Voice: Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! And Happy Chinese New Year!

  Azhure: A lot has happened, huh? Sorry for the wait. With everything happening in real life, I've had trouble updating. Also, one of them is that I finished my Master's degree.

  Voice: Yay!

  "Nn? I hold this and think about papa and mama?" Chloe tilted her head in confusion, her cat ears drooping rather cutely. Her legs were dangling, and her tail was swinging freely as she sat on the chair that was too tall for her. In front of her was a suspicious purple orb on a wooden desk that she held onto with both of her arms.

  "Yes, dear," the clerk, a cat beastman like her, wearing the typical blue uniform of the immigration center, otherwise known as the Blue Doves. "Picture your mommy and daddy while you hold the orb with both hands."

  "Okay," Chloe nodded as she grasped the orb and concentrated.

  SHIING

  The orb brightened for a couple of seconds before it died down. As Chloe let go, the clerk typed on the keyboard and then flipped the monitor to allow the others to look. "Is this what they look like, Miss Chloe?" she asked, showing the faces of a male and female cat beastmen with black hair like Chloe.

  "...Yes, it's papa and mama!" Chloe exclaimed, astonished by the accurate picture of her parents that suddenly appeared.

  "Is this how you ask them to find me, mother?" Fia, watching the entire procession, asked in amazement.

  "Yes," Dela nodded, cupping her cheek. "I've thought about you, dear, and your face appeared right there on the screen. I believe it used demonic mind magic, but I'm not too sure."

  "You visited the Immigration Center and asked them to find me?" Fia blinked at the explanation her mother gave her.

  "Yes, when Mister Colbert told us we could make a request for the Blue Doves to find specific people, I rushed to the center," Dela confirmed. "He did admit part of it is because it would be easier for an immigrant to fit in if they already have someone there, not to mention the PR they would get."

  "And when did you make the request?"

  "Two months after I was brought to this country three years ago," her mother replied. "The Blue Doves should have been able to find you in a few months, but your trader-hopping had made finding you take years. I believe you were the longest to find to date, actually. I was beginning to lose hope that they would ever find you."

  "Good," the clerk smiled. "Can you tell me their names?"

  "Nn, mama's name is Clara and papa's name is Max," Chloe recalled.

  "Okay, I've registered your parents for priority search, Chloe," the clerk said after typing for a few minutes. "The Blue Doves will be sure to bring them home."

  "Zack, the father's dead."

  As a member of the Department of Immigration and Foreign Resource Acquisition, more popularly known as the Blue Doves Company, Zack's job was more focused on the immigration part, with importing as much wheat as his wagons could carry secondarily. While other members assigned to that job mostly cast a wide net on the slaves bought and freed at home, Zack's job was not only that, but also to find specific slaves requested by their family members already in URT as priority immigrants.

  And today, he was completing the request from Chloe, the little cat beastman he brought to URT a few months ago, while bringing Fia Rosa at the request of her mother, Dela Rosa. That assignment was particularly memorable due to a certain Count Hamburg being very violent in getting Fia for himself. That ended up in the Special Division infiltrating his mansion and rescuing the last fairy outside of URT of all things. Last he heard, Count Hamburg was imprisoned and his house stripped of its titles, with all of the evidence Special Division collected sent to the authorities discreetly, as always.

  The request was to find Chloe's parents, a rather common request Zack had completed a good number of times. Children were more often brought into URT, morally because they were more vulnerable, and practically because they could still learn faster and go to a normal school, which made it easier to integrate them. That naturally resulted in more requests from those children to find their parents, who were still out there.

  It took him a few months to track them down, first finding where they were first captured before going on the paper trail to where they ended up. It was more complicated than that, obviously, as purchase records weren't in one place, open to the public. He had to track down the traders who sold them and then coax them with erum to tell him where or whom they sold them without raising too much suspicion. Regardless, his search led him to a Magic Ore mining town near the border of the empire, where many slaves toiled away to extract the Magic Ore the empire so greedily desired.

  And just as he got there, one of the targets was already deceased.

  "How long has he been dead, Scott?" Zack asked his colleague.

  "Literally a week ago," his colleague, Scott, groaned frustratingly, straightening his blue vest worn by the 'merchants' of the Blue Doves.

