With every step I took, my nervousness grew. As if it wasn’t enough to meet new people, people I’ll be diving into Fallens Cry with, I was supposed to do it in front of a dozen or more bored city guards. Not my cup of tea.

More than ever, I was aware of my looks. The wrinkled shirt bugged me and made me wonder if they had anything like the irons here on Eleaden. The dirty trouser’s legs brought my thoughts back to the washing machine. Was it a thing here? Or did they use washboards? I wouldn’t, not with the magic around.

It all paled in comparison to my grimy feet. I was still barefoot. For whatever reason, that wasn’t the issue that bothered me so far as it should have. I mean, yeah, I didn’t have my boots, and the rational part of my brain told me to buy some. Yet, the instinct-driven chunk of my wits didn’t deem my bare feet strange, quite the opposite, fairly natural, and thus pushed the thought of getting at least shoes to the back of my mind.

Just fucking great! I gritted my teeth so hard it was painful, the sound of it quite irritating to my ears.

Then my wings fluttered as a thought crossed my mind. Natural. Did women here shave their legs?

“Grrr...” I growled in frustration as my brain tried to divert its attention elsewhere, the coping mechanism I’ve built up over the years, long before I ended up as a florist. Back then, job interviews were hell for me. The longer I waited there for my turn, the worse it got. Lost in my mind, I traveled the world, solved its hunger, and questioned the purpose of the rubber duck.

Yeah, the interviews didn’t go so well after that.

Anyway, I was doing it again, coping.

“Are you ready?” Aspen asked as we reached the door leading to the barracks courtyard. ‘No!’ That was what I was dying to say, turn on my heel and run. Instead, I checked my mane through the domain in a last-ditch effort to improve my appearance, straightening out stray hairs. 

Lastly, giving a look to the moss and blooming white flower on it, I watered it with some mana to liven it up. For all my concerns, I wasn’t as ashamed to have moss on my head as I thought. In fact, it made me proud as I’ve lived up to Esu’s expectations and accomplished something that no other man has.

But I still wished I was anywhere else but here right now. So I resorted to lying. “I’m... I’m ready.”

As Aspen opened the door and I stepped out in her wake, my worries collided with reality. I stressed myself out so much that the image of a coliseum formed in my mind and crowds of people roaring in the stands while I entered the arena through an open gate to face my opponents. The reality was...underwhelming.

“Finally,” Rayden grumbled, standing upright in her uniform with hands behind her back to the left of the door. “You took your time, Grey.”

There was no arena, no stands full of people, just her almost making me piss my pants.

“My mistake, ma’am,” Aspen said quickly, lowering her head. “I lost track of time.”

“You or her? She tends to get lost in thought.” Deckard remarked, leaning against the wall to the right of the door.

Barring my teeth at him, I regretted that I couldn't come up with a witty response. Ironically, for the very reason he mentioned. I was so focused on making a good impression that I didn’t even notice the two standing on the other side of the door. I should, and it pissed me off.

“First of all, you didn’t tell me the time!” I growled. Pointing out his mistake helped ease the frustration of the one I made. “Secondly, we rushed here as soon as Aspen found out.”

“Excuses!” Rayden snorted, making it clear she didn’t care, and fixed her gaze on Aspen. “If I tell you the time and place, I expect you to be there on schedule. Did you forget how things work here at City Guards already?”

“No, ma’am,” she replied, shaking her head and adjusting her slave collar nervously while I wondered why I felt compelled to defend her, to explain our lateness. Then it hit me. The notion of Aspen being punished by her master because of me sickened me to the bone. It was the compassion I felt. 

“Don’t let it happen again,” Captain Rayden said firmly. “Clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” saluted Aspen, straightening up and relieved. 

Uh, one thing, though. She didn’t call Rayden her master. Good sign.

“She likes punctuality, always has,” Deckard noted, his voice echoing in my mind. 

“You!” I growled, pointing at him.

He paused. “What?”

“You said there would be no fight.” I reminded him sharply, accusing him.

Ease flashed across his face as he realized he wasn’t in some deep trouble he thought for a second he was. “Oh, that. I wouldn’t call it fighting, just getting to know each other.”

Gritting my teeth, I channeled my inner peace so I didn’t strangle him. Not that I had any hope of actually pulling it off. So annoyingly, all I could do was temper my anger, and what better way to do it than to hug Sage. 

I didn’t, though. I resisted the urge.

“Besides, it doesn’t necessarily have to come to a fight,” Deckard remarked when he saw my inner struggle. 

“It doesn’t?” I marveled, glancing at Aspen and Rayden, seeking confirmation from them.

Captain sneered. “True, it happens. But if he believed that, he wouldn’t have bet on you.”

“You bet on me?!” I barked at him.

The look he gave me made it clear that I was the weird one. “You want me to bet on them?”

