Killing The Ride

From dawn to dusk the cart moved at a steady pace, the two horses pulling it never tired or needed to stop, after all they were beasts that were superior to the normal horses, not that any normal animal exists in this world

"We have almost arrived at Halferge, what is your plan once we get there?"

"To separate from you"

"And then?"

"I believe that's all you need to know"

"How about I provide you a place to stay instead? I'm sure you could use some rest"

Yu didn't like the friendly lady, she has been trying to get him to accompany her to her house all this while, honestly he doesn't know who was kidnapping who at this point

"Why should I trust you? You and whoever is in your house are not my match for sure but there are so many tricks you could put into action"

"Oh please, I have no reason to hurt you"

"Other than me kidnapping you?"

"It's a normal banter between nobles these days, I wouldn't take it to heart"

As much as he hated to admit it her words were actually true, it was a common occurrence in the Southern Paradise too

Hissss

A small white scaly head peeked at him from in between her valley nodding in agreement with her words

'Who asked you!!'

He berated in his mind, wanting to have nothing to do with the problematic houses if this world, but here he was yet again getting involved with them

"Haaah...alright then, I will take you up on your hospitality, but you are not to exit my sight"

She consented to his condition without a second's delay, making it fairly obvious she needed him to come for some reason, even if it meant staying a 'hostage' a little longer

Soon the cart housing the two moved along many others into Halferg, the status she held allowed them in without any questions at all, it would be a joke to stop a noble's cart for inspection

Yu took a peek through the blinds and saw well-organized streets with a severe lack of human traffic, most of the people walking were there to buy things from the extravagant shops which brought to his notice the absence of any stalls whatsoever

"Why is the place so empty?"

"Empty? What do you mean?"

"There aren't any mercenaries walking about and only people in fancy clothes, no small shops or stalls, everything is so classy here"

"Oh, I see what you mean, you must have never been to a rich settlement before"

'I originated from one actually'

He answered in his mind but didn't say it out loud, she didn't need to know that

"Every inch of this city is owned by a noble or merchant, and not just any merchant for the land here costs a fortune, the city was built for the rich to house their children or close servants so it would make sense for there to be a general lack of the poor, you wouldn't want your loved ones to mix with peasants now would you? No offence"

"None taken"

After all, he wasn't a peasant but a noble as well, an exiled one perhaps, he didn't know what happened to his position in the family nor did he really care

Hearing the sound of a gate opening he realized they were entering her house so he put the dress on properly

The door opened and a maid helped the lady down while he carried the few bags and followed behind her with his head bowed, if anyone saw him it would be problematic since the spies among nobility were as plenty as the clouds in the sky

"Prepare dinner for two, I'm expecting a guest tonight"

She ordered them and went into her room after informing them that she only needed her handmaid tonight, which happened to be who Yu was dressed as

"It's so stuffy"

He complained taking off the outfit once they were in the privacy of her room revealing his normal clothes under it

'I shouldn't have worn both clothes'

It didn't feel right wearing the dress and nothing under it so he did that, next time he wouldn't make the same mistake

'Next time?'

He wondered why he even entertained the thought of wearing a woman's outfit again while grabbing a chair to sit down

He saw the woman go to the closet and take a new set of comfy looking clothes before she started to undress

"Want a closeup show"

She gave him a hard stare while asking with some anger

"Must you change?"

"Your uniform was stuffy can you imagine how hot my dress is?"

This made him avert his eyes but increase his vigilance, ready to shield himself at the slightest sense of danger

Nothing of the sort happened though, the woman quickly changed and brought him one of her robes and a towel

"The shower is through that door, I will have a maid quickly set the table while you bathe"

"No thank you, I'm good"

"Your vigilance is too excessive, I have nothing to gain from harming you and only benefits in befriending you"

Her words didn't register with him, but the small head peeking out again did, apparently the snake was agreeing with her once again making him doubt if this little one could actually understand their every word, and how would she know whether her words were true or not?

"....Fine"

Choosing to trust his companion, and relenting to his need for a bath, he grabbed the robe and towel before entering the bath and taking a quick shower

When he got out he saw a small table set in the middle of the room, on it were a few plates but every one of them was filled to the brim with delicious food, most of which was meat

"I guessed you would need some supplementing food rather than my usual diet meals so I took it upon myself to have them make some extra meat"

He didn't mind vegetables either but he couldn't say no to the juicy red meat laying there, waiting for his hungry self to gobble it up

'I wish I could summon Lyra to eat, she would have loved it'

Sadly he wanted to withhold as much information as possible so he sat down and ate by himself

As for the woman she only nibbled at a small part before sitting there silently, waiting for him to finish his meal

"....?!"

