by D. S. Craig
Elliot looked over toward the door, a frustrated look on his face. “I wish I could, but it seems like that might be dangerous at this point. Based on Rose’s reaction, I think Baron Arvis may be threatening her in some way.” I felt the tension drain from my muscles. Thankfully, Elliot had reached the same conclusion as mine.
Elliot turned his gaze back toward us. “That’s where you all come in. If I’m around, then Rose will be on her guard, so I’d like you to see if you can find out what Baron Arvis is using to threaten her. Can I ask for your help with this?”
Lesti stood up and puffed out her chest proudly, hands on her hips. “Leave it to us. We’ll find out whatever Baron Arvis is plotting. No problem.” She paused for a moment, her expression turning more serious. “Still, we’re going to need some sort of hard evidence, right? That might be a little bit harder to get.”
Elliot grinned and thumped his chest. “Leave that to me. I’ve got some ideas on that front.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a small coin pouch, which jingled a little as he moved it about. “I want you to take this as payment. It should be enough to cover your expenses.”
Lesti’s face grew suspicious. “Expenses? Why would I have expenses?”
Elliot pushed the coins into her hand. “As part of my plan, I’d like you to convince Rose to come to my birthday party. She’ll probably come up with some excuse like not having a dress, so use this money to buy her one. You can use whatever is leftover to line any pockets as you see necessary.”
“Oh, right. The party.” Lesti’s shoulders slumped as she remembered the event that she was dreading. “I guess I have one more reason I can’t skip now.”
Elliot furrowed his brow. “Is there something about my party that’s causing you trouble?”
“Ah, sorry.” She waved her hands in front of her as if trying to clear the air. “I’m not trying to be rude. It’s just that my future husband is going to be there, and I’m not looking forward to dealing with him.”
“Ah, right. You’re engaged to Augustine Vanderbolt, aren’t you?” Elliot’s gaze turned to one of pity. “I certainly don’t envy anyone who has to deal with that foul man. Let me know if I can help in any way.”
“Thanks. I will.” Lesti stood up and started packing up her stuff. “In the meantime, let’s get to bed a bit early tonight. We’re going to have a long day tomorrow.”
“Long day?” Aurelia finally spoke up for the first time in a while. “Aren’t we just training?”
Lesti turned and looked at her with a smile. “We’re taking the day off from training tomorrow.” Her smile turned into a mischievous grin. “We’ve got some shopping to do.”
* * *
“Are you sure we should be doing this?” I looked up at Lesti, feeling extremely nervous. It was early morning, and we were crouched behind the corner of the girls’ dormitory, looking out at Rose’s garden. Aurelia and Fang were with us, waiting for Rose to show up.
“What’s the problem?” Lesti looked down at me with a smile so innocent, it was clearly fake. “We’re just going to invite her to go shopping with us.”
“The problem is with the part of your plan where we kidnap her if she refuses!” I swatted Lesti on the leg. “How is doing something like that okay in your book?”
“It’s not kidnapping.” Lesti’s voice trailed off for a moment, and her gaze drifted off to the side. “It’s invoking my noble privilege.”
Next to us, Aurelia giggled slightly, causing me to turn and glare at her. “I can’t believe you’re on board with this plan, Aurelia. I would think you’d be against a noble abusing her privilege like this.”
“Mmm. This is for a good cause, so it’s okay.” She smiled gently at me. “Besides, after yesterday, I think this is the only way that will work.”
“Only way what will work?” a familiar voice whispered behind us. Hearing it caused all of us to freeze and stop our bickering. Slowly turning around, I found Rose standing there with her watering can in hand, staring at us with a perplexed look on her face. I couldn’t blame her for that, either. There the four of us were, crouched down beside the dorm, whispering to each other.
“Oh, Rose, what are you doing here?” Lesti looked down at the full watering can in her hands. “Wouldn’t it have been faster to go around the building the other way if you’re coming from the well?”
