Allyssa swung her legs back and forth as she looked at the people working outside. She saw on the window ledge in Shin’s room, and the people outside were walking around, cleaning away uprooted bushes, dirt, and all the other things that’d been spread about during the chaos earlier in the day.

“Do you think she’ll tell us what’s going on?” she asked out loud, rolling a few strands of hair around her finger.

“I don’t know,” Shin answered from behind her. “You could try asking.”

“I already did, didn’t I?” Allyssa turned toward where he was sitting, next to a small table at the other end of the room. As usual he wasn’t paying her much attention, occupied with the book in his hands. The sight of him wearing his gray armor while reading—with his sword and shield lying on the floor nearby—was fairly funny, at least.

But after what happened just a few hours earlier, she’d also changed into her normal equipment. She couldn’t be stuck in her dirty old clothes and alchemical apron in case things started up again. She also had her cloak, bandolier, and crossbow placed next to Shin’s weapons for easy access.

“Then there you have it,” Shin said as he flipped a page in his dusty, boring old book. He’d been extra absorbed in reading ever since they’d arrived here in Freybrook. Scarlett had allowed him to read any of the books in her library, which Allyssa imagined was the same as giving a kid free access to a candy stall.

“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes at his reply, glancing over the rest of the room. It was large. And fancy. That was about how she would describe it.

Back when they had started staying at Scarlett’s mansion in Elystead things had felt kind of weird. Staying in an expensive-looking place like that, getting to enjoy great food, and being served at by other people most of the day was so far removed from what she was used to. Still, it had only taken a few days to get used to it. But for some reason, it felt different staying here in Freybrook.

The rooms were bigger, yes. But they were still about the same level of fancy. The food was, somehow, even better than in Elystead, but it was still just food. And the people working here did basically the same work as the people that had worked in the mansion back in the capital. So Allyssa wasn’t really sure what it was that stuck out about staying here.

Shin hadn’t seemed to notice anything. Or he just didn’t care.

Maybe it was in the expectations she had? In Elystead, living in a mansion for a short while was a unique experience, but she hadn’t expected it to last long. But here? Now? She wasn’t so sure.

For some reason, both Leandro and the branch head in Elystead hadn’t had any objections to Allyssa and Shin continuing the contract with Scarlett when they’d asked about it. Allyssa thought they’d want the two of them to help after what happened with the Tribe of Sin, but apparently not. It had almost seemed like they preferred for them to remain with the Baroness instead. And there’d been no mention of any time limit. Neither from the Guild’s side nor Scarlett’s.

Allyssa leaned her head against the window frame.

Maybe that’s why things felt so strange. It was like they were living here now. If she didn’t know any better, she would say they were working for Scarlett, rather than just being in a temporary contract with the noblewoman.

…Well, Allyssa had been hired by Scarlett for her alchemy skills. But that was just something she did on the side. It would have to end when this contract was over. Although, if she was going to be honest, she loved every minute of it. It’d been ages since she last had this much time to spend solely on her alchemy. And she’d already learned so many things.

While it had taken some time to get things set up, she now had a place completely to herself. It was much nicer than having to borrow a cellar room from the Guild now and then, like before. Most of her alchemy couldn’t be done at home because of the smell and the volatile nature of the materials she worked with, so just this fact alone felt like a miracle given from above by Ittar.

That nice old butler had even gathered lots of herbs and materials for her, as well as some old documents on alchemy that Allyssa had never even seen before. Almost half of her time this last week had been spent just pouring through those alone.

She had felt a little bad over that when she talked with Scarlett earlier, though. She probably should have spent more time actually working. But many of the potions and elixirs she’d concocted required a lot of downtime, so she couldn’t have done things that much faster even if she hadn’t gotten distracted. Still, in the future, she’d do better.

It was doubtful if Scarlett would’ve berated her even if she knew, though. It was true that the older woman acted cold and all stiff most of the time—and sometimes she could be really scary—but from what Allyssa had seen, she honestly seemed like a kind person. Even if Scarlett herself didn’t appear to agree.

Most of the things Kat had told them about Scarlett were pretty spot on. Though Allyssa felt the strangeness was underplayed. It was actually pretty fun being brought along by Scarlett to explore all these strange caves and abandoned places every other day, but there was so much weirdness going on at the same time.

