Meryl waited quietly with his most trusted lieutenant at his side, Frederick. The man was a veteran in both combat and detainment, he also had a decidedly unhealthy knack for torture when it was required. The stout man was armed to the teeth, even though all his weapons were currently concealed and he didn’t really need them in the first place.

They were waiting for someone.

Someone, who for some unwise decision was looking for information about the Baron.

Now one was free to go around looking up the Baron above the table, he was a prominent man after all, but when you started asking around society’s underbelly about him, then you were either looking to do him harm or extort him or some other equally unsavoury deed.

Not that the underworld would normally mind such things mind you, but this was Zetsuna. Here the Baron’s rule was absolute.

If you had asked Meryl a year ago when he first arrived in Zetsuna what he thought the future of crime would look like (specifically his own career) he would never have guessed where he would end up. But as it stood his loyalty was to the Baron secondly and to himself first.

The thing is, with the way the Baron operated, those two things were one and the same. Because when you looked after him, he looked after you. There weren’t many criminals in Zetsuna, mostly because the guy had somehow obtained a monopoly on the city’s underworld.

But more to the point if some other crook started getting ideas or a new criminal rolled into town, the various denizens of crime would swoop in and take care of them, each trying to earn the Baron’s favour. Because when you had his favour, things eased up for you, ‘jobs’ came your way and you found the guards suddenly looking the other way.

Normally any criminal would be grinding their teeth with the sheer amount of ‘policing’ this city had, but when you aligned yourself with the Baron that became of little consequence, suddenly those same terrifying guards became a sense of security. It was honestly quite absurd.

Meryl had actually had a proper conversation with the man once upon a time. He had taken the opportunity to ask him a question that had been burning a hole in him ever since he had first started getting involved with the man.

“If you have so much control, why don’t you simply crush all the crime?”

The Baron had given him an answer that truth be told he still didn’t fully understand, but at the time it had sounded rather profound to him: “It is impossible to get rid of crime, it is an integral part of society. What then? Instead you should strive to control it, as it is a functional and important part of any city’s infrastructure.”

Meryl was a simple man, but he knew when to grease palms, when to lick boots and when he had a good thing going. And this place was as good as it got. He honestly had a lot of respect for the man, it took a visionary to see past all the murk and arrive at this destination, in his humble opinion.

Frederick tapped his shoulder to pull him out of his thoughts. Someone was arriving.

Meryl’s body tensed as he held his breath in anticipation. He was understandably nervous. The Baron was a dangerous and powerful man, after all no ordinary person could accomplish all this. So someone that was looking for trouble with him to this extent was either suicidal or equally dangerous. He just hoped it was the latter. Because then he could capture this fool and present him to the Baron.

If not though, well he might be in for a really bad day.

He heard the figure approaching, before he could see them. Not that it would be particularly difficult to see them, it was still light outside, the sun was only now beginning to set.

You would think that normally such a clandestine meeting would happen at night, and you would probably be right. But honestly if your goal was less a meeting and more to capture someone, then the day was better. Better to see them, better to chase them if needs be. Just as long as you kept it to a quiet spot, without people around to be witnesses or to serve as distractions. And this place was more than quite enough for the job.

Finally, their target came into view, it was time to get a good like at this guy and size him up-

What the?

There was no man to be found, not even a woman for that matter. The person walking down the alleyway, was a girl, couldn’t even barely be in her teens by the look of it.

It had to be the wrong person, he needed to get rid of her, quick.

“Sorry little girl, I think you’re in the wrong place. There’s some not very nice men around here, so I suggest you hurry up and scram.” He said in the creepiest voice he could manage, he didn’t want to take any chances and had even soaked some bloodlust into his aura.

The girl on the other hand, didn’t seem phased in the slightest, which was already quite unusual. Heck everything about her was unusual!

She had long, well kempt grey-ish hair that had been styled up like some kind of aristocratic doll, complete with the occasional heavy curl and a fancy black ribbon in her hair. Her small and delicate round face was beautiful when wrapped in her incredibly pale skin. Had this girl never seen a day of sunlight in her life? She looked positively delicate, like if you sneezed too hard she might fall apart.

She wore a fancy black velvet dress with flower patterns on its silky surface and many layers of cloth, some of which ended in lacy frills. The dress itself looked exquisitely expensive and both the hem and the sleeves ended widely.

That thing must be incredibly hot in this whether, how on earth was she wearing it?

Meryl’s surprises were not over yet, as he almost took a step back when the girl’s azure blue eyes stared straight at him. How does a girl like that look a thug straight in the eye without even flinching?

“Judging by the look of you, I would say I am indeed in the right place.” She stated in a voice that was almost melodic. Soft and beautiful, yet graceful and mature. “You have information and I have money. I would ask that you do not waste my time and we get down to business.”

Honestly Meryl was not used to being talked down to be a girl half his height. She had thrown him completely off his element ever since he first laid eyes on her. He noticed Frederick didn’t seem as badly affected by her, probably because he didn’t have any functioning brain cells to even mess with in the first place. Honestly, Frederick was a good bloke, but the guy was as dumbs as a box of rocks.

