“Ugh… what, where?” Lilly groaned as she looked around trying to get her bearings. It seemed she had fallen asleep on the counter after a night of heavy drinking. She reached out for her mug to take a sip but it was snatched away from her.

“No more for you young lady.” The barkeep said holding her mug.

“Wha, why?!” Lilly asked confused, why couldn’t she drink her ale?

“Pay your tab first.” The barkeep said matter of fact-ly.

“My tab? I don’t have a tab, it’s my first time drinking here!” Lilly wasn’t even sure where here was.

“You don’t remember, do you? Last night you came in here and started chatting up anyone willing to listen. Eventually everyone was laughing, chatting and drinking together, which is great, means more money for me. But then you had to go and get all high and mighty promising to pay for everyones drinks.” The barkeep sighed finishing the story.

“Fuck…”

“Yeah, now pay up, it’ll be 6 gold, 7 silvers and 4 coppers.”

“That’s like an entire vacation day! Why am I so stupid?” Lilly lamented as she reluctantly handed over the money.

She stood up stumbling and nearly fell over, but managed to catch herself. Clearly she wasn’t completely sober yet, and she had a headache, a bad one. She gingerly walked to the door and headed out, the sun blinding her as her eyes adjusted to the outside.

“What a beautiful day to be hungover.” Lilly muttered to herself and started walking to the inner part of the residential district.

The city, being the capital of the kingdom, was planned and regulated more than others. Thus having more distinct borders between districts and much better roads, it didn’t take more than 15 minutes for Lilly to arrive in front of a well kept two story house. It was the official home of Lilly Rivera, the somewhat well known chemist working in Four Leaf Potions. Of course, Lilly didn’t really care for the public opinion. She just needed somewhere safe to stash her gear while she was off not murdering people in their sleep.

Entering her home Lilly headed to the laboratory to find a hangover remedy. Her headache cured she undressed and went to the bath, wanting to rid herself of the alcoholic stink. Assassins had to be particular about everything since even just a squeaky boot could tip of a guard. Dogs especially were a pain with their good ears and noses.

After almost an hour relaxing in the bath she got out and dried herself. She may be an assassin and a thief but she liked her luxury. Dressing herself she grabbed her herb bag and headed out to eat. Going to the same restaurant as always, a cozy little place with a nice waitress only a few minutes walk from her home. She enjoyed her meal in peace and even got a dessert, she was on vacation after all.

After eating Lilly had decided to take a stroll in the forest. To do that however she had to leave the city, which meant passing one of the city gates. And with the assassin still on the loose, everyone was checked and registered. The gates faced huge amounts of traffic each day, but with the soldiers having to write everything down it took Lilly more than half an hour to exit the city. And she didn’t even have any goods to be inspected. She could only pity the merchants standing in line for hours on end.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Finally arriving in the forest, Lilly immediately felt reinvigorated breathing the cool, fresh air of nature. The forest surrounded the capital on all sides and there were only three roads through it. It was a dense forest with a lot of wildlife and easy to get lost in if you went too far. She strolled about randomly picking up herbs here and there, confident she wouldn’t get lost. She loved just mindlessly walking around the forest forgetting all about murder, work, money and any other worries she had.

It would seem the forest didn’t though. Not paying attention she had let a lone wolf sneak up on her. Without warning the wolf pounced, confident it would be an easy kill. To its surprise however, Lilly reacted on instinct the moment she sensed something was off. Spinning around she launched a dark mass from her hand hitting it square on the snout. The spell, [Darkbolt], was essentially a solidified curse that ate away at the targets mind, stunning and disorienting. The wolf, incapacitated, faceplanted into the dirt and rolled over with a squeal of pain. Lilly didn’t give it time to recover and pulled a dagger out of her bag. Crouching down she stabbed it in the chest and punctured the heart.

“Are you alright? The wolf didn’t hurt you did it?” A noble looking man came into the little clearing flanked by several hunters moments later.

“I’m quite alright, were you hunting this wolf?” Lilly asked, paying no mind to the mans clearly noble status.

“Yes, it’s a mountain wolf, they’re not supposed to be in the forest. But they make a nice trophy.” The noble declared proudly. What he had to be proud of, Lilly wasn’t sure.

“Oh, Well you can have it then.” She dismissed the corpse instantly.

“No no, I couldn’t, you are the one who killed it.” The noble insisted.

“Well I have no use for it, trophy or not.”

“Then how about I take you out for dinner, as payment for the wolf. My name is Hendrix Cobb” Hendrix said quite sure the woman in front of him couldn’t possibly refuse.

“I must refuse, I have no time for such things. And please take the wolf, I would leave it to rot anyway.” Lilly shot him down immediately, not even thinking twice about it.

(Much like I left your brother to rot in the sewers after he raped that blacksmiths daughter.) She thought. (You and your family are sick to the core.)

“Well I must be going, I have things to do.” She said preparing to leave.

“In that case, perhaps we could escort you back to the city.” Hendrix persisted, infatuated with the dangerous woman.

“I’m gathering herbs so I won’t be going back for a while.” She quipped, about to lose her patience.

“Well the forest is teeming with predators and bandits, we can stick around to protect you.” Hendrix seemed almost desperate, he knew attacking her was a bad idea so he could only resort to coercion.

“Anyone, beast or man, who pisses me off will end up like the wolf.” Lilly said as she walked off, not giving him the chance to speak.

Can I not catch a break? This is supposed to be my vacation! Lilly thought as she grumpily walked back to the city, her good mood ruined.