Lady Ba stared at Ralph for a split second and Ralph did the same.

"Take this bastard!"

With a flick of her wrist, a whip appeared from thin air and swung towards Ralph at breakneck speed. The boy bent backward and dodged the whip, but it came right back. He jumped to the side, this time, the feathers from the top of Lady Ba's hat shot toward him.

Lady Ba made her moves and turned towards the door again. It had opened enough for her to dive in and dive in she did. Sitting there tied to a chair was the sight of a suited woman with a paper bag on her face.

"Yes!" Lady Ba screamed and rushed towards the chair when one of her heels broke, followed by one of her feathers lodging itself into the ground. She stumbled ahead and this time something coiled around her leg.

"Where are you running?" Ralph asked. He had grabbed the whip mid-air and tied it around her leg. Pulling the whip as hard to the back as he could, Ralph swept Lady Ba off her feet.

Before she hit the ground, Lady Ba pointed her hands toward Ralph. "[Dark Dead End (E+)]"

It was a skill to temporarily take away his eyesight! A thin beam of darkness shot out from her hand and landed right on Ralph's eyes. He covered his eyes with the back of his hand and turned his face away, but it was too late. She had taken his sight! Lady Ba tried to scuttle back up and rush towards the hostage.

"AH!" Another scream left her as the other of her feathers tore through her shin and settled deep into her leg. She again lost her balance and was about to fall, but this time, Ralph had already appeared in front of her and grabbed her by her collar.

"You're too loud," Ralph said.

He gathered all the remaining mana from his heart and pushed it into his hands. With a fierce swing, Ralph landed the strongest punch he had yet on Lady Ba's face.

–CRACK!

A crushing sound rang out in the air.

Ralph broke Lady Ba's jaw with a single swing, knocking her out immediately.

With the caster unconscious, the spell's effects had disappeared too as Ralph's senses came back to him.

Lady Ba fell limp to the ground. Ralph quickly crouched down on top of her. He pulled out the dagger and held it high above his head, pointing straight at Lady Ba.

His hands shook.

{Host...}

"What?" Ralph spat back.

{Are you going to kill her?}

"I want to... I should..." But the trembling in Ralph's hand grew intense with each passing second.

{Host… She won't wake up. Not anytime soon}

**

{Host… She won't wake up. Not anytime soon}

-SHWING!

I brought the knife down and stabbed it in the ground, right next to the pink clown. My breathing was unbearably heavy while my heart ached more than it did from pumping all the mana. The natural limiter, these were its effects.

I hurriedly stood back up. With a nervous gaze, I ran toward the chair at the end of the room. I grabbed the paper bag and pulled it off.

Sitting there tied to the chair with a line of blood flowing down her lips was a black-haired lady. She didn't look any older than in her mid-twenties.

I fell on my back and brought my knees closer to my chest.

The person they had kidnapped, was not my mother. This young lady was nothing like Irene Rubinstein.

I could feel my heartbeat slow down as all the tension and fatigue left floated off from my shoulders and a wave of relief washed over my body. My eyes stopped hurting and I could see much clearer than before, the fog covering my mind started to leave.

Then, I felt guilt.

Because of me... this stranger. And to feel relief at the sight of a stranger. This was how low I had become.

"Mmm..."

A soft groan escaped the woman tied to the chair. Right, now was no time to worry about these things.

I quickly stood back up and went out the garage-like door in the warehouse. There was a run-down water station near the garage.

{Host? What are you up to?}

Ah, right, I was surely rude to this guy a lot back then, but he still helped me and watched my back in the fight.

"I'm sorry for being rude to you..." I muttered.

{Kyah! >///

{I understand! Don't mind it at all~}

What the fuck.

Thinking it best to ignore this bit, I shook my head and rolled open the taps of the water station. A bit of murky water flowed out at first before being replaced by clean water. I quickly used it to wash my hands and face, wiping off the blood from everywhere. Then, I took off some clean clothes from a few of the circus workers on the ground and changed into them, making sure to not make them seem too off with their clothes gone.

{What are you doing?}

"Cleaning up any susceptible traces."

With my own bloodied clothes, I wiped off the tap and closed it shut. I had no watches or holographic tablet pencils so there was no need to worry about things like GPS.

