Azura didn’t have to wait long. He stood as the bandit queen stepped into his sensory range. She didn’t seem to have taken any major injuries, but he did notice one of her swords was missing, so at least she was down on equipment. Not as down as he was, but it was something at least. He wondered how well this fight was going to go. He wished he could make copies of objects he didn’t have on hand. Then he’d never really be disarmed, but so far that ability seemed to be beyond him. No matter how familiar he was with the object he was trying to copy.
For now he had been able to find a regular sword and enchanted it to make it harder to break. Perhaps he should have listened to his father about learning to change the nature of his mana himself. He had some shards on him, but not his primary tool for using them which would mean he’d only be able to hold one crystal at a time. Personally he’d rather have a shield than a free hand to hold a shard, but he didn’t find anything that would serve as a shield.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re really annoying? It’s like trying to corner a rat, they always have some little hole to crawl into.” He blinked. He had in fact been told that before, but it was the venom in her voice that really surprised him. He had figured she’d be frustrated by now, but she seemed downright furious. Like he had killed her family instead of just running away from her a bunch. He’d have assumed it was from the deaths of most of her bandits, but she had been mostly calm when they fought before. Well not calm really, but not angry like this.
“What can I say, I have a knack for getting out of trouble.” That said knack developed from his pre-existing knack of getting into trouble went unsaid. “Have to say, this is the first time someone’s said that with so much anger though. What? Did you not enjoy your time with the sharks?” He had learned that the best way to gather information from enemies was to antagonize. Things slipped when people were angry. Or at least that was when most nobles slipped. It was either getting them angry or getting them comfortable, and among nobles one of those was significantly easier than the other.
She was still pretty far away, but he could practically see the way her jaw clenched at that. The sharks themselves couldn’t have been the issue though. Just what had caused her to get angry to this point. Murder in her eyes she rushed at him. He chuckled there was way too much distance between them for her to try and attack in a way he couldn’t react too. Apparently the level headedness she had fought with earlier was long gone. “I’ll be doing the world a favor when I sever your head from your neck!” She snarled at him as she swung her scimitar. He swung his sword to deflect her strike.
The fight was a lot more even now. She couldn’t string blows together like she had before without her 2nd scimitar. Granted he also didn’t have his shield, but it was easier to keep up now that she only had one blade to attack with. He also was in better condition this time, while she was in worse condition than she had been. It also probably helped that his enchantments were active, though she was prepared for the boost and didn’t get taken by surprise this time. “I quite like my head where it is thankyou.”
The next exchange she almost managed to make good on her threat. Her scimitar suddenly cut through his sword like butter, and he barely managed to react fast enough that its blade passed harmlessly a few inches from his throat. Despite his confidence that he dodged it he still felt the shield spell he put around his throat take a hit.”Yikes, I knew you were holding back some tricks before, but that was pretty scary.” He had barely even felt her gathering mana on the blade.
She growled again, her face alight with fury. “Why won’t you just die?! How much do you intend to interfere with matters you know nothing about?! You think you’re the hero? You don’t even know what it is you're so desperately protecting.” She had a point. It was obvious to him he was missing something crucial. Arbeid was the mad king from the story, that much he was sure of, but what about the person who helped the protagonist? Now he knew the girl from the story he had gotten from the first event was definitely the hero from the story of the glass kingdom. However, that left the question of who was the blademaster who helped defeat the mad king.
The obvious answer would be that it was the bandit queen herself. Especially after the little sword trick she had just pulled. But so far she didn’t really seem the type to sacrifice herself to save the hero. Especially given how many other people were in the strike team. So what was he missing? What had he done to change the outcome so severely? Well he knew several answers to that last question, but there was at least 1 he was missing. Thankfully with his mana recovered it was much easier to fight and think at the same time. Or more accurately to avoid the flashing scimitar and think at the same time.
She had to jump back to avoid the icy trap she had stepped on when chasing him after he retreated. Somehow managing to look even angrier. “Not a huge fan of dying, sorry. On an unrelated note. You wouldn’t happen to know how you’d get a redemption arc would you?” She paused in confusion briefly. For the first time he was able to easily tell this wasn’t real. This simulation was based off of real people and real events, but it wasn’t an exact copy. They were probably acting based on a list of parameters, and his comment probably confused the system because it wasn’t sure which set of parameters to work with.
