The murmurs around them grew, and the tension grew as the crowd looked on. Before the blows could fall, however, Rellina walked into the picture. More eye-catching was Thovak, the Goliath knight, followed closely behind her, and whoever saw them did their best to step aside.

  She reached the two groups, and as if sensing who she was, the crowd cleared an even larger space around them.

  “What is going on here?” she asked, looking from the brothers to the adventurers.

  Recognising her as a noble, the adventurers stepped back. They may have been adventurers, but the Goliath bodyguard in the complete suit of armour served to quell their stubbornness further.

  “We were just asking about the monster. The more information we have, the better we can fight it and leave your city safe.”

  She turned to the brothers, and Darrow gave her a bow.

  “We were just telling them that we can’t help them.”

  “There will be no fighting here,” she said, and waited for the adventurers to nod.

  The crowd that had gathered looked away from her gaze, and they started walking away. The group of adventurers did the same and, after a while, disappeared behind a wagon in the courtyard.

  Just as Damian began to sit back down, Rellina turned to them again.

  “You two, follow me.” She turned and did not wait to see if they followed her.

  Damian looked at his sword, put it back in its sheath, and rose to follow her without hesitation or argument.

  Darrow rolled his eyes, but that was all he did, because a moment later, he was in step with Damian, following behind Rellina.

  They followed her inside the castle, and they ended up in the throne room.

  When Darrow followed her in and stood in the room for a second time, he looked up at the beams, then frowned. He turned to the spaces under the tables and benches that lined the hall, but there was no lynx watching them.

  Damian only noticed the few elderly, rough, and organised people in the room.

  They stood waiting and worried, and when they saw Rellina, their eyes followed her. They had the looks of troubled men and women, filled with worry, fear, and anger in some cases.

  Mistwall district was small, and those few people who held influence were all here. In other times, these would be the people who reported the problems of the city to her as the ruling noble of the district.

  Now it was a collection of a farmer, a merchant, a councillor, the guild master of The Mistcurvers, and some elders of the town. They represented the entirety of the population of Mistwall. Apart from them, there was a diplomat waiting at the lower step. He sniffed loudly with his arms crossed, upturned nose and tapped his foot impatiently as well.

  As soon as she stood on the raised step leading to the throne, the citizens went quiet as they followed her authoritative stride until she stopped and turned.

  “Councillor, how are the people?” she asked an older man holding a sobbing girl in his hands.

  “It’s not looking good. The creature destroyed the residential houses. The people are scared,” the man said, and the small girl in his hands started sobbing again.

  She turned to the guild leader of the Mistcurvers, and the man in robes responded before she could.

  “We tried to kill it, but it went after the innocent… even now there are fires across the Causeway.”

  The Mistcurvers’ Causeway was the city square of Mistwall. It often was, in fact, where all the people stayed. There were quiet residents, ambitious enough merchant stores, and the biggest one, the guild building of the Mistcurver adventurers.

  “The dragon’s shield protects us,” some of the senior figures in her district muttered in a low tone.

  “If you can’t even kill the creature, what do we pay you for?” the merchant, who was part of a small, less powerful council, said, yelling at the guild master.

  “You try, and kill the creature. See how long your gold coins keep you alive,” the guild master, a middle-aged man, said.

  “Lady Rellina—” the merchant turned to her, but she raised her hand, quieting the small crowd.

  “We cannot fight amongst ourselves,” she said.

  “Do we know who is responsible? How did the monster even escape the dungeon?” one of the elders asked, and murmurs spread through the crowd.

  “We need assurances, massage spells are binging to flood in from guild master and lords,” the diplomat from Principal City said, and stirred the small crowd up again.

  Rellina held firm, however, as she stood in front of them on the fourth stair from the throne. She refused to promise what she couldn’t deliver.

  Even she didn’t know if the creature would leave the city and attack the surrounding districts, although she was very sure it wouldn’t.

  “Can we even kill it?” a councilwoman asked.

