A Father's Duty

"What do you mean the shark has taken the bait?" He asked.

"Where's the fun if you know what it is. Go on, lead the way." I said before ordering the shadow member to lead the way.

He nodded and blended in the shadow before jumping away.

We both followed him as we reached the slum area. When we arrived at the place, I saw Aria with 5 guards alongside her as they traversed the slums area before stopping in front of a rotten house. Somnus was confused as to why Aria was out in the night when she should be resting.

"You, kick the door open. Time to finish what I started. Go drag those rats out for me." Aria pointed at the door of the house

The guard kicked the door and screams were all over the place, four kids were first pulled out and when the fifth one was pulled out, Somnus widened his eyes. It was the kid who stole his money. He was about to ask me as to why were they following Aria and when the sixth person was pulled out of the house... Somnus trembled greatly.

He trained himself to be able to see even at night like a tiger hunting for his prey. Although her face is scarred, haggard, and weakly, he could recognize that face. He looked at me in disbelief. He knew that there was something wrong when he heard about her death, but he never knew that I had already figured it out and even laid a bait for her.

I paid a lot of points just to confirm the identity of one dead body. It was pricy as hell because it is far from the system's directive.

Somnus as if granted a second chance in life, looked at me with gratitude in his eyes, when I nodded, he wore a cloth mask to hide his face before immediately vanishing from his spot.

Somnus' magic is quite powerful and tricky as well. It was the perfect magic for an assassin, Shadow Magic Variant. Normally shadow magic allows one to hide in a person's shadow to stalk or gain information from the target. Somnus' magic is a variant. Instead of hiding in someone's shadow, he can travel to the shadow realm, the only drawbacks that it have is when he is in the shadow realm, travel direction is cut short. Also, he doesn't have any sight of those above ground.

For example, when Somnus entered the shadow realm, 16 m outside is 8 m in shadow realm.

Due to constant training, his spacial sense within the shadow realm is honed to the limits making him really accurate on where he will pop up.

Somnus immediately reached the guards and knocked them out easily. He also wrecked Aria's face with his fists as she passed out. Somnus already have a general idea of what had happened. The kids seeing a masked person saving them, they felt weird but also wary as well, but with the teachings of their elder sister, they came towards the masked person and thanked him altogether.

They were about to carry their elder sister back to their cottage when the masked person blocked their path.

"Mister, my sister's face isn't beautiful, she won't taste good!" The kid who stole his money, spoke up as he thought he would take their sister and eat her.

"I know your sister right there." He said in a gentle voice to calm the kids down. Although they were wary, they let Somnus approach their elder sister.

Somnus grabbed her hand and spoke.

"Helen... its me.... Somnus." He said softly as Helen's eyes trembled slightly hearing his voice and his name.

She opened her eyes and saw the last person she wanted to see after the fire.

"No...! I'm... not... Helen! Go... away... from me!" She said weakly as she pushed Somnus away before coughing some blood.

I saw the scene of her coughing out blood as I narrowed my eyes. She needs immediate treatment

Somnus seeing her cough blood, he tried to get close but the kids barred his way to Helen.

"Stay away from our sister!" They said as Somnus was in a bind. He didn't want to hurt the children.

'He is back to being indecisive again, huh?' I thought but Somnus' next move surprised me.

Somnus removed his mask and when the kid who stole his money saw his face, he immediately paled, Somnus used that moment of shock to appear at their backs as he carried Helen. The kids seeing the man taking their sisters away from them, they sent their little fists towards Somnus but all they hit was his leg.

"Kids, if you don't want your sister to die, we need to bring her to a doctor." He said, meanwhile I am confused. When the shadow reported to me all the things about the kids, it made me understand what happened

When the kid managed to pickpocket Somnus' money, he sent the shadows to monitor the kid to make sure that he gets the money home and report on where the money was spent, he want to at least know where his money was spent, for evil or for good. He also told them, if the kid was going to be forced to give his money to a gang, they were to eliminate the gang and return the money to the kid.

The shadows split up as half of them gained information on the gangs of slums and the other half monitors the kid.

The shadows saw that the kid immediately used the money to pay for a doctor and a bag of soup. When the doctor finished treating the patient, he immediately left the house. They were about to leave the place when four people came to their house knocking.

The kids looked at a small hole in the wall of their house to check who it was and when they saw them, they immediately paled.

Half of the shadows returned and relayed information to each other before moving to eliminate the gang as per orders.

They then told me what they've gathered and learned that the gang were paid by Aria to harass them daily. They didn't follow her orders and only harassed them whenever they want to. This time, they heard that the kid scored a good sum of money from a foreigner so they decided to go to the kid's house to claim the money for themselves, but they were eliminated by the shadows as they forced their way inside. The shadows then gathered all of their belongings, they even have the contract stating that Aria wants them to harass that particular house, making Aria guilty of her actions.

The kids were startled when they saw the men suddenly being carried away by people wearing casual clothes. They immediately hid Helen under the wooden planks under her bed and waited if they would come back. Seeing the gang gone, they heaved a sigh of relief as they immediately released Helen out of her hiding place and fed Helen the bag of soup they bought.

I immediately knew the reason why Helen is coughing blood.

Poison.

The doctor they paid must be a quack and just mixed random herbs before feeding Helen the concoction.

I then shouted to Somnus to bring her back to the inn alongside the kids. Seeing the kids resisting, I had the shadows knock them out and carry them. Its a race against time.

After we returned to the inn, Somnus laid Helen down and asked me.

"Brother, what is it? Why in the inn? We need to bring her to a doctor." He said

I ignored Somnus as I listed a few herbs and things and ordered the shadow to buy them for me ASAP. Meanwhile, I picked up a firewood before carving it into a totem.

After carving a totem, I wore the ancient mask as I started chanting shaman's language. The totem glowed in green light as it provided healing light to at least delay the time. Somnus was confused but decided place his trust in me.

I used the healing ward totem to hold the poison back while waiting for the things I had the shadows buy for me.

After 30 mins, they returned with everything I need as I started mixing concoctions as the spirit in the mask guided me in every step making it a perfect concoction and I fed Helen with it. After that, I stood up as I let Somnus watch over her while the kids were sleeping besides Helen.

I constantly activated healing ward every hour to constantly improve Helen and the kid's health. They were very malnourished, their bodies lack the necessities their bodies need. Meanwhile, Helen's body is full of scars. Treating her... would take a long time unless... I have an elixir to fully heal her scar-filled body. Unfortunately, I don't have one. I let them rest as I kept on observing the changes on Helen's body.