Rose held the watering can up. “Oh, this? Yeah. I normally go the other way, but I forgot my hat in my room, so I stopped by to get it. After that, I kind of just came this way on a whim. What about you guys? What are you all doing here?”
I decided to jump in before the other two said something crazy. “We were just waiting for you. We were wondering if you wanted to take a break from classes today and go shopping with us in town instead. You know, a girls’ day out.”
“That sounds like a lot of fun.” For a moment, I believed that we had avoided the worst-case scenario. But Rose dashed those hopes only a second later. “We shouldn’t be skipping classes, though. It’s rude to the instructors. They spend a lot of time preparing for their lessons, you know.”
What a good kid! Why can’t these two be more appreciative of their instructors like she is? I turned to glare at Lesti and Aurelia, but just as I did, they suddenly backed down.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Lesti stepped aside to let Rose pass. “We’ll just have to go some other time.”
Aurelia grabbed the watering can out of her hands. “Mm. Come on. We’ll help you water the garden.”
The three of them headed off toward the garden with Fang in tow while I stared at them in utter disbelief. Was that entire thing about kidnapping her a joke? No, no, no. If that’s the case, then I was the only one who was taking it seriously?! I was so embarrassed I wanted to go hide, but it was unlikely that they realized that I had thought they were serious. Wandering off would only make them suspicious, so I quietly followed them and waited nearby while they tended to the garden.
“So, if during classes won’t work, then how about after class today?” Lesti suddenly made her suggestion as she tugged at a few weeds cropping up in the garden alongside Rose.
“Well, that should be fine, but I have to take care of the garden.” Rose looked at the field around her. “I’m not sure there will be time to do everything that’s needed if we go shopping.”
“Why don’t we take care of the garden work for you?” Aurelia called out from the other side of the garden where she was watering the plants. “We have free study all day, so we can stop a little early to take care of it.”
“Yeah, just tell us what needs to be done,” Lesti said.
“Oh, That would be perfect!” Rose smiled innocently at Lesti as she tossed aside the last of the weeds. “Let me just go over what needs to be done, then.”
She started to list off a series of tasks longer than I think the other girls had expected. It included watering the plants again, checking for pests, and recording the growth of the crops. Lesti grabbed some parchment from her bag and jotted everything down so that we wouldn’t forget. After that, Rose headed for her class while we went to the training grounds.
As soon as Rose was out of earshot, Lesti let out a relieved sigh. “Thank goodness we didn’t have to kidnap her. That would have been a real pain to explain to the headmistress.”
“Wait, you were serious about that?!” I looked up at Lesti, suddenly more confused than I had been earlier. “After you let her refuse earlier, I thought that you must have been joking!”
“Of course not!” Lesti looked at me like I was the crazy one. “It’s one thing if she just doesn’t want to skip class, but if she had turned us down completely, then we would have kidnapped her for sure. Right, Auri?”
“Mm. I’m glad we didn’t have to. Rose is nice, and I wouldn’t want to upset her.”
I threw a deadpan stare the way of both girls, finally giving in to my irritation with the pair. “I’m definitely upping the intensity of both of your training regimens, sta
rting today.”
* * *
Later that afternoon, the four of us were waiting by the school gate for Rose. Aurelia had been hesitant to bring Fang with us, worried that his presence would make people nervous. Lesti had managed to convince her it would be fine since they were both wearing their academy uniforms. According to her, students and instructors at the academy could go wherever they wanted with their familiars, so the townsfolk were used to seeing them.
I could tell Aurelia was nervous. We hadn’t even left yet, and she was already keeping Fang on a short leash, having him sit beside her calmly. He didn’t seem to mind. He simply watched the various students as they passed through the gate, tail wagging all the while.
As I sat there marveling at his ability to enjoy even the simplest things in life, I heard Rose’s familiar voice call out to us. “I’m sorry I’m late. Our instructor ran over with his end of lesson speech.”
Lesti smiled brightly as Rose came jogging up, slightly out of breath. “No worries. Are you ready to go? Not forgetting anything?”