  When the single caravan arrived at the location, they wasted no time renting the most private room of an inn they could find. Afterwards, Scott went ahead to the mines to search for the targets since he was better at smooth-talking the director than he was. And now, Scott came back with the news that Chloe's father was dead.

  "How did he die?"

  "Too much ore dust in his lungs."

  "Damn, I was afraid of that..."

  Mining Magic Ore came with many risks. For one, a chunk of Magic Ore could have a bit too much mana stored inside it, and striking it with a pickaxe will most likely explode in a burst of magic on the miner's face. But such deaths were a small percentage of what kills a Magic Ore miner. Most cases of work fatalities came from the dust flying around every time the pickaxe struck the ore.

  It was not uncommon for miners to inhale Magic Ore dust, among other things, as they were extracting it. Particles of them always scatter into the enclosed space of the mine and never dissipate into pure mana in time, so miners would always end up getting them into their lungs without protective gear. While the small amounts of dust won't start any magical reaction, they still inflict the equivalent of black lung, slowly choking the miner unless they're a mage who can cast enough spells to use them up, but they wouldn't be in the mines to begin with. It was for that reason that the empire frequently used slaves to mine Magic Ore.

  Even Liquid Mana posed the same risks. Concentrate too much mana in a small volume of liquid, and it could explode with the slightest bump, despite how much more useful it was. While escaped vapors of Liquid Mana do less damage than in dust form, they still pose health risks when breathed in, as it's still liquid in the lungs. Drinking it as a mana potion, however, was safe, although the mage would get a bad case of diarrhea if they let it sit in their stomach for too long without using it.

  Incidentally, despite the widespread usage of Liquid Mana in URT as an alternative, Magic Ore was still in demand. Liquid Mana was akin to electricity, used to generate it even, that wasn't useful on its own until it was used to power a spell or other magic appliances. Magic Ore could be said to be the electricity and the circuit, with highly refined ore having many uses with the amount of spells it can be engraved. While many magic products powered with Liquid Mana can do what Magic Ores can, Magic Ores can do what all of those products do in one highly customizable package.

  "And her mom?" Zack then asked.

  "Similarly, in a terminal condition," Scott replied. "The medic says a couple of weeks at best, too much dust for us to treat either. She won't survive long enough to get a transplant even if she gets back to URT. By Eria, she almost looked nothing like the picture."

  It was an unfortunate fact that it was not uncommon for the target to already be dead, depending on where they sold to. If they ended up in mines like these, the chances that they died before they got to them were high. It was for that reason the Blue Doves frequented slave auctions, as that was the best chance to rescue them alive, not to mention the complications if they were already sold. Care was given to the Blue Doves members' mental well-being too ensure they didn't become too numb from the experience or worse.

  "I assume you have already convinced the mine director to sell her to us?" Zack then asked.

  "I did," Scott nodded. "Threw all the gold I carried to also make him shut up."

  Of course, if the target was already sold, the Blue Doves wouldn't give up so easily; that was why they were here. If they have to conspicuously travel all the way to a remote mine, then so be it; that was what a couple of bags of gold for hush money were for. And when a master was particularly stubborn with not parting with their slave, that was what the Special Division was for.

  "Right," Zack nodded. "It's best we move them out right away."

  And regardless of whether the target was deceased or not, once the request was made, the Blue Doves will fulfill it. There was no policy for requests to expire when they were not resolved for a long time, as with the nature of finding someone in the vast world of Erdale. Because of that, even if the target was already dead, they will still be brought home, at all costs.

  "Careful now," Jack said as he and Mitch loaded Max's body, wrapped in a leather bag, onto the wagon.

  "Hoo boy, this is gonna suck," Mitch groaned, securing the body in place.

  As time was of the essence, the Blue Doves hurried up and arranged the transport to get Clara and Max out of here. They do not quite care about the stares of the other slaves seeing them digging out Max's grave and putting him into a body bag with Jill casting ice magic to further preserve the body. They did this quite often, and it morbidly became second nature; they always brought body bags with them in case the target died.

  "Into the cage, one by one," Jill commanded, directing the slaves into the cage with wheels.

  It was a natural fact that they had to use slave cages if they wanted to bring them to URT without anyone else being suspicious. So the best thing they could do was to make it as inconspicuously humane as possible. Such things included making the cage more spacious, on top of generally not packing slaves like sardines. After that, they would feed the passengers with actual food and not random scraps that slave traders normally give them. Sick slaves would also be treated then and there, especially to make sure it didn't spread.

