Bash And Nab

Vistaken pointed at Kies with his index finger. "You need money, right?" Not giving Kies a chance to reply, he pointed at himself and said, "So do I.'' He walked over to his desk and picked up something and placed it on the table. "My idea will solve both our problems."

"Okay?" Kies doubt that the idea would provide enough money to hire the herbalist, but if it did, it would be great. It would mean that he didn't have to win the tournament. He leaned over the table, getting a better look at what Vistaken took out. The other three did the same.

"Father, isn't that...'' A concerned look washed over Lelly's face as she saw what it was.

"Wait..." Bachi also recognized the contents of the document he placed on the table and the same worried look washed over his face as well. "You're not serious about this, are you?" he asked his friend. "This is a bad idea!" he advised against it, but Vistaken shook his head.

"What do you think of this? Do you think you have the skills?" he asked Kies.

Kies stared at the document. It was written in fancy words, making the entire thing very difficult to read and comprehend. Why did nobles have to make things so complicated... "Is this a letter of challenge or something?" That was what Kies managed to get from a few keywords in the paper.

"I'm not sure what this is asking." Nyana also didn't understand the contents of the document and only had a vague idea of what was being said here.

"Well, you're close," he told Kies. "It is somewhat like a letter of challenge, but not quite."

"Can you elaborate?" Nyana asked Vistaken to explain what it said.

"It's a request for a duel before nobles," Vistaken explained. "The two nobles will bet a portion of their land and the winner will receive the loser's land."

"A duel?" Kies asked.

"It is exactly as it sounds. Otane is a place where the strong rise to the top and the weak stay weak. It is a normal duel between two people with weapons. The rules are simple. No killing. Other than that, you do whatever you can to win. Anything is allowed aside from outside interference," he gave Kies a brief rundown of how the duel worked.

"I see..." But Kies didn't understand why he was telling him this. This was a letter of challenge sent to Vistaken. What did it have to do with him? This was a fight between two nobles. Unless...

"You don't have to fight yourself," Bachi told him, hearing the confusion in his voice. "You can have a retainer, underling, guard, servant, mercenary, heck, anyone as long as they work for you, to fight in your place if you want," he explained.

"Oh. Then are you planning on having me act as your knight or something close?" Kies asked the man, quickly figuring out his intentions. The land of the nobles could sell for a lot and they could easily make enough money from this to satisfy both their needs.

"You got it," Vistaken said.

"I don't like this idea," Bachi stated his thoughts on the matter once again.

"Why is that?" Vistaken asked his friend. "He's strong enough to take out hundreds of people. That is more than enough for this task," he reasoned.

"I guess that's true, but..." Although the majority of the nobles and their guards are ex-soldiers or ex-mercenaries, which wouldn't mean anything to Kies, there was one particular noble that he didn't want Vistaken to mess with. "One of the challenges is from 'her,' I beg you to reconsider," he told Vistaken.

"Ah, so that's what you're worried about," Vistaken said, understanding what his friend had been worried about. You don't have to worry about that one. I won't accept it," he told him.

"But even if you won't accept it, she will interfere with the fights anyway! Once word spreads that you are accepting challenges, you will end up having to fight her whether you agree or not!" To Bachi, this entire plan was reckless and not worth the risk. But despite his efforts to convince Vistaken, his friend shook his head.

"That won't be an issue," he assured Bachi. He had a way to get around that. It won't be a problem.

"If you say so..." Bachi was still against his idea but didn't say anything to try to stop him anymore.

"So," he turned back to Kies. "I don't know your name since you don't want to tell me, but are you interested in the idea?" Vistaken asked him.

Kies considered the idea. Was it worth the time and risk? In exchange for making the money he needed to hire the cranky old herbalist, he will end up attracting a lot of attention to himself, and also make enemies out of a couple of them. Hmm... No matter what Kies thought of it, it was a win-win for both of them. He had already angered a lot of the contestants in the tournament and he was going to leave Otane after he finished this mission anyway. It didn't matter if he had a couple more people after him at this point.

"Why not," Kies agreed in the end. He took Vistaken's hand and the two of them shook on the deal.

"Great... Then let's get started right away," the man said. He got up from this seat and this, in turn, caused Bachi to get up as well.

"Wait, right now!?" the mercenary asked. "What do you mean, right now?"

"There are a lot of people here right now, aren't there?" he waved his hand at the window, where there was a mile-long line outside leading all the way to the horse track.

Although most of them were just servants or errand-boys sent by the nobles to place their bets for them, there were quite a number of nobles here. Just by looking at the crowd, Kies was able to identify some of them, mainly from the sour or impatient looks they had on their faces for having to wait this long to place a bet. Some of them even tried skipping, but they were put back in their place by the guards here and dragged back to the end of the line. Seeing this, none of the other nobles dared try to do anything.

"For the nobles that are already here, I'll inform them directly. As for the servants, I'll tell them to send a message to their masters," Vistaken said. He turned to Kies and asked, "When are you available tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" His match had been decided to take place during the afternoon when the most people would be able and ready to watch. It didn't matter if he won the match or not now, and in fact, it didn't matter if he even attended it since he had this, but it was best if he did. He had a feeling that the tournament would cause trouble for him and the rest of his group if he didn't comply after the mess he made.