“Yeah, I’m all set.”
“Great! Then let’s go.” Lesti turned and walked out the gate, making a quick left. It was the same direction we had taken when heading to the commoner district before. However, this time, rather than taking a right at the end of the road, Lesti took a left. As I looked up the street, I could see that the shops were getting fancier the further along one walked. Rose must have noticed the same thing because she began to fidget nervously.
“Um, are you sure we’re going the right way, Lesti?” After a few minutes of walking up the street, Rose finally broke the silence, eyes nervously darting from one store window to the next.
Each one was filled with expensive-looking clothes, decorations, and other luxury goods. Despite the buildings being the same basic layout as the other parts of the merchant district, with stone walls and blue tile roofs, the area had a completely different vibe thanks to the quality of the products being sold. Even the people shopping were dressed far more nicely than average.
Lesti grabbed Rose by the arm with a big smile. “It’s fine! There’s a great shop up ahead here that I thought we could check out.”
At first glance, Lesti’s actions seemed innocent enough. But to anyone who knew her well enough, it was plain to see that she was hanging onto Rose to make it harder for her to run away. Aurelia wasn’t sitting by idly, either. As soon as Rose started to act nervous, she gave Fang a subtle hand signal, and the pup began carefully trailing behind Rose, cutting off her escape route. It was utterly ridiculous how much effort and coordination they had put into this.
“Won’t a shop in this part of town be rather pricey, though?” Rose’s gaze fell to the ground. “I’m just a commoner, so I don’t have much money.”
“Oh, is that all you’re worried about? Don’t sweat it. Elliot’s footing the bill this time.”
At Lesti’s mention of Elliot, Rose stopped dead in her tracks and stared at her, eyes wide. “What do you mean Master Elliot is paying for this? Why would he do that?”
Lesti stopped and looked over at Rose meekly. “Well, to be honest, Elliot asked us to convince you to attend his birthday party with us. He gave us money to buy you a dress, saying you’d use not having one as an excuse not to attend.”
“So, what you’re saying is that you didn’t invite me out for a fun day of shopping, but rather to fulfill some promise you made to Master Elliot?” Rose looked back and forth between Lesti and Aurelia before turning on her heel and shrugging off Lesti’s arm. “I’m going back to the academy.”
Unfortunately for her, all she saw when she turned around was Fang, who growled playfully at another hand signal from Aurelia. Rose froze on the spot again, pure terror written all over her face. Aurelia, now sure that she wasn’t going to make a run for it, finally spoke up. “Can’t it be both?”
Rose blinked rapidly, seemingly surprised by Aurelia’s question. “What do you mean?”
“Of course, we made a promise to Elliot, but I was looking forward to going shopping with you today.” Aurelia glanced over at Lesti. “Right?”
“Yep! Even if Elliot hadn’t asked us to do this, we still would have invited you.” Lesti averted her gaze slightly and scratched her cheek. “Although, we might have picked a cheaper place to go.”
Seeing Rose still had doubts, I decided to give her one last push. “Rose, we may be doing this at Elliot’s request, but that’s only because we think it’s what’s best for you. If Elliot was just after your abilities, we would have turned him down.”
“Mm. Astria’s right.” Aurelia walked over and grabbed Rose’s hand. “We all want to help you out in whatever way we can, so I hope you’ll trust us.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s just, there’s so much at stake. If they find out I’m involved with Master Elliot…” Rose bit her lip, her body trembling slightly. It was clear from her reaction that Baron Arvis had threatened her in a pretty severe manner.
“At any rate, let’s not worry about that right now.” Lesti, seeing her reaction, grabbed back onto Rose’s arm. “The only tasks we were given were to get you a dress and make sure you go to the party. There’s no harm in that, right? So, let’s get shopping!”
With that, she took off down the street as a quick walk, practically dragging Rose behind her, causing the younger girl to cry out. “Lesti?! Hold on, you’re going too fast!”
“That’s because we’ve wasted too much time. If we don’t hurry, the shop will close.”
