After breakfast, I walked Lydia to the local schoolhouse so that she could go to class. For the entire duration of the walk, Lydia was looking guiltily at the ground. One of her hands was in my own, and the other was holding Elijah’s hand. She had chosen to skip class the previous day, because she had to manage the shop after her father left.

When I heard that… well, I may not intend to stop her from running the shop, but she still needs to finish her studies as well. So, the two of us came to an agreement. She would continue to manage the shop, but only after school. During other times, I was going to help arrange for her to hire someone to help out.

Seeing that I had no intention of taking the shop from her, or forcing her to give it away to someone else seemed to help persuade Lydia. She eventually agreed to my conditions, leading to us finally getting her to school.

The school itself was a large facility, with two floors above ground and one below. Although the city that we lived in wasn’t that large itself, this school also covers nearby villages, who all send their children here to study with the aid of transportation magic. As such, we could see a steady stream of children walking through the gates.

“Ah! Lydia, there you are.” One of the teachers of the school, a woman wearing a dark grey button-up uniform called out with a smile. She rushed over, her brown hair tied up in a ponytail while she watched Lydia through a pair of thinly rimmed glasses. “Are you feeling better today? I see you managed to get your familiar.”

It seemed that she thought that Lydia had missed school because of an illness, an easy mistake if they didn’t send anyone to her father’s business. Lydia blushed a bit in embarrassment. She simply nodded her head, releasing my hand and running into the school with Elijah.

Seeing that, the teacher blinked in confusion, before looking over at myself. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met?”

I offered her a small smile. “That’s right. My name is Clover Kyr. For the time being, I’ll be looking after Lydia.”

“Looking after… is Elijah alright?” The teacher’s eyes went wide with alarm, now seeming to understand the true reason behind Lydia’s absence.

“He… left.” That was the only way that I could say it. I couldn’t say that I knew he was dead, because ‘Clover’ wouldn’t have that information yet. All that I should logically know is what Lydia told me.

“Oh… oh dear. Another one of those?” The teacher asked in a solemn tone, glancing back to catch Lydia’s figure as she ran into the school building. “Poor dear… those people have been acting up more and more lately.”

“You know about them?” That caught me by surprise. I had expected that the demonic sect was moving entirely in the shadows, in order to avoid the persecution of local law enforcement.

“It’s the Mowai Halii, right?” She asked, looking back to face me. “That’s what we call them. A name that the children came up with, actually.”

Error, does not compute. Accalia, translator-sama broke! Mowai Halii?

My ‘prayer’ was answered with a light, mental laugh. That’s because the words themselves were partly made up. As a rough translation, it is a mix of ‘Shadow People’ and ‘Parent Thief’.

“Isn’t there anything that the guards can do to stop it?” I glanced off to the side, seeing an armored soldier walking a patrol along the road.

“Not that I’ve seen.” The teacher shook her head. “The Mowai Halii don’t operate by a specific method. Sometimes, they kidnap people who are out of town. Sometimes, they lure them into dark alleys and simply vanish with their targets. One of my students said that he heard them creeping in through the window of his house, and the next day his big sister was gone.”

I let out a light sigh. “From what I could tell talking with Lydia, they convinced her father to leave with… basically his entire savings.”

“I’ll get her in to see our school’s therapist after classes today. Thank you for helping her.” The teacher spoke, before offering a polite bow. When I left, Leowynn stepped out from my body to walk alongside me.

What are we going to do now? She asked mentally, given that we were still in a public area.

Play everything as if it were normal. Accalia, is there a guild or some local business that acts as a middleman for helping people find work?

Thankfully, the answer to my question came back without much delay. From what she said, there wasn’t a particular guild that was as all-encompassing as the one that had spread throughout Earth. Here, there were instead individual businesses that performed the different jobs. What I was looking for was the job office, a building placed within the town center.

When I arrived, I was greeted by an elderly lycan with grey hair. He sat behind his desk and appraised me, before pulling out a thick binder. “Are you looking for work, or here to post a job listing?”

“The latter.” I informed him. “The… new owner of the Thin Cuts butchery is looking for someone to help man the shop while she is otherwise indisposed.”

“Are you not the owner in question?” The man asked, glancing towards me with undisguised suspicion.

“No. I’m her current guardian.” My answer caused the man’s face to soften, and he offered a faint nod.

