Shin ducked his head down and lifted her left arm to sling it over his shoulder. He felt a cold chill run down his body from her skin rubbing against his neck. He could feel the jeering eyes of the adventurers around him as he began toward the door. They stopped their idle chatter to look at the two of them.

"He's definitely planning on doing something to that girl."

"Did he drug her?"

"Hey hey, maybe we should save her. Shouldn't we?"

Shin's [Perception] ability easily allowed him to eavesdrop on most people, even if he didn't intend to. Its effectiveness, however, was dependent on the difference in strength between him and the target.

"I guess if I'm able to hear these guys so easily, then they shouldn't be a problem." He thought to himself.

Regardless, this was Dragonfall. Even if they were to attack him, nothing would happen. However, everyone seemed to forget this fact. Dragonfall wasn't like any other place in Mythos Online that most people have encountered.

Shin pushed the door open, revealing the starry skies of the eternal night casting a purple hue on everything. Fuyumi lazily walked forward, putting her weight on Shin.

"Where are you staying?"

Hearing Shin's question, Fuyumi tilted her head and put a finger on her lips.

"That's a… secret! Ta-take me somewhere! Somewhere far away… hweouch… I'm tired…"

She slurred her words.

"I'll just take you back to my room."

"That's…that's boring. I just wanna… hweouch… leave th-this place."

Ridiculous thoughts ran through Shin's mind but it was obvious to him that they out of the question. He couldn't possibly guess which inn she booked a night in. Shin began walking toward his room. The inn he was staying at was just across the street so it was the only reasonable place to take her to. The likelihood of Fuyumi staying near the guild hall was high as well.

Shin was halfway across the street when he heard the doors of the guild hall swing open. He turned to look over his shoulder to see three burly adventures walking toward him. They took out their weapons with scheming smiles on their faces. A dagger, short sword, and a lance. Shin figured this was going to happen based on the atmosphere of the tavern.

He paid them no mind and continued to walk forward.

The streets were empty aside from a handful of NPCs standing outside of their shops. Most of the adventures were still following the parade.

Shin put his hand on the door handle of the inn. As he opened the door, he felt a hand rest on his left arm.

"Hey little guy. Where do you think you're taking her?"

Shin stared at his hand on the handle, unflinched. A different - more cowardly voice called out to him.

"I don't think she wants to go with you."

Fuyumi raised her right arm, pointing a finger in the air. Her hand swung in the air unsteadily.

"Actually… I do want to go… hweouch… with him."

"Look at her hand! She's clearly drugged!" The last different voice yelled out.

"She doesn't want to do it with a loser like you that has to drug her drink."

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"Hahaha!"

Shin briefly closed his eyes and sighed, loosening his grip on the handle. He shook the hand off his arm.

"What do you guys want?"

"Oooh! The guy actually speaks! How scary!"

Two fingers walked across his shoulder and onto Fuyumi's arm. He leaned in closer to whisper.

"How about I rescue you from this dangerous man so we could go somewhere a little more private?"

"N-not interested. You're not even… my type."

The thug retracted his hand before swinging it forward with a slap.

"You bitch!"

His hand swung forward but was stopped when one of his friend’s grabbed his wrist.

"Whoah whoah whoah big bro. Calm down there."

His hand loosened. As he calmed down, his friend let go of his wrist.

“Oh, you’re right. I lost my cool for a second there.”

“How about we deal with this ‘round back?”

The smaller thug pointed at the alleyway between the inn and the surrounding buildings. Shin didn't like confrontations but he wanted to get it over with.

"Let's go."

"Maybe you do have some balls after all?"

The three thugs walked toward the alleyway. The one that tried to slap Fuyumi led the way. He put the back of his hand up, beckoning for Shin to follow him into the alleyway.

He seemed to be the leader since he was the biggest. He wore heavy black metal armor that covered his vitals but had a fancy leather shirt and pants underneath. An ornate short sword swung from the sheath on his belt. The other two had more ruffled hair but wore the same equipment.

Shin put Fuyumi down on a box in the alleyway. She was half asleep, leaning against the pile of boxes and the white walls of the adobe building. The dark corridor was perfectly out of sight from the streets and windows. Shin turned around to face the three thugs surrounding him with their weapons drawn. He didn’t think much of it. Shin’s wore an uninterested look on his face.

They might be able to push him around because they were bigger than him but they shouldn’t be able to do much else. Dragonfall’s ruleset should keep them from doing actual harm.

“So why do they have their weapons drawn?”

Just as he finished that thought, a dagger lunged forward at him. Shin dodged instinctively, ducking underneath the blade. He stuck his leg in front of the dagger-wielding thug, causing him to trip. As the thug fell to the floor, Shin backstepped, narrowly dodging several jabs from the lance. The leader chased after him with his sword. He swiped furiously at the air, laughing maniacally as he ran toward Shin. Shin dodged the slash as it got close to him by weaving to the right before kicking the end of the blade. The sword flew out of the thug’s hand and fell to the ground with a clang.

“You bastard!”

Shin stopped moving and put his hands up like he was surrendering and allowed the thug to grab him by the collar of his coat. Shin was done toying with them so he decided to let them try and hit him only to realize that they can’t.

The thug pulled his arm, forming a fist. He swung forward into Shin’s abdomen. Shin slumped over coughing as the air was knocked out of him. His opponent released his grip on Shin, dropping him to the floor.

Shin clenched his stomach.

“What… How?” He spoke, in between gasps for air.

The thug glanced at his fist as he turned it, inspecting the red spots on his knuckles.

“We run this city. We do what we want. We always get what we want.”

He put his boot on Shin’s back and pressed him down against the ground.

“If you grovel and lick my boot, I might consider letting you go.”

The thug signaled for his allies to throw his sword back at him. He caught it and crouched down to intimidate Shin.

“Better start soon.” He said, sticking his boot out in front of Shin’s face.

He ran the edge of his short sword along Shin’s cheek, lightly cutting into him and causing a line of blood to run down his face.

Shin struggled but managed to swing a punch at the thug’s face. However, his fist went straight through him.

“Come on, man! I don’t have all day!” The thug said, throwing his arms in the air as he stood up.

On the other end of the corridor, his two henchman approached Fuyumi, licking their lips. They ran their hands up her legs and onto her thighs. She shook and winced but was still sound asleep.

Shin, infuriated, turned his attention to the man holding him down. He looked around, searching for an opportunity to escape when he noticed a tarp hanging from the side of the inn. Shin used [Collapse] to pull the tarp down from its clips. It fell over the thug’s head, blinding him.

“The fuck did you do?!” He yelled out while scrambling to pull the tarp off of him.

As the ends of the tarp fell to the floor, Shin grabbed ahold of the tarp, setting it ablaze with [Elemental Mastery].

The thug screamed as the tarp enveloped him in fire, causing him to release the pressure on his foot. Shin rolled away from the chaos and got up. The two henchmen stopped groping Fuyumi’s chest when they saw their boss covered in flames.

“Boss!”

“Big bro!”