Today is the 1st of Capricorn, it’s been a few months since I did the job with Tiffany. Me and Arnold managed to find someone to fix the orphanage structure so the place now is safe to live in. We took some less taxing requests from the guild like watching someone or finding something so we could still the guild services if necessary.

All those months the only thing we know about the bounties is that one by one people are getting them, shame we don’t know who and which bounty.

With all the free time we got we managed to find some information about the Doll Maker , but it’s only the fact that he isn’t human. But this will help enough. You almost don’t see people from other races here in this city.

Apart from all that me and Arnold found a way to train against strong people without the risk of dying. Street fights. Well, not exactly fighting, it’s more like a street contest. Using training weapons we found or bought, people have to disarm us in a set amount of time and if they do it, they receive double the amount of money they paid to a certain limit. The max someone is able to pay was 100 Kir for safety. We lost plenty of times but won much more. Magic is not allowed as there is no training magic that doesn’t do damage.

Me and Arnold are eating breakfast in a restaurant to commemorate yesterday. We finally managed to not lose a single contest and only made money. Today we party as the few people who won against us finally can be beaten so we will start to get more money if we do things right.

“This is really good.” I say after eating some bread in the shape of a ball. It's fluffy and tasty. You can’t even tell if it is salty or sweet, it's just good.

“I am going to miss this food when we get back to the camp.” Arnold says while eating his half of the bread.

“Oh yeah, this is probably our last month here. I wonder if either the Boss or Aria already got their bounties.”

“Probably.I am seeing less and less of the Dragons around the city each day.”

“Really? I never noticed most of them so I can’t even tell if they are leaving.”

“I had it drilled in my head on how to remember people's faces, so it’s hard for me to not notice.”

“That is a good skill.” One I have more or less. I can remember people's faces if I interact with them for a while, but just seeing them isn’t enough.

“Speaking of skills, how is your fighting style coming along? You managed to do some cool things for the past months but you seem to not be happy.”

“I am kind of stuck on what to do next. I don’t know anyone who knows how to dance so I can’t get inspiration.” Also the fact that Lucia’s soul, even after she is back together, isn’t taking command again. It’s hard to dance without passion and my passion doesn’t involve dance. I can do the moves but some emotion is needed and I am only getting part of what she feels. At least it’s enough so I seem normal, even if I am not smiling to everyone like I used to.

“We could ask the guild for someone.” Arnold suggests.

“I tried that already. The people who came were not what I was looking for.” Prostitutes came. Dancer or someone who can dance is some kind of slang for prostitute that the guild has to let people use in case someone like me comes along.

“So, what are we going to do?”

“I am going to look for new armor. The one we got from the Boss is too tight. Is it pressing my boobs too much”

“I don’t see that as a problem.”

“I will tie your balls with spider silk and then you tell me if it’s not necessary.” I am serious about this. My boobs are growing way too much, I am almost at C size. If I don’t use my magic string along with my sabers to distribute my weight I would probably not be able to fight.

“Ok, I will stay out of this.”

We then proceed to finish our meal.

A few minutes later we are at the orphanage where I am picking some money but one of the younger kids there came running to talk to us.

“Hey Lucia, a girl is looking for you. She said her name is Tifania.”

I think for a second.

“Do you mean Tiffany?”

“Yes that. She is at the door. Bye.” And he runs back to whatever he was doing outside.

What does that girl want with me? It’s not really hard to find me, but I refused her requests to guard her again on more than one occasion when I saw her around the city. I just pick the money I came for and go to the door. Arnold comes with me as he never saw this girl. He just know her as the suicide girl.

“What do you want, girl?” I say in an interrogative tone.

“I need help.” She says clearly stressed.

“If it’s the help from last time I will not go.”

“No! It’s something serious, you are the only one I can think of that can help me.”

“I don’t know what is happening but what about the guild? Don’t you have the money?” Arnold asks.

“The problem is the guild.”

I facepalm and take a breath.

“Come inside, we talk in my room.”

She says nothing. I was expecting a sexual joke. There.

“Explain.” I say

“Someone who works at the guild is trying to kidnap me and put a request saying I am his daughter, and it’s a refty reward.”