One thing was how Scarlett knew how to find these locations to begin with. Sometimes they spent a few hours looking for hidden entrances and things like that, and those were the times it felt kind of normal. If that was all, Allyssa might have believed Scarlett’s explanation that she’d learned of these places through her research and whatnot. But then, after they actually found these places, Scarlett would occasionally just suddenly know that there was a trap under a certain rock, or a monster hiding further ahead behind the corner. Like she’d been there before. Even more strange was how almost all of these places turned out to be hiding old artifacts and other valuable items, and Scarlett always seemed to know exactly where these were located and what they were, long before they ever got close to finish exploring a place. At least that’s the feeling Allyssa got from observing the woman.

She had thought about it a lot, but she couldn’t figure out how Scarlett did all of that. What could she possibly have done beforehand to know those things? Allyssa had even double-checked to make sure that many of the places looked like they hadn’t been visited by other people in ages, so there shouldn’t have been anyone that told Scarlett about it. But it’s not like there were treasure maps for these kinds of things either, were there?

It almost felt taboo to ask about it. Still, she had, and Scarlett always gave the same vague answers. It also didn’t help that both Rosa and Fynn were pretty weird. Especially Fynn.

The whole thing earlier today had shocked Allyssa, but now that she was looking back at it, maybe it wasn’t that surprising. He had always acted strange. It made a strange sort of sense that he’d do something crazy like that.

That didn’t mean that she understood it.

She shook these thoughts out of her mind for now. Thinking about all this just drove her mad.

“I’m going to see if they don’t need my help with anything outside,” she said, jumping down from the ledge. “You’re staying here, I guess?”

Shin glanced up at her from his book. “You know they’re paid to do that, don’t you? There’s nothing wrong with letting them do their job.”

Allyssa stuck out her tongue. “And there’s nothing wrong with me helping them if I feel like it.”

She walked towards the door, stopping in front of it for a moment to decide whether she should bring along the rest of her equipment. Things had been calm now, though, and going around with your weapons at the ready probably wouldn’t help any of the people working here relax. If anything happened, Shin would definitely carry the stuff with him.

Having decided on leaving the stuff, Allyssa was just about to leave when the door was pulled open from the other end by a woman with short blonde hair.

“Oh, hi Nichol,” Allyssa said, stopping in the doorway. The two of them were pretty close in age, so she’d gotten to know the servant fairly well these few weeks.

“Miss Astrey.” Nichol did one of those little curtsies with her hands on her dark dress. “The Baroness has called for the both of you. She is waiting in the dining hall.”

Allyssa’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

She leaned her head back into the room. “Hey, hear that? You’re gonna have to put that down after all. Try not to cry.”

Shin looked up at her with a dead expression. After a moment, he placed the book on the table and stood up, wordlessly walking over to her. The two of them exited into the hallway outside and started following Nichol through the mansion.

“What were you reading anyway?” Allyssa asked him.

“A treatise on the Steepmond Border Accords with Voneia.”

Allyssa knitted her forehead. “The what now?”

She saw him shake his head at that. The know-it-all.

“It was an old treaty forged between our two nations after the border conflicts thirty years ago. The treatise goes over how the borders were defined between us and Voneia after that, how goods and people are allowed to be transported across them. It also explored how it was thought to affect things in the future. There was a brief postscript going further into that, but I haven’t read it yet.”

“Do you really need a whole treatise for that?”

Shin nodded. “Yes. These things are much more complex than you think. It’s surprisingly interesting, as well. I hadn’t heard of this specific treatise before.”

“If you say so,” Allyssa muttered, turning her attention to Nichol ahead of them instead. “Hey, did the Baroness say what she wanted us to come for?”

Nichol looked back at her with a hesitant expression. “I’m sorry… I didn’t think to ask.”

“It’s fine,” Allyssa said. “We’ll get to know soon enough anyway.”

She’d noticed that a lot of the people working here—and at the mansion back in Elystead—almost seemed scared of Scarlett, even though the woman didn’t look that bad from what interactions Allyssa had seen her have with her servants. When asking Nichol about it, the woman had whispered to her that the Baroness used to be a lot worse before, and many of those working under her were still afraid things would go back to how they were then.

Allyssa herself wasn’t sure what to think about that. Personally, she thought it seemed like the servants just hadn’t spoken to Scarlett much and instead formed their opinions from the way she presented herself. The butler didn’t appear to have any problems interacting with Scarlett after all, and the same went for the older lady who was the head servant.

