"And you're sure you're okay?" Ryan tapped his foot on the ground, "I had this really weird feeling just now that something was going on with you."

  On the other end of the phone, Runar let out a long sigh, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. We're fine. We ran into a little trouble, but it wasn't more than a little... insect."

  The rune mage stared down at the dollhouse that was sitting on his lap. Hargrave was continuously trying to use magic to escape the place where he was sealed, but it wasn't working in the slightest. Instead, Runar was just sending through some of his own magic from the outside, as the seal was set up in a way to allow exactly this, and momentarily stunned Hargrave to stop him from being so annoying.

  "... So something did happen," with a long sigh, Ryan started walking toward the terrace door, "Just be careful, okay? I've got a bad feeling about this. Even insects can be a bother, you know?"

  "I get it. Thanks for worrying," Runar said with a slight smile on his face, looking forward at the road while thinking about something, "Did you... maybe already..."

  Ryan almost immediately realized what his uncle wanted to ask him, "Did I talk to Liam already? Yeah, I did."

  "So what did he say? Did he tell you what happened at school?" Runar leaned forward, straightening his back. It was almost startling to Yamada, the way that he moved so suddenly. But realizing what was going on when glancing over, she relaxed again as well.

  "... You know that Modak's younger brothers go to Liam's school, right?"

  "Of course. They've been over a couple times. I was a bit surprised, honestly, they don't seem a lot like their brother..."

  "Then you haven't seen Modak after a couple beers," Ryan grinned, looking at the orc as he walked out of the house with a box of tools and materials. Confused, he pointed at himself, trying to figure out what this was about, but Ryan just laughed and waved him away, "Anyway, Liam was being bullied by some kids, being pushed around and stuff, and... being called 'Monster'. Then, his friends came over, Modak's brothers, to try and defend him, and it started a fight. And well, those kids were biting each other apparently, so Liam just... did the same. But a vampire's bite is-"

  "Very different to other folks' bites, yeah," Runar let out a long groan, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "This is ridiculous. They called him a monster? Seriously? What the fuck is going on with that school? I'll go pay them another visit on Monday and then-"

  "Dude," interrupting his uncle, Ryan pushed off his boots and dropped down onto the couch, "I get that you're upset, but stay calm when you talk to them, okay? I agree that you need to talk about this, but don't be that parent, and definitely don't abuse your power."

  "So what, I should just let them get away with bullying Liam?"

  "Fuck no, but you're one of the most powerful people in the city, if not the whole country. And that's just your position as head of the Aglecard Foundation. Liam's attending a regular, public elementary school. It's not particularly well-funded either, so they're going to be scared as fuck of someone like you. Trust me, rich parents are terrifying to people like that," Ryan explained, "At most, try to make sure that Liam isn't bullied anymore. Get them to teach about Vampires or something, to show that they're just regular people. But don't forget that, even if it was to help his friends... Liam bit a kid."

  Runar was silent for a few moments, unsure what to say. He was surprised for a few reasons. For one, he was shocked that Ryan was able to give such reasonable advice about a topic like this - he knew much more about childcare than he let on. And two, considering Ryan's history, he had a much more balanced position on the consequences of a fight than Runar expected he would have. But in the end, he just let out a slight breath, "Fine. I'll figure something out. How's he doing right now, anyway?"

  Ryan glanced out of the window into the garden, seeing the thick bushes in the corner where the pond was. Violette seemed to be doing pretty well, rather, she was pretty happy. He wasn't able to communicate or know anything specific from this far away, but he always had a pretty good idea of the state of the spirits at any time, "He's outside reading a bit right now. I think he just wanted some peace and quiet, though."

  "Outside? Is he-"

  "Yes, he's obviously wearing sunscreen, I gave him the parasol, and he's sitting on the bench by the pond where it's shady, don't worry," Ryan rolled his eyes. He was glad that Runar's parental instincts were kicking in, but they were usually at the strongest when Ryan was taking care of Liam, instead of when the kid was with Runar himself. Which did annoy Ryan quite a bit, "Just calm down, you know he's fine when he's with me. He's got eight awakened bodyguards. And Modak's also here."

