There had to be a way for us to root out the last remaining cells of the Red Fang leadership. Somebody had ordered the hit on Western Jewel.

  However, the problem that I was facing was that I needed to get into an airship

  A certain airship captain was adamant about not accepting late payments.

  “What do you mean, I can’t go for your airship? I have a writ from the emperor himself right here.”

  If the man hadn’t had his face uncovered, I would have thought he was a spy or an agent from the other side. But no, he was just a normal run-of-the-mill dude who had been shafted by the people that were supposed to keep his business afloat. He would have looked about right with an eye patch, though his beard and long hair was peak cultivator.

  “I’m just saying that you haven’t. Your bosses have been delinquent in their payments. I understand the government is slow to pay for things at all, but you guys need to pay me on time. I have a family of support and I’m not doing this.”

  “This, you know, the emperor is good for his money, right?”

  “Yes, but I’m still flying at great personal risk to myself and my family to ferry people from this town back to the Capitol and other places. Do you know how many of my fellow ship captains have turned down this work because of how dangerous it is?”

  “I’m guessing there’s a lot of them. Seeing as how we’ve only had two shipments this week.”

  “And you’re damn right. So I’m going to be needing you to be paying me up front if you want to travel on this.”

  “Look, you understand that they’re not going to pay me up front. They’re going to make me do five forms and then they’re going to reimburse me like a month later just like last time.”

  He crossed his arms. “You can offload your bureaucratic problems to me, lad. I don’t care if you’re a fifth realm cultivator’s private concubine or not. You are welcome to fly there under your own power.”

  It wasn’t the first time that I’d gone to the depot to talk. Talk with a doc ship’s captain.

  Here’s the thing about doing humanitarian aid work. It does not pay as well as it really should.

  Direct or support roles? People think that you’re there because you’re passionate about it. Like, yes, I’m passionate about helping people, but I’m also passionate about having money in the bank.

  I cannot be helping people and then also be in need. Back in America, yeah I had no money issues because Maxine’s lingerie shop was selling like hotcakes but before that before while we were starting up she still has student loans and I still have student loans and we both had two small kids and things were tight for a while. Things got better now, and you always could fall back on my parents or her parents, but the government was not paying me what they owed me. There was a bound to for every time I cultivator that I got. And yes, they told me they would eventually pay me but their payment system, AKA one guy who didn’t do his job, was taking forever.

  And it wasn’t like I could call it to go fix this issue. The guy worked at the treasury and he was the worst Nepal baby I’d ever met so far.

  “Bring the payment,” the ship's captain said. ” And we will be square.' “

  “Very well, I said, taking off using my hands and feet as the focal points for my flight.”

  Just because I could fly around the city all day didn’t mean that I was going to do that to fly to the Capitol, which was hundreds of miles away. It was also hundreds of miles away through unclaimed land where powerful spare beasts roamed. That we could travel overland in airships from place to place while still being protected was just a miracle of this society’s resilience.

  My next destination is I passed over the dark Victorian era housing tenements was the office of the bursar. Yes, the federal government that administered the rule of law here was going to have me go to not only the treasury but the little department that should pay my bills but kept me in the poorhouse. It was easy for them to turn me down when I was fourth round. But now that I was in the fifth realm, and I was advancing in my path and could really throw my weight around, it was going to be a totally different ball game.

  The building of the treasury was about the most courthouse type marble old fashioned building I could imagine. Inside, a large marble hallway with vaulted ceilings showed me that not only was about to be waiting in line for a while, but I wasn’t even probably going to be seen that day. However, there was one thing that I had in my possession that would help me out with that. I pulled out the purple card that had come straight from the governor himself.

  It was my time to face the travel payment guy. I did not relish that moment. But it was important.

  The line of about twelve cultivators all third round and below stood aside. As I walked right up to the mid-level bureaucrat, there was about to have his day absolutely destroyed by me.

  “Sir, you are going to have to wait on line,” the bureaucrat said without looking up. He didn’t even stop writing on his scroll.

  I placed the purple card gently on his ornate marble tables.

  Then, like an eager child, I stepped back and smiled. I placed both hands together.

  “Excellent,” I said, my best burns voice.

  The man paused his writing. Looked at the piece of paper. Look down. Look back at the paper and then regarded me. I smiled.

  “You’re going to want to give me the thing that I’m asking for,” I said. “I was directly asked to perform this activity by the Mandarin on behalf of the emperor. Also, there are several accounts that you have yet to pay through on my behalf. Here they are and I should hope that you find it in your heart. Pay these off quickly and accurately.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  I placed a piece of paper in front of him with the amounts that the transportation company was asking for and the amount that had yet to be paid.

  ---

  What happens to a weapon that fends its entire life going to be used? What happens to a person who has become a weapon?

  Is she just waiting to be used? Is that how it is? Because of my newest protege felt itchy to me.

  It wasn’t what you would notice unless you had an overbearing, energetic presence that could easily overpower a formerly bubbly teenager. Which that really was what she was. Absent training she had received and energy she absorbed over her years, she was just a normal teenager on this side of the world.. true; she had taken part in the game but when she was given the option to get out? She took it. Doesn’t matter if she would have died. If she hadn’t taken it. That was her option.

  Since this was one of the search and find missions that the emperor had given me, she was going with me. She had done so much for the people here, but the one thing president in mind was how her entire life had been a lie and how her parents had betrayed her and how probably she could try to convince me she wasn’t actually harboring thoughts of leaving and starting her own little demonic sect.

  “Xiran, you understand that this will be dangerous. We’ve already lost two.” The sparse first floor of my new digs needed a woman’s touch. Not this woman, but probably my ex-wife would come by sometime in the next week and make it look more lonely. Right now with strictly functional and utilitarian. I only had two bowls two and two plates because I had a girlfriend. Otherwise, I would have been sitting on milk crates for their equivalent in this world. Which also was milk grants.