But Allyssa also didn’t want to draw conclusions just like that, so she’d mostly stayed quiet on the matter.

Soon enough, the three of them found themselves in the mansion’s dining hall, which was a large space with a painted ceiling that often made Allyssa wonder whether the painter had been able to fly. Scarlett sat at the head of a long table at the center of the room, which had a beautifully decorated rug under it that Allyssa wished she could have a smaller version of for herself. Rosa was here as well, with Scarlett’s old butler standing to the side next to the wall.

Nichol guided Allyssa and Shin to two of the chairs at the table before performing a short curtsy and leaving the room.

Allyssa looked over the table where a few trays of bread and a couple of simple pastries lay. It was a bit early for dinner, but this wasn’t too bad.

“I imagine you have several questions,” Scarlett said, breaking the silence that had been covering the room. Allyssa saw now that there was a large, furled-up piece of paper in front of the woman.

“Whatever could have given you that idea?” Rosa said with a sly smile. The woman had already helped herself to a piece of round bread that looked to be glazed with some kind of white cream.

“If you do not,” Scarlett gave the woman a look. “I suppose we can proceed to more vital matters without ado.”

“Uh, I actually have a few questions.” Allyssa raised her hand into the air. “If you’re planning to explain what happened earlier.”

“That depends.” Scarlett’s gaze slowly passed over both Allyssa and Shin. A small shiver passed down Allyssa’s spine. “The simple truth is that the details of what occurred are not mine to share. However, as Fynn is currently indisposed, and matters have turned rather urgent, I have judged that certain exceptions have to be made. Be that as it may, me telling you this information is contingent on whether you can be trusted with it.”

“Trusted?” Allyssa asked.

“Yes.” Scarlett gave a short nod. “I am aware that, as Shielders, the two of you have certain obligations to uphold regarding reporting what you do during assignments. This is especially important when it comes to matters that you believe could signify danger to the common populace. Am I correct?”

“Yes, that is broadly how it works,” Shin answered.

“Up till now, I have tried to take this into consideration when choosing the tasks we have carried out,” Scarlett said. “There are certain matters that I have made sure to avoid you learn of, as their confidentiality relates to both the prosperity of my household and domain, as well as their safety. And as with Fynn’s situation, there are other things that I simply do not believe I should share without the explicit permission of those involved.”

“Ehm, okay?” Allyssa wasn’t sure what to say to that. “That makes sense?”

Most merchants, and presumably nobles, had trade secrets and things like that. This felt like it would go double for someone like Scarlett, who felt like she knew a lot of secrets.

“I shared some of what I knew with Kat because I deemed it vital that she knew of it. But I fear that choice has also meant that I have garnered more attention than I would have preferred,” Scarlett said. “And while I will not explain the reasons behind it at this time, I am currently in a perilous position where the wrong type of attention could prove disastrous for both myself and any of my associates. You are all aware of what happened recently in the empire. I assume that by now, you have all understood that times of upheavals may very well soon be upon us.”

Allyssa furrowed her brows. Because of what the Tribe of Sin did?

Scarlett paused for a moment, and her amber eyes pierced into Allyssa. “What I mean to say with this is that, if you are to continue aiding me with all that I do, there will be things which I must ask that you do not disclose to anyone, including the Shields Guild.”

Both Allyssa and Shin turned quiet at that.

“I reckon this goes for me as well?” Rosa asked.

Scarlett turned to the woman. “It does. Although I did not expect you to share any such secrets to begin with.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Rosa smirked. “I’m a fabled tattletale, you know. An old friend of mine once told me about a particular foot issue of his. Next morning, even the yokels next village over were singing ballads about quail-footed Kipp.”

“That may be so.” Scarlett showed little reaction. “But I have confidence that you will be able to suppress any such desires while you remain under my employ.”

Rosa blinked at her words. “That’s some trust you have there.”

Allyssa looked away from them and turned to Shin when he nudged her arm. He leaned closer to her. “I think we should agree to what she’s asking.”

“Why?” she whispered back, feeling a little ridiculous. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t, but I thought you would be against something like this.”

Shin shook his head. “The Guild wants us to continue working for her as we have. Even if we were to agree to this, they would probably prefer it over the alternative.”

“What? How do you know that?”

“Because the Baroness knows things the Guild doesn’t. They want to maintain a relationship with her. That’s why they let us join her here in Freybrook. Don’t you remember that Kat said the same thing?”

