Book 1: Chapter 75: Threats and Confinement
"Esteemed Miss," Ceela said through gritted teeth, "please, do not point your blade at my young master," she requested.
"We do not take orders from you. Bark elsewhere, Mutt," Sophie replied then stepped closer to the table the three young nobles were sat behind. Her shortsword was now only a foot or so away from Bastion's neck.
'Mutt? Damned nobles. You're all the same...' Ceela frowned as she unsheathed her own weapon - a delicate-looking dagger. "You may be of noble birth and you may be wearing armour, Esteemed Miss, but trust me when I say that my aim is true. Please, stand down. I am sure that we can discuss this like reasonable adults."
"We shall discuss nothing, you fool!" Bastion yelled through his fear. "Kill her! Cut off her head! The boat has already sailed! The time to talk has long since passed!"
Ceela raised her dagger but she hesitated to move. As a C-ranker she wasn't able to detect inner-strength yet. Only B-rankers or above were capable of that, so as far as she knew the young noble girl in front of her could be exceedingly powerful.
'Do I attack? If I do and she's stronger than me, I'll probably die. That's unlikely since she's blind if I recall. She's likely posturing, but even then, if she's a very important noble and I kill her, Lord Griffset will likely throw me to the hounds to appease her family... If I don't attack, this little shit will blame me for whatever happens when it's clearly his fault for illegally acquiring the foxkin... Fuck. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.' Ceela was truly in a tough position.
Sophie was thirsty for blood, maybe even more so than Bastion seemed to be, but more than that she wanted Soph to stop crying and for the anxiousness in her heart to disappear.
She stabbed the contract and the table with her sword then lifted the parchment from the wood. "Whom did you get this from and where is Lone? Tell me this and we will leave peacefully. He is not yours. He belongs to us. Do not think it beneath us to take Guildmaster Gilbert's offer to contact Grand Guildmaster Sarah in order to right the wrong that has been done unto ourself and to our foxkin."
It was uncommon for Sophie to lie or stretch the truth, but for Lone and Soph's sake, she'd do it without hesitation.
George Leston was shaking like a leaf under the pressure of Sophie's raw bloodlust, but he somehow managed to muster up the courage to stand. "M-Miss...?"
'Oh? This chicken has a spine, does it?' Under all of her impatience and anger, Sophie felt some amusement leaking out of herself at this prospect. "Vladimirovich. Don't bite your tongue when saying it, Boy."
"Miss Vladimirovich," George struggled his way through her surname, but he managed somehow as he said, "Bastion's had a bit too much to drink. I-I understand why you are upset, really, I do. My friend will t-tell you everything he knows, won't you, Bastion?"
Emma nodded. "Bastion's hotheaded, but he isn't stupid. Right, Bastion?"
Being told to back off and essentially give in to Sophie's demands made Bastion's insides curl with hatred, but he could hardly say no to the children of two dukes. He himself was only the son of a margrave, which was - while still a high status - a rank of nobility that paled in comparison to the royal descendants of the king's family, the ducal houses.
"... A man approached me. I don't know who he is. He hid his face and never gave me his name. I thought he was being quite rude, honestly, but he claimed to have possession of the Golden Foxkin. I didn't start any trouble with him because, to my surprise, he owns an estate in the noble district. I'll give you the address if you want it so badly," Bastion said as he averted his eyes and furrowed his brow in displeasure.
"Now we are getting somewhere, are we not?" Soph asked as she smiled sarcastically under her helmet.
Ceela sighed in relief as she put her weapon away and resumed leaning against the wall. 'Thank the Primals his foppish friends have some sense in them. I owe them one.'
Bastion listed the seller's address then offered a warning. "I wasn't the only person he contacted regarding the foxkin, no doubt. Many eyes have been drawn to Milindo after the baby Golden Foxkin appeared a year ago. With an adult possessing nine tails suddenly showing up too... well, I'm sure that those eyes would have shifted focus since the baby is set to be sold at auction soon anyway."
Sophie snorted. "We need not your false concern. Do as your kind always does and scurry back to your family and attempt to use their influence to get revenge on us."
"Why you-"
"We have no time for fools. Farewell." Sophie offered no more words as she quickly left the nightclub.
Silence and the sound of the establishment's music filled the booth. Emma suddenly stood up and arched her back, resulting in it popping. "Wow. That was amazing!"
George scratched his cheek awkwardly. "I-I guess?"
"You too, George! You were so cool when you faced her! I could barely move let alone talk until you mustered up the willpower to face that bloodlust head-on! We should hang out more, y'know," Emma Malik said as she offered her fellow duke's child a cheeky wink.
"Uh, um, I-I'd like that," George answered sheepishly.
Bastion, however, bit at his fingernails in both anger and anxiety. 'I've already sent a letter back to Father of my success in obtaining the foxkin... How do I deal with this now?'
Ceela leaned over and passed her young master a note. Bastion was about to toss it on the floor since it had come from a peasant, but he had accidentally read some of its contents and his interest was caught.
'Yes, yes, yes! This might just work! If he's participating in the tournament and has a grudge with the hero... Yes, Father will believe this!' Bastion was elated. 'Ceela, you may be a worthless whore, but even worthless whores have some intellect it would seem!'
Lone carefully made his way out of the basement with Grimsley and Shana in tow.
Shana, that was the girl's name. Apparently, she was Grimsley's niece. The dwarf hadn't mentioned any further details given their situation and Lone didn't care either. Not now at least. Getting to The Adventurer's Guild where they would be safe was his current number one priority.
"A storeroom?" It would seem that the dungeon-like cellar was connected to a room primarily used for storing crates and miscellaneous items.