Part of him considered attacking her while the system decided, but that would just put her back to the hostile setting. Plus it felt a little like cheating. Then again letting her stay confused like this was also probably cheating. “I don’t need to be redeemed, I’m not in the wrong here.” It seemed the system had made a choice, but the fury was gone as if it was never there. Instead she was looking at him with … regret maybe? It was hard to tell for sure. He still wanted to know what he had done that had set the simulation to make her furious, but it seemed the supposedly harmless question completely reset her parameters.
“You kidnapped a town full of innocent people? What part of that isn’t in the wrong?” That was fairly surprising honestly. He had never heard of a bandit that thought of themselves as a good person. There were some thieves like that for sure. Stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Not a terrible idea honestly. Though it usually came with some pretty heavy consequences, and not just for the thief either.
“I did what I had to. The crown is important, if anyone other than me gets their hands on it it would be disastrous.” He narrowed his eyes. She had stopped attacking, so he had stopped running. Was she trying to say she didn’t want the crown because of its power, but simply because she was the only one who could safely wield it? How was he supposed to believe that? So far all he had to go on for her not being awful was the possibility that she was the blademaster who saved the hero in the story.
“What about you? What would you do if you got a hold of it?” Did it even matter what she answered? He couldn’t exactly trust her, and even if he trusted her intentions that wasn’t the same as trusting her to keep it safe from others with bad intentions. He hadn’t really expected so many moral quandaries when he thought about what life in the academy would be like. It was obvious the academy wanted them to learn more than just magic, and fighting skills.
“I would protect it of course. I am the descendent of the king who once had this crown forged. It’s curse only activates on those who aren’t of his royal blood. It was meant to destroy the unworthy, but at some point after it was stolen from our family generations ago its power became even more twisted, until it became what it is today. I intend to have it returned to its rightful owners, and hope that in doing so I can purify the crown of its corruption.” Well she certainly seemed to be passionate about the subject, and he’d even grant the bandit tribe being a means to an end for finding the crown. Even he had played the villain before when certain things needed to be accomplished.
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It was a plausible story he supposed, and it would explain how she ended up fighting on the hero's side, but even so in the story she never got a hold of the crown. How could he know for sure how she’d act? Risking the lives of all these people like that was… Right, this was just a simulation. All he had to lose was a hint at the next event. So he figured he should give it a shot. Even if she did attack thanks to him setting the field up the crowns power wouldn’t be able to spread like it had further in the desert. “Alright. I’ll choose to believe you, however I have some conditions before I give you the crown.”
She gave him a wary look. “What are the conditions?” He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little surprised at how easily she played along. Then again after the ice trap she definitely knew he had the home field advantage. Even if he had only been here for a couple hours before she arrived. He smiled disarmingly. If he could win without having to fight her he’d be pretty happy.
“Well for 1 I’ll need an oath that you won’t use the crown's power to hurt anyone. At least unless it’s self defense. Secondly no more banditry. No stealing, no attacking, and no ordering other people to do those things either.” There was no way he was going to be able to give a command that would perfectly stop her from doing anything bad, but he hoped that would hit all the big ones.
Once again she seemed to still. Apparently the system was once again trying to decide the proper response. It didn’t take as long to catch up this time though and before long she nodded in agreement to his proposal. Was it wrong that he was happier to be done with this event then he was that he wouldn’t have to kill anyone else in this simulation. Probably, but he felt fairly justified given that they weren’t real.
She didn’t try to attack him as he wrote out the geas. It was the most powerful magical contract he was capable of. It wasn’t anywhere near the level of the one the true dragon used, but it wouldn’t be something that was easily bypassed. It didn’t take him more than a few minutes to have the contract finished. Glowing blue runes acting as a page where regular silver letters rested to make a readable contract. With a swipe of his hand the contract turned to face the bandit queen and then he pushed forward causing the geas to float towards her.
She read over the contract in silence. Her eyes carefully scanning through the contract inch by inch. She frowned at a few pieces of it, but had yet to raise a complaint. Huh if this worked out he would honestly be kinda disappointed. He would be happy to be done with the event, but he was really looking forward to using all the traps he had set up. He shrugged it off. It would hardly be the first time certain preparations had proven unnecessary.
