“Ki-kill me?” Richard stuttered. “You can’t! If you kill me it won’t matter if lord Ranna disowns you or not, our families will go to war and you’ll be done for! You better not touch me if you don’t want to die!”

Richard’s outburst stunned Fang Chu. Her eyes blinked in confusion for a couple seconds and she had no follow up. The young man believed this was a sign that his threat was working and decided to keep pressuring her.

“Just let me go, lady Fang Chu. I swear on my family’s honor that I won’t tell lord Ranna about this. This way you won’t lose your position as his adopted daughter.”

What followed his proposition was the redhead’s clear laughter. She laughed for a good while before stopping abruptly and glaring at Richard. “Shut up! You hired men to kidnap me and kill my friends and now you think I’ll just let you go? Who cares about that old fart and my position as his adopted daughter? I’m a skilled adventurer and I’ll do just fine on my own.”

Her rage was real, yet inside Fang Chu was still chuckling. It was impossible that after all this time Richard and Albek had not contacted house Ranna to inquire after her identity. Since that was the case, Richard’s words could only mean that the old pervert was backing her spiel about her being his adopted daughter. He probably did so out of shame and to not stain his family’s honor. After all, the story of how a single woman beat up his guards and stole his family’s emblem was something the other nobles would never let them forget.

Under her fierce glare, Richard shivered and instinctively closed his mouth. Cold sweat trickled down his neck and he’d a hard time breathing. He could feel in his guts that if he made a wrong move he would truly die tonight.

“Now then, what should I do? If I kill you, things will get messy fast but they won’t know who did it for a while or maybe, if I’m lucky, they’ll never find out the truth.”

“Lady–” Richard started but didn’t finish. He was interrupted by the redhead with just a look. She casually played with her knife, tossing it from one hand to the other, while staring down the young noble.

“On the other hand, I could beat you up till my anger is sated and call it quits. This would cause way less chaos with the only problem being that you know damn well who did it…”

“Please, spare me! I promise I won’t retaliate!” Richard screamed. She’d asked him to be quiet, but he was too terrified right now. Till this day, he’d never suffered any hardship and the world was always at his feet. Now that he was staring death in the face, all his courage and arrogance were gone.

“Well, I could ask you to sign a magic contract,” said Fang Chu as she grabbed a rolled-up parchment.

“I’ll do it! Just let me live!”

[I would if I had one strong enough... The ones I have and the others sold around here could probably be dispelled by someone he knows. Nobles have lots of connections after all.]

“But that’s not fun. More fun would be to not have a contract at all and just wait and see. If you dare to let out a squeak about what happened here or try to get back at me in any way… I will visit you again and at that time you will wish you were dead,” said the redhead with a distorted grin.

Richard trembled at her words. The beautiful woman of his dreams turned into a demon in his mind. He regretted ever crossing paths with her. The only thing that kept him from breaking down was a faint hope of survival. He could tell she was still in the fence about killing him or not, or else he’d already be dead.

[I shouldn’t kill him after all. The chaos and consequences that would follow for killing an heir of a noble household in the middle of the capital wouldn’t be light. Let’s just rough him up a bit and call it a day.]

Fang Chu got up from the desk and moved closer to Richard. She moved one of her long legs forward and stepped on his feet hard, keeping then pinned. Richard cried in pain and squirmed about on top of the chair.

“What? I haven’t even started yet! This is just so you won’t fall down.”

After saying this much, Fang Chu’s clenched fist rushed through the air and connected to the right side of Richard’s face, making him lose a bunch of teeth in the process. He screamed and sobbed as his face grew hot and swelled, bringing pain like he never felt before. His body swayed and wanted to fall down of the chair, but his feet that were being crushed beneath her boot kept him in place. Soon after, he felt the same thing on the other side of his face and more teeth flew out of his mouth. Right now, Richard had only a couple teeth remaining and copious amounts of blood and drool were dripping from his lacerated mouth.

“Pease, sbob, I beg…”

“Stop? That was only two punches. How could you be so weak? I thought that, with you being a rich young master and all, you’d have taken strengthening elixirs till you exploded. I guess you were not too keen in feeling the pain required, huh?”

After those two strikes, Richard really seemed to be on his last legs. Seeing such pathetic sight, most of Fang Chu’s rage had been vented and the fact that she knocked out his teeth was also a big deal. Good teeth were one of the marks of aristocracy, as they ate softer foods and had a better diet overall. Peasants had to eat coarse grains and hard breads that grinded their teeth down and eventually made them fall. As such, having the majority of his teeth knocked down by Fang Chu would be a great shame and humiliation for Richard in the future.

However, when she thought about what Richard had tried to do, this punishment still felt too light. Therefore, Fang Chu decided to break both of his arms for good measure. This time the young noble howled until he passed out from pain.

“Since I can’t kill him, that should be enough.”

She untied the unconscious young man and positioned his chair near the desk, making it look like he’d fallen asleep while studying his documents. This way it would take a little longer until the servants realised something was wrong. The redhead gave one last look around to see if there wasn’t anything she missed and approached the broken window. She closed the curtains behind her and escaped into the night.

-

That night, Richard had a dream. It was a memory from a conversation he had with his father some years ago. So far, everything had occurred exactly how he remembered. They were talking in the garden under a beautiful blue sky, but for some reason Richard was feeling nervous and in pain. He didn’t understand why that was happening. Regardless, the dream continued.

“Father! How come the king is allowing such a thing! Why would he authorize the creation of this Adventurers’ guild and let armed forces gather under a banner that’s not his or from one of the aristocratic families?” asked the young Richard.

“You fool, do you think he wanted this? He was fuming! I heard that in his rage he broke a lot of rare and expensive furniture in the castle.”

“Then why?”

“He had no other choice. The man who brought forward the petition managed to get quite the backing. He united a group of famous adventurers that were previously scattered under a common goal and he has a few powerful merchants and nobles that are supporting him.”

“What of it? Adventurers are trash! If the king strikes now before they unite, there’ll be nothing to worry about.”

“Don’t be foolish, child. Sure, we can suppress and exploit the adventurers with our power, but what then? We’d have nothing to fear from the weak ones, but a powerful individual when cornered can be quite the force to be reckoned with. Some of them are stronger than our best knights, while others are more cunning than or wisest mages. Against individuals like that the best bet is to compromise. That’s what his majesty did. He’s drafting a soul contract together with the future guild master as we speak. I’m sure he’ll put the right precautions in place.”

Suddenly, the blue skies were covered by dark and stormy clouds. A gigantic shadow loomed over Richard and his father. The youngster trembled and his sensation of pain and fear increased. He turned around to see a gigantic Fang Chu standing behind him. Her bright red hair was blowing in the wind, her eyes were pure evil and a gigantic handkerchief was coming out of one of her nostrils till part of it dragged on the ground.

“THAT’S RIGHT RICHARD, YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE MESSED WITH ME, A POWERFUL ADVENTURER! HAHAHAHA!”

The young Richard in the dream pissed his pants because of the fear and ran away. The gigantic Fang Chu chased after him, threatening to torture him in all kinds of horrendous manners.

-

In the meantime, the real Fang Chu took the handkerchief out of her nose and checked to see if it was still bleeding. Noting that everything seemed in order, she put the handkerchief in the pile of laundry to do and made her way towards another noble manor.

“It’s better to see Albek as soon as possible and get out of town before things get too hectic. I’m pretty certain I scared him good, but I can’t be sure of what he’ll do when he wakes up.”