115 – Bailiff

Vivi wasted no time; freezing up had never been a fault of hers.

As soon as she registered the noises echoing from within the building, she scooped herself and Saffra up with a [Blink]. Materializing inside the room, she took several sights in. Her stats meant she might as well have been standing still and studying a painting; action crawled by as if time had frozen.

There were four people besides her and Saffra. Vivi realized that she had actually gotten lucky. Both Leslie and Myer, the healer and bailiff respectively, were present and involved in the ongoing crisis. She’d instantly found the people she was looking for.

The bailiff was shouldered up against a door, in the midst of absorbing some enormous blow that had made the heavy wooden slab nearly bend out of its frame. His face was red with exertion, and his expression was grim yet calm as he dug his boots into the ground and pushed back with all his strength. Muscles bulged through loose clothing, and, though indeed the man had a gut as Mark had accused him of, the bailiff gave the impression he was actually quite strong. Likely a prior adventurer.

In contrast, the face of the boy aiding the bailiff—also shoving against the door to fend off whatever attacker lay within—was panicked, lacking the grim calmness of the older man, and he was stick-thin, not the kind of person who should be testing out a career as a barricade. By the linens and apron the boy was wearing, he was likely a bystander who had leaped in to help. Perhaps a member of the impromptu hospital’s support staff.

The head healer was standing a dozen feet away and looked about ready to burst into tears. Vivi couldn’t help but spare a moment of amusement at how accurate Mark’s description had been. Though maybe the frantic situation was especially to blame. The small woman with brown hair would’ve gotten in the way if she had tried to help the two men, so she hovered close and wrung her hands instead. The bailiff was yelling something at her. A fourth person some distance away had run off, presumably to get help… or just fleeing, in a less generous interpretation.

Vivi [Blinked] behind the door.

As expected, a monster—no, not a monster, a person, she reminded herself—was battering against the door. The mutated, reddish-purple mass on his skull told Vivi that the sickness had burrowed into the host many times deeper than in even Miss Agnes. It was the furthest-gone example she had seen yet, though no doubt not close to what a completed genesis would look like. If this really was the Flesh-Weaver’s work, even twice removed or more, a fully mutated monster would be ripping through hordes of orichalcums with ease.

Inside the clearly repurposed room, she spotted a tangle of rope and a wooden beam torn from the wall. The best-effort restraints the impromptu hospital staff had used to keep their sick prisoner locked up, she assumed.

Vivi admired the people of this town for not taking the ruthless path of putting down the worst of the patients. It might have been the so-called logical thing to do. The pragmatic one. ‘For the greater good.’

Maybe after this incident—if everyone had lived through it—the bailiff’s hand would have been forced. They might have needed to go down that path, executing their patients before… well, this happened.

She breathed another sigh of relief that she had arrived before things had become that bleak. Though it would’ve been better if she’d gotten here weeks ago, before the nightmare had developed.

“[Wind Cocoon],” Vivi incanted.

The low-tier elemental spell wrapped around the demented human and locked him in place. She tugged him back several feet to separate him from the door. Afterward, she [Blinked] back into the main hall.

“I restrained him,” she said calmly. “There’s no need to worry.”

Unsurprisingly, her words didn’t immediately set people at ease. Rather, all three were startled by the sudden arrival, and their shouting picked up anew. Fortunately, soon enough, they saw that the pounding at the door had stopped, and the bailiff and the other boy tentatively stepped away, alternating shocked looks at both her and the door.

Vivi swung the wooden barrier open with a [Telekinesis] and pulled out the man wrapped in [Wind Cocoon] to demonstrate that everyone was safe. More shouting came from that, and she realized that had probably not been the best way to go about it. Vivi delivered more calm reassurances, and, after seeing the creature really was contained, their eyes fell on the badge affixed to her chest. They slowly registered what that meant.

Where nothing else could, the show of rank had people settling down in record time. Gawking, yes, but settling down. As much as she didn’t like how people treated her when she wore ‘high rank’ around, the authority had its uses.

“My name is Nysari,” Vivi said, taking as calm a tone as she could manage, like she was speaking to a startled herd of deer. “This is Saffra, my apprentice. I heard about the trouble Crestwood was having and came to help. The guard at the gate told me Myer and Leslie are who I should speak to, and I believe I’ve found them?” Hesitant nods came from the two relevant parties when she looked at them in turn. “Good. Now, if we can have a moment in private, I would like to speak with you.”

“Is it… safe… to leave him there?” the bailiff asked, staring at the mutated man Vivi had restrained and left floating. He tried to suppress a dubious tone, but Vivi sensed a hint anyway.

“Yes. It is.” It wasn’t in her nature to speak so firmly and order people around, but someone clearly needed to take charge, and she didn’t have Rafael to lean on. “For that matter, I have another one.” She [Blinked] outside to where she’d left Miss Agnes, grabbed her, and teleported back. “Miss Agnes, I was told. I found her on my way into town.”

The bailiff took another moment to adjust to the increasingly strange development. After sharing a baffled look with the healer, he straightened up and fixed his belt and trousers. Then he nodded firmly. A quicker recovery than she’d expected. The man had been running the show up to this point, and from what little Vivi had seen, he’d done a good enough job. It was a nightmarish situation his town had been thrown into, and he hadn’t crumpled under the pressure.

“Right you are, Lady Adventurer,” the bailiff said. “We have something of an office around the corner, if that works for you.”

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“Yes, please.” She gestured for him to lead.

The man hesitated and looked at the two infected townsfolk floating in the air, restrained with different spells, then shook his head and began walking.

A minute later, she and Saffra were alone with the bailiff and healer, the second of whom had meekly scurried along while wringing her hands and wearing an expression of deep uncertainty.

The bailiff opened his mouth, but Vivi raised a hand to cut him off before he could begin. “Please don’t thank me, first off,” she said. “Skip all the niceties and speak plainly. There’s neither time nor a need for it. I will do the same.”

The bailiff’s mouth closed. “Ah, yes, my lady,” he said, thankfully obeying. “You have me at a disadvantage. You seem to know some of what’s going on already. Is there something you need from me?”

Vivi almost sighed in relief. He clearly didn’t think nothing of her rank, but he wasn’t gawking at the green badge like most people did. “A recounting of events leading up to today, and whatever else you might find relevant. Just catch me up.”

He briefed her, much as Mark had earlier. Though it was more comprehensive than the young man’s, she didn’t actually learn anything new. Not until the very end of the recounting, at least.