"Carole."
Carole looked up after Theo called her.
"I'll ask you again," said Theo. "I'll save you, destroy those people, and save your little brother. After that, you will work for me, right?"
Carole instinctively wanted to refuse him again and that now was not the time for that, since they were currently surrounded by those people, The Rats, who came to take her back and might even hurt the two of them if Theo and Tizmilly ever tried to oppose them.
But she stopped herself when she looked at Theo's sharp blue eyes. Those eyes weren't the eyes of someone who haven't seen the world like Tizmilly's. It was the exact opposite: he had seen most things that for him, the people surrounding them weren't even considered as threat to him.
Of course Carole couldn't see that much from his eyes, but she instinctively sensed it, and chose to believe him.
"As long you could save us, then yes, I'll work for you."
Work as a maid? If this man could really save she and her brother from those people, then it wouldn't even be a problem if he wanted her to work as a rough worker.
Theo grinned.
"Cool."
Tizmilly saw the two of them, felt glad that Theo would help Carole and her little brother from those evil people, but deep inside, something different was growing. And it disliked the sight when Theo grinned toward Carole.
Around them, of course, The Rats's members, and the short man, Goffekarg, noticed that Theo and others were planning to do something.
"Hey, lad! Don't you ever think of doing something stupid, or you won't be able to leave this alley awhole." Goffekarg screeched, trying to threaten Theo and Tizmilly.
Theo shrugged in response. "Don't worry, I always considered myself a little smart. I won't do anything stupid."
He acted like he would cooperate with them and willingly leave Carole to them, so Goffekarg immediately cheered inside.
"I-I see. When I see you, as expected, you are a smart boy! Hahahaha!"
Theo smiled.
"Yes, that's why I will only chose smart choices..."
Goffekarg began approaching Carole. Noticed his movement, Carole looked at the short man with stink eyes, and slowly backed off from him.
"Then, come to me, Carole. We'll continue what we hadn't finished this morning, kehehehe...."
Goffekarg slowly extended his hand toward Carole, and that frightened Carole. She began sending Theo panicked glances.
"H-hey, why are you just standing there, help me!" Carole yelled at him, but Theo remained still.
Goffekarg was the reason why she ran away from The Rats this morning and leaving her little brother alone. That short man, after he noticed that Carole had been growning into a fine woman every days, began to keep dirty idea in his mind. And that idea exploded this morning, with he suddenly intruded her room to assault her. Fortunately, Carole managed to escape, but maybe she shouldn't have escaped before, if she knew that it would only hurt her little brother. But, still, she still felt like it was too bad if she let this man take her purity.
"Mister Roost...?" Tizmilly looked at Theo confusedly, didn't understand why he acted like he was about to save Carole before, then suddenly acted like this.
However, since she didn't have time to think about it, she couldn't see how Theo's eyes eyeing every members of the Rats that were surrounding them. He did it to stall for time while he formulating a way out from their encirclement, and their plan after they succeeded in escaping them.
Couldn't just watch from the side without doing anything while that short man was almost get Carole, Tizmilly stepped forward, but her shoulder was yanked back before she could help Carole. Tizmilly turned around, and that was Theo who yanked her before.
"Mister Roost, why? Why didn't you help Miss Carole? She... She—"
Before Tizmilly could finish her sentence, Theo placed his index finger on her lips, and shook his head lightly so that The Rats didn't notice his movement.
Tizmilly widened her eyes. Finally, she noticed it, that Theo was waiting for the right moment. She hesitated for a while, since Carole was currently sobbing with Goffekarg following her around as she tried to escape but with no way out, but after some thought, she chose to believe in Theo.
"H-hey... Y-you said you will save me, right?"
Carole moved near Theo and Tizmilly, sending them desperate glances, but received no response, which devastated her even further.
Meanwhile, Goffekarg felt like he would ascend to the heaven right there and then seeing how passive these firends of Carole had become just after he said some words to threaten them. He believed that the two wouldn't dare to do anything to him anymore, so he chased after Carole, approached Theo and Tizmilly without fear.
Without Theo and Tizmilly's help, Carole realized that it was over for her, so she shut her eyes and stopped trying to escape right at Theo and Tizmilly's back, waiting for Goffekarg to brought her back to the Rats's base.
Steps taken by Goffekarg toward Carole. He reached toward her, just inches away from touching her skin, but then—
A fist landed heavily on his nose, throwing his consciousness immediately deep inside his mind, and made his nose bleed.
The sudden change of events shocked everyone except Theo and Tizmilly.
Theo grabbed the unconscious Goffekarg's hair to prevent his body to fall to the ground.
He looked at those thugs' shocked faces, and grinned. "And being smart is to wait for your prey bring itself into your range of attack willingly."
Theo cast Levitation on Goffekarg to reduce his body's weight and let his subordinates see his nosebleeding, unconscious face.
"Now, if you don't want for this man to die, obeys my words. Take steps back, 20 meters away from us."
The thugs exchanged unease glances, uncertain what they should do, to attack Theo and others, or to obey his words. But Goffekarg was their direct superior. Their Boss would kill them if he knew that they abandoned him here, so after some thought, they decided to obey Theo's words and began to take step backward slowly.
Carole finally realized that Theo was never trying to abandon her when the thugs began backing off from them.
