So it is done: Good or right? (Patreon)

Slowly, Jonathan put aside the peacefully snoring Cinder on the bed, moving her from his knees to the bed proper. But, as soon as he tried to leave, Cinder, even when lulled by a lullaby, the only lullaby that Jonathan knew, immediately began tossing and turning. Her hand started roaming around erratically, as if trying to find Jonathan with her hands. All even though Jonathan hadn’t really moved anywhere...

Jonathan stopped moving, looking at the sleeping Cinder crunching her eyes as if in deep concentration, completely confused even through sleep. Jonathan watches for a while as Cinder waved her hands somewhere next to her, trying desperately to find something.

With a great big sigh, Jonathan took a seat on the bed next to sleeping Cinder. He then put his hand on Cinder's forehead. Who, somehow knowing that the hand’s was Jonathan’s, immediately stopped tossing and turning. In contrast with her previous unsettled state, she instantly calmed down and returned into deep sleep.

Jonathan could not resist, and ran his hand softly through the girl's hair.

Ha... Where is his life going?

Jonathan has struggled with the thought lately about how strange, even wrong, perhaps, his life has turned. He did it so many times before, spending sleepless nights again and again with the troubled thoughts, that right now he didn't even want to think about it at all. He didn’t need another senseless and sleepless night of beating a dead horse and then shaking his fist in the air with a hysterical cry ‘How long will he need to endure this?!’.

He had already experienced a couple of these, and therefore could confidently declare that they end the same and that he would not receive anything new from doing it again.

So rather than brooding, again, Jonathan just sighed, doing his best to chase away another wave of melancholic discourse about the fate of unfortunate children.

So... Money. Done.

The documents are almost done, but Jonathan should have tracked Bor and got the documents in his hands right now and checked their legitimacy. Trusting the corrupt racist was not really a good idea.

Removing the collar from Cinder. In progress.

Jonathan then examined Cinder one more time before moving his gaze to the pendant on Cinder’s neck. A pendant that had fallen to one side in her sleep.

Haha, another experiment! Only in this experiment, Jonathan had no margin for error.

Jonathan tried to pull his cloak closer to himself to reassure himself of his future success.  Before quickly realizing that his trusty cloak was hanging on a hanger near the entrance right now. And so, for a lack of any other piece of clothing, shrugged his shoulders a little.

Next, distilling the quintessence necessary was… problematic. Not to say that it was too much of a problem for Jonathan per se.

While it may not exactly be a process that can be done by beginners, it is not something that is impossible to do either. Jonathan has managed to do such a process in the past several times. A couple while under the supervision of either his teachers, or his Old Man, and some that he had done on his own in secret.

The only problem that he had in the real world…  Though, could Jonathan use that word when comparing this world and Earth at all? This world seemed as real to him as Earth did… A thought for another time.

The only problem he might have had, was that in the past quintessence was not an easy thing to find, so he had gotten used to working with rather small amounts of quintessence… A quantity that once seemed large to him.

Something that pales in comparison, now that he has easy access to quintessence. For example, the amount that he distilled in the past was about…  twenty times less than what was contained in Cinder's collar? Maybe ten?

Furthermore, back then there was no need to be afraid of the quintessence reacting violently to his machinations. The quintessence he worked with in the past was inert, as much as possible anyway, and he was working in laboratory conditions, with proper protection. He has no such luxuries now. And the price for failing is a lot more dire than a failing grade or even a stern talking to.

Jonathan then began involuntarily running his hand through Cinder's hair as he began concocting his plan on how to go about removing Cinder’s collar.

The original plan to simply teleport Cinder's collar away was too risky, too many unknowns.

In addition to any possible side effects of teleporting Dust, tass, something that Jonathan have never done before, there’s still a lot of things that Jonathan doesn’t know. Furthermore, Jonathan was also afraid that he would not be able to teleport it in the first place.

He wasn’t sure how Cinder’s ‘Aura’ would interact with the Dust in her collar. Maybe it would be treated as a separate part of Cinder, and it would go without a hitch. But what if due to some connections that he couldn’t foresee, the quintessence inside her body and inside the collar is considered part of her body when he used the teleportation spell?

If he’s lucky, the spell would just teleport Cinder around. If not… yeah, not good.

