In the early morning of April, the streets of London were quite busy as usual. On these streets of the world-city many people came by and went. With the clouds of no end blocking out the sun. It also represented the city itself with its gloomy atmosphere.
"Get your new paper here! Still no new light on the Whitechapel murders! Police is still left out in the dark!" A young boy that appeared to be no older than the age of 10 announced as he held multiple papers of the 18th of April 1888 issue of the London Park.
"Do you hear that? There probably has been another murder again."
"Oh dear, again? These streets keep getting less safe by the day, don’t they?"
"I have friends that live in Whitechapel, they say that the murderer only goes after prostitutes."
"...I think I will be holding off from going there for a bit."
A taller than average person walked past the gossiping women from the behind. He could have stayed and continued to overhear the gossip, but the subject matter didn't really bother or concern him at the very least. He wasn't from the poor area to begin with and neither did he know who any of these women were. It’s not like he’ll be able to recognize them to begin with if he did even meet them as to him just about everybody’s faces are the same to him.
He quickly looked at his faded silver colored pocket watch and noticed the time. He sighed and decided to walk towards his destination.
Within the horizon on the Eastern end of London, stood an estate. This estate contained a mansion and a decent sized garden. With only a few rays of sunlight coming through the gray clouds, the red bricked mansion glittered as the young man approached the estate.
Even though it was such a beautiful sight to behold, this was the house of a baron. The lowest class of the nobility. There were no gates in sight and as such the young man was about to step lightly towards it. However the peace and serenity of his beautiful surroundings were shattered by, what this young man considered, the bellow of a wild animal.
"Daaaaaaviiid~, let me lean on you for a biit!"
Before the young man, called David, could even try to run for his life…
GLOMP
...it was already too late.
Underneath his long coat that reached very close to his darkened boots, David could be seen wearing a suit. He could feel that the person that just called his name. But rather than having a simple hug, even from an observer's perspective could tell that this 20 year old man was being glomped.
"...Excuse me, but what are you doing Master?" David asked while forcing a smile, despite his pure annoyance towards the situation.
"Ahhh~ what's the matter? Aren't you delighted that the very first person that you are speaking to in the morning is me?"
"I guess...but uh...we're in a public area" David was trying his hardest to be as composed as he could while he was blushing. "You could've...waited a bit longer before doing something like that-"
“I could have waited, but if that were that case I wouldn’t have seen your adorable blush~!” she teased as David grew even more embarrassed.
“It can’t be helped I suppose.” The woman in her early 30’s, with thick shoulder length raven black hair pouted, as she let go of David after slightly touching his left hand.
David decided to use this opportunity to escape from his master’s wrath, by quickly dashing towards the building.
If I stick around...who knows what she’ll do to me next…
While he thought that, something slipped onto the ground right next to him. It appeared to be a folded slip of paper.
“Huh? What is this?” David asked as he picked up the slip of paper, with a slight look of puzzlement on his face.
“Oh that~!” The woman dramatically called out.
“...and why do I have the slightest feeling you left this intentionally…” David voiced out his thoughts, while trying to not rip the slip of paper unintentionally due to how annoyed he is by the entire thing.
“Well yeah, I did hand it to you as I was ordered to but you just went along and dropped it. How could you do such a thing~” She told the young man with a slightly sad tone of voice.
“Ordered...do you mean from the higher ups?” David was somewhat astonished by it.
“Of course, since I’m a higher ranked member in the organization for Assassins after all.” She began to sigh.
“Right...it’s thanks to you that I was able to be-“
The young man wanted to be genuinely thankful towards this loose woman, but before he could…
“As such, I was able to take a quick peek at your next mission!”
David saw the woman give him a look of complete joy, but that wasn’t what concerned him. "Hold on, why did you take a peek at that!?"
“Oh why shouldn’t I~? I’m your boss after all.” She pouted at David’s response.
David ignored her as he opened the slip of paper and began to read it.
“To David Midford:
Your next task is to capture a witch that has been causing havoc around the eastern forest of Manchester. You may do to her as you see fit, but do bring her to us alive.
* the management”
David couldn’t help but to just smile at his new mission.
“A witch? They actually do exist? This notice was too short to give any relevant information, but…”
“...As a result it gets very vague and requires someone else to give out the info of the mission.” The woman smugly finished his sentence, as she rested her right arm on David’s shoulder.