Aurelia shot me a concerned look, and we both followed after Lesti. Something about her behavior was off. I knew that we still had plenty of time to get to the shop. After all, no store in the entire city would close this early.
Just as I was starting to worry, Lesti sent me a message privately. “Astria, don’t look behind us, but we’re being followed. I’m going to duck into an alley nearby. Can you cut off the exit for whoever follows us?”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of it.” I switched the target of my thoughts over to Fang, who was walking along beside me. “Okay, buddy. It’s time to put your new skill that we worked on to the test. You up for it?”
“Rarf!” Fang let out an excited bark and licked me right along the side of my face. Apparently, he was ready to go.
A few seconds later, Lesti called out to the other girls and suddenly pulled Rose toward a nearby alley. “Come on. I know a shortcut. We’ll have plenty of time if we go this way.”
Rose started to hesitate as Lesti led her off the street. However, Aurelia’s gentle hand on her back and calm gaze kept her moving forward. We all ducked into the alleyway, which was still infinitely cleaner than the alleys in the commoner district. I thought about hiding near the entrance, but there was no trash or crates for me to duck behind. So, instead, I followed everyone else to the far end.
Whoever was tailing us was doing a pretty good job of keeping their distance. Based on the fact that they had only just entered the alley as we were about to exit, it seemed that their main objective was just to keep an eye on us. This would have been the perfect place to spring an ambush, after all.
Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t aware of Fang’s new ability. “Alright Fang, use your shadow step to get behind him and cut off his escape route.”
Fang let out a low growl as he leapt into action. In an instant, he disappeared from his spot beside me. Not wanting to get left behind, I turned and charged toward our pursuer myself, transforming into my leopard form as I went. I would have preferred my tiger form, but the alley was a little too narrow for that.
Seeing me turn and start charging his way, the man tried to make a break for it. But he was immediately met with Fang, who had appeared behind him. This was Fang’s new ability, which I was calling Shadow Step. It was honestly a bit of a misnomer, but I thought it was a good fit with his black and purple fur.
Rather than jumping to someone’s shadow like you would expect, Fang used the massive amounts of magic
al energy building up inside him to briefly boost his speed to an absurd level. Honestly, even I had trouble following his movement when he used it. Right now, the main drawback was that he could only use it in short bursts, but for a situation like this, it was perfect.
Suddenly pinned between two magical familiars, the man put his hands up as if surrendering. Now that I was close enough to get a good look at him, I could see that he was a bit out of place here. Most people in this part of town were relatively clean by this world’s standards and wore fancy clothes. This man wasn’t quite up to the same level.
His beard was ragged, and his brown hair was dirty. On top of that, while nice, his clothes were clearly dated and didn’t match the style that others were wearing. It wasn’t so bad that he would immediately draw suspicion. But once you noticed him, he definitely felt out of place.
“So, care to explain what you’re doing following a bunch of girls into a dark alley like this, mister?” Lesti asked as she came walking up behind me.
“I wasn’t following nobody.” The man turned and faced me, maybe deciding I was the more significant threat. “I was just going about my day and decided to take a shortcut.”
“Oh, is that right?” Lesti smiled at the man innocently. “Then, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s the name of the shop you were headed to?”
“Th-the shop I was headed to?” The man faltered a moment before recovering and putting on his air of indignation once more. “Well, if you must know, I was headed to the tailor.”
He smiled smugly down at Lesti, but she only stared back at him with a stone-faced expression. “Alright, which one?”
“W-which one?”
“Yes, you see, unlike in the commoner district, shops in this part of town have their own names.” Lesti grinned at the man who was growing more flustered by the second. “Surely you must know that if you’re enough of a regular in this area to be taking a shortcut through an alley like this.”
The man gritted his teeth. He knew he was caught, but apparently, he hadn’t completely given up yet. “That’s enough! I won’t be patronized by a bunch of little brats like you!” Turning on his heel, he made his way toward Fang. “I’m a busy man, so I’ll be on my way now.”