‘What?’ I blinked, then looked the way he motioned with his head. There, on the other side of the barracks courtyard on the farthest training ground, stood a trio of junior guards. Talking among themselves, they were glancing in my direction, laughing, most likely at my expense. They were too far away for me to hear clearly, let alone for the System to tell me more than my eyes could. Terran and two humans. Two guys and a gal. That’s all I could tell at that distance.

“Okay, girl,” Deckard said through the union rings, more serious. “Here’s the deal. If it comes to that, don’t use poison, and certainly not your beast presence. We don’t need the panic. Even some experienced guardsmen would shit their pants if you used it.”

“...” Speechless, I was utterly speechless. Not only was he lying to me about the fight that seemed to be a given, he was now forbidding me to use some of the most powerful weapons in my arsenal. What was I supposed to do, tickle them to death with Sage?

I don’t know what struck me more, his audacity or the fact that I was actually considering it. The thought of them squirming on the ground, unable to stop laughing, made me chuckle.

Deckard raised an eyebrow at my antics. “Anything interesting on your mind?”

“Can’t you tell?” I shot back, still pissed.

“You want to strangle me?” He tried.

My lips curled into a grin. “Wow, you’re good.”

This time it was him who laughed. “You make it too easy, girl.”

Yeah, that was me, an open book. Anyway, this little exchange helped me soothe my anger a little bit. Thinking about it, revealing all my skills openly wouldn’t be a smart move, hence Deckard’s use of union rings. You never know who’s listening. 

Except I knew of at least one, Sah. Based on the bristle up hairs on the back of my neck, he was here somewhere out there, watching and listening.

Keeping my secrets...a secret was nice, but harder to do. In every fight I’ve been in so far, I’ve used everything at my disposal. Needless to say, it was slavery or death otherwise.

“What about [Beast], can I use it?” Wouldn’t I be risking too much by revealing it?

“I discussed it with Rayden, and Wigram and Sah agreed that those who wanted to know already knew about you and your skills,” he said, and as much as I hated to, I had to agree with him. Back there in the clearing, I showed that Thought Fuddler everything I was capable of, from beastification to my presence. What she didn’t taste was my poison, for she ran away before Esu broke me out of the magic shackles from Labyrinth Square.

“Are you saying there’s no reason to hide my skills anymore?” I asked to make sure I heard correctly. It went against everything I’ve worked for so far, staying inconspicuous. Quite challenging with the way I looked.

Deckard shook his head. “Ah, there’s always a reason. It’s never good to show all your cards.”

“Not even to my squadmates?” I paused, questioning the usefulness of it. Just because he was used to working solo didn’t mean I would be.

“I meant in general,” he said with a sigh. “Look, girl. I’m sure those three aren’t looking forward to this spectacle any more than you are. But, unless you want to be talked about as a coward who chickened out, go out there and show them what you can do, just not everything. No one expects you to fight to the death.”

“Still...” It didn’t sit well with me. How could I fight alongside someone I kept secrets from, essentially didn’t trust them.

“Once you’re in the Labyrinth, you can and should show them your true self,” he said, seeing what was bothering me. “Just hold back until then.”

“Yeah, and don’t mention your heart, core, or Esu. For now.” He added for good measure.

Giving him a snicker, resigned, I breathed out, “Fine.” Those weren’t things I would have mentioned in casual conversation anyway.

“Can we?” Rayden asked in response to my vocal answer, seeking confirmation from Deckard. He gave her a nod. “She knows what she needs to know.” 

“Let’s not keep them waiting, then,” Rayden said, ‘finally’ could not be more apparent in her tone. Without saying another word, she headed out, expecting me to follow her. After a brief hesitation, I did with Deckard and Aspen in tow. 

In two quick strides, catching up with her, I couldn’t help but ask. “Are they strong?”

Rayden hummed in amusement. “I’d say you’re the strongest, Grey.”

I nearly tripped on the flat sandy surface of the barracks courtyard and shouted ‘what?’ out loud. Me, the strongest? She had an odd sense of humor.

“H-how so?” I managed to stutter out.

“You’re one step away from Evolution. They’ve got a lot of catching up to do in that regard. As far as experience goes, it’s hard to beat yours,” Rayden said. It was hard to tell if she was serious or kidding. 

“But my skills are under-leveled,” I argued, questioning her assessment of me.

She nodded. “That they are.”

Every step brought us closer to the training ground, where a trio of my future squadmates was waiting for me. It took me three before I realized she wasn’t going to elaborate further. We were so close that I could hear their voices.

“Do you see her?”

“I hear she’s a bigger freak than you.”

At that moment, I chose to tune them out as best I could in spite of my curiosity. It wasn’t courtesy, more like self-preservation. When you think people can’t hear you, you dare to say what wouldn’t otherwise come out of your mouth.

A few steps closer, nearer to the ‘arena,’ on either side of which stood about a dozen and a half guardsmen, I could tell it was my first time seeing the trio. Two humans, man, and woman together with terran. Was he... a bull? 

