It was the following morning after I had proposed to Merrah.
We spent that day together in a secluded bay sheltered by colossal trees and a handy illusion scroll Enda made. She sold impossibly complex illusion scrolls with many effects as a side gig and benefited greatly from the fact illusion was a market with very little competition.
As the last living member of her bloodline, Merrah was required to produce an heir. I had to accept this was simply how this world worked and my insecurities took hold once I found out it was part of the contract agreed upon by her family long ago.
On the day the bar was burnt down we argued about this exact thing. I couldn't sway the sense of duty she felt, or the burden of failure she felt within her heart.
From that moment on my options were limited, either forget all that had happened between us and hope we could still be friends with a hole in my heart, or accept it for what it is and take a chance.
She gave me a deadline and the pressure eventually got to me.
For once in this life, I didn't reject what my body had become.
Even if fear would not relinquish its grip on my heart, I didn't want to live with the idea that people would see me as an unnatural freak because of my body. I would keep it a secret from almost everyone, and pray the people that did know never uttered a word.
That would always be my biggest worry, to be reduced to a label, a preconception.
"You're tense. Is something wrong?"
"Huh? No, sorry I-"
Merrah gave me a quick kiss to interrupt my thought process and present me with something new.
"What's the plan?"
I slapped my cheeks and kicked myself into gear. The next few days would be extremely busy, but the payoff would be worth it.
"I'll find a replacement tutor and head to-"
"No, after that. You had made plans..."
Even after all we've been through, she still didn't want to inconvenience me. This typically meant she would do whatever she had to alone.
Not anymore.
"We're going on a honeymoon. I made my choice and it's with you, the rest can wait"
It was a selfish request and I knew it could have dire consequences.
Like Merrah, I preferred to get things done alone and only work with people when it was convenient. The least reliable part of any plan was people, that was a fact I learned in both worlds.
Everyone always acts based on their instincts first, emotions second and logic last. Hell, here I was doing the exact same thing. With so many moving cogs, knowing all the easily exploitable weaknesses made me nervous.
"Must I find another way?"
"Argh! Sorry. Let's head out"
I pulled on my face to punish myself and packed our gear back into our small boat.
We set off upriver again, to the underground mega city of Nala.
Is a kiss really a punishment?
* *** *
Despite the deafening cacophony of an overcrowded bar and an aroma of urine-covered delinquents, I maintained my composure in front of the sad remontants of a man Touji once looked up to when he was younger.
"Who?"
"Touji, he's the Orphan you trained how to use a bunch of weapons or something. I don't know, he was pretty vague"
"Ah, the runt *Chuckle*. How is the kid?"
"Well... he's in his second mana exhausted coma right now"
Former Captain of the Guard of Tyrants Rest, now homeless and without a job.
I found him eating alone in a fairly popular alehouse, hiding away from the worries of the world.
We sat in a dingy corner that felt more like a makeshift storage room with my chair against an old upright piano. Dark circles gathered under his navy blue eyes that barely flickered with life, as if matching the slowly fading candle on our creepy wooden table.
Sadly, the bar was missing the rhythmic charm to drown worries away and their piano looked like it hadn't been used in years.
He looked as if he was in his mid thirties, but I had my doubts. Energy prolonged peoples lives of this world, so judging a book by its cover felt useless sometimes.
Scrapes and bruises marked his face while his hands told a story in of itself, bandaged and covered in dried blood. His clothes seemed to be in a similar condition. A dirty white shirt, ragged brown pants and shoes one evening run away from falling apart.
It was clear he no longer owned his well maintained armor and without a weapon strapped to his hip. Right now, I could have easily mistaken him as one of the many homeless beggars that lined the poverty ridden sections of Nala.
Did he got robbed? No, he seems strong. Maybe he sold it...
When we sent boats to pick up the occupants of Touji's Orphanage, I scouted the surrounding area out of caution and happened to stumble upon two major red flags.
Both the Empire and Holy Boree Kingdom had set in motion plans to take the town, each in their own way.
Predictably, the Empire had begun scouting invasion points in marked squads dressed as passing adventures whilst wearing their traditional weaponry harking back to the Roman Empire.
Meanwhile, the Holy Kingdom planned to take territory through subterfuge and political dealings akin to annexing Tyrants Rest through ludicrous tax requirements and legislation.
"So, you interested?"
"I'm still trying to figure out if I should give Enda's lap-wulf the time of day"
Wulf? Really?
Not every race that evolved from magic changed names
That's not the point!
He took a swig of his tankard after each question. His gruff tone and disgusting alcohol ridden breath failed to dismay me in any regard.
"*Sigh* Listen, this is a... personal request. Enda and V don't know about it"
"V as well? Oh how the mighty have fallen"
"Speak for yourself. What happened to you?"
"You know exactly what happened. I protected my people with everything I had. Something you know nothing about"
"..."
Why won't he just say it?
All he has left is his pride, I admire his courage. I'd suggest saving him, but we both know you'll do it anyway
Yeah yeah
"Are they safe?"
"They've got enough money to reach Ludsburg. They should be fine from there"
"*Tsk*"
If he sold everything so they could leave the Empire and Boree behind, why stay here?
Ludsburg was a small kingdom opposite Dragons Mort on the other side of Nala. An artificial river ran through Nala like the Suez Canal. Only instead of an ocean on the other side, it was a marsh.
Touji admired the former Captain as a mentor, maybe even a father figure, but his plan was beyond foolish. Not only was the land covered in a constant fog, it was incredibly dangerous.
