It was still dark out, but she was wide awake. She looked over to the other side of the bed to find a beautiful girl with black hair sound asleep.
“Aaww, she’s so cute when she sleeps.”
Shellorn silently giggled and then slipped out from under the covers. She changed into her usual clothing and then switched her eyepatch from one eye to the other. Her arm reached out to the doorknob, but she hesitated and looked back at Lee still in bed.
Her chest slowly rose and fell at a steady pace. Straining her keen ears, Shellorn could even hear her lightly snoring.
With her contagious smile, she exited the room to go exploring.
###
The mansion was large and spacious, just like the forest. It had extensive paths leading through it like trails. Shellorn had already mapped out most of it by now. She was now going through with a different intention aside from scouting what she hadn’t already.
This place felt a lot emptier than a forest. Even so, it was extremely clean and well kept. There were art pieces hanging on the wall and small tables holding other art along the sides of the hallway.
As she traversed, she jiggled every handle along the way. She was quite a curious person by nature, but not curious enough to break into any of the rooms. She would gladly walk into one if it happened to be unlocked though.
“Ms. Van-Drighten, Mistress Vassauge and her husband request your presence.”
Shellorn jumped and spun around, holding her hands up ready for a fight. Behind her was the butler. He stood calmly about ten feet away.
How’d he find me?
“Both of them are waiting for you at the main entrance. Do you need guidance there?”
Chenwore took off his monocle and began wiping it with a cloth.
“Sure! Can you carry me?”
“No, but I will lead the way. Please follow me.”
With a hint of disappointment in her eye, she complied.
They walked back to the main entrance. Shellorn could’ve gotten there by herself, but she wanted to see if he knew about any shortcuts. Sadly he took the same route she would’ve.
The entrance was just as grand as the day before. The pair arrived on the second floor, on top of the overlooking staircases. The Vassauges were standing down below along with Nayu.
As they descended, Stronwen greeted her.
“Mornin’ little Ms. Shelly, how are your injuries? Did you rest well?”
“Oh, I’m doing quite well. That food from last night sure did the trick.” Shellorn gleefully smiled, rubbing her stomach.
“Well, I’m glad we were able to repay my husband's misdeeds,” Tirany’s wrinkled eyes winked at her, “I have a favor to ask of you, would you accompany my dimwitted husband back into town? I need you to make sure he doesn’t almost kill another innocent girl.”
The playfully sarcastic voice from the well composed woman was a bit juxtaposing.
“It would be my pleasure to accompany Mr. Stronwen into town.” Shellorn gave an excessively deep courteous bow.
“Thank you.”
“Of course. As I always say, one who cannot payback what they owe will owe back what they cannot pay.”
Tirany furrowed her eyebrows trying to decipher the meaning of this incomprehensible quote, but Stronwen gave a hearty laugh.
“I knew you would take up my wife’s offer. Let’s go now, we have errands to run.”
“Make sure not to forget the-”
“Of course I won’t forget my dear. When has your loving husband ever let you down?”
“Yesterday.” Tirany mumbled.
“What did you say dear?”
“Oh nothing, have a good day. I’ll be off now, come now Nayu.”
Both Tirany and Nayu left the entryway. Chenwore had left during their conversation leaving only Shellorn and Stronwen. A wide smile was tucked behind the large man’s beard.
“Today is going to be a blast. Are you ready?”
“Hell yea I’m ready!”
###
The sun was high above when the pair walked out of another shop. Even after they closed the door, the familiar scent of herbs and roots still lingered on their clothes.
“Th-that old man is quite ruthless.”
Stronwen was almost quivering just standing there, unbecoming of his great size.
“Yea…”
Shellorn’s shoulder’s were drooped. They had just left the store she had gone to with Lee the day before, trying to convince the owner to buy her crushed herbs at the previous market price. It didn’t go so well.
With a quick shake of her head the cheerful Shellorn returned. She stood upright with her usual confident smirk.
