RMGCFW — Chapter 108 - Abandoning Darkness, Embracing Light
"Oho? What kind of lubricant did you use? Feels pretty good."
Banxia sat up and pulled the girl into his arms.
Unfortunately, the assassin's eyes had already rolled back. Consciousness had slipped away entirely for the moment, leaving no one to answer his question.
"..."
No one could say how long the fierce battle had lasted. The darkness gradually receded, and faint light began to bleed over the horizon.
"Where... is this..." The assassin opened dazed eyes and pushed up from the floor.
"Newcomer, you're awake. Didn't expect it to actually be your first time." Beside her, a rabbit-eared girl, equally reduced to a limp puddle, gave her a gentle nudge.
"Sir Adventurer says he's got about one round left before he has to head out. We'll leave that one to you."
"Eh? Eh-eh-EH?!" The assassin looked up and found the ferocious young man already closing in. She scrambled backward in a panic.
"D-Don't come any closer!"
"Relax. I didn't know you were a newcomer last night." The young man offered a gentle smile. "I'll be gentler this time."
"That's not what I'm talking about—!"
Under her despairing gaze, her petite body was hoisted effortlessly into his arms, light as a paper cup.
Outside the window, the morning light was lovely. Inside the room, a new round of conquest was only just getting started.
...
A few more days passed.
Banxia waited until all the demi-humans had cleared out of the room before turning with a puzzled look toward the petite girl before him.
"Whatever you need to say that couldn't be said in front of others, honestly, what a hassle..."
Ever since that night, the girl had clung to him relentlessly.
She wasn't a cat, and his thing wasn't a feather wand, yet she acted like she'd gotten hopelessly addicted, impossible to shake off no matter what.
He grumbled, but he still listened patiently to the whole story.
"Lord Hero, the truth is... I'm a descendant of a distant branch of the royal family..."
Banxia listened with furrowed brows to her whole account.
The general gist:
A true man born between heaven and earth cannot spend his life languishing in obscurity beneath others.
Half a lifetime adrift, lamenting only that he'd never found an enlightened lord. If you would not cast me aside, I wish to pledge myself to you as a sworn daughter.
Boiled down to four words: abandon darkness, embrace light.
"I already figured those nobles wouldn't let me go easily. Still, I didn't expect them to send only you."
"Because I concealed my identity. That old geezer only knows I'm this year's chief assassin..." The cat-eared girl sat on the floor, eyes fixed longingly on the wand swaying back and forth.
"To think something like that was going on. How interesting."
"Lord Hero, I want..."
"If everything you've said is true, I'll give you what you want."
Under the assassin's hazy gaze, the young man waved a hand. Every noble secret buried in Alice's mind, the ones that could never, under any circumstances, be exposed, unfolded itself plainly before his eyes.
Not that Alice cared about any of that anymore.
"Not bad. Looks like you genuinely want to come over to my side."
Seeing that Alice was about to launch into declarations of loyalty, Banxia cut her off directly. He thought it over for a moment.
"I didn't really want to get tangled up in any of this. But what can I do, these people just had to come looking for me..."
It wasn't that he wanted to try reviving Xiaoyan. He just wanted a little payback, plain and simple.
"By the way, what's your name?"
"Grrr... Assassin."
Banxia pressed a hand to his forehead. There was definitely something wrong with this girl's head.
"I meant your actual name."
"Alice..."
"What a painfully generic name!"
"..."
"Didn't they give you a Sure-Kill Blade?"
"It's here..."
"Mm. Looks like a decent ancient magical artifact." He pocketed it. "I'll be taking this."
"Oh. Okay."
"I've received your sincerity. Work under me from now on. Do well, and I'll reward you with a night."
"Master..." Faced with the olive branch, Alice accepted without a moment's hesitation.
Her body... already couldn't do without this man...
And besides, the reason Alice had become an assassin in the first place was always to kill that usurper king.
"Then it's settled. After today, head back to the royal capital first. I'll come find you in a while."
"Understood, Master..."
...
A few more days passed. The outskirts of the Commercial Capital.
"Young adventurer, if you don't mind my asking — how old are you?"
"Older than you."
The coachman whipped around. "Don't tell me you're already past thirty?!"
"Oh. You mean age."
"..."
What else would he mean?
Thoroughly bewildered, the coachman glanced toward the blue-haired girl sitting beside the young man, a frost sword cradled in her arms.
Her gaze was cold, her posture perfectly still, like an exceptionally aloof goddess.
Paired with the young man's handsome yet commanding presence.
These two had to be a Gold-rank adventurer party.
"Mabel, we've already left the city. Why do you look so unhappy?"
"..."
"Well, it's my fault for delaying this many days before we set off." Banxia pulled out his coin pouch and checked it. Ten gold coins left.
"How about this. Five coins — travel money to get back."
"Huh?" Mabel dazedly accepted the gleaming gold coins.
She'd only been quietly mourning the life back in the city, lying flat, doing absolutely nothing, and somehow she'd just walked into a small fortune for free...
"Woof~"
"...I wasn't planning on keeping a pet on this trip."
"Th-Then, Lord Hero, what are these gold coins for?"
"Weren't you listening?" Banxia said flatly. "I said, travel money to get back."
"Lord Hero, you're the best!" The girl beamed and tucked the coins away happily.
Just imagining the comfortable life that money could buy, she couldn't help but break into a slightly odd smile.
Seeing her drift off into her own private daydream, Banxia left her to it and turned to the coachman. "Do you know anything about the Clan of Parting?"
"I've heard the name." The coachman nodded. "Word is they haven't shown themselves for hundreds of years. Nobody knows where they are now."
"Hm?" Banxia frowned. "But the merchants back in the city are still selling cloth and clothing they claim is from the Clan of Parting."
"That's just merchants pulling one over on out-of-towners. If there were real cloth from the Clan of Parting, it would've been snatched up at sky-high prices by nobles long ago. It would never make it onto the open market."
"Then the rumor that the women of the Clan of Parting are wonderfully supple..."
"Oh?" The coachman perked up. "Didn't expect Lord Adventurer to be into that sort of thing too. Though I've only heard about it myself, apparently it has something to do with the First Hero."
"..."
...
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