Halfway through the dishes he suddenly remembered something and looked between her and the meat in an alarmed manner

"Don't worry, there isn't any poison, the time it took you to think about it was enough for whatever I could have put to take effect already, I was even surprised you didn't ask me to eat from it till now"

A little red seeped into his face in embarrassment, at both his carelessness and how easily she read his mind

"So what are you doing around here? Do you have any plans or are you wandering around"

"What do you need from me"

Instead of answering her he wiped the sauce off his face and asked directly

"Are you always so straightforward"

He gave her a patient glance hinting that she should answer his question instead of asking her own

"Sometimes I feel like your the noble with all this pride you hold, well no matter, I do have a business proposal"

Straightening her back she finally started explaining why she was so hospitable despite his brash behaviour

"I need you to kill something for me"

"Something or someone"

"Not a human, but a beast"

"Your better off hiring the mercenary union for a hunting quest, you wouldn't need to go through so much trouble and get me"

"Quite the contrary, I can only hire someone like you, someone who has no affiliation to the nobles as you had me believe, else if word gets out I would be hanged for wanting to kill it"

"And you think I could do it?"

"Well, stealth is your expertise so I assume you would be able to"

Seeing him not comment she continued on with her explanation

"The prince is touring the cities around the kingdom with his entourage, he is back from scouring the badlands to the north, carrying with him treasures of all sorts that will be presented at the King's Feast this year"

Hearing about the treasure his eyes shined which didn't escape her notice

"Don't even think about stealing from the prince's entourage, the prince is a Gold-ranked warrior, that alone should be enough a reason not to cause trouble with him"

His eyes lost their little greedy lustre at the mention of Gold rank

"Now they are going to stay in Halferge for three entire days, usually he wouldn't spend another minute in this backwater city but it seems something came up and he needs to head north, leaving his treasures here with a few of his capable guards, and before you get any more ideas they have another gold rank among them"

His hopes were crushed before they could even sprout, apparently he wasn't going to get his hands on any treasure this time

"Now here comes the important bit"

He leaned closer to listen more carefully

"Since they were staying they decided that they would hold a few events for the nobles, strengthen bonds and whatnot, among them would be a riding trip for the ladies, we will be taking turns riding six Willow Steeds"

Once she said the name of the creature she awaited his astonished look, which never really happened

'Right, I forgot he was just a thief, he wouldn't have a broad knowledge about the beasts'

She thought to herself and went about to explain what he Willow Steed was

"The Willow Steed is of the Beast Branch, Horse Sub-Branch, they have wind element and are-"

"Bronze to Silver rank, I know what they are, but what about them?"

He cut her off surprising her with not his knowledge but the fact that he knew what they were but didn't even flinch

'Maybe he just doesn't care because he can't have them?'

Whatever the reason was she didn't mind it too much and moved on

"Well, these steeds are our target"

"All six of them?"

"Indeed"

"I see why you would be hanged, you want to slay the prince's beasts, but why would you harm your own countries assets? I don't see how killing them brings you any benefit"

"Simply put I can never have the beasts while they are alive, but once they are dead, I can most definitely acquire their corpses"

"?"

Seeing him confused she shed some light on the matter

"Their blood is one of the ingredients to an alchemical recipe our family owns, its an old recipe that people have forgotten so I face no danger in selling the concoction"

"Hmm, I see, go on"

"I will hand over thirty percent of the pure profit, and knowing that you couldn't stay until I produce and sell them I will give you the gold as soon you kill the horses"

This was indeed an enticing offer but one thing bothered him

"How am I supposed to kill the horses near the entourage?"

"You don have to, when we go for a ride we go pretty far, the only ones accompanying us should be some bronze peak warriors, not too many of them, you merely need to ambush us and take the horses out while pretending to attack us"

"They surely have tracking beats do they not?"

"They do, blood and energy ones, but as long as you don't get injured you could lose the blood trackers easily, and I'm sure the ones that trace energy shouldn't pose a problem for you with your record"

She clearly assumed he lied about not knowing what the viscount was tracking, which he didn't, this put him in an awkward situation

'Should I just refuse?'

There was so much gold on the line though and he needed some capital to travel around freely and buy necessities

"What if a beast attacked them instead of me"

He thought about sending Lyra to take them out, that way when he recalled her there would be no traces

"If you use your snake or any other beast you might own you will be exposing who you are to them, this way whenever you use those beasts around the kingdom they would hunt you down"

Her thinking was way ahead of him and she even thought for his future well being, this assured him that she was trying to form a connection with him

'I do want to use Lyra around the kingdom if I could and I cant actually fight myself much less lose their trail'

There was no way for him or his beasts to kill the guards which meant the plan was a failure

'None of my beasts can fight either....my beasts?'

"Say, what if beast attacked them anyway?"

"Well, if you willing to risk it then that would make things much easier, they wouldn't look into who the assassin's target was and would assume it was just a wild beast, why else would a beast contractor sacrifice his own just to attack some ladies and kill their horses"

"Hmmm, then we have a deal miss"

His agreement brought a smile to her face, both for gaining his trust and perhaps racking in a great income

"Please, call me Heather mister?"

"Just call me by my alias Z.....Zombie-chan..."

"...Well, glad doing business with you Zombie-chan"

They shook hands though he noticed a slight smile threatening to occupy her face