“Anyways Stron, thank you for trying to convince him with me, even though it didn’t work out,” she stuck out her tongue, “The whole reason I was trying to sell these herbs in the first place was to get a place for me and Lee to sleep, but you guys took care of that for us. There’s no need for me to sell these anymore.”
She put three small bottles of crushed herbs back into her pouch and placed her hands behind her head.
“So cheer up big guy! We have the whole rest of the day ahead of us!”
After a couple more sniffles, he lifted his head with teary eyes.
“Y-you’re right. I can’t let some mean old man ruin the rest of my day,” he rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, “Besides, I’ll have to deal with a much more ruthless person tonight if we don’t grab the rest of these things,” he lifted a piece of paper.
“Ooh, can I see what we have left?”
“Sure, it isn’t too much more-”
“You two there! Yes, the big man and girl with an eyepatch. Over here. I beg you, please come.”
The duo spun around trying to find the source of the voice. They were still standing in front of the herbs shop. The voice called out again.
“Down here. Against the wall. Right behind you.”
They finally located the source after what took probably too long for how close he was.
There was a man sitting on the ground against the building. The amount of gray on his scruff suggested he was a bit older than Stronwen. He had a brown cloak wrapped around him that had rips much too clean and repetitive to be natural.
“I see that both of you also have had trouble dealing with the herbalist.”
They nodded their heads in unison.
“Yes, he is a grouchy old man with no honor to his word.”
“He’s also quite scary.”
““We’ll never do business with him again.””
“I see…”
He seemed almost happy at this news, but then regained his somber expression.
“I’ve had extremely similar experiences with him which led me to the same conclusion as you two. He is truly an unfair man.”
Papsny, the herbalist, was actually quite a fair man. He charged people the market price for things, no more and no less.
“I know right?”
“I still can’t believe he lied to little Shelly.”
The man smirked, but then pulled down on his cloak to hide his face. He continued his conversation with them.
“Now, the reason I called you two over here. I saw that you have some herbs on you,” the man gestured to the pouch on Shellorn’s waist, “May I ask what type of herb that is?”
“Three vials of crushed rubidcus. The old fart wouldn’t buy it from me even though he promised.”
He didn’t exactly promise, but in Shellorn’s mind he did.
“Oh darn.”
The man swung his arm and snapped his fingers, to really emphasize his “disappointment”.
“I guess lady luck isn’t on my side,” he sighed, “My wife has become deeply sick. All the herbs that this man has sold me have not helped… but I heard of an herb that grows in the southern part of the Choboja forest, east of here. It's bright blue and tends to grow in dark places. Supposedly it has legendary healing powers… but it isn’t very well known. Of course, this shop doesn’t sell it. You two look knowledgeable about herbal medicines, do you think you could find some for me?”
Shellorn brought her index finger up to her chin, “Hmm, I don’t know…”
She lived in the Choboja forest, but her shack was towards the northern end of it. She tried avoiding the southern region. There was a lake that housed some nasty creatures, but that was easy enough to avoid. More relevantly, shady people tended to linger around there.
“I try to stay clear of that part of the forrest if poss-”
“But Shelly!” Stronwen grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes, “This man’s wife, she’s dying. She needs our help.”
Tears were already starting to form in his eyes.
“But-”
“I-I also have ten children to take care of,” the man blurted out.
“The children, Shelly, think of the children. They need their mother!”
“But there’s no benefit for us.”
“The benefit will be saving the life of this man’s wife.”
Passion bellowed from the large man.
“P-perhaps I can provide another incentive,” the man chimed in, “I will pay triple the market price for this herb if you are able to bring me back some today.”
She looked at him with some interest.
“How much would that be exactly?”
“Um… ten thousand?”
A smirk crawled across her face as she firmly grabbed Stronwen’s hand and began to skip away.
“C’mon, there’s no time to waste!”
