If there was one thing Luna loved about their quarterly lunches, it was that they were always accompanied by a show, and the one they just saw will stay with her for a long time.

She wasted her time reading a newspaper in a café near the town square. Luna sipped her wine as she scrolled through the main articles to find the page with the weekly lottery numbers. Unfortunately, she did not even receive one. Frustrated, she took another sip of her drink.

People-watching was one of her favourite pastimes, and the square was full of interesting people for her to observe.

Ork and human children ran around the square, while some played in the fountain and their parents talked in the shade of the trees. Glorkan workers manned the stalls, and she could see some service automatons cleaning the streets around the corner.

The machines' dull copper finish made them stand out. Luna inhaled deeply and savoured the crisp mountain air. A cool breeze swept through the mountain town, signalling the end of summer. She looked at the ork mothers who were watching their children interact with human and bestian children.

Orks are bigger and stronger than humans, with long, bulky arms, short, powerful legs, and muscular bodies beneath their sand-brown or marble-grey skin.

Their faces are massive, with large jaws full of sharp teeth and two massive tusks. They also have thick brows with beady eyes, flat noses with square-shaped ears, and human-like hairstyles. They are roughly the same height as them, but Luna has observed that when an ork is engaged in combat, they can grow to stand a full foot above them. Female orks are still muscular but a little more slender than male orks, but she'd fought both ork genders and discovered that they both hit just as hard.

A glorkan brought her some bread, for which she left a tip. It bowed and walked away.

Glorkans, on the other hand, are small, round, and fat. They are mostly merchants, traders, or labourers who are no taller than their waists and have only three fingers. They have large, heavy brows, dark beady eyes, and small round ears, but they also have a long snout that reaches their necks and jaws with small tusks. Glorkans don't talk much, but they communicate primarily through sniffing, snorting, or huffing, which Luna found endearing. While Orks dressed like humans, she had only ever seen Glorkans wear long robes that concealed their unflattering physiques.

It was a good idea that she took a seat outside. Luna closed her eyes and savoured the whisper of the leaves. When she heard a child’s cry, her eyes snapped open. It seemed one of the children had tripped and wailed while he ran over to his mother. She exhaled through her nose as she realised she had instinctively reached for her holster. Luna needed more wine than she thought, only to find her bottle missing.

“Can’t afford a decent drink, eh?” A long-haired man sat on the empty chair next to her table and drank straight from her bottle. She sighed. “If you want to relax, get a stronger wine.”

The man took a large drink and then poured some into her glass so sloppily that it spilled over.

Well, that’s just disgusting.

“I was relaxed until you showed up. Isn’t there a skirt you should be chasing?” Luna snapped back, pushing the glass away from her.

“Wow! Where did that hostility come from? I’m just trying to start a conversation here! I even poured your wine for you.”

“After you spread your filth all over the bottle.”

“Fine! Hey you!” He snapped his fingers and clicked his tongue at the glorkan worker that cleaned the tables. “Wine and three beers. Make it snappy.” The glorkan sniffed angrily, then left.

“Really classy, Max. This is why women hate you.” The long-haired man laughed at her.

Maxene le Meilleur, was someone who always reminded Luna of what a serpent made flesh looks like. His piercing green eyes were always accompanied by a handsome wry smile. His shoulder-length, sleek black hair perfectly encased his heart-shaped face. Max was always dressed to impress, wearing his signature dark grey well-fitted suit with a black trench coat lined with gold embroidery.

“So how did the meeting go?” Max said as he placed his feet on the table. His expensive leather boots lightly put dirt all over it. And it was really close to her hat and the fresh bread that she had just ordered.

“The usual routine, Max, We ate, drank, caught up, and even made an enforcer believe he was going to commit murder. By the way, Solomon is going to be a father now.” Luna got the bread and her hat off the table before the dirt could ruin it.

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“With a wife like his, I’m surprised it took so long. Wait, you made an enforcer do-what?”

“Just for laughs, of course, Solomon was messing with his mind the whole time. Long story short, we planted blanks. The best part was when the enforcer just dropped the gun. I just hope he won’t be pissed at us. He seems to be the holier than thou type of person.”

Luna opened the newspaper again to reread an article about how to cook salmon balls. “After all, he is the one we are escorting. I hope he will still follow orders after that prank.”

“Who did Solomon put in charge?” Max relaxed his body back in the chair as he put his hands behind his head.

“You’re looking at her.”

Max cursed and straightened up.

