Clang, a sharp sound of a metal and the whispering of feet skittering back across a matted floor. Sounds coming from the Guild's training hall portrayed the training of a young new swordsman.

Cody smiled, his sword was deflected perfectly by Maria, "That was great, your stance is decent, and that parry was well performed. We'll be able to move to basic offense soon." Cody praised her, she was panting with sweat dripping down her brow.

"Really you think?" She asked, a smile bloomed on her face. "How long are you planning on staying?" she asked suddenly, her sword lowered.

"Umh, heh." Cody's smile faded, "Yeah, I can't stay here forever, I. . . have responsibilities. Although, I will likely be returning after I finish your training." He spoke with uncertainty.

"Is there something you're staying for Cody?" Maria asked, immediately striking his vitals with a surprise attack.

"Well, possibly." He frowned on thought as he gave a feint, trying to slide past the topic

"Is it Skarlet?" She asked, once again, successfully seeing through and leading with a strong attack.

"Yes." He sighed, "I'm worried about something." He finally gave in and answered honestly.

"Hero stuff?" She said with a joking tone, but once again, she had him pinned.

"Yeah, probably, I had a vision a bit ago. Like a prophetic dream, and I'm worried that something is coming soon. I want to be here when it does." Cody finally surrendered, he let the information flow. Telling her about the dream in vague detail. But he omitted what the prophet had told him, that his worry was only half the reason. The other was his selfish desire to use her to get home.

"You're a good guesser. . ." He sighed as he stepped over to the weapon rack. Hanging up the training sword, she did the same. Clara approached and held a towel out for Maria. Cody paused for a moment, Clara was wearing a new collar. Her new collar was simple and leather rather than metal like what she'd been wearing previously and it had a golden tag with her name on it.

He shook off his dread and forced a smile onto his face, Everything will be alright, I can do this. He thought as Maria wiped her face, she then took the lead out of the training hall. As they walked through the guild eyes followed her, the new Lord of Aguris. A young fourteen year old girl, Cody was pleased to see respect and expectations in their eyes.

When they reached her home a new face greeted Maria and Cody at the door, His name was Joseph, he was one of the new staff hired by Maria. Clara followed Maria as she headed upstairs, likely to take a bath. Curiously, it seemed that Lilly was absent.

"Stay Cody, I won't be long." Maria said over her shoulder, "Come on Clara, let's take a bath together."

"Yes." Clara nodded, following Maria down the hall. She scampered happily after her master, tail waving happily. Cody sighed, moving to a bench in the entranceway, he sat down.

Joseph returned not much later, he handed Cody a towel as well. "How's it been, is she settling in?" Cody asked him with concern.

"The young Lady, she finds working on paperwork tiring. Although, miss Clara helps a bit. She gets her work done a majority of the time." Joseph responded, a soft smile on his face, he seemed fond of her.

"How about the orphanage, I hear she's been putting money towards that." Cody changed the topic, he'd been a bit busy and couldn't go see them the last couple of weeks.

"Well, in fact, the orphans don't have to beg for food anymore, the orphanage has more than enough funds to feed them." Joseph explained, this made Cody smile, he was glad that the girl was still doing the things that made him help her in the first place.

"What about talks of adventuring." Cody brought up another subject, remembering her excitement while she was under his protection.

"The young lady. . . still shows great interest in adventuring." Joseph said with a sigh, "It's the main thing that distracts her from her work."

"Ah, well maybe at some point she'll be able to be an adventurer." Cody replied hopefully receiving a nod from Joseph. "What is Lilly up to?" Cody asked suddenly causing Joseph to pause.

"Well. . . It should be fine to tell you this. It seems that the young lady's father had business partners in the black market. Lilly was apparently lent to him by a mediator from a larger organization. And now that the organization is pulling out the black market leaders are being rambunctious. They're pushing against My Lady's new reform's. There's been several attempts at her life, luckily all from lesser assassins than miss Lilly." Joseph explained, Cody's eyes got wide.

"Are they insane!? If they kill her then the crown will definitely get involved there's not another heir to place in the chair afterwards." Cody exclaimed.

"They don't seem to care." Joseph explained, then he lowered his voice so only Cody could hear him. "At the moment Lilly has gone to participate in a meeting with the heads of the black market and underground societies that run the shadows of the Kozak empire. Apparently she's trying to wrap things up so that Maria doesn't have to worry. She said she's gonna leave soon, that her true master will call her for her next mission." When he finished his vocal volume rose back to normal before he spoke again. "I hope that answers your question, I do have further duties to attend to. My apologies." Joseph bowed before politely stepping away, Cody leaned back, his mind lost in thought.

Maria closed the door behind Clara and began undressing, Clara walked over and started the bath.