  "Alright, boys, lift those guys in. We don't have all day," she then told the other escorts as she and they began to help the weaker slaves into the cage while trying to look like they weren't helping them out of the kindness of their hearts.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Even though they were here to rescue two slaves, Scott still managed to buy a couple more who were either children or were on the brink of death from exhaustion. It was always standard practice to do so, as it didn't make sense if they traveled all the way to a remote location and brought little home. Besides, bringing one or two wagons instead of the convoy they were always in was always a security issue, so it was better to just make the extra cost worth it.

  "Last one! Now, in you go."

  Then entered the person they came all the way here for. Clara looked worse the last time they saw her - Jack and Mitch had been Scott's backup in case things went south. She looked like she could snap like a twig as the other guards carefully lifted her into the cage. It was a wonder she survived this long.

  CLANG LOCK

  "Okay, we're ready to go!"

  At that signal, the convoy began to move. The cacophony of merchant carriages leaving while carrying almost nothing but the supplies they came with was an odd sight to behold for the people of this mining town. The empire controlled all of the Magic Ores in its grasp; even the richest merchants couldn't purchase them without noble backing, so coming here was already strange. The fact that they only came here for a bunch of slaves who were past their usefulness made it even more so, but the Blue Doves couldn't care less about that at the moment.

  "Is she even going to make the journey, Zack?" Scott remarked to his co-worker sitting beside him in one of the carriages. "Even though we're in the frontier, it'll be more than a few weeks to get home, even if we stepped on it."

  As the Blue Doves frequently operate at the edges of the empire, travel time between it and URT was around two months at the slowest, as they needed to cross the river that split the continent of Erdale in two. If they rushed it, they could manage a month; they have selectively bred and raised horses to sustain such speeds for centuries, and the wagons were more durable than they looked.

  They were very experienced in transporting immigrants and goods into URT as fast as possible. And given that they were only transporting people right now, it should be even faster with lighter wagons. Other merchant caravans could only dream of such speeds that would mean to their businesses. Even so, it didn't look like it would be enough time for the sickly mother.

  "We'll have to try," Zack muttered as the view of the mining town shrank behind them.

  "The medics just called in," Zack said as he climbed back into the wagon with his bowl of gruel on hand. "She's not going to make it."

  It was two weeks in, and they've just crossed the Great River when things took a turn for the worse. The Blue Doves may have decades of experience in crossing the Great River without so much as a grain of wheat spilling out, but the sheer, cold current of the river meant that they're never fully protected. Suffice it to say, it had worsened Clara's condition. It didn't help that the only mage they have onboard now specializes in ice magic.

  "Damn it, we're still weeks away from Origin!" Scott cursed, gripping his spoon tightly. "The road's still too dangerous to just let the wagon rush off alone."

  It was one of those times the Blue Doves wished they were allowed to bring more advanced equipment, like hidden engines inside the wagons in case they needed more than just carefully bred horses that still needed to rest and graze like right now. Even if it was just carrying grain, the travel time was still too long for their liking after being accustomed to the faster-paced lifestyle of URT.

  "Can they do something?"

  "No, they said we don't have the equipment for that," Zack shook his head. "We aren't allowed to carry them either way."

  "Damn, a hundred years max in office is still too long."

  But alas, parliament was deadlocked to never approve such things, as the risk of them being discovered outweighed the benefits, the Special Division notwithstanding, as their members wouldn't be chosen if they were sloppy enough to drop their equipment. Even their better horses could be a point of suspicion to people who dealt with a lot of horses, so they never let stablehands handle their horses.

  "Then what do we do? I thought we had it good last time with no one dying on the way back."

  It was not uncommon for slaves to die while on transport. Slave traders only kept slaves alive at the bare minimum, so that made many of the slaves the Blue Doves purchased malnourished and unfit to make the long journey back to URT. The Blue Doves could only care for them for so long without access to better healthcare in Origin. Again, the need to maintain the secrecy of URT even after being so far ahead of every kingdom and empire on Erdale trumped carrying better supplies for better returns.

  "I don't know," Zack shook his head, continuing to eat his meal.

  "Well damn..." was all Scott could say.

