"I trust everything went well?" Alice Ward questioned once Falco and the rest of his team reappeared in her office, stepping out of the portal Pock made.
Falco gave a hesitant nod. "Didn't know we're not allowed to teleport in, but besides that small fact, it all went as smoothly as it could."
"Good." Alice drummed her fingers on her desk. "Narcis asked me for help a while ago, but Myth is a smarter man than he looks. He was able to figure out how we were entering the city, and the heat made it too difficult for us to get in. I'm grateful you were able to do it in my place."
"Why didn't you tell us we were dropping off medicine?" Olivia questioned.
"You never asked." Alice shrugged.
"I get the feeling you wouldn't have given a straight answer even if we did." Olivia pointed out.
"Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't." The old woman's lips seemed to curve upward into a half smile. "Either way, you did the job without question. A good dog knows how to obey orders."
Olivia scowled at the remark but held her tongue. She figured it was some sort of test. Alice had wanted to see how loyal they would be, and they did as they were told. It was hard to read this woman, and she honestly didn't know how she should feel.
Things were very rarely what they seemed.
"Do we get a reward?" Davi spoke up suddenly.
Alice took notice of him and raised an eyebrow. "Reward?"
"When a dog does something the master likes, doesn't the master give the dog a treat?" Davi responded in a flat tone.
"What would you even want?" Alice let out a sigh.
"I don't know." Davi gave a lazy shrug. "That coat you have is pretty cool. Got any more?"
Alice gave the man a dead-eyed stare. "Earning my favor is reward enough." She finally said. "I've sent the money to your captain, as I always do, and I'll make sure to grab a tighter hold of the media around Oleander and ensure no bad press comes out about your little guild."
"Thank you, Madam Ward." Falco gave a half-bow, and then the four of them left.
"It's always nice seeing Alice!" Pock said happily as they all walked down the steps. "She's always so funny! I see why the captain likes her."
"Funny isn't exactly the word I'd use." Olivia trailed off. "Did you really want her jacket?"
"It looked cool." Davi nodded. "I'd like mine not to be brown, though. A nice black or a cool white."
"I'm pretty sure that was just a woman's trench coat."
"And? I'd still rock it."
"Probably," Olivia admitted.
"So, what are the plans now?" Pock spoke up. "Want to come hang out with me at the church?"
"Sorry, but I can't." Falco shook his head. "Not only does that sound hella boring, but I also want to go see the new recruits you told me about."
"No problem." Pock gave a thumbs-up. "May Haru grace you with good times!"
The three of them separated from Pock and began to head back for the guild base, dodging out of the way of disasters as their bad luck flared up. "This is so exciting!" Olivia said happily as they made their way onto the beach. "I can't wait to see who the new recruits are! I hope one of them is someone cool."
"I have a feeling I know who they both are." Davi rubbed his scar, and he could suddenly smell something burning, which made him feel really uneasy. "Uh oh."
Right when the three of them reached the junkyard, they all three had to step out of the way as a massive chunk of metal dropped from the sky. It was white hot and splattered into a molten puddle from how hard it crashed down. The area of the beach where Ragna always trained had become glass, and Olivia spotted the buff man. He was currently dodging and weaving out of the way as waves of red-hot fire scorched the air.
She recognized what was going on. It was his test. Ragna was testing one of the recruits the same way he had done to her and Davi. The recruit had to get one hit on him. The recruit in question was a fire mage, judging by the waves of flame that kept missing Ragna, and as Olivia's eyes fully processed what she was seeing, she felt shock as well as a slight wave of fear.
"In the name of Han Yuan, will you sit still! Row Flame Claw!" The woman fighting Ragna had reddish-brown hair and wild-looking, amber-yellow eyes. She wore a dress mixed with a gi that was red and gold, indicating that the part of Rossum she came from was affluent. This was, of course, Ken Yuan.
"K-Ken Yuan?" Olivia's eyes were wide with shock.
"Oh wow," Davi spoke in a robotic tone. "Who could have seen this twist coming? If this were a novel, I bet everyone would be shocked by this moment."
"Really?"
"No, I fucking called it; this story sucks ass."
Ken swatted at Ragna, but he easily stepped to the side and dodged the strike. That only made Ken angrier, though, and her fire grew in intensity. The air was scorched, and her strikes came out even faster, clawing and palming, but still they did not land as Ragna swerved out of the way.
