Delilah moved carefully through the eastern part of the village. From the outside it looked like she was truly carrying out the task: peeking into shops, stepping into alleys, pausing by market stalls.

  But in reality, she wasn’t searching for the village leader. She had another goal.

  The farther she moved from the main streets, the more the surroundings changed. Bright shop windows gave way to blank concrete walls covered in crooked symbols, and the familiar street noise slowly dissolved into the silence of back alleys. The road narrowed until it became a tight passage between worn-down buildings.

  At the very end stood several people.

  They weren’t selling anything. They weren’t shouting prices.

  They simply leaned against cracked concrete and watched in silence. Their gazes were almost physical. Anyone who stepped past the invisible boundary of the entrance immediately fell under careful scrutiny.

  In this place, you could buy anything: information, poison, weapons, documents… or delivery to any location.

  While walking through the black market, Delilah immediately noticed the man she needed. A man in a dark cloak sat on an overturned crate, idly turning rings on his fingers. His face was hidden beneath a hood. He didn’t call out to customers or show any initiative.

  She approached him.

  The man raised his eyes and saw that she was simply standing there, staring at him.

  “Mute?” he asked calmly when he noticed she didn’t open her mouth.

  She nodded.

  He handed her a piece of parchment and a pen.

  Without hesitation, she wrote:

  "I’m fine. Don’t look for me. Don’t try to save me."

  The man didn’t read the message. He simply folded the parchment in half.

  “Where to?” he asked, unfolding a map of the state divided into thirteen sectors. Above each sector number was its own price.

  She pointed to Sector Thirteen and marked the symbol of her former group roughly where their squad was located.

  The man nodded.

  “Hm. I know people there. It’ll reach them.”

  She handed over the money. He neatly folded the note and slipped it into his sleeve.

  The deal was done. No one asked unnecessary questions.

  Later, Delilah walked farther away and found a narrow alley between stone columns.

  She lowered herself to the ground, pulled her knees to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them.

  Her gaze was empty, fixed on the cobblestones.

  Faces surfaced in her memory.

  Those who once walked beside her. Those who called her by name even though she couldn’t answer. Those who covered her back.

  She had written that they shouldn’t save her, but her heart still tightened painfully.

  Her fingers slowly clenched the fabric of her cloak.

  Then several figures approached her.

  “Well, well… what’s a little girl doing in a place like this all alone?”

  ______

  1991 was marching through the southern part of the village without slowing down his momentum.

  “HEY! DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE MY FAMILY IS?!”

  Passersby flinched, someone covered their ears, merchants shot him annoyed looks, and one woman quickly pulled her child away from him.

  “MY FAMILY IS HERE, RIGHT?! SO WHO CAN HELP ME FIND THEM?!”

  A security overseer a large man in a gray uniform approached him quickly.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked irritably.

  “Looking for my family!” 1991 answered without the slightest embarrassment.

  “What family?”

  “I was told they’re here!”

  The overseer realized words wouldn’t help and pulled out a scanner, running it along 1991’s arm.

  The device beeped softly.

  The screen displayed a status: Gifted.

  The overseer narrowed his eyes.

  “So… you’re talking about family, huh?”

  “Yeah, them! Help me find them with that strange device of yours. I’m sure you can locate them quickly!”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Hold on. You’re supposed to have escorts. Where are they?”

  “We split up,” 1991 answered honestly. “We’re looking for the leader of this village.”

  The overseer looked surprised, then suspicious.

  “And why do you need him?”

  “To talk.”

  The overseer was about to say something when a shout suddenly came from the market.

  “Thief! Catch him!”

  “Find your group and stop yelling!” the overseer barked before running toward the noise.

  1991 remained standing in the middle of the street.

  He blinked.

  “What about my family?”

  He took another deep breath.

  “DOES ANYONE KNO-”

  A figure in a dark hood walked past him.

  The face was familiar: a green mohawk and piercings across his face.

  It was Lightfix.

  He glanced briefly at 1991.

  “WHERE IS MY FAMILY?!”

  What kind of idiot is yelling like that… I’d teach him a lesson, but now really isn’t the time to stand out… flashed through his mind.

  Lightfix didn’t look closely at his face and therefore didn’t recognize him. He adjusted his hood so strangers wouldn’t see his face and calmly continued on his way.

  _____

  The leader of the village was a figure ordinary residents knew almost nothing about. No one had seen him personally, and no one knew what he looked like. There were reasons for that and the main one was security.

  The village was slowly expanding. Not quickly, but its size and influence were steadily growing. Naturally, sooner or later that would attract the government’s attention. For now there was no threat, but one could easily appear in the future. To protect the settlement, the leader kept the entire system in strict isolation. People who entered or left the village never learned its full internal structure. Only his closest associates and the security force knew the complete picture.

  And he needed that security. For an influential and ambitious man, protection was always essential. But that raised a question, where do you find such people? Those who won’t betray you. Those who won’t walk away.

  The answer turned out to be obvious.

  The government itself often worked with criminals, using them for its own purposes. The village leader decided it was an excellent idea.

  A criminal hunted by the government would never betray him. Simply because they had nowhere else to go.

  In the village they received shelter a place where the authorities couldn’t reach them.

