“You’re here too Ruby? Did he also promise you alcohol?” Torgga was lying next to Ruby trying to start a casual conversation. Normally doing so wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary, but considering their current situation it seemed a bit out of place. They were both strapped onto a big table, unable to move as they waited for Scan to return and do whatever experiment he had planned for them.

“Uh, no I just wanted to invite him to the party but he said I first needed to help him out. You were easier to convince, all I needed to say was the word ‘party’ and you immediately agreed to come…” She sighed. Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea, but then again she didn’t want to disappoint Dorian.

Ruby was kind of obsessed with not disappointing people ever since she was a kid. Everyone had always told her that if she wouldn’t meet expectations, it could lead to the death of many people. For a child that was way too much of a burden and thus she spend many sleepless nights thinking about all the mistakes she made or could make in the future. Only when her sister was born and it was confirmed that she inherited the gift, Ruby’s breakdowns would stop.

“Of course I agreed, I couldn’t refuse your invitation, you’re a princess after all! Or did I dream that… To be honest my memory is kind of fuzzy so if you could help me out?” Torgga reeked of alcohol as he asked his question. But Ruby didn’t answer him, she simply stared at the ceiling and waited for Scan to start.

The door opened up with a loud bang and Scan returned with big googles on his head and two weird looking potions in his hands. They had a violet colour and Ruby noticed some steam coming out of the bottles. They almost looked like Wine, a special drink only served to royalty and only on very special occasions. As far as Ruby knew, Wine was the best alcohol in the world, or it was till the moment Dorian and Jamie came into this world.

“Now then, I want you both to test this new recipe for wine I came up with, if this is any good, I might be able to mass produce it and get RICH!” He looked like a mad man, partly because of his messy hair and the glasses hiding his eyes, partly because of the odd pose he struck.

So I was correct, it really was wine after all…

“Uh, if this is just wine, why are we strapped on a table again?” Ruby asked a reasonable question, but Scan chose to ignore her as he walked up to Torgga who happily opened his mouth. It looked like it didn’t matter to him what could happen, as soon as there was a chance for alcohol. He seriously had an issue.

Scan began to pour the liquid down Torgga’s throat and took a few steps back, awaiting the results. At first it seemed like nothing was wrong, but then all of a sudden, Torgga’s head began to turn red and he began to pant like a dog after a long run. It looked like he was in pain but unable to speak, however despite that Ruby had a feeling that he’d immediately do this again as long as it involved alcohol…

“Mhhh… I see, now let’s see what potion number two has for side effects.” With a smile he approached Ruby’s table. Ruby tried to break free of her predicament situation, first by force but as soon as she realized it didn’t work, she began to talk her way out of the ‘experiment’.

“Wait! It’s alcohol in masses you want, right? Dorian is mass producing it, maybe instead of using me as a guinea pig, I could… maybe spy for you? At least for a little while!” Ruby siled forcefully, begging Scan to accept her deal. After some hesitation, Scan gave her an answer.

“…No. It is way more fun finding your own method!” He smiled sinister and gave the defenceless Ruby the second potion to check its side effects as well.

After one hour of potion testing, she was finally free of Scan’s unforgiving experiments. She may have seen some unpleasant things, mostly on Torgga to her luck, but it was all worth it because she now had Scan’s confirmation that he would come to the party.

“Let’s see, the next one on the list is… Mister President. But I have no clue where he lives, what should I do?” Just as she said that out loud she noticed Jamie walking away with Mister President by his side. It looked like she had one less person to take care of.

“Wait, wasn’t Jamie supposed to only take care of the dangerous citizens? …It’s probably better to not think about that…” Ruby sighed, now would come the hard part. If she was being honest, living through the torturous experiments seemed way easier than talking to Kristina. She hadn’t ever talked to her and beside the one interaction with Dorian, she didn’t know Kristina at all.

Kristina Belle was a top class adventurer and part of a very powerful party known as ‘the west cold alliance’. She was known as a top class thief, having even stolen from the royal family when she was only twelve years old and being imprisoned by sheer coincidence with sixteen. Then the heroine of the west Jane Kist ordered for her to be set free and added to her new formed party, to which the royal family agreed to as part of Jane’s reward after killing a troll.

From what Ruby had heard, the ‘west cold alliance’ was disbanded half a year ago and only got together once every few weeks to fight on the front lines of the war against Diablo. For that alone Ruby respected Kristina a lot, but apparently she was also extremely kind hearted, giving all of the stolen money to the poor and those in need. Of course she also kept some to herself and lived in high society, in that regard she was a perfect fit for Dorian. Both of them were kind souls but hid said vulnerability behind a façade.

Ruby sighed, she really messed up with that dinner. If it wasn’t for her causing this misunderstanding, Dorian and Kristina would probably already be a couple by now. But that was all in the past now, what was important was that Ruby had a chance to clean up this mess and help out Dorian. But first she would need to find Kristina.

