"This address… where is it."
Roxy spoke impatiently, handing a piece of paper to Li Hongji once they had left the inn. The day's events had left a bad taste in her mouth and something just didn't sit right with her, yet she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"It's within walking distance goddess, actually we should be able to see it from here."
Li Hongji replied after briefly scanning the contents of the page. He scanned the buildings further down the street, eventually stopping on one.
"wait, it was that one"
Li Hongji's eyes widened in a mixture of shock and nervousness as he stared at a tall, black building in the distance, his actions didn't escape Roxy's keen eyes and she stared at him menacingly.
"If you have something to say, just say it."
Roxy growled, causing Li Hongji to stumble backwards, after quickly composing himself, he pointed towards the building in question.
"Uhm… that place, it's owned by some real nasty people, so you should be careful."
He spoke quickly but his shaky voice held clear traces of fear, Roxy took a long hard look at his face.
"And that's all you have to say?"
Roxy spoke seriously, getting right up into his face, causing him to take a step back and avert his gaze.
"Y-Yes, goddess"
He stuttered, causing Roxy to snort and turn around, she wouldn't press further, everyone had their secrets after all.
"Fine, let's go."
She grabbed Li Hongji's arm and dragged him towards the place he had pointed out previously, it was unclear whether she ignored, or just didn't notice the down cast expression on his face.
The black building had a huge wooden sign at the front that read "The dragon's cove" in huge golden letters. At the doors there where two breathtakingly handsome men dressed in thin robes that showed of their ripped bodies. When the man caught sight of Roxy and Li Hongji walking up to the doors, the gave a deep bow and a warm greeting.
"Welcome valued guests, we hope you enjoy your stay at the cove"
One of the men spoke while the other opened the door for them, this scene made Roxy facepalm.
"of course that shitty harlot would pick a place like this."
She said while shaking her head and dragging li Hongji through the doors. What greeted them was a massive hall filled with laughter and joy, the hall was furnished beautifully with luxurious antiques, paintings and crystal chandeliers. The space to their left contained dozens of couches, where intoxicated women who were responsible for the racket, were being served and pleasured by the male staff.
Roxy paid no attention to the steamy surroundings and instead quickly caught sight of the reception and began to head over, stopping abruptly when she realised that Li Hongji was no longer following her and was instead staring at the ground with his cheeks flushed bright red.
"Tsk, fucking teenagers."
She growled, grabbing Li Hongji's arm once more and started dragging him to the reception without any resistance from the hormonal teenager, who was constantly shifting his gaze back and forth between the ceiling and the floor.
At the reception counter, they were greeted by a shirtless man with chiselled abs and an even more chiselled jaw line, he flashed Roxy a charming smile when he noticed her coming over.
"Welcome the dragons cove… Oh, I don't recognise this beautiful lady, could it be your first time… in that case I'll gi-"
"Shut up already, men that talk a lot are the fucking worst."
Roxy said with an irritated look in her eyes, this caused the man to flinch and immediately placed his palms together.
"My apologies madam, please tell me how I can be of service."
He said sincerely, Roxy's expression began to ease up but it was clear to see she was still highly irritable, she hated filthy places like these.
"A blonde woman should have booked a room here a few months ago under the name Elena, call her down for me."
Roxy said, the man pondered for a while before his eye lit up with recognition.
"Ah, yes, I remember her clearly, much like yourself, she was quite the stunner. She gave us enough money to stay for a year and made good use of our… uhm, services."
Roxy shook her head, wondering what mistakes she had made in her past life to get to know such a woman.
"Unfortunately, we haven't seen her for a few months, but since she gave us enough money, we've not cleared out her room yet in the hopes she would come ba-."
SLAM.
Roxy slammed the counter, leaving behind a fist shaped indent on the metal surface, the man's eyes widened and he staggered back, the commotion had been so loud that the silence that followed was deafening, the others in the hall immediately stopped what they were doing to take a look
With all eyes on them, Li Hongji nervously looked around, trying to hide his face, he knew this wasn't the place to be making a scene. However, Roxy didn't share any of his concerns because right now she was seriously pissed off.
"Urgh, I'm going to murder that bitch, leading me on a wild goose chase like that, who the fuck does she think she is… Oi Jawline, what room was that harlot staying in?"
She yelled in a rage, the receptionist's face was now dripping with cold sweat as he felt the temperature plummet to freezing.
"r-room t-thirteen."
He stuttered nervously, his whole body was shaking and when he saw Roxy had stopped glaring at him, he collapsed onto the floor.