Most of Merrah's bounties came from the bog for a reason.
I should have known this would happen, we evicted everyone in Tyrants Rest by force.
One by one, under the cover of night and magic, families were uprooted and replaced with perfect fake replicas created and maintained by Enda's copies.
We offered them a home, money, work, a new life.
Every single inhabitant of Tyrants Rest rejected our offers.
To them, we were the enemy, not out to save them, but take what little they had left, mainly, each other.
It was the harsh reality of what would happen next.
The Empire was poised to make a move and gathered two thousand troops nearby, occupying the nearby rice farms.
Enda expected them to attack within the week.
"Just going to keep staring at me?"
"You plan to die here, don't you?"
He simply scoffed at my assumption.
By working with Merrah a few times over the past year I had built up a small amount of reputation, enough to let me in on a few details about the former Captain and his whereabouts.
"Listen, I can take care of your debt, but it'll take a few days. Are you willing to leave your name behind and head to Sleipnir's Sacrifice?"
"I think I'll take my chances here"
To be honest, asking him to run was a stupid plan to begin with. He was drunk, tired and at wits end. I'd be basically handing him over to any bounty hunter with no guarantee they'd take him alive.
Best deal with things here.
"Can you at least avoid killing anyone?"
"No promises"
"Ending their lives will only make things worse"
"Revenge is a concept you will learn to fear. It only takes one person to hold a weapon in their heart to attack in ways you can never expect"
"Don't you get it? There's a price on your head"
We were running out of time. With each second I could feel bloodlust approaching making the hair on my tails stand on end. Thankfully it was hidden from sight, but I wouldn't hesitate to remove the clamp if it meant creating a bigger target.
"Well bugger me. And here I thought I had until Storday"
He began to chug the rest of his beer in protest.
"It IS Storday. Argh! Screw this"
I flicked him my metal Adventures card, lodging it into his wooden mug of rapidly depleted ale.
As a former Captain of the guard in a crossroads town I expected him to be one of the few that could authenticate my nickname, rank, title and most importantly, emergency contacts.
He would have all the time he wanted to confirm that card while I worked.
In my past life, the piano was something I was taught for no other reason other than to be shown off. A talented spouse would lend credence to the Himura name after all.
Now in this world, with this body, unrivaled speed allowed me to achieve a level of perfection that could only be dreamed about.
I spun around in my chair and lifted up the fallboard. Running my fingers down each key in one swift motion, I could tell almost every key was slightly out of tune.
It didn't matter. The song I was about to play wasn't so easily compromised to have its melody crumble to the whims of a slightly unsavory sound.
"Isn't it a bit obvious, eh?"
"Mmm?"
He walked past me, ensuring he made contact with my hidden tails as he moved to lean against the piano on my right side, closest to the dirty wall and out of reach of any would-be assassins.
"Pale fox of fate? Is it even a secret?"
"I'm open to suggestions"
With each press of a key, attention quickly shifted over to me. Forty people gazed towards my direction as I recited a song that had become a joke in my world.
Not because it was bad, but strictly because it was thought impossible to play without large revision, or eight hands.
I quickly swept away a poisoned dart in tune with the piano piece.
As it landed in the wall behind him, he spoke up yet again completely unphased by the attack.
"What about Fates Needle?"
"Huh, that's pretty good..."
A second attack came in the form of a throwing knife. Using my tail, I whacked it into the table and it hit the table behind me with a solid thug. If anything, I hoped the former Captain could use it.
While the crowd might have missed the blow Dart, they certainly didn't miss the small balanced blade to be mysteriously thwarted aside.
The whole idea was to get the bounty hunters to attack head on and it worked like a charm.
Faster and faster I played my recollection of a joke, building tension and speed.
Almost as if they planned it perfectly, two slender hooded figures launched their attack wielding weapons of nature. Their wooden spears extended with their lunge forward at different elevations, but they were slow, far to slow.
They would have stood a chance against the former captain, of that I had no doubt, however, I was here and at exactly one minute thirty six seconds into the song, their faces became well orientated with the piano's white and black keys.
I slammed them four times within two seconds and knocked them out cold before continuing my song, after all, it typically went on for another minute.
One male, one female, both elves judging by their pink pointy ears peeking through their elaborate hoods. I wanted to find out exactly who they were as I was familiar with the weapons they carried.
Slowly, their wooden armaments shrank back into the size of a walnut as one other bounty collector took the initiative barely out of range of my grab.
Using our table as a platform, he leapt towards the former captain who took shelter behind with a poisoned dagger and bolas, only to find the man he was after wasn't ready to die and smashed his tankard against the would be assassins head, shattering both the cup and table in the process.
His actions amused the drunk crowd and they both laughed and cheered at our altercation that came to an end.
I Caught my metal adventures card that was flung about by the beer mugs destruction while pulling out a bronze Slate from sleeve. Equivalent to two-hundred and fifty Marks. Tossing it towards the barkeep spit shining silverware, I made a request.
"Yo barkeep! A round for everyone, on me!!"
With a clang of metal and a cheer, the enthusiastic crowd turned around to greet a quickly overwhelmed overweight man who pocketed the money without uttering a word.
"Ok. Take his stuff and wear it. This guy is a bit skinnier than you but it'll work..."
"I don't recall agreeing to anything"
"Free lodging and food. A thousand a day. Enda can't step foot near the place. V will help you"
"Should of led with that"
"Shoulda woulda coulda. Now help me carry these two, they're coming with us"