He forcibly reigned in his senses and brought himself to the task at hand, refusing to let this midget walk all over him any longer.

“I regret to inform you miss, that there’s been a change in plans.”

“Oh… Do tell.” What the fuck? She actually seemed amused!

“You will be coming with us. You see, we quite like the Baron. And anyone stirring up shit for him, well we’ll see what he decides to do with you instead.”

The girl frowned, much to Meryl’s delight. Finally realising your predicament hey?

“You know given the rest of this city’s- caliber- I had expected more from it’s criminals. You’re still just a pack of hooligans after all it would seem.”

Meryl had not quite expected that. What is with this girl? “Enough with this shit! Fred, grab her! Don’t take any chances, something’s off about her, go all out.”

Fred obliged, the good soldier that he was, never questioned his orders. He immediately activated his stone skin skill. It was a cut above the usual one and rendered more than just a few layers of skin as stone, his skill went all the way to the surface layers of his muscles, making it truly formidable.

Frederick tried to grab the girl in his ‘armoured’ form, but she easily stepped out of the way, with what looked like practiced movements. In the next moment she had a dagger in her hand, that he could not quite tell where it had come from.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The girl drove it into Fredericks side. Or at least, she tried to. Most would underestimate a stone skin skill, especially if they were not aware of Fredericks rarer variant. And as such the blade actually shattered before it pierced even a millimeter into the man.

Frederick started to laugh, most would be caught completely unaware by that turn of events, he loved it when that happened, seeing the looks on their faces. Only she did not have that look, wait why was she so much closer than before?

To Meryl’s horror, the girl had launched herself at Fredericks head, taking the broken dagger mishap in stride and not missing a beat. She struck out with the dagger, which was now somehow repaired and struck directly at Frederick’s head with it, now that she was basically eye level with the much larger man.

Frederick hadn’t even noticed when and how she got so close, all he could see was a torrent of sprayed out grey hair, glinting like silver in the sun and a twirling black dress. If it were not for his years of combat instincts kicking in and making him shift his head to the side, that dagger would have gone right through his eye socket and into his brain, but he had twisted his head at the last moment and the blade glanced harmlessly off his armoured cheek instead.

Meryl stared in horror at this little monster, she had come this close to killing the much larger man instantly. No hesitation and incredible skill and snap judgement.

She was dangerous.

Unfortunately for her however she was still landing from her jump and had nowhere to go. Frederick was a skilled fighter and despite being thrown off balance from almost being skewered in what was one of his only vulnerable spots, he still delivered a full force punch before she managed to land and dodge out the way.

“Frederick- no!” Meryl had tried to warn him not to kill her but it was too late. The full forced punch sent her hurtling through the air and tumbling along the ground.

Being struck by one if his blows at full force was like being run over by a crazed horse, she was already dead. Dammit, there goes a large chunk of his reward.

Or at least that should have been the case. The girl got up, grimacing and nursing her apparently sore arm that she had tried to use to shield the blow. Remarkably she was still alive, and by the look of the way she was shaking out the pained arm, it wasn’t even broken!

Alarm bells should have been going off in Meryl’s head by this point, but he had been blinded by both annoyance and greed at this point. He whistled twice, giving the signal for everyone to converge and capture. Then he did a short high pitched whistle to indicate that the opponent was a combatant, so some caution is warranted. Probably not enough for this situation, but the signal type would have to do.

The girl seemed to pick up on what he was doing as she immediately bolted, abandoning her original cause, whatever that may have been.

Two of his men had arrived in time to cut off her escape thankfully.

She did not however slow down in the slightest as she approached them. They both swung clubs at her, but she seemed to easily dodge between them. She stabbed the one man in his kidney with a dagger, immediately flooring him and struck at another with a dagger that had appeared in her second hand.

The second man managed to lean out the way and only received a flesh wound. But the disruption was enough and she easily slipped past the blockade.

Damn this girl! “After her!”

Meryl and his men gave chase. He had men stationed all over the place, constantly trying to route her with excellent teamwork but the little bitch always managed to slip past them each and every time. He had brought a lot of men with and prepared a lot of traps. You can’t work with a man like the Baron for such a long time and not have his thoroughness rub off on you at least a little. Still it did not seem to be enough as she was still slowly but surely wiggling her way out of his net.

Didn’t she ever get tired, he was fucking panting with exhaustion already.

The man next to him suddenly collapsed.

Meryl kicked him in frustration, “Come on you pussy! Get up!”

The man did not respond.

Meryl looked closer at him and only now noticed the black lines clawing their way up his veins. It was the guy that had received the flesh wound earlier.

Shit! “Be careful, her blades are poisoned!” He shouted a warning to any men that could hear him.

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Aaron and Rita had enjoyed quite the day together. Aaron himself had eventually forgotten all about the slavery incedent thanks to this.

They had done a lot of exploring and even stopped by a restaurant to grab a bite to eat, something other than tasteless cheap food this time. It had been quite a splurge for their financial burden to bear, but ultimately worth it. In the end, it had been a great day to unwind and just enjoy each other's company.

