“I THOUGHT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO RESCUE ME DAMNIIIIIT!”
Yuri yelled while being carried by Hikaru in an embarrassing princess carry while he ran around, attempting to avoid the oncoming barrage of attacks coming from all around them.
“Sorry Yuri, I can’t really attack while holding you, I couldn’t stand you getting hurt.”
Hikaru said calmly, jumping around to avoid the attacks while making peculiar poses to barely avoid the arrows whizzing past them. Making the whole scene look both impressive and comical.
“I-i see..well in that case..”
She felt her face redden slightly for reasons unknown to her.
“So you can fight if you don’t have to carry me..?”
Shaking her head to dispel her odd emotions, she asked him.
“Do you have some sort of plan?”
Hikaru asked while doing a backwards flip to avoid both swords and fireballs, making Yuri light headed and changing her eyes to spirals.
“Y-yes…”
She called upon all her willpower to not puke.
“If you can take me to the tunnel..i can go get the forces outside and start the siege..while you fight your way to the entrance and open the gate.”
Nodding at her own brilliant plan, she felt satisfied with her role of not having to do anything special.
Hikaru nodded simply and made his way towards the toilet area while dodging the attackers with inhumane precision.
Finally dodging his way over to the entrance to the tunnel, he slowly put Yuri down from her embarrassing princess carry.
Hikaru softly patted her head, making her get a familiar uncomfortable feeling in her chest, before drawing his sword and heading back into the main room.
Yuri shook away the feelings of worry and whatever other feelings lingered in her chest and climbed down into the sewers. She ran back towards the area Jac had told her about earlier, the sounds of metal clashing against metal and flesh slowly fading away into a soft echo in the dark tunnel.
–
Yuri finally found Jac, after spotting the army of around a hundred men who were unsuccessfully trying to stealthily get close to the bank.
She found both Jac and Galin standing at the front, holding binoculars and looking out towards the bank.
She tapped them both on the shoulder.
“Not now soldier, can’t you see we’re busy?”
Galin grumbled while turning around.
“Girl..? What are you doing here, weren’t you supposed to be getting the gate open?”
“What..? Miss Yuri, what are you doing here?”
Jac turned once he noticed it was Yuri.
“Well, I got into some trouble inside, but it’s fine, I have someone who will open the gate for us soon”
She smiled confidently.
“This wasn’t part of our plan…i hope you are right. Otherwise all the information you got for us will be worthless..”
Jac and Galin turned their attention back towards the bank.
“I hope I’m right too.”
Yuri clutched her chest while trying not to think of what it implied if Hikaru failed to get the gate open.
–
A few long minutes later, the gates slowly began to open.
It was unnaturally quiet. Everyone expected the sounds of yelling and fighting to fill the air, while whoever was inside made their way out to avoid getting killed.
Instead of that, a single figure appeared out of the gate, holding nothing but a simple blade in their right hand.
The figure slowly walked over towards the small army waiting outside the gates, making the soldiers unsheathe their weapons, wary of this strange appearance.
Yuri rushed towards the figure once she realised who it was.
“How did it go, are you hurt?”
She asked with worry, looking all over his to make sure he wasn’t missing a limb.
“I’m fine, although I should be the one asking you that”
Hikaru slowly sheathed his sword.
Once Jac and Galin realised the figure wasn’t hostile, they quickly gathered up the army and rushed inside the bank.
Instead of a loud battle, what followed next were the confused and surprised voices of the soldiers.
“Everyone is dead..?”
Jac asked once he and Galin made their way back towards Yuri, who was tending to Hikarus non-existent wounds.
“Yes, it was my fault..I couldn’t get the gate opened. They were desperate to stop me from doing so, so I had to keep disposing of those that got in my way..”
Hikaru scratched the back of his head.
“Besides..they harmed Yuri..i feel no remorse.”
Hikarus eyes were hard and unwavering, making Jac and Galin to unconsciously take a step back.
“Well..anyway..”
Yuri coughed nervously, unsure of whether to be happy or scared about Hikarus response.
“About the reward..?”
“Ah yes, I did promise you a single item from the vault. We can finish that now, since we also have to check that everything inside the vault is in order.”
Jac quickly regained his composure and answered politely.
They slowly made their way through the bank, walking through the room full of dead cut up rebels that they had to step over.
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Yuri felt sick at the sight before her. Yet she still searched through the belongings of the dead mages, slowly getting more flustered as she searched.
“…It’s not here…”
She muttered.
“My dagger…and my gauntlets…they’re not here..” She whimpered.
“….About that..i might have seen a few figures escaping towards the tunnels while I was fighting..I’m sorry Yuri..i let them escape..”
Hikaru replied solemnly.
“You idiot!”
(Apologising after saving me, is he serious!?)
Yuri wiped away her forming tears and gave Hikaru a punch in his stomach. It ended up with Yuri rolling around on the floor while holding her hand in pain.
“Yuri!”
Kneeling down at the sight of Yuri in pain, Hikaru attempted to cast a simple healing spell to lessen Yuri’s pain.
“Well…we can talk about this later..”
Standing up as if nothing had happened, she began walking towards the vault.
“Young ones are always unreasonable, don’t you worry, your lover will forgive you soon enough.”
Hikaru received a pat on the back by Galin.
“Oh we are not lovers.”
“Sure sure.”
Galin smiled and walked off, making Hikaru raise an eyebrow at the peculiar short man.
“Well, here we are.”
