Kirst and Jerri (2/2)

The moment Haalfrin exits his soul realm, he immediately notices a new problem and curses in his mind, 'I've become younger again, huh? F***.' Indeed. Haalfrin's around 150 years old right now. If you want to calculate your physical age, then you divide by 9 for a 2nd gate mage, and by 16 for a 3rd gate mage.

Haalfrin counts on his fingers as he calculates for a moment. "I was 16 before, but now I'm freaking 9 or 10. Let's go with 9 and a half."

The "little boy" uncomfortably hoists his pants up, tightens his belt, and rolls his pant legs up. 'Ugh. I look like a mess. Oh well.'

Other than having to change clothes again, Haalfrin really has nothing against getting younger again.

'On second thought… the feeling of experiencing childhood over and over again is a little annoying. Plus, how am I supposed to find a girl to marry if I look like a kid? I guess I'll have to put that part of my life behind me again.'

When he thinks about it some more, he realizes a few things to be grateful for.

'At least I'm not a girl,' Haalfrin mutters. 'Going through puberty multiple times as a girl would be awful. Plus, since mages age a lot slower, the girl's puberty the next few times would last FAR longer than normal.'

After spending a few minutes adjusting his clothes and cutting some of the unnecessary cloth off, Haalfrin finally makes his way up the stairs.

As Haalfrin creeps up the stairs, he can feel the heat signatures coming from inside the master bedroom at the top, but he doesn't hear any noises anymore.

'Perhaps Kirst has another teleportation scroll on him,' Haalfrin wonders, 'I'd better make sure he's "busy" again before I attack him.'

And so, Haalfrin wiggles his tiny frame out the window, and he casts a Muffling spell to cancel out the creaking on the roof he'd have made as he creeps on the roof and positions himself over Kirst's heat signature. At least he's smaller now (and barefoot), so he's even less likely to make a lot of noise.

… After getting into position, Haalfrin only has to wait another half hour before he hears the "fierce battle" begin again.

In the height of their passion, Haalfrin briefly thinks about just using his dimensional magic to phase right through the roof and slamming right on top of the criminal. However, that's very costly on mana, and it would leave him behind on mana reserves JUST IN CASE the crime lord is able to fight back.

'… I just don't want to see anything I shouldn't,' Haalfrin looks up and prays to whichever death god is listening, 'Wouldn't want to be distracted during battle, you see. That would be embarrassing.'

Steeling his heart, Haalfrin slams his fist into the roof, and a large circular hole breaks apart beneath him.

…And the first thing Haalfrin hears after crashing through the roof is the long blonde-haired lover screech and get squished by the crime lord, who was on top and just got the back of his spine kicked hard from above.

Since Kirst is on top, he suffered the brunt of the debris falling on him. One of the wooden planks smacks him hard at the back of the head. If the man had been a normal human, he'd have been knocked out by the blow… or killed.

However…, being a mage didn't help much either. The man doesn't have any strengthening enchantments on himself right now. If he did, his lover would probably have died by now.

And so, Kirst has no time to react before Haalfrin gets him in an armlock and breaks his arms. He then jabs at Kirst's heart and uses an advanced technique his master taught him, which disrupts the flow of mana in a person's body – preventing them from using magic for a few minutes.

To be honest, Haalfrin's never had an opportunity to use this technique very often, since if you can jab the heart, the problem is usually easier solved if you just stab them instead of sealing their mana.

Why capture when you can kill?

As Haalfrin flips the man over and starts tying him up, the lover stands up and tries to scramble away in sheer terror.

Instinctually drawn by the movement, Haalfrin briefly glances over and yelps in shock.

Well… Haalfrin certainly saw something just there that he shouldn't have, but it's not for the obvious reason. In that brief glance, Haalfrin noticed that Jerri had the wrong set of equipment 'down there'.

Haalfrin pushes Kirst further down on the broken bed and asks, "You lover's a man? No wonder you wouldn't let anyone meet 'her.' You're still stuck in the closet, huh?"

Alastan society doesn't look kindly on men like Kirst, so Haalfrin can understand his secrecy about his lover. This is especially true among nobles.

Thinking about it in retrospect, the noises Haalfrin was hearing earlier DID sound a little husky. Still… for a man, this blondie has a very effeminate voice and appearance, so he pardons himself for mistaking the blondie's gender.

Haalfrin finishes tying up the crime lord, then he puts a pillow over the criminal's private parts for good measure. He then looks over at the lover, who's now busy getting dressed in a panic.

With a confused face, Kirst looks over his shoulder at his assailant and mutters, "Haalfrin?"

Haalfrin tightens the man's bindings for good measure and replies, "Oh? I'm happy you recognize me, despite looking younger."

Kirst calls out to Jerri, "Run away while you still can!"

"Hey!" Haalfrin slaps Kirst on the back of the head, "that makes ME sound like the bad guy here."

Haalfrin calms down again and adds, "Anyway, your lover being a man was a bit of a shock for me. I've heard the stories, but I never thought I'd see it in person."

"Don't you touch him!" Kirst wiggles about and roars.

