Unravel (2) - True Intentions

After producing a powerful stomp, the force behind it was enough to propel Emily towards Stigma within the short distance at full force.

In normal circumstances, people are to panic when their life was aimed from a surprise attack, yet Stigma did not feel any sense of danger hence Dusk did not move.

When Emily attacked him with a knife, Stigma immediately realized that she may had been offended from his careless remark, and would later on apologized to her afterwards with his head bowed down.

Out of instinctive, Stigma did not dodge and raised both hands towards his chest and blocked the incoming slashes to his face, chest and legs. Eventually, Emily gave a shocked expression from Stigma's agility from dodging each of her slashes and performed a lunged at him as a last resort.

With the arm fully extended, Stigma dodged momentarily then performed a submission maneuver by locking Emily's arm under his armpit forcing her into a stand still.

Although it only lasted a moment, Felix was able to perceived what had happened then sighed a breath of relief from the quick judgement Stigma made. Though both had avoided injuring each other, Stigma and Emily were still in a stalemate with a knife in the middle.

From his position, Felix motioned both Lara and Roger that they were both fine and uninjured, which made Lara and Roger wipe off the cold sweat they had on their heads.

Although Felix held great importance to being guest of the Boar Clan. Their mistress Emily had informed them that Stigma held greater importance and had orchestrated the meeting to secretly assess his abilities.

From their interaction with Stigma, both had underestimated the infamous 'white haired boy' as he deserved the attention of their mistress.

If the ignored the incidents from two days ago, Stigma had proven himself not only to be intelligent but also physically gifted enough to block at close range, which meant he can also double as a body guard.

Yet unknown to them, Emily had different intentions for employing Stigma.

It was known that Emily was in difficult position of being aliened in the market from her 'Seniors' combined influence.

So by employing Stigma into her ranks, Emily would have an outside party complete any task behind the scene without the other three knowing his identity as she is the one 'responsible' for investigating any crimes taking place.

Once employed, Emily would have turned a blind eye from all charges and allow Stigma to continue his reign of destruction.

Eventually, Emily's aim to gain profit in secret through bails and bribes will eventually led to sabotaging/correcting her 'Senior' means of business forcing them to be more docile with her.

If needed, Stigma would be trained to be proficient enough to handle half of Emily's workload which was mentally taxing for her age, ultimately taking the role as her right hand[1] when he takes interest.

Nonetheless, Emily realized her mistakes and was forced to think up an excuse before it got out of hand.

Emily was soon dumbfounded from seeing her first attack be blocked against someone below her age, yet glad to have found an excuse from testing Stigma's combat ability up close, but her curiosity got the best of her and made a mistake from being caught.

Even though she was trained to fight as a means of protection, Emily was not experienced as of yet and had made the poor decision in pulling back as Stigma had already decided what his next move was and suddenly released his arm lock.

Although Emily had lost her footing, she along with everyone else realized that Stigma had went through his own battles, hence had a wider combat sense than the blue haired girl shocking them once more.

Stigma next objective was to perform a different submission by grabbing onto one of Emily's free arm, preventing her from falling and taking away her chance to fix her footing, grabbing the knife in the process and force it at her own throat.

Giving a message that he wasn't the type to be intimidated easily.

Unfortunately, because of the obstruction of view, Stigma could not tell the distance between him and the table.

So instead of being pushed away, Emily had tripped on the table and grabbed onto Stigma's for support but ended with her pulling him in the process when she fell.

Due to Emily's earlier stomp, the table from earlier was already weak almost splitting in two, so any additional weight like two children falling on top had collapsed it all together and formed a small dust cloud.

*Crash!*

Felix wanted to help, he had no idea what was going to happen next, as Emily's entourage were no different. Eventually the dust cloud had cleared away, but the scene could only be described as jaw dropping when they saw it and could not move.

Unfortunately, the most unlucky one was still unaware what had happened.

*

Currently, Stigma was facing the most....unexpected situation he had ever encountered that even he had never experienced from his previous life.

Initially Stigma had no intentions of harming Emily, nor had any aim to destroy his relation with her as he still needed information and her support.

Yet, Stigma's current situation might have ruined everything and would get him killed in the process.

As of right now, he does not know if the situation should make him laugh or cry, as Stigma was currently on top of Emily with his hand on top of her right bosom and his lips were on her's.

'.....so small, yet so soft.....Wait! Now is not the time for that' Without realizing Stigma took his head away from her face, but forgot to remove his hand of her chest.