"Eh, I'm quite sweaty hmph." Maria exclaimed a she stepped out of her clothes, she scampered over to Clara and grabbed the ribbon on the back of her maid dress. With a tug, she unraveled the apron and yanked it off. Clara made a surprised yelp and spun around as Maria tugged her dress off.

Maria laughed as she tossed the clothes aside and stepped into the bath. Clara was blushing, but she smiled softly before hopping into the bath as well.

"Hey Clara, can I wash your tail?" Maria asked as the girl slipped into the water. Clara shyly nodded and turned her back to Maria, her tail rose a bit out of the water, it flicked back and forth in nervousness splashing some water on Maria causing her to let out a little squeak as she covered her eyes to not get soap in them.

"Geez Clara, keep your tail still, why are you so nervous." Maria stroked her tail softly and Clara calmed down before resting her chin and hands on the edge of the bath. Maria began to hum a tune as she lathered up the white tail and began to scrub it thoroughly.

Clara began to let out a low sound similar to a purr causing Maria to chuckle.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Hey, are you a cat?" She teased causing Clara to blush as she turned around sharply.

"N-no that was, um, not on purpose. I'm just, h-happy." Clara mumbled the second half of her words as her eyes avoided Maria's. "alright turn around, I'm gonna wash your back now!" Clara declared as she shook away her nervousness.

~

When Maria re-entered the entranceway she smiled as she saw her hero asleep on the bench, the moon made him seem to glow softly. The light rain setting a soft atmosphere.

"Geez, guess he's been working hard lately. Wonder what he's been up to, he's definitely here for more than just worry for Skarlet." Maria whispered to Clara as she approached him.

She started shaking his shoulder till he eventually opened his eyes. "It's getting late, I wanted to have another chat with you, but you seemed so tired." She apologized, Cody got to his feet, groggily.

"Sorry, didn't mean to fall asleep." He apologized, "We'll talk more some other time." He promised as he took a step towards the door. He waved goodbye as he stepped out into the rain, he held his hand up and chanted a light spell called barrier, then he took off down the street.

Maria smiled as she closed the door, she then turned and headed up the stairs. Entering her office she frowned at the paperwork.

"Man who would have thought cleaning out my city and reforming some of the trade regulations would give me so much work to do." Maria sighed as she sat down and began to work, Clara began sifting through a stack of letters.

"Hey, what do you think of that David boy?" Maria asked Clara who turned to look at Maria.

"He, gave me goosebumps. I think he's hiding something, but I also think most competent nobles are like that. He seemed interested in your reform's and ideas. He also treated me and the other servants with respect."

"Yeah, he asked to marry me."

Thunk

"Clara, I just got this table please loosen your grip." Maria said with a hint of exasperation. "I turned him down for now. It's a little too sudden for me."

"That's good, smart choice. Oh huh. . . Hey Maria you should look at this." Clara suddenly lost interest in the topic as she was holding a letter stamped with a red wax seal.

"Hey. . . that's not the imperial crest is it?" Maria asked hesitantly as she took it and frowned. "It is, why are they?" She opened it and pulled the letter out. "Oh, it's an invitation. . . To the Princess's birthday."

"What!? When does it say, I'll get things ready right away!" Clara leaped up.

"No hold on, the party is in a month. This is an advan- hold on what? Hey um Clara. . . Is it normal for the princess to personally write these?" Maria stopped her sentence in the middle to ask another question as her eyes reached the signature at the bottom.

"No, that's highly unusual. She might sign them but, normally the letter is written by an attendant. Let me see." Clara took the letter and examined it, "Ugh Maria I smell trouble, this flowery handwriting. . . I even smell perfume." Clara looked at her master pleadingly.

"I can't refuse a direct invitation from the Princess of the Empire." Maria replied with a small frown, "but I do wonder what she wants."

~

Shielding himself from the rain, he ran down the street towards the Inn. It was chilly out, and the sky was mostly clear of clouds, he could see fine due to the full moon. When he arrived at the Inn he canceled his wind barrier and stepped inside, he headed up the stairs only to stop on the second floor.

Skarlet stumbled down the hall, blood dripped from multiple wounds on her body, she was dragging one of her feet like it was broken or sprained and her sword sheath was empty.

"Woah, hey." Cody rushed over and wrapped his arms around her, he helped her walk to her room. For once, she didn't refuse his help, even leaning on him for support.

"What happened?" He asked as he helped her into the room, she began undressing, completely ignoring him. Though she struggled, her wounds were bad, she kept wincing and making sounds of pain. Cody stepped forward to help her, she pushed him off, glaring at him. "Let me help you." He said, firmly. She sighed, rolling her eyes, she was being far less timid than normal. After that she stretched her arms out and let him help.

