The girl quickly jumps on top of a wooden box and lands on top of one of the men, pushing him onto the muddy floor. His whole body becomes dirty while a smile is displayed on her lips.

‘How…?’ my eyes widen in surprise as I witness this scenario. My mind couldn’t understand how a man taller than a horse was able to fall on the hard floor so easily.

His tanned face was now completely brown as he removed the mud from his eyes, clearly displaying his rage.

“You little…!” he gets up while a small river made out of a red viscous substance drip down his dirty face.

Quickly, Luana dodges another attack, this time coming from a man in his late thirties with an extremely sparkling bald head. After his dash, his body became glued to the wall and the girl took her chance to switch targets.

A younger boy, no older than twenty-two approached her with a large hammer he carried around. His lips were filled with heavy scars but, even then, they displayed his affection for adrenaline rather easily.

Luana moves towards him and, with the long stick of the broom manages to counter his attacks.

‘The broomstick should break the moment it touched the hammer, then how…?’ no matter how I saw it, this wasn’t possible. Wood cannot beat iron; it is simply pure logic.

The blurriness in my eyes fades away and I am, finally, able to understand.

“She isn’t hitting the hammer but its wooden support…!” I mumble as everything begins to fall into place.

 

The older man that was previously glued to the wall, dashes towards her and manages to deliver a blow on her right torso. She groans but, right after, a flashy smile is displayed.

‘She loves it…!’ it was clear this woman loved the adrenaline of fighting maybe more than anything in the world.

Swiftly, she lowers her body and moves it in a way I’d never seen before, making the two men fall on their back with just a large move from her legs. Luana gets up and laughs obnoxiously loud right before seeing the man filled with mud dash towards her with a heavy sword.

“That’s not going to cut it bud,” she comments before dodging his body who lunges at her. The man heads straight into the old wood wall, cutting through it as if it was nothing but butter. Seconds later, the ceiling losing its support falls and, when I shift my attention again, I see the other two men completely knocked out on the floor.

“Ah…” Wagner throws the young boy towards her right before lighting up a cheap cigarette with a match, “I shouldn’t have taught you, kid.”

Luana just smiles proudly as the man with a large scar on his face sits on a large wooden box, looking completely defeated and tired, as if this was nothing but bothersome.

“Come,” she stretches her hand and helps me up while the young boy held her left hand strongly.

 

We stop walking when we reach the center of the capital where people filled with happiness and worries pass by hurriedly.

“Hand it over,” the young boy sits on the edge of a stone fountain and pouts silently, “We both know it won’t end well for you.”

Reluctantly, he hands a large pouch filled with expensive jewels. Luana lets out a sigh.

“Rodrick… What did I tell you!? You can’t steal from nobles like this,” she slaps his head making him click his tongue.

“Why not!? They have all this expensive stuff, they won’t even notice it’s gone!” he immediately responds in a loud, disapproving tone.

“Do you think Wagner would come after you because he wanted!? He is a mercenary!” she shouts at him angrily, “Don’t you get it!? Someone paid him!”

Rodrick’s eyes widen in surprise as he understood the meaning of her words. It was clear that the young boy thought that nobles were nothing but self-centered fools who couldn’t even do basic chores on their own and thus, he assumed that stealing from them was the easiest and most profitable road to take. 

“We need to return these,” she lowers her torso and grabs his shoulders, “Who did you steal it from?”

“I… I don’t know,” he averts his eyes.

“Shit…” she straightens her back, “I guess we have no other choice…”

“Can I see it?” reluctantly, I intervene.

Luana arches her brow, suspicious of my question. She didn’t know me since I was nothing else but a random man that appeared out of the blue.

Even then, she chose to trust me and handed me the medium-sized pouch. The structure around it was extremely stiff and held no crests whatsoever. It was also surrounded by a unique purple fabric that I had never seen before and, inside it, a pure rainbow existed.

Precious jewels like sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and so on, were embracing each other into a spectrum of colors that mere eyes would never be able to see.

“This was custom-made,” I explain, “By someone that just returned from overseas.”

“A foreigner?” the boy frowns at my remark.

“Why do you assume that?” Luana begins to doubt my logic and reasoning, but I am not wrong.

“This fabric is not from Ashen and if it belonged to a noble house it would have its crest in it,” I open the pouch and after staring at it for some seconds I continue, “And noblemen don’t take their jewels in such containers…”

Suddenly, Luana’s eyes widen in shock almost as if she had seen a ghost.

