Chapter 258: Chapter 264: Groundwork

“SIYA!”

I fully sat up, instantly coming awake. Pins and needles went through my whole body and I wrapped my arms around myself, shaking like something slimy just rolled down my back. “What,” I growled, looking over to the door to see Lu confidently walk in.

“You’re ok? good…”

“Lu?” ‘We haven't spoken since we got here.’

She suddenly snarled at me. “I won’t let you win…” She said coldly, raising her voice.

I covered my left ear, wincing again. “What?”

She timidly stepped back when she saw me cover my ear and turned away, opening her mouth, but leaving before she said anything else.

As if waiting for her to finish, my brother walked in just as she left. “I see you’re awake.”

“I uh… Yeah…” ‘what was that about?’

He came closer, handing me a glass of water. “You need to relax more… You’re gonna make me look bad if you try this hard at everything.”

I started to laugh, but it only hurt; my organs were all sore. “As guild leader couldn’t you have just ordered Kai to help me right? Really this is all your fault.”

“Hm… This was more fun to watch… Even if it’s not fun to see… But this helps you in the long run, so I can live with it. When you’re ready the others are outside.”

“Fine…” I groaned again, carefully struggling to stand, my body refusing to move steadily.

Before I could give it another try he held me down by force with gentle pressure from just one hand. “I’ll just go get them… Lilly can help you change after we discuss things.”

“Ugh… Yeah… Ok…”

As he turned to leave I grabbed his arm. “Wait, hold on. Help me stand up anyway… I shouldn’t let myself look week…”

He just laughed. “I’m not sure you could if you tried after that show you put on.”

‘That… The contest? Didn’t I just cheat a whole bunch and use dishonorable tactics though?’

After a moment Lilly and Kai stepped in and awkwardly waited for me to say something.

“Ok… Well, let’s start with this… How long till it’s safe for me to fight without worrying about rupturing my organs? They’re swollen or whatever right? Lilly?”

She stepped closer and placed a hand on my stomach again, giving me chills. “You should probably wait till tomorrow, if you can stand the pain though, you could technically fight right now. You should be able to move your hands a bit better too. I'm not sure you ever had to worry about rupturing anything. I don’t think that’s ever happened, they are pretty careful about the dose.”

I slowly lifted my hands. ‘Maybe I should have used more magic.’ “Ok… We don't have as much time as I would have liked, but first things first. We need to meet up with my friend Isy, and maybe hunt down some goons”

“What do you mean? Don't we just go in swinging?” Kai asked, slamming a fist into his palm.

Lilly sighed. “And where are we swinging exactly?”

“Oh, right.”

“We?” ‘I just hope Isy is actually ok… I have to be able to rely on her if she’s going to be an important member of my guild, but maybe it was too soon to leave her alone like that…’

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“Oh er… Well… You know…”

I turned to Airsidh as she awkwardly stumbled over her words. “She was touched by the fact that you won even though you were the smallest one there, and now she wants to help you because she feels a sense of kinship. Also, I’m coming too because I’m bored.”

“No!” She growled before letting out the building tension by punching him in the shoulder. “Shut up!” She yelled.

‘Well… Either way… More allies isn’t really a bad thing, as long as I don’t rely on them too often.’

“Let's get moving, we don't have much time before nightfall, we need to figure out what we're doing by then,” I grumbled, forcing myself to stand regardless of my brother's advice, having heard I was technically fine. With our business there concluded, I picked up my 500 marks for winning and we started heading back to my room to meet up with Isy.

As we approached my ears started to twitch, and the wind carried Isy’s voice all the way from the mansion's garden around the back. Having heard it once before I recognised it almost immediately… The sound of her crying. ‘That’s probably not good… She’s not in the room?’

I jumped a nearby brick fence and took off, the others following close behind.

“Wait, we aren't going in the front door?”

“No, She is back here.” When I finally arrived she was sitting down against a brick wall, her face bruised and swollen and her clothes torn. Three others stood near her, one with a limp and another with a dropped shoulder. In the end, though it was pretty clear she wasn’t winning.

‘Still, it’s good to see she put up a fight.’ The moment she saw me was the same moment her tears stopped. Even before I had done anything. ‘two injured, that makes the one in the middle the most dangerous.’ I jumped from atop one of the brick walls separating sections of the garden and landed softly in the grass, making it all the way up behind her before any of them noticed my presence. I wrapped my arms around her neck and in just a few seconds she was unconscious.