And in the first place, Jonathan did not even know how to teleport people's articles of clothing, tearing them off of themselves. Unfortunately, the inner conviction of people, their perception of their clothes as just an inconspicuous ‘part of their body’ prevented him from doing this.

And this, of course, without touching on the fact that Cinder's collar could explode a moment before its teleportation, its tass agitated by the process. Or even worse that the collar could be protected from direct teleportation, and could explode even just when trying to teleport it away.

Yes, while Jonathan did not consider the latter happening as likely, or even possible at all, but the more he thought about this idea of his, the less attractive it seemed to him. And after a couple of thoughts ‘against’ the idea and a few morbid imaginations of Cinder getting decapitated, Jonathan rejected this idea completely.

Another idea he had was to extract all the power out of the collar, rendering it inert.

Jonathan could somewhat easily take all the power out of the collar and use it all in some random spell, but, what was the point of wasting the extra quintessence? Jonathan suspected that the quintessence distilled from the… instrument of torture, Jonathan couldn’t find a softer definition for the thing, would probably have been saturated with a strong and unpleasant resonance. Not something that can be easily found, and somewhat of a rarity. Distill the whole of it into the nearest bottle of water and take it with him. A very interesting thing that he can experiment with.

Or Jonathan could just drain it dry, ignoring his greed.

The difference between these approaches was solely in the time needed to accomplish. A little more preparation in the first case and a little more effort to make sure that the procedure would even succeed and safely at that… Something that’s going to take a while even if he put all his attention to his experiments.

The second approach while seeming faster in comparison was rife with unknown dangers. Dangers that he needs to get a hold on before even attempting the procedure with Cinder. At the end of the day whatever approach he takes, it’s going to take a lot of time.

Cinder would have needed to remain in Miss Sunny's possession for a little longer if he takes this route.

Jonathan closed his eyes and exhaled. How would he even deliver the news to Cinder?

Just wait another day. Another day in the place where you are going to be tortured. Another day in slavery, because your savior wanted to play with a new toy. Because your savior is a curmudgeon, and he doesn't care about your suffering. Perhaps he only got involved in all of this just because he wanted a little bit of free quintessence.

Jonathan gritted his teeth before shaking his head. Again, he really needed to clear his head if even his imagination goes in such morbid directions for no reasons.

He has money, a lot of it. And if buying tass in bulk will be so hard, then a bribed official, through whom Jonathan could buy himself several millions worth of tass.

And Cinder was alone. Jonathan ran his hand through the girl's hair once more, watching her chest rise slowly and calmly as she breathed.

If the question was when and how Cinder became important to him, Jonathan probably didn't even know the answer to this question. But if the question was ‘whether or not Cinder was important to him?’ Then Jonathan could answer this question easily. Yes, she was.

Jonathan ran his hand through her hair one more time, then looked at the silent clock nearby, counting down the time. It was two o'clock in the morning. At any other time, Jonathan would have been getting ready for bed.

At a different time, in a different place, in a different circumstance. Another Jonathan would already be asleep. He wondered what he was doing there, in that other world where he never fell into this Umbral World? And the ‘not dead’ is implied in the question.

He imagined that he would be busy going through the official channels, confirming his studies in an ‘elite private educational institution for gifted students’, located somewhere in the mountains of Spain. In the region of the Pyrenees, Catalonia, in a school founded by Philip II himself, Duke of the Netherlands and heir to the Holy Roman Empire! At least that’s the impression he got from the things the Old Man was saying to him before the incident?

Jonathan shook his head as he glanced at the sleeping Cinder again.

As soon as he raised his hand a little from her head, she immediately began to toss and turn. And, as soon as his hand was returned to its previous place, Cinder immediately calmed down.

She was just a child...

Jonathan exhaled.

Well, let that ‘Jonathan’ of another world continue to deal with his documents and flaunt his elite education. That Jonathan was needed there.

And this Jonathan was needed here.

***

There is nothing difficult about delivering things. You just need to pick up the object that needs to be delivered and take it to the right address. Then go back and repeat with the other things, until the things that needed to be delivered run out.

But what if you need to deliver something big? Something overwhelming? Let's say delivering a giant lead slab to… whoever needs large lead slabs. What would you do?

