We followed Emily back into the inn, past the innkeeper who was more concerned wiping down his counter than his panicking customer. “H-he said-”, Emily stuttered. “Said he-” She slapped her hands onto her own cheeks. “He said he saw nothing.”, she finally pressed out.

  We rushed up the stairs behind her before she turned a corner into the room she had been staying in with her father. It was a mess to say the least, one of the beds was in half, clearly cleaved apart by a weapon, the floor between the parts deeply cut as well.

  Blood was splattered all over the room, papers were everywhere, a bottle had been broken, its contents spread over some notes, unreadable now. They hadn't opened the chest containing the wares, but according to Emily they had taken the coin purse containing their remaining funds he had hidden under the pillow.

  As Emily sat on the bed with a thousand yard stare, Rebecca stepped around sniffing the air. “Three people.”, she said after a short while. I looked between the two of them and, unable to stand just standing there doing nothing, opened the Grace and began activating [Emperor′s Gaze], attempting to figure out just what I could target and just what would be useful to target. The ability didn't allow me to differentiate between the individual slaver′s blood, so either only one of them had bled or I was missing something else that didn't allow me to do so yet. Meanwhile Emily had joined us in our search, if a bit slower and more in thought than me or Rebecca.

  Suddenly my Grace opened on its own mere moments after I closed it.

  The gods wish to rake your soul over burning coals for eternity.

  The requirements for the level increase of [Emperor′s Gaze] Lvl 1 have been fulfilled.

  [Emperor's Gaze] Lvl 2 has been reached.

  [Emperor's Gaze] will now update in real time.

  The user of [Emperor′s Gaze] now can choose a target before activating the ability, automatically activating it in the process.

  I was glad for the “hotkey” towards using the ability, especially since it would save me a bit of time opening the grace, getting insulted and choosing a target but the comment about real time updates did not make sense to me. “Did it not do that before?” I asked the Grace.

  Until now, [Emperor′s Gaze] updated on your current field of vision whenever you choose a new target.

  I thought about that for a few seconds. Then I looked out of the window, down the streets. Rebecca was standing the room behind me, so if I targeted her, the Grace should-

  “Target Rebecca.”, I whispered to myself. The world grayed out. Just a few days ago I would just have gotten a message that she wasn't in my field of view. I turned around and, as promised, the moment she appeared in my field of view, she was highlighted by that ethereal glow once more. I ended [Emperor′s Gaze] for the moment and color returned to the world. Having this a couple days ago would have saved me a lot of frustration in my experiments.

  I was still thinking about this new development and the implications on how this might help me out going forward as Emily squeaked out. “I found something!” She pulled a badge from beneath the bed.

  The badge was smaller than her palm, made from leather and evidently ripped from someone′s tunic. It had a deep bite mark, my best guess was that they belonged to buck teeth like Simon's. On its front a piece of black leather was sown onto it. It looked like a single manacle without an attached chain. It was covered in blood.

  “Target, Simon′s blood.”, I whispered. The badge grayed out. So the blood wasn't his. Yet, as I stepped back to allow Rebecca a look, the floor was covered in it. So much so that, as I turned to face it….

  This target is sufficiently defined for the current level. However, too many valid targets are within the field of view. Please choose another target.

  “Thats a slaver's badge.” Rebecca said.

  “No.”, Emily whimpered. “Everything but-”

  “Well that solves that then.”, Rebecca said. She didn't seem to care too much anymore. So slavery was a thing. Of course it was, Rebecca had mentioned it just earlier today. But common enough to elicit this reaction? No “We should find the guard” or “This is unlawful” Simon had allowed me and Rebecca to take the rest of the day off when the risk was apparently THAT great? How did he not have guards around constantly?

  A war broke out inside of me. One voice yelled “When in Rome do as the Romans do.” a voice yelling of the consequences of stepping against the society I was in. A voice talking about how I was an outsider here with no way home and should not mess with this world's natural development, a voice telling me that I was no saviour, I should not act like one, that I probably couldn't help and would only suffer if I tried.

  Another voice came to my mind: “You know it's wrong. You′re gonna regret it forever if you don't help at least once. Nobody expects any more of you than trying at all.

