"Are you ready Lia?"
"Of course Claudia."
We travelled to the city square, it was rather far, which led to Claudia's maids accompanying us.
Well with them around, I hopefully didn't have to worry about any wicked ambushes.
Our shopping consisted of looking for things Hanise would've liked, and with my dad's input, we immediately went on the lookout for weapons. Each one we went into had a wide assortment of swords, all of excellent quality, but nothing worth mentioning.
"I don't think I'll be able to find a present with just looking at swords.." What else could there have been? What did Priscilla get, or Claudia- Claudia? That was right, she had gotten a present beforehand.
"Claudia what did you get for Han- Murren?" I couldn't tell if Hanise wanted his identity to be revealed yet.
"Hm me? That's a secret! And honestly, I was following you around but, don't you think Murren will like jewellery? Something like a bracelet or necklace." She motioned her hands, drawing a circle in the air.
Jewellery, I never saw Hanise wearing any type of accessory, would he really like something like that? I couldn't think of anything else, dad was too straightforward, and to be frank, he was unreliable in such subjects.
I took Claudia's suggestion, it could've been a hint that she had also bought something similar.
'Burea'
'Pien'
'Briar's accessories'
Many more stores we visited, and none had anything of interest, or anything that I thought would've suited Hanise.
"Another failure.. I don't think I'll be able to find anything good Claudia."
"I agree.. However, let's not get too down! We still have a bit till dinner, let's look for a little longer." Another attempt to cheer me up, it did work a little bit. There was one thing that I realised, we were alone.
"You're right, aside from that, where did your maids go?"
"Hm?" looking around, she faced me puzzled, "Where did they go, well it's fine! They'll find us eventually, for now let's just keep searching for a present!"
"You sure? Wouldn't it be better to stay put." I wasn't worried about dirty thieves or rats, I was more worried about if 'they' would try to ambush me while I was alone with Claudia. Would they? Claudia was the daughter of Lione, maybe they wouldn't just attack right in public.
"It's totally fine! Besides, their professionals! They could find us in minutes if they tried hard enough." She shook it off, heading for the door.
"If you say so." I followed behind, the sun was already setting, and street lights were being amped with fire by someone.
In the end, the stores shut down, and the maids hadn't yet found us.
"Well, we should head back now Claudia."
"Sorry Lia, I wasn't of much help."
"It's fine it's fine, Hanise doesn't need a present, he can just suffer."
"Hanise?" Oops.
"Uhm uh, don't worry, wrong name."
"Is that so." Something about her changed, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "Well, let's go before we get scolded and sent into the prison cells!" She joked, I think? She's always cheery, so it was hard to determine whether the next thing you said was true.
"Lady Claudia, Lady Ophelia! I've been looking for you everywhere, where have you been all this time!" It was one of the maids, her hair. Neither of the maids accompanying us had black hair, onyx black. Her hands were behind her back, and despite her berating tone, she walked leisurely toward us.
Her face didn't have a look of anger either, and she was calm.
"Claudia, we should run." I whispered, grabbing her hand, I sprinted to the route we took in the morning.
"Oh dear, why are you running away? Do you want a beating?"
"Lia, why are we running? That's my maid."
"Just trust me, we need to get to the mansion as quickly as possible." I didn't want to take any risks, everything about her seemed off.
Agh! Something scraped against my cheek, something wet was flowing down my cheek? I wiped it with my finger, and it really was blood. My gut wasn't wrong, she was trouble.
"You should really listen to your caretaker Lady Claudia, Lady Ophelia! I'll have to punish you even further if you don't stop!"
"How about you eat sh*t, you slubberdegullion!"
"Slubber what?" Claudia perplexed, I looked back and the maid was catching up. Fortunately, I was trained by Hanise, though I doubted he intended it for this purpose.
"Claudia, do you have anything to slow her down?"
"I trust you but I'm still confused, why are we running away?"
"She tried assassinating me a while before, impersonating Murren's voice to get me to open my bedroom door."
"That's terrible!" Being pulled back, I turned, and Claudia had stopped.
"Thank you very much, now stay put you two, I'll make short work of you this instance." She readied a sharp object in her hand, preparing to throw it. Claudia readied her stance, and in the next few seconds, lightning released from her hands, beaming toward the maid.
The maid stumbled back, looking at what presumed to be a burn mark from Claudia's lightning.
"Now that's not nice, you two should really just sit still before I do something even worse."
"No you won't." A girl's voice spoke aloud, following the two maids that previously accompanied us shoved her to the ground.
"Reia, Sasha!"
"I thought you two were lost. How did you find us so quickly? The maid inquired, clearly marvelled at what happened. I too was shocked, it looked like they knew this was going to happen.
"We knew you were trailing us, so we hid for approximately 28 minutes and 25 seconds, predicting when you'd attack. We knew there was a mole hiding amongst us, but I never would have guessed it to be you, Gaia. Especially since you worked so diligently for the past 3 years." That's what Claudia meant by them being 'professionals'.
"Just end my life, we'll eventually end the Helt family and the royal family. Do you not know what's happening? Their evil! Evil!" Gaia's face scrunched into frustration. Her eyes held a boiling sensation.
"We are merely doing our jobs, I wouldn't want to kill you Gaia. Nevertheless, the Duke would surely love to interrogate you."
"You won't get a single thing out of-!" One of the maids placed their hand over her eyes, and without any resistance, Gaia instantly fell unconscious.
"Lady Claudia, Lady Ophelia. Apologies for leaving you two unattended, we'll take any punishment you see fit when we return." They bowed, each holding Gaia's arms over their napes and carrying her back.