lucius said. “And our swords are the best. Many would suggest assassinating the leader of a hunting company to take their place.”

  Vivi frowned at him. “That will cause more problems than solve.”

  “After that, heroic deeds and saving people or reclaiming lost cities, and all that work as well,” Lucius said. “As long as by doing so, you don’t steal ether from others.”

  Heroic deeds, huh? Vivi was certainly strong enough to defeat storms and actually defend humanity now. But actually finding opportunities for that could be problematic.

  “So essentially,” Vivi said, “we’re currently being hunted by every hunting company that exists, and while running from them, we’d need to perform enough heroic deeds to make them not hunt us anymore?”

  Lucius’s head bopped sideways. Vivi could only compare the gesture to a shrug. “It does sound difficult, I guess,” he said.

  Vivi bit her lip and opened the door to where Essi’s family was. The room turned out to be the wheel chamber, filled with gears and machinery that operated the mill. Everything seemed to be disconnected right now. The wheel outside must have been spinning on its own.

  Essi seemed to be trying to tell everyone what was happening, but conversation paused as Vivi entered. For once, the treatment her arrival received wasn’t outright hostile. Essi’s family looked like a lovely bunch of people. Her grandmother studied Vivi’s raincoat, and Essi’s mother was clad in a nice blouse. Only her brother looked like a bit of a brat, with a sharp face that said he liked to argue with frustration and anger as his arguments, but even he didn’t scowl at Vivi.

  “You must be Vivian,” Essi’s mother said. “Thank you for saving my daughter.”

  Vivi lowered her head in hopes to show she wasn’t a threat. Now was not the time to take Lucius’s advice to command people. She said, “And thank you for raising someone who aspires to be an actual hero,” and she honestly meant it.

  Essi’s mother was taken aback.

  “I’m sorry for getting involved with all of you,” Vivi said. “I’m known as a bit of a villain. But the truth is, Essi’s hunting company is trying to kill her unjustly, and they’re trying to hold all of you hostage until Essi returns her spirit. For the time being, you will all have to leave the town with us.”

  The father was the one to speak. “You’re going to make all of us into fugitives. Refugees.”

  His tone was stern. Vivi matched it. “Essi is my friend. I will not let anyone kill her. By protecting Essi, I place all of you into danger. That means I will have to protect you as well. I’m sorry, but you will have to do as I say.”

  The family fell silent, difficult expressions on their faces.

  “The hunters are corrupt,” Essi’s brother muttered through gritted teeth. “Essi, I never believed you deserved to be sent to Sierra. But you worked hard. The hunters sure as hell don’t have any right to kill you now!”

  “Can you protect us?” her father asked.

  “Looks like she intends to,” Essi’s grandmother said. “I am inclined to trust her. Vivian, for our trouble, will you tell me who made your raincoat?”

  “Not now, mom,” Essi’s mother whispered.

  A smile escaped onto Vivi’s lips, but only for a moment. “I’ll let you meet them personally.” Although, you already saw one of the makers.

  “Essi,” Vivi said. “We need to decide where we’re going to teleport next. Everyone else, please wait.”

  They moved back to the foyer. “I’m considering buying you from the Sylva Bloods,” Vivi said. “That would probably be the simplest way to put a stop to this.”

  “They’ll most likely refuse the deal,” Essi said. “Ellinoir is actively buying spirits right now. She wouldn’t want to lose one, even if you pay an absurd price.”

  “I thought so,” Vivi said. “Nobody wants to make deals with me thanks to my reputation. Which is why I intend to force the hunters to listen to us.”

  Essi’s lips remained doubtful. She shared the troubled look her family did. “If you’re planning on doing something crazy, I doubt I can help. I’m not strong like you are. You’d knock me out faster than you did Olaf.” She glanced at the man on the table.

  “You’ll beat most hunters with my runeswords,” Vivi said. She summoned her backup sword, the simple red hardsteel one below Moonlight, to Essi. “It works here just like it did when we sparred in Paradise.”

  Essi accepted it. “What are you planning?”

  Vivi only had ideas. She thought for a bit, then asked, “A storm was spawning near Ranewal, right? When is it breaking?”

  “The fifth of this month, sixteen o’clock,” Essi said.

  “That’s today,” Vivi said. “Can you go over the details one more time?”

  Essi began. The surge was assigned to three hunting companies, the strongest of which were the Lifeweavers. Veronica herself would be dealing with the storm. Instead of planting ether sticks, the hunters planned on deliberately crafting a surge hazard to create the strongest possible boss monster.

  “And how strong was the storm?” Vivi asked.

  “Red,” Essi said.

  “What’s that in numbers?”

  Essi batted an eye, as if this was common knowledge, but said, “Red means it’s above ten million ether. The detectors can’t count beyond that. Closer calculations showed that it’s probably around fifteen million ether.”

  “What’s the chance they fail to defeat the storm?” Vivi asked. “What’s the maximum amount of ether Veronica can hold?”

  “I’m not certain,” Essi said. “Since they’re not using ether sticks, it can’t be more than twenty million. Willum? What do you think?”

  Lucius spoke instead. “If the storm is worth fifteen million ether, it’s unlikely Veronica will fail with three hunting companies supporting her. Twenty five million could give trouble.”

  So it would be unlikely that the storm fell loose… Vivi wondered if they should check out the area anyway. It was close to home. If a storm did fall apart there, monsters could make it to Fellwater. Essi wasn’t protecting Swampsong either now. Whether a replacement would be present was entirely up to Ellinoir.

  They discussed for a short while longer, asking Lortel’s opinion as well, before they cuffed and tied all of Sylva Blood’s hunters, carrying them and leading Essi’s family to the teleporter.

  All of the demons were still there. Attacks hadn’t come. The hunters must have presumed that the teleporter would be trapped and too dangerous to directly attack.

  Vivi asked for Anthony’s opinion and discussed with the demons for ten minutes longer until everyone agreed on their next destination.

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