“Another of those.” He said with a sigh, opening up the binder. As he flipped through the different pages, I was able to catch glimpses of far more job openings than would normally make sense in a town this size. If I had to guess, almost a quarter of the adult population of this town had gone missing. “I can help you fill in the details such as an hourly wage and requested schedule. However, before the posting can be made official, you will need to bring the new owner to review the paperwork and offer her signature.”

I thanked the man, giving him the hours and rates that Lydia and I had discussed. Once he had filled a paper out with the information, he placed it within the binder. “Normally, I would say that you should hear back from us in a matter of days. However… you will be notified when someone comes in.”

While it sounded similar, the difference in meaning was clear. I thanked him again, and turned to leave. In the worst case scenario, I would help set up some security for the shop and it would simply open for a few hours after Lydia got out of class each day. It may not be best for business, but I wasn’t hurting for money.

When Leowynn and I got home, and I opened the door, I felt Leowynn freezing up behind me. Someone was here while we were gone. She whispered into my mind, walking ahead of me into the house.

Are you sure? I didn’t particularly doubt her judgement, I just didn’t know how she had arrived at that conclusion.

Definitely. I noticed it yesterday, but I’m connected to the wards in this place. Whatever you set for your background probably ended up with Clover setting his home’s defenses himself. As your familiar, that means that I am the anchor for these wards.

Convenient, but definitely plausible. Okay, what can you tell me? I entered the house behind Leowynn, looking through it for anything different. Any shifts in the furniture, or messages left behind.

All that I noticed was a faint, sweet scent. Two of the wards have been broken. One on the front door, and the one on your bedroom window.

After she said that, I made my way upstairs. It didn’t make sense for them to actually break my wards like this. Clearly, from what I have been told, they had the power to slip in undetected. The only reason to do things like this was if they wanted to send a message. I didn’t see anything near the front door, so that message had to be in my bedroom.

Sure enough, when I reached my room, I saw a folded letter laying across my bed. There was a pink lipstick smear on it, making it look like a love letter, though it was obviously different.

`Dear Mister Kyr,

I do so hope that this letter finds you in good health. It would pain me to see anything happen to you, truly. You may not know who I am, but I know so much about you. Please don’t worry about the wards, as that was merely my way of getting your attention. I won’t be resorting to such things again.

Next time, I hope that the two of us may meet face to face. My sisters and I have been looking forward to it. Perhaps tonight, maybe you’ll get an unexpected visitor?

With Deepest Affection, Sister Iris`

I furrowed my brow as I read the letter, before feeling as if something was off. My world sight pulsed out, sweeping the entire house. The first thing that I noticed was the enchantment on the letter itself, meant to entrance the reader. While it would be quite effective on a normal person, my mental stats likely too high, causing it to fail.

The next thing I noticed were six chalk drawings placed throughout the house, each containing a faint trace of magic. While I couldn’t tell exactly what those drawings were for, I had no intention of simply allowing them to remain. There was a fine line between playing along as Clover Kyr and placing my actual life in jeopardy by refusing to act against such a security risk.

Lifting up my bed, I found the first of the chalk drawings on the floor underneath. When I broke it by scratching out one of the lines, the magic in the drawing snapped. Mentally, I transmitted the location of the other five drawings to Leowynn to have her break them as well.

It looks like they’ve already decided to act against you. Leowynn spoke up as she finished the final piece of whatever magic they had prepared. I expected that it would take a few more days.

So did I. Perhaps my backstory made me more of an appealing target than I expected. Or maybe there were so few valid options left for them in the area that they were ready to grasp at any suitable candidate that prepared itself. Either way, it made one thing clear. I was going to have to play this carefully in order to avoid pulling Lydia into the mess.

Tonight, I want you to watch Lydia. I told Leowynn, making sure she knew not to spend all night in Vision Expanse again. If anyone attempts to enter her room, you have permission to act as you see fit. If they are too strong for ‘Val Kyr’ to handle, you are permitted to use full power. I’ll think of a way to explain it later if that happens.

Understood, father. Leowynn responded immediately. It was unlikely that they would target her, unless they intended to do so purely as a hostage to use against me. From what I had heard of this group, that was unlikely. Then again, they are known for using different tactics with every abduction, so that could honestly just be their plan for this event.

After making sure that any magical traces that they left behind were taken care of, I had Ryone help me remake the wards to protect the house. Even though I knew that these people could break them, or likely even slip in without touching the wards, it made no sense to leave them down. The wards might not do anything for Mowai Halii, but they’d still stop the common robber.