Delivering an object has now become more difficult. The first thought that comes to mind is getting helpers to help lift the damn thing, employees or friends.

Well, that would work normally, but what if you're in the middle of a deserted island. Somehow with a large heavy lead plate that needs to be delivered somewhere… Not the best analogy, perhaps, but accessible and understandable.

In essence the thought experiment is about lifting something that you cannot lift on your own.

So what do you do? It’s easy, you use levers, cables, and winches.

This is what Jonathan planned to do with Cinder’s pendant. Metaphorically speaking of course. He decides to go with the second plan, something that he at least has a grounding in.

To begin with, Jonathan first had to decide what exactly he needed to do. To a simple sleeper, ‘pouring out the quintessence out of tass’ might sound simple enough, but it was not an easy thing at all. So many things needed to be confirmed first before the quintessence can even be moved.

The quintessence in this case is in the form of… Terra, Substance. Its position, inside or outside the Cinder’s collar is…  Aqua, Form. The process of transferring, moving...  Aer, Movement.

As it is totally inconvenient to just drag the lead slab, there are things that can make it a lot easier with just a bit of energy investment. You can make a slight effort by slightly lifting it, then put the rolling logs under the bottom. With the log in place under the slab, movement has become a lot easier. Jonathan was about to do the same… metaphorically speaking of course.

There was nothing special about the use of quintessence in magic itself. Just… Jonathan seized on the thought. A eureka moment.

Use the tass, the quintessence trapped inside the object... To move the quintessence out of the object itself?

If the goal was not to move the slab to a certain place, but simply to remove it from one place, there was not much difference between wherever the slab disappears by moving it, or by burning it down. It will be removed all the same… Lead doesn't really burn, but again, just an analogy.

Burn a part of the quintessence inside the collar of Cinder and then… use the released energy to remove the rest of the unused energy of the collar into the external environment. Into the nearest bottle of water for example...

No, it's too dangerous. The artifact can only release the used quintessence in one only known way, with a shock of electricity, if he were lucky. If not, an explosion...

Jonathan continued to run his hand through Cinder's hair, trying to find the optimal solution to his problem.

Pull out the quintessence… By imposing some sort of Similarity?

With syringes for example? Effective with living things, much more difficult with an inanimate artifact. How about sprinkling Cinder’s blood in advance, symbolically turning it into a part of her? With that he could drain the tass using the syringe, just like blood.

But… if he were to do that… Then the artifact cannot be thrown away, it will be tied to Cinder’s self for a long time.

Besides, there’s a possibility that using a syringe on the Dust Crystal might be construed as an attack on the artifact, activating its defense measure. Also… he wasn’t really comfortable using the syringe on Cinder to draw blood. Making her feel more pain… is unsavory to say the least.

How about a vacuum cleaner? Loud, needs a lot of power, and not exactly conspicuous to purchase. Looks weird, but Jonathan could figure it out.

There’s already a conceptual similarity as the Vacuum cleaner collects ‘dust’. A Dust collector full of quintessence...

He needs to enchant it somewhat though, to make the process instantaneous. How to enchant the vacuum cleaner? Infuse it with some tass inside? Jonathan, perhaps, was not the best at it, but he was well versed in technology and could try to insert a source of tass for enchantment. Maybe even put some of Solomon's seals with them, or even a rune or two?

It’s going to take some time though. He'll need to purchase something that can be used to cut... A solder as well. He needs to buy tools to say the least. And with the work the enchanting process needed… it would take two days of work at least. No, it would take too long.

Jonathan ran a hand through Cinder's hair, sinking deeper and deeper into his thoughts.

Similarity... Similarity… Electricity… Electrical cable?

Jonathan touched Cinder’s collar and lifted it to eye-level, trying his best not to disturb Cinder’s sleep by searching for the way Miss Sunny used to charge the pendant.

And he found it, a small connector on the back for the Charger? Jonathan became even more thoughtful.

Cable... Charger... Convert it to... Discharger?

Jonathan's plans finally came together and he grinned.

***

Yes, Jonathan had robbed a bank, quite the serious crime, but he still considered himself a true British gentleman at heart. And therefore considered it somewhat wrong to spy on a stranger’s room. A woman’s at that.

