Hello guys, sorry for the wait! Here come a new part of the chapter 3. Tomorrow I'll upload the last part which will probably be VERY short... No more than 500 words I think. I'll also try to start the chapter 4 if I have enough time.

Hope you'll enjoy it and don't hesitate to leave a comment !

Enjoy !

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The sun’s light in the sky started the show a dim orange tint, it was slowly starting to set, showing it was already late afternoon.

The two girls walked down the city’s alley, one was joyously analyzing one of the fruits in her hands, wondering if she had to remove the skin like a clementine before eating it. On the other hand, the second girl was lost in her thoughts, harboring a blank expression. Yet, it didn’t prevent her from taking the lead.

From time to time, the girl took a few peek at the other one, her expression changed a few times before returning to a blank one.

After a few moments of pondering, her grip on Shina’s hand unknowingly tightened as her lips slowly moved and a weak voice came out of her mouth.

“It’s the third time today…”

Despite how weakly the sound of her voice was, it didn’t escape Shina’s ears who responded with a curious glance.

“Third time?”

“The third time you helped me. Moreover, you also saved my life two times.”

Shina remembered the three events, within a few hours she actually met Eniel for the first time she already saved her life two times. While she didn’t treat something like this as something important or dangerous since her body was far more agile and powerful than a human’s one, for Eniel it was a completely different story.

Within the world where the only rule is ‘Kill or be killed’, stealing, deceiving and murder are only commons occurrences. Nobody expects someone to come to their help.

For Eniel who grew up in such a world, it was the first time someone actually saved her without waiting for something in return. It was a child even younger than herself, however, she couldn’t resolve herself to treat her like a kid. She carried a certain amount of childishness, yet she could feel some maturity hidden within her expression and voice.

She didn’t help her out of kindness or righteousness, yet neither was it with the purpose of obtaining a reward.

“Just why… did you help me?”

This was the question which kept coming back and forth in her head to the point to give her a massive headache.

Money? She could have earlier taken the bag containing the money she had accumulated for years as a reward, yet she gave it back. Talent? Despite having a lot of organization wanting to hire her for her thieving talents, there are still a lot of people more skillful than her in this city.

Eniel’s brain just couldn’t formulate a logical answer to this question, yet the response she got was also illogical.

“Because I felt like it.”

“This-...”

Shina’s seemingly joking answer almost caused her to shout, yet she was stopped by the serious expression she carried, making her realize it wasn’t a joke and unable to doubt her.

It was only now that Eniel smiled after realizing how dumb this situation actually was. Of course, she wouldn’t find an answer… If there were none from the start.

Nonetheless, Eniel couldn’t help but feel somewhat hurt and saddened by this answer, secretly hoping it had been for a different reason.

“But I guess it might also be because you looked interesting, at that moment I thought ‘I wonder if we could be friends’.”

Eniel’s grip suddenly tightened, yet it didn’t bother Shina who in fact hadn’t even realized it.

Her heart skipped a beat as she felt a strange warmful feeling spreading inside her body. Eniel tried her best to remain calm but didn’t notice that her cheek had reddened and that her lips unnoticedly rose up, harboring a hidden smile.

“Is that so?...”

“Yup…”

She just stopped thinking about any ulterior motives Shina might have, she already had earned her trust.

“Eniel, how do you eat this?”

Eniel looked surprised for a moment.

“You never saw an orange before?”

This time, it was Shina’s turn of being surprised.

“The heck? Since when did oranges turn purple?”

“What are you talking about? Of course, they are purple.”

“Uh? But aren’t they named orange because they ARE ‘orange’?”

“That’s strange indeed… But that’s how they’re named in the society, we can’t do anything about it, can we? Oranges are purple, that’s how it is.”

“From where I come from, oranges are orange…”

“Look strange, but I won’t believe you unless you bring me one.”

“Geez, no wonder the guards are so dumb… If even the society sucks then it’s not surprising that their subordinates are. By the way, it means that you have to peel them?”

“Some people enjoy eating it, but it’s very sour. Though by putting the peelings in water, the taste actually becomes similar to some juice and it’s also very nutritious.”

Shina’s finger’s moved, scratching the orange’s skin and more or less started to remove the skin while at the same time salvaging the fruit.

Eniel chuckled before taking the fruit out of her hand and unsheathed her dagger.

“Let me do it, if I let you continue then you won’t have anything to eat at all.”

“...Fine.”

Shina started sulking yet didn’t deny any of her words, knowing it was the truth despite not wanting to admit it.