Allyssa stared at him.

Wait, was that actually it? So she hadn’t been crazy?

It was true that Kat had told them she thought it’d be good if they continued working for Scarlett when they’d met her. But Allyssa thought that was just because the two of them seemed to be friends.

“So,” Scarlett’s voice brought Allyssa out of her thoughts. “Have you reached a conclusion after your…deliberating?”

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Allyssa leaned away from Shin and sat upright in her seat, looking towards Scarlett at the head of the table.

“Ehm, yeah... I think so?”

“We can keep some things secret,” Shin added. “As long as it’s not anything illegal, or could get people injured.”

Scarlett lowered her head. “That will not be an issue. I have no interest in such dealings to begin with.”

“Then we shouldn’t have a problem.”

“Good. Then onto the matter at hand.” Scarlett unfurled the piece of paper next to her over the table, gesturing across it. It looked like a map of the southwestern part of the empire, with mountains and forest taking up much of it. “While I will be brief on the details, Fynn is part of a tribe of people who made their homes in the Whitdown Mountains. As you have perhaps already noticed, he is not like us; he possesses certain traits and abilities that we lack.”

Allyssa couldn’t stop herself from smiling slightly when Rosa covered her mouth in mock surprise across the table.

“What happened today is due in part to a ritual that Fynn’s people are required to go through when they mature.” Scarlett continued. “However, as you observed, it is far from safe, both for those around him and for Fynn himself.”

“It also appears somewhat hard to predict,” Scarlett added after a moment, and Allyssa felt like she detected a hint of annoyance in the woman’s voice.

“To prevent it from growing worse, Fynn has to visit an ancient sanctuary of his people and pass a trial.” Scarlett pointed at the northeastern edge of the map. “There is a problem with this. The trial is not something that the current Fynn can survive on his lonesome.”

“He has to clear a trial, but it’s not something he can do by himself?” Rosa asked with a disbelieving expression. “Begs the question of who designed it. I’d certainly want a word with them, if I were in his position.”

“I do not know why it is the way it is,” Scarlett said. “Merely that it is, and that he will require our aid with this.” The woman’s gaze passed over them all. “It will be dangerous. There is also no guarantee that it will be enough, even with our assistance.”

“Aren’t there any more of his people that can help?” Allyssa asked.

Scarlett turned to her, voice cold. “There is not.”

Allyssa’s eyes widened. “Oh…”

She recalled Fynn’s reaction when she had mentioned the Dragon Rampage.

“That being said.” Scarlett’s eyes turned to the side of the room, where the butler stood with his hands behind his back. “Garside. You were once a companion of my father, were you not?”

The grey-haired man bowed his head. “Yes, that is correct my Lady. It was a long time ago, however. Before you were born.”

“That may well be so, but from what I have heard, my father was reputed of his prowess even since young. The same went for those who fought alongside him.”

The man stayed quiet as Scarlett’s gaze tore into him, rhythmically tapping her finger on the table.

“Have you ever taken the Shields Guild’s proficiency test?” she asked.

His mustache trembled slightly as he spoke. “I have not, my Lady.”

“Then, if you were to take it, what rank do you think you would compare to?”

“My skills are quite meager, my Lady. I am certain both you and Madame Evelyne will grow to surpass this old man before long.”

“Be truthful, Garside. This could very well be a matter of life and death.”

The butler stilled, his eyes fixed on Scarlett. “If so, my Lady... Is it truly necessary to endanger yourself so?”

“It is,” Scarlett answered.

“I see...” he mumbled, lowering his gaze for a moment. “If that is the case.” He looked up. “I believe I would compare roughly to those bearing the rank of A among the Shields Guild. I am quite unpracticed now, however.”

Allyssa’s eyes widened.

She’d met people his age who were still incredibly powerful—like old Graham—but they had a completely different air to them. She never would have expected him to be around an A-ranked Shielder in strength.

“I expected as much.” Scarlett nodded slowly. “Then, Garside… Would you join us?”

A hesitant look appeared on the man’s face. “I have long since sworn off most forms of violence, my Lady.” He looked at Scarlett for a long while. “…But my oath to serve and defend the children of the late lord still holds precedence, I suppose. If you intend to depart on this perilous venture, then I will accompany you without objection.”

Allyssa could have sworn she saw a small smile grow on Scarlett. “That makes me glad to hear. Truly.”