“You’re not going to make things harder than they have to be again, are you?! Are you going to force that garbage rule you have on everyone tonight?” Luna did not reply. She just paid attention to the recipe she was reading.

So you add shallots to the recipe. That’s what I forgot last time.

“Luna! Look at me!”

After a long minute, she closed the paper. “Silence means yes, Max.”

Max cursed again.

Both of them sat in silence and stared at the town square. When the glorkan delivered their drinks, Max drank his beer so quickly that by the time Luna finished taking a sip from her glass, he was already on his second mug. Once he finished his drink, Max slammed the mug on the table and made a sound of satisfaction.

“How many are joining us tonight?” He grabbed a cigar from his pocket.

Luna counted with her fingers. “Two enforcer squadrons, Me, You and the Golden hands-”

“Not everyone is here. Just me and doctor Gerwulf.” Max cut her off.

“You didn’t bring your guild?”

“No. Because I know you will be here. I don’t want the kids to see us fight.” He took the cigar from his mouth and drank heavily from his third mug. Luna just stared at him.

“Since when were you so considerate, Max?” She smiled, but Max cursed back at her. “Anyway, about forty people will join in the raid with both of us, so we will be running point on the whole thing.”

Max sighed. “Meaning we will be pretty much doing all the work for them then? Seeing as how you will be asking us to put on our baby gloves and give them love taps. Who will we be beating down anyway?”

“Run off the mill slavers.” Luna took a big drink from her glass.

“And you still want to go easy on them?” Max looked at her with a worried expression on his face. She remained silent as she gazed at the fountain in the town square.

Silence means yes then, he thought to himself.

They sat there quietly and watched the townspeople go about their business for the day. Max offered her a cigar, which she declined.

“Remember that time you were pushed into a fountain by that guy whose girlfriend you were trying to pick up?” Luna stared at the fountain.

“Hey! I could have taken him down if you and Baldric hadn’t tried to stop me.”

“Seriously? I thought you broke your nose that day. And I could swear that you were crying as we tried to get you up.” Luna chuckled.

“For the last time, I was wet from the fountain!” Max replied angrily as Luna just smiled at him, which pissed him off even more. “What about you? I’m not the one who landed in a fertiliser cart and couldn’t even move or talk for a few hours as she was visibly holding back tears?!”

“That’s different, Max. I’m a girl.” She snapped back.

“How was that different?! I remember you crying as we had to shave your head because the manure got in-”

Max didn’t get a chance to finish as she threw the newspaper straight at him.

Once they had finished joking and catching up, both of them left the café, but not before she forced Max to leave a huge tip for the Glorkan who served them. She wore her hat as they made their way to the fountain, where they stood and admired the simple decoration perched on by birds.

“What time is the meeting again?” Max offered her a cigar, which she declined.

“Five o’clock, in the warehouse near the town border. From there, we ride towards the mine site.” They stood in silence as they watched the birds bathe in the water.

“I know how you work and I respect you for it. But that doesn’t mean everyone else will. Not everyone will understand your code. So I pray to the Maker that you succeed in convincing them otherwise.”

She just nodded.

“This could have been so much easier if you just threw that morality of yours away. What you are doing is just letting them live so that they can do the same thing later on.”

“I know. But someone has to give them a chance to change.” She replied flatly, which made Max click his tongue.

“You love punishing yourself, don’t you?” Max lit his cigar. Just then, two young women, an ork and a human, passed by, which Max followed with his gaze. Luna smiled and shook her head.

“Don’t try to get into a fight this time, Max. There will be a lot of that tonight.”

“No promises. After all, we aren’t working for another couple of hours, so we might as well get friendly with the locals.” Max winked back at her and left to follow the two women. As Max got closer, he called out to them loudly, which got their attention.

Luna knew how Max can strike a conversation with anyone, which usually starts with him saying that he was lost. As if right on cue, the two women pointed him somewhere, and when he replied, the women laughed and began to escort him towards that direction. Max looked back at Luna and gave her a wave, leaving her there in the middle of the square.

“Flirt.” Luna said to herself.

She put on her huge hat as she headed towards the market. She still had a couple of hours, so she might as well check some of the local wares. Luna reached for her pouch and found that it felt slightly empty.

Wait? What?! Where is my money?!

She opened it to find a note inside saying:

Need money. Will pay you back later. Max.

It was written with such lazy handwriting, and the note even had a smiling face on it. Knowing she was defeated, Luna just smiled.

He really had earned the name "Golden hand."