  In return, only one thing was required: protect the leader and keep their mouths shut.

  Naturally, not just anyone could join the security force. To enter it, a person had to pass numerous trials and inspections. Even then, those people worked in the shadows. They never met the leader directly and only carried out orders delivered through his inner circle.

  However, even in a system like this there were sometimes exceptions......

  _____

  Lightfix walked down the street before turning into a narrow passage. A fence appeared ahead of him, which he casually climbed over.

  On the other side was a place that looked more like a garbage dump.

  “How disgusting, they could’ve chosen a better meeting spot,” he muttered to himself as he stopped among the towering piles of trash.

  Mountains of waste surrounded him. Only the small patch he stood on could be considered relatively clean. Nearby stood a small guard booth, but no one was inside.

  “So where are those idiots?”

  Suddenly something dropped onto the ground beside him.

  For a moment he instinctively stepped back, then looked down.

  Lying in front of him was something like a wooden charm shaped like an animal though a very strange one. Its belly was hollow, completely empty inside. A small figurine that could easily fit in the palm of a hand.

  Curiosity got the better of him, and he picked it up.

  “What is this? A statue? I can’t even tell what creature this is supposed to be… looks awful.”

  The next second the charm began to tremble in his hand.

  “Oh shiiiii-” Lightfix cursed.

  He immediately threw it toward a nearby pile of trash. But the figurine didn’t even have time to hit the ground.

  It exploded in midair.

  Instead of a small wooden charm, a massive creature appeared in front of him.

  It resembled a lion with a thick mane but stood on two legs. Three additional arms protruded from its back, and its stomach was hollow like a cage made of bone ribs.

  The creature instantly grabbed Lightfix and shoved him inside that cage.

  There was no way out.

  “What the hell is this?!” Lightfix cursed while sitting inside its stomach.

  At that moment several figures stepped out from behind the trash piles.

  The first was a girl with long red hair. A wide belt wrapped around most of her torso, and hanging from it were wooden figurines identical to the one that had just transformed.

  Beside her stood a man with wings. Two horns protruded from the sides of his head, and a trident hung across his back.

  The third was a knight in dark armor. His smooth black helmet completely concealed his face, and a sword hung at his belt.

  “At last you’ve arrived, Lightfix. We’ve been waiting for you,” the girl said. “Do you know how badly it smells here?”

  “You get used to the smell,” her horned companion replied calmly.

  “Jeremiel, you’re always so positive about everything. I’ll never understand that about you. You’re a demon! Where are your evil outbursts?” the girl said.

  The demon didn’t respond. He simply removed the trident from his back, just in case Lightfix managed to escape and tried something reckless.

  Lightfix, sitting inside the strange creature’s stomach and looking at the three figures - the dark knight, the red-haired girl, and the demon - said:

  “Wow. Some hospitality you’ve got. Couldn’t you just meet me like normal people?”

  “Sorry, we can’t take risks. Especially with someone like you. We know how dangerous you are,” the girl replied.

  Lightfix shifted into a more comfortable position inside the monster.

  “Alright, fair enough. What now? I see you’re already familiar with my resume. Is there a second stage of the interview?”

  The girl smirked.

  “You accepted that pretty quickly.”

  “What choice do I have?” he shrugged. “I want to become the guard of your leader. If work is required, I’ll do what needs to be done.”

  “The leader’s guard?” the dark knight asked. “You think a bit too highly of yourself.”

  “That’s true,” the girl added. “You may be famous, but you’ve still got a long way to go before becoming a guard.”

  “Wait.... what?” Lightfix frowned. “No, no, that’s not what I agreed on with your people. They told me I was coming here to meet your leader and protect him. I’m Lightfix!!! I can’t aim for anything less. I’m far too good to be just another mercenary.”

  “Well… work for a few years first, then we’ll talk,” the girl replied calmly. “That’s the only way to become a guard. No one jumps straight to that rank.”

  “No… that won’t work,” Lightfix said.

  “Well, nothing we can do abou-”

  She stopped mid-sentence.

  Lightfix had disappeared from the creature’s stomach.

  “What ?! Where did he go ?!” she shouted.

  The dark knight and the demon immediately coordinated, carefully scanning their surroundings.

  “Everyone stay alert,” the knight ordered.

  The lion-like creature looked down at its empty stomach in confusion and let out a pitiful whine. The girl gently placed a hand on it.

  “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

  “Freya, focus,” the knight said. “We need to find him immediately.”

  At that moment Lightfix’s voice came from somewhere above them.

  “I’m right here. No need to search.”

  He appeared at the top of a massive trash pile, sitting casually on an old tire sticking out of it.

  “Now let’s settle a few things.”

  “How did you escape the cage?” Freya asked.

  “It looked like an illusion,” the demon said calmly.

  Freya glanced at him.

  “Really?”

  Then she looked back up at Lightfix.

  “So you’ve been fooling us from the start?”

  “Sorry, but I can’t take risks either,” he replied. “Now let’s just discuss something.”

  “What exactly?” Freya asked. Her companions kept their weapons ready, eyes locked on him. The atmosphere had noticeably grown tense.

  Lightfix looked at them seriously.

  “Fast-track certification…”

  He paused.

  “So I can become the village leader’s guard as soon as possible.”