“Who could I ask about Kristina’s whereabouts…?” Ruby thought out loud. Apparently a certain individual had heard her talking to herself and approached her from behind.

“I could offer you my help.” The voice of the man send shivers down Ruby’s spine and immediately she began grabbing for her bow, however she hadn’t packed it on her back today and thus her hand grabbed nothing but air. Who was that man that just speaking send Ruby into immediate self-defence mode?

She slowly turned around, scared of who was standing right behind her. He had short blonde hair and a scar running along his right cheek. His piercing green eyes held no emotions and despite him smiling, Ruby felt terrified. The man wore a dark green robe with a hood, throwing a dark shadow on his face. Beneath the hood he wore clothes that were party made out of metal and partly made out of leather and fur, it resembled the look of a barbarian warrior. The steel of his big sword reflected some light and Ruby was able to see the dark blood on it. He was the most wanted criminal in the kingdom, Shin Hunter.

Known for his brutal way of murdering his enemies, he gained his place on the most wanted list by killing a whole town without leaving anyone alive. A huge bounty was put on his head and he has been on the run ever since, killing all of his pursuers if they dared getting too close to him.

While Ruby had already seen him interact with Jamie once before, she never expected to talk to him, much less talk with him alone.

“P-please don’t hurt me…” Her voice was shaking as she begged him for mercy. Ruby had left her bow in her room and except for a small throwing knife she always had on her, she had nothing to defend herself with.

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But to her surprise, Shin looked confused by her actions and words. He scratched his head and pulled down his hood, revealing his actually really handsome face.

“Listen, do you want my help or not? If I would want prejudice against me, I’d have gone somewhere else lady…” He was genuinely upset with Ruby. The reason he came to this town was that everyone was nice to each other and no one judged you. When he overheard Ruby, he simply wanted to help her but her scared face hurt him a bit.

“…B-but aren’t you Shin Hunter, the serial killer?” Ruby had let her guard down a bit. Maybe this was a misunderstanding and this man was just a lookalike.

“Oh no, I definitely am, but what does that have to do with me trying to help you out? Seriously, stop wasting my time if you don’t need any help.” He looked like he was over Ruby’s judging gaze and was about to leave when she suddenly grabbed his coat.

“I-I am sorry… It’s just that I’ve been told so many stories about you that- Anyway, I have learned that this town is very different from what I am used to, so if you could help me out, I would appreciate it.” Ruby decided to give Shin a chance, after all not even the heroes sent by the gods were truly ‘good people’.

“Mhh… Well alright then, follow me.” After some hesitation he agreed to lead her to Kristina’s place after all.

He lead Ruby through the town into a small back allay. As Ruby followed him to this dark place, she wondered if maybe she had made a mistake after all. If he truly wanted to, he could kill her right then and there… And he looked really upset about Ruby’s reaction about him, maybe he sought revenge and that was the reason they were inside this remote place…

“We’re here.” Ruby was woken up from her terrible daydream by Shin’s voice. They stood in front of a side entrance to a tall building with many windows.

“What is up with this place? Why does it have so many windows and floors?” Ruby asked.

“Well it’s basically an inn but in a lot bigger. It was Jamie’s idea, he called it ‘apartment complex'. After hearing the idea, Mister Brice was eager to build one of these apartment complexes and here we are. Most of the adventures that live in this town have an apartment rented in here. If you want to stay for only a few nights you go to the Golden Blood, if you plan to stay permanently you go to this place.” Shin explained as he opened the door with a key.

Ruby followed him inside and was pleasantly surprised with the clean room that greeted her. It was the complete opposite from the dirty back allay feel of the outside. While there wasn’t much space in the first, square room, it served its purpose. A big staircase going along the walls lead to lots of different rooms. Per side there were two rooms and Ruby guessed that the building had about ten floors. That would mean the whole building inherited about eighty apartments. Ruby was extremely impressed by this number but Shin had already began walking up the stairs and thus Ruby shoved her thoughts aside and quickly caught up to him.

“Excuse me Mister Hunter, but you still haven’t told me where Miss Belle lives?” Ruby’s question was justified but Shin just ignored her and continued climbing the stairs. After a while he stopped and opened up the door to his apartment with another key. He signalised Ruby to follow him and after a bit of hesitation she did as he commanded.

The insides had a lot more space than what Ruby expected and the interior design was a lot like that inside her family’s castle. She was impressed that such a small town was able to afford all of these expensive luxuries like a fireplace and such big glass windows. But the most impressive thing was definitely the big sofa standing in the middle of the room, possessing a quality Ruby had rarely seen before. Two doors led away from this main room, both styled very differently. The left door had two swords hanging over it, while the right one was decorated with blue coloured flowers.

“Wow…” Ruby whispered. Shin had heard her and began to laugh a bit.

“It really is impressive, I never dared thinking about living in such a place in the first place!” He smiled as if he remembered something pleasant from the past.

“Uhm, this is all very impressive, but you said you live here, not Miss Belle. And you said you could bring me to Miss Belle’s place…” Ruby got a bit nervous but Shin just smiled and began calling out to Kristina.