  “Yes, it can be done. These two hurt it before.” She gestured at Damian and Darrow. If her people could hope and stay strong, that was all she needed, and by showing them proof that the creature could die, she hoped this would ease their tensions.

  The room turned and stared at them. Even the little girl turned and peered up at Damian with awe.

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  The finely dressed merchant looked doubtful, and the Mistcurvers guild master raised an eyebrow.

  “Will they hunt this creature?” a woman asked.

  “Yes, them and all the adventurers who have come to our district in response to my bounty,” she said, and the crowd broke into murmurs again.

  After a few more questions, which she answered vaguely, Rellina dismissed the crowd of elders. All except one. The diplomat remained behind, and from the looks of it, the elf was not a resident of Mistwall.

  He stood rigid as Rellina approached him and gave her a simple bow, since no matter what was going on, she was still a noble.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  The elf straightened. He looked her in the eyes levelly, and Rellina frowned.

  “It’s about the monster. Word is that it could attack the other cities, and they need assurances.”

  “They have nothing to worry about. I will strike the monster down before it encroaches on their lands.”

  The diplomat didn’t know whether to take that word for word or if it was a diplomatic jab at the surrounding districts.

  As she spoke with the man, Damian and Darrow stood waiting awkwardly by a nearby pillar.

  Knight Thovak wasn’t far behind them. He glanced from them to Rellina occasionally and watched Darrow lean onto the pillar as though bored.

  When Rellina was done assuring the diplomat, she returned, and the elf straightened his long two-piece coat, harrumphed, pointed his nose up in dissatisfaction and walked away.

  “Do you think that monster can be killed?” she asked.

  “You probably need a gold-rank team to take it down,” Darrow said, uncrossing his arms and walking forward.

  “But you were the only two who managed to injure it.”

  “We were lucky,” Damian sighed.

  “But you could do it again.”

  “We barely survived the first time. Remember, if you hadn’t used your skill, we would have died,” Damian said, and this time even she heard the weariness in his voice.

  “Is there a secret underground passage that we could, you know, use to get out?” Damian asked.

  “I told you my castle is impregnable, which means there are no secret doors leading out.”

  “Isn’t that the wrong way to build an estate?” Darrow said, raising an eyebrow disbelievingly.

  “It’s a castle, and it’s been like this for centuries,” she said, and Darrow shrugged, unconvinced.

  “So the only way out is fighting the monster,” Damian said.

  “Yes, and I will reward you for it.”

  “Wait, you know our secret. What happens with that deal?” Darrow asked.

  “It’s still in effect. Get me the scepter, and I promise on my class to never reveal your secret.”

  Damian looked away to the large empty space of the hall. He felt around his neck where an assassin had held his dagger, and he sighed.

  Darrow, on the other hand, tried to negotiate better terms, as the knight watched him like a hawk, and before the rogue could even get his point across, they heard shouting from outside.

  —

  No sooner had Rellina finished her conversation with Damian and Darrow than she heard the noise of chaos outside.

  Rellina moved through the last few meters of the hallway. She reached the door leading to the courtyard, then pushed it open.

  The air shifted. The dull sunlight hit her face, and the noise of chaos grew louder like a storm.

  The courtyard was in chaos. The tents they had seen going up around the adventurers’ section were crumpled together under a hovercraft glider, and there was shouting and the clattering of metal as armoured fists met chest plates.

  The noble retinue that had been forcing its way through as if they owned the place had come upon some resistance and were exchanging blows with a group of adventurers.

  Just like before, the crowd had formed up around the brawl, watching like excited onlookers.

  One group was led by a young man wearing polished silk clothing under armour that looked very expensive. He was clearly a noble of some kind.

  The other man was a battered bronze-rank adventurer who wore dented, overused armour over his stained shirt and trousers, just like his fellow adventurers behind him.

  Their fellows pulled them apart, and that meant they started shouting and throwing insults at each other.