“Can’t your real parents do something about it?” Arnold asks.

“They left the city for a while and I will be alone for a few days.” She says while looking at me signaling something with her eyes. Probably the people who protect her left for a while and someone is making his move.

“And what do you expect me to do?”

“Kill the man. You two killed people from the guild before, didn’t you?”

“That was a completely different situation. If I just kill someone a lot of things will happen that both of us don’t want to.” I say to her.

“We could just protect her for a few days, couldn’t we?” Arnold suggests.

“Not for free.”

“Aren’t you two friends?”

“Not really.” I say

“Yeah, we just know each other.” Tiffany says.

We stop for a few moments in silence.

“OK! You can stay here. 10 kir a day. You don’t leave my side, understand?”

“Sure, if this is how you want to play.” Tiffany says with clear dirty intentions.

“What?” Arnold asks.

“Tiffany, can you stop?”

“Don’t worry, he clearly likes big boobs.I am not going to steal him. But if you want I can join the fun. Also, why are they bigger than last time? What are you doing.”

Arnold froze.

“Girl, I am not like you and I will not make this faster than it needs to be. Also they just keep growing, I did nothing special.”

“Milk.” Arnold says.

I am kinda shocked that he managed to think something like this. I drink a lot of milk but I have no idea if this helps.

“So you drink milk, huh?” Cleary throwing a dirty look at me.

“The normal one. Not the one you do. Maybe if you did you would have something bigger than lemons.”

“I am still growing.”

“Anyone can see that.”

“Oh yeah? Hey boy, who is prettier, me or Lucia?”

Without skipping a beat he responds.

“Lucia”

“So you are telling me I am ugly?”

“No!” He answers in a panic.

“Stop Tiffany, I never said you are not pretty and you are making him sweat more than he does in a fight.”

“Ok… But can I do something? I think I need to show some gratitude to what you two are doing besides paying.”

“Like what?” I ask.

She hugs me and starts to kiss me in front of Arnold, giving him quite the show. After a few moments I unglue her tongue from mine and Look at Arnold. He is clearly in heat.

I give him a passionate kiss with her looking.

“I am going to shop now. Take care of the fort.”

I then proceed to grab my weapons, armor, put everything in a bag as fast as I can and pull Tiffany along with me. After we are far away I pull her to the side of the street where I begin to scold her.

“You slut! What are you thinking?”

“What, he clearly enjoyed that.”

“I need him to use his head, not his dick. We are pretty close to an important job and I need his head on the job, not on me or you.”

“Calm down, you looked like you enjoyed it too.”

“That is besides the point. You try anything like that again you will be running away from me.”

I am totally not being possessive about Arnold. But it is true that I enjoyed that a little.

“Ok, I get it. I will stop. Just help me.”

“Now let’s go. I have to get some things for me.”

We then proceed to use a carriage to get us to Martin. He is the only blacksmith I know in this city that I can trust somewhat. Since it is still morning this time he is working outside in the forge along with some men.

“Hello, can someone help me?” I shout.

Martin stops what he is doing and approaches me.

“Hey, I remember you, and that sword. You are the girl who was with Aria that cried a lot.”

“Good to see you remember me.”

“So what are you doing here?”

“I need armor.”

He looks at me and my bag and tells us to enter. This time there are some chairs inside where we can sit.

“And this other girl?”

“She is just a friend accompanying me. Ignore her.”

“If you say so…”

Tiffany says nothing and accepts that this is not something she can be part of.

“So girl, what do you want?”

“Something like those pieces in the bag but bigger. Especially in the chest.”

“Haha, That is quite the problem for a lot of women, you look very young. They will probably grow a lot more.” He says without a hint of dirty thoughts.

“I only need something for the next 3 to 4 months.”

“So you want some new armor or you want me to modify those pieces?” He says while pointing to the bag.

“I would like some new armor if possible. That one is too tight everywhere.”

“And how fast do you need it?”

“Maximum, the end of the month.”

“Alright, that can be done. But do you want to make a deal? I do this for free if you let me do something.”

“What?”

“I want to try something in your sword.”

“Sure, if it will save me money, I don’t see why not. As long as you don’t break the sword.”

“Then come with me. You can leave the bag there. I will need that to make your new one.”