"I-I thought you will leave me to them..." She muttered with sobbing voice.
"Of course not," Theo immediately replied with a smile. "Both Tizmilly and me didn't bring our weapons, so fighting them upfrontly will be too much of a risk. I'll rather avoid that situation if I can. Let's wait until they stopped stepping away before we escape from this place."
Tizmilly and Carole nodded strongly in response. ""Alright!""
Minutes later, the thugs halted their steps. The distance between them and Theo, Tizmilly, and Carole now was about 18 meters. Less than what Theo said, but Theo knew that they wouldn't want to back off even further even if he threatened them that he would slice Goffekarg's throat at the moment.
Thus, instead of that, Theo gestured at Tizmilly and Carole with his eyes.
In response, Tizmilly jumped into his embrace hesitatingly, and with blushing face. Theo grabbed her slender waist with his left hand, before throwing Goffekarg away, and also grabbed Carole's waist with right hand, carrying Carole like a luggage under his armpit, before jumped up with Levitation casted on their bodies.
With his strong legs and Levitation, they immediately launched to the sky like a rocket, leaving the thugs with no time to react.
The moment they recovered from their stupor, Theo and others had already landed on top of a building, before jumped again toward another building, their movement swift and instant.
"Ah, they run away!"
"Chase 'em!"
"Get Goffekarg as well!"
Before they completely lost sight of Theo and others, they immediately chased after them while carrying the unconscious Goffekarg with them.
...
"They're chasing us," said Tizmilly, peeking those thugs' movement through Theo's shoulder.
"Can't we move faster!?" Carole complained with pale face.
Seeing the city while they were floating in the air like this frightened her, but she endured her fear by reminding herself that it was for herself and her own brother's safety and freedom.
"And why didn't you hold me the same way like you held her!? It would be certainly more comfortable that way!" She added more complain.
Theo landed on top of another building, his heels produced worrying sound when making contact with the tiles. Fortunately, his Levitation nullified their weight. Otherwise, the tiles would have been crushed under their weight.
Then Theo jumped again toward another building. While floating, he glanced at his back, looking at the group of thugs who were still chasing after them through the alleys.
"I can move even faster, but first tells us. Where is their base?" Theo replied with another question.
Carole looked around while they kept jumping from roof after roof before she finally remembered the location of The Rats's base.
She pointed her index finger toward the southern side of the city.
"Go south! To the ghost District! Their base is there. They rebuild an abandoned mansion there!"
Theo frowned slightly after he heard what she said. The Ghost District was the most chaotic place in The Dungeon City at the later part of the game. All kind of twisted people were living there. If he could, he would like to avoid visiting that place, but since they had already gone this far, he could only press forward and hoped that The Rats was not some gigantic criminal organization.
Shifting his direction, Theo jumped toward the south.
"The Ghost District? I don't think there was a district with that name in Dungeon City..." Tizmilly muttered while holding her bang so that it wouldn't cover Theo's face and disturbed his focus.
Carole was the one who answered her, even while she was trembling everytime she looked down.
"Ugh, so high!" She squeaked, before looked up at Tizmilly. "Officially, it was indeed not. The ghost District was how the locals of the Dungeon City called the Southern outer part of the Dungeon City. And that was a very dangerous place!"
Disbelief written all over Tizmilly face.
"Dangerous? How could it be dangerous? The guards of the Dungeon City were always kept the safety of the city's residents with..."
Tizmilly wanted to said a place that dangerous wouldn't be able to exist in this city with the guards diligently patrolled around the city from the morning to midnight, but then she recalled what those thugs said when they surrounded them before.
Theo sighed when he noticed Tizmilly's lost expression. He increased his speed before he opened his mouth.
"As the words says: the purer the light, the deeper the shadow hiding under it. In this world, there was no place that completely spared from danger and malice, Tizmilly. Not even The Dungeon City."
'Or rather, it was the place where the greatest chaos creeping...' Theo thought for himself but kept it in his throat.
"No, but..."
Tizmilly shut her lips, didn't know what to say.
To think that inside the very city where she lived until this moment, evil and shadow were lurking.
That's unimaginable for her.
Unfortunately, that was the truth.
...
—The Southern outer part of The Dungeon City aka. The Ghost District.
Theo finally put Tizmilly and Carole down on a roof of an abandoned house. Before them, about 100 meters away, a big mansion stood with its aged paint, with its yard guarded heavily with a group of mismatched people.
After Theo increased his speed, the thugs immediately lost them, so they didn't have to fear of being chased anymore.
"So that's the place. The Rats's base," Tizmilly muttered, her eyes filled with hatred, not because they had hurt her or Carole and her little brother, but because they had forced her to rebuild her understanding about this city and her whole life.
"Remember, our goal is to get Carole's little brother, Timmy, out of the place. Don't fight them if avoiding them is possible. Also, if we have enough time, let's try to get the evidences of their evils. Understand?"
Theo didn't want Tizmilly to do something stupid, so he reminded her for their main goals. Tizmilly could only nod and abandoned the dark idea she had in her mind in response.
Before they go, Theo and Tizmilly first sent a letter to the Academy using the token they had with them, which told Carole that they were actually one of the top students of the Academy. She agaped when she realized how lucky she was to encountered and even secured a help from people like these two.
"Then, let's go!" Theo stated.
With this, the infiltration commenced.