On the other hand, given that the ‘woman’ in question was Miss Sunny, made Jonathan’s British sensibilities a lot easier to bypass.

Moreover, he was not planning to steal her family jewels or something like that or god forbid to do something perverted. He vomited a little inside his mouth at that image.

All he needed to take was a small tuft of hair. What hair that had accumulated on her comb would be more than enough.

So, looking through the mirror in Miss Sunny's room, Jonathan was glad that he was right and there was indeed a mirror in Miss Sunny's room, through his small hand mirror, bought a couple of minutes ago.

With a few strands of hair from Miss Sunny, he could create a connection between Miss Sunny, Cinder and the collar. With that connection he could then find things that were associated with these three components. Some kind of battery charger… or even the remote control...

Jonathan even thought about just taking the remote control from Miss Sunny and trying to disable the collar on his own with the remote. But… It is unlikely that the remote was so simple with a large button labeled ‘disable the collar’. Jonathan doubts that there would be labels at all. What if Jonathan just missed the right button and shocked Cinder instead? Or worse?

Jonathan shook his head, dispelling his thoughts, before glancing at the sleeping hotel manager behind the mirror.

It was all very simple. Use his line of sight to teleport the comb into his hands. Pick up the strands of hairs that’s needed, then teleport the comb back. Create a sympathetic link, find the charger. Use his magic to create what he needed, then neutralize the collar. Wake Cinder up then escape.

The plan was finally complete. A simple and… Jonathan hesitated, somewhat nervous even.

No, not in the plan, Jonathan was quite pleased with it, it’s just…

Is that all?

Jonathan looked at the sleeping hostess, she was not very visible in the dark... Jonathan could, of course, slightly enhance his vision in order to see better, but that was not his goal.

Jonathan saw well enough to see what he needed to see.

Miss Sunny was asleep, very deeply if what Jonathan could see was true, breathing tranquilly while lying on her bed.

Jonathan then turned his gaze downward to Cinder, who was sleeping beside him. She slept peacefully, but Jonathan knew, as soon as he removed his hand, she would turn over and start looking for him again. Cinder tossed about, even in her sleep, she was looking for… Protection? Warmth? Someone who won't hit her?

Miss Sunny slept peacefully, perhaps she was even having happy dreams...

Jonathan exhaled.

Right now, it couldn't have been easier to take Cinder and just escape.

But…  it was also quite easy to teleport a concrete block right overhead from the sleeping Miss Sunny.

Shock! A terrible tragedy! The owner of a prestigious hotel is crushed to death by a giant concrete block that just appeared out of thin air in her room! Foul play suspected!

Jonathan could already imagine the headlines of the articles in the morning newspaper.

Jonathan inhaled slowly and exhaled. He needs to calm himself down.

Today’s the sixth day since he is in this world... It’s Thursday, three o'clock in the morning, the twelfth of August.

Five days after his seventeenth birthday, and Jonathan was already contemplating the pros and cons of killing a human. It was a very close thing in his mind.

After all, who could find him? Especially if he takes with him, um, the list of tenants and destroy it? After all, without his own documents, Miss Sunny could hardly register him officially anywhere. And so with the list of tenants gone, he would be like a ghost.

Jonathan exhaled slowly.

He wanted to punish Miss Sunny really badly… But Murder? No... not murder...

Only the court could deliver such a judgement. At least that’s what Jonathan needed to believe to prevent himself from committing cold-blooded murder of a defenseless woman. Of course, even as an ordinary person, as a witness, Jonathan did not doubt Miss Sunny's guilt at all.

He saw the crimes happen, he saw her doing it, and he saw the consequences.

Many in Jonathan's place would not even have thought about it for a moment and committed the act. Few even would condemn him. But… Jonathan couldn’t bring himself to kill someone that couldn’t even defend themselves.

The worst part of being a vigilante was when you knew the defendant was guilty.

After all, if you knew that the defendant was guilty, you can consider yourself right. And if you considered yourself to be doing just retribution, nothing could stop you. You were right, there’s no limit to what retribution can be done.

The worst thing was to be right. It made it very hard not to completely destroy such an evil.

If Miss Sunny had shown at least a part of her humanity, show that she can do something good, Jonathan would have doubts. He could hold himself back. At least much easier than right now.