As the duo made their way to the forest, the man planted his palm to his forehead.
“Ugh, is it possible that they’re too gullible? Whatever, time to put in the request.”
He stood up, shedding his brown cloak, and walked away.
###
Although Shellorn lived in Choboja forest, she didn’t venture in these parts often. Not only was the wildlife more dangerous around this area, but she had heard that some pretty shady stuff goes on here as well. Shady enough that even an adventurous person like her was cautious.
Those things could be ignored with an incentive such as ten thousand ecorfs. She could buy so many… things. She didn’t actually know what she was going to buy. She wasn’t a materialistic person, but even so, greed still coursed through her veins.
“Err, Shelly? He said we were looking for a blue herb that grows in dark places right?”
“Yea Stron, that’s what he said.”
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“Then why are you up there?”
She had reverted to her habits of traversing through the forest jumping from branch to branch. Her feet were about twenty feet off the ground. Stronwen followed her from below.
“Uh, better vantage point from up here. I’ll be able to spot it better. Stuff like that.”
“Hmm,” he stroked his beard and then shrugged, “I guess you’re the herbs expert. I’ll just keep looking from down here though. I think those branches would snap if I tried climbing on them.”
She gave a small laugh to his self deprivation and hopped to the next branch while trying to think if she’s ever encountered a light blue herb before.
Shellorn had spent plenty of time in this forest and was self-sufficient. Even so, she still needed some sort of income for little expenses here and there. The main source was selling herbs and roots she collected to Papsny. Although she was self taught, she was still quite knowledgeable. If she had a proper mentor, then she would be on her way to becoming a master herbalist. Though, she definitely didn’t have the attention span for that sort of occupation.
It surprised her that she had never encountered this herb before, let alone never heard of it.
“But ten thousand ecorfs…”
Reminding herself of her motivation, she envisioned herself in a pool of coins. Though, her vision had much more than ten thousand ecorfs in it.
“Hey Shell, I think I found something.”
Shellorn immediately dropped down from the branch she was standing on, not making a sound. She walked up to Stronwen who was crouched by some dense bushes. She looked over his shoulder at what he was inspecting. He was holding back some leaves from the bush, revealing a bright orange root poking out of the ground. Even though it wasn’t what they were looking for, her eyes widened.
“Woah, you found some kertaucs, those are really tasty.”
“Is this not it? A blue herb that grows in dark places.”
She quizzically looked at him.
“Um… Stron, my guy, that’s a root… and it’s orange…”
Stronwen looked back at his findings.
“Are you sure?”
“Mmhhmm.”
His shoulders slumped letting out a deep sigh.
“I’m worthless, I can’t see color and can’t tell the difference between a herb and a root. How are we going to help that man’s wife!”
Just as Shellorn was about to comfort her sensitive friend, another voice called out from behind them.
“Alright you two, hand over everything you got and no one gets hurt.”
They turned around to find a boy around Shellorn’s age pointing a small knife towards them. His hands were shaking a bit.
Even with Stronwen kneeling down, they were still about eye to eye.
“Why?” Shellorn said.
“Because I’m robbing you.”
“Oh, then no. I choose to not ‘hand over everything I’ve got.’”
“C’mon… please.”
“Alright, I’ll give you one of these if you’re so desperate,” she pulled out one of her small containers of crushed rubidicus, “They’re not worth much but they’re something. And they make rabbit stew taste pretty good.”
The boy’s hand dropped to his side, he took a step forward.
“Ah, thank you, you’re so kind- Wait no! I’m robbing you!”
He shook his head, reminding himself of his objective and pointing his knife at them once again.
The boy wasn’t shaking, he was trembling. They could see the terror in his eyes as he mumbled to himself.
“That dude is way bigger than the letter said. How could someone like him be a pushover? I’ll have to make a complaint to the guild.”