  “I understand the risks. I accept the risks. You will not leave without me.”

  “Understood..”

  I reached out against her with my nascent soul. She was clearly close to inviting the third round, but it wasn’t yet time for her.

  “You know there is something after this, right?”

  “I know.”

  “Have you thought about that? What you do when you’re done?”

  “It all depends on how much you trust me.”

  “When we take down the institution? We take down the last cell. There’ll be no place for them to go. There will be no quarter for them to hide. They will have to start from scratch against an opponent that knows how they work.”

  I can feel her pulse quicken. I withdrew my nascent soul.

  She nervously pulled on her hair. It.. looked fine.

  “Hey do you mind if I do your braids?” I said.

  There was such a power imbalance between the two of us she would probably agree to whatever I asked. If I’d asked her to strip down naked and do something lewd, she would have to for fear of me killing her.

  I didn’t want to wield that kind of power against somebody. I wanted her to be here for the right reasons. And just because she was now a powerful second realm. Cultivator and I was a fifth film. Cultivator do not mean that I would take advantage of that. But it had been a while since I’d raided anyone’s hair.

  “You know I used to braid my girls hair all the time.”

  She settled down in front of me.

  I started with the old, split them in half and gave her a French braid. Three big handfuls of hair divided up from each side, well that would be a unique hairstyle for this city. Most people wore their hair down or with a top bun.

  “What are you doing?”

  “This is something you used to do for my girls before they went to any sort of sports thing. It keeps the hair out of your eyes and it looks cute. Or at least no, I didn’t mean it like that.”

  She turned to regard me.

  “Looks around. I understand we are not the same. I’m doing this to let you know I need no harm and that someday, soon, I can see the end of our partnership.”.. I

  Found a little hair tie that I used for her hair. They use these thick hair bands for their top bows, so she got one for her left side. Her right side was still unaffected by my administrations.

  “Maybe you’re right.” Maybe this will help you out. This way, no one’s going to grab your hair in a fight. It took me less than 2 minutes to finish it and that was when men crept up.

  “Min, my loving spirit beast, would you be so kind as to help me? Shows are on what her head looks like right now?”

  “I would most happily show her what a mess you’ve made.”

  “We don’t need any snark from you.”

  I can feel a little tug of my energy leaving me so she could create a three-dimensional rendering of what saran’s face looked like an exact moment. As expected of it being that could change my memories, she began to slowly rotate the image givings, Iran, an idea of what her face looks like and her entire head.

  For the first time in a long time, she wouldn’t smile. Usually, when she saw me. She was all stoic, but now, I can tell that she was trying to be proper and not say anything.

  "The young mistress sure has changed," the spirit beast said.

  Change is a foot for her. Especially after this exhibition. This mission will make or break this war we’ve been having with the demonic cultivators.

  Using key energy to recreate her entire body, I could feel the teenage girl stifle a giggle.

  "You can be yourself around me. And when I tell you that you should have a plan of what you want to do after you’re free, I’m serious."

  "Trust me, I can feel his emotions. Girl," Min said. "He is serious. How serious, I’m not sure, but I would take him at his word right now."

  I fed some more energy into the light sculpture. It made it a little brighter and I can see the moon cat enjoying the increased flow. As my bonded spirit companion, I was thinking about how that would work for her.

  The former spy looked like she was going to cry.

  "Do you need a minute? I can step out." I stood up to leave, and she stopped me. Or more accurately, I let myself be stopped.

  "It’s been a long time since someone touched me. Since someone touched my hair."

  Mood: Fuck.

  ---

  I was not going to let this girl fall in love with me as some sort of paternalized ideal. I was going to mentor her and get her past when it gotten her into this problem. Just because she had a whole rack of daddy issues didn’t mean that I was going to continue my subscription.

  ---

  I was going to nope the fuck out of that as soon as I could. She might think that I was some of the thing that could be bought or soul, but just because somebody like me doesn’t mean that I was going to be head over heels over them. This whole situation was many fucked up for her. I just wanted one normal friend in this world. Instead, I got many fun ones. I guess interesting friends were fine. Especially if you got them to join your evil gang and help save the City.

  "Xiran, I think you need to understand that I’m a family man. And I have daughters of your age. I have no designs for you. Well, apart from mentoring you into womanhood and your path. If I need to keep myself separate from you because you think that there’s something going on, then we’re going to have a problem."

  She withdrew herself, looking as if I’d slapped her.

  “I’m sorry cultivator Joseph, this one was rash and it will never happen again.”

  She moved like a puppy that had been hit too many times and it broke my heart.

  What I had gone to let me see people at their worst and it helped me bring them back to. If not their best, at least a place where they could be okay. She probably would never be okay. I couldn’t fix things for her. And even if I could, it wasn’t my job to fix her life. I’d saved her, and I’d given her an opportunity. It was up to her to take that opportunity into her hands and make something out of it.

  “I appreciate how far we’ve gone and how comfortable you finally feel. But understand that I don’t need that. “

  “I understand. It’s difficult to change when your entire life has been one way and then it’s all gone in the blink of an eye. Just because our time here has been short doesn’t mean that it didn’t mean something. And it means that I don’t like you. But let’s focus on the mission.” And I definitely didn’t want to hear from my ex-wife about me having a harem on top of all that.

  She hesitated.

  “I don’t think that cultivator Maxine would see us as a problem, but I understand your point.

  “There is no license around. There’s only the team. You are a member of this team. Until I’m done with you. Thank you for making the right choice every day.”

  “I want to feel happy again.”

  “I know,” I said. “We all want that. Sometimes you just have to be happy at the moment. Living each day and waking up is its own victory.”