"So what is it you want?" Dues asked.
Even after listening to everything the four had to say, Dues still asked that question. And that made Trevor irritated on her again.
"What do we want? Isn't it obvious?" He said, "We want you to locate that guy who is trying to practice magic."
Hearing that, her lips curbed into a smile as she said, "I can't really do that."
"Tsk! What the-" Trevor gets stopped by a hand put up by Dues as she continued, "I can't really do that, but there's something I can do to help you all with this."
All four of them had expressions asking "What's that!?" which amused Dues as she chuckled and said, "I can direct you to people who are already looking for the guy and are sure to find him."
"What!?" even though he heard it clearly, the leader of the four could not believe what he had heard. "Are they from Remedy?"
"You wish!" Dues said with an evil grin, "They are freelance assassins."
"What!? It's gotten that bad!?" Trevor said as he heard that. However,
"Yes, Remedy has indeed sent assassins to track down this person." She was enjoying the entire conversation just because her conversation partners were utterly shocked and terrified.
"I … really doubt Remedy would do something like that." The leader said.
"I know. It's not Remedy itself. It's some particular person in Remedy who has hired them." She said with a grin, "As for who, I am not going to make it zero fun for me by telling you all."
"Tsk!" Trevor clicked his tongue. "You bitch!"
"Call me whatever you wish, it doesn't change anything." She said with her grin unwavering.
"Fine!" their leader said to her, "Tell us who these assassins are. We'll follow them and get what we want ourselves."
*****
It was justified for my past self to think following those assassins like Dues was trying to suggest could work. However, things weren't that simple. They were assassins – expert at hiding. And we were no experts at tailing. Trying to tail assassins to get to the targets they are after, it was foolish. Even if I think it was justified, I can't deny that it was foolish. There was one silver lining though. We were strong. Despite the fact that assassins obviously would have an upper hand on us when it came to stealth or speed, as far as an all-out battle was concerned, we were stronger than any assassin group out there. We could take them out if we made it in time. And so, we made all efforts to make it in time.
Too bad for us, even being able to tail them was not enough.
*****
On the top of an abandoned building, with binoculars stuck to his eyes, Trevor said, "I can see them. There are two assassins, just like that bitch said."
Sitting on a public park's bench with newspapers open as a classic deception, Grey said, "Yes. I can see them too. They seem to be enjoying their meal for now."
Sitting much nearer to the open restaurant the two assassins are dining at, Jessica said, "Hmm … there is one man and one woman, both looking like they can flip a bull over. It'll be a cake defeating them."
In front of his house, after listening to everything they said through his Bluetooth, their leader said, "For now, just follow them. Don't do anything rash. Being that they are assassins, we can assume they already feel someone is following them. So, keep sharp and don't give them any chances to get away, if that is what they try to do."
All three said, "Yes sir!"
And with that, the tailing began.
*****
Why was all this happening in the first place? It's simple.
When a mage goes rogue, it means that they become unable to control their powers of course. But, it's not as simple as it sounds. The capability to do mage-craft, mana, gets corrupted and slowly starts affecting the genes of a person. This leads to a transformation of a human into some different race, depending on the type of magic they were practicing.
If that happened, it would obviously be trouble. And so, corporations like Remedy try to stop that from happening. However, in reality, they use this as an excuse to get human subjects for their own experiments. Since these people have a chance of going rogue, hard measures are allowed against them. And that is an excuse for using them for live human experiments.
We didn't want anyone to end like that however, and so we were dead-set on finding that guy and saving him from Remedy.
*****
"Ah!" she let a small cry of pain slip as her hands which felt like they'd burn, but Grimma didn't stop there, "I have to do this no matter what. This is the only way to stop these people from giving me and Dad any more headaches."
She mumbled to herself in an attempt to give herself courage to keep going. "After all this is over, I'll tell Dad everything and then it will all be fine."
And it seemed to be working as she was regaining her motivation to keep practicing.
"Sis!" Jason called out from outside of her room, the door of which was locked.
"Yes, what is it, Jason?" she responded from inside the room.
"… Kylie has something to talk to you about." He said after a little delay.
Hearing that, Grimma sighed and opened the door to look at her two siblings who were neither oldest nor youngest. Then, her 10-11 years old sister, Kylie, said, "Sis, are you doing something bad?"
"…" Grimma deliberately didn't respond.
"It seems like you are always trying to hide things from us these days." Kylie said with a downcast expression, "You are keeping secrets from us, aren't you?"
Hearing that, Grimma said, "Yes! That I am."
Kylie's gaze grew even more downcast and Jason didn't know how to respond either.
"I'll tell everything to you all once all this is over, and I suppose you don't know what I mean by 'all this'. That's fine too." She said with a bit of a smile, "Just wait a little bit, okay?"
She said as she looked at her two siblings and then the youngest one, a 7-8 year old boy looking at them in confusion of what they are talking about. With a smile, Grimma told him,
"I'll tell you everything too, Irium."
*****