Due to his situation in his previous life, Stigma or Cheng Xuan had never interacted too much with woman, so he does not know what to do next much less coop with his present situation other than apologizing.

"....Ngh.....Hmmm..."

As if on cue, Emily woke up but instead of feeling the throbbing pain on her head and back, she felt something heavy was on top her and felt that something was on her lips.

When she opened her eyes, Emily's stunned expression immediately turned into shock, eventually turning into a glare of pure rage to Stigma who just moved away but had forgotten his hand was still on her breast.

Because he was daze from the sudden development, Stigma did not had the chance to explain as Emily delivered a devastating punch to his face, which sent him across the room into the corner with a red imprint on his face.

Felix and Roger could not say anything and watch, while Lara could only look away with her face turning red from the embarrassing situation that could only happen in one the books she had read.

Emily slowly stood up but her expression was not approachable when she walked towards Stigma, anything she said was in complete stutter from the shock so it was hard to understand.

".....Y-you, d-deviant ra-rascal, h-how, da-dar-re, you.....t-ta-k-ke....a-ad-va-vant-age....a-an-d-d...m-m-my f-fi-fi-rs-t ki-k-ki-iss-ss. F-for-ge-get a-ab-about e-expl- plani-ng an-an-nything --a-aan-d t-t-ake , re-re-sponsi-si-bility!"[2]

Although Emily displayed a tomboy like personality, she was still a young girl in body and heart who had no relation to boys outside her grandfather's influence. Hence, Lara and Roger were also surprised from seeing their confident mistress breakdown from just a kiss on the lips.

Felix wanted to help, but even he had no idea on how to help Stigma's 'accident'.

"W-wh- waht?"

Because of shock and confusion from his first kiss, Emily had promptly misunderstood that Stigma was shameless and would not take responsibility for taking advantage of her, so the adolescent girl charged at Stigma with a red face and was intentionally aiming for his life.

What happened next was like the earlier incident, only this time Stigma caught the knife aimed at his face between his hand in a praying gesture despite having a hazy vision.

From Lara's perspective, her step sister/mistress Emily's intentions had completely changed to an important meeting to straight out murder in hiding her shame and could only smile wryly.

From the start of her assault, Emily wanted to intimidate Stigma to never call her lazy again, but instead she had been intercepted and had lost her first kiss to a rascal.

'D-damn it!....if I don't force him to take responsibility, my name Emily Album Aurum would be put to shame!'

While Emily was going through a mental dilemma with tears in her eyes, the young girls had completely ignored the six guards who entered because of the commotion. But were later confused on what was happening and turned to their head captain - Roger for enlightenment.

Stigma was pleaded towards their direction, but Roger did not turn his way and explained that their mistress was going through another 'outburst' because of the taboo word was been used repeatedly and motioned towards the white haired boy as the outlet of her anger.

When all was said, each of them looked at Stigma with a trace of sympathy and gave him a praying gesture for his survival before they left.

The guards were aware of their young mistress 'outburst' due to her past and personal reasons, so they were sympathetic to Stigma as the next victim of her beatings.

Though each of the guards were capable of using Zen energy, Emily had long reach the level of a Cultivator and had sparred with five guards in each match and had not lost.

While the others were breathing a sigh of relief or praying for safety, Stigma was trying to remain calm despite a sharp blade was being forced in between his hands. At the same time facing Emily's glare with traces of rage.

Even with the blade inching toward his heart, Stigma did not raise panic and tried to workout a solution for his current predicament. But scowled at the guards for leaving and Felix's group for not helping.

'Like hell everything is okay! Help me over here already!!!!'

While cursing under his breath from seeing the guards leave, Stigma remembered that he had inspected both the girls using his skill: 'Essence Reader' and found the girl named Emily was a Cultivator and in the same Tier as him.

A mid Stage First Tier Cultivator but he was more surprised of viewing her list skills.

*Bing!*

[Name: Emily Album Aurum

Age: 14

Rank: Rare(I)(Mid stage)

2500 / 4000

Strength: 80

Agility: 100

Vitality: 150

Zen Reserves: 2000 / 2000

Affinity: Wind

Skills: Calculation, Cooking, Sewing, Riding, Archery, Dancing, Musician, Penmanship, Sword Mastery, Wind Spirit]

When Stigma saw her stats, he was shocked for a moment but immediately understood Emily was a true genius.

Compared to Stigma, who had a unique encounter and numerous blessings, Emily had actually trained, cultivated and polish her skills at a young age through her own effort which earned his respect.

