Icarus looked at the Little Mistress, who was looking at the exit. Then at the grilled rat in his hand.
"Come on, eat already!" He had all the grace of someone his age. But the Little Mistress didn't look at him.
"It's sad," she finally said, as he began to wave the rat before her cage. "That a prince must live in the sewers."
Icarus snorted.
"You know what would have been sadder?" He asked, as he pressed the head of the grilled rodent to her lips. She didn't so much as blink. "If I was still a bullfighter! Or worse yet, someone who lived in the woods! Hey, I'll tell you a funny story, if you…"
"What? Eat?" She bit off the rat's head, beginning to chew. Icarus began to blink.
What was with this girl?
"There, I ate," She spat out the skull right in his lap. Icarus jumped to his feet. "Why don't you make a shot glass of that?"
Icarus looked at the skull, then back at the Little Mistress.
"What is wrong with you?" He asked her. She made a waving motion with her delicate hand. He placed the stick with the headless rat on it.
"Thanks," she began to eat so, as if the rat had eaten from one of her dresses.
Which, if Icarus had to be fair, might even be the case. Her dress was covered in dirt and waste.
He didn't want to think about what Lord Oswel was going to do to him if some of the waste was her own.
Surely, Master Tang wouldn't allow something like that? He looked around. Man, the man must have forgotten to drink a deworming potion after trudging through the sewers.
An hour had passed since he went to the toilet!
"He's not here," Mei flicked the stick in her hands like a weapon. Soon, she was tinkering with it.
Poking the lock this way and that.
"Lady Mei," Icarus took a couple of steps back and took a hold of Order. The girl looked about ready to deal some damage.
She had that flicker in her eyes his own mother got when his father went horse riding instead of doing the dishes when it was his turn.
"I don't get it," the lock clicked. The lady kicked the cage open. "You have the Smuggler skill. You have the Scrap Collector ability."
She got out of the cage, sitting by the fire seconds later. Her fingers taking a hold of one of the still grilling rats.
"And yet, you eat moldy bread," she spat the word moldy out like she could taste the mold on her tongue.
Icarus kept his hold on Order, but he still sat down by her.
"Hey, nothing wrong with that," he defended himself. "Plenty of people in your region eat moldy bread."
"And the Black Market," Mei continued, biting into a fat rat a second after. Icarus had to wait for her to chew right through its stomach.
He gulped.
Man, the Little Mistress had good teeth. He couldn't help but imagine what would happen if those teeth bit though his arm.
Or other body parts.
"You stock it, don't you?" She asked, as she bit a leg off the rat.
Icarus decided that he would never view grilled rats the same way ever again.
"Well, yes!" Icarus wanted for her to stop eyeing him like he was that which was bubbling all around them.
It made him feel small.
"And Ingrid gets to keep the money?" Mei asked, taking another rat. "You know, this is not too bad. One could almost lie to themselves that it is dog meat."
Icarus's eyes widened.
"You don't eat dogs!" He was up to his feet the next second. "Cats and dogs are a no-no!"
"You didn't answer my question!" Mei snapped, throwing a stick from one of the rats she had eaten and hitting him on the forehead.
Icarus rubbed the spot. Only to blink when there was blood on his fingers when he brought them to eye level.
He took Order out of its pouch and took a fighting stance.
"You will die fighting rather than to answer a simple question?" She smiled at him, standing up. "What will you achieve then? Will you bring your people here as a ghost? Or maybe marry Basila Angelic and Ingrid?"
"Ingrid has a last name!" Icarus hated the fact that this lady didn't call Ingrid by her name. That she robbed her of it.
"She never told me it," Mei twirled another stick in her fingers. Her eyes locked in Icarus'.
"Dulo!" Icarus roared, as he took a step towards the lady.
"Funny," Mei sighed, as she sat down. "That is the name I hope to gain. Braveheart is a nice name, but it has no sway."
"You are awful!" Icarus snapped because he had met the girl's father. He knew what sort of giant the man was!
"Oh?" She asked, as she took another rat. "Hm, your Master Tang can really season. It is almost like he has the palette of a Blood Elf."
Icarus blinked but thought little of it. Many people liked hot food. Whatever it was hot, as in still steaming, or spicy, hot was good.
Hot meant that one wouldn't need a deworming potion afterward.
"Yes, he cooks well," Icarus still didn't let go of Order.
"The way I see it, husband," he blinked as she called him that. Soon, his forehead was hit by a ring.
She grinned at him. He felt like a bride.
"You can find treasure, but Ingrid can't turn it into gold mountains. She is not supposed to have treasure. She is a serf," he felt like arguing, but as he picked up the ring, his eyes widened.
It was… this ring was…
"But I am. So, how about this: The Black Market becomes mine, gets a new name, and you start to supply me. And… how does 50-50 sound?"
"From where do you have my father's ring?" He stuttered.
He had sold it. Something that had runes on it that had been worth more than the saddle he had wanted and had bought with it.
For Pearl.
Back when he was a foolish boy who had money to throw around.
"I have this as well," Mei took out another ring. A more delicate one. "I already resized it."
She was trying to buy him.
Icarus gripped his father's ring and sat down.
"I need to think about it."
And what was worse, he was considering being bought. Something told him that Mei was the answer to all of his problems.
And the reason for 1,001 new ones to come…