A few hours later, just before sunset, on a snowy road between cities…

The sun is low in the sky to the west, shining on the backs of Greaves and his party as they travel east towards the city's glow. The road dips and rises like waves at a sea, gently rising and gently falling with each wave. The warm, inviting glow of the city draws closer with each hill they crest. Following the snow-covered road, Greaves climbs another hill.

「Tsk…」

He clicks his tongue and stops when he sees a band of armed men standing and waiting at the bottom of the valley between hills, roughly a dozen armed with spears, curving swords, and clubs. They grin when they see the rest of the party join Greaves at his sides, but continue waiting patiently. He looks around for any alternate paths, but the only way is forward, or back where they came. Will adjusts his glasses while looking at Greaves with his mouth scrunched to the side, then shrugs his shoulders.

「…Let's go, then. Maybe they're just a militia.」

Greaves lets out a frustrated sigh as he shrugs his arms. Completely unprompted, the party assumes its usual combat formation with Greaves and Lian at the front.

「Now hold it right there, travelers!…」

The grinning man at the front of the group exclaims towards Greaves, taking a few steps forward ahead of the men with a sword in his hand.

「…We are the taxmen! This is a toll road!… You better pay up!」

The swordsman says, and points his free hand at the grinning, armed men standing behind him.

Holding onto his sheathed sword's carrot-like hilt, Greaves turns his annoyed face over his shoulder to Will. Will adjusts his glasses and takes a step between Greaves and Lian.

「…We don't speak your language!」

Will bluntly replies in lowland common. The taxman nods his head with a tight-lipped grimace, then glances over his shoulder at the rest of his group.

「I thought they looked a little foreign…」

He remarks with a shrug of his arms, then turns his eyes back to Will. He begins approaching the party in a slow, lazy step with the back of his curving blade resting on his shoulder.

「…That's fine, I speak yours!… I speak three languages, you see!…」

The swordsman replies with his free arm spread aside. He casually stops a few paces ahead of the party, with his group stopping right behind him. He holds up three fingers.

「Three?…」

Will replies, adjusting his glasses with his brows furrowed.

「Yeah… Mine. Yours…」

With a smug smirk on his face, the taxman nods his slicked-back head. He points a finger to his chest, then towards Will.

「…And the universal one. I'll explain again… We are the taxmen, and this is a toll road. Pay your dues.」

He adds, casually tapping his sword on his shoulder with a grin.

「Taxmen?… You kinda look like bandits to me…」

Greaves blurts out as he furrows his brows. Will rolls his eyes with an annoyed grimace on his face. The taxmen are rather poorly equipped, wearing improvised armor of straw and sticks.

「Tell your fuckin' friend to watch his mouth. I have anger issues, and we are legitimate businessmen. The roads are pretty dangerous for those who don't pay.」

The swordsman barks at Greaves while his face twitches slightly. He reassumes his nonchalant smirk, and shrugs his arm.

「…What's this about the universal language? I've never heard of that.」

Will asks, adjusting his glasses. The taxman chuckles, flashing a grin at his men.

「Heheh… Heh… He's asking about the universal language… Heheh…」

「Hehehe…」「He he he…」「Khehehehe…」

The swordsman says to the rest of the taxmen, who likewise begin chuckling slightly as he turns his grin back to Will and the rest. Lian briefly side-glances at Will with her brow gently raised.

「…I figured you've never heard of it. It's violence, and it just so happens that I'm fluent in it… Pa always said I had a good head, y'see…」

The leader of the taxman explains, then taps the side of his head with his finger, grinning ear to ear. A little indignant, Will adjusts his glasses.

「…He wanted me to be a mage.「You're smart! In ten, twenty years you'll make an honest living as a mage!」he said. Said he'll send me to the Academy in the west, bought books…」

Will listens, and the swordsman continues explaining while tapping his sword on his shoulder. The motion becomes more forceful, rapid, and irate the longer he speaks.

「…I don't want to be rich in twenty fuckin' years. I'm meant to read those fuckin' books for twenty fuckin' years, rotting away and getting old? And for fucking what?…」

Clack. Clack. Clack. Clack. Clack…

The man's voice slowly turns into a growl as he seethes through his teeth. He taps his sword on his shoulder violently enough for it to audibly rattle.

「…So when I'm forty, fifty, I can bow my head and repeat yes master, thank you master over and over to make a pittance? For some fucker born in a rich family?… Heheh…」

His sword abruptly stops as he lowers and shakes his slicked-back head with a grin on his face, chuckling under his breath. He raises his face back up with an intensely vicious grimace.

「…I'm studying to make my pa proud, then I see him, that absolute clueless fucking moron flashing his money around. Every fucking day. More money than I'd know what to do with…」

The swordsman continues talking, grinning, though seemingly at nobody in particular as his gaze appears distinctly vacant. He shrugs his arm, scoffing.

「…And I fucking had it. Twenty years of this shit? Fuck that. Fucking shit-eating clueless idiot, utter moron dipshit…」

Will adjusts his glasses while the man begins blurting out curses with his teeth clenched, and his fist tightening around his curving sword's grip. Greaves side-glances at Will.