Stronwen stood up from kneeling over the root. He faced the boy, looking down at him. The boy stopped moving as if he was frozen in a tundra.
Stronwen took a step forward, the knife a mere foot away from his lower stomach.
“S-step back! I-I’ll do it. D-don’t test me!”
“Boy.”
His voice was much more deep and menacing than anything Shellorn had heard before. She almost didn’t even recognize it to be the big oaf’s voice.
“Put the knife down and walk away.”
“No! I have to do this!” The boy began to tremble, but he stood his ground against the giant that he faced, “I-I can’t let them go hungry, I can’t! Th-they…”
The boy reared his arm back with tears falling from his eyes. Before he could bring his arm forward, Stronwen’s hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. The grip strength alone caused the knife to drop to the ground and the boy cried out in pain. He then reached for the boy’s throat with his other hand.
“Wait, what are you-”
Shellorn didn’t have any time to react. Before she could finish her sentence, he had already mercilessly grabbed his throat.
It didn’t seem like he actually strangled the boy at all, because a mere second later, he retracted his arm with a necklace dangling from his hand.
It was less of a necklace and more of a wispy string with a plate of rusty metal attached. There seemed to be a bunch of recent scratches in the rust, making the symbols shine in the light that permeated the leaves above. She had no idea why somebody would wear such a thing. Perhaps it had sentimental value.
“Damn Assassin’s guild…” Stronwen muttered.
“Assassin’s guild?”
“Oh,” he elaborated while lifting the boy up into the air by his wrist, “Well first off, are you familiar with the concept of the Adventurer’s Guild?”
“No.”
“I thought not, you’re still quite young. Plus, not many people know of it since it isn’t very prevalent here. The only reason I know of any of this is because of my wife.”
He lifted this boy higher in the air.
“This is… Uh, where do I even start.”
After a few seconds of pondering, it seemed like he organized his train of thought.
“Let’s start out here. The Adventurer’s Guild is a separate entity from the empire. It actually spans across the different nations. They take in requests from people and then hire out other people, adventurers, to complete these quests. They of course charge a “Guild’s Fee” because business is business.”
“So kind of like the Big Board, but with a middle man?”
“Yes, well you’re getting ahead of me. I’ll explain later why we have that instead of the Guild.”
“Ok.”
“Anyways, besides requests from the general population, the Adventurer’s Guild’s main source of income are requests from each nation. Mainly fending off monster hordes but it could also include searching new territory or really anything a nation proposes to them. The only rule I know of is they won’t participate in international conflicts. They try to stay as an unbiased third party.
“Now that you know their main source of income, can you think of why our empire doesn’t have an Adventurer's Guild anymore?”
“Uh, no.”
Shellorn thought she had been following along, but she couldn’t find the leap of logic to why the empire wouldn’t have an organization like this, especially if other nations utilized it. Seemed quite beneficial if for a reasonable price.
“Let me rephrase. Can you think of a certain someone who has recently gone missing that would make most of the Adventurer’s Guild’s tasks futile?”
“Oh.”
His train of thought had finally clicked in her mind, but he still continued his explanation.
“That’s right. Klahn, for over two and a half centuries, essentially worked as our own personal Adventurer’s Guild. His power alone was a monster deterrent. He would also go on legendary quests and bring back untold treasures. Plus, he did all this essentially for free, quite the bargain if I do say so myself.
“So with the Guild's main source of income diminished by a single man, they quickly phased out and left. But there were still general tasks that needed to be done, but not enough for the Guild to make any substantial profit and not so difficult where you really needed specialized personnel such as adventurers. So the solution, as you mentioned earlier, is the Big Board, where people put their requests without the middleman, making it cheaper in the process.”
“Ok… but that still doesn’t explain him.”
Shellorn pointed to the boy that dangled off the ground from Stronwen’s hold.
“M-my arm hurts.”
“Oh, sorry kid.”
