Nicely Done

On the country road, the little blue sedan trundled along at an easy pace. Cars of this era were fairly simple in design and quite easy to repair. Wayne had merely banged around with a wrench for show a few times, and before he could even pinpoint what was wrong, the sedan started right back up and returned to the road. Pure, unadulterated luck! No longer plagued by the curse, Wayne didn't need to gorge himself on massive amounts of food to stave off hunger. He ignored the compressed ration biscuits, popped a square of chocolate into his mouth, and began chewing with loud, smacking bites. Very loud! From the passenger seat, Villy cast him an envious look. Now that she was back to being a girl, she couldn't indulge in chocolate with reckless abandon anymore. Wayne might have done it on purpose. He swallowed the chocolate in one gulp and breathed a sweet, fragrant puff of air in Villy's direction. "Villy, don't you love chocolate the most? Why aren't you eating any?" Villy bristled with fury, tore open a wrapper, and... gave it a single lick. That was her ration for the entire day, which only made her angrier! Veronica thought: *Nicely done!* *And would you keep that damned mouth of yours a little quieter?!* Wayne wasn't actually trying to vent Veronica's grievances. Villy's earlier act pretending to be a gay flirt had thoroughly disgusted him. How the tables had turned—now that he had the chance, he naturally had to get a little payback. "Villy, do you know anything about the Free Mages Alliance?" "The Free Mages Alliance?!" Villy tilted her head. "Why ask about that? They're just a bunch of loose, undisciplined faithless heathens. None of them are good people... Wait, where did you hear about them?" "From the Nelson family handbook." "That pile of scrap paper? I suggest you read it with a critical eye. It's utter nonsense from start to finish—childish, biased, and full of baseless daydreams..." "It's not bad reading if you treat it like a novel." Wayne shrugged, not interested in arguing with Villy. To a true believer, the book was too childish, but for an adult like him, it was just right. When Wayne had sorted through the spoils earlier, Veronica and the other two had merely glanced over them. Lacking interest, they had skimmed a few pages and handed the handbook back to Wayne, completely missing the notes about the Free Mages Alliance near the back. "The Free Mages Alliance is also known as the League of the Faithless. It was founded by extremists from the Mage Guild. Lacking faith, these people are purely driven by profit and have deplorable morals. Their reputation in the mage community is about as low as it gets..." From the back seat, Senior Chris cleared up Wayne's doubts. As a believer of the Goddess of Moonlight, she had no fondness for the Free Mages Alliance. Her assessment was overwhelmingly negative; she couldn't muster a single good word. "Does that organization still exist today? Hasn't it been wiped out?" Wayne asked curiously. "..." x3 No one answered, which went to show that faithless mages were still very much around. Chris brought a fist to her mouth, cleared her throat, and explained, "The reason the Free Mages Alliance exists isn't because of its core values, but because it has practical value. Mages need to broaden their horizons and share the knowledge and experience they've acquired. The churches won't organize large-scale academic exchanges. Under those circumstances, mages have to find their own ways, and the Free Mages Alliance is a decent option." "It's chaotic, lawless, and devoid of principles. Because of that, it breeds an immense amount of darkness. Almost every wanted criminal is in—" "The Free Mages Alliance gathers every piece of scum in the mage community. All their talk about being 'faithless' is just deceptive nonsense. A mage without faith won't get far; one wrong step and they wander onto an evil path. Mike is the prime example." To guide Wayne into the embrace of the Goddess of Moonlight, Chris fretted endlessly, terrified that this promising seed might grow crooked. Wayne nodded as he listened, his interest in the Free Mages Alliance only growing stronger. He had plenty of questions he wanted to clear up all at once, but Veronica and the other two were hardly the right people to ask, so he feigned a lack of interest and dropped the subject. Wayne felt Mike had made a very fair point: the three college girls were textbook academicians. Having never experienced a harsh beating from society, they remained utterly devoted to their faith. Once they took a few hard knocks in the real world and matured, they would come to understand the Free Mages Alliance and join them, just like the older mages had. *This won't do, you three. How are you going to survive out there if you're so naive? The scum of society will chew you up and spit you out!* As their friend, Wayne was genuinely concerned. If he weren't too weak to wipe the floor with them, he would have taken it upon himself to discipline them and fast-track their maturity in the shortest time possible. After driving for a while longer, Wayne suddenly noticed something. He pulled the sedan over and hopped back and forth across a patch of the road several times. "Right here..." Wayne narrowed his eyes slightly. He had driven down this road before, and it looked very familiar. The clear, boundless sky had abruptly filled with dark clouds, followed in rapid succession by lightning, torrential rain, and a ghost. Back then, he had sensed a brush with danger, been momentarily blinded by the lightning, and been startled by the apparition crawling out from under his car, leaving him no time to think it through. Looking back now, the dividing line beneath his feet had marked the outer boundary of the cursed space. "Wayne, what are you doing?" "Nothing. Just had to pee really bad—a few hops and it settled down." "..." x3 *** The blue sedan rolled on, eventually encountering a checkpoint set up by the Londan police before entering the city. In recent years, first came the Great Depression, and then the dark clouds of war loomed over the entire continent, causing a flood of spies to pour into Windsor. As the capital of the Kingdom of Windsor, the City of Londan was practically overrun with spies. To crack down on these rampant foreign elements and better manage social resources, the cabinet had issued an emergency decree mandating an identity card system, requiring all citizens aged sixteen and older to carry their identity cards and cooperate with police inspections. Wayne had an ID card, as did Veronica and her friends. The officer who stopped them couldn't hide his envy at seeing Wayne traveling with three beautiful young women on an outing outside the city, his words even carrying a hint of admiration. *Buddy, what kind of look is that? Do I look like the kind of scumbag who can juggle three girls at once? Would my body even hold up?* Wayne was speechless. Anyone with eyes could tell he wasn't a playboy, nor were these three beauties his girlfriends. Since the answer was so obvious, explaining would only look like covering up—or worse, insulting the officer's intelligence. Wayne decided not to bother. Meeting the man's mix of envy, jealousy, and resentment, he let the corner of his mouth curl slightly and gave a cool, faint nod. After the sedan drove off, the officer shook his head repeatedly, slipped past his colleagues into the guardhouse, and dialed a number. "Mr. Landau? Do you know a Veronica Landau?" "No, she didn't do anything out of line. She just got herself a boyfriend." "The culprit goes by the name of Wayne. He's a detective... You know how it is—an unemployed loafer in his twenties either calls himself a writer, a painter, or a detective." "Not great. They were out of the city for a day and a night, claiming they went back to the countryside for a wedding..." "Oh, right, there were two other beauties in the car. According to the culprit's confession, they're all his girlfriends. If I had to guess, they've all been duped." "I'm absolutely certain. You have no idea how smugly he was smiling! I can still picture that arrogant, gloating face clear as day!" "It's no trouble at all, just doing my duty. Without you, the Londan officers wouldn't have the perks we enjoy today." "Right, I'll stop by the station tomorrow to collect the money. Thank you for your generosity."