A true ally becomes a friend

I rested at the inn throughout the morning and in the afternoon I went to see how the orphanage and Mrs. Edena were, I had told her not to worry about the money I gave her to pay the bullies they would not bother her anymore and soon everything would be solved, so I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the children, telling them more stories and helping Mr. Filip with some repairs, retiring for the night after saying goodbye to Mrs. Edema and checking the surroundings one last time, I returned to the inn to sort out the information I had gathered.

The next morning I went early to the Mercenaries Guild to report my progress to supervisor Sancor, when entering there were still few mercenaries inside, I went to the reception and asked for the Sancor supervisor the same receptionist who had received me the first time I came to the union, they told me that he was meeting with the Guild Master and invited me to wait, so I went to the bar attached to the guild and ordered a coffee while I waited.

While sipping an excellent coffee he secretly listened to the conversations of the other mercenaries, apparently, Orlan's death was the main topic of conversation, everyone seemed surprised and relieved about it, so it seems Vinicius's organization is quite troublesome for everyone, I continued drinking coffee while thinking about how to tell everything to supervisor Sancor when the doors opened and a striking figure entered the guild.

Suddenly everyone was silent, it was a striking and uncomfortable silence, I looked in the direction of the doors and a small figure had just entered the lobby, a young girl wearing a short Victorian dress with beautifully matched silver and blue ruffles, a hat according to the dress, white gloves that almost completely covered her arms, fine leather boots, and long stockings covered her legs.

He left almost no skin exposed except for his face, with an umbrella in his hand, and walked slowly in the direction of the reception, then I realized that all the mercenaries avoided eye contact with the mysterious girl.

"What the hell is this atmosphere?", I mumbled.

Clearly, everyone was intimidated and suddenly everyone started throwing inquiring looks at me, they had realized that I was the only one who kept looking at her, it was as if they were throwing a warning at me.

Then realizing what was happening she looked in my direction, she was a girl in her early 20s and had a very beautiful face! Despite not being that tall since she was more or less the height of my mother, but she had a good well-proportioned figure despite the dress that was somewhat baggy, she was in a good balance between cups C and D, porcelain white skin, blond hair in a short ponytail, and emerald green eyes.

What at first, glance gave him a tender appearance similar to a doll but made a grumpy expression that was totally out of tune with the picture; when the other mercenaries realized that the girl was looking in my direction, they all looked away and the silence became even more uncomfortable, she came up to about five steps away and examined me closely with her gaze as I continued to hold the coffee cup, then one of the secretaries called her from the reception.

"Mademoiselle Aetós please over here", a guild secretary said kindly with a tight smile.

The girl looked in her direction and walked slowly away to the reception, I could hear all the mercenaries sigh when the girl walked away, then another secretary approached me and told me that the Sancor supervisor would now receive me in his office, I followed the secretary to the door and when she was about to open it I could hear the girl angrily protest to be greeted before her.

Ignoring the protest behind me, I entered the office to find the personal secretary of supervisor Sancor, Miss Cilia, preparing tea, the supervisor was not at his desk like last time, instead, he was sitting on a large sofa in front of a tea table made of fine wood, Miss Cilia motioned for me to sit across from the supervisor and she brought the freshly brewed tea to the table.

"I received encouraging news about my assignment Monsieur Greenhill", Supervisor Sancor said.

"Good morning, supervisor Sancor, Miss Cilia", I greeted both of them as I sat down.

"I see I caused quite a commotion outside", Secretary Cilia said with a mischievous smile.

"It wasn't my intention to cause trouble", I said as I felt cold sweat run down my back.

I couldn't understand how kind words and a mischievous smile could be so terrifying, I thought when I saw the secretary Cilia, who seemed amused by my reactions.

"Let's get straight to business, Monsieur Greenhill, I want to know all the details", Supervisor Sancor said.

"Of course, I'll tell you everything from the beginning", I said confidently and began a detailed account of all the events.

I spoke for almost an hour and showed the notes I had taken, the supervisor Sancor and the secretary Cilia listened to me very attentively and occasionally asked about small details, Miss Cilia also took note of the important details. As soon as I finished my account of the events and finished talking about the plans that Supervisor Sancor had made, the supervisor spoke.

"I see, the situation is much more serious than I had anticipated but it has opened a great window of opportunity to eradicate that weed from our city, of course, we will support you in the best possible way", said supervisor Sancor and began to think deeply about the situation.

