**
"Oy you here, you can't just sleep on the middle of the street"
It was a chill night, but Scaf didn't really care much, the warmth of alcohol helped him.
He looked up at the guard waking him up, he was never a morning person, and it was worse when he was on hangover.
He looked like a homeless person, and he was, even if his house was still standing there was nothing there for him, nothing that would make him call it "home".
He got up, looking down at the guard, his head was at the level of his heart.
"Hum? and why is that ?" his voice was so rough and vibrant, the guard started shaking from head to toe, as if he was in front of a wild beast.
And Scaf wasn't that far from that, he had lost every thing that would make him human, he was either drunk or in a hangover, and in both case, no one wanted to mess with him.
"Well euh...because it's royal property!" said the guard, using all of his courage to not piss himself while talking.
Scaf face changed, it got distorted in a horrible way, he looked like an angry demon.
He caught the guard from his collar and lifted him, "It's royal property huh? well fuck the king, fuck the nobles, fuck this country and FUCK THE ARMY", as he screamed this last words, the guard didn't have any more courage left to restrain himself.
Scaf dropped him, unconscious he fell on the floor like a heavy bag, and Scaf went away, to look for another tavern where to get drunk.
So he could feel some warmth in those chill nights of summer.
**
"Where the fuck were you ?!", he had dark circles so big you would think it's makeup.
Rosa advanced toward him, putting a hand on his cheek, she said, "oh my dear you were worried about us ?".
But before he could tell anything she stole his breath with a kiss, before adding, "oh well, I think we should have breakfast".
As she said that, Mike appeared from behind him, but he wasn't alone.
There was a beautiful woman with him, she seemed flawless, like a goddess.
As Rosa saw her she froze and gave a deadly gaze to Scaf.
"Honey, you don't have anything to tell me, right?"
Scaf did a nervous shuggle, before answering "no honey, nothing" while nervously smiling.
"Don't worry, he's a loyal bastard", said the woman behind him stepping forward toward Rosa,"I tried everything to seduce him but he didn't even blink"
Scaf straightened as he heard that.
Rosa raised a brow, "Is that true ? I knew you were a loyal husband", she gently slapped Scaf's back while walking toward the woman with a big smile.
Scaf was starting to sweat heavily.
"I'll enjoy every moment while I kill you"
The woman only answered her with a big smile and said, "Nice to meet you too, my name is Mia"
"Come now ladies, you shouldn't fight, after all, you are all going to work together"
Rosa spun so fast her hair almost hit Mia's face, and she looked at the man with so much anger you could see in her eyes she was killing him in so many ways.
"What do you mean we are all going to work together ?"
"You heard correctly, all you five are going to work together on a mission to bring down one of the biggest criminal of the capital, Francis Butterbury."
"Who?" they said all three together.
"He's what you could call a scum with no honor nor faith in anything but himself, he do everything that's criminal, from child abduction to assassination, passing by slaughter and corruption, if a crime happen in the capital, you can be sure he's behind it" , said Mia, her voice was hypnotizing, it would get into your head without you even realizing it.
"How can it be ? I mean he doesn't clone himself to do all the crimes, right ? it's not possible"
"Is it possible ?" asked Neila to the Man, with star in her eyes
"To asnwer Scaf, no, he just made a crimianl empire, to answer you child, yes, under certain conditions"
"Teach me" Said Neila,she looked like a child.
"I'm no teacher my dear, and to come back to more pressing manners, this isn't gonna be a normal mission, each one of you is gonna be given a task, you are going to work under him, so you can get closer to him and take him down, Scaf you'll be his bodyguard, Neila you'll be in the assassination team with Mia and Rosa you'll be working at his house as a maid"
"Excuse you ? if this is a joke it's really not funny"
The air seemed to get heavier.
"I'm sorry but there's no other choice"
"Why don't you put the bitch in my place ? am sure she can seduce her way out into his bed and kill him"
"It's not me that did this, I can't really do anything about it, so you gonna keep whinning or you in ?"