But now? Jonathan could have easily killed her. He would even find that his conscience won’t trouble him.

The Jonathan in the mirror would only nod at his decision, but ...

Jonathan stroked Cinder's hair slowly, looking in the mirror.

What did it mean, retribution? Jonathan was not a judge, least of all the jury and executioner. Worst of all, he didn't need to be a judge to be able to judge that Miss Sunny probably even deserved it. Anyone would support him in this decision. Killing her would have been the right thing to do.

The day you realize the difference between good and right will be the worst day of your life.

Jonathan closed his eyes.

The only question is, did Jonathan Goodman want to be a righteous person or a good person?

***

Cinder felt the warm softness ensconcing her disappear. Almost immediately, her unconscious body began to restlessly move her hand, trying to find the source of warmth.

Something is wrong.

Cinder felt her heart begin to speed up.

Something is wrong!

Cinder jerked abruptly in her sleep, trying to hold on to the vanished spark of light.

SOMETHING IS WRONG!

Cinder felt her breathing go astray, as if her breath began curling up into a single lump, stuck in her throat.

SOMETHING IS WRONG!

With a jerk, Cinder woke up, and began frantically looking around her. Her eyes darted from side to side, jumping between objects with alarm.

Chair - bed - T-shirts - SOMETHING IS WRONG!

Cinder suddenly felt nausea building in her throat, and her head began to buzz. Her breath, previously stuck in her throat, made her erupt in convulsive wheezing...

“Cinder?” Jonathan's panicked voice rang out after a moment.

Cinder suddenly felt the tremor and panic that had seized her beginning to recede, her erratic breathing slowly calming down.

“Cinder!” After another second, Jonathan was already next to her trembling form. The expression she looked at Cinder with was strange. Jonathan was... Scared?

Cinder blinked in confusion. Was Jonathan… Scared of her?!

“Sorry, it was an accident!” Cinder, not quite understanding what had happened, immediately rushed to apologize for whatever it is that had frightened Jonathan. She tried her best to control her breathing. “I... By accident…”

“You scared the hell out of me!” Jonathan then pulled away, confirming Cinder's fears, making her heart stop in her chest. She needs to apologize! She can’t lose Jonathan.

“I was very scared for you…” Cinder blinked, not quite understanding what Jonathan just said. "Because of me?"

“For you, not ‘because’ of you.” Jonathan nodded, sitting down next to her, making Cinder feel warm again. “Better?”

“Yes.” Cinder nodded slowly. Ha... Not ‘because of’, but ‘for’ her...  He got scared, for her...

“Ah I see…” Jonathan sat down next to her.  “It was a panic attack... Hah… whew, I thought that something had happened.”

Cinder, still somewhat dazed by what Jonathan just revealed, couldn’t really understand what Jonathan was saying next.

Jonathan, saying a few more phrases to himself, sat down next to Cinder in silence, before exhaling. “Sorry.”

“Ha?” Cinder looked up, finally out of her daze. “For what?”

“That I left and did not warn you, I didn’t want to wake you up.” Jonathan sighed, - “I thought that I would manage it faster and come back before you wake up… I…  I was just looking for one thing…”

Cinder blinked at Jonathan and dropped her gaze sharply. "Don't apologize."

“Hmm?” This time it’s Jonathan's turn to be surprised. “Why?”

“You don't have to apologize to me.” Cinder just looked down even more. “ You don't need to apologize to me.”

Jonathan looked at Cinder before smiling...

He always smiles at Cinder.

“I don’t have to, maybe.” Jonathan nodded, agreeing with Cinder. “But I wanted to apologize to you. Because I didn't want you to be afraid. I didn't want to scare or upset you.”

Cinder, hearing this, only frowned more. But she was happy… The silent moment then stretched on for a couple of minutes.

“Cinder.” Jonathan suddenly said, forcing Cinder to look up. Jonathan was looking into the distance...

Suddenly Jonathan raised his hand, placing it on the top of her head and stroking Cinder's hair, forcing her to close her eyes in bliss for a second, even forgetting to breathe for a moment.

“Cinder.” Jonathan then suddenly raised his hand, forcing Cinder to give his hand a long look before looking at Jonathan again. “Say... What... What do you want to do with Miss Sunny?”