“This may be an assumption, but could that be the reason you’re here?” David concluded as he attempted to shoo her arm away from his shoulder.
“You won the lottery!”
“...” all David could do to sigh. A sigh that revealed both annoyance and the start of a massive headache of words that he didn’t want to say out loud. “Just… give me the details already, will you? I want to get a train ticket to Manchester as soon as possible.”
“Oh my, you seem to be quite in a rush to get away from me~♪” Despite that she revealed her grin on her face, she grabbed a train ticket out of her dress pocket.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Her face then changed to a serious one, something David found rare coming from her. “I’ll give you the train ticket, on the condition that you hear the rest of the details, deal?”
“Y-you don’t have to tell me. All I have to do is just kill a witch by the eastern part of Manchester! What else do I need just to get a train ticket?”
The master shrugged her shoulders then gave out a deep sigh. Then she slipped the ticket through the tips of his fingers. “Very well then. I better hope that you won’t regret this later down the line.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice. Well then, I shall be seeing you master.”
“Okay~! Have a nice trip!” The master said goodbyes as she was flapping her arms back and forth. To which David didn’t see as he purposefully looked the other direction, while walking away.
Well then...let’s hope that he doesn’t get himself killed, despite knowing next to nothing on what exactly a witch is capable of. The master thought as she took out a cigarette from her left dress pocket with her left hand and a lighter in the other.
(needs a line break or a transition)
The Euston Railway Station was the first inter-city railway terminal in London. Trains in this terminal run through 5 different parts of the country: Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow and Manchester. Because of this, it made it very convenient for even the regular civilians to pass by location to location from within one terminal. One of these stations within the terminal is known as London Euston Station, the station where David needed to be.
The station itself is somewhat crowded, with the time listed as 7:09 A.M, which wasn’t too surprising for David. He quickly looked at the ticket, which told him that he has less than 15 minutes before the train would leave. As a result: it took a lot of running past and dodging incoming civilians, while taking a bunch of shortcut turns, to having his ticket be shown by the conductor, to actually make it to the train’s platform.
“I…made it in time…” David panted to himself as he showed off his ticket once more to a staff member.
The staff member took a look at the ticket then handed the ticket back to him. “Your ticket has been approved. Have a good trip.” She informed as David waved and headed into the locomotive itself.
In the 3rd class section on the train, it was rather crowded. Somehow he managed, after a few minutes of searching, to find a vacant compartment.
“Good. Now I can actually do some prepping…” he told himself, while opening a briefcase when all of the sudden he heard footsteps entering the room.
Crap… he thought. This could be bad, this person better not sit next to me.
What appeared through the door was a brunette woman who wore a black gown with a black veil covering her face. She had a faint smile on her face as she walked in. “Excuse me mister, would you mind if I sit with you?” she spoke in a formal tone of voice.
David quickly shut the briefcase, in hopes that this woman who appeared to be slightly older than him didn't see anything in that briefcase. "S-sure, go right ahead." He said in a nervous-like tone.
The woman then sat, right next to him.
"Thank you, Fool."
"Eh, Fool?"
A tarot card was then shoved in his face by the woman. "This fool, silly."
The card showed a man in old clothes holding a stick with a bag at the end of it. While David wasn’t familiar with tarot cards, this card was indeed The Fool.
"I get that... The tarot cards are more commonly associated with fortune telling, but what are you trying to imply by calling me the Fool?" The look on his look was of complete disbelief.
"I see, that’s rather saddening… Oh well, in that case I will just have to kill you." Her expression changed from a warming smile to the look of a stone cold killer.
"W-wait, kill me!? Who the heck are you?"
From hidden pocket in her gown, she grabbed out a long sharp knife. "You don’t know? In that case I shall inform you. I'm The Three of Swords. It's a pleasure to meet you, The Fool."
The Three of Swords...isn’t that a minor arcana? David thought, as he quickly tried to escape the room.
"I do know what's in that briefcase," Three of Swords continued, "and that object in your coat happens to be a gun, correct?"
"Not quite," David said, as calm as he could be, as he grabbed a revolver outside of his coat pocket. "I'll reveal what's in that briefcase when I need to open it."
The metal revolver was pointed towards The Three of Swords.
"Oh my, you're going to shoot me with that? How cowardly of you to do that!" She mocked while holder her to her lip.
David pushed down the hammer and pulled the trigger. With a loud bang, a bullet was shot straight towards the knife wielding woman.