Jac stood near the giant vault door that was filled with runes and cogs.
“The city’s treasury.”
“So this Is what it looks like from the outside..”
Yuri wondered at the sight of the vault door.
“What was that?”
Jac turned his head.
“Nothing nothing.”
“Alright then..?”
Jac began to turn the various cogs in a certain order while muttering passwords under he breath.
A while later, the cogs started moving on their own and the giant vault door swung open.
A giant room stretched out further than the light from their lanterns could reach. Filled with all sorts of wondrous objects.
Unlike the previous vault that Yuri had been in, this one was filled primarily with different objects made of clay and different armours and weapons.
None of that interested Yuri, her eyes being naturally drawn to the the large golden pedestal in the middle of the room. On it lay a single box made of green metal.
“That, I want that!”
She pointed at the box like an excited child in a toy store.
“But..that is the holy relic of this city, we can’t just give it away!”
Jac protested.
“Aye I knew it, you wanted the relic after all..”
Galin nodded his head while rubbing his chin.
“You promised me a single item from this vault if I helped get the bank back, a deal is a deal Jac.”
Jac received a menacing glare from Yuri, making him step back worriedly.
“Okay okay! A promise is a promise after all.”
He answered nervously
Yuri smiled in delight that her intimidation was still working.
What Yuri didn’t notice however was Hikaru standing behind her, holding his hand on his sword while glaring at Jac.
Jac quickly walked over to the box and mumbled a few things, making runes appear and disappear on it. Runes Yuri had yet to see, the box opened slowly, and instead of a wondrous item, inside, lay a small piece of paper.
“What the- where is the relic, Jac, don’t dare try and hide it!”
She snapped at the shocked looking man.
“No..it should be here..”
Muttering, he slowly picked up the paper and looked at it. All it contained was a symbol of the sun.
“What does this mean?”
She looked at the symbol curiously.
“I don’t know, but one thing is for sure…someone has already beaten us to this once…”
Hikaru answered while looking at the symbol, his expression hard, and darker than usual.
“H-hikaru, are you alright..?”
Yuri asked timidly, slightly frightened by his expression.
“What? Oh yes, i’m perfectly fine, Yuri we should probably get some rest now, since we are done here..”
He answered quickly, his expression changing back to his usual kind one.
“Right..well not before I get what I deserve..i was promised an item and I will take an item!”
She looked around the vault.
“This!”
Yuri pointed at a suit of armour too large to fit her small body. It was glowing slightly, faintly, and Yuris keen eyes had picked up on that.
“Then I grant you permission to take the suit of armour”
Jac announced to no one in particular.
“I always wanted some proper armour that wasn’t a dress..”
The empty shell of the armour now contained a muttering Yuri.
The suit began to slowly shrink until it fit her body very snuggly.
“I knew it, it was a magical armour after all~”
She laughed and showed off her new armour to Hikaru.
A few seconds later, the armour began to glow.
“W-what?”
It began to reform itself, the light blinding everyone in the room, Yuri included.
The light slowly subsided, and instead of an armour, Yuri was now wearing a cute small white dress, that barely reached past her knees.
“Wha-what the hell is this!?”
“Ah, all the items here are highly magical, they usually change their shape to what they think fits the owner more. I guess it thinks this shape is the best one that would fit you?”
Jac explained.
“Hah…well atleast it’s magical..so it should give me some protection..right?”
Yuri asked desperately.
“Correct.”
“Well..good enough..let’s get out of here Hikaru..”
She sighed and walked out with Hikaru following after her.
–
“So what were you even doing inside the bank?”
Yuri asked Hikaru once they arrived at the Inn she was staying at.
“Well..once you disappeared, I naturally went out to search for you. I thought that since it’s you. You would end up in a city looking for a relic sooner or later, so I began to search through all the cities that had a relic.”
“I see..”
She nodded her head in understanding. It was indeed what she had done.
“At some point I ran out of money. I had searched all the cities containing relics near Urnan, I bought as much information as I could and made my way across the sea. So I needed money, and I had heard there were rebels who were hiring in this city, and they conveniently had a relic. It seemed more efficient if I earned money while being somewhere you might show. And I was correct.”
He smiled softly at Yuri as he his journey.
“So you were working for the rebels..that makes sense..” She nodded, “But wait..how the hell did you get all the way here from Urnan this quickly.. I thought it was supposed to take ages to travel across the sea?”
She asked suspiciously.
“Well, I have my ways..”
He said cryptically.
“So even you have secrets huh..”
She sighed.
“Fine, but we are still not done..”
She looked at Hikaru and gave him a villainous smile.
“You still have to be punished for losing my dagger.”
“Yes..it should be our next step to try and get it back, it’s a great asset in retrieving the relics.”
“I agree, but you still have to pay for losing them..” She pouted slightly.
“Ah I have just the thing.”
Hikaru took out a small bag filled with something sweet smelling.
“What’s that?”
She asked curiously, her nose drawing her closer.
“It was a gift I had bought for you when I travelled through a city that specialised in sweets production. This is their best product, so it never goes bad.”
He handed her the bag.
Yuri reluctantly tried one of the sweets, her eyes gave off a bright glint and she began to quickly eat all the sweets.
“Shish ish sho guud”
She said happily while munching.
“I’m glad you like it.”
Smiling kindly, Hikaru slowly patted her head, making her blush slightly.
“Buh..” She pouted slightly.
“I will make you pay someday..”
She complained while being patted, but didn’t try to resist.