  They stayed like this for a while, quietly eating their meals. After that discussion, they didn't know what else to talk about. That made for an awkward silence, especially given the situation at hand. Such idleness was not something they were accustomed to, so much so that eventually Scott started another topic, if only to distract their minds for the moment.

  "Hey, did your parents come from outside URT?" Scott asked.

  "...Yes," Zack nodded slowly at the new conversation. "You too?"

  "Yeah. Mom got into Origin while pregnant with me, so I got to be a citizen right after I was born."

  URT was naturally jus soli, thus anyone born in her lands was automatically a citizen. Otherwise, immigrants coming into URT processed by the Immigration Center can apply for citizenship within 5 years of living there, if only so that they could get voting rights - officers frequently had to remind them to apply, as such a concept was unheard of outside. Of course, having a family member already a citizen can expedite that process, among other conditions.

  "Anyway," Scott continued. "Is that the way you signed up for this?"

  "Yes, my parents often tell me stories about life outside of URT," Zack explained. "They were merchants, actually, and had the idea to apply to Blue Doves after a noble outcompeted their business. One thing led to another, and they ended up immigrating."

  Of course, it was not just slaves that the Blue Doves brought back to URT all the time. Sometimes, ordinary folk wound up joining the caravan back to URT through special circumstances, like Zack's parents. Whether it was a disgraced noblewoman cast out as a 'villainess' or someone framed for a crime they did not commit, the Blue Doves agents have the discretion on bringing them along. After all, people like them would have a trade or two that would contribute to the URT workforce.

  "Huh, nice." Scott raised his eyebrows. "My mom said she got into URT after running into a caravan when bandits raided her village. She got separated from my dad, so she came alone."

  "I guess she also told you stories about these places," Zack remarked.

  "Yeah, she did. Like you, that's why I signed up for the Blue Doves."

  There were many reasons for people to join the Blue Doves and risk traveling outside URT instead of taking a safer job inside. As most Blue Doves members were humans for obvious reasons, many of them wanted to venture beyond the island of demons they had lived their whole lives on. Zack and Scott partially fall into that category, more for the curiosity of the lands outside that their parents told them about. Of course, it wasn't just for that reason that many second generations found themselves going back outside of the country; it was also the same stories of hardships their parents went through that set their hearts out. It was that simple.

  "Well, anyway," Scott continued. "One day, mom got brain cancer, and dad still hasn't been found for years after she requested him."

  Ironically, finding a non-slave was harder as they would barely have travel records, and the spots to find them were broader too. That was why a specific slave would only take months to find, while someone who wasn't could take a shorter time or years, depending on the circumstances. A person requesting the Blue Doves to collect family members in their home village was faster, with the only roadblock being convincing the said family members to uproot and join URT without telling them about URT in detail, while finding someone on the run would potentially be a long goose chase.

  "It's gotten to the point where it can't be treated since she never had diagnosed before," Scott narrated, staring at his finished bowl. "The doctors said she had a few months to live."

  That was the first time Zack had heard of it. He had only started working with him during transporting Chloe's group all those months ago, and they had mostly been doing their own things until now. Even though they had multiple downtimes together, this was the only time they had ever talked about their families, who originally came from outside URT.

  "But, well, my mom didn't give up. She didn't want to die before seeing dad again; she didn't want dad to finally come home to only just meet little old me," Scott continued, looking up towards the sky from the wagon. "And that kept her going; even the doctors were surprised when she kept on living for years."

  In a world such as Erdale, such miracles wouldn't be too far-fetched. Yet, a funny thing about building a civilization based on the knowledge of another world without magic was that people often forgot magic existed, and it laughed at what science said was impossible. Even then, the other world had cases of medical miracles, such as Scott's mother, or perhaps doctors always kept underestimating patients' chances of survival, no matter the world.

  "Well, long story short, dad finally came to URT to meet me and mom," Scott concluded happily. "Also, some med professor managed to treat my mom in an experimental surgery, so we all lived happily ever after."

  "I see," Zack nodded slowly at the story. "That is... inspirational."

  "...You don't have to try that hard to say something about it. I still appreciate it, though."

  They soon got out of the wagon, going back to return the empty bowls and spoons. Zack had a lot to think about what Scott told him, particularly about how his mother survived the cancer on sheer willpower and hope that her spouse would come home. As the convoy was getting ready to depart again, a new idea dawned upon him.

  "Scott," he said. "I think I have something to try."

