“Mally! Mally!” Mirabel called the second Mally walked into the guildhall, and they looked up at her. She looked stressed out, and Mally approached her cautiously.

“What’s wrong?” they asked, and she slammed a leaflet down.

“Please take this quest!” she said. “I can’t get anyone to take it!”

Mally lifted an eyebrow and picked up the leaflet, reading over it. It was a quest from the church, and it was… killing bunnies?

“Bunnies?” Mally asked in annoyance. “I need to kill bunnies?”

“They’re contaminated!” Mirabel explained. “They’re eating people, but no one is wanting to take the quest because no one wants to kill bunnies, man eating or not, and we’re running out of time to complete it!”

“And I have to do it why?” Mally asked in annoyance, and Mirabel exhaled sharply.

“Well, you, you know…” she said, and Mally stared at her blankly. “You’re heartless, Mally! Just completely brutal!”

“I am?” Mally asked in confusion, baffled at the very implication, and Mirabel nodded several times.

“You are! Everyone says so!” she said, and Mally looked down at the document. “We need to clear out the bunnies before they send in the Saint to clear out the contamination!”

“Oh,” Mally said, a bit stupidly. Ruthless? Them? What kind of persona had they even built for themself? “I guess I can try? It may… Where is it?”

“It’s in a cave somewhere in the forest,” Mirabel explained. “We don’t have an exact location, but---”

“I want one extra gold for wasting my time trying to find it,” Mally said flatly, because this meant they couldn’t do two quests today, and they needed to make it to rank B so they could take on the dungeons and get their loot.

“Done,” Mirabel said, and Mally took the leaflet and folded it up.

“I’ll go get started,” they said, and turned for the doors. “I’ll be back tonight.”

“Thank you, Mally!” Mirabel called, and Mally waved as they walked away. They could sense the contaminated areas, so it wasn’t too much of a hardship, but they were annoyed. This would take a while to find. With a sigh, they walked out of the guildhall and swung astride Rat as Tuna steadily wagged her tail.

“Ready to go kill some bunnies, girl?” Mally asked, and Tuna barked sharply. They would have to give her a big meal tonight. They led Rat off into the city, and Tuna paced alongside them as they made their way to the gates. The guildhall was close to the outer walls, and they led Rat through the winding streets on the hunt for the exit.

Before they knew it, they were hitting the walls and heading out into the slums. People watched them pass, eyeing Tuna warily, but Tuna was immune to their eyes on her. She was just happy to be involved. Damn dog, Mally thought fondly as they made their way out of the slums. The three of them hit the road, heading into the forest, and Mally swung their leg over the pommel of the saddle as they rode. There was a map on the back of the leaflet, with a large area circled that showed where the cave was as a general proximity, and they scanned over it in silence. It would take three hours of riding to reach the area. That was annoying. Tuna would just have to hunt her own food. They would let her loose once they were in the forest proper. She would find her way back to them.

They rode along on Rat’s back in silence, wishing for some music to keep them preoccupied. Daisy would be useful right about now, they thought dryly. But, no, Daisy was with the guild trainer. Working on her swordsmanship. She had bought a sword and a knife, and she was a natural, to hear Gregory talk about her. Which was good, because that meant she would learn faster. She was going to rise up to D rank soon, but in the meantime, she was taking it slow. Which was good. She didn’t have time to move at Mally’s pace.

A carriage rolled past them, and they nudged Rat out of the way so the two horses drawing it could canter past. The coachman gave them a nod, and the lady inside gave them a dirty look. She looked to be about seventeen, and Mally correctly placed her as a city skunk. She sniffed and looked away from them, and the carriage rolled on past them. Mally continued at a sedate pace, making a mental note to wait for the road to clear before they let Rat gallop, because they could tell he was getting bored lately. A gallop would put him back in sorts.

They hummed to themself, murmuring the lyrics to a song from their first life under their breath, and stretched out. Maybe they should have introduced rock and roll to this world. Ha. They weren’t ready for that, they thought wryly. They weren’t ready for that at all. They stretched out, and Rat snorted and snuffled, sneezing loudly.

“Got allergies, buddy?” they asked and patted him on the neck, and he tossed his mane. It was about time for allergy season, they thought wryly, but they would have an animal doctor check him out all the same. They wondered, idly, how Daisy was doing with her training. Probably getting stressed out. She was not physically fit enough to train like a knight. She was moderately fit from being a horsewoman, but not that physically fit. Training as a knight was harsh. Training as an adventurer was even harsher. You had to be able to fight all kinds of things, not just other trained swordsmen.

Ah, she would survive. Or she would burn out and decide she didn’t want to be an adventurer anymore. Either way, it was no skin off their back. They weren’t bothered by it. Even so, they shuddered to think about the fallout when word got back to her parents that she was moonlighting as an adventurer. That was going to be a lot to deal with. Poor girl. Her parents were going to be furious. She was supposed to be looking for a husband right now.

That was not Mally’s problem, though. That was not their problem. At least she would know how to defend herself. They had no idea where the plot was going at this point, and they had no idea what kind of dangers the main cast was going to get involved with. So, they weren’t altogether bothered by Daisy getting involved in their life. She would burn out before the end of social season, but at least she would know how to use a sword. Barely. She had nothing on Mally’s ten years of hard training, even when it was raining, but she was…

Well.

It was fine. She would know enough to defend herself and then run. And that was what mattered. So long as she could stay alive, who cared if she was a little unladylike? Mally certainly didn’t care. They had never been ladylike a day in their life, and for that, they felt a weird sense of kinship with her. They didn’t mind her at all, actually. Even though it was annoying that the plot was following them like this, but that wasn’t Daisy’s fault. They weren’t going to take it out on her.