  The orc, who had just stepped back inside to grab another batch of boxes he was meant to bring to the workshop shed, stared at Ryan with a slight frown, "You're still talking about me? What's happening?"

  "Shut up," Ryan stared at his friend, who flipped him off with a slight grumble. A broad smile appeared on Ryan's face as he held his index finger and thumb together into a small heart. Modak stared back at him, grumbled even more, and quickly showed back a small heart in the same way as well before immediately stomping off.

  Runar raised a brow, "What was that about?"

  "Friendship. Not that you know anything about that."

  "What the fuck are you-"

  Ryan straightened his back and widened his eyes, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I was fully in 'dickhead' mode because of Modak just now, I didn't mean-"

  "Right, whatever, I get it. Either way, just keep taking care of Liam, okay? We'll pick him up Sunday evening."

  "Yeah, yeah, for sure, uhm... good luck for the rest of the trip?"

  "Mhm. Talk to you later."

  And with that, Runar ended the call, and Ryan buried his face in his hands. Modak, who once again came around, saw him and seemed confused, "This time it's not about me, right?"

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  Ryan groaned loudly and dropped back onto the couch, "I just told Runar that he doesn't know anything about friendship."

  "Oh..."

  "While he's actively trying to find one of his best friends that's been missing for a few months."

  "Yikes..."

  "I mean, I know that Anders is technically his employee, but it's in the same way that you and Silvia are my employees, and Anders is very obviously the mole in the family, but Runar still believes that Anders isn't the mole, and it's not like I want Anders to be the mole either, I just-"

  Modak dropped the box of stuff onto the ground and walked over to his friend who was starting to talk extremely fast and was clearly getting into his own head, "Calm down, yeah? You're all good. Frankly, from what you told us, Runar's done a lot more fucked up things to you than a mistimed joke."

  "I mean, kinda? It's complicated. Plus, just because he was kind of a dick to me doesn't mean I'm allowed to be a dick to him," Ryan pointed out, and soon saw Modak's surprised face, "Yes, I know that this is wild coming from me of all people. But it's one thing when I'm dealing with some random fuck as opposed to my uncle. No matter what I think about how he... ignored me when I was a kid, he... he did take me in. He supported and protected us after we figured out that something was going on with him and then learned about the hidden folk."

  "... That doesn't mean you can't still be upset with him. I mean, you know how my dad has been coming around every once in a while? I love him, but that doesn't change how hurt I was when he just followed along with my mom when she told me I 'don't deserve being an orc' or whatever. Both things can be true at once. Just because he's trying doesn't mean that I'm back to talking to him like before."

  Ryan let out a loud groan, "Urgh, fucking genius prodigy looking-ass, stop saying smart shit all the time."

  "Hmm... Nah, I don't think so," Modak laughed and walked back to the box of his stuff, "Just don't worry too much. If he seemed upset just now, just apologise to him when he comes pick up Liam again."

  "Yeah, yeah, you're right," Ryan sighed, looking at the box his friend was carrying, "You got any more of those? Need any help carrying?"

  "Uh... if you want to, that would be great. There's one more at the top of the stairs. It's just stuff that I've been tinkering with in my room, I kind of want to move it all into the workshop before the party."

  "You thinking about having people in your room?"

  Modak shrugged, "Maybe. You know that I need to pull back during parties like this sometimes, and we invited some people that I know are like that too. Plus, maybe Yanna is actually going to come and stay over."

  "Neat, neat. Did you finally get that bed with the reinforced metal frames, then?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about... Me? Premarital sex? Definitely not."

  Ryan stared at his friend with a raised brow, "You know, the walls are thick, but they're not soundproof."

  Modak narrowed his eyes, "You sure that was me? We've got another roommate, you know?"

  With a scoff, Ryan nodded and went to the stairs, "Yeah, and I sure hope she wasn't the one screaming your name the last time Yanna stayed over."

  "Mhm. Talk to you later."

  With a certain immediacy, Runar hung up the phone as Yamada slammed on the breaks. They were driving down a road that was clearly not used very often. It was apparently a slight shortcut through some forest that they had taken on the way here already. But this time around, there was something stopping them. Someone was standing in the middle of the road. No... not someone. Something.

