Chapter 56 - 『Contract Terminated』

Compared to the death of her father, Arche was clearly bothered by the death of her mother. She closed her eyes as the hot glow of the flames brushed the side her face. Its howling and crackling as it spread along the furniture and luxury items her father had wasted her hard earned money on.

Her head lowered, her eyes opened. Her mother was the kindest of the two, giving her gifts, trying to butter her over so that she and her father wouldn't fight. But even then, she never took her side.

Her mother followed the same delusion as her father and that lead to their undoing.

Arche's eyes opened as she purged her face of any standing expression as she usually did, and narrowed her eyes on the three men before them.

"Now, use some of the magic I showed you at the ruins..." Jack turned his head to look to her, his eyes glistening with the excitement that his stoic facial expression did not exhibit.

Raising the staff which he had gifted her, she raised it.

"Don't think we'll give you the chance!" The Two men on the either side of the thug rushed forward. Their long swords grasped in two hands and brought to their sides.

It was likely they were going to slash their way through!

Sweat formed on Arche's brow as she went to cast a spell, a fourth tier spell, while her eyes were fogging up from the threat of tears. "『Frost Lance』!" She shouted, squeezing her eyes shut as she did so. A larger portion of her mana drained before she felt a gust of cold air wash over her face.

Opening her eyes just in time to see a lance shaped piece of eyes launch itself through the air and into the chest of the incoming swordsman. She let her mouth fall open in shock, watching as it impaled his hidden armor under his cloak with ease, and sent him flying back through the window of the room.

As the glass shattered, the flames began to spread even more towards the window itself. Soon enough the entire one side of the room was in flames and only the side they were on remained untouched.

"Brother!" The man shouted watching the impaled thug drop from view. He hesitated before looking back towards the girl who was pointing her staff at him. As if silently asking him to come forward.

It hadn't been her first time killing a person. Workers had to deal with zombies, undead and even bandits. Sometimes they were even hired to capture runaway slaves, so it mattered not.

"You meddled too far into this affair! You think eliminating us will change anything!? Our group will just prop up over and over again!" The leader pointed at Jack as he was speaking, "I give you one last chance to walk away..." The man was bluffing, or at least he was most likely at this moment.

"Aren't you the leader of your little organization?"

The man paused at the words Jack just shared, apparently being knowledgable of his position. The only assumption was, someone spoke, told him everything! His face scrunched up in disgust, "Who was it that betrayed me?"

"Doesn't matter, he isn't able to speak anymore." Jack shrugged slightly at this, as he narrowed his sights on the shady money lender.

He frowned hearing Jack, the man who had betrayed him was already dead? Curses. There was no one to get revenge on or to even punish. His eyes shifted towards the window that was now broken and revealing the world outside.

"I wouldn't think of even going outside..." Jack warned as he tilted his head to the side, "If you think we came here alone, you're sadly mistaken. You're not getting out of here alive."

Turning back to look at the duo in front of him, he found that he was going to die either way. If he charged and used his rapier, or went out the window and be ambushed. "What is it that you want?"

"Everything you know..." Jack uttered as he stepped forward from where he stood beside Arche, walking towards the thug in his sights.

The man seemed to laugh nervously, as if it was going to be a ridiculous deal. "Everything I know…? And I'll live? Why do I have a hard time believing that?"

"I was never going to offer your life in trade for this information, I was going to take your life for it." Jack responded in a casual tone as he fluidly dodged the swipe from the last remaining goon. Swiping the short blade at the butt end of his spear across the goon's legs, he collapsed, dead within seconds.

The ringleader and mastermind behind the attack, just stared at the spear which had hardly touched the man it had swiped and killed them near-instantly. "What… What kind of weapon is that?"

Jack cocked his head to the side, tilting it back slightly. "Oh? You won't have much more time to care about that, now will you?"

The thug stumbled back, his rapier held out in front of him, pointed at Jack. For some reason he was beginning to feel as if this whole situation had become hopeless. He was going to die here!

Yet as he went to lunge forward, to fatally jab Jack in the stomach with his weapon, he found his flimsy weapon bending against the Angel's abdomen. Bending and not penetrating.

"...What in the world are you!?" The thug shouted before a hand of curled fingers grasped at his shirt's collar and dragged him right off his feet and into the air. Dropping his weapon to clasp his hands on Jack's wrist, "Let me go I say! Let me go!"

Jack just shook his head, a pair of wings sprouting from his back as no one else other than he and Arche would see them inside this very building. "You sent your goons to collect what is already mine."

Arche's eyes took in Jack's back, taking in the divine sight of his wings. Her upper lip overlapped the lower though as she heard his words. What was already his? Did he lay claim to her sisters? Or was he only talking about her? She couldn't tell whether or not that was good or bad, but she was sure he was just being him. She knew he only wanted her, and that was a fact.

Walking up behind him, glancing at the side towards the fires. Watching as the charred remains of her mother had begun to pop and little embers began to flutter into the air as the moisture inside her body ruptured out as steam.

"You don't have to kill me!" The man was struggling, Jack didn't bother listening. "Please! I can give you money! I have plenty of clients I can get gold from! Please! I can give you girls, any amount of them! Women! Big! Small! However you like! Please, just don't kill me."

Jack narrowed his eyes on the man as he said he had plenty of clients, what he could offer. Surely, he was rather disgusted with this scum as he was begging for his life. "You really don't get it do you…?"

Arche was now standing beside Jack, staring up at the man who was suspended above the ground in the grasps of her boyfriend. Her blue eyes reflected the man's face, almost brilliantly.

"You were going to enslave my little sisters.. and me." She spoke in a small, soft and concise voice. Despite the softness in which she spoke, she was not being gentle as her gaze was cold.

She wanted to see him die for what he was going to do to her family.

Jack glanced over towards her for a moment, before nodding and turning to the being in his hands. He was tempted to strangle him to death, but he wanted to know more about this organization. It mean he could get his hands on the houses who were turned upside down by the Emperor and those who were in debt. Blackmail, that was something he knew he could do and get away with, simply because of his power. A small smirk across his lips, Jack would begin to lightly squeeze at the man's throat.

"PLEASE!" The man erupted into pleas once more, he didn't want to die. He saw it was inevitable, but he was still trying! If Jack had been a normal person, he would've hesitated, but he didn't.

Arche had enough for the life she had already begun to lead. While she wasn't going to stop her new life style, she was finally happy she was going to be rid of these money lenders. Now she was no longer going to be forced to work so hard!

She wanted to laugh in this man's face. Show him that her life was going to be better without him in it!

But she didn't. Arche didn't laugh, she just formed this subtle smile across her lips as she watched Jack cast the devour spell. Her own face twisting slightly as she witnessed the man's body be crushed into a pulp until he was just that of a gelatin cube once more.

"Consider your contract, terminated..." Jack then crushed it in his hand, euphoria taking him over as if it were a drug, allowing the knowledge of the man's organization and his clients flood into his mind. It wasn't quite what he was expecting … The organization was in someway connected to the Re-Estize's Eight Fingers, especially rooted in the slave trade and monetary departments.

Jack lowered his now empty hand and stood there, listening to the fire as it howled, consuming more of the room as the two just stood there. Facing the open window.

"...Thank you..." Arche whispered to herself, but truly to Jack, as she looked to the ground. The tears she had fought earlier after the traumatically instant death of her mother, began to spill down her face. Her eyes shined from the glossiness, before she looked up to him as he placed a hand on her cheek, luring her head up to look to his face. His halo glowing behind his head as he leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead, causing her to close her eyes as she felt their warmth.