The other two tried to strike at me after the confusion wore off, but one ended up just hitting their friend, and the other was limping bad enough that she had no momentum, and was easy enough to dodge. By the time I had finished off the one in the middle Kai had run in and knocked one out with a tap to the head from his sword, and the moment the last one turned to flee she was wide open for me to take her down, kicking the back of her knee and making her fall.

“Isy…” I groaned, out of breath, my body still recovering. “You alright?” I asked as I walked over to her, sliding down the wall at her side with a heavy sigh.

She laughed, trying to hide that she had been crying. “Better than you by the looks of it.”

“Ha… Good. Who were those girls?”

“Rogues from Yamaria’s guild…”

“I told you to be careful…”

“I tried… But I found out where Yamaria's room is. Her sisters as well. There is more, apparently, they have been using an abandoned guild castle from last year as their base.”

“Impressive… But… I don’t remember asking you to do any of that…” She timidly looked to the side without saying a word. ‘She didn’t really follow orders… But I can hardly be mad at her…’ I sighed, putting a hand on her head to help me stand up. “You did good kid,” I said before turning to others. “First, we should go back to my room, we can plan there.”

We walked up to the room carrying the three girls with us after tying them up with their own belts, trying not to make a scene and avoid people taking note of us. Although, I was pretty sure we failed rather miserably considering our entourage.

After opening the door we let the hostages rest on the floor while we gathered around the bed and table.

“With five of us, this will be easy. We don’t even need to think through this very carefully. Here is the plan. Yamaria’s room is likely well guarded,” I looked over at Kai who gritted his teeth. “The castle is another story though, we don't know how well it was maintained, or how well it's being defended. The trick is to attack both at once. Of course, this relies on Yamaria actually being in her room…” ‘If we interrogate these prisoners we should be able to find out some of those things easily enough.’ “Kai, you will go to Yamaria since that is the reason you're here, Lily will go with you since you two are used to fighting with each other already. After you capture her, look for Isy’s jewel and hold her tied up in her room. I doubt she will be alone, so make sure one of the guards gets away. Then they will go to the castle, and send reinforcements from the castle to her room to rescue her. That’s when you take her and suddenly leave. Loop around and keep your heads down, making your way to the castle. The moment the reinforcements leave, Isy, Gild, along with Airsidh will take the fort. It’s sure to have plenty of holes to sneak through right? And if it doesn’t you can just make some new ones.”

My brother suddenly smiled. “And so we kidnap the commander, and bring them to their own fort… Only the fort will be ours. Interesting… And what will you be doing?”

I felt my face suddenly fall flat as I blankly stared at him. “So… Does that mean you’re ok with this plan? No “try again,” just… Interesting?”

He shrugged. “Well if it fails miserably I’ll scold you then, this isn’t a real conflict, and no one's life is in danger, so I honestly don’t care about success rates.”

“That’s… Comforting…” I sighed, trying not to worry about deciphering his meaning. “Kai…” He raised an eyebrow, turning his gaze toward mine. “Your youngest sister… Does she have a name?”

“You think she’s involved?”

“She will be if negotiations go as planned.” ‘Although really I’m more interested in figuring her out… I still don’t fully understand this new skill I have, but it would make sense that if I increase opinion and or loyalty I could get her to join my guild no? I still haven’t seen it for anyone else… But that may just be because everyone else is already in a guild, I.E. They already belong to another entity.’

Kai just sighed. “For someone sized like a rabbit… You have the confidence of a bear…” I paused, letting out a puff of air and dimly smiling. ‘A bear huh…’ “She goes by Frostbite… Just uh… Try not to get yourself killed. She’s set to take over as family head of the assassin clan, so she can be a bit… uh…”

“I think I can handle a 12-year-old girl,” I said softly, partially joking as I tapped my finger on the table. ‘Still, when I looked into her eyes and saw her soul, I could definitely feel she’s killed her fair share of people already… Maybe I should be careful just in case? No… I could also tell she hates killing people, so she wouldn’t do it without good reason… Well… God enough reason.’

“And if you can't?” My brother asked.

“Than… I guess I die?” ‘Although, I doubt she’d risk killing any nobles if her family is already on bad terms with the king…’ “Regardless after the bronze blades start sieging down the fort to get their leader back, that’s when I will start picking them off from the outside. After you guys hear some screams, sortie and help me finish them off. Sound good?”

“Sortie?” Isy repeated.

“Like… Basically, just run out the front door and start whacking people.”

“Oh, I can do that.” She nodded confidently.

‘Yeah… Rogue is… Probably not her most suitable role…’’