Olivia winced as she watched the battle. She knew from personal experience that hitting Ragna wasn't easy. She had only managed to do it by catching him off guard and using her Polymorph, which he wasn't aware of. Davi had managed to do it by being insane and taking the fight into the sky, since he figured out Ragna couldn't properly use Mana Step and Sky Walking at the same time.
Ken Yuan might have been stronger than both her and Davi, but Ken lacked her trickery and Davi's insanity. Ken's style of fighting came in two primary forms: elegant and beastly.
Ken Yuan's martial arts was like a dance. It was beautiful, with the woman easily sidestepping all attacks and unleashing simple yet devastating palm strikes, allowing her to maintain perfect control over the fight. However, when Ken lost control, she would enter into her second way of fighting. All that elegance and control would fade, and she'd become a mad beast. Gone was her dance, and instead, it was replaced with fury, claws, slaps, bites, and anything else the woman could pull out.
That was the form Ken was currently in. Her hair wasn't golden, nor had her eyes changed to a fiery red, and Yujin wasn't anywhere to be seen. However, Olivia could tell Ken was still in her animalistic style of fighting, because all she did was claw and bite at Ragna, who treated her like the wild beast she was and kept out of her range.
Seeing Ken Yuan like this always scared her a little, for in moments like these, Ken Yuan was like a magical mutant or a full-on monster, showing very little humanity. Or perhaps the woman showed too much humanity, as it was her inner rage that was clawing its way out of her.
"Oh, hey," Ragna noticed the three of them standing on the sidelines, and he waved at them. "Welcome back! I hope the mission went well! Davi and Olivia, meet our new recruit—"
"Don't ignore me!" Ken practically exploded, and her arms were completely engulfed in flames.
"Hush." Ragna suddenly appeared behind her and delivered a sharp chop to the back of the neck, which instantly knocked Ken to the ground, her energy shutting off, and the fire dying out. She wasn't knocked out, but she groaned and twitched, her limbs not wanting to obey her. "I was talking."
"F-Fuck you."
"Ragna," Davi called out. "You good?"
It took Olivia a moment to realize what he meant, but then she noticed. Ragna's moustache had been set aflame, and his stomach was covered in tiny burn marks. His flesh was rising with steam, and claw marks were all over his body.
The fight hadn't been to see how long it would take Ken to hit him… The woman had clearly already done that.
Ragna let out a laugh and placed his hands on his hips. He puffed his chest out. "Worry not, I am fine!" He nudged Ken with his foot, and the woman snarled at him. "Ken Yuan is very competitive, as it turns out." His laugh was a little weaker this time, and he winced. "She insisted she could do better, and so we kept restarting. She really didn't like the fact that she was the third-fastest recruit to hit me. Speaking of which, Davi, you'll have to do better, as you're still the slowest one to land a blow on me! We'll have a rematch sometime next week to see how much you've grown."
"Dang." Olivia folded her arms and tilted her head down at Ken. "So Ken came in third, and the other new recruit came in second?"
"Oh, no." Ragna shook his head. "Actually, Olivia, your spot at the top has been dethroned, I'm afraid. Earlier today, someone managed to land an attack on me even quicker."
"Really!" Olivia's eyes widened. "Where is this new person—"
Lightning suddenly crackled, and in a flash, a figure appeared next to Falco and Davi. The two men turned just in time, seeing the red oni mask the figure had on, but before they could react, the new recruit jammed the butt of a spear straight into Davi's stomach. The blow was hard, and several of Davi's ribs instantly cracked. He was lifted off his feet and sent flying back, ramming into a wall of scrap.
"Davi!" Olivia screamed out in shock.
"Row Inferno Saber!" Fire blasted into Falco's hand, and he struck at the person in the mask, but his blade only met empty air. The masked man was gone and appeared at the spot Davi had crashed into.
The man in the mask jabbed his hand down and grabbed a fistful of Davi's hair. Then he yanked the man out of the wall of trash and twisted his body, swinging Davi around before letting go and sending him flying once more.
Olivia growled and ripped her wand out. She pointed it at the masked man and was about to cast a spell, but before she could, something significant came crashing down directly in front of her, which threw both her and Falco back.
Yujin roared, having dropped from the sky. His form was now that of a massive fox with nine fiery tails, which all slapped down left and right. A mass of green tendrils was wrapped around the being of fire. Greenie and Yujin were fighting just as intensely as Ken Yuan and Ragna had been; only in this case, Greenie was winning the fight, slowly pushing the flame spirit back.
