"Guah!"
Without warning, Alister was kicked at his gut. He moaned in an instant, and was forced to eat water yet again. Ishnaia turned around by that sound of pain and saw the perpetrator… It is a man of an average height, but with a big build, and a short brown hair with a fully bearded face. His armor was past its prime. It had full of scratches and dirt. Hanging and sheathed at his back is a two-handed sword. From his appearance alone, for Ishnaia, it's a fucking grizzly bear,
"Shit!" Ishnaia speaks her mind that moment she saw, "It's a fucking grizzly bear!"
The big man grunts and replied amusingly,
"You're damn right."
And kicked Alister once again.
"Guoh!"
"Hey Bear!" The young man with a red hair reacted, "Take it easy! He's a prince! I'm thinking we should give him honor!"
"A prince!" He ducked beside the pain-stricken Alister, and just stared at him. In a short silence, he nodded twice to himself and talked, "Well, orders are orders. It will be a true honor to kill a prince."
"…what?" Ishnaia furrowed her eyebrows at that last sentence.
"Alright," Bear stood up and turned towards the young man with red hair, "Reonne, take care of the lass." And glanced down at Alister, "Let's give him an honorable death."
Alister had his eyes wide opened and had his eyes on Bear, he started speaking in a panic, "H-Hey! Gghh!" but was too much in pain to speak.
"W-Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey wait! Wait! what the fuck!" Bear turned his head to Ishnaia as she instantly speaks in a panic and stretches her arm in front of her, waving it with her palms open at the face of Bear, "T-This is happening too fast for my senses! What did he do to deserve some dire shit?" she said while pointing at Alister.
"Milady," Reonne, the young man with a red hair, answered, "A contract is a contract. We don't get paid if we- "
"Reonne!" Bear yelled in a reprimand, "You talk too much!"
"Ah!" Reonne had his eyes wide in realization, and smiled apologetically while scratching his head, "Please forget what I had just said Milady."
"Wait," Ishnaia glared at Reonne, "what'll you do with me? Kill me also?"
He snortingly smiled, "What! No! I am a defender, the knight in shining armor of women in need!"
"Reonne!" Bear bellowed.
"I get it Bear! I get it!" Reonne irately replied to Bear and smilingly speaks to Ishnaia, "Sad to say Lady Lassie, I guess it pains me that, for the sake of my maturity, I had to eliminate you."
At that Reonne's declaration, Ishnaia cautiously backs off in just a step, gritting her teeth. Then, just after a few seconds, she stood relaxed, breathed out, and sneeringly said, looking at the eyes of Reonne, "…You sure about that?"
Bear was about to draw his plain two-handed sword sheathed behind him when Reonne signals Bear with his open palm to stop and slightly tilt his head, furrowing his eyebrows in a grin, "In actuality? No. I despise killing real women like you."
"Then, is it possible that you just," Ishnaia pointed at Alister with her thumb, who was still down in pain, "hold him captive?"
Reonne shakes his head, "No can do milady, because someone did a terrible deed last night and our orders are to kill the culprit no matter who it is-"
"Reonne!" Bear pointing said at him, "Stop revealing every detail to the enemy!"
"Why!?" Reonne shrugged with his arms wide in a gesture to Bear, "Does it matter? They'll both be dead men afterwards! Dead men tell no tales!"
"Yet," Ishnaia speaks, "you don't want me dead right?"
"Yeah," His eyes met with her and then gave her a sorrowful smirk, "I guess I just had no choice."
"But…" she pointed at herself, "you want me, right?"
Reonne furrowed his eyebrows again in smile, walking closer to Ishnaia with eyes locked on her,
"…May I ask what are you suggesting? Because I seem to like what you are about to propose."
Ishnaia smiles back, unflinchingly staring at his eyes, "If you want me, then I guess you had to make a deal with me."
"What deal?" Reonne tilts his head.
"Easy, just hold the prince captive and I'm yours."
"Oho!" Reonne amusingly grinned till it reaches his ears, "That's very… tempting! But," He glanced at Bear, "the contract- "
"Man, you're shitting me, it's just a contract!" Ishnaia cuts him off irately, "I mean, Kill? Why? He's a prince, not some ordinary dude you can always find on streets! So, capture him alive and I am pretty sure you'll get more reward, and you could have a date with me, sounds good? It's a fucking win-win situation I tell you that!"
"Reonne!" Bear yelled yet again, "A contract is a contract! Don't get swayed by her sweet words!"
Ishnaia turned around at him, "You know what Sir Bear, if that's what you're called..., I'm proposing something called a 'mutual benefit'. I was hoping that every party will be happy with the terms I present!" damn I sound cool, where did I learned that stuff? she thought to herself.
However, Bear just glared at her and said after a pause, "…Is that what the prey says when they are cornered?"
"I guess you could just say that." Ishnaia shrugs and mockingly frowned, then she smirked, "But it seems you don't really want to kill that prince, do you? If you do, you had already done the deed even if I was speaking the fuck out of here right? Moreover! this dude here named Reeyo or some shit seems to like my proposal." She turned her head back to the red-haired young lad, "Isn't that right boy?"
"…Pft!" Ishnaia heard Bear as if he was about to say something, then he laughed hard in a joyous bellow in which Ishnaia furrowed in a strange confusion. What now? She thought.