Regardless of his kind, I was most surprised by their age.

Junior, in my mind, was a term for young people. So when Rayden talked about junior guards, I pictured recruits in their early twenties max. My mistake. She was referring to seniority among the Castiana City Guards.

The youngest looked to be the woman. I would have pegged her at twenty-five. The man seemed my age, maybe older. Thirty-five? These two were the easiest to tell since they were humans. I didn’t venture to guess the age of the terran.

As we stepped into the training ground, Deckard and Aspen stayed behind on the edge of it like the rest of the distraction-seeking city guards. 

The stares the trio was giving me intensified and became quite piercing now, messing with the feeling on the back of my neck, sending shivers down my spine.

The brown eyes of the woman were the most piercing, but not what got my attention. It was her long hair braided into a ponytail that fell over her shoulder and down to her waist. Especially that blonde near-white color of it was eye-catching. So much it took my attention away from her chest. With what she had there, she must have had some severe back pain.

Moving on to the man. 

He was comparable in height to the white-haired woman, not as beefy as I’d expect a future city guard to be. You might say your average Joe except for his long, pointy ears. Was he a fucking elf? Though he didn’t exactly have the elf-ish vibe, missing their dignified look. Even his cheeks weren’t sharp the way I had grown to know elves. By contrast, his face was round and covered with short stubble.

Leaving this maybe-an-elf aside, the terran towered over them by a good head and a half, two, maybe more above me. His hulking figure rivaled that of Guardian Rhys, who was impossible to miss among the onlookers. He was nothing like the terrans I knew as his dark skin appeared almost furless. Bull-like horns much bigger than mine adorned his head, but his tail was no match for Sage, shorter, without fluffy hairs, only with a tuft at the end. When my eyes fell on his anthro legs that most terrans had, especially his hooves, my embarrassment at my bare feet melted away.

“Slave?” the white-haired woman frowned as we got to a distance for the System to be able to identify each other.

I returned her frown in equal measure loud enough for her to hear me. “Baker?”

[Baker: lvl 69]

However, I had to admit that her level was nothing to scowl upon. At her age, she was approaching the level of a master craftsman. I mean among the common people. After all, even Mr. Sandoval, at his advanced age, was at level 76.

The quite-possibly-elf was worse off.

[Bookkeeper: lvl 53]

Seriously, accountant. Where did Ryden get these people? Hoping that the terran would be different, I glanced at him.

[Mage: lvl 48]

“...” unlike the trio, I was speechless, my expectations wholly shattered by reality. In my mind, I expected warriors, hunters, fighters, not ordinary people. Sure, the terran was a mage, but I would expect a class like [Bruiser] with his build. What’s more, with a level closer to mine, not that he’ll be as far from evolution as he was.

“You’re seriously bothered by her class, you see the level?” The wanna-be-elf objected in a whisper as Rayden and I approached.

The white-haired woman shrugged. “She must have done a lot of slave stuff.”

“What I wonder is what she is?” The terran’s voice was deeper than I expected.

The two gave him a look that was easy to read ‘What do you mean? A half-terran, of course’. They were both wrong, but he didn’t have time to tell them, as Rayden stood in front of them with me by her side, trying to mimic her upright posture.

All three of them tensed and straightened up.

“Captain.”

“Ma’am.”

“Captain Rayden.”

She responded with a nod. It amazed me how with that simple movement, without uttering a word, she managed to express, ‘All right, at ease.’ With her hands still behind her back, she beckoned with her head to me. “Squad Four. This is the one I told you about. Korra Grey. Grey, Squad Four of Castiana Junior City Guards.”

Ah, did she manage to put together three squads already? Are they the same? Just a bunch of weirdos. Given my body language, I quickly banished such thoughts. At least the mage might be able to read me like an open book. Instead, I returned their nods, though the baker merely frowned.

With one brief cough, Rayden got the attention back. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, city guards, regardless of the city, are mostly made up of locals. Men and women who have the courage to defend their city, town, or village. The guardsmen you see around here started out just like you.” She paused and gestured to one of the watching guardsmen, raising her voice for all around to hear. “Miles over there. An ordinary craftsman, pushed down by street thugs. He didn’t take it lying down.” 

Then she pointed to the guardswomen standing not far from the man. “Campbell, she...she just hated her profession, her class, and the Labyrinth Companies no less. The City Guards gave her the opportunity she was looking for. Let’s not kid ourselves. That’s the case with all of you. You’re looking for a change, a way out, and this is it.”

Whether it was my imagination or not, it seemed to me that there was power behind her words. They echoed in my mind, making me look around, and I wasn’t the only one. The faces of the trio wore the same confused expression. 

Nevertheless, at least in my case, she was right. I was desperate to change what I was, my class, and according to her, the others too. Whether that was her intention or not when she formed this squad was hard to say, but right now, she gave us all something we had in common.