There weren't any windows but the room looks like it belonged to a large and nice house even despite the few cobwebs that decorated the room's corners. "Are we in the noble district, maybe?"
Grimsley shrugged. "Ah'll be fooked if ah ken, Laddie." He was still in shock at how perfectly Lone had healed him and his niece, in truth.
Lone frowned. "Try to stay as silent as possible. I'd rather avoid killing even more people. Best-case scenario, we escape this house then fuckin' leg it through the city."
"An' worse-case, Laddie?" Grimsley asked despite already knowing the answer.
"I cut us a path out of here and we pray that we don't meet a powerful ranker. I'm really banking on this guy being a one-man operation. The drug he used on me isn't easy to get though, and this house suggests nobility, so we may already be up shit creek," Lone explained softly.
Grimsley scowled with that rugged and grizzled face of his. "An' ah dinnae see a paddle in fookin' sight."
"Exactly." Lone took in a sharp breath then steeled himself for potentially having to end even more human lives today. "Well, no time like the present. If we wait too long his accomplices will get suspicious. We still don't know if he was a lackey or the boss."
"Ah'm right behind ya, Laddie." Shana was still unconscious, but to a burly Stone Dwarf like Grimsley, her weight on his back was inconsequential.
At that exact moment, a fully armoured figure roughly a little under a metre and a half tall appeared in the middle of the room.
Grimsley's eyes almost popped out of his skull but he managed to not make a loud exclamation from the shock he was currently feeling. "Did 'at fella jus' fookin' appear ootta thin air?"
A smile wormed its way onto Lone's face. "'Girl' not 'fella', and yes, yes she did."
Sophie took off her helmet and stormed over to Lone while somehow keeping her footsteps soft and silent. Quite an amazing feat, really.
She grabbed his shirt and pulled him for a deep long kiss. A few moments later she pulled back and glared at him. "Useless. Why did you not escape sooner? If we knew that you were capable of such on your own perhaps we wouldn't have had to spend the effort to find you ourself."
'That's... Soph?' Grimsley thought in confusion. 'The lassie's talkin' all funny-like. Also, is it just me, or is she a wee bit taller? Nah, must be ma mind playin' tricks on me. Snap oot of it, Grim. Ye'r nae senile yet.'
Lone smiled wryly. "Later. Can you get us out of here first?"
Sophie scowled fiercely before she roughly grabbed both Lone and Grimsley's arms. Not a second later they had disappeared.
Gilbert peeked over his shoulder and glanced at the two moons hanging in the sky over Altros through his office's window. "Another 20 or so minutes."
He turned his head back then almost had a heart attack. "Lone?" Much to the guildmaster's surprise, Sophie had appeared in the middle of his office along with Lone and two unfamiliar dwarves.
"Hey, Gilbert. So, uh, I may or may not have murdered a nobleman..." Lone sheepishly said as he scratched his neck.
Gilbert narrowed his eyes. "Explain."
"Ha-ah... Gregory Milatod, huh? He's the son of the late Count Feston Milatod. From what I know he's been under the watchful eye of Duke Henry Malik for some time under suspicion of treason and leading a criminal gang. These are only rumours though," Gilbert explained.
Not a moment later he reached under his desk and pulled out a smoking pipe. He stuffed some sort of substance into it then snapped his fingers and said, "Spark." Whatever he had put in the device lit up and began producing smoke.
He walked over to the office's window and opened it. He then took a big puff of his pipe and blew the resulting smoke out into the open air.
"I'm glad that you and your blacksmithing master are safe, Lone, really, I am, but henceforth you are banned from leaving this building until the annual fighter's tournament begins. I know none of it is your fault but you've really stumbled from one mess to another, and that's only from today," Gilbert expressed wryly but in a serious tone.
Lone nodded. "It's regrettable since I kind of need to get stronger, but yeah, the danger is too great," he said. 'If I can't level-up for now then I'll just have to perfect my skills as much as possible to kick Daisuke's teeth out. One way or another, he's getting the shit beat out of him for all that he's done.'
Gilbert's eyes drifted over to Sophie. "And you. You are also forbidden from leaving this building. I suspect that Duke Leston and Duke Malik won't take your actions lying down. Margrave Griffset is situated in Ros, so I doubt he'll cause any direct trouble for you, but I can't say the same for the dukes. They may employ some adventurers under silver-plate to harass you, but I doubt you're unable to handle that."
Sophie held her head up proudly. "Indeed. We do not regret our actions even slightly, however. Were we not aware of the consequences then we would have no doubt murdered all of those noble wastrels."
Grimsley nodded. 'Yup. Ah'm definitely still a bit oot of it.'
"Mister Ironsbane, I also suggest that you, too, do not leave this building. The hero clearly wishes to kill you for stealing his slave from him," Gilbert said.
Grimsley's face turned sour. "Shana's nae a slave, ya big scaly cunt! She's Shana. Nutin' mere nutin' less."
"I meant no offence," Gilbert said with an apologetic smile.
Lone held his chin curiously as he gazed at the unconscious dwarven teenager. "Shouldn't she have woken up by now?"
"I suspect her slave collar is preventing her from awakening," Guildmaster Gilbert said. "Perhaps a clause in her slave contract stated that should she escape her master's servitude that she would be put to sleep? Contract magic is very strange. Poor quality contracts always have hundreds of tiny clauses to make up for the massive expense not being applied known as 'external subservience'. Only high-level contracts include that. Usually, running away in that case results in immediate death."
Lone frowned. "Well, we can't be having her asleep for the rest of her days, now can we?"
"Whaddya mean, Laddie?" Grimsley asked sceptically. Anything concerning his niece was of the utmost importance to the man, so of course he was wary.
Lone grinned. "I have enough MP now. Lemme get that collar off of her."
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l