"Is there a problem here."
One of the security guards walked up to them with a menacing look in his eyes, he easily towered over Roxy and his body was bulky and muscular, radiating a powerful aura of strength.
"I don't know, you tell me."
Roxy growled, shifting her rage fuelled gaze on to him, making the mountain of muscles drop to his knees with a heavy thud, in fact it wasn't just him, the whole hall seemed to feel a ruthless and suffocating pressure force them to the ground, plates and cups shattered on the floor, as the people who dropped them were sprawled across the floor, shivering in fear.
"Well, is there a problem?"
"n-no, ma'am"
"Then piss off."
Roxy dragged a stunned Li Hongji through the door next to the counter and the pressure that was oppressing the entirety of the hall vanished just like that.
Once they were gone the security guard weakly picked himself up and slowly took out a crumpled piece of paper, straightening it out to reveal a portrait of a scrawny youth, who shared a striking resemblance to Li Hongji.
***
"This is the one"
Roxy said, stopping outside the room that was numbered thirteen. By now, the storm named Roxy had let up somewhat and her rage had dissipated enough to allow Li Hongji to summon enough courage to speak up.
"Uhm, goddess, I'm worried that they might call for help soon, so it's best that we leave as soon as possible"
"Well, I'm not worried, so I'll take as long as I need."
BOOM.
Roxy delivered a swift kick to the door and it burst clean of the hinges, kicking up a large cloud of dust in the process. Li Hongji had the misfortune of inhaling some and began coughing loudly while squinting his eyes.
Roxy ignored him and pressed a switch on the wall that made a small, white crystal on the ceiling shine brightly, illuminating the rest of the room.
"Looks like Jawline wasn't lying."
Roxy muttered to herself, it was clear this place hadn't been used for a long time, a thick coat of dust covered every surface and there looked to be no disturbances… apart from the door she just kicked in.
The room was completely empty, with not a single piece of furniture or item remaining. Li Hongji, who had now overcome his dust-induced coughing and joined Roxy, seemed to be pretty confused by the state of the room.
"Didn't jawline… I mean the receptionist say they didn't clear the room yet?"
Li Hongji asked curiously, Roxy sighed and lifted her arm into the air.
"This is why you're a tour guide and I'm a goddess."
She said, snapping her fingers, this was followed by a low frequency buzzing as the space in the room began to distort, shattering into nothing and revealing a completely different room filed with dirty clothes and half eaten food that had long since began to rot.
"huh… what the fuck."
Li Hongji struggled to process what was going on and even cursed out of pure shock, he looked at Roxy, seeking an explanation but her attention was already preoccupied, her gaze fixed onto a wall covered with writing and crude sketches of demonic beast's but most noticeable of all was a single word circled in red "Avalon ???"
"What the fuck indeed."
***
A couple of hours later in the heart of the red-light district, that very same security guard that couldn't find a problem with Roxy, stood nervously outside a large oak door.
"The boss will see you now."
A booming voice came from beside him, making the guard turn around and realise that the voice belonged to a bald giant in black robes. The giant completely dwarfed the massive security guard, making his nerves act up even further.
The guard was escorted in to the room by the giant, where he saw a lone figure casually sipping tea behind a large wooden desk, the room was dark and the constant pitter patter of the rain gave it a gloomy and dull vibe.
"I brought him boss."
The giant spoke to the figure, it was quite hard to see his face with the dimness of the room but that alone didn't stop the security guard from realising that this was his boss, he immediately lowered his head respectfully. The giant took it a step further and laid down completely flat on the ground.
"Greeting's boss, it's an honour to finally meet you"
The guard spoke, causing the boss to place down his cup and stare at the guard.
"Please take a seat, I heard you have some interesting news for me"
The boss spoke warmly, gesturing towards a chair. The guard immediately took his seat, handing him the crumpled portrait of the scrawny youth.
"Yes boss, this kid you told me to keep an eye out for… I saw him earlier at the cove, there's no mistaking it."
The guard said excitedly, he had been told there was a nice reward for any information regarding that youth. He eagerly awaited the boss's response but it didn't come, the boss was seemingly frozen stiff.
"Who else knows about this."
After a long time, the Boss spoke, his voice was filled with a complexity that made it hard to decipher his thoughts.
"Just me boss, I have no clue where he is now though."
The guard quickly replied with his eyes shining brightly, his mind was fully focusing on what his reward would be.
"Anything else?"