  I sighed. It was a deep “This is gonna suck” sigh that reverberated through my body. Rebecca turned around hearing it. “Everything ok?”, she asked.

  "We're gonna save Simon.”, I said.

  Emily's face lit up slightly in doubting hope as Rebecca tensed up. “What?”, the two of them asked like one person.

  “We are going to save Simon.”, I said.

  “I heard you for the first time. Why would you help him?”, Rebecca asked.

  “Why wouldn't you?”, I ask in return.

  “Cause I'd be next if I did.”, Rebecca screamed back at me. Her previous aloofness had seemingly hidden more emotions than she could bear to suppress for long. I opened and closed my mouth.

  Of course. She was a demihuman like Simon. There was a good chance, no, a very good chance she had lost friends or family like this. Not for the first time it occurred to me that I barely knew this person in front of me as a mixture of worry of my own future, loneliness regarding my presence and frustration at Simon's fate filled me, driving my thoughts into a frenzy. I opened my mouth and was about to speak before-

  The gentle buzzing of [New World Mental Block] filled my head, erasing all those emotions as fast as they could gather.

  “You′re right. I'm sorry.”, I said, unable to look Rebecca in the eye. “I didn't consider that.”

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Rebecca′s shoulders relaxed a bit but she didn't say anything.

  “Why do you want to help him?”, she asked again.

  “He wouldn't have stopped here if not for me offering to make two more bags and then he wouldn't have become enslaved again.”

  Rebecca stepped closer and cupped my cheeks with her hand, gently making me look at her.

  “You didn't know what would happen.”, she whispered. “It′s not your fault.” I looked at her, taking in her concerned, yet understanding look. Part of me simply wanted to stay like this, allow myself to believe her. But even if I wasn't guilty there had to be something I could do.

  Emily′s sobbing broke through my thoughts. I laid my hands onto Rebecca′s and sighed. I gently took her hands away and turned towards Emily. I didn't know what to say, my brain still filled with the gentle buzzing, that now developed into an almost rattling feeling as I tried my best to come up with words. I stepped closer when suddenly I lost my footing.

  I landed flat on my face, pain shooting through my head as a sickening crunch sounded through the room. I sat up, Rebecca offering me a hand to help me up. Emily had stopped crying for the moment in sheer confusion at what had just happened.

  “What did I just trip on?”, I groaned as blood dripped down my face.

  “That's a broken nose.”, Rebecca commented. Before I could react, she grabbed my nose, pain shooting through my face once more as she pulled downwards with another crunch, resetting my broken extremity as I let out a very, very masculine scream.

  Blood flowing down my face I looked at what I had tripped on. A small piece of…

  The object was triangular with two closed edges and a third one dripping blood. One side covered in skin the other in calico fu- Good god it was part of Simon′s ear.

  I tossed it away in disgust. “They cut his ear again.”, I said, half to myself, half to Rebecca. Emily began sobbing again. Right, Rebecca had mentioned that the cut ear symbolised him being a slave so they probably cut it off immediately for-

  Suddenly a lot of individual threads of thought came together, slowly spinning into a web of thoughts.

  “I know how to get him back.”, I said. Rebecca and Emily exchanged another look.

  After explaining my plan, we decided that at this late time in the day there was no way we could find or indeed rescue Simon so we would set our plan into motion as soon as we awoke in the morning. Fearful of being taken as well, Emily took one of the beds in our room, the one further away from the door naturally. She apologized for taking it but neither of us commented on it. Rebecca had had no intent of sleeping in the other bed in the first place and I had had no intent to make her sleep in the other bed.

  In the morning, I handed Emily the signet ring of the Vide family, her eyes widened like plates when she saw the insignia. “You are-” I waved her off. “We can talk about this after we get Simon back.”, I promised. Emily seemed to want to ask more questions but in the end she relented and left with the ring and my instructions.

  Preparation was everything now. Rebecca had an almost smug grin as she pulled a small bag of clothes out of the chest. “You said to leave it behind.”, she said as she tossed me the bag. I opened it and sighed. “Yes, I did. You rubbed that in for the third time now.”, I stripped out of my tunic.