“You’re a thorough one aren’t you? Who adds a clause purely for exceptions?” What, it would be pretty unfair if she got hurt because she was in an area where the law is based on might makes right and she wasn’t allowed to fight right? Of course he’d do his best to make the contract that was feasible in as many situations as possible. Of course some exceptions were also more for the safety of others like being allowed to attack someone in the defense of someone else given certain circumstances. Had to be careful in case she went looking for loopholes. Just because none of this was real and the contract wouldn’t matter after the simulation ended didn’t mean he was going to half ass it.
“Can’t afford not to be.” He even had a clause about her attempting to have the contract nullified like he did. So attempting such a thing would immediately cause her harm. He smiled in pride. He had plenty of practice writing up contracts. His father had called it noble training, but he was halfway convinced the man just didn’t want to do it himself. Most people found paperwork rather tedious, and he could understand why to a point, but to him the making and reading of contracts was actually pretty fun.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll accept all the conditions placed on me, but I have some for you to agree to as well.” He raised a brow. How would that work when the simulation ended? Would the contract be nullified or would he still have to follow through with a contract signed by someone who in essence wasn’t actually real.
“Well let’s hear them then.” She seemed surprised he had agreed so quickly. Frankly under normal conditions he probably wouldn’t have. He had been setting things up from a position of strength but easily allowing her to make her own demands evened things out. Which in this case was fine, because he was the one writing the contract she couldn’t exactly pull one over on him.
“You can’t try to steal the crown back from me. Also, you can’t try and screw me over with this contract. All the rules have to be fair in the interest of me not doing anything bad or criminal.” She was trying, but it was clear she had nowhere near the practice he did at this kind of thing. Still it wasn’t too bad of an effort.
“Contracts aren’t retroactive. All that would do was make it so if we ever added an addendum I couldn’t try to screw you over. However I’m willing to make a 2nd contract with those that you can sign first.” It was a waste of time, but he still wasn’t too keen to be taking advantage. Even if she wasn’t real.
“Why would you tell me that?” He hummed as he made and wrote the much shorter geas. It wasn’t really an easy question to answer. He was a product of his experiences, and a lot of the ones that lead him to be the way he was now weren’t exactly the kind of thing you’d share with strangers. Especially when you were definitely being watched. He was just glad none of those conditions would really affect him in the real world.
“Why wouldn’t I? Honesty is a virtue.” A little rich coming from the guy who would manipulate the truth like he did. He didn’t lie often, but he wasn’t naive enough to say that meant he was honest. “Besides we’ll be signing a contract soon, so take it as a sign of good faith.” That and getting to sign a contract that was obviously purely for her benefit first would make signing the important one easier for her to swallow.
“You don’t really strike me as the honest type.” That hurt a little if he was being honest. It was one thing to think that about himself, but he certainly didn’t like hearing other people say it about him. She wasn’t even judging his half-truths or anything. If he had to guess she was probably basing that entirely off of his combat style. Which to be fair was carefully designed to deceive. His weapon choice made people think of honorable knights. Which was on purpose so they wouldn’t be watching him closely enough to see his more devious tricks. Or at the very least so they don’t expect them.
“I resent that accusation, but I don’t deny it. That being said, I'm not in the habit of screwing people over after making a deal.” Usually not even when dealing with people he disliked. That wasn’t to say he never did it, but it wasn’t his preferred method of dealing with these kinds of things.
“I see.” She seemed to believe him, because when he sent the 2nd contract over she signed it after only a cursory glance. If she were real he probably would have told her that it wasn’t a good idea to sign anything without carefully reading it. Even something seemingly harmless like this much smaller geas. After signing the one ensuring that he had been fair she signed the 2nd one without worry. “I’ve met my end, now give me the crown… please.”
He smiled. It sounded like she wasn’t very used to pleasantries, but her being polite was a pretty good sign. “Sure sure. Just give me a second, it wasn’t really hidden with the intention of grabbing it quickly in mind.” He sighed he really had locked it up pretty tight. He walked towards the back of the town warning the bandit- or well the no longer a bandit about his traps so she didn’t step in them by accident. He was impressed when her only reaction to the anti-magic field was to shiver slightly. That took a lot of trust. “So since we made our deal, I suppose we should introduce ourselves. I’m Azura Silver, it’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m Deidra Glacius.” A rather curt response, but she answered him honestly so he’d take it. True to his word it would take him at least an hour to get the crown, and he was hoping not to have to deal with silence the entire time. He could handle the quiet well enough, but it always reminded him of the empty castle he’d grown up in. Who would have thought he’d get to the point where he was just hoping for a conversation with a person who doesn’t actually exist.