"Monsieur Greenhill, could you please wait outside a moment, we must discuss this matter in private, and also today we must receive one more person besides you", said Miss Cilia while bowing gracefully.

"I understand, I'll wait at the guild bar for them to call me back", I said as I got up.

"We will call you shortly, we shouldn't belong", Miss Cilia said as she served Supervisor Sancor a cup of tea.

"Thank you very much for the consideration", I replied as I left.

Having the support of the Sancor supervisor would undoubtedly be very helpful, so when I left the office I was intercepted by the young woman, I had heard how they called her when one of the secretaries had asked her to come to the reception, Aetós, I knew that for reasons of protocol and formality at the headquarters of the Mercenaries' Guild in the city of Dumai, people were addressed by their surnames.

"Who do you think you are to get ahead of me!", Miss Aetós immediately rebuked me, with her sullen face.

Immediately I felt like I became the target of all eyes and several murmurs broke out throughout the great hall.

"It was not my intention to offend you miss !, but I was called directly by supervisor Sancor for a matter that I was in charge of solving", I said making a smile and raising both hands to try to calm her down.

"Everyone knows their place in the guild, you must also respect the established order!", she rebuked me even more severely.

"Excuse me I am a newcomer to the city, I am also new to the mercenary trade, I promise you it will not happen again", I excused myself with a cheerful smile.

"A rookie dares to want to threaten my position with the supervisor", Miss Aetós roared furiously as her face turned tomato red.

"Please the bad mood will ruin her beautiful face", I said jokingly trying to appease her.

But immediately my instincts screamed danger intensely.

"Miss Aetós?", I said doubtfully.

But he was no longer speaking, nor was he looking at me, his face was pointing to the ground and I could see that his shoulders were shaking with fury, I looked for the reception, the receptionists and the secretaries worryingly muttered among themselves, then I looked to the bar and all the mercenaries present looked at me and murmured with fear on their faces.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I perceived a movement and my body reacted automatically before my mind regained control, a powerful blow had been aimed at my chest, but I had perceived it in the periphery of my visual field and the years of training and experience of my previous life added to my current training had made my body react, quickly adopt a fighting stance, he had deflected the blow with his left forearm.

A deathly silence flooded the entire great hall of the guild, it was a suffocating and uncomfortable silence, it would have been possible to hear a pinfall to the floor, Miss Aetós had thrown me a powerful blow that did not correspond at all with her tender appearance, for a second I looked around, all the mercenaries and employees of the guild made faces of immense surprise.

But the most surprised of all was me! That had been a terrible blow, I could feel the numbness of the impact on my left forearm and the vibrations created by the shock waves of the magic with which they had reinforced the blow, not even blocking the blows of Orlan's scimitars matched in power and that had deflected him, I hadn't blocked it directly, it was a monstrous force, so I looked ahead and Miss Aetós also had a surprised face.

"SHIT", I yelled it without thinking and probably everyone in the room heard it.

Miss Aetós's expression changed to a furious one and the bombardment began, it was a terrifying barrage of blows, what had started as a rough exchange of words quickly turned into a display of martial skills, In just under five seconds they threw more than thirty blows at me and I was barely able to deflect or block them.

But it was obvious that I was at a disadvantage, this little girl was much stronger than me! and little by little it increased its speed, if I didn't do something soon, eventually my defense would be overcome, if I retreated further, I would be cornered against the wall and it would be my end, so it only remained to go on the offensive, an over-the-shoulder throw wouldn't work, she was too fast and probably would react to the maneuver.

I only had one option left, after grabbing his right arm that had thrown one more blow, I took a long step forward diagonally to her right which took her by surprise and put my right leg behind her and tried to push her with my right arm to throw her to the floor using my right leg as a foothold to break her balance, but he moved very fast, he managed to take my right arm and hold on to avoid falling and also with his right leg he held on to try to immobilize me, we end up in a strange pose resembling a couple of Tango dancers with our faces facing each other.

We were both silents looking directly into each other's eyes, it was an intense duel of gazes that seemed eternal even though it probably only lasted a second, but I would show my determination! Then a voice took us out of the trance.

"Mademoiselle Aetós is enough !!!", Miss Cilia said sternly, standing at the door of supervisor Sancor's office.