Chương 20: back to shopping

Ten seconds passed and I already found the shop. I skidded to a stop, ripping stone from the road. I heard a whip hit. Whacks happening in quick succession. Through the window. Charles stood in front of Vanessa. His back, ripped and bleeding. Charles's arms were pulled by servants as Vanessa trembled in fear in Jennifer's arms. Caroline's face contorted like a devil's, hitting my friend with a frightening amount of joy. My body rushed in before my brain could process.

Breaking the door, my hand found itself around the pigtailed blonde girl's neck. I snapped the rod in Caroline's hand as I lifted her high.

"I warned you." I squeezed a tiny bit more. She turned red.

"Learn your place." She turned purple. She kicked and screamed; her weak hands grasped for life, failing to claw at mine around her flimsy throat. It's too easy to end it. A problem easily solved. The men in the alleyway and this girl. They are not that different. Just obstacles in my way.

"Tarion!" A sweet voice brought me awareness.

"Please, Tarion…" tears welled in her eyes. I dropped Caroline, leaving her to sink in her fine fabric. I couldn't understand Vanessa. But at that moment I just didn't want to make her sad. Other than with my brother, to think of someone's feelings was a distant concept for me. I felt so natural with her. I turned, leaving a crier's tears to melt her face. Nodding to my friend who was attended to by Jen, I walked to my wife. She trembled on her feet, unable to look me in the eye. My teeth took off a glove.

Her face was hot to the touch as I felt her bruise. She winced as I traced the wound.

"Sorry for not coming in earlier. You did well, Duchess." Amber's eyes finally looked at me.

"Duke…!" said a coughing Hodge.

"My father will hear of this!"

"Good." I brought my wife close.

"Town crier on the floor. You won't spare clothing. You can't even spare the rod for your own damn sister."

"She's not my sist-""Where is the esteemed lady of Hodge I have heard so much about? It certainly isn't this girl. A girl of class who displayed such extraordinary intellect – she was the envy of every noble in the land. Where is such a person? It can't be the one whose face dissolves under the rain? Not this girl whose manners match the commoners she hates?" I grabbed my wife's hand, fingers interlocked.

"Until you are able to find such a girl, you are not allowed to step a hundred metres from my wife without her permission."

"H-h-how…?!" Caroline struggled to get up as fear disabled her legs.

"Refuse to adhere to this order, and I will break you like that stick."

"D-Duke, please, Your Grace! You've been tricked by that HARLOT!" Helped by her servant to stand, she smiled wryly. There is something she hides from you, your Grace!" She coughed again.

"Come on, 'sister', tell him everything!"

"AY YA YA! The bitch doth yap too much. Servants!" I glared at Caroline's hire.

"Take her to her room. NOW." They followed my order quickly. Guiding the struggling, spoilt girl out of the premises. To think a twenty-five-year-old woman could act more childishly than her sister that's four years her junior!

"Tell him everything!" Caroline screamed until she became an echo in the distance. Funny thing, I already know everything. But Vanessa looked down at the broken stick with eyes glazed.

"Want me to buy you one to hit her with?" She shook her head slowly with a small smile.

"I didn't know it could be so…fragile. I never got used to the iron hitting my skin." Instinct controlled me. My arms hugged Vanessa tight and felt her chest rise and fall.

"It's okay… She's gone; you're safe now." I stroked her hair, letting the only girl who earned a cry weep on my shoulder. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"You're hurt!" Vanessa leaned in the carriage door, getting a closer look at the mark on his forehead.

"How did you – I am sure I brought salve with me? I held her hand before she could touch it.

"It will heal. Worry about yourself." A simple poke pushed her into the carriage, where an injured butler was in pain beside"Charles…" I patted his knee.

"Thank you."

"I just did my job." He winced as he talked; he bent on the seat, unable to rest on his back.

"And more! You should have told me you had an eye on me." I winked.

"Telling the valet to bring my sword was a great help." Charles looked at me, confused.

"It's still silent, Your Grace. They haven't returned. The valet told me you were in need of your weapon, and I obliged." Strange… I stepped out into the cold, signalling the valet to me.

"Umbra. My sword. I gave it to another Umbra. He had a platinum." Platinum?" I asked the young man.

"Ah yes… Platinum is the highest rank of Umbra, given the privilege to order everyone from gold to recruits. They guard the duke – you – personally."

"Susan?"

"A platinum, yes."

"And Beatrice?" I asked.

"She remains a gold. But she is the closest of this generation. Not even the… betrayer… has reached that level." Hands on my hips. I breathed out vapour in the cold.

"Fuck's sake."

"What's wrong?" Vanessa asked from her seat. I closed the carriage door.

"Nothing. I will meet back at the castle; I need to... unwind a bit."

"Tarion..." Vanessa needlessly worried again. I must fix this.

"Are you going to apologise again!? Don't worry, it was a wasted day. I'm sure Jennifer found you enough clothes to last a season or longer."

"Sure did, Your Grace. You gave unrestricted access to your account."

"I did?! Why did I do that?! I am fucking as broke as a fat man's first chair!" As they giggled, I stood back, letting Valet get his horses ready for departure.

"I see… Be well." Vanessa's hand was on the carriage window; I wished to feel her touch even through freezing glass. I held back, turning on my heel.

"I will." Remember my mission. She will leave. I cannot get sucked in by her. The privilege to have her love doesn't belong to someone like me. With heightened agility, I lept into the air. Snow blanketed me high above the city, yet I felt so warm. Her hand in mine is all I could think of. Shaking my head made me remember her face on my chest. My heart pounded, and oddly, it didn't ache. I slapped myself out of my delusions. I have to leave her... Mm? I heard something zip in the howling wind.

A small kunai-shaped weapon flew, and I caught it with a single hand. There was a message tied to it. Unfolding it as I fell through the sky, I read the message.

"Beatrice is a workhorse." Mana repulsion slowed my descent, and several umbra surrounded me on a roof.

"Good work. Now let's show them who they tried to kill." I landed among the mess of bodies my officer delivered to Lano Street, a Mouve shopping district which had a secret side and underbelly. Home to gangsters, heaven for gamblers and an oasis for alcoholics, and home to the Horn: Osberg's red-light district. I remembered a foreigner and projected my voice with mana.

"This is a warning to any vermin tempted with gold to go after my neck! I am not going to pussyfoot around. I will murder every single one of you. I will see your bodies so unrecognisable that your sister-cousin-mother-wife wouldn't be able to recognise you. So don't waste your lives on such futility." The crowd was silenced by my words.

"Go back to your castle, noble bastard!!" A tomato was flung my way and missed by a wide margin.

"GIVE US OUR TAX BACK!"

"BOOOOOOOO!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Boos and insults rained on me like a tropical shower. Hands in trouser pockets, wandering down the walkway, carriages and wagons passed by on my left. I slowed my stride, trying to take in the ambience as my mana shield blocked rotten food. I then realised today was the first time that I actually looked at the city properly. No rushing around for ingredients for the tea, hiding away in the carriage for monster hunts. Even my last excursion was a raid.

I just kept working, grinding, training, and learning. But never actually living or experiencing life. The stale air from the smoking chimneys to the refuse-filled streets. I felt like I was back in London, back home. I walked away, leaving what I said to stick in their mind. But what the resident of Lano Street would remember scaring them more than anything is that through the insults and thrown garbage, I smiled, enjoying it all.