“You stupid boy!” she beats the boy’s head harshly, “You didn’t steal from a noble! We have to return this immediately!”

‘What…?’ I was astonished at her sudden change of behavior. I couldn’t begin to understand what was happening, but it was clear that she had found the owner with the small pieces of information I had provided.

Luana quickly grabs the pouch and Rodrick’s arm. I try to keep up with their large and quick steps. Unexpectedly, I bump into her and notice we had arrived at a place I had never seen before.

 

A large street filled with wandering, wasted men, not knowing right from wrong anymore, was presented before me. Bars and clubs were swarming the street like a plague and, from time to time, provocative women would pop out of the shadows, wearing their bright and tight red dresses that warmly fondled their cheeky breasts.

“Rodrick,” Luana lowers her body down to his level, “Whatever happens, you must remain quiet, do you understand?”

He nods and smiles softly but his eyes were filled with concern, even if he was trying his best to hide it.

She then approaches a tall man with several scars on his extremely muscular body as he leaned on the wall drinking a large beer. His laugher was obnoxiously loud and so was his voice. Several men surrounded him as if they were nothing but a bunch of criminals.

“Ed,” she states loudly right before the whole environment around her became tainted with silence, “The years have not been generous to you, it seems.”

All the men glared at her, some coldly other lustfully. Soon some whispers began to flow in the air as the attention was now totally focused on this young and naive girl. 

“Look at what the cat brought in,” he chuckles as if this was nothing more than an amusing display of power, “Luana, as spiteful as ever.”

“Luana? That Luana?” the whispers began to grow louder, turning into nothing but mere background noise.

“I thought you didn’t wander around this side of town anymore,” he approaches her and grabs her chin forcefully.

“I didn’t know you had the ability to think, Ed,” she smiles coldly before shoving him away.

“What do you want?” he clicks his tongue right before drinking his beer all at once, “You know I won’t grant you any favors for free.”

“My business is not with you,” she shows the purple pouch, “It’s with him.”

The men’s eyes all widen in surprise. Ed is the first one to understand her situation and thus, a large grin is drawn on his lips.

“Oh, Luana… You’re so fucked…” he laughs before putting down his glass and turning towards a tall building made of crimson bricks.

 

We pass through a large wooden door hidden on the right side of the building and the intense smell of alcohol and cigarettes is felt.

“Where are we?” I approach Luana and ask her softly.

“In the Garden,” she kept on walking as her response was cold and insensitive.

‘No…!’ several months ago I overheard a conversation between my younger brother and my father. I know exactly where we are and what that implies.

“Are you saying he…!?” I grab Luana’s arm harshly just to be greeted by her icy stare.

“Yes,” she shoves my arm and continues to follow the mercenary deeper into the dark hall.

From then on, the steps we took became more hesitant, our breaths became uneasy, and our hearts became tainted with uncertainty. Everything around me felt smaller as if someone was trying to crush me with the pure black walls.

“Ladies first,” Ed stops and opens a large wooden door painted with bright red paint as if it was portraying the gates of Blasphemy itself. 

Luana clicks her tongue before entering and we soon followed.

 

A bright red room with no windows or any other doors appeared in front of my eyes. Surrounding it there were several antiques like statues and expensive jewelry.

“What is this place…?” I mumble to myself.

A large and dark desk was situated in the middle of the room as a man, in his early forties scribbled on a piece of paper. Behind him, two gorgeous, yet almost naked, women served him: one was extremely tall and her long golden hair reached her belly button, her hands had found their way onto the man’s shoulders, massaging them gently; on the other hand, a beautiful girl, with milk chocolate colored skin and deep blue eyes placed down a teacup on his large desk.  

“Boris, you have visitors,” Ed declares right before turning around and leaning his back onto the colored wall.

The man’s head moves but, even after seeing us, his expression remained the same: unbothered, unchanging, monotonous.

Suddenly he makes a loud clap with his hands and, the two women begin walking towards us. Unexpectedly, another woman, with sharp eyes and brown hair appears from below his desk, with her goods exposed to the world. Her fingers began cleaning the corners of her mouth as her deep blue eyes glared at us lustfully.

“Speak,” after the women leave, the doors behind us were closed and locked by Ed whose smile was from ear to ear.

‘What’s going to happen now…’ I gulp as I begin feeling the dryness on my throat.

Boris's green eyes were cold and emotionless, and his face was covered in several scars, some smaller some bigger, from different types of weapons. His hair was beginning to show the weight of age, but it was still a deep yet dark brown just like coffee.