  The kids, who were all dirty and hugging their parents amidst the chaos, started crying. The bard who had been playing his stringed instrument to calm them had stopped and was also looking at the fighting.

  Rellina’s face darkened. She turned from the children standing around the bard and looked at the two groups fighting against each other.

  Thovak saw her movement. He saw her face and hurried to follow her, along with Damian and Darrow.

  They watched as the scion straightened himself, brushed himself off, and taunted the adventurers as he paced in front of them arrogantly.

  “You should learn to respect your betters. this is a courtyard, not some campsite,” he gestured to the camp’s tents that were crumpled underneath his glider.

  For everyone who hadn't seen it, they could infer that the noble scion, a young man, had ordered his enchanted glider to be parked in the middle of the adventurers' tents and, in doing so, had nearly run over the relaxing adventurers.

  The adventurer spat blood to the side and grinned.

  “That’s some expensive armour. Too bad you can’t buy skill.”

  The young man, the noble scion, lunged to punch him again, and the crowd of adventurers roared.

  “STOP THIS AT ONCE!” Rellina shouted, but her words were drowned out by the noise.

  The adventurer twisted to the side and countered with a rough elbow, slamming into the young scion’s jaw. The blow was audible enough, and the crowd of adventurers cheered. It wasn’t every day they watched a noble lack the capability to fight an adventurer.

  Rellina was not impressed. She balled her fists and kept walking forward. The scion staggered back, caught a glimpse of her, but simply ignored her and rushed forward again.

  Rellina was angry. If it didn’t show on her face, then her anger was very present in what she did next. She walked into the clearing, right towards the centre, in the middle of all the fighting.

  The scion was thrown back again by the much more experienced veteran, and in his fury, turned to punch the adventurer, but instead of the adventurer standing in his way, it was Rellina.

  Darrow slipped between them, and his hand snapped out and grabbed the scion’s fist effortlessly.

  The other young man’s eyes went wide, and the courtyard fell into a hush. Even the adventurer blinked a few times in disbelief.

  “Watch where you throw that,” Darrow said, and Damian just sighed. He was about to move, but Darrow had moved before him and had used [Skill Imprint: Lesser strength].

  The scion yanked his hand back, and Darrow let go. The other young man stumbled back, and the adventurers laughed. Then they realised she was there, and they went quiet. The crowd went quiet because they couldn’t even meet her eyes.

  She didn’t move. She didn’t speak. It was clear to all of them how disappointed she was.

  “Enough,” she commanded, and even Thovak, whose hand was drawing his sword, stopped only an inch in its scabbard as he came to her side.

  Her voice ripped through the crowd, and it carried a presence with it. The skill lasted for a second, but the [Noble’s Presence] skill had definitely gotten the attention of everyone in the courtyard. When the adventurers recognised her, most of them stepped back, intimidated.

  The scion recognised her. He recognised that he was in noble company, and he smoothed his silks, glaring all the while.

  “My lady—” Thovak began, then stopped as Rellina spoke.

  “What is the meaning of this?” she asked again.

  “I am Jorand, scion of the Brass Throne of the Second Chair, here to kill the beast and show respect.” The young human bowed.

  “Respect is earned, not—” the adventurer began, but Rellina silenced him by raising her hand. He moved to protest, but he looked over at the half-giant knight and stopped.

  “Any more, and you will no longer be welcome in my city,” she said, and the few adventurers who had come here for the fame and wealth of the bounty lowered their heads.

  Seeing this, Jorand stood straighter. He cleaned his face and cleared his throat.

  “Then I hope you have prepared chambers for me before we hunt the beast,” he said, still red-faced in the cheeks.

  Rellina stiffened at the obvious disrespect. He wasn’t her guest. Thovak stepped forward as Jorand approached her, and the young man hesitated. He smirked and deliberately brushed past the half-giant.

  Rellina’s fingers twitched by her side as she fought to use her [authority] skill on him. She wanted to command him to stop, turn around, and explain himself. Furthermore, she wanted to order him out of her district.