With a few movement of her dagger, Eniel skillfully removed the skin and threw the peel inside a small bag, most likely in order to later make some drink out of it.

Giving back the fruit, Shina curiously looked at it. It looked exactly like an orange, but only the color was different. Cutting apart a piece of orange, the moment it was going to enter her mouth it was suddenly stolen without giving her a single second to react.

*Gulp*

“Humu, this is indeed the best season to eat them.”

Even though she was being glared at by Shina whose eyes carried a hint of surprise, anger and a tinge of unnoticed happiness, Eniel didn’t seem to mind it.

“You thief…”

Eniel smiled at her words and even looked proud of herself.

“Thanks for the compliment.”

The peaceful atmosphere around them suddenly froze, the two girls’ eyes narrowed as the faint sound of someone walking entered their ears.

If someone was just walking around it wouldn’t have been a problem, but this sound close to them only resonated for a moment. It indicated that the person walking suddenly stopped and didn’t move, moreover from the faint sound it also showed that he tried his best to conceal the noise of his footsteps.

In normal occasions, they wouldn’t bother about this, but right now both of the girls were being hunted either by gang members or city guards.

Sudden stopping in their movements, they turned around and carefully observed their surroundings.

“Well well, aren’t you girls quite skilled?”

A woman dressed in bandit-like clothes and wearing military reddish cape slowly walked toward the two girls. Combined with her long brown haired ponytail, if it were not for the various scars not only on her face but every part of her body, she would definitely be a mature beauty. Instead, it gave the feeling of a dangerous military madwoman.

Eniel’s expression changed and secretly gulped. Her body was slowly soaked with cold sweat yet her expression remained prideful like a wolf ready to bite anyone to death if you came too closely.

Her hand slowly moved toward her sheathed dagger, yet she didn’t make the first move before she knew who the other side was.

“Rilesta…”

Shina didn’t move either. She didn’t want to move unless the other side tried to harm them. This woman in her later twenties gave her bad vibes when she fought against the heavy equipped guards she didn’t feel anything… yet this woman actually made her feel threatened.

Shina slowly leaned toward Eniel while remaining careful of this fearful woman.

“Who is she?”

Eniel responded without daring to take her eyes off the woman.

“Her name is Rilesta. She is the lord of this part of the city, you can say that she is the equal of Bloskin, the man I am running from.”

Hearing Eniel’s words, the woman harbored a displeased expression and sneered

“Equal?... Don’t compare me with this brainless man, the only reason why he is still alive is because I don’t want to break the actual balance of power in the city.”

Even though her words seemed outrageous, Eniel’s expression didn’t change as she believed her words.

“Rilesta, an ancient officer of this country who decided to together with her soldiers to join the dark side and become an outlaw lord. While being weaker than Bloskin, her true strength lies in her subordinates who are truly experienced soldiers… Compared to them, the city guards are just a group of joyful children armed with sticks.”

During this resume Eniel slightly glanced at Shina, obviously, those words were meant for her and served as a warning, resuming her strong and weak points and how powerful the woman was.

“Nice homework kid… Or should I say Eniel, you are pretty infamous in the city aren’t you? Black Dog, Black Wolf, or even Lone Wolf. I wonder why a loner like you distrustful of the world is actually doing with this child.”

Shina weakly sneered.

“Black Wolf is kinda good but… Black Dog?... Lone wolf… Pffff how lame.”

“Shut up!” Eniel answered in a low tone with a red expression.

“Miss Rilesta, I don’t think the reason why you came here is just to ask me this question…”

Politely refusing to answer the question, Eniel still tried to remain respectful of this woman yet didn’t move her hand from the hidden dagger on her waist.

Rilesta didn’t look annoyed by Eniel’s response and slightly laughed.

“You actually cut to the chase huh? Very well then, let’s not lose time. You girl actually want a place to live in on my turf, right?”

“Indeed…”

Rilesta’s smile vanished as she glared at Eniel with a hint of killing intent.

“Then why don’t you give me a reason to let you stay?”

Eniel didn’t lose her calm in front of her and coldly smiled.

“You can destroy Bloskin’s reputation by having someone who stole from him and killed his men live in your territory. Who would obey a man who doesn’t even protect or take revenge for his subordinates?”

While Eniel’s words held some truth, they actually made the woman laugh.

“Indeed, you are right… It’s indeed a good reason, in the best case I might take a few of his territories without breaking the balance of power… But that’s not a reason good enough."

Eniel was taken aback by her words. Rilesta’s eyes left Eniel’s figure before stopping on Shina.