"Ah…Lassie," Bear speaks after his laughter subsides a bit, "you're good! A very observant girl at that! It's true that this got me thinking." He stared down at Alister, "It's the first time I've encountered a prince as a bounty."
"You know Bear," Reonne speaks, "the Lady Lassies right, there's no harm bringing that prince and let them do the deed right? We don't want to get deep down into some political shit that will bring us down."
Bear scowled as he looked askance at him, "Did that thought came from your head above, or from your head below?"
"Both." Reonne proudly replied, "Besides, to stop us killing?" He stares at Ishnaia, "The lady must have really cared about him!"
"Oh-hoh, please…!" Ishnaia scoffs, "you know what, I don't really care about that prince. He's all yours for all I care!"
Then Ishnaia glanced at Alister and they saw eye-to-eye. She winked at him, But Alister frowned in terror and disbelief as he cried in an outburst,
"Lady Ishnaia! …you…WHY!?"
Seeing that response coming from Alister, Ishnaia dropped her upper body animatedly in defeat as if her strings attached unto it were cut and,
"Haahh…" She sighs in exasperation. Then straighten up again as her eyes moves unto Bear, "So, is it a deal?"
"Hey Bear! Go Deal! Deal!" Reonne said inducingly with a smile.
Bear breathes out with his nose in a poker face and picked up a rope from his pocket. At this act, Reonne curled his arm beside him, made a fist, and silently said 'yes' to himself and stares down at the defeated Alister,
"Sorry sir prince," Reonne said in pity as Bear binds Alister's wrist with a rope from his pocket, "She clearly dumped you at this moment. That makes me superior than you ain't it?"
"He's right Alister," Ishnaia said in a frown of pity, "You're too fucking naïve and gullible. Because of that, Bear, how about you tie his mouth also? I don't want him to hear shit"
Bear frowningly sighed at her and had a grabbed a cloth from his own pocket as Reonne scoffed as he amusingly reacted "ouch! that's harsh!"
"Lady Ishnaia!" Alister glared at Ishnaia and speaks in panic and frustration, "I trusted you! And yo-mmmph! mmmmmmpph!"
"Ahhrrrgghh! Shut your trap Alister!" Ishnaia yelled at him, "We'll going to get you out of there as soon as we got the money of those fuckers you hear!?"
Alister, Bear, and Reonne, together, they turned their heads to Ishnaia as she declares her intention. Reonne first broke off the silence in bafflement, "Get him out?"
She looked at him and Bear in an eye, "Yeah. Why not?"
Bear furiously replied, "Maybe you don't understand that we're bound by contract, do you?"
"Pssh…" Ishnaia grinned while furrowing her eyebrows, "C'mon, it's just a shitty contract. Isn't it done by the time you give him to whatever who you worked for? He's a prince! I don't think they going to kill him. Maybe they'll just had him ransom or some fuckery for their shitty fetishes."
"And what makes you think that we'll help you get him out of his captivity?"
"Easy," Ishnaia points at him, "More money."
"Ha! Interesting!" Reonne grinned amusingly at her. "You DO really care for him after all!"
"Care? oh no, trust me, I-"
"Trust you?" Bear sneered mockingly, "Ha! You know what I believe? You're the girl who did the slaughter. Anyone could see the stains of blood with what you're wearing. And I saw how you knocked that beastkin with a precise shot. That ability is no small feat.
"Ha! Of course! I did their life! It's me or them!" And you know what? I killed most of them myself. And I could easily kill you both if I wish to!"
Reonne smiles with his jaw open wide. And Bear irately replied, "That's rich coming from you, why don't we," He unsheathed his sword from his back and held it beside his hip by an arm, "…see if that's true."
"Hey shit, wait!" Reonne quickly came rushing between them, "Fuck Bear, what're you doing? don't hurt her!"
"Reonne," Bear nonchalantly answered, "this is not the time for knighting a lady."
"W-knighting a lady!? She just gave us a good deal! That means more money yo!"
"She threatened us and you expect us to just agree with it?"
"Ain't she just being defensive on how intimidating you act on her?"
"Say what you want to defend her, until you found yourself being stabbed at the back."
"Now that mentality," He pointed at Bear, "is why you don't have many friends."
"And that's better than a sharp knife pointing behind you!"
"Shit Bear! Listen to me please, will you? we're all gonna gain something amazing and go in our way happily if we just go along with her wish! And what!? she's going to kill us with what? …rocks?"
Bear sighed, "Not all blades are readily seen Reonne. How about you doubt your dick for once?"
"So!?" Ishnaia interjects loudly as Reonne is about to speak for a rebuttal, "Are we good? And hey, guys, I assure you, the kingdom's gonna pay you at a reasonable amount if you just said you rescued the prince from evil men!" she glanced at Alister, "Isn't that right my sweet prince?"
Gagged and unable to speak, Alister could only nod twice at her.
"And I swear," she added, "I will hold up my deal to Reeyo to be his girl and I'm not going to stab any one of you at the back. Trust me on this one time… please?"
Bear glared at her that moment and asks in a serious tone "What do you want to gain through this?"
"Well, it's simple really," Ishnaia glance at her surroundings in a sober way and she stretches her arms up, "I just wanna get out of this stupid forest as soon as possible!"
"And the prince? Why do you care so much about him?"
"Another simple matter, He's-"