We then go back outside where some people are working repairing and making tools, weapons and armor. There are 4 other people here. But they don’t interact with me or Tiffany. Martin takes us to an empty anvil.

“Put your sword here.” He asks and I do.”You two should probably go back a little.” And again we do.

He begins to charge a spell through his hammer and hits the sword with it. Everytime he hits the sword a small shockwave happens around him. We would probably get hurt from that.

After around 15 minutes of him beating my sword with his hammer he stops.

“I finished.”

“Can I ask what exactly did you do?” I ask as I approach.

“I just did what the sword wanted.”

“What?” I ask in surprise.

“I can’t really explain this. But ever since you came here I had this feeling I should do something, like the sword asked me to. And I did.”

“And?” I say as I pick the sword.

“Your sword is now a Curse Absorbing Sword.”

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

“And what is that?”

“It’s really rare, so it’s no wonder you don’t know about it. Your sword will steal and hold any curse of anyone or anything you cut with it. How much you have to cut changes between targets depending on the strength of the curse and the target. After that you can use the curse on yourself or inflict on someone as long you cut him when you do it.”

“That is pretty cool.”

“Take care of the sword. It’s older than the oldest elves you find around.”

“I was told it was from my gramps. I guess the story of this blade was lost with time.”

“It would not be the first. Anyway girl. I will get your armor read in two weeks.”

“Thanks for that and good luck.”

I then leave the place to give the man some space. Tiffany follows me.

--//--

It’s around noon now. Me and Tiffany walked around until now because I don’t want to return to the orphanage yet. We are now eating some sandwiches at a bench in the central square of the city.

“I will never understand why someone would become a soldier or something like that because they want to.” Tiffany says to me.

“Emotionally or rationally?”

“Emotionally. I get that some people like to fight or want to protect. I just can’t get the feeling.”

“Did you have children?”

“No. Why do you ask?”

“If you had children you probably would know the feeling of wanting to protect someone else.”

“And you had?”

“No. I didn’t even have a girlfriend, much less kids.”

“Then you go around fighting for other people because you like?”

“That and the fact my life now pretty much revolves around surviving. For that you need to fight, especially out into this world.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“No.”

“I will tell you what happened to me if you tell me what made you get here.”

“You were a slut in your old life. You were somehow put into a church facility where you learned how to use magic for healing from a young age against your will, you couldn’t be a slut there and you ran away getting here somehow. Did I miss something?”

“... Not really.”

“Then we have nothing to talk about. Eat your food we can go back now.”

“Why now?”

“Because Arnold had a few hours now to cool down and we will be able to talk about our jobs without him thinking about things that he shouldn’t.”

“You need to relax a little, you know.”

“I do that when I am not working.”

“Didn’t anyone tell you how to enjoy your work?”

“I worked pretty much for the mafia in my old life and now I am a soldier. Relaxing on the job wasn’t and still isn’t an option.”

“What kind of life did you have?” This is clearly a rhetorical question.

“Not a good one.” I answer anyway.

She just stays in silence and finishes eating. After that we return to the orphanage where we go to my room. Arnold wasn’t there so I told the kids to tell him to come to my room when they see him.

“So what will we do now?”

“I will read a book. You can do whatever you want here as long it isn’t a sexual activity.”

She is looking at me with a shocked face.

“Why are you looking at me like that? The doors don’t have locks and the kids open all of them all the time. I can’t have you doing inappropriate stuff near children.”

“Then what will I do?”

“You can read, you can sleep, nothing is always an option. You can work out with me in a few minutes if you want.”

“I miss the internet.”

“So do I but that is decades if not centuries away.”

“Why?” Tiffany says in a fake crying tone.

I just ignore her and continue to read one of my books as she looks at my wardrobe and is seeing the clothes I use. Most of them are everyday clothes, cotton pants and shirts of various colors as well some basic underwear. I have one dress that is all blue, but it’s pretty much a curtain in the form of a dress. It was cheap so I bought it just in case I needed one. This goes on for a while until I can finish the book at least.

“You really don’t have anything girly do you?”

“Do you know what I do most of the time?”

“Fight?”