Even though it was the first time for Stigma to met someone with a large amount of skills like him, the feeling of dejection did not surface as he felt that it was natural for someone else's efforts to bore fruit.

'....Now then, what am I suppose to do with her now.....she going to kill me if I don't give a plausible explanation, but I doubt she'll listen very easily...*sigh* why are women so confusing? I mean it was an accident! How am I suppose to know you were going to trip and pull me when you fell!'

While Stigma was having conflicted thoughts on how to fight back, Emily was shocked to find out that Stigma was also a Cultivator as his arms were covered in aura to block the aura infused knife.

It was common knowledge that Cultivators were capable of boosting any of their attacks including their physical abilities through the use of Zen aura.

If Stigma had not emitted aura on his arms, the pain from the collision would be no different from falling face first on a large pool of water[3] and the knife would have pierced through him.

"Wait! Wait! Lets talk about this, were getting nowhere!"

"N-not yet, take responsibility and we'll talk!"

"Fine! Fine! So back off already!"

With not much choice, Stigma agreed and wanted the conversation to continue so he can start his investigations for tomorrow then help Felix with his clan's dilemma.

Though Stigma does not know Felix very well, his late father always told him that men should alway repay a dept of kindness in any way possible. If the favor is not returned, then they will never gain favor from heaven.[4]

The element energy of Lightning from Felix's injury was good material and if Stigma could heal the clan in whole, then it was considered a win win situation.

"...Fine! But put it in writing that if you do so-something like that again, then you will be in serious trouble and will be treated worse than a dog, got it! Respond if you got it!"

*Arf!*

"?....What the....when I wanted you to respond, I didn't think you would act like a dog."

Stigma was about to speak up, but he felt something moving in his robes and caught his attention.

Normally Stigma would not react to anything but soon realized that his little pet Kirin was still in his robes and woke up from being thrown.

With nothing stopping it, Kirin popped out of Stigma's robes and growled at Emily for pointing at its master with a knife and stood on top of his face as it barked at the blue haired girl.

*Arf!**Arf!**Arf!**Arf!**Arf!*

"Kirin! Down boy!"

Kirin did was it was told and went down his chest but refused to be away from him showing of its teeth at Emily.

"Look! My dog wants you to stop now okay, if you don't stop and accidentally harm him, then I will be the one who won't forgive you...."

"...Fine..."

Though reluctant, when Emily saw Stigma's glare she felt slightly intimidated and got up to her seat and waited. Once Stigma followed behind, Emily stole a few glances to Stigma and looked away with a red face.

After an hour had passed and dawn was approaching, yet no one spoke. Stigma could not stand the suffocating silence and he immediately spoke up, so he can prepare for tomorrow.

'...This is kinda awkward.....'

"Look.....I'm sorry for what happened earlier so can we continue, I'm really tired right now and want to go to sleep. If you want, once the week is over, you won't see me again." - Stigma

Emily did not answer for a while until she finally gave a deep breath and looked back but with a cherry red face.

"...Remember this well, I hate being called lazy.....got it!Don't push your luck in believing I,Emily Album Aurum, will forgive you that easily without proper compensation."

'Well if you consider how the table broke was from your weight, I would consider but....' As if she can read his mind, Emily gave a deadly glare to Stigma and did not finish his train of thought.

"*Cough!* Anyway, about your previous offer...."

"Ah, that was true to the last letter, you can make up your demands later on but you have to remember that our conditions must be considered to balance the risk. Okay."

"....Fine." Felix had already realized that Stigma was the main target and he was but a means to bring him along so he can make his demands later.

"Can we finish things here, I left my men behind and need to regroup with them to discuss our future plans." - Felix

"Of course, but do not worry, I have sent one of my men to lead them to one of our private tents. I will personally led you as it will be you residence later on." - Roger

"Thank you." - Felix

"So to business, from the start I was considering in employing Stigma the 'white haired boy' when I first heard of him, but plans have changed as the current state of the market is to unfavorable and those three 'Seniors' of mine are no help."

Emily was still embarrassed and could not look at Stigma from time to time, yet she stole a few glance to Kirin as she wanted to cuddle the blue haired puppy, but she still focused on what was important.

"Is it because of the sudden disturbance along with the missing people?"

When Stigma picked up Kirin, as it wanted his attentions, he started brushing its head and tail with his hand then continued to spoil his pet by feeding it with food from his space ring as the conversation continued.

