“Boss, I’ll pay you back for the repairs, okay?” the girl said to the old lady standing at the bar.

The woman sighed in response. “This is the third time this month.”

“Sorry, sorry!” She laughed brightly, waving her hand apologetically.

Emil felt his eyebrow twitch. So she was a regular at starting fights? From the looks of it, she must have been, because everyone had already gone back to their meal. Only a few looked at her for a bit longer before glancing away. What a scary person... And she was coming towards him.

He watched with a growing sense of dread as she approached, taking the seat across from him. “Hey!” she exclaimed. “I haven’t seen you here before.”

“I’m not from here,” Emil answered tightly. When she was this close, he could see the glowing arrays still spinning in her eyes before slowly disappearing. Was that part of her magic? He couldn’t help but wonder. Even the tattoos had faintly glowed, but it was hardly noticeable.

“I see…” She grinned, revealing bright white teeth. “Do you want to fight?”

“I refuse.”

“Eh? Why?”

Emil recalled how she had easily sent the man flying. He was confident in his own fighting capabilities, but with the restraints he had placed on himself, he didn’t know how well he’d fare against her. Their battle experience varied greatly as well. There was no need for him to endanger himself right now, either. “I don’t want to.”

“Oh… okay, maybe later.” Disappointment filled her eyes. “What’s your name?”

He didn’t respond for a second. If she didn’t have any negative thoughts towards him, then it should be fine… “I’m Emil.”

“Ira,” she introduced herself. “B-class mercenary.”

Hearing that, Emil’s eyes widened even more. She was already that high ranked? How long had she been a mercenary? He reaffirmed that she was far from ordinary. She wasn’t hiding her aura so Emil was able to discover that she had reached the first Argenti stage. She was only fourteen or fifteen, so that could already be considered pretty good.

“So, I was thinking that we should become friends!” Ira exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “You’re new around here, right? I don’t mind helping you out and showing you the ropes.”

“Why?” He didn’t believe that she would do that out of the goodness of her heart seeing how she was so ready to initiate a fight. She wanted to keep an eye on him, probably.

She tilted her head. “Why? Because I want to. Do I need another reason?” Ira sighed, seeing that Emil didn’t have an answer for her. “Everyone in here is pretty weak. Even the children from my clan could take them down. But you… your blood smells good.”

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“What is that supposed to mean?”

Ira smirked and tapped her forehead. “Bloody Valkyries? Have you heard of them? Our sense of smell is something special.”

“Not really…”

“Ah? Well, I’m the daughter of the current chieftain. I got bored though so I ran away to come play in the Feram Empire’s territory. Too many people recognize me in the Blackbone Alliance to dare get in my way.” She let out a sad sigh.

Emil nodded his head slowly. He had heard of the Blackbone Alliance. Unlike the two empires that occupied this continent, the Blackbone Alliance didn’t have a central power. It was basically comprised of independent countries that banned together. But the individual strength of each one was nothing to joke about, which was why they had a place to claim such a large amount of territory. He understood that it was a dangerous zone, though, with plenty of infighting. Why would anyone worry about her if war was common ground?

“The Bloody Valkyries are one of the top five powers in the Blackbone Alliance, if you were wondering,” she said, seeing his thoughtful expression. “Do you know why?”

He shook his head.

She chuckled. “Well, we’re direct descendants from the Goddess of War, Bellum. We can’t really be considered humans anymore. Our appearances are pretty similar, but the inside is different. Anyway, there’s a small amount of us, but out of everyone, we have the highest fighting power.” Ira rested her head against her palm. “If anyone tried to fight me, they’d get slaughtered by Mama… better yet, their whole family would be eradicated. The other top four ignore because they don’t want to get involved. She’s done it a few times and so did her mother. And her mother’s mother. Make sense?”

All Emil was capable of gathering from all of that was she came from a clan of bloodthirsty, hotheads. Who destroyed an entire family over a fight? Even more so, if they got away with it, that only meant their strength was more than enough to suppress everyone else. The thought of that made his spine tingle.

Wouldn’t that be bad for him if he offended the young madame?

Ira smiled, seeing the shift of Emil’s attitude. “But I’m not too interested in all those politics. No one wants to fight me there, so I came here instead. But you guys are weak here. Our little kids could defeat the average warrior here,” she said gloomily.

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Emil questioned slowly. If others found out her background, wouldn’t they also avoid her? He already didn’t want to be associated with her from hearing that. He was pretty confident in the Night Sage’s strength within the Feram Empire, but the Blackbone Alliance was had monsters like the Bloody Valkyries. Besides, it sounded like Ira’s mother had also passed the mortal realm and was at least at the Speculo rank. No… if she lead an entire clan that powerful, she was even stronger than that.

She laughed. “We’re going to be friends so what does it matter?”

He let out a laugh that didn’t quite match her excitement. “Why do you want to be my friend? I’m no one special.”

“But I want to spar against you.”

“I refuse.”

“I already said that we can try later if you don’t want to now. Is there anything wrong with just having a little spar eventually?”

Emil shook his head silently. He didn’t have a response to that. It’d be weird if he vehemently denied it. Besides, the frenzied look in her eyes was beginning to creep him out. He felt that if he kept turning her down, she’d just attack here and now. “Well,” Emil trailed off.

“I already told you… your blood smells good. That means that you’re strong. You can’t fool my nose. I can sense that there’s a lot of power inside of you. I don’t think you can use anything other than a fraction of it. But… even that little piece...” The red of her eyes grew purer, a sinister grin spreading from ear to ear forming on her face. “Makes my blood boil.”