“Pretty much. Any dress like the one you are using would just get in the way. One gust of wind and I lose vision.”

“You could be using a dress now. You are not fighting.”

“But I will train in a few minutes. And about clothes, where are yours?”

“Near the entrance. Before you even called me in I dropped my things inside here.”

“Then let’s go get your things before someone takes it by accident.”

“Ok…”

We go down back to the entrance and just below a window no one uses there is a bag. We put the bag in my room and I proceed to the streets where I begin to work out and train with my sword for a few hours. Tiffany out of boredom tried to do what I was doing but had to use her magic to get some stamina back and didn’t try to continue.

When the sun was beginning to set Arnold came back.

“Where were you?” I shout to him

“I went for a walk.” Arnold responds clearly dodging my question.

“That was a really long walk. Anyway, to my room, we have things to discuss.”

He just nods his head and follows me along with Tiffany. He seems to be with his head in place. As we enter he takes the chair and me and Tiffany sit on my bed.

“So, what do you want?” He asks me.

“We need a plan.”

“Right now we need to find another person.”

“What?”

“One of the hunters ran away. The target is on the loose. I will tell you which one when we have some time alone. I was at the guild all this time.”

“Don’t worry about me.” Tiffany says.

“Not gonna happen” I say.

“Let’s go take a bath, there the noise will help us. I am pretty sure someone is following me.”

I just nod and we go to the bathhouse along with Tiffany. We get our room and separate it like normal. But this time there is a second tub on my side where Tiffany is. I had to put a towel on myself so she wouldn’t be able to see my dick as I entered the tub. Her tub was all the way in the wall so me and Arnold could talk with each other near the curtain and she wouldn’t hear due to the noise around.

“So, what did you want to say?” I ask

“Flash ran away. The Brute is on the loose.”

“Guess that either the Boss or Aria finished the job then.”

“This is serious, that thing is a monster in the shape of a human. Flash lost both his arms just a few hours ago and left the city in shame. Now the brute is somewhere hidden resting up for another fight.”

“So we have to be on alert?”

“No, we have to hunt him.”

“Fuck!”

“What?”

“It’s Tiffany, we can’t guard her and do this at the same time.”

“Let’s hide her and pray for the best.” Arnold suggests.

“If only things were that simple. Let’s think about this later.”

“If you say so. It’s not like we can start today anyway.”

“Yeah.”

After that we spent the rest of our time in silence.

When our time is finishing we decide to dry up and leave. As we are putting our clothes on we hear a loud sound of rocks breaking and falling as well the ground shaking along with a really loud voice.

“WHERE ARE YOU? I KNOW YOU ARE HERE!” It’s a really loud man's voice.

I try to put something on fast as I am only with my panties but I see the wall in front of me breaking. I grab my weapons using the magic string and fall to the ground along with Tiffany who was frozen in shock and still naked for some reason.

In front of us is a giant man, 2.5 meters tall, wide as a car and too much muscle. Bald with a big mustache using a tank top and shorts. He is also ugly as fuck.

“Just my luck, all of you are here.” Another man says. He appears from behind the bigger man. This man is about 1.8 meters tall. Long light blue hair, does not appear to be all that strong as he is somewhat skinny. He has the face of a model in my old world. He is using a red tuxedo.

“That’s him!” Both Arnold and Tiffany scream. Fate, Destiny, whatever is a bitch.

“Tiffany! I was looking for you, come with me, these people will not harm you anymore.” The blue haired man says.

“Get away from me you creep!” Tiffany screams as she tries to run.

There is too much debris around us, the only way to leave is passing those two people.

As soon as she tries to run I see the blue haired man give a signal to the Brute. I pick my great sword and charge it as fast as I can, I will try to finish this fast.

As soon as I am in range of the brute I do a downward diagonal swing with my great sword. To my shock the Brute tries to punch my sword back and to my despair some invisible force coming from his fist stops my attack. I am completely open now and his other fist is coming in my direction.

Before I can react I feel something push me to the sides. Arnold used a spell to create a pillar and push me to the side before he could hit me.

After that he uses a spell to create a big rock and throw it at the brute. As soon as he does that I run to his back. Tiffany cannot move, she is frozen in fear and I can only hope nothing happens.

