The bell of the pawn shop rang as Cade pushed the door open and entered on her lonesome. She had replaced the mercenary clothes with a thin black trench coat that almost reached her knees and a pair of fitting trousers.

She looked toward the shy teenage boy with black hair behind the counter. "Get Jimmy."

The boy flinched and turned to go into the backroom.

Not long after, a thick man with a beard that covered his throat came from the backroom. He rubbed his eyes before putting on his monocle. "Well, if it isn't Cade? How are you?"

"Not here to cure your loneliness," Cade said as she took out the box from her bag and put it on the table. "There's four and a half there. Give me my money."

"A half?" Jimmy's upper lip curled. "What do you want me to do with a half? Shove it up my ass?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Cade said with a scoff. "Just give me the money for the four. I'll take 25 gold for the half. You can make it into a mixed enhancer and sell it to some cheap prick."

"25 gold? You drank the other half yourself and got some brain damage, huh? I'll give you ten gold for it, max. And that's being generous when my trouble is taken into account."

"Fine, 10 gold, but if you take off 2% of your cut on our future deals,"

"Deal," Jimmy said with a snobbish smirk. " He then took the box and went into the backroom, returning with a stack of banknotes. "Here, you go. 100 gold for each, 10 for the half. 410 gold. My cut is 7%. That's 410 minus 28,7: 381,3. 381 gold and 3 silver. You happy?"

Cade grabbed the stack of banknotes and flipped through them. "All at separate banks, not a single one more than 10 gold?"

"As always," Jimmy said, putting his hands in his pockets and sighed as Cade stuffed the banknotes into a pocket and turned. "I'd say it was a pleasure working with you, but it never is. A real pain you are."

Cade stopped but didn't turn. "Your client is happy, and you're richer than yesterday, so how about you quit moaning about having to go through some banking troubles and do some good with that money of yours? Maybe it'll make you a half-decent man again if you spend it on something other than yourself for once."

"Oh, I should be a hero like you, huh? Tch. What happened to those mercenaries I got to help you, by the way?"

"They don't exist anymore," Cade said, stretching her neck a little.

"Should've known. You cold bastard." Jimmy's voice was hoarse. Perhaps the leader of the mercenaries had more than just a connection, like he said.

"Mmm, well, goodbye for now, Jimmy," Cade said, waving with the back of his hand before pushing the door open and entering the street, accompanied by the sound of the bell.

***

"Can you put that out? It smells bad." Aurelius asked Balgair who was sitting a couple meters from him with his head raised, blowing smoke at the roof.

"I can, but I won't," Balgair answered with a dead look in his eyes.

"Ah, okay," Aurelius said and shifted his focus. "Does this thing have to have this many pockets?" he asked, checking all the various pockets on the tight black jacket.

"I don't know about your pockets. Just pick something you wanna wear and let's get out of here."

"But I just want to wear my old clothes. I don't need new clothes."

"For god's sake. Cade left like an hour ago. Let's have this sorted before that bitch gets back. Don't wanna hear both of you whining at the same time," Balgair said and stood up to stretch his legs a bit.

Aurelius frowned. "Don't call her that."

Balgair met Aurelius eyes and stayed still for a moment before raising his hands. "Okay, fine. I'll go get you some clothes real quick. Be ready to like them because I will go jump off a cliff if I have to be in this place for any longer than ten more minutes."

Balgair left the changing room and returned not even half a minute later with a full set of clothes.

"There." He threw them into Aurelius lap.

Aurelius changed in a hurry. He believed what Balgair said about jumping off a cliff.

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Aurelius moved around a bit. "Wow, these are nice."

Balgair sighed with the slightest hint of a smile on his face. "They look fine."

The clothes consisted of a tight, long-sleeved, black undershirt that would have made Aurelius' abdominal muscles and obliques visible if not for the vest that went around his traps and waist. The vest was tight and felt protective, but still allowed nimble movement. His pants, on the other hand, were stretchy, fairly thin, and loose, needing to be tied around the waist with a white ribbon.

"How did you come up with these?" Aurelius asked with his mouth wide as he looked at himself in the large mirror and moved around.

Balgair took the cigarette out of his mouth and smiled. "Just looked around for the most expensive stuff that I could afford with the money Cade gave me. Didn't wanna give back a single piece of bronze.

Aurelius breathed a sigh. He would've liked to take another set of clothes, but these were good. And the budget was Cade's choice, so it was fine.

"Let's go with these," he said. "I'll get multiple sets."

***

Cade jumped down from the beginning of the bridge onto the space below and turned to see her shocked partners.

She tilted her head and nodded. "Nice clothes, Aurelius. Thought you would've gone with something more colorful, though." Her gaze then went to the unfamiliar bag on his shoulder. "A new bag also, huh? High quality, too. Didn't know you liked to spend."

"He doesn't. I do." Balgair butted into the conversation with a smirk. "No change, by the way."

Cade shifted her attention to Balgair, her eyes narrowing. "I assumed so." She paused and then continued on to other matters. "Well, I have some more business to attend to before the heist. I'd prefer it if Aurelius came with me, but you could maybe do some more research on House Boerlow. Make sure they're not associated with Numen and come up with a plan. I don't think we'll need much, but in case the need for equipment rises, set the budget at 100 gold. I won't pay for anything needless, though."

Balgair and Aurelius approached Cade as she spoke, and by the time she was done, they were within hand's reach. Balgair blew some smoke before putting the cigarette back in his mouth and extending his hand. "You got banknotes?"

A smack resounded, and the cigarette flew out of Balgair's mouth. Aurelius flinched in surprise as Balgair seemed to turn and almost fold in two before he bounced back with rage in his eyes. "What the fuck?!"

Cade snorted. "Oh, I assumed you'd know not to smoke in my presence. Even smokers should know that cigarettes smell like shit, so are you actually surprised?" She turned to Aurelius and pointed to Balgair. "You really put up with this? Grow a backbone."

Balgair pumped his fist, but after Cade looked back at him, her eyes asked a mocking question. His twitched before he let out a sigh.

Cade tapped Aurelius on the back and turned. "Present me the budget, Balgair, and I'll pay for it then if I deem it necessary. We'll see here in 5 days time. Go commit your slow suicide somewhere else with those cigarettes of yours," she said as he and Aurelius left Balgair behind.

Aurelius looked at Cade with pursed lips. "Did you have to do that?"

"Do what? Give him a smack?" Cade asked with her brows raised. "Look, he's not a good person. You shouldn't feel so bad for him. He feels bad for no one but himself. If you want to help someone like him, you can't do it by being gentle. His kind just views that as weakness, and it goes in from one ear and out the other."

"Ah, alright, Aurelius said, looking at his feet. "You're trying to help him, then?"

"I'm being the leader of this group. Part of that is being harsh enough to make sure even the slackers do their part properly. So, no, I'm not trying to help him. I'm just making him work. You can help him if you want to, but you'll have to earn his respect before you're able to."

"How do I do that?" Aurelius asked as he kicked some small rocks on the concrete platform they walked on

"It's simple," Cade answered, her firm gaze forward. "Be better."