Cathy was confused since Truelip never was interested in anything other than adventuring so she never spoke to her about anything else.

“Yes, what is it?”

“I think it’s better if we spoke in private.” The blonde replied with her emotionless tone.

“O-okay… There are private on the second floor…” she said awkwardly as she was nervous now about what she wanted to talk about.

Her awareness became obvious once she got up and started walking since she was trembling ever so slightly, but obvious to the all-seeing Truelip, who ignored it as she does most things; and unnoticed by Elliot.

As they entered the aforementioned door, it revealed a small room behind it which had a few doors and a staircase. IT seemed that some of the doors were quiet busy with multiple receptionists and possibly other workers at the guild were constantly using them. Of course, they went directly up and entered the first free room that was available.

The room itself was quite lavish, having mahogany furniture, a red carpet, small figurines and other decorations scattered around as well as lighting that seemed to fill the entire room, giving it a shining feel, despite the windows being pointed towards the neighbouring building which prevented most sunlight from entering. They sat down opposite each other without uttering a word the entire time.

“So what did you want to talk to me about…?”

“There’s this rumour I head.” She paused after saying that.

Catharine’s heartbeat escalated when she heard those words and the silence only made her hear it louder which made her even more worried, thus beating even faster.

“W-w-what rumour…?”

Truelip stayed quiet for a moment, although that moment felt like an eternity, as the blond simply gave Cathy a look that was between her normal blank stare and one filled with curiosity and slightly weird at the strange behaviour.

“Apparently there have been many kidnappings recently during the night, without any witnesses as well as many gangs inside the city, either just vanished or started attacking in unison with each other.”

It took the purple haired girl a couple seconds to process those words as the topic was way off from what she expected and instantly felt a rock of her chest.

“Ah, that…”

“Yes. From that pattern, we can deduce that someone is attempting to organise them. Or get rid of them if they refuse.”

“Yes, we already got reports about that from our scouts… I’m not supposed to be telling you this, but they found about it yesterday… How did you learn about this?”

“Magic sense helps me listen without even being noticed.”

Cathy for reason seemed grumpy at that response as she mumbled “Why do mages even have eyes and ears…”

Surprisingly to her Truelip answered with a question of her own “Why do you have a sense of touch?”

“Huh? I don’t know…?” she replied puzzled at the sudden question.

“Because the better your notion of where you are, the better you can use your body and be aware of your surroundings. Same with magic sense. Besides if something obstructs one sense you have a fall back just like if you get blinded you can still react relying on your touch.”

“Okay…” After a moment of though Cathy continued “Why not join the scouts?”

“I don’t want to.”

I expected that reply to be honest.

“As for the gangs, I’d like to be assigned on that quest please”

Honestly, I also expected her to start with the obscene quest request first. Huh, quest request rhymes. How didn’t I notice that in all my years of work?!?

 

And thus Truelip was patrolling a small street intently looking at the alleys as the other person who was with her, a petite girl with pale skin and orange colored hair with pink strands here and there, was getting irritated, by her delaying, as it was sunset and almost the end of said person’s shift while the other was working vigilantly. It was the third day she was put on guard duty on her request. The first day she caught two small-time burglars trying to get into a house and nothing on the second one.

“Don’t you think you’re trying too hard…” her co-worker asked with slight irritation in her voice. “I know you have some important secret mission or something, but it’s getting bothersome now…” Said voice while being nice to the ear, simultaneously sounded very harsh coming from her, as if a shy and quiet person was trying to sound Irish.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

A sigh was heard in response “Won’t focusing so much make you actually miss something when it happens…?”

“Don’t worry, I have magic sense in case that happens.”

“Then why don’t you just use that instead!” the girl raised her voice slightly

 

“I am. But it’s possible to be deceived with masking magic and it’s hard to combine alongside illusion magic since the light itself will have traces of mana in it and since its sunset now and guards are about to change shifts, it’s the perfect moment to move around, especially since even if a guard notices strange movements, they can hide, while his eyes adapt to the darkness in the alley from the bright streets they were just looking at.

The response she got was a lot more detailed than she expected or care about and since they were going a bit faster towards the guard post she didn’t bother asking any more questions.

 

That same night in one of the streets a girl was walking down an alley, although it was almost the size of a street and was filled with crates scattered here and there. She wore a white dress with a few decorative layers with a jacket over her back to keep her warm in the cold night. She had long black hair, tied in a knot, starting from one side of her and going around the back, to the other side. She also had a hidden dagger on her back under one of the dress layers, though it wasn’t that hidden and was possible to be spotted by a keen eye, like a certain Truelip’s.