He lowered him, letting his feet touch the ground. It relieved the strain gravity put on his arm but he didn’t release the tight grip on his wrist.
“Now to explain the Assassin’s Guild. They are quite similar to the Adventurer’s Guild with how they are present in every nation. Their main differences are that they’re a much smaller organization and nothing is off limits for them. They still take in requests from people and distribute them, but to Assassins instead. Its essentially just a different name for Adventurers, but their willing to get their hands dirty. The Adventurer’s Guild has a code of conduct, where the requests put in have to be within these rules, but from my knowledge, anything goes for the Assassin’s Guild. They will even mess with international affairs.
“This makes them quite a dangerous organization and every nation tries to stamp them out, so they hide in the shadows and lay low. They’re usually a bit of a nuisance, but the empire had done a good job of fending them off, especially with Klahn.”
“But then?”
“Then with the disappearance of Klahn, there is quite the power vacuum. My wife is trying her best to re-establish the Adventurer’s Guild in our empire but there is some push back from other ministers. Due to the up front costs of setting up such an expansive organization that hasn’t been present here in over two centuries, and also due to the stubbornness of the other ministers. They think they can take over where Klahn left off and single handedly protect the entire empire. This is at least as much as I’ve picked up from my wife.
“With the delay of re-establishing the Adventurer’s Guild, the Assassin’s Guild is taking full advantage, trying to make themselves out as the dominant guild here. They already have their networks placed throughout the entire empire, so it will be easier for them to settle in. If they become as prevalent as they plan to be, then the empire will become quite the dangerous place.”
“Ok, I think that all makes some sense.”
Shellorn was still trying to sift through all the information he spewed forth.
“Don’t worry about it making sense. I don’t even really understand it that well. All we really need to know is that the Assassin’s Guild is bad news. Let my wife handle the rest of the politics.” He gave her a cheerful smile.
“Agh, that was a lot of talking,” Stronwen raised the boy up again, “You ready to go to jail?”
“Wha-what?!?!”
The boy’s eyes widened, tears began to stream down his eyes.
“No I can’t, I-I-.”
“I’m only partially joking, I’ll let you go free on two conditions”
“Yes, anything.”
“First, I get to keep this,” he held up the shabby necklace in his other hand.
“Whatever you want, take it.”
“And well second, uh, you tell me who hired you.”
“I can’t.”
“Prison it is then.”
“I-I’m not refusing to tell,” he squealed, “I literally can’t, the guild keeps anonymity. This is all I was given!” he shakily held out a thick sheet of yellow parchment.
Stronwen stuffed the necklace in his pocket and took the parchment. He began reading what was on it outloud.
“To…To The Jet Black Assassin?”
He looked back at the boy with a raised eyebrow.
“T-that’s my assassin's name.”
The boy shrunk due to embarrassment.
“Hmm…”
He continue to read the letter:
To The Jet Black Assassin
This job is worth 2 points and pays a base of 200 ecorfs with potential bonuses. The description from the contractor is below:
Dear hired assassin,
I have just set up the perfect ambush for you. Two people are leaving for the southern part of Choboja forest. They’ll most likely leave from the east exit of Fangwu, closest to the shopping district. They look plenty rich, so the bonuses should be plenty. It is a girl in her mid teens with an eyepatch and a large man with a bright red beard. You shouldn’t miss them, they’re quite easy to spot.
Do not fret, the man looks menacing, but he is quite the pushover. He was scared of some old herbalist and was even crying over it. This should be quite easy for you, they are the most gullible people I’ve met in my life.
You may either kill them or leave them alive. I have no preference. Just take all the valuables they have and we’ll split them (after the guild compensation). A clean 50:50. Quite generous if I say so myself. Don’t try to chince me. I’ve notified the guild of how much they should have on them, and the guild will know if you’re holding back on me and punish you accordingly.
Good luck and thank you for taking my request.