Without panic and with high efficiency, the woman slashed three times with her knife. Causing the bullet to be fracture into pieces.
David responded with two bullets in quick succession. The result was the same as before however. This outcome kept repeating itself over and over again until the revolver clicked.
She’s not bad… David thought as he reloaded his revolver while slightly panting. He did the absolute best that he could to keep calm. Wait...I just realized that I've been an idiot this entire time. I am indeed a coward and an idiot, for using a gun when I don't have the upper hand.
His eyes quickly narrowed towards the door. However...I have no other choice but to fight her at a closed range, as if I try to leave the room it won’t be good as innocent people would get harmed by my own careless decision.
“Are you finally done being in a daze-like state? Oh my! You’re going to be even more fun than I thought!” The Three of Swords told David in glee. She slowly walked across the room then placed her hand on his chest.
“It feels weird, you said you were going to kill me and now you’re placing your hand on my chest?” David asked, with a slight chuckle.
“You see, it’s quite simple. I pity you.” The Three of Swords grabbed his arm in a soothing manner.
“Pity me, in what way?”
She then held two cards, one representing the Fool and the other representing The Three of Swords.
“Pity that you’re in a game, while having no idea about it. The look in your face is calm but you’re just faking it. You’re supposed to be an assassin and here you are about to die by my own knife. Don’t worry, I have two others in case this one fails.”
“Go right ahead, stab me,” David ordered in a calm tone, as he lightly touched her arm.
“Are you sure? Quite the gentleman, aren’t you. Well, if you insist!”
One strike went and David was stabbed.
The young man however wasn’t fazed by it, but just retained a calm smile on his face. Sounds of laughter could be heard from him as he was bleeding from within the chest area.
“Huh?! Wh-What’s so funny!? You do even realize that I stabbed you!” The Three of Swords asked in confusion, as she was witnessing her victim laugh like a madman.
“I know, it’s just that I tricked you.” David revealed.
“Tricked me? H-” Then her right arm began to throb in pain.
“While you were touching me in such a gentle manner, it was rather easy to inject you with a needle into your right arm. And this needle contains something rather poisonous.”
“Poison!?”
“That’s right. A deadly poison caused by all of the toxins that are absorbed into my body.” (It’s a deadly one, caused by all the absorbed toxins in my body.)
He then pointed to his briefcase that was on the table. “What’s in there, is a change of clothes, spare bullets and of course, the antidote.”
The woman fell on her knees. In such a short moment the poison had spread enough through her body that her legs gave in from the pain. She looked up towards the young man, her stone cold face was changed into a desperate one. “Could… I-”
He shook his head, ignoring her plea. “You had intended to kill me. If I were to give you the antidote, you would just attempt to kill me for real with 0 consequences to your actions. However I’m not a cold person, I will attempt to spare your life… on one condition.”
“C-Condition? What would that be? Tell me what you want!”
“If you tell me about this ‘game’ then I would end the pain that you’re in. Don’t worry, you have at least a half hour remaining before the poison ends up completely destroying you from the inside.”
The woman hesitated.
“Fine,” she finally gave in, “I’ll tell you.”
“Good.” David said as he chose to sit down on a seat, while checking to see if he had anything that could heal his wound.
“The Tarot Game, as they call it, is a game consisting of 78 participants representing both the major and minor arcana. The goal is to kill each other for a prize. A prize that consists of a wish granting of any selfish desire anyone could have. Whether it is earning the title of duke, to having money and power, to having an ability unique to only them, the possibilities are endless.”
“So basically you tried to kill me just to have a chance of earning a wish of all things? That seems pathetic if I want to be honest.” David scoffed.
The Three of Swords’ voice grew weaker. “Don’t kid yourself, you must have a selfish desire of your own, don’t you?”
David shook his head. “I only like to do my job as an assassin, just to make a living. I don’t have anything like a selfish desire at the slightest.”
He raised his gun and one bullet later, The Three of Swords was lying in a pile of filthy scarlet red colored blood.
His vision grew hazy. “Right, a consequence of using this power is that it sacrifices my own blood in order to use it. If this ability had failed, then I would be dead at this very moment… and I won’t be able to find a way to repay the Master for what she has done for me…”
The next moment he was no longer awake and the sounds of a sleeping person could be heard.
A young girl who appeared to be a maid, entered the room.