"Correct, mistress had foresaw that something was amiss the moment the market took position in Red Lily Valley. But as I have told you earlier, the other Top merchant are alienating any suggestions and concerns of Lady Emily's, brushing it off as pure speculation when there was not enough evidence to support at the time." - Roger

"But let me guess, the bodies found were enough to spook anyone who found them and were turned into rumors to the public once they returned. Is that correct?" - Stigma

"It is as you say. In just two days alone the number of bodies found was beyond what we have expected. Preventing any rumors from spreading was impossible as it was already affecting the market before we knew it. With limited time, and preventing a mass panic, the discovered bodies were moved and inspected then hidden, yet we don't know if there are anymore hidden from the mountain."

Emily did not care for the slave market in whole, as she joined as a means of experiencing the outside world, her main concern was the safety of the masses as they have no means of protecting themselves.

Emily was not cold hearted by nature, but the lost of her parents and learning Cultivation made her realize that the world is not as simple as reading a book. So Emily had to harden her heart and prepare for the worst outcome with a brave front, such as abandoning merchandise over the safety of her subordinates.

"What did you find?" - Felix

"Our investigation led us to believe that....." - Lara

From how Emily, Roger and Lara explained, their investigation was thorough and it was almost identical to what Stigma had told Felix. From time to time, Stigma added missing information to what he had found which provided more grounds in investigation.

But when they were asked about the attack of the guards, it confirmed Emily's suspicion that someone was watching from behind the scene and Stigma was the one who left the message while being framed.

When it was pointed out what had happened, Stigma gave a lowered gaze.

"....How are the men?"

".....They are fine, multiple lacerations and lost of blood but nothing serious. I had already provided some medicine for the loss of blood, with some rest they will be fine within a week."

Emily felt some empathy towards Stigma as he was the one responsible for limiting their ability to fight back, but she did not blame him, other than finding some bruises on the head and the hidden message she was prepared for the worst.

"Speaking of which, Young Master Stigma, did you not come across some strange individuals? Why did they attack you?" - Roger

Everyone turned their gaze to Stigma, as he was the person of interest and the one with answers.

".....It's not like I offended them, I think.... They attacked me by surprise when I was about to leave my tent, so I have no idea who they were as they wore disguises. They were four in total, other than the first one who attacked me, the Gold and Silver pair are uncle and nephew and arrived when I was about to restrain their accomplice who wore a fox mask. Eventually the one wearing a fox mask was killed as he revealed their relation with them, and may have been silence to prevent anymore information leaks by accident. When they took the head, I realized that they were trying to hid their identities and prevent any form of verification, which means they have entered the market before." - Stigma

"Just a moment Young Master Stigma, one of my men was hidden and saw that there was one dead man and three men. One was incapacitated as you fought the Golden masked one and the Silver Masked one was watching from the distance. Is that correct?" - Roger.

"You're not wrong, the one who wanted to kill me was the headless corpse, but the one was on his knees was the one I fought. From how I fought the fist one, I realized that it was not human."

?????

"What do you mean, not human, can you be more clear on your explanation...."

"Well, let me start from the beginning...."

As Stigma elaborated what had happened from the start, he gave a detailed explanation on why he said the man he fought was not human and the summary of his conversation with the Golden one.

The information Stigma gave was bizarre and left an impression on them, but when Stigma told him that he was fighting actually fighting a wooden puppet, all of them stared at him with shock before looking at each other.

Eventually they asked the important questions that was in their head.

"Stigma.....are you sure that you fought a puppet.....can you prove it?"

"Of course.....can you bring back my damaged shield and I will provide you the other clues I found."

???Even though they were confused, Emily motioned her guard Roger and gave her orders.

It did not take long as Roger had been carrying Stigma's shield the entire time, and placed it on the table.

Even though they inspected it up close, they found nothing important other than showing evidence that Stigma had fought with a cultivator who was skilled in the sword arts.

"So?...Is there any relevance to asking your shield back Stigma?"

Before Emily allowed Stigma and Felix to enter, the shield was already examined by her and even she had no clue of its relevance.

"There is, but before I explain anything, let me show you something I found.....out of place when I found them." Stigma did not wait for their reply and placed Kirin to his lap before using his space ring, what appeared were objects he found next to his shield.

It total, Stigma had pulled out about two objects and placed them all beside each other, when they saw what Stigma pulled out, they were were all speechless and waited for him to finish.

The items are as follow: Stigma's damaged shield, some slightly damaged wooden pieces of wide stick with strange carvings, and the last on being a dried up leg of what appeared to have belong to a Heavenly Beast.

No one could connect how are these items are connected and Felix was the one who asked the question.

"....These are?"