Rosa clenched her fist and bit her lips so hard blood was coming out, she was doing her best to keep herself from tiring his throat out with her teeth.
Her fighting spirit was licking out of her as if it was heat.
Well there was actual heat coming from her too.
Scaf put a hand on her shoulder, even if it was burning hot, but he had to calm her.
She looked up at him, fire burning in her eyes, and it got cooled down by the chill on his.
After a moment she finally said, "Alright, I'm in"
"What about Mike tho" Asked Scaf
"Ah yes I forgot, Mike will be your contact, you'll talk to him once every week, in the paper he's gonna give you there's the time and place where you will meet him, each one got a different one to not raise suspicion"
Mike then passed by each one, giving them papers of various size, one of them had a date and place written in it.
"Remember the info well then throw the paper in the fire, you can't get caught with it, ah and you gotta go right now to arrive at the right time"
"Ah for fuck sake, can't I even take some rest"
"Don't worry honey I'll ride, so you can take a nap at the back"
"Ah yes one last thing, none of you know each other"
They arrived at the mansion around noon.
It was so big it took them 10 minutes with horses to get from the portal to the main house.
They were then escorted to a big room, it was so big, even the houses where they used to live in would seem like a broom cupboard in comparison.
Everything seems so disproportionate you would think the person living in here is some kind of giant.
Yet there he was, the man made the greatest criminal empire of history, barely visible behind his chair, as if he was a child that sat in the office of his father and was playing with his chair.
He then turned to face them, they were all four aligned, as if they were soldier facing their superior, and in a sense, they were.
He approached them, in his white shirt with the sleeves raised almost to the elbow.
His classical shoes making no noise on his wooden parquet.
With one hand in the pocket of his black pant and the putting a cigar in his mouth that was almost invisible due to his thick mustache.
He looked at them one after the other with his wide blue eyes behind his big squared glasses.
At last he spoke, with a voice deeper than what his small figure would give off.
"So you are the new huh, tell me what each one of you will do"
"I'll be your bodyguard", started Scaf.
"Hummmm, you're really big and you look really strong, I suppose you'll be helpful, even if it's only to take some arrows on these thick body"
He then touched Scaf body, expecting that this gigantic thing was made of only fat.
Which explains the shock on his face, when he felt it was hard, harder than wood, than stone maybe even harder than metal, he wouldn't take arrows for him, because he couldn't see how in hell any arrow could get threw those thick muscles.
He then walked to Neila,"and you "
"I'll be an assassin", said Neila, hoping he wasn't gonna touch her like he did for Scaf.
"Aren't you a bit young for that ?"
"Oh but i've been trained since I was a kid"
He then raised his hand to touch her hair, but as soon as his hand approached her face, he stopped, and looked at her with an amused look in his eyes.
"You'll be just perfect", he moved to the next person, "And you my dear ?"
"Well, just like her" she said while pointing with her head toward Neila and giving him a wink.
He looked at her for a bit then he simply went to Rosa.
"What do we got here ? such a beautiful specimen, and what is it you do my dear ?"
Rosa was doing everything in her power to keep calm, she can't screw it all, but at the same time she wanted to paint the room with his blood.
But there was too many guards and not enough issues out of here.
"I'm a maiden, I'll work in the house"
"Oh is that so ? well if you work correctly and you keep this pretty mouth of yours shut maybe you'll be able to work directly with me", he had his hand under her chin and his thumb on her lower lips, and as he finished talking he winked and got back to his office.
This time it was Scaf that was having a hard time controlling himself, he couldn't act recklessly after that he was the one who get her in this.
"Alright you can all go and start working, the bodyguard and the maiden you stay here, the two others your superior is waiting for you outside"
Neila and Mia went out by the same door they came in and went outside, always escorted by a few guards.
"Alright so you two, well the bodyguard of course you're gonna stick with me, the maiden take this plate to the kitchen and bring me some wine will ya "
Scaf looked at Rosa, her face was hidden by her hair so he couldn't see his expression.