  “Just saying.”, Rebecca said, looking at me, leaning against the wall like a Jock in a high school drama.

  “You mind?, I asked after slipping into one of the coats Henry had worn in the mansion. The clothes bag seemed to have some sort of enchantment that kept them clean and wrinkle free while inside. It could store a lot more clothes than visible from outside but only clothes. I couldn't even manage to force a belt into the bag. I opened my belt to change pants. “No seriously, do you mind?”, I asked once more.

  Rebecca shook her head. “No, I don't mind at all, do keep going.”,she said, grinning. I could feel a blush form on my face while she seemed to have the time of her life. Fully dressed to impress, I checked myself in the mirror, sighing.

  “I look like a arrogant piece of-”

  “Well that's the idea isn't it?”, Rebecca said quickly.

  “Im gonna have to get into the role too.”, I said.

  Rebecca gave me a thumbs up. “You can do it. You gave off a pretty convincing Henry before the whole…. truth potion business.” Soon after, Emily returned and handed me the ring back.

  I put on the ring of the Vide family.

  I had always liked to roleplay. One of the few social interactions in my life has always been Tabletop RPG′s, most often the fantasy kind. I had played a royal before. A former one that was. That must have been Samson, my paladin, if I wasn't remembering it completely wrong.

  I looked at Rebecca and channeled my roleplaying experience into myself. With a sneer I said: “What are you looking at me like that, mutt?”

  I could see her face turn a shade paler.

  “W- tha-”, she cleared her throat. “You sounded like Henry′s father just now.” Her voice was slightly higher than usual. Did I want to know what her past was like to induce such a reaction from her?

  I relaxed my shoulders a bit and dropped the sneer with an exhausted sigh. “That was the goal, wasn't it?”, I say.

  “I mean.. yeah.”, she said. “The less I gotta see you like that the better, what a nightmare.”

  My breath caught in my throat a little hearing her voice like this.

  “Do you want to wait here?”, I asked. “I don't wanna make you come with me if you don't want to. I don't know what it's gonna look like inside.”

  Rebecca shook her head. “I am gonna come with you exactly because you don't know how it looks in there.", she said and something about the way she put emphasis on the “you” gave me goosebumps. Emily waited at the door of our room, walking up and down nervously. “I wish you two all the luck in the world.”, she whispered. I nodded at her.

  “You know what to do?”, I asked her.

  “Prepare so we can get out immediately after you come back with dad.” the addition of the words “or without him” hung between us but none of us spoke them. She handed me a few notes.

  I let out a sigh of relief. The intel was promising. “So far so good.” I turned to Emily again. “You can start getting ready, we'll come towards the northern gate. I don't know how long we′ll need but the sooner we′re gone the better.”

  Henry Vide left the room at the inn together with his Canid bodyguard, stepping down the stairs with a look of disdain for those around him. “You′d think they′d let my guard come into a room at a regular inn. Now I have to spend time with these…. plebians.”, Henry Vide complained loud enough for everybody to hear. Rebecca simply snarled in response.

  We left under the confused stares of the owner and people inside the inn. Soon, Emily would collect our belongings, store them in the wagon and cancel our rooms.

  As we walked through the streets, people parted before us. It wasn't Rebecca alone, yesterday we had not nearly as much parting before us. Who′d know that just changing my clothes like this would have this much effect. Rebecca and I had decided that it was below a noble to not know where to go, so Rebecca guided me through the streets. A small grunt to tell me to turn right, a snarl to tell me to turn left.

  Soon we reached our destination, a slave store.

  I took a deep breath and stepped inside.

  __________________________________________________________________________

  Current Status:

  Stats:

  Power: 2

  Agility: 1

  Toughness: 3

  Mental: 2

  Perception: 3

  Mana: N/A

  Effects:

  Night Vision  Lvl. 1

  Poisonous Blood  Lvl. 1

  Protection against Natural Poison and Venom Lvl. 1

  Skills:

  [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 1

  [Emperors Gaze]  Lvl. 2

  [New World Mental Block]

  Known Ritual Spells:

  [Determine Value]

  [Simple Transportation Magic]