"I should have time after my match," Kies said. "After tomorrow noon," he explained, in case Vistaken didn't know when the match took place.

"Got it. Well then, it's time to make the announcement..."

***

A breath in. A breath out. Another breath in, and another breath out. Iris opened her eyes but couldn't see anything at all. Everything was black. There was a blindfold that was loosely wrapped around her eyes and a ball of cloth stuffed in her mouth. Her hands were behind her back, tied with a thick rope, and the same went for her legs. She was laying on the floor sideways.

'Where am I? What happened?' Fear and confusion went through her mind as she tried to recall how she ended up like this. But before that, Iris wiggled her body, trying to position her body up since the hard floor was hurting her sides. The air had a strong musky smell, almost like she was in a basement that hadn't been opened in years.

After setting herself up against the wall, she shook her head to try to get the loose cloth that was blindfolding her to drop, but she suddenly felt a sharp pain in the side of her head.

"Mmpff..." She stopped and leaned her head against the wall, waiting for the ringing and pain to subside. After it went away, she felt throbbing in the area right above her right ear. From the looks of it, it seemed that she got hit in the head by something hard and was knocked unconscious... Then she was tied and brought to... Wherever this place was.

Iris tried her best to think back to the events that led to this but had trouble doing so. Her memories were hazy and the only thing that she could remember was going back to the inn with Sirks and her sister, Wompa. They had a meal and they went back home. That was it... Was she missing anything?

'Ugh... My head...' The throbbing of her head got worse and she pressed her head gently against the wall to ease it a little. It took some time, but she eventually found the right angle to tilt her head to help with the pain. Now, back to what she was trying to figure out...

What exactly happened afterward. Did they get ambushed on their way home? Since she was here, it meant that she got kidnapped. If that was the case then-

"Mmpff!" Iris tried to call out to Sirks and her sister, but the gag was stopping her words from coming out. She felt her saliva soak into the cloth, which was already rather wet from absorbing so much, and some of it trickled down her neck, tickling her.

This was bad... Iris was practically panicking now. She needed to find Sirks and her sister. It would be nice if she could call out to them, but she couldn't see a thing. For all she knew, she could be the only person here and the other two were tied up just like her but placed somewhere else. Or worse... They could already be dead. She struggled to try to move the blindfold out of the way so she could see where she was but her head pain stopped her from doing so again.

No. If she was still alive then that meant that the kidnappers knew her identity, meaning that Sirks and Wompa were probably alive too. Knowing this, Iris calmed down a little and took a deep breath. For now, there was nothing she could do but wait for her kidnappers to approach her.

In the meanwhile, Iris moved her legs around. Although they were bounded, she was able to move them freely to some extent and map out her proximity. There was nothing but empty space around her, meaning that she was likely in a small room or in a big cell, with the prior being the more likely one.

Since she couldn't see, she had to rely on her other senses to figure things out. With her sense of hearing, she knew that she wasn't that far from the city. In fact, she was likely still inside the city. Everything was quiet which shouldn't be the case if she was outside the walls. The wind there was strong during the night and could be heard even through the wall.

Well, that was unless it was morning... However, the cool temperature meant that she was probably right. Even if this was the basement, there should be some ventilation, meaning that the hot air would make it down here as well.

But, these were just guesses and she could be entirely wrong. If only she could see... This would make things a whole lot easier. However, Iris' situation was far from easy.

While completely restrained, the throbbing pain on the side of her head continued to get worse, and no matter how much Iris tried, she couldn't get it to settle down like she did before. She tried various angles but it didn't work. Unable to do anything about it, she had to wait for it to subside on its own.

After some time, the pain finally died down and she took another deep breath, trying to relax herself, but she couldn't do that either. She could hear and feel her own heart thumping. It was racing so fast and she didn't know what to do. She was scared. She didn't know what was going to become of her. What were her kidnappers planning to do? She had no clue. Are they planning on killing her?

Iris thought of a thousand possibilities and each of them was worse than the previous. She lost track of the time that passed, and became increasingly more worried. The room was cold. She wasn't wearing much and began to shiver. All the while, she wished that this was a bad dream and she would wake up with her sister at her side.

'Please let this be a nightmare! Please, please, please! Wake up!' But no matter how hard they pleaded, she was still here. This was no dream... This was real.

Iris felt her eyes water and the tears dropped onto the cloth that was wrapped around her eyes. She wanted someone to save her. It doesn't matter who it was. It could be a bandit or another criminal for all she cared. She had always put up a tough front for her younger sister after her older sister became the queen and didn't have time to play with them anymore, but she couldn't keep up the appearance forever.

Deep down inside, she was no different from any other girl her age. It was times like this when she needed someone to help her. But funny enough, instead of her older sister coming to mind... Instead of wishing that she would come here and save her, someone else came to mind. A boy her age, who always wore a cloak, thinking that it could conceal his face when all it did in fact, was make him look more suspicious. He was cold, heartless, and like a machine. She saw him dispatch an entire squad of knights the first time they met, but for some reason, she felt safer when he was around. For some reason... She wanted him to save her... Someone whose name she didn't even know...

'Please, wherever you are, help me...'

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