The masked man continued to beat on Davi, hitting him over and over again with lightning-fast kicks and smacks, making sure not to use the pointy part of his spear. Olivia tried to aim again, but Yujin and Greenie kept getting in the way as they fought on.
"Olivia, Falco," Ragna called out. "Don't worry about Davi or the new guy."
"You can't be serious," Olivia yelled. "He's hurting Davi!"
"It'll be fine." Ragna shrugged. "They're just playing."
"What?" Olivia felt confused, but she turned to watch the fight continue.
The masked man swung his weapon out again, but this time Davi managed to block and catch the strike with his palm. He held onto it tightly, and though bruises clung to his body and he looked beaten up, his eyes had a certain light to them, one Olivia rarely got to see. The entire time the beating had started, he hadn't fought back, nor had he put on his armor.
Now that he had the spear, he smirked. "My turn."
"Hmm…" The masked man let go of the spear and stepped back as Davi swung it out and narrowly missed the other fighter. "So slow. Didn't you get better at all?" This time, it was the masked man's turn not to fight back. He instead kept dodging as Davi swung the spear out, using it as a makeshift sword.
It was some sort of twisted game? One that Davi seemed to be enjoying.
"Whoa!" Falco watched the exchange and grinned. "That looks like a lot of fun! Hey, Olivia—"
"I'm not playing it." She shut him down before he could ask. Then she shook her head. "What the hell is going on!" She demanded.
"A good question." Ragna launched, and right as Ken finally managed to get on her hands and knees, he kicked her in the rear, sending her flying. She crashed and landed in a heap directly at Olivia's feet. "I already introduced you to Ken Yuan. She and I were sparring. The one over there in the mask is named Sieg. He's the one who stole your record, Olivia. From this day on, the two of them will be part of our guild and will be going on missions with you both. Isn't that great!"
"I—I hate you all." Ken Yuan spat out, and she panted as she stood up on wobbly legs. "Yujin. That's enough. We're done." She growled and grabbed the gourd at her side. It glowed, and Yujin was pulled into it, being sealed away. As soon as the spirit vanished, Greenie made several screeching sounds and then slithered over to Ragna, wrapping around the man's neck.
"Ken?"
Ken's eyes narrowed but then softened slightly when she noticed Olivia looking at her. "What do you want?" She demanded.
"How are you here?" Olivia frowned as she scrutinized the woman from head to toe. Ken lacked the cloak the other guildmates had, but knowing the woman, she probably threw it away. "You failed the test."
Ken rolled her eyes. "So what. That stupid king finally came to his senses, is all."
"I feel like that's not what happened…"
"Normally, Ken Yuan failing the test would be a done deal." Ragna tugged on what remained of his burnt mustache. "However, this is an infrequent occasion. I don't know the details specifically, but a representative of the kingdom had difficulty contacting the head of the Yuan family. They planned to ransom her back, but I guess it didn't work out all that well." Ken soured at his words, and her hands clenched so tightly together that her nails pierced into her palms. "I believe the king planned to either send her out of the kingdom or throw her into a cell until they could figure out what to do with her, but as luck would have it, Crow, the Captain of the Umbra Mortis guild, vouched for her."
Ken turned her nose up at the remark. "He didn't vouch for me. He just owed me one because I did him a favor."
"And what was that?" Olivia asked.
"Like I'd tell you." Ken sneered.
"It was something lewd, I bet—"
"It was not!" Ken's face flushed, and she stomped her foot down. She huffed and shook her head. "He did me a solid for paying him back. That's all it was. The king was willing to listen to him, and I was allowed to retake the final test." Then she stopped, and her teeth clenched even tighter as she showed her fangs. "That fucker basically stabbed me in the back! The king knew throwing me in prison could cause issues, so instead he placed me into this stupid fucking guild. I bet he thinks I'll beg him to take me out or that I'm scared of a little bad luck, but that shows what he knows! I'll claw his eyes out when I get the chance!"
"Wait, that doesn't make any sense." Olivia tilted her head as she processed what Ken said. "If they were afraid of causing political drama, wouldn't it have been safer to put you in jail or send you off rather than put you into Phoenix Flight?" Putting a noble, even a noble from another land, in Phoenix Flight would be a considerable problem, typically. It was something that should never happen. "If Crow was the one who vouched for you, shouldn't you have ended up in his guild? Or at the very least any guild but this one? It makes no sense to risk your life like this."
