Chapter 354

Jacob wants to apologize to Taya. He knows that their first priority should be gathering resources for Liuthkrav to come and save them — or at least to tell them how to open the portal that would bring them back to the Sacred Grounds of the Valemont family. But as soon as he heard the situation, and knowing that Anna’s family was taken advantage of after her husband’s death, he couldn’t just sit around.

But he feels for Taya, because so many powerful people here in Zamorye are targeting her, and they are after her head, since she has the power of the Primordial God of Chaos inside of her. And so her first priority should be to get out of this place as soon as possible.

“I’m sorry, Jacob,” Taya says in a low voice as they run after Miss Anna.

But Jacob turns, confused. “Sorry about what?”

“I am dragging you into this when everything we should be focusing on is getting you back home. But summoning Liuthkrav has to wait. She’s a subject of mine. I can’t just turn the other way after hearing that she’s being taken advantage of.”

Jacob opens and closes his mouth several times, and then just smiles at her. He looks at the flowing brown hair of the woman as she runs. He didn’t change that with the disguise. She still has the same brown hair despite looking completely different.

“Don’t worry,” Jacob simply says. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

And so they arrive at Anna’s house and see that there is a teenage boy with a swollen eye, held by the blouse he’s wearing by a middle-aged man with gray hair.

“Where is that whore mother of yours?” he screams into the boy’s face, spitting over him.

“Fuck you,” the teenager replies.

And the man raises his hand again when Anna shouts, “Yozhikov!”

The man turns slowly, and a wolf-like grin appears on his face when he sees that Anna has just arrived.

“Oh, so you show your face again.”

He lets the boy fall, and Jacob sees that two younger children, both girls, no older than ten, are cowering right behind the door of the house — which has been kicked down and is now in pieces.

“Where is my money, Anna? I told you what would happen if you didn’t bring it to me.”

Jacob and Taya slow down to a walk. But before Anna can say a word, Jacob says, “I’m sorry. What’s the problem here?”

“Mind your business, kid. Who are you? This is the guard’s official business.”

That’s when Jacob notices that this Yozhikov is wearing a city guard uniform, just like the one Cornelius had. With a quick analysis from the Grimoire, it seems that this guy is at Advanced Imperium Rank. Not as strong as Cornelius, but still stronger than Jacob. And he’s also a member of the guard. So butting into this matter could put both him and Taya on the line.

Jacob hesitates and looks at Taya. She was a princess in Zamorye before Jacob’s grandfather betrayed her trust and turned her into a vessel for a Primordial God’s power. And if they put themselves between this man and Miss Anna, there could be serious repercussions that could alert the city guards of their presence.

Marka, Anna’s friend, breaks down crying.

“Yozhikov, please, don’t do this. I am helping Anna, uh, with money. Please, we just need a little more time. Come on.”

“I lent you all that money, and you think there would be nothing to pay back, Anna? I told you what I want,” the guard says with a sardonic grin. “I will not accept anything but you as payback. What do you say? Why don’t we make another child?” And then he looks at the scared children at his side. “We can definitely do better than this.”

Jacob clenches a fist and has to hold himself back — when he suddenly feels air displaced by his side, and Taya has appeared right in front of Yozhikov.

“What are you doing?”

But before he can say anything else, Taya has punched his solar plexus, and the air is fully drawn out of his lungs.

Miss Anna Pavlovna’s home is in a small courtyard with no one else around. And before Taya can land another blow, Jacob lunges, because he sees that a Primordial Spell is about to be activated. He sees with the Grimoire that it’s a communication spell. He cuts the Mana in midair and then drives his sword right through Yozhikov’s head.

He unsheathes his sword from the forehead of the man, and he crumples to the ground.

Jacob puts himself between the blood and the kids, looks at Marka and Anna, and says, “Please go inside.”

Stolen story; please report.

They look at them, terrified, and run inside the house.

“Oh my— oh my goodness, Jacob, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done this. Now the city guard—”

But before she can say anything else, Jacob throws a waterfall of Heartfire over the man, turning him to ashes in the blink of an eye.

“No, I was actually worried you thought that we were in danger. Sorry for reacting so late. He was trying to communicate with someone, probably the city guard. Something like an alert, a warning button. I cut off the Mana.”

“Oh, I felt that,” Taya nodded. “But I also felt that he was about to attack me, so I didn’t know what to do.”

“You can also feel that?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t able to do this before. It must be the Primordial God of Chaos’ power,” Taya comments.

“Indeed.”

Jacob has yet to fully read the Grimoire pages on Taya, out of respect for her, but he’s now getting awfully curious.

And then the girl says, “Do you have any way to know more about this? You have some kind of perception Skill, don’t you?”

Jacob smiles, a little embarrassed. “Yeah. Do you mind if I…?”

“No, please. But let’s go inside first.”

“Yeah. Nobody’s here,” Jacob says, “and I don’t think it’s going to be a problem for now. But this guy must have told someone where he was going. So what are we going to do?”