「…Thought that for fifteen years he could take the same way home through an alley and nothing would happen. Dumbfuck. Thought fucking wrong… Heheheh…」

While the taxman continues his story, Will glances over his shoulder at the mountains behind the party. The sun is slowly setting behind them, causing him to grimace in frustration.

「…Heh. See, I am smart. I didn't flash my money around. Nobody ever figured it out… I think aside from pa. I think he figured it out, and was feeling bad about it. I wasn't.」

He concludes, spreading his arms. His sword quickly returns back to his shoulder, along with a smug, malicious grin.

「So you murdered someone for his money?」

Will asks in a rather unimpressed tone.

「Huuuuuuh!? Got any fuckin' proof of that!?…」

The swordsman replies with a facetiously angry shout, briefly grimacing in false indignation before his grin appears again. Will remains silent and adjusts his glasses.

「…'Course you fuckin' don't. I got into trouble for an unrelated business after that and had to leave. That was in the north, though, and that's kinda gone now…」

The taxman lets out an amused scoff with a shrug of his shoulders, once again lightly tapping his shoulder with the blunt side of his sword.

「…So I guess he was right, I am smart after all.」

He adds, shrugging again. Will and Greaves exchange frustrated and weary glances, turning their eyes to Lian for a moment as well.

「…Listen, we're a little tired and in a rush. We're not exactly rich. How much do you want so that you don't bother us?」

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Will asks, adjusting his glasses and shrugging his arms. His staff clanks softly on the stone beneath the snow.

「Huuh? Show us your fuckin' packs and we'll take what we want. That's the toll.」

The swordsman's brows rise in apparent surprise at Will's audacity. He holds his free hand out and wiggles his fingers towards him as the taxmen approach in a leisurely step.

「Seriously?… We listened to all that for this?…」

Greaves grumbles with a roll of his eyes and grabs onto his carrot-like hilt. Will quickly grabs onto his wrist and holds him from drawing his sword.

「…Look, be reasonable. We're not going to do that. Name a price and we could work something out.」

「What are you?… Let's just kick their ass…」

Will adjusts his glasses again as he tries to bargain with the taxmen. Greaves leans in while angrily clutching at Will's collar, arguing in a hushed voice. Will pulls his hand away.

「Hmmm? Name a price, huh?…」

A little amused, the swordsman strolls idly left and right across the group of taxmen standing behind him, just a few paces away from Greaves, Will and the rest of the party.

「Yeah. It's pretty cold, and you must be tired too. You speak our language, so let's just settle this like civilized people and move on.」

Will nods his head as the taxman peeks behind the party towards Alicia. She shrinks a little at his curious gaze, clutching onto her silver wand, but his eyes quickly lose interest.

「…He wants me to name a price. Must be a merchant, he he.」

The swordsman says to the taxmen with an amused grin and a shrug of his arm. The men burst out into a series of cackles.

「The women!」「Ahahah! Yeah!」

One of the taxmen calls out. Even louder cackling begins in response. Greaves watches the taxmen with a wary gaze and a frustrated grimace, still gripping onto his sword.

「Ah! Good idea!…」

The swordsman replies with a toothy grin and a quick point of fingers at the man who made the suggestion. He turns his eyes to Lian's frigid face.

「…Is the tall one even a woman!?」

「Face looks girly to me!… Fuck it, if it's not, I'll take 'im!」「Hahahaha!」

A voice asks from the rear, to which another replies. More laughter sans some teeth begins as the taxmen pat each other on their shoulders.

「So… You said to name a price… And we kinda came to an agreement with my band…」

With a grin on his face and still idly strolling side to side, the swordsman says to Will. He stops, facing the party.

「…You two step aside for a moment, and we'll have language lessons with the girls. How does that sound?」

He lazily points his sword at Will then waves its tip off to the side of the snowy road, before returning its blunt edge back to his shoulder.

The taxmen grin at Lian and Alicia with lecherous gazes. Greaves clenches his teeth in anger, gripping the carrot-like hilt tighter. He side-glances at Will with an angry glare.

「…Just name a normal price. What do you want? Two gold? Three?」

Will adjusts his glasses with an increasingly frustrated face. The swordsman nonchalantly walks up to Lian, who stares at him with a frigid gaze and a neutral face.

「I think I already told you what I want. I'm fluent in three languages, and I know the language of love pretty well, but I wouldn't mind the tall lady giving me a lesson…」

The swordsman glares at Will, growling back at him through his teeth before reaching for the split in Lian's cloak.

Will exchanges a wrathful glance with Greaves, covertly reaching for the sword at his hip. Lian watches the taxman's hand with a cold glare as he gently pushes one side of her cloak away with the two of his fingers. He peeks into the shadows within, squinting and trying to make out the curves of her body.

「Really? I happen to be a native speaker.」

Lian says with a smile and a cold glare. The swordsman's head perks up with his brows raised in delighted surprise.

「Of love?」

He asks with a wide grin on his face.

「Of violence.」

THUMP!