The Brute punches the rock again with his invisible force shattering it. That is not just wind pressure from his fists, there is no gust of wind after impact. I try to stab him using just my normal strength because if I charge my sword again I will not be able to get back up. I am able to cut his tank top and just that. His skin is harder than metal.

Seeing that Arnold starts to use a lot of spells one after the other. Throwing small rocks at the brute so he has to stop and protect the blue haired man as well creating platforms for me so I can attack him from above. All this Brute does is scream and grunt, so him making a plan is probably out of the question.

As soon enough platforms were made I give Arnold a signal, I throw my two sabers at the blue haired man and Arnold begins to charge straight at them. The brute uses one hand to block my saber and is readying the other to punch Arnold.

Using his spells Arnold changes direction at the last moment making the Brute punch nothing and I jump from the top of a platform made of stone around 8 meters tall. I do a full dive charging my sword with everything I got. At the last moment I can, I swing the sword to increase its power as I hit the head of the brute.

After the impact, the force of it throws me to the side where I fall to the ground pretty much where I was when all of this started. As I look up I am feeling fear. True fear. This thing is not hurt one bit. My sword left my hand and is by my side a little chipped. I am out of strength, I can’t even talk, I see Arnold coming in my direction but I also see the brute preparing to punch me. He is really fast for someone that big. Before Arnold reaches me the brute punches again and I feel like I am being hit by a truck as I crash into the wall behind me.

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” I scream in pain. It’s all blacked out, I can see a thing. After a few moments I open my eyes and see Arnold in the same state as me to my side.

“FUCK!” Arnold screams in pain and frustration.

I can’t even talk, I don’t have the strength for that. I do my best to turn my neck so I can see Tiffany. The Brute is grabbing her.

“Yes, but be careful, I don’t want her hurt.” The Blue haired man says to the Brute.

“You said they were strong, they killed a lot of adventurers.” The Brute says annoyed.

“You are just unbelievably strong, it’s not my fault.” He says as he tries to get Tiffany back.

“Let me go you oversized thing and you lunatic creep!” Tiffany screams trying to escape the grip of the Brute.

“Now , now. You are mine and you know it.” The blue haired man says in a condescending voice.

“I am not yours, never was. You are the worst and I don’t want to see you ever again.” She screams at the man.

The man slaps her to make her shut up.

“Let her go or I promise I will kill you!” I scream with all the strength I can muster.

The man then walks towards me. I am pretty much seated on my butt leaning on the wall behind me with my back.

“What did you say bitch?” He screamed at me.

“Shut the fuck up you creep!” Arnold screams.

The man kicks his head and Arnold stops.

The man then squat in front of me. I can’t move a muscle at this point so I do nothing. He begins to touch my boobs and do that for a few seconds. I am angry and disgusted. If there is any good side to this situation is that I am feeling nothing on my body.

“Good, I can probably have some fun with you too. hey Brute, can you get this one too? I promise to find someone for you that is really strong.”

“If the next one is weak I will break you.” The Brute says as he comes towards me with Tiffany still stuck in one of his hands.

I know what this man wants to do with me and I refuse to let him do it. I recovered just a little bit of mana so I can make a spell. I won’t be able to create a big fire but I will make a fire that cannot be put down. This fucker who is still touching my boobs will burn to death even if I go with him.

I make my magic circle right in front of me and it is perfectly in his face. Before he even knows what happened a small flame goes out into his eyes burning his face a little and putting his hair on fire. I don’t know exactly what happened. The only thought in my mind was a fire that will burn until there is nothing left. As I do that I truly feel exhausted and black out. But before that I can hear a scream that puts some peace on my mind.

“Why is the water not working?”

probably just a few minutes later I wake up again in the same place with a clothed Tiffany and Arnold by my side. Tiffany is healing me and I think she healed him as well since everyone else who is here is doing nothing and just looking around or picking things from the ground.

Her spell is working a little but it doesn’t do miracles. I can feel a lot of bones cracked or broken. I can’t even stand up.

“Fuck!” I say in frustration.

“Are you alright?” Tiffany asks me.

“Do I look alright?” I say in rage.

“The boy here probably thinks you are pretty alright.” She says in a suggestive tone.