"[Fire Magic: Ember (E-)]"

A gust of fire spread through the clothes and burnt them to dust.

{Host! About this! How are you bringing out such a strong output with such low-grade spells??}

The system's question was a well-hitting one. Since Earth was exposed to mana and different awakeners rose up, many ways to measure their potential and strength were also developed. We were a scientific species, after all, data was essential for us.

After much research, scientists divided up all skills, abilities, and stats into different ranks ranging from F-, which was the range of a below-average human being.

F+ was the limit of a normal human being.

E- to A+ which was the measurable range of all awakeners.

S- to SSS+ was the range where one entered the realm above awakeners, the transcendents. And unfortunately, also the limit of measurement from current engineering on Earth. So, anyone above SSS+ could have a wide gap between their skills despite being of the same rank.

"I—"

"—Uhg..."

I stopped talking with the system when the groans of the lady got louder. I rushed back into the space she was kept in. Her head bobbed around as she tried to push her hazy eyes open.

I rushed towards the woman and bent down on my knees. My hands supported her face as I lightly tapped her cheeks.

"Miss, wake up! Are you alright?"

"Gah..." At last, her eyes flickered open and landed on me. "What is... happening...?"

"You're okay now, you're okay." My eyes were filled with concern as I started to untie the rope that held her against the chair. I cleaned my face up and even changed my clothes so that I could seem innocent and unrelated in her eyes.

Though I felt bad for acting and tricking her like this, I was truly concerned for this person. She got into this whole mess due to me. Again. I had involved unrelated people in my troubles again.

"Th-thank you..." the woman's voice was feeble and her face exhausted as she saw me freeing her again. I untied the ropes and dropped them to the ground before gazing around for any containers. It seemed this circus had set itself up here for a while since there were some bottles around.

I quickly took them back to the water station and cleaned them up before filling them with water.

"Here, drink this," I said as I softly put the bottle against her lips. I could see her much clearer than before now, the emerald green eyes and the smooth skin, defined eyelashes perfectly accentuating and contrasting her face. She was certainly a beauty, must be from a rich family or something.

When she was done, she pushed the bottle away and took in a deep breath. Her weak eyes moved around the place, stopping at the limp figure of that pinky clown.

"That person..." she said. "She kidnapped me... Are you here to help me?"

I lightly cupped her hand in my own and nodded. "Yes, don't worry. You're safe now, let's get out of here quickly."

"Yes..." she nodded again and finally looked into my eyes. I thought her eyes glimmered when she saw me, but it must have been my imagination.

She tried to get up, but her legs gave in and she fell back on the chair. I quickly looked down and saw swelling on her ankles. "You must have gotten hurt, Miss."

"I'm sorry... I can't stand."

"Please, don't mind it. I'll carry you." She still seemed a little out of it, so her reactions were slow.

"Thanks." When I offered to carry her, she weakly nodded and thanked me again.

I sat down in front of her chair with my back facing her. Her hands clenched my shoulders and coiled around my neck as her legs settled near my sides. I put my hand under her legs and slowly stood back up.

"I'm sorry..." the lady muttered. Her breathing on my neck was weak and completely messed up. She was still too tired and shaken, and I was but a stranger too, she must be feeling a lot of distrust towards me but must have thought this was her only chance of getting out of this place.

"It's ok, just rest."

With that, I started to step out of the space and towards the front exit of the garage.

When I crossed over the bodies of the sleeping circus crew, the woman on my back slowly opened her mouth. "D... did you... do this?"

What to do?

"No. This place was already like this when I came here."

"I see..."

I slowly turned my head to sneak a peek at her face. Her grip around my neck tightened as she looked at the fallen people. Her eyes were a mixture of relief and anger. Anger at these people who put her through this traumatizing experience, and relief at them getting what they deserved, or maybe it was for me being a normal person in her eyes. I would never know.

"I see..." she muttered once more, this time relaxing her grip. I could feel her push her weight on my back as her unsteady breathing finally seemed to have taken a rhythm...

{Oooh! Host! You're feeling up a soft beauty!}

This lech. Fucking distasteful pervert.

I'll banish him. Just wait bastard, I'll give you an earful!