Smiling, Haalfrin waits for the blonde lover to finish dressing before he grabs him by the scruff of the neck and says menacingly, "Now, I want to know everything you have in this province - all your assets and connections. If you leave anything out or lie at all, then I'll snap this little pretty's neck."

Kirst's complex emotions – most prominently despair – are nakedly displayed in his face as he stammers out, "I…I'll talk… so long as you let him go… He doesn't know what I've done. The only sin he has is falling for the wrong man…"

Haalfrin rolls his eyes and kicks Kirst in the balls. "Oi! This isn't a sappy drama. Just answer my question."

Seeing he was a little too harsh, Haalfrin adds, "I'm a man of the law, here to arrest a criminal. I would never harm an innocent unless I had no other choice. If you cooperate, I promise on my family's honor that he will be safe."

Hearing Haalfrin's confirmation, Kirst evidently trusts the honor of a war hero and the archmage's apprentice at least. So, his entire mien relaxes… and with a tone of self-sacrifice, he spills the beans.

As Kirst is talking, Haalfrin is sure to record everything he says on a memory crystal his master sent him through the shared space box the other day.

After Kirst is done giving up all the Algori's Syndicate's secrets, he's hoisted out of the bed with some mana sealing cuffs on, which Haalfrin found in one of Kirst's draws.

Looking over at the door, Kirst sees Jerri walk out the door with a sad look on his face – occasionally taking glances over at him.

'Jerri heard my entire confession… I'm sorry you had to fall in love with this kind of man…,' Kirst thinks as he sniffles back a tear.

However, just as Jerri is almost gone, the blonde man turns around and waves sadly, "I still love you Kirst!" before scampering off. This time, Kirst lets the tear fall.

Kirst tears his eyes away from Jerri's fading figure, and he looks over at Haalfrin. "Can I have one last ounce of decency before you take me away?" Kirst asks his captor, "I mean, can I be allowed at least some underclothes before I leave?"

The crime lord doesn't sound as wound up as he did before. Maybe hearing Jerri's last love confession lifted a weight from his heart. Maybe now, he can finally feel free from his deception and poor choices.

---------------------

On their way out of the mansion and after some excruciating minutes of getting his clothes on while not removing the cuffs, they finally get out of that room and make their way through the hallway to the front door.

As Haalfrin is leading Kirst through the hall, they both look to the side and see through the window a creeping figure making its way through the back lawn.

Looking closer, they both see that it's Jerri, who's carrying a large sack on his back filled with something heavy. The blonde man looks around to make sure nobody is looking… though he doesn't notice Haalfrin and Kirst watching him through the dark window.

Jerri then creeps up to the gate with his sack, and the gate swings open from the other side. There waits another blonde person – this time a woman.

Haalfrin and Kirst can't hear anything with the window closed, but they both watch as the two blonde people lean in for a big fat kiss on the lips before hugging.

Kirst immediately goes wide-eyed, and he tries kicking and screaming… before Haalfrin has to gag his mouth closed.

Then… out of curiosity, Haalfrin opens the window slightly just in time to hear the woman say, "Husband! You got the gold! Let's get outa here, QUICK!"

Jerri shudders and replies as he swings the sack onto the cart she brought with her, "You have no idea what I sacrificed to get us our retirement money… Bleh!"

"What did you sacrifice?" the girl asks in concern.

"N-nothing. I don't want to talk about it. Let's get going."

Watching the love of his life hop on a cart and ride off into the sunset with another woman sends the hardened crime lord into another fit of rage.

Laughing at the man's plight, Haalfrin knocks the man out. 'Don't want to drag you back if you're struggling the whole time.'

Frankly, Haalfrin thought about confiscating all of Kirst's funds from the thieving lover… 'but thinking about how much that man went through to get it… I'd feel kinda bad taking it away. I mean, it's not like he stole from an upright person anyway.'

Haalfrin himself has had his fair share of good, honest thievery; he'd be a hypocrite to condemn Jerri just for stealing a fortune.

And so, ignoring Jerri and his wife's disappearance, Haalfrin drags the crime lord's unconscious body outside. He then pulls out another far-speak medallion and contacts Master Tallus.

He'd have normally called his master, but he gave the medallion he uses for Kalastros to the released prisoners earlier.

The only thing left to do is leave a message to Kalastros through Tallus.

Haalfrin then lets the archmage know about his capture of the crime lord and the closure of the syndicate. He has the archmage arrange for the man's detention and imprisonment since he doesn't trust any local nobles to manage it properly.

He then goes back to Hanalee and asks her to make arrangements with the prince on getting all the criminal's assets seized, as well as handle everything else appropriately.

In this regard, there's nothing left for him to do, and he retires back to his little room in Randel's house – tired and beat from traveling most of the day.

…And of course, Randel and Lia almost wouldn't let this strange child just waltz into their house, that is, until they noticed the oversized clothes Haalfrin was wearing and the familiar, scary scowl.

Of course, they learn shortly how Haalfrin gained another Name and grew younger again. Once that is out of the way, he can continue his life as normal.