"The evidence I told you about, don't know if their important but I made a theory and kept them all just in case. The reason why I took them was because I found them when I fought those masked assailants. So please listen...."

The first item Stigma brought fort were wooden sticks carved out of wood, other than its intricate design and dark coating on the surface, nothing stood out to them. When pressure was applied, the wood started to creak like its appearance and material suggested.

But once Stigma applied some aura to the object, the carvings started to glow, which had them watching curiously in silence.

The object would look similar to what archers wore to prevent injury[5], while its thickness was shorter than 5.5 millimeter, the size of a gain of rice.

Stigma explained that during his fight from the first assailant, he pulled this object out during a short struggle and didn't notice. At that time, Stigma assumed that he was fighting with someone/something wearing a suit of wooden armor and pulled it out by reflex to figure out and hid it as he was still in combat.

From how he describe the fight, everyone understood as to why Stigma claimed to have been fighting a puppet instead of a person.

During his three hours waiting, Stigma tried testing the objects durability and found that it was just made wood hence the damaged appearance on his first experimentation. Out of curiosity, Stigma applied Zen aura to one of them and found the same outcome he showed them.

To verify Stigma words were not false, Felix and Roger took turns and repeated the actions eventually believing him, but their confusion did not end there.

Compared to the ones on the surface, the carvings found underneath were far complicated to read and needed a magnifying tool to understand a part of it, which verified Emily's assumption that an outside party is involved.

Based on her memory, Emily realized the object does not exist in the market's list of products, as the production would be beyond their capability.

Stigma continued his explanation and showed them the mummified leg, from what they can tell, the leg was aged for a number of years and had been perfectly preserved.

From their explanation, Stigma found out that embalming existed like that in his previous life, originating from the desert areas around the Middle East.

But unlike what he remembered, Stigma was told that desert areas are known to have yearly epidemics and outbreak in masses due to constant number of decaying bodies being buried around the dessert without proper funeral.

Either the source of the death was from the Desert Heavenly Beast hunting them in the sand dunes, the unbearable heat wave and dying on heatstroke or simple dehydration, they do not know.

"Eventually, the art of embalming was developed to prevented plagues from continuing in the desert. As generation pass, their techniques were polished and it turned into a business for preserving Heavenly Beast remains as a form of medal of honor or as a religious practice for burying the dead." - Lara

"It not rare to find a mummified limb of a Heavenly Beast as they are considered symbolic when they survived their encounter, you can find numerous collectors in kingdoms or clans hording them. Limbs or body parts aside, the undamaged bodies of various Heavenly Beast are collected as hunting trophies or decoration. But all in all, the practitioners who make them all originate from the same area - the desert." - Emily

"Stigma, don't tell me..." Felix

"Yeah, out of pure luck, I landed a successful blow on one of them when I heard something breaking. But when I tried to retrieve my shield, I found no trace of blood on the ground but I was sure I slowed them down as I saw one figure limping away towards the forest with one pulling his arm. Senior Felix and Uncle Roger can verify my actions."

With his skill 'Essence Reader', Stigma made a quick assumption that the ones who were leaving the scene at an alarming pace were the uncle and nephew. Stigma's luck was whether he can either limit their movement or kill one of them, but he can't have everything and ended up with a leg of a corpse which he found out of place.

"... Stigma do you think, that they were trying to recruit you for..."

"I don't know what there true intention were, but I know for a fact that both of them were using some method in using body parts of corpses as limbs and may have connections with the recent murders. The Golden one was a Cultivator that had the same smell like this leg and I found the same smell in the cave in the woods. It can't be a coincidence."

Though Stigma gave his honest opinion, everyone on the room gave a uneasy expression and did not look at up for a few minutes.

Eventually, Felix spoke up and uttered the words they knew but did not want to hear.

"....could it be...Jiang Shi Clan....."

[1] right hand - A position given to the most trusted personal in any type of business.

[2] For some reason I can't stop thinking that this line is something that all Tsundere's would say, or something that Taiga from Toradora would likely say to her husband.

[3] I tried doing it and it was very painful, those who have or went to a pool will understand. Like getting slapped on the stomach, so I tried to make it the experience of pain more believable.

[4] Never gain favor from Heaven - means that nothing good will happen to them if they ignore good deed and the like. In other words, Karma.

[5] Never knew such equipment existed until I used google. Don't know if practitioners who practice professional archery still use this, but I found a site on what equipment they use as beginner, and they use the arm guard to prevent skin injury when they pull the string on the bow (the more you know ) \( 0 3 <).