  "What is that..?" Yamada signed to Runar confused. That didn't look like anything they had seen before. It was a... long creature. Not a snake, though, it was a wyvern, but it was like each of its individual limbs was stretched thin into double its length. Its face, where its eyes should be, there was just a hollow, cracked-in skull and its upper and lower jaw were overgrown with some kind of bone-like mass, that seemed to be covering the entire rest of its body as well.

  "Some kind of curse, maybe?" Runar replied, signing with one hand while readjusting his glasses momentarily. He didn't know about any curse that affected living beings in that way, but it was always possible there was some new strain going around. Though, it wasn't filled with any curse-like magic, it was just absolutely soaked in necromantic energies.

  Through his glasses, the sight that Runar saw was almost more vile than the creature before him. That same, foul and rotten sludge-like mana that Hargrave had was clinging to that 'wyvern's body, like a thin film. It was dripping down onto the ground from its body like a slime, leaving a clear trace that showed where it walked.

  Normal mana didn't act like that. Not even corruption acted like that, and it was one of the most vicious curses in recent memory. But, now Runar knew why that was, because 'corruption' was just an extremely distorted form of an undead symbiote. Regular curses couldn't act like that. But more importantly, why was Hargrave's mana there in front of him in the first place?

  Either, that meant that Hargrave had the same curse as this thing, or it meant that this was one of the undead he created. Though, none of the other ones looked like this or had this kind of mana, they just had regular necromantic energies twisting up their guts like every other undead.

  Runar glanced over at the demon next to him, seeing that she was looking back at him as well, "... You've got some blessed rounds prepped, right?"

  Yamada immediately nodded her head. Of course, Runar really didn't need to ask. It was like he was subconsciously trying to buy time before he had to deal with that thing. It was weird, Runar hadn't felt like this in a while.

  He hadn't felt genuine fear in quite a long time.

  But that in itself was weird. Why was Runar scared? No matter how strong or foul this thing was, it wouldn't be stronger than Runar. There wasn't anyone else around here either, so he could probably go all-out if needed. He would prefer if he didn't need to, though - his mana tended to mess with electronics and fry them if he wasn't careful, and he didn't want to break the car again. Definitely not when they were hours away from home. But... it felt like his body was screaming at him to go all out immediately. Again, it wasn't strong, Runar knew that for a fact, it was more like...

  Runar's very existence. Every single cell of his being. Any part of him that was truly alive, wanted to see that thing dead.

  With a click of his tongue, Runar placed the dollhouse down onto the seat while opening the car door to step out. But the moment he did, the creature started creeping forward. It lifted one of its long wings off the ground. Its bone-like skin began to crack as it did, slowly trying to heal over right as this happened. Now Runar knew why its entire body looked so... lumpy. Usually, regeneration abilities didn't leave such scars, but in this case, it was almost like the scars were the point, like they were strengthening its body more and more. He had absolutely no idea how a wyvern turned into something like this, but it was the most hideous and revolting thing he had ever seen.

  "Don't worry, I'm going to make sure you can rest soon," Runar began to write something into the air. A simple rune with a meaning of life, just like he had done to battle the undead earlier. If this was necromantic in nature, it should work pretty well.

  In the middle of writing the first letter, as its long wing finally hit the ground again, more cracking could be heard. This time, it was its mouth that was slowly being pulled open, tearing away the bones that cover its maw.

  The unholy sludge that flowed out from between its fangs was even more disgusting than its mana. For a moment, Runar was worried that it was a strain of corruption, but the dark sludge slowly took on another form. A humanoid form.

  It was an androgynous silhouette, and you couldn't see any more either. It was like a child tried to clunkily push clay into the form of a person.

  "Rrruuuuunnnaaaaarrrr Aaagggglllleeeeeccccaaaaarrrrrdddd!!!" the thing 'spoke', strained as if it only just discovered the concept of language, and the man whose name was said froze almost immediately, "Wwwweeeeee hhhaaaaavvveeee aaaaa sssssuuuuugggggeeeessssttttiiiioooonnnn ffooooorrr yyyooouuuuuuu!!!"

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