Until she got her head up, and what he saw was terrifying.
Rosa was smiling, the kind of smile he saw on her only once, and it meant only one thing.
She wanted to kill him.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
//Ten days later:
Scaf was on the left of Francis, and on his right was his, well, his right hand.
A man named Grou.
He was wearing a kimono, and wooden sandals.
He had some kind of long sword on his waist, but it wasn't straight, it was curved, Scaf only saw this kind of swords once in his life.
The man didn't seem really strong with his large clothes, but under that you could find extremely well trained muscles, able to give explosive attacks in an instant.
And his aura was so strong you would be scared just by looking at him.
He had brown eyes, but they weren't like the one people here had, they were stretched.
He was short, as short as the boss, but his sandals gave him some height.
He would clearly be a problem when they would have to deal with Francis.
"Mister Butterbury," said the owner of the shop.
"You all wait here", he waved to the three other persons that came with him, and Scaf, he only went in with Grou.
Scaf was waiting calmly in front of the shop when he felt it.
A strong lust for blood.
He looked around to search for the source.
It was a man a few feet from him.
He looked as if he was leaving in a trash can.
Scaf followed his eyes to see toward what this blood lust was directed.
It was a child.
A simple child playing in front of his home.
Scaf got into motion instinctively as the man was approaching the kid and grabbing for something in his belt.
Scaf was a few inches from him when he got his blade out and brought it down toward the child.
He cought his hand as the blade cut a few hair from the childs head.
"Oy oy, whatcha doing there ?"
Scaf voice was calm but he was boiling inside.
"Let go of me or i'll..."
As the man looked up to Scaf he couldn't say a word.
He was petrified.
"Or u'll what ?", Scaf strenghtened his grip on the criminals hand, breaking his waist along with all his fingers.
The man screamed in pain, Scaf then put his palm over his mouth and slammed his head on the floor so hard it made a hole in the pavement.
"What's happening here ?", Francis appeared behind him, along with Grou and the three others.
"Nothing important for you boss", Scaf then washed the blood of his hand on the corpse of the poor devil.
"You know he works for me right ?"
Scaf turned around and raised a brow ," This scum that attacks children ? he works for you ? gotta say I'm a bit disappointed"
"Hey watch your mouth you son of a bitch", one of the men that were behind went for the sword at his belt, but his hand had just reached the pommel that Scaf's hand was already on his.
In one step, or maybe two ? he couldn't tell, it was too fast, he had went all that distance.
"Or what huh? what are you gonna do ? use that sword ? you better be ready to use to kill and not just threaten, because once you draw that sword, it'll officially be a fight"
The man couldn't move or say a thing, he was terrorized.
"What do you mean by that ?" Francis put a hand on his shoulder and was smoking a cigar.
"You, the man behind everything that happens here, you have under you little shits that attack children, and with a knife, he doesn't even have the balls to go barehanded"
"He was good at racketeering tho"
"This little shit ? he couldn't even steal from a blind grandma at night, I thought better of you, but apparently you are like the others, and if you lose respect from your employees, how can you hope to have it from your opponents"
Francis took a deep breath in his cigar, kept it for a while, then got the smoke out, with a big smile on his face," and what do you propose huh?"
"Well getting rid of the little scum without honor, and also get better fighters, because those ones aren't worth shit"
"They did a good job in defending me this far"
"Maybe, but that's only because you never got attacked by someone like, for exemple, me, what would happen if I did ?"
"Well I guess I would be in some trouble, but tell me, am I ?"
Scaf smiled then said" Not under my watch"
"Well then everything is perfect, but let me tell you something, this is why I have a bodyguard team and an assassination team, one is for the people that could hurt me but I got on my side, and the other is for the ones I don't have on my side"
As he said that he turned back and went back toward his cart.
Even if the man's shoulder weren't wide, even if he was short, even if he didn't have much muscle, but Scaf could feel a strength emanating of him, and as he looked at his back, it seemed to be wider than before.