“If all that you did was stealing and killing some of his men then it would have been good… But tell me, will I be inviting inside a cat… or a tiger?”

Noticing everyone was watching her, Shina shook her head back and forth as she looked at Rilesta and Eniel.

“Are you guys talking about me?”

“Indeed… I heard that you killed most of Bloskin’s guards in a single fight, aren’t you pretty abnormal?”

“Thanks, I guess?”

Dubiously accepting what seemed to be a compliment, Shina somehow understood that the subject of this conversation was revolving about her ‘killing’ the guards and what might happen if she went wild on her turf.

Rilesta slowly raised her hand and opened her hand

“But sometimes being too abnormal isn’t good. The best moment to kill a wild beast is when it is young.”

Closing her hand, a group of men dressed in black clothes hiding even their head suddenly launched toward the two girls, Eniel didn’t even have the time to unsheath her dagger and was pinned down. Shina, on the other hand, had her arms restrained and a small knife pressed at her throat.

Glaring at Rilesta, Eniel didn’t dare make a move with Shina being held hostage.

“What do you want?...”

Rilesta smiled and looked down at Eniel.

“What can you give me?...”

The two men holding Shina felt that something was wrong, their eyes narrowed as they realized that they grip on her thin arms slowly weakened without her putting any real effort.

“Can you guys please let me go?”

The third man who held his knife at her throat tried to threaten her by pushing the dagger deeper but quickly noticed that something was strange and quickly tried to retreat.

“What an inhuman strength…”

The two men quickly released her arms just in time and managed to avoid being thrown on the ground. This judgment came from their instinct which was developed after many battles, it screamed at them that if they didn’t let go then something bad might have happened.

Having her arms freed, Shina grabbed the third man’s wrist who under her pressure released the knife in his hand.

Rilesta’s mouth slightly opened, looking slightly surprised.

“Aren’t you quite strong?”

The knife in Shina’s hand was extremely sharpened, it wasn’t surprised that the man was surprised when he held his knife to her throat. Despite how sharp it was it hadn’t even cut her skin, if it was a normal human being then it wouldn’t have been surprising to see a trail of blood with the mere contact of the knife against the skin.

Shina slightly smiled but didn’t answer, holding the knife in her hand, she used her second one to press it against her palm.

*CRUUK*

Slowly, the knife started to grumble in her hand before becoming a pile of broken iron. To everyone’s surprise, only a small cut was visible on Shina’s hand whose smile contained a hidden meaning.

“What a monster…”

With a sign of her hand, the black-clothed men quickly released Eniel before disappearing within the alley’s darkness.

Rilesta glared at Shina without holding back her killing intent.

“Everyone has their history in this city, who you are, what you are, it doesn’t matter… But just remember, if you stand against me in my turf, then don’t blame me for being ruthless at that moment.”

Shina sneered.

“Sure, see you old hag.”

Wearing a dubious expression, Rilesta faintly smiled as she walked away.

“Tch, what a lovely brat…”

Just as Rilesta left, the black-clothed men’s presence vanished like they had never been here.

Eniel rose up and deeply sighed.

‘What the heck is going on today?... Ever since I met Shina I almost died three times.’

Despite swearing in her heart, Eniel still felt some happiness when she thought that it was the third time her life was saved even though it was actually Shina’s fault that she was almost killed.

“I swear… I thought you were going to get us killed.”

Shina smiled as she never thought of herself being in danger.

“Even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t have been able to kill us.”

Meeting her confident expression, Eniel could not help but feel curious.

“Are you really strong enough to beat ALL of them?”

“I am not…”

Glancing at her surrounding, Shina seemed to be looking for something.

“You’re here dad, right?”

“Dad? Who are you talking abou-”

Her words got stuck in her mouth as the figure of a silver haired man suddenly appeared out of nowhere in her field of view like he had teleported. His hand rested on Shina’s silky hairs as he gently stroke them.

“Did you notice me?”

“No, I just had a feeling.”

Arsal didn’t say anything but only smiled at her before looking toward Eniel with an indifferent expression.

“Thanks for playing with my daughter… I’ll try to bring her back in a few days.”

Shina frowned as she realized that they were going to leave.

“I guess we have to go… See you soon!”

Shina grasped Arsal’s hand and was surrounded by a silverish light.

“Wait-”

Eniel extended her hand toward Shina but grabbed nothing but air as they vanished. Eniel simply stood there with a complex expression.

“Just how are we supposed to meet up?...”