After giving up on cleaning her room we took a break and sat on her bed. It may have been torn to shreds, but the mattress was still soft enough, even if it probably wouldnât hold up for very long.
I took a deep breath in and clapped my hands, trying to grab her attention before she got any more depressed. âOk. Know your enemy right, the bronze blades, tell me about them.
âLike⦠The members⦠Orâ¦â
âWho is the leader? Letâs start there.â
âI think it was a 16-year-old girl named Yamaria Allshadora. But-â
âI see⦠The Allshadora family huh⦠And what do we know about them?â
âYamaria is the oldest daughter. The family rules over a small town in the mountains and has long had a history of producing rogues. They are the closest any rogue has ever gotten to being respectable⦠But⦠From what they say thatâs just because the family is very idealistic and too strong to be taken down. Because of that, they are like the king's secret weapon⦠As a result, they are granted certain privileges. For them sending a child here is more like giving the kingdom a hostage. They donât have to learn our way of fighting⦠Or even attend classes. They still use their time here to gather influence though, which only furthers the problem.â
âWell⦠That sounds like a messâ¦â I sighed. âThatâs going to be a real pain when I take over⦠Well, I guess that depends on the current family head⦠But none of thatâs important right now. âSo she has siblings?â
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âYes. My family met them once at a gathering. She has an older brother who wants to be a knight, he was a year older I think. She also had two little sisters. One of them is still very young, the other should be our age.â
âShe lives in this building then?â
âYes, all of the noble girls that are our age stay here right now⦠After the last war, there arenât enough for us to need more than one building anymore, on account of all the people that died and never had children.â
âFind out what her sister's room number is. Iâll call in a favor from a couple of friends and meet this brother of hers.â
âWhat are you planning to do? We can't take on the entire guild.â
âCut off the head and the body will go limpâ¦â I paused, thinking back to my fight with the ghoul. âWell, sometimes you have to rip out the heart tooâ¦â I paused again⦠This time thinking about my fight with the undead Kraken. âThen again⦠Sometimes you need to just set it on fire and hit it till it dies⦠But the point is you kill it eventually.â âThis feels like a really bad metaphorâ¦â
She suddenly became speechless for a moment. âI'll⦠uh⦠try to find out what I canâ¦â
âMake sure you do it discreetly, we don't want her to know someone is looking for her.â
âUhm⦠Ok, I think I can manage that. But you uh⦠Your uh⦠Hmâ¦â
âIsy. I want you to listen to me very carefully. I will never get mad at you for anything you say. So⦠As ironic as this might sound coming from someone like me⦠I donât want you to feel scared when you speak⦠At least not with me. Ok?â
She pushed her eyebrows together. âYouâre not actually going to kill anyone right?â
This time I was the one who paused. âHow did she get to that conclusion? Oh⦠No, yeah. I could see how she might think thatâ¦â I sighed. âNo, Iâm not going to kill anyone⦠Honestly, Iâm not even sure I could if I had to⦠Sure Iâve killed zombies and demons but⦠Well anyway, thatâs not a part of the plan so donât worry about that.â
She let out another sigh of relief and her shoulders relaxed again, turning her head back towards her room. âItâs weird you know⦠I always hated being at home⦠I never thought Iâd miss it so soonâ¦â