Luana approaches his desk and places the purple-colored pouch on top of the table, harshly. He observes her, judging her from top to bottom right before leaning forward and crossing his fingers beneath his chin.

“You stole from me?” his voice was hoarse from all the cigarettes he had consumed.

“Yes, but once I learned that it was yours, I came to return it immediately,” she kneels in front of him and I feel a shudder inside my body, shaking everything, from my organs to my resolve.

“The messenger told us it was a young boy…” his eyes glare to Rodrick who swallows a large amount of saliva right after feeling the pressure.

“He must’ve gotten it wrong Boris,” her claims were straightforward and confident as if there wasn’t any doubt or fear behind them.

“I see…” a faint smile appears on his lips while he creates a signal with his hands.

 

Luana rises and a man appears from behind a hidden door, holding a young man, slightly older than me, in his arms.

Boris gets up and approaches the young boy. His light brown eyes were focused on us, horrified and filled with anxiety.

“Is that the boy you saw…?” his voice was composed as his hand gently caressed the boy’s arm.

“It was too fast… I don’t know…” his voice was struggling to come out right, making him stutter slightly.

 

In a glimpse of a second, blood begins to gush out of the boy’s throat as his eyes gradually turn lifeless. A thin, yet deep wound, was perfectly cut on his neck.

‘Ah…!’ I didn’t had any time to react but my body did. A shiver ran down my spine, warning me of the upcoming danger, telling me to run with all my strength.

Rodrick was about to scream but, after noticing Luana’s cold glare, he places his hands in front of his mouth, containing his emotions inside. Slowly, I place my body in front of his, making him able to hide his terrified expression.

“Failures are of no use to me,” Boris comments as he cleans the letter opened to his dark suit, “Take him.”

The young boy is taken away as his red vivid blood continues to drip onto the bright red carpet.

 

“I redecorated Luana, have you noticed?” he comments before sitting down on his large chair once again, “I don’t even need to clean up like this.”

‘Don’t tell me…!’ I look down just to see several dark stains on the red carpet. Chicken-skin appeared on my arms and legs as I feel my hands begin to tremble.

“It is very time-saving,” she comments, and he chuckles.

“Indeed…” his hands reach another sheet of paper, “Take this.”

“I’m not…!” Luana quickly swallows down her words.

“You caused me stress and worry for my goods… Are you not going to pay for it?” his eyes were cold, and his pressure was overwhelming.

‘At any wrong word he will…!’ anxiety took over me as I felt the room become smaller by the second.

“Yes Boris,” she removes the letter from his hand, harshly.

“Good,” he smiles, “I knew you would understand.”

 

Luana turns around and her expression was filled with pain and frustration.

‘This can’t…’ she had saved my life and I needed to repay her. I couldn’t let her live a miserable life by following this monster.

My hand automatically grabs her arm making her eyes widen in surprise. Boris, who had begun writing once again, focus his attention on me.

“Yes?” his tone was not amiable, and it was clear he was not looking for a negotiation.

“You can’t do this,” I state just to feel Rodrick push down my shirt.

“What are you doing? Do you have a death wish …!?” Luana mumbles while freeing her arm.

Unbothered, Boris waves his hand and Ed begins to approach me, holding a sharp knife in his hand.

“Kill me and the Marquess will never do business with you again,” I declare loudly making Ed stop in his shoes.

“And why would that be?” a faint smile appears on the man’s lips, showing his amusement.

I walk towards him but Ed places himself in front of me, blocking my path.

“Let him through,” Boris makes another sign with his hands.

‘You’ve come this far…!’ I was insecure. I knew that showing my identity here would place me in a precarious situation but I had no other choice.

My body finally reaches his desk, and his eyes begin analyzing me thoroughly. My hands remove the old and used pouch, holding a small crest of the Verne’s on one of the sides, and place it on the table. Several gold and silver coins were spotted through the gap created from the harsh fall and Boris grins.

“I see…” his voice was low but soon turned loud, “Let them go.”

“What? But boss!” Ed intervened, not believing in what he had witnessed. He grows quiet once he sees Boris murderous stare, “Understood.”

I turn around just to see Luana pushing the letter onto the man’s chest as he grits his teeth in frustration. He wanted to speak and to prevent her from slipping through his fingers but it was clear that he couldn’t.

“Send my regards to your father,” he declares effortlessly with an unnecessarily loud voice.