"He was with this red-haired beauty who was as scary as a devil, all it took was one look from her and I lost all strength to my legs, she must have been insanely strong."
"Hoh, was it like this"
The boss said while tossing a coin like object into the air, instantly a dark and evil aura flooded the room, making the guard's mind go blank and white froth to foam out of his mouth as he shook uncontrollably, oddly enough the boss and the giant seemed perfectly fine.
"What did you call me for."
A bored, yet devastatingly charming voice rang across the room, the boss turned his head to face the silhouette of a curvaceous women with long black hair that flowed down to her shoulder, she sat across the window sill, playing with her hair and just by looking at her, the boss felt chills.
"I found a lead to what we were searching for, it shouldn't be long now."
The boss said excitedly but his voice was shaky in the face of this woman.
"I told you to call me when you have it… tsk, what a waste of time, don't do this again."
The woman spoke, her silhouette quickly vanished into thin air but her words seemed to linger in the air.
"Who do you think was scarier… her or the red-head?"
The boss turned to face the guard, yet no response followed. The guard was slumped back in his chair with his eyes rolled back, making it hard to discern if he was even alive.
"I guess that answers that question."
***
The following morning, Ren was stood on the busy streets outside the Lin music store, with a violin case strapped to his back. Li Hongji had dropped him off here before rushing back to the inn, promising to pick Ren up after his lessons were finished.
Ren, who had been roped into taking the lessons, wasn't quite sure how to feel. Although he would have preferred to use this time to train, he felt obligated to at least attend once on Olivia's account.
"Since when did I start letting her tell me what to do."
Ren shook his head before opening the door and entering the store. Like last time, he was greeted by the strong smell of varnish that filled the cramped interior and the creaking of the old floorboards as he walked towards the counter where Mr Lin and his granddaughter, Lin Mei were sat behind.
"So, you came kid. I guess you do know what's best for you after all."
Mr Lin greeted Ren with his seemingly permanent scowl, on the other hand, Lin Mei's eyes seem to light up when she saw Ren.
"The explosion yesterday… I was worried that you might have got hurt. Uhm… thank you for coming."
She said awkwardly, Ren didn't know how to respond to her concerns, so he didn't bother, instead choosing to lower his head and return the greeting.
"Thank you for having me, I'll be in your care now."
Ren said flatly before turning to Mr Lin.
"I don't have any money to pay for lessons."
Mr Lin kissed his teeth in response, he had expected as much but the child in front of him seemed so unconcerned when he spoke that it made him feel a bit annoyed.
"I'm not a charity kid, make sure to pay me back later."
Mr Lin said, making Ren nod his head. Mr Lin wasn't sure if Ren was going to take the lessons seriously but that brief glimpse of talent, he had seen yesterday made him look forward to what the boy was capable off.
"Mei'er watch the store for me, call me if there's a customer. Kid, you follow me."
"Sure thing, gramps"
Lin Mei answered, while Ren was led into the back room behind the counter. The room was as cramped as the store on account of the huge piano in the centre of the room that took up most of the space. Musical scores were stacked in the corner and various instruments were scattered all over the place.
"Let's get on with it, take out your instrument and hand it over."
Mr Lin said, watching Ren open the case and carefully take out the violin.
"At least he knows to treat the instrument with respect."
Mr Lin thought to himself, this made him slightly more hopeful for the outcome of the lesson. Ren handed him the violin and Mr Lin tuned the instrument before giving it back.
"Get into posture and play an open string for me.
Ren did just that, using his previous experience with "Violin for dummies" manual, he managed to play a shaky but pronounced note on the E string.
"Oh, I see you read that book I gave you but not good enough, legs shoulder width apart, don't face me, make the violin face me. Your bow hold is a joke, your fingers should be slanted."
Mr Lin said while watching as Ren made the necessary adjustments to his posture.
"That's… passable, now play again."
SCREEECH.
"Your wrists are too tense, move the bow with your wrists more."
SCREEECH.
"Are you stupid I said move your wrists more."
SCREEECH.
"Don't twist your waist, did I tell you to do that dumbass."
SCREEECH.
"Keep the bow in the gap between the fingerboard and the bridge, how is that not obvious."
After five minutes of playing the same note, Ren finally managed to play a clear sound, even though it was nothing special, it was enough to satisfy Mr Lin.
"It's about time you were capable of this much, let's move on"
***
"Gramps, there's a customer"
The muffled shout of Lin Mei from outside the room, caused Mr Lin to stop teaching Ren.