Lian nonchalantly replies and in the same instant, her palm shoots out from underneath her cloak towards the swordsman's still-grinning face. It smashes into his nose with immense force, sending him flipping backwards as his sword drops to the ground where he stood. He flies into his men, nearly topping them like bowling pins as they just barely manage to catch him. His slicked-back hair is now strewn all over his bloodied face. He blinks at the red dots on the snow beneath with a wide-eyed look of confusion.

Lian glances down at her feet, where the curved sword is resting on top one of them. She kicks it up to her chest level and grasps its handle in one, smooth, coordinated motion. She takes a quick peek at its edge and curve, ascertaining it as a single-edged slashing sword. While the taxmen are still reeling from the abrupt attack, Lian steps in.

Fwish-swish!

She swings the sword in a diagonal motion, first downward, then upward. The straw armor on two of the men before her splits, erupting in gore as they're nearly bisected. Panic breaks out amongst the taxmen, and they drop their injured leader to the snow. Will and Greaves draw their swords and try to find an opening, but as soon as one appears, Lian is already there.

Lian's black eyes turn to a spearman in the rear who is backpedaling and jabbing his spear her way, desperately trying to keep her at range. She waits for another thrust that will fall short, then simply grabs onto the spear's shaft. The spearman tries to pull his weapon away, and to his horror, he realizes too late that Lian is also pulling at the spear, holding the curving sword horizontally and waiting for the man's neck to come into range.

Swish!… Thud.

The headless corpse loses grip of the spear. With a quick flick of her hand, Lian readjusts her hand upon its shaft. Her eyes quickly scan the band for a distracted opponent.

Fwhip!

She finds one, and throws the curving sword his way. By the time he notices the spinning blade in the corner of his vision, it slashes his throat apart and bounces off the ground, disappearing into the thick layers of snow off the side of the road. The grievously wounded man feebly tries to stop the waterfall of blood before his arms simply drop down. He stands still for a second or two, before his knees simply give out, and he tumbles over like a ragdoll.

Lian pulls off her cloak and throws it at the group of men huddling together in a haphazard defensive formation. While it's still in the air, she slides her leg across the road and lowers her stance, glaring at the terrified taxmen. When the cloak covers their heads, Lian lunges forward and thrusts her spear into their mass. The thick cloak muffles some of the high-pitched screams of pain and panic.

「…What do I even do?」

Lowering his sword somewhat, Greaves asks in a confused tone and glances at Will with his brows heavily furrowed.

「…Just wait for now.」

Will shrugs, adjusting his glasses while Lian continues slaughtering the hapless taxmen.

The few remaining uninjured men throw the cloak off to the ground and turn to flee. Lian lowers her stance again, pointing her spear at the back of one picked at random.

Greaves and Will wince slightly when they witness Lian shoot across the road towards the fleeing taxmen and impale one of them onto her spear, right where his heart should be. The man looks over his shoulder at her, feebly clutching at the spearhead poking through his torso while Lian lifts him up into the air like a banner. Will turns his gaze away with a troubled grimace.

THUD-CRACK!

「…Hurk!」

The impaled man lets out a breathless gasp with a sickening noise of breaking bones when Lian throws him off her spear onto the ground with immense force, swinging him like a sledgehammer. He bounces off the snow completely limp with a torrent of blood spewing from his nose, ears, and mouth. She lunges towards another fleeing man, who has a chance to let out a scream of panic that turns into a bloody gurgle as he sees her coming.

Thud-crack!… Thud!…

Lian casually hunts down the rest of the survivors, then turns around and approaches the still-dazed, now disarmed swordsman.

She readjusts her grip upon her spear, glaring at him as she lifts her weapon up to stab it down.

「…Lian, wait.」

Will calls out, stepping in between them. Greatly perplexed, she stops in her tracks, tilting her black head at him and jiggling her ponytail.

「…Why?」

She asks, furrowing her brows, blinking her confused almond-shaped eyes at Will.

「…You already beat him. Look, his arm is bent the wrong way too. Those guys were still armed, but this would be just murder.」

Will adjusts his glasses, and points at the sole survivor on the floor. His nose is badly crooked, and he doesn't even seem to realize that his arm is broken.

「So? He said it himself, he's fluent in violence. He knows what it means to lose-」

「Lian, that's enough.」

She replies but Will cuts her off, shaking his head.

「Tsk… Fine.」

Somewhat frustrated, she clicks her tongue, shrugs her arms, and moves to retrieve her cloak off the ground. Will approaches the dazed man and squats down beside him.

「You. You said you know languages, right?」

Will asks, and adjusts his glasses.

「Wh- What?」

The disheveled swordsman replies, shivering heavily with his eyes wide open. Will reaches into his pack and digs around for something for a few seconds.

「…Good idea with the language lesson. You're going to translate some stuff for me. You help me, and I might spare a healing potion for you. Deal?」

Will asks with a tight-lipped grimace while holding a sheet of paper in one hand, and a quill with an ink pot in the other.

Lian towers over them behind him, with Greaves angrily glaring down at the man with his arms crossed…