But they had spent most of it on their feet and that was really starting to show.

“You wanna sit down?” Aaron indicated to a bench nearby.

“Yeah, I need to rest my feet.” Rita smiled softly.

The two of them sat down. This area was a park of sorts, with lots of trees, flowers and other greenery. It had intentional paved roads leading up to it and was on top a bit of a hill overlooking a portion of the city.

“This city was not what I had imagined.” Aaron spoke, mostly his own musings, the part about ‘for a medieval world’ left out intentionally.

“The Baron, Lord Byers, is pretty famous for his handling of this city.” Rita seemed to smile a little proudly at that, “It is well kept and mostly crime free. I haven’t been to any other cities to be honest, but I have heard that it is comparable even to the capital.”

“You seem to be personally acquainted with this Byers?”

Rita frowned a little. “It’s Lord Byers. Not observing proper decorum can land you into trouble.”

“Noted.”

“And yes, I am, or rather I should say that Dianna was.”

There was a moment of silence, before Rita continued explaining. “My mother- Dianna- Was a friend of the Baron. Apparently they grew up together. I’ll be honest, I don’t have the full story, Dianna was for her boisterous nature actually a rather private person. Sometimes when she visited the Baron while in town, she would take me along. This is how I know him.”

“Hmm. I had been wondering how you had arranged a meeting with such an important person so easily.”

“Yes, it was that. We know each other through Dianna and he seemed to have taken a liking to me as well.”

A silence brewed after that brief conversation, both of them comfortable just enjoying the nice view until the sun finally set and night descended.

Aaron gazed over the night-clad view of the city, houses and stalls flickered across the city scape by countless small motes of candle lights. Other areas along main roads, illuminated instead more fully by magical lamp posts. This starry map, that was the city on the ground, a man-made reflection of the clear, starry sky above it.

At some point Rita had sidled up closer to him. When had that happened? He sneaked a glance at her beautiful moon clad form. That pretty face and flaming red hair really did send butterflies through his stomach, especially up close.

A breeze suddenly picked up and lifted some of her red mane like it had a life of its own, as Rita stared contentedly at the stars, her dainty chin pointed upwards.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” She asked rhetorically.

“Yes. Beautiful”, Aaron murmured, entranced and unable to tear himself away from her visage.

Rita turned towards him, realising he had been staring and quirked an eyebrow, with just the smallest amount of amusement.

He didn’t care. He still couldn’t look away.

Before Aaron even had a chance to realize what he was doing, he had already leaned in and kissed her. It was both unexpected and unplanned, but too late. He had already started kissing her.

And now he hoped she would not reject him, he hoped dearly. Those butterflies were doing somersaults at the moment. He briefly considered using one of his skills, but immediately squashed the thought. It felt like if he did that, it would be disingenuous, like it would somehow ruin the purity of the moment. So he simply focused on the kiss and did his best to ‘guide’ the clearly less experienced girl.

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Rita had been surprised by the sudden kiss, but she did not let it show. Not startled either, just surprised. Surprised, even though she had kind of expected it. If she was being honest with herself, she had even been waiting for it. Not just now in this moment, that too, but for a while. Been wondering when this would come to pass.

She was certain Aaron liked her the way she liked him, and had simply been patient, waiting for this moment.

And it was quite the moment. The evening was lovely, the mood was perfect, she could not have asked for more for her first kiss.

As for the kiss itself, well she did not exactly have anything to compare it to, no idea of knowing if it was a good kiss or not, but… It felt good.

She had once more been surprised even after the kiss started, when his tongue reached for her own. Even though she certainly knew to expect that, what you know and your actual experiences usually didn’t align themselves so well, so even though she knew it was coming, she still could not help but feel jolted by it.

But that feeling was quickly subsiding as she enjoyed the kiss. The incredible nervousness she had felt only moments ago, now melting into heat and pooling in her belly. She started to push back, ever so slightly gaining confidence, their tongues now two entwined serpents.

Her thoughts flickered through their journey together and the experiences they shared, the ups and downs, as she continued to lose herself in the kiss. The enjoyment she was getting from it morphing into something else. She could feel an aching. She wanted something. She wanted… Wanted… More?

“Sorry to interrupt you guys”.

Rita was startled out of the kiss, as Aaron pulled away at the interrupting voice. Rita stared dumbfoundedly at a now visible Mara for a brief moment, before her faculties returned.

She was suddenly assaulted by an influx of emotion. Happiness at what had transpired as well as embarrassment at having been watched. She also felt anger towards Mara for having interrupted.

“Sorry to interrupt you guys, it was starting to get good after all” Mara smiled a mischievous grin, “but we’ve got company”.

“We’re in a park Mara, that is not that surprising.” Aaron responded in a measured tone. Wait, was he also annoyed with Mara? Rita found herself amused and happy at the thought.

Mara’s expression turned a bit darker than her usual jovial self, as she summoned her spear in hand. “Not that kind of company.”