"Wait here kid, I'll have Mei'er take over your lesson for now."
Mr Lin spoke up, getting up from his chair and leaving the room, a few seconds later, the door opened once more and Lin Mei walked through with a cute smile on her face.
"How's the lesson going."
"It's alright."
Ren answered, it was a new experience to him but it was somewhat interesting and the fact that Ren could feel himself improving as the lesson progressed was definitely satisfying.
"That's good, Gramps is strict so I was a bit worried."
"I'm used to worse."
Ren replied, even though Mr Lin was strict and complained a lot, he knew he would come out of the lesson in one piece, the same couldn't be said about his master's training.
"That's good… actually is it, never mind I'm sure it is. Sorry I'm a bit nervous, I've never taught someone before. Gramps told me to help you get familiar with the instrument so I'll do my best."
She said taking out her own violin and immediately started talking again without giving Ren a chance to reply.
"But that's a bit boring, why don't we play a game, I'll play something and you copy, if you play it wrong, I get a point and if you play it right you get a point."
"If that's what you want teacher."
Ren replied but his words seem to make the young girl freeze up and she stared at him with wide eyes.
"w-what did y-you call me?"
"Teacher, did I address you wrong?"
Ren asked back. A flustered Lin Mei frantically waved her hands and a huge grin spread across her face.
"No, not at all. I see, I'm a teacher now aren't I. Hah, this is awesome. Dear student of mine, since it's my responsibility to teach you, I will make sure to teach you well… because I'm a teacher after all."
Lin Mei said excitedly, Ren wasn't sure why she looked so happy but since there didn't seem to be a problem, he didn't really care. Lin Mei, who looked like she was having the time of her life suddenly grabbed Ren's hands
"Watch closely student, I will now use my power as a teacher to say we'll do as this teacher said and play the game that this teacher suggested.
"…"
***
Ten consecutively lost points later, Ren was staring at the ground with a downcast expression.
"Damn, she really didn't go easy on me."
Ren thought inwardly, even though he lost every time, Lin Mei only started the next round once he could play what she had played, giving him tips on throughout the so-called game, still it didn't feel that good to be mercilessly beat into the ground like that.
"Not bad dear student of mine, since it looks like gramps is coming back, I'll be leaving now. Take care."
She spoke up after seeing that the door was opening, Mr Lin entered the room.
"Thanks, Mei'er I've got it from here."
***
After the lesson finished, Ren left the store and found a bench nearby to sit on, where he waited to for Li Hongji to pick him up. To pass the time, Ren reflected on his lesson today, he had a decision to make, would he come back to the music store or not?
Ren was surprised by how much he enjoyed those lessons, when he was playing, he seemed to forget all his problems and fully focused on learning the instrument, although it was relaxing and felt good, Ren didn't want to forget his problems in the first place, those problems of his were what kept him moving forward.
He had priorities and the only way to achieve them was by getting stronger, the violin was a distraction and as far as he could see, learning it did more harm than good.
"What are you thinking so hard about brat."
A rough female voice cause Ren to look up and see Roxy staring at him with an amused grin.
"Nothing important master, where's Miss Olivia?"
Ren asked, after noticing that she was by herself.
"Tsk, your beautiful master went out of her way to pick you up and the first thing that comes to your mind is that girl."
Roxy growled, causing Ren to quickly correct himself.
"That isn't it, master is strong and great so I don't have to worry about her, Miss Olivia is weak and annoying so I have to make sure she's alright."
Ren stated plainly, making Roxy scoff and slap him on the shoulder.
"When did my disciple become such an arse kisser… but since it's the truth, I guess it's alright."
Roxy said while walking off, Ren quickly followed after her while breathing a sigh of relief, his master had been in an irritable mood since yesterday and Ren, who valued his life, felt it was in his best interest to not cause her mood to worsen.
"Brat, are you gonna continue learning the violin?"
Roxy asked as they were walking down the street, Ren took a moment before answering but his decision hadn't changed.
"Probably not master, I'd prefer to use that time training."
Ren replied causing Roxy to give him a strange look.
"Hoh, I seem to remember a certain brat promising to blow my socks off."
"Ah."
Ren felt shivers run down his spine and his instincts screamed at him, he didn't even need to look up to know that Roxy was glaring at him.
"Oi brat, I must be overthinking it because there's no way a disciple of mine would be suicidal enough to forget a promise that he made with me."
Just like that, Ren decided that continuing his lessons might be worthwhile after all.