"I can thank my father for that." Ken's shoulders seemed to sag, and she actually looked sad before it was replaced with her angry scowl.
"Your dad?"
"Nothing." Ken shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it anyway." For a moment, the face of her father came to her mind, and her rage doubled. That fucker was the reason she was here. Even in a kingdom far across the sea, he was doing his best to screw her over. The king was all too willing to have her as a pawn once he heard what her father had to say.
"Are you okay?" Olivia asked softly.
"I'm fine." Ken was, in fact, not fine.
What the king said to her kept coming to her mind. It wasn't fair—those thoughts she had of Olivia or Davi or anyone else. Of course, she had those thoughts. She was raised in an environment like that. When she saw the blood mage that stood before her, for the first time, she did indeed have a thought of how good of a blood pill the girl would make, but that was all it was. A moment, a fleeting thought that was crushed and thrown away.
She always had thoughts like that. Angry, spiteful moments. That didn't mean that was who she was, though. It didn't matter to the king. He saw every shameful moment she had, all her sinful desires, and dark thoughts. Her repressed self was what he judged, and he used that alone to paint her as some sort of creature that deserved to be treated like a mad beast.
And then, as soon as the king spoke to her father, he was willing to change his tune.
It pissed her off so much. Everyone but Feng was a terrible person. All of them were awful!
But then…
"Well, for what it's worth, I'm glad you're here." Ken felt a little surprised when Olivia smiled at her. "I was worried when I saw them take you away. It's good to know you aren't locked up. Also, if anyone had to end up in this guild, I'm glad it was you. You're like crazy strong!"
"That's right!" Falco also smiled and punched his palm. "We'll totally have to go a few rounds. It's been a while since I've seen another fire mage who fights up close."
"I'm looking forward to training you, Ken," Ragna announced. "Seeing someone from the land of Rossum who is here in the same guild as me makes me excited. We'll have to trade martial arts techniques and see how we can further improve and refine one another."
Ken felt weird. It was faint, extremely faint, yet for a moment she felt something familiar. The same feeling she would get whenever Feng praised her, or teased her, or laughed with her. It wasn't the feeling she had when she was around strangers, nor was it the feeling she got when she stood in the same room as her father. This was cozy and warm.
It was nice.
Like she belonged?
Ken shook her head, getting rid of those thoughts. There was no point. It wasn't true anyway. These people would likely just use her like everyone else did.
"Did I miss anything?" Everyone jumped when Davi walked back over, followed by the man in the mask.
Now that Olivia got a good look at the man, she noticed he was in robes similar to Davi's, likely being from Mordheim. His was black with white lines instead of white with black lines like Davi's. He was also tall, towering over Davi, and had dirty blonde hair. Various black and blue scales ran down his neck, almost resembling a tattoo. He was a mutant, one who appeared to still be in the early stages of development. Of course, the most striking thing about him was the red oni mask he wore that covered his face. It was ugly and hard to look at, hiding whatever he looked like beneath it.
Even so, the man was extremely good-looking. She didn't need to see his face to know that. His hair was neat and perfect, and he was lean and powerful-looking, but not overly muscular like Davi. The way he walked was perfect and full of grace, and Olivia felt her cheeks flush a little as she tried to imagine what he looked like beneath his robes.
"Don't fall for it." Ken rammed her elbow into Olivia's side when she noticed how red Olivia was becoming. "It's some stupid charm or something he has around him. Try not to get the hots for him; trust me, he's a dick."
Olivia shook her head and slapped at her face. She could tell Ken was speaking the truth, as thoughts that weren't her own were swirling in her head. She took a few steps away from the masked man, and the effect faded slightly. Ken also had to step back when her cheeks flushed.
"It's such a bullshit power…" The girl muttered.
"It gets worse when my mask is off." The man's voice was perfect. Calm and full of authority and power. "I truly hate it. Sorry."
"Damn, he sounds sexy as fuck." Falco nodded. Then Falco also stepped away. "I hate him."
"Sieg's always been favored by people." Davi shrugged. Only he and Ragna seemed unaffected by whatever the aura Sieg was giving off was.
Olivia blinked and forced herself to look at Davi. "You know him?"
"Of course I do." Davi gave a nod and casually pointed his thumb back at the man. "He's my brother."
"Oh—WAIT, WHAT!"
Davi's brother, Sieg Hawker, now stood before her.
"Yo." The man gave a lazy wave. "What's up? Thanks for taking care of my idiot brother."