Arnold is holding me from behind so I can feel something there. But right now I don’t have the strength to do anything. Looks like he is at least with his eyes closed. After a little while she stops.

“This is the limit of what I can do. Arnold just got a few broken bones but you were crushed completely. I can’t heal all that with the mana I have now.”

“Put some clothes on her, we are going back, we need to rest and you are coming with us.” Arnold says in a very serious voice, almost threatening her with the message.

She just nods and picks what I think was my shirt. Arnold put me on his back and we start to walk back. I use my magic string to pick my sabers and my sword back as we pass them. I will not leave without my weapons. Arnold does the same and picks his spear.

When we get back Arnold put me in my bed.

“Tiffany, take care of her, I will sleep now.” Arnold says as he leaves the room. I can’t see his face as he says this.

“Ok…” she says as she complies.

We spend some time in silence as she tries to heal some parts of my body instead of all of it as she was doing before. I can feel some bones getting back together but soon enough she is out of mana doing this.

“I’m sorry, I am out of mana.” She says apologetic.

“You fixed my ribs. I can at least breathe now.”

“This is all my fault. I didn’t know that thing worked for the man coming after me.” She says while holding tears.

“Who is that man anyway?”

“I don’t know, I worked for him once and after that he became obsessed with me.”

“What happened after I blacked out?”

“The man you put fire on just burned to death and that thing let me go and walked somewhere. Some people went after him.”

“Can you leave me alone for now. You can probably get an empty room now.”

Tiffany just nods her head, picks her bag and leaves.

I close my eyes and try to think about what happened but my mind is clouded by anger. Not anyone else, but me. I am too weak. Everyone almost died or got kidnapped. We couldn’t even hurt him. If the Doll Maker is on the same level, how can we fight him? I am too angry to think straight. I can’t think of a way to become that strong in such short notice. I always thought that I was a good fighter but the second I can’t use my sword I fall. I have such a strong sword, but I am beginning to feel like I don’t deserve to use it. I clean and sharpen all my blades daily, but now that I think about it I just treat them as an object, not as something that becomes part of my body as I fight. I can’t get attached to things fast the same way Lucia could. I am ready for everything and everyone around me to just crumble so I don’t think I can truly protect something I don’t care that much about losing at the end of the day.

At some point thinking about this I fell asleep but Arnold woke me up in the middle of the night.

As I open my eyes I see the lights on the street illuminating his face and he is with a black eye.

“What happened to you?” I say as I panic and try to stand up. And to my surprise I am able to.”What?”

“It worked, good.” Arnold says.

“What worked?”

“Nothing.”

“Tell me!”

“Nothing!” He shouts to me. This is the first time he does this.

I look at his eyes. He absolutely can’t or won’t tell me what he did. As I do this I sit in my bed and he kneels in front of me grabbing my two hands.

“I promise that I will protect. No one will hurt you like this again, never.” He says while kissing my hands.

“That is a tall promise to keep. I will continue on this path as long as I can.” I say in a somewhat sad voice. I can’t do anything else in this world but be a soldier that fights. It’s the only thing right now that gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

“Then I will become so strong you won’t be able to do anything.” He says in a serious voice. He is absolutely serious about this.

I pull him into my bed and hug him while we both are lying down on it.

“And I will become strong enough that no one will be able to go against me.”

“Then I will become stronger than that.”

“If you do that I will have to become stronger.”

We both stop for a few moments and begin to laugh.

“I was really worried about you. I only got a few broken ribs, you got completely crushed. I don’t know what I would have done if my partner had died.”

At this moment something dawns on me. This boy truly loves me. He is ready to die for me. I can’t let things stand like this. He needs someone who can truly love him back, not just the surface feeling.

I force Lucia back into the body. This took a mental toll that I was not expecting.

As soon as I do that, I begin to cry. Cry how I was afraid of dying, of getting kidnaped by that man, of him dying. Lucia probably felt all my fear and is still feeling all my fear. My reaction to stress and fear is to keep calm, hers it to be a kid. Which is not bad.

After that I don’t remember much. Just waking up hugged with Arnold and feeling happy in my heart but back in command again for some reason. Let’s hope we can finish our job next month.