Nell's Test

"Oh, a cutie!" The first person that the man's daughter saw when she entered the room was Wompa. She instantly ran over and hugged Wompa. The princess wasn't used to skin contact and tried to wiggle out, but because she couldn't speak, she had no way of telling her that she was uncomfortable.

The short man coughed. "Hey, I think you're making our guest uncomfortable," he said to his daughter.

"What are you talking about? She doesn't mind it, do you?" she said while continuing to squeeze Wompa, oblivious to the fact that Wompa was trying to get her off. "I mean, if she did then she would be saying something about it," she pointed it.

"She... can't speak," Kies told them.

"What? Wait, is that true?" She let go of Wompa and looked at her to check if what Kies said is true. Wompa opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but nothing came out, showing them that she is indeed mute.

"Oh, you poor thing!" But that only made the daughter hug Wompa even harder.

"I really think you should let go," the father said to her.

"Aw fine. Anyway, who are these two? You haven't introduced us yet," she asked.

"Come to think of it, we haven't introduced ourselves at all yet, have we?" the short man just realized.

"No, we haven't." They skipped that part almost entirely after he found out that the two of them were mercenaries and went straight to business.

"I'll start then. I'm Hartord, and this is my daughter-"

"Hey, let me introduce myself. It's no fun when you do it," her daughter interrupted him.

"Go ahead then."

"I'm Nell. I'm a city guard, sergeant rank if I may add." As she said that, Kies could see her father shaking his head in disappointment. Or maybe it was in embarrassment. Kies couldn't tell but it seemed that Nell did this quite often and he didn't like it.

"That's... Impressive?" Kies hardly knew the ranking system and how it worked. He only knew that privates were at the bottom and commanders were at the top. Was sergeant high up there as well. Her father did mention that she had several other guards under her command so it was probably somewhere up there.

"It is, isn't it," she said proudly while puffing her chest out. She was standing up tall, and Kies could see that she was a lot taller than her father. She was almost twice as tall as him which Kies found was more impressive than her rank. She had short brown hair and brown eyes, just like her father. If not for those similarities, Kies would've found it hard to believe that she was even his daughter.

"Now, what are your names?" she asked them.

"Kies and Wompa," Kies pointed at himself then Wompa respectfully to show who is who.

"Wompa? Isn't that the name of one of the princesses?" Nell asked.

"Hmm... I think it is, though I can't remember which one it is..."

Kies' eyes widened when he realized the mistake he made. He cursed at himself in his head for not being careful. Since they had been traveling together for some time now, Kies had forgotten that she and Iris were princesses. How could he make such a mistake?

Wompa looked at Kies and he also looked back at her. Her face told him that he needed to do something quick to conceal her identity. "Wait, what I meant to-"

But Kies didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as he was very rudely and suddenly interrupted by Nell who said, "Wow, so you share the same name as one of the princesses!?"

"..."

Kies looked back at Wompa and the two of them met eyes and nodded their heads. It was best if they didn't say anything and play along. "Yeah, she shares the same name with one of the princesses."

"How nice! Anyway, you said your name is Kies right? That doesn't sound like a native name... You're weren't born here, are you?"

Sh*t. Did he say his name as well? Kies thought back to a moment ago when they were asked for their names. He did! Argh! He got caught off guard by Nell and her energetic personality. Well, the two here didn't know his name so that probably didn't matter. The only other person who heard it is Wompa and she couldn't speak so it so his identity is still fine.

Kies calmed down a little and replied," Yeah, I'm not from here. I came from Silverfield."

"I see. I heard the place was gorgeous, until..." Her father gave her a dangerous glare and she stopped. "Yeah, sorry pretend I never said that."

"No, I'm fine with it. Until a dragon destroyed it right?"

"Yes..."

The room went into an awkward silence for a minute since the two didn't know what to say to Kies after that.

"Sorry," Nell mustered after all that time.

"Like I said, it doesn't really affect me. Anyway, can we talk about the request? We're kind of pressed for time," Kies told them. If possible, he wanted to waste as little one talking and as much time doing missions and completing them.

"Request? What request?" Nell turned to her father for an explanation.

Hartford averted his eyes and scratched his head in a guilty manner like he just did something bad and didn't know what to say. "Un, do you remember when you told me that a few of your men were injured and couldn't help? Yeah, I posted a request to the mercenary guild asking them to send a couple of people over."

"You did!? Wait... That means that these two are-" Nell didn't finish her sentence and turned to Kies and Wompa, looking at them with a shocked expression on her face.

"Yes, we're mercenaries," Kies told her.

"..."

The father and the daughter looked at each other for a moment. It seemed like they were having an argument with each other telepathically or something. They changed expressions a bunch of times and eventually, Nell sighed and turned back to Kies and Wompa.

"I guess you're part of my team now. Though, I don't know how I feel about having two children on this case."

"We're adults."

"There's no way that's true. I'm barely an adult and you look even younger than me! Who are you trying to fool with that?"

"Even if we aren't, should that matter? We've taken this request and the only thing that you sure care about is whether or not we're qualified for it."

"Alright then. Let's settle this the old fashion way. Let's go to the guard's headquarters right now. If you can beat even one person on my team then I'll let you take this job."

"We beat a couple of mercenaries in order to become one. Isn't that already good enough?"

"No, cause I haven't seen it with my own eyes. For all I know, you could've fought the scrawniest and weakest looking on and took them out."

Nell wasn't completely wrong about that. Wompa did go against someone who looked like they were going to retire soon. He didn't have the energy to match her and lost because of his age. Kies, on the other hand, lost against his opponent and she had already retired as a mercenary, and so he couldn't say anything about it. Even though she was the ex-strongest or whatever (and also that he was holding back), the fact is that he still lost.

"I guess that's fair," Kies agreed to Nell's little test.

"Alright, give me a minute." Nell got up and left the room. A few moments later, she came back down dressed in light armor and had a sword at her waist. "Okay, now follow me."

The three of them then said their farewells to the father and left the house. They headed straight for the guard's headquarters which was a large building nearby one of the walls. Nell brought them to the training field and quickly went to gather the guards in her team before coming back.

"Here we are."

Standing beside Nell and behind her as well were seven guards dressed the same as her. They all had light armor and wielded swords.

"Who are these two?"

"New recruits? Haven't seen the faces before."

"Possibly."

The seven guards talked to each other, trying to figure out why their captain was with two random people they've never met before.

"Ahem!" Nell cleared her throat. All the guards stopped talking and directed their attention to her. "These two are going to be temporary members of our unit."

"They are!?"

"Are they soldiers?"

"No," Nell answered. "They're mercenaries."

"Mercenaries?"

"Yes. And let me correct what I said. These two are going to be temporary members if, and only if, they can beat you guys," she told her squad.

"Huh? You're telling us that we're going to soar with these two kids."

"They're adults according to what they said themselves."

"That's obviously a lie. Who looks like that and is an adult?"

"Well, we can't even see one of their faces, but the girl is definitely a kid," one of them said. Kies still had his hood on and never took it off the entire time, so no one could tell for sure if he was lying about his age or not.

"Ah, forget it. I'm going back to training. Let me know when we can start finding those thieves again. I have a score to settle..." One of the guards turned and left the group, leaving six guards and Nell left.

"I'll go too."

"That's the same for me."

"Yeah, I don't want to be known as the guy who beat up two kids."

"I have paperwork to sort out. Good luck!"

Just like that, four more guards left, leaving only two guards and Nell remaining.

"I think I'll go as well..."

"Oh no you don't." Nell stopped the guard before he had the chance to take even a step. "You're staying here with us, and that's an order. Now, shall we get started?"

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