After coming back through the east gates of Fagwu, we’ll have someone inform you of the rendezvous point for the valuables.
Good luck and thank you for your services The Jet Black Assassin.
The Assassin’s Guild
After reading through it, Stronwen began mumbling to himself.
“I thought they would be after me… Quite an odd request. Are these the types of jobs the guild is contracting now? Quite low and pathetic if you ask me…”
“Well this sucks.” Shellorn said.
“What sucks?”
“The herb, it doesn’t exist. So we can’t get the money.”
“...”
Realization hit his face like a piano falling from the second story.
“That liar! What scum! T-to claim that there was a cure for his wife… to give her false hope. Who would do that to their wife? That is truly awful.”
“Stron, my guy, I don’t think the wife is real.”
“...… So we were tricked?”
“Bamboozled.”
“Not a word about this to my wife Shelly, not a word.”
###
After that conclusion, they dealt with the boy.
He had been forced into becoming an assassin to take care of his two little sisters. They had been abandoned by their father after their mother died, so it was up to him to provide for his two siblings. This line of work naturally attracted the desperate, so it was no wonder the boy had fallen into it.
After Stronwen made him drop that career path, he notified him of an orphanage that he and his two younger sisters could go to. It was an orphanage that Tirany had built some time ago, but it still had plenty of space.
They personally escorted the boy back into Fangwu, purposely avoiding the east entrance. They picked up his sisters from the ally they were staying in and then dropped them off at the orphanage. Having Stronwen personally drop them off helped expedite the process of getting them in.
The sun was already drifting behind the horizon as Shellorn and Stronwen approached the Vassauge’s front gate.
“Shelly,” he was holding a piece of paper in front of him, “W-we only got halfway through the list…”
“It's ok, we were able to help out that boy and his sisters, weren’t we?”
“Yes… but my wife. I don’t even want to think of what she has in store for me.”
They were greeted and let in at the gate by Chenwore, who seemed to have somehow known exactly when they arrived. He brought them into the mansion to be met by Tirany as they entered.
“Shellorn dear, it's quite late and Lee was wondering where you were. You probably want to go see her. I’ll have Nayu here escort you.”
“Thank you.”
With a gleeful smile she walked off, following the maid to go see her best friend.
When the gleeful girl was out of earshot, Tirany turned back to her husband, looking at the half filled bags in his hands.
“I see you didn’t complete everything. Maybe I should’ve had Chenwore make a dog house for you as well.”
“Dear, uh… some things happened.”
She raised her eyebrow, “Go on.”
Stronwen explained the events that occurred to his wife. She took particular interest in both the necklace he had and the note from the assassin’s guild.
“This plate, I wonder if we can decipher the markings made in the back. Any intel as to how they organize their clients could be helpful. Plus this note… It seems like even the assassins don’t know how to directly contact the Guild, or at least ones at lowly rankings such as that boy. That’s probably how they’ve been able to avoid us so easily. They obviously don’t have a public front.”
She looked back at her husband with a very serious look in her eyes.
“Dear, you had quite the opportunity in front of you. They had an actual member of the guild, one who probably had valuable knowledge, waiting for that boy at the east entrance. Why didn’t you set up an ambush? You could have had the boy go and make contact then capture the guild member? His intel could’ve been invaluable.”
“T-that boy…”
Tears began streaming down his large cheeks.
“I-I could tell. That boy was so scared. He was terrified. I didn’t want to make him do anything else. He needed to escape that life and just go back to his sisters and take care of them.”
She paused, realizing she had gone too far.
“I’m sorry dear.”
She began consoling her husband.
“I sometimes get so lost in battle that I sometimes lose my heart.”
She kissed him on the cheek.
“That’s why I’m so blessed to have you. So you act as my heart whenever I lose mine. That’s why I love you and that’s why I married you. Please never change my love.”
“Sniffle, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that dear.”
He chuckled and then Tirany took his hand and led him to the master bedroom.