Cinder froze. Was this a trap question? Miss Sunny has used traps like this before. Constantly asking open-ended questions with only one right answer, with the wrong answer leading to punishment.

But… Cinder, looking at Jonathan, did not believe that he... That he would...

“I will not judge you, Cinder.” Jonathan looked at her warmly and smiled. He always smiled so kindly at her.

“I... I can't even imagine... What you went through... So I just want to hear what you want to do.”

Cinder shifted her gaze, she was uncomfortable talking about what she wanted to do to Miss Sunny while looking into Jonathan's eyes. But she also can’t lie about what she wants…

“I…” Cinder stumbled on the very first word before taking a deep breath. If she couldn't trust Jonathan, she couldn't trust anyone.

“I want to kill her.” Cinder then closed her eyes, waiting for the expected condemnation… Killing is wrong after all.

“I expected that answer.” Jonathan's answer was calm, even... Understanding. “Thank you.”

“For what?” - Cinder looked up again.

“For your honesty.” Jonathan exhaled before closing his eyes.

For a long several tens of seconds, the room was plunged into uncomfortable silence. Cinder looked at Jonathan silently.

She... She... She didn't answer wrong, did she?!

Cinder sat in silence, but inside her, panic was growing.

What if she answered wrong?! What if Jonathan wanted a different answer?! Which... Which answer was the right one?! For Cinder to Forgive Miss Sunny? Like... Demonstrating... Weakness?

To show Cinder as a weak person? To show that she was weak enough for Jonathan?! The strong do not need the strong, Cinder must be weak!

“Cinder.”, - Jonathan sounded strange, making Cinder flinch. “I... I can't kill Miss Sunny, and I can't… I also can’t let you kill them.”

“Good!” - Cinder immediately shook her head in agreement, trying to agree with Jonathan in everything. Whatever it is that Jonathan wants, is also what she wants. “I got it, I got it!”

“But,” Jonathan’s expression was so… so… Cinder was suddenly grasped by panic. It wasn't... Jonathan's expression was not something she wanted to see.

Jonathan looked so…  so tired. So gloomy like something heavy was weighing in on him. And many more words that Cinder did not know… But she knows that she didn't like Jonathan looking like does right now.

“I can’t let you kill her… But I can do something else.” Jonathan suddenly sighed. “Not murder, but... Still something that would ruin her life…”

Cinder, looking at Jonathan suddenly dropped her gaze. The words, the vilest words in her life, eventually escaped. “Don't.”

“Hmm?”  Jonathan looked at the girl in surprise, - “What?”

“You don't have to do anything to Miss Sunny… ”, - Cinder, looking at her feet, said slowly. “I don’t need you to do anything to Miss Sunny, but please... Just... Don't look like that anymore…”

Jonathan, silently looking at Cinder, suddenly closed his eyes. “No. I will do it. This, huh... The right of the strong? What a bad idea I’m putting into your head... But... Cinder, tell me just one thing.”

Cinder looked up at Jonathan, looking at him closely.

“Do you want to see Miss Sunny's face as I ruin her life?” Jonathan smiled, and the gloomy look was gone.

She probably should have been worried that Jonathan had ignored her words, but… Jonathan was right.

Even if Cinder was ready to give up her revenge… She still wants payback. Jonathan understood her. He understood.

And so Cinder swallowed her excitement slowly. “Yes.”

***

The next morning Miss Sunny was greeted with the freshest newspaper in hand. Just to put it aside instantly.

‘Robbery of Schnee's Central Bank! The police are looking for a suspect!’ Almost literally  shouted the front page of the newspaper.

Below, under a photograph of the bank itself, now lined with police cordons and dozens of androids, was a composite of one face. One that is very familiar to Miss Sunny, with an intriguing note plastered just below it, ‘reward for any information about this person’.

Well, if Jonathan Goodman wanted Miss Sunny to keep his little secret, then he should definitely have persuaded her to be quiet better. If not, hmm... Miss Sunny didn't really care if she got the money from Jonathan or from the police department.

An instant later, the scroll in Miss Sunny's hands lit up with a number before a somewhat agitated operator answered. “Atlas Police Headquarters.”

“Good afternoon.”, - Miss Sunny said sickeningly sweetly into the scroll. “I have some information about a person of interest…”