  "Your daughter, Chloe, had requested us to bring you to her."

  Everyone's minds ground to a halt when Zack said that to Clara out of the blue. The Blue Doves were just about to reattach the harnesses on the horses, Zack just went to the cage and said that out loud. It was so out of basic procedure that they couldn't believe their group leader just did that. It took a good minute for them to reboot their systems and wonder if he had hit his head on the wagon or something before Zack spoke again.

  "She is alive in our country, the United Races of Terra, and is a free citizen there."

  That just about settled the insanity. Revealing to the target who requested her rescue was one thing, but name-dropping their country was a bridge too far. Sure, URT had vastly outpaced the rest of Erdale in technology by several centuries, but there were still reasons not to reveal themselves to the world, however increasingly irrelevant they've become. And now here they were seeing Zack breaking that one vital protocol.

  "Zack! What are you doing?" Scott hissed as he grabbed Zack's sleeve. "Is this the big idea of yours?"

  "Trust me, I know what I'm doing," Zack calmly replied, freeing himself from Scott's grip and facing Clara once again. "We rescued her and many others from slave traders, and brought them to our home and freed them. All of them were given better lives than before, with none of the oppression and exploitation you and they had suffered. That is what we are doing to all of you."

  Clara and the other slaves were, of course, stunned by this revelation. It was never even an idea that the people who bought them intended to free them. The reason why the Blue Doves can't even tell them that was that it was feared that it would encourage them to escape, instead, out of the rightful suspicion of being promised freedom if they were brought to some far-off country. That was not mentioning the said country was on the island of demons.

  "In URT, you can request us to find your friends and relatives still out there," Zack continued. "Your daughter Chloe had asked us to bring you and your husband home, and that's what were are doing, whatever it takes."

  Even though she was too weak to say it, the look on Clara's face told them all. By all logic, she had no reason to believe him. The idea that her own daughter, whom she hadn't seen for years, was freed, safe, and sound in another country that no one had ever heard of was as nonsensical as the name of the country itself, which gave enough idea of its premise. The idea that these Blue Doves were here for her and her dead husband because her daughter asked for them was just as ridiculous. But the look on the sickly mother betrayed the inner hope that maybe all of this was true. It was a widely shared sentiment amongst all of the slaves who were too afraid to speak out against it, not that they were accustomed to it.

  "I know you have lost your husband, and you have no reason to believe us," Zack then said resolutely. "But at the very least, can I ask you to hold on until you can see your daughter again?"

  "Miss Chloe, please follow me," the goblin officer said as he entered the waiting room where Chloe, Dia, and Dela were. "You two may come."

  Through the halls of the Immigration Center, the trio was led to the familiar entrance of the hospital section, where all of them had been checked for their health the first time they entered this country. This was a bit unusual as immigrants would have been the ones waiting in the previous for their reunited family members to pick them up. Regardless, the answer will reveal itself once they enter the place.

  WHIIIR

  WHIIIR

  Upon the faint noise of the automatic sliding window that the elves' and cat beastgirl's sharp ears could catch, they entered the medical wing of the center and went past the receptionist table without a stop. The goblin led them through the sterile hallway in silence before stopping at a room in the corner. He reached out to the doorknob and opened the door.

  "Come in," the goblin beckoned them inside. "She is inside."

  BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

  With the beeping sound of the heart monitor and the dripping IV bag, a cat beastwoman was seen resting on the hospital bed. She had an oxygen mask on her but was still struggling to breathe and looked extremely thin. In such a malnutrition and dying state, she would have been almost unrecognisable to the people who knew her before, but there was no mistaking who she was to Chloe.

  And Clara could never have mistaken her only daughter either.

  "C-Chloe!" Clara rasped under her mask as tears began to fall.

  "M-Mama!" Chloe cried as she ran to her mother's embrace.

  There was no doubt this would be the last time Chloe saw her mother again. Clara's health overall seemed very bleak, and it was clear she had very little time left, even with the advancements of medical technology in URT. But, even though this reunion would be short, there was no denying the fact that both of them were finally home. To the mother and daughter, that was what all that mattered in this world for the moment.

  Azhure: So, what do you all think of this part? Is it good? Are there any problems with it? Any reviews or feedback are appreciated as long as they're not plain insults meant to blow off your stress.

  Voice: Don't do that to people! Not even on the internet!

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