Cody slid her cloak off, then unbuckled her chest plate and sheath, before sliding all the equipment off. He looked her over, taking note of her different injuries. The main one was three long claw like marks through her back. She had a wound above one eye and a decent amount of scratches and small wounds just scattered around her body. There was her foot which she refused to put weight on as well.

"You know healing magic right?" Cody asked, wondering why she stumbled back like this.

"No mana." She spoke simply, Cody frowned, What kinda fight did you get into to exhaust all your mana and get this injured, did you win or barely escape I can't tell. Cody thought as he helped her out of her shirt, she didn't seem to care as her bra fell to the floor due to the strap being severed at the back. One of the cuts went straight through it, she simply crossed her arms in front of her chest as he helped her out of her skirt, she was basically cut up and scratched all over. He turned his eyes away a bit as she was left in just her underwear, though she seemed not to have the energy to care as she stumbled to the bed.

I can't use healing magic, ha, it's kinda funny really. A hero apparently summoned by the gods doesn't believe in them. I was told that faith in the gods allows healing magic to be possible. He sighed as he pulled out some ointment and bandages, she resisted at first but eventually settled to let him apply them. He paused as he kneeled beside the bed, for the first time he was struck by how pretty she was. Aside from the large gashes marring her back, he was taken for a moment at her figure and pure white skin. He shook his head and smeared some ointment onto his finger before coating the wounds. After he'd added a reasonable amount he grabbed the roll of bandages and asked her to sit up. She obliged and pulled herself up reluctantly, she was panting softly from the pain. He began wrapping her abdomen and chest in bandages. He was very conscious of her breasts, trying to be careful not to touch any more than necessary. There was a bit of awkwardness to his movements, a hesitancy that she took no notice of. He was unaware, but she simply didn't care much about it. Her mind had long been consumed by the desire to be stronger, her thoughts filled with the paths she should take to the top. She didn't care for modesty like some proper lady or something, but Cody hadn't had much luck with girls in his previous world, making this a fresh experience for him.

He discovered that her foot wasn't sprained, but dislocated, he reset it in place. She only made the grinding sound from her teeth gritting, she had an amazing pain tolerance.

There was a deep gash down her back, well three, like claws. Most of Cody's attention was on the three gashes on her back. He had to sew them together, she'd been bleeding heavily, with flaps of skin hanging off. How the hell did you survive the trip back to town anyway?

He sighed, "I'm staying here tonight." He spoke up before settling in the chair at her desk.

"What!? You can't just decide that." She exclaimed, she tried to get up only to wince and gasp before settling back on the bed.

"You're heavily injured, I'm simply going to make sure you don't die in your sleep." He explained, she laid down, rolling over to face the wall. What are you a child? Her tail lashed back and forth, and her ears lay flat against her head. It seemed like an hour went by before she finally spoke.

"T-thank you." She said, Cody snorted, she didn't say anymore before falling asleep. Cody kept watch on her, around midnight she started to run a fever, he retrieved a bowl of cold water and a rag. He laid it under her forehead, it was the most he could do.

He checked her back wound several times, it was getting infected like he'd worried about, it was causing her fever. She slept hard because of the fever, not even waking when he changed her bandages and cleaned her wounds, which he did multiple times for the more severe injuries.

Around daybreak, Cody woke her, she grimaced as she sat up. "What the hell, it hurts so much worse than last night."

"Your back wound has gotten infected, your mana should have recovered a bit, but a heal spell won't clear the infection. So don't heal your back, I need to keep tending to the infection." Cody explained, stepping back to let her heal, however she just looked at him awkwardly.

"I can't." She sighed with an exhausted look on her face. She flopped down onto her stomach, her tail tip twitched nervously. Cody frowned, but brushed aside his confusion while he spread more ointment onto her back, she hissed in pain or relief he couldn't tell. Can't use magic, really? Then. . . How?

After he reapplied the bandages he sat down in the chair again, she simply frowned as she lay on her stomach, tail tip twitching in annoyance.

"I'm fine you can go now." She finally spoke, he just ignored her though. "Hey, I said I'm fine. Get the fuck out." She growled at him. Outwardly hostile, but her tail displayed anxiety and her eyes held a bit of worry and disguised hope.

Cody sighed as he turned to look at her, "Skarlet, I'm not going anywhere till that wound heals. So save your voice." His words caused her to snort as her tail wiped back and forth in annoyance, but eventually settled into a light happy twitching.

"You don't have to do everything alone you know." He told her, she sighed and turned her head away.

"Yes I do, you wouldn't understand." She replied, those words felt really heavy and immediately shut him up.