With a grunt, they stretched, missing the pop of their joints, and there was a high pitched scream from somewhere up on the trail. Without even blinking, they nudged Rat into a gallop, and he burst out into a run, heading for the source of the disturbance. Tuna broke out into a run alongside them, and they slid around the bend to greet seven bandits menacing around the carriage that just passed them. Mally swung off their horse and drew their sword in a fluid motion, and a bandit’s head whipped around.

“Whoa, look out, we got a hero over here!” he crowed, and Mally activated their spores. The man choked, clawing at his throat as his veins blackened and the blood vessels in his eyes burst, and then he dropped to the ground, dead.

“Anyone else want to try it?” Mally asked as Tuna flattened herself towards the ground and let out a low growl. The bandits all exchanged glances, and the lead bandit, they assumed, stepped forward.

“We don’t want no trouble. We’re just men trying to make a living,” he soothed, and Mally snorted.

“I repeat: do you want to try it?” they repeated, and he paused, looking a little stunned as Tuna let out another low, warning growl.

“No. No, we don’t,” the bandit decided and turned to walk back into the forest. “Let’s go, men.”

“He just killed Billy, and you’re going to let him get away with that?” a man cried, and the bandit shot him a vicious look.

“I know when I’m outclassed, Jim,” he said, and stepped off the road. “Let’s go.”

“Fuck that,” Jim, apparently, spat out, and charged towards Mally. Tuna leapt in front of them, ears pinned back and growling lowly, and he swung his blade towards her neck just as she leapt at him. Mally panicked, blocking the strike in the nick of time, and Tuna took him down and ripped out his throat with a single motion. There was a muffled scream from inside the carriage as Tuna lifted her head, blood dripping from her jowls, and snarled, betraying bloodstained teeth.

“That’s enough!” the bandit leader thundered. “We’re leaving!”

Mally studied him in silence. He was smart. Far too smart to be a bandit. He turned and walked into the forest, and all of the men hesitated before they followed along behind him, not sure of what else to do. There was a wail from inside the carriage, and Mally sheathed their sword and swung astride Rat. It was about time they got on a game trail, and they urged him towards the forest as Tuna took a bite out of the dead man’s throat and chewed down on it.

“Not in front of the lady, Tuna,” Mally called dispassionately, and the carriage door opened.

“Wait!” the teenager called, and Mally looked over their shoulder. She was pretty, with perfect little blonde ringlets and big green eyes, and she was trembling. “Please. Escort me.”

“Can’t,” Mally said lazily. “I have a quest from the church I need to fulfill.”

“Oh,” she said quietly, and then she fumbled for her coin purse. “Then, let me pay you for---”

“Killing two people?” Mally asked in amusement. “No, thank you, my lady.”

She looked like she was about to cry, and Mally took pity on her.

“I would advise you go back to the capital and put in an official request for adventurers to accompany you, if you have no guards, my lady,” they said, and it was only then that it occurred to them that she was familiar looking. Huh. Maybe she was just in the background. They had no idea.

“I’m… I can’t do that,” she blurted, and Mally tilted their head.

“No?” they echoed, and she flushed.

“I… I can’t go back to the capital,” she repeated, and Mally stared at her in silence. “I’m… not supposed to be here.”

It briefly occurred to them that she was obviously a noble lady, but the carriage was nondescript, with no livery or crest on it. How strange.

Oh.

She was running away, Mally realized, a bit stupidly, and they swung their thigh over their pommel and leaned on their leg.

“If you want to get away, you should dress like a commoner, my lady,” they said, and she startled.

“I’m not running away!” she protested, and Mally’s lips twisted up into a smile.

“Of course you aren’t,” they said, and she flushed bright red.

“How dare you talk to me like tha---”

“I need to go kill some man eating bunnies, so if you’ll excuse me, my lady,” they said and turned aside. “Tuna. Come on.”

Tuna paused in eating the man’s corpse and looked up with a tail wag, and Mally wondered if she would eat their corpse, since they weren’t made out of meat. Probably not. Urging Rat into a canter, they headed off into the woods, with the girl staring after them with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Well. They hoped she got away, even if she was clearly classist and a bit elitist. Tuna ran ahead of them on the game trail, and they followed it carefully. Rat picked over the rocks in the trail, surefooted and certain of himself, and they rode him into the depths of the forest as they consulted the map in front of them. It would take another hour to reach the general area, and then they would probably be searching for another hour. Goddammit, why couldn’t the church give directions? Annoying. This was annoying. They sighed and looked up at the sun shining through the leaves, wondering what that girl planned on doing with an attitude like that.

They probably shouldn’t have helped her run away, much less given her pointers, but what was done was done. Maybe she would pop up again. They doubted it, but she might. She might.

There was the sound of running water, and they considered taking a break for a bit for Rat and Tuna. They weren’t winded yet, not in the slightest, and this wouldn’t take long, but…

Wait.

Did they really have a reputation as being ruthless? To the point where people thought they would kill bunnies without even batting an eye? What the hell? They didn’t think they’d do anything that bad, but---

Oh, they realized dully as they looked down at the map in their hands.

They took the quest, so maybe they were that ruthless. How…

Gods. Fuck. Were they ruthless? They thought they were rather fair, honestly. They had even spared those bandits, even though they should have just killed all of them. They didn’t think they were cold hearted. They even took in Tuna. Though Tuna had more just invited herself in, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So that was…

Why were they stressing about this? They didn’t care how they appeared to other people. They were a loner for a reason. Except, they weren’t a loner anymore. They had Daisy, even though it would take her longer to catch up with them. After this quest, they had to complete three more before they were rank B, and she would be playing catch up for a while. Ah, it was fine. It was fine. They were fine.

People could look at them however they wanted. They weren’t going to stress about it.

Now, just to kill some bunnies.