Down the alley were a few thugs on guard. They looked at each other once they spotted her walking towards them and waited for her to come closer before doing anything rash. There was three of them there, each standing behind a makeshift barricade of broken wooden furniture and other such garbage.

Once she did so, she just stood there looking at them with slightly furrowed brows. The alley itself was dark and barely lit from the moonlight.

“Are you from the rusty cockroaches?”

All their faces went sour once they heard the name. The sole girl from among them spoke up “And whad if we are?”

The other girl gulped and stared momentarily before answering. “I need to talk to Dryan.”

The gang instantly tensed up, the guys glancing at each other from time to time before their girl continued again. “Who’s bitch do ye think ye are? He doesn’t just talk to any fuck that shows up. What do ye want to talk to him ‘bout?”

The girl visibly started trembling. “I.. u-i..”

One of the guys laughed at her when she couldn’t even reply “What happened mate, cat got your tongue? Hey Kurch, whad ya say we prep this one for Dry, before we give ‘er to ‘im?”

“Don’t pester me with this trash, I got guard duty to do.” Replied the girl, this time sounding more annoyed as she readied a crossbow hidden behind the barricade.

The guy ignored everything she said as he continued. “Sounds good to me. Then we’ll be having some fun with ya dear. Right after we’re done with your friends.”

Right when he finished his sentence an arrow was shot, passing by the shy girl and aimed towards the other girl, who was right next to the wall. Luckily for her, she expected it and duct right on time.

Of course, that scared the shy one even more as she instantly held her hands to her chest and backed away while the other one verbally complained “Why ye gotta always target me ye fuckers.”

Although she didn’t expect a response, Stela suddenly jumped over a crate sideways and aimed another arrow. “I’m sorry sweety, but I just can’t take my eyes off you! Though you’re probably used to getting that.”

The only response was a growl as multiple arrows went over the barricade before, she got up and shot her crossbow barely missing.

As that was happening one guy who was talking earlier charged right after the arrow barrage. Surprisingly Steal wasn’t with her party as a different adventurer blocked that with his shield while simultaneously swinging to strike, his attack meeting the opponent's blade.

The third person from the gang members also charged, but towards the barricade to get closer, as he was further behind another one.

As that was happening two more warriors charged from behind Stela while two fireballs were flying towards the barricades.

As now three attack were going towards him, the thug cast [Steel Body] and increased his defences, as he didn’t even try to block and instead aimed at the opening of the guy with the shield, piercing him in the shoulder, forcing him to drop the shield, while the other three blades simply bounced off him.

Just before the fireball hit the barricade, the girl got up and aimed her crossbow, took a good look at the ball and yelled [Ice Arrow] before shooting the arrow, leaving a chilled trail behind it, exploding the fireball before it hit the barricade and vastly decreasing its range, in the direction of the cold arrow, the shockwave not even reaching them.

Of course, the other fireball hit the targeted barricade, deafening everyone’s ears temporally as the pieces flew everywhere.

At that moment three projectiles were thrown from the roofs hitting the two mages while Stela avoided the third as it barely scratched her arm. That sadly was to no avail as she instantly started feeling dizzy and started swinging back and forth, her vision blurring, before all three of them collapsed.

Now with the support out of the way, the second melee thug jumped out from behind the barricade and charged the other knights as he cast [Decisive Strike] and took down two of the adventurers as his friend finished the one he was already working on.

“Hahaha, easy as ever.” The guy who hadn’t spoken yet said.

“Hey, keep it down. Someone might’ve heard the explosions so we need to take care of them before anyone shows up.”

“Ay ay, princess.”

“And here I was getting excited about finally getting to play with her.” The first guy said as he was looking lecherously towards the shaking girl who was watching all this while hiding behind the crates.

“Fuck off, we got more important things to do. You can do whatever after it.”

“Tch, whatever…”

Just as he was about to go tie her up so she doesn’t scram he stopped, pressed his hand on the handle of his blade and tensed up visibly.

“What…?” the other guy asked slightly nervous as he also put his hand on his blade.

“Who’s there…?”

When the other two looked at where he was, they only saw a pair of red glowing eyes staring at them from a distance. They shone so bright it was like they were right in front of them and it felt that way too as they’re perspective started to get fuzzy and couldn’t tell how close anything in their direction was.

Fuck, a vampire or a demon is the last thing we needed to deal with…

The eyes looked like they were getting closer but they couldn’t really tell until the moonlight hit the rest of the body and they saw a blond haired girl revealed, with ominous thangs protruding from her between her small lips, wearing long pants and trench coat reaching her calves.

It was none other than Truelip.