“Hey Kris! There’s some kid who wants to meet you!” For a while there was no response and Ruby wondered if Shin just wanted to mess with her, but then a soothing voice called back to Shin from one of the side rooms.

“Alright Shin, give me a minute I am coming out of the bath right now!” Shin blushed a bit hearing Kristina’s situation.

“Too much information…” He mumbled under his breath and Ruby began to understand what was going on. Shin and Kristina were living together, if her theory was true, then that would explain a lot. How could she have not seen this before?

So then, Mister Hunter’s room is the left one with the swords, that much is obvious. So this would mean that the right one…

She stared intensely at the door with the flowers, waiting for Kristina to come out of it any second now. But to her confusion no one came out of the door- in fact someone began tapping on her shoulder. When Ruby turned around to find out what Shin wanted from her, but to her surprise it wasn’t Shin who approached her but Kristina wearing a cute dark green pullover and a short black skirt, resembling the colour of her short raven black hair. Her dark blue eyes were angrily piercing through Ruby, apparently she hadn’t forgotten about the ruined dinner for which she was responsible.

“What do you want? Here to ruin another relationship?” Her voice was condescending while she looked down on Ruby.

“Oh yeah, It wasn’t me who was all like ‘I shall accept your rejection’. Like what? I went through all the trouble of finding you and explain that it was my mistake and what did you do with that chance? Send Dorian a letter? I am surprised he even got out of bed to read it!” Ruby initially wanted to come off as submissive to convince Kristina to come but seeing Kristina looking down on her ticked her off.

“Uh, I’ll leave now… Maybe The Golden Blood is already open? Anyway, see you!” Shin quickly left, he knew he shouldn’t and couldn’t interfere in what was about to happen.

The two girl however didn’t even notice him leaving, they just kept going. “Oh yeah, I gave him a last chance! I know I am not the prettiest girl in town, I am an adventurer! I have to always be ready for battle, I can’t always make sure that I look stunning! You know what? When Dorian invited me over for dinner I did everything I could to look the best I could. But as soon as I enter his room he sits there with another woman who looks even better than me without even trying! Do you have any idea how frustrating that was?!”

“…I wasn’t!”

“Oh I am not done talking princess! Maybe it was a misunderstanding but that still doesn’t change how I felt at the time! I was devastated and the worst thing was that Dorian didn’t even bother trying to explain it to me, no you were the one to do that.”

Ruby went silent, she had never thought about that. Of course Kristina would be heartbroken after such a thing, but the fact that Dorian did nothing made it even worse.

“And then, I wait for him to show me that maybe he does care, but he doesn’t show up, leaving me heartbroken again. I waited for nearly an hour, hoping that maybe he got held up or something. And I was right! I was so happy to see him, even if he was just in his underwear. When he said he was really sorry and that he got held up because of a fight, I forgave him! But the second he told me why he fought I knew I had no chance. He chose to search for you instead of going to our date. He chose you over me, he couldn’t have been clearer with that.” Tears had started dwelling up in Kristina’s eyes while talking. She really had feelings for Dorian, Ruby could see that clearly now.

Once again, Ruby’s lack of words showed how off guard that caught her. If she really thought about it, Dorian was a real jerk looking at it from Kristina’s perspective. While for Ruby he was a good guy who worried about her and even fought a friend to stop her from leaving, in Kristina’s version he was an asshole who stood a girl giving him a second chance up.

After a while, Ruby broke the silence and tried to comfort Kristina, completely dropping her anger. “…I-I had never thought about it this way. This must have been terrible for you, I feel really sorry for you…”

“…Thank you… That means something I guess…” Kristina was still sobbing while speaking, but it slowly got better.

“Dorian is a real asshole from your point of view…” The two girls began to laugh a bit.

“Yeah, you’re right… Still, I can’t help it but like him… But you are the winner, I have realized that now.” Kristina looked to the ground with an incredible amount of sadness in her eyes.

“Kristina listen, while I now see why you have been avoiding Dorian lately, you made one huge mistake. He doesn’t like me, at least not in the way you think he does. The one he really likes is you Kristina.”

“Heh, that’s nice of you to say… But then why hasn’t he done anything?” Kristina looked a bit hopeful again.

“Well, okay… All right listen, I wasn’t supposed to tell you the reason why, but… screw that.”

And thus Ruby explained the whole plan of Dorian, organizing a huge party just so he can come closer to her for a bit. Honestly, it was a way too complicated and detailed plan but while Dorian acted like an extrovert, he was really shy and introverted in reality. That was something Ruby had learned quite quickly while working under him.

“Wait, are you serious?” Kristina stared at her in disbelieve.

“Yes, so get into your cutest outfit and get him! He stands no chance against you anyway, he’s already head over heels for you!” Ruby smiled at her.

Together the two of them disappeared inside the bathroom to get ready for what Dorian had named ‘The party of the century’.