Meeting the female lead

As early as when Mungo threw a muddy sack on them, Hale held his breath and forced his soul out of his corporeal form. Python and his lot left, presumably to catch more “goods” as they put it. The task of bringing the kids back to the hideout was left to the hairy man who was anything but gentle.

He watched them being brought into the basement of a bookstore and through a trapdoor. Mungo swaggered down a winding and narrow passage where the sack he swung unceremoniously over a shoulder bumped into just about every wall. He pressed some numbers and stuck a card in front of an entry mechanism which beeped after the authentication.

The wall slid to one side to reveal what looked like a remodeled warehouse. Cages occupied most of the drab floor space and in them were either weak-bodied children or heavily-built adults of all species.

Cold sweat would have broken out had Hale been in his body. The captives must have been visitors for the Homecoming Festival like him. It was obvious who the other realms would blame if such a large number of their people went missing in the phasm capital. Pact or not, the underlying tension between the realms had always been suppressed, not surpassed. They only needed a reasonable excuse to redivide the lands.

In the worst case, sparks of war could ignite again.

Judging that it was time, Hale swooped back into his body. Mungo overturned the sack and dropped its contents onto a conveyor belt, causing the occupants to wince. No doubt another bruise would be added to their already colorful skin.

“11… and 16. Barely passable. Get it into your thick skull that we need the younger ones. Another undead? Didn’t you see some fairies?” The neatly-dressed woman with a good figure scowled as she typed on a tablet, scorn for Mungo evident in her tone.

Under the operation of two waiting staff, the scanning machine recorded the kids’ details and stamped their cheeks. The kids seemed to have given up and didn’t fight the proceedings.

“Tis the heaviest patrol me seen in ‘ears. Ain’t ‘em nickers onto it?” Mungo had always been strong to the weak and weak to the strong. Although he was tempted by the reward, the scale of things left him uneasy.

“Your biggest concern should be what will happen if you don’t meet the quota. And rest assured… it won’t be pleasant.” What she didn’t say was that he would meet a similar end either way. The woman hated breathing the same air as the uneducated and inefficient ruffians and couldn’t wait to be rid of these expendables.

Mungo scoffed and tore Hale’s jacket, digging into a hidden pocket greedily. A secret stash showed up in the monitor after the scan and he could use what the boy didn’t need anymore. Just as his beefy fingers tightened around the wads, his chin was knocked up and a fishy smell spread in his mouth from biting his tongue.

“Bas’ard!”

Hale would have laughed at the broken pronunciation if his teeth hadn’t sunk deep into the man’s arm, enough to draw blood. His jaw took two solid punches from the opponent before slackening. Hale lamented for his good looks. Didn’t Mungo know that damaged products have lower value?

He finished off by spitting Mungo’s blood in his face, “There’s a price to pay for taking things that don’t belong to you.”

The girl captured with him shivered and vowed to return every coin back to the boy if they escaped. She had a feeling he’d entangle her forever if she didn’t.

Mungo lunged at Hale but was stopped by three sentries. The woman who gave the instruction hid her schadenfreude behind a palm tipped with pristine manicured nails.

“We still need the kid alive. Enough time was wasted. Need you be reminded of your duties?”

The man left disgruntled and the binding vines on the kids were replaced by shackles before they were thrown into a cage with other children.

“Are you okay?”

Does it look like I am? Hale’s mouth opened but the retort was trapped in his throat when he took in the delicate features of the person before him.

It was the female lead.