Taya takes one look at the door, waves her hand, and the pieces of broken wood magically fuse back together. Then she focuses on the ground, and the smear where Yozhikov had been is fully canceled.

“Give me a moment,” she says.

She joins her hands, and the ground starts shaking. After a few moments, though, it goes still again.

Jacob had just read what Skill she used, and is in awe.

“You just destroyed his Mana signature. You eliminated all the evidence.”

“I did. But if this was escalated to the higher-ups of the city guard, they might have the same truth-revealing spell that King Blade used on you.”

Jacob nods. “Sure,” he says. “But I doubt that it will come to that. I think that now they’re going to be safe. Apparently Yozhikov had lent money to them after stealing from her husband.”

“What?” Taya’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know that. I just saw that he tricked him.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that it was a trick. I thought he was just taking advantage of their need for money.”

“No, no. He had them invest in a venture that was his friend’s and that was only going to lose money. He tricked him.”

Jacob and Taya stared into each other’s eyes for one beat too long before suddenly looking away.

Jacob coughs and says, “Okay, let’s go see how they’re doing.”

- - -

They entered Anna’s place, where all the kids were trembling in fear. But Taya seemed to carry a soothing presence, and seeing her approach with a smile, the kids almost naturally started breathing slower and became calmer.

Is she a witch? Jacob thinks to himself. How is she doing this?

He, instead, is not great with kids. He doesn’t really have any great way of dealing with them. But he goes to speak to Anna and Marka.

“In the meanwhile, Yozhikov is being dealt with. The city guard won’t have any evidence that anything happened to him. You just have to lay low, and if they come asking, say you’ve never seen him come.”

“I don’t have any words. Why are you helping me?” Anna asks.

“Well, we saw you were having a hard time back at the Merchants’ Guild, and we do need someone to show us around.”

“Of course,” Anna says. “But are you sure that Yozhikov is dealt with? That everything will be fine?”

“Most likely,” Jacob replies. “It’s not a hundred percent chance that nothing will happen, but I doubt they will bother you in any way. They might, as I said, ask a few questions, but just don’t say anything. Just say you didn’t see him, and that’s it.”

Marka was impressed with Jacob. She was Anna’s age, but she had never married and never had any kids. That’s why she was so attached to Anna’s own kids.

“Aunt Marka,” the youngest girl said, pointing at Jacob. “Who is that?”

Jacob smiles and awkwardly says, “Well, I am Mr. Cabbage.”

The little girl deadpans at Jacob and replies, “That’s a stupid name.”

“What?” Jacob frowns.

“And I’m Miss Carrot,” Taya says from behind, after healing the teenage boy’s wounds.

“That’s a beautiful name.” The little girl claps.

“They are the same.” Jacob can’t believe his ears. “What’s this unfairness? What’s the difference between a cabbage and a carrot? They start with the same letters. They’re almost the same exact word.”

“Cabbage stinks,” the little girl says, eyeing Jacob from head to toe suspiciously, as if he could start stinking like boiled cabbage at any moment.

“Well, I don’t stink,” Jacob replies with gritted teeth.

But the girl still keeps eyeing him suspiciously and sniffing the air.

“Pardon her, she’s a little feisty,” Marka tells Jacob. “And thank you. Thank you for what you two have done. Yozhikov has been hounding my friend for so long. And I’m so grateful.”

Marka started crying from the emotion. And Jacob waved his hands.

“Don’t worry, it’s completely fine. We’ll give you some time to rest. Uh, it’s still early. We’ll just maybe go eat something, and we can come back later if you want. We don’t want to cause any inconvenience.”

“No,” Anna says loudly. “Please stay. We’ll make lunch.”

Jacob and Taya look at each other, feel their own stomachs grumbling, and shrug.

“Sure.”

Throughout lunch, Anna takes the time to explain the story of her husband dying. There’s not much more than what Jacob and Taya have figured out with their respective Skills — if what Taya has can be called a Skill. But they still listen to her.

And after a few hours and eating a very nice lunch, they go back out.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Taya asks Anna. “Today’s events have been a little much.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Anna smiles and awkwardly gives a hug to Taya. “I don’t know how I will ever thank you. And now that Yozhikov is gone, I can finally live a normal life. It’s all thanks to you. If my debt is gone, I don’t even need to risk my money recklessly in order to earn back all that I owed to him. So please, let me show you around the city.”

They start walking, but at the first turn in the street, a crier shouts, “There is an announcement from the royal palace. There are two fugitives on the run. Traitors of Zamorye. They orchestrated the death of the spirit of King Blade, and they are guilty of treason against the crown and responsible for innumerable slaughters of Zamorye’s own citizens. They are allied with the Primordial Gods and not to be trusted. If you see anyone suspicious, please report it to the city guard immediately. It’s a young woman and a young man, at Imperium Rank.”

The crier then gave a description of what Jacob and Taya look like. Which is very different from their disguises — but still.

Anna turns to look at them.

With a glint in her eyes.