M?

Despite it being nighttime, the whole area was lively, all the mercenaries were celebrating as they clanked their bottles or cups together, chugging down their drinks. Some of them were chatting amongst themselves, laughing loudly while others were betting against who would win the arm wrestling.

“Victory!” The winner announced, pumping both of his hands up into the air, a wide grin on his face.

The ones who bet against him cheered for him, some even high-fiving him while the ones who didn’t sulked terribly.

Kris, Yun and Zak sat down on the grass, around another table as Kris rolled his eyes, bumping cups with his two comrades and swallowing his drink down. Yun chuckled at them and Zak just shook his head, gulping their drinks down too. Meanwhile, Emi observed them from the tree, which already became her usual spot as she stared at in amusement.

Do they celebrate like this whenever they overcome a hard mission?

Emi smiled a little, leaning back against the tree trunk and lifting her head up, watching the starry sky in amazement.

“Hey, Emi.” Someone called out and Emi turned her head, recognizing it to be one of the mercenary.

“Here, catch.” The mercenary said, tossing a bottle at Emi and she caught it easily, glancing at him quizzically.

“But I don’t deserve it.” She responded, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Aren’t you one of us now?” The mercenary grinned at her, turning around and waving his fingers at her, strolling off to join his comrades.

Emi opened to retort but she closed , gazing intently at the bottle of ale in her hands. She glanced up at the group of mercenaries partying again, the tiny smile returning to her face.

Twisting the cap open, she leaned forward slightly, sniffing at the ale and she crinkled her nose, shrugging after a moment, taking a sip of the ale.

Not bad.

“Oi, Emi!” Another person shouted out and Emi looked up from her drink, twisting her body so she was facing them now.

She gave the person a questioning look, since it was another mercenary she recognized only from catching glimpses of his face every once in a while.

“You are the one who almost shot the arrow at me the other time!” He exclaimed and Emi widened her eyes slightly, a murderous look on his face.

“I didn’t mean to.” Emi answered, raising her hands up in the air.

“What did you say?” The mercenary asked and Emi let out a sigh, dropping down from the tree as she approached him, everyone watching her every move.

“I said, I didn’t mean to.” Emi raised an eyebrow at him and he continued glaring at her. There was a pregnant silence between the both of them as they continued staring at one another and the others were watching with anticipation.

“…it’s fine, I did the same thing too when I first arrived here.” The mercenary spoke, breaking the tense atmosphere, waving it off with an amused grin.

Emi took a step back, blinking at his words. “…you…did…?”

I thought he was going to murder me for what I’ve done.

“Yeah, he did that—that bastard almost shot me in the face!” Someone else commented, narrowing his eyes at the mercenary.

“That was not on purpose! I was using it for the first time!” He defended himself.

“How did aiming for a tree went to aiming for a face?”

“But that was-“

“Yeah, that was one hell of a dodge.” Another person added.

“But I didn’t-“

“Just admit it, your aiming was way off.”

“But-“

“You probably wanted to shoot him.”

By this time, everyone was joining in the conversation while the poor man tried to defend his actions. Yun and Zak even joined in, while Kris shook their heads at them, taking another gulp from his drink. At the same time, Emi just watched them, thoroughly amused.

“Come on! It was just an accident, help me out will ya, Emi?” The mercenary pleaded, putting his arm around Emi who immediately tensed up, gripping onto his arm tightly and throwing him over her body.

The mercenary landed on the floor, a perplexed and hurt expression on his face as everyone blinked in shock at her actions. Emi instantly winced, regretting her actions and quickly stretched her hand out towards him.

“My apologies, it’s a habit of mine.” She gave him a penitent look.

Anyone that touched me like that in the Sergi’s base only had a dirty intention in mind.

“…what…?” The mercenary finally responded, glancing at Emi and the others just started guffawing at his slow reaction.

Kris observed them with mirth as his comrade took Emi’s hand and she slowly helped him up. An irritated look covered his face and he tried to avenge himself, trapping her between his arms.

Kris frowned at the annoyed feeling rising in him, a confused expression on his face as he gazed at Emi, who instantaneously retaliated by stomping her leg on his foot. He yelped in pain, hopping around wildly as he held onto his foot, everyone laughing heartily at his suffering.

“Well, he deserved that.” Zak commented.

“Definitely.” Yun chuckled in agreement.

Kris remained quiet, which was common for him. Both men didn’t notice the conflicting emotions that raised within Kris at the moment.

Kris noticed the small smile on Emi’s face, delight sparkling in her eyes and she placed her palm on , her shoulders shaking with mirth. The scene enthralled Kris, whose eyes could only focus on her at this point of time and he couldn’t remember his annoyance and confusion from moments ago.

Emi felt a gaze on her back and she stopped giggling, her smile was still plastered on her face as she scoured around the crowd, wondering who it was, only to find Kris staring intently at her. Her smile slowly disappeared, only to be replaced by an inscrutable look as she gazed at him, the surrounding noise dissipating into the background.

They continued gazing at one another, neither looking away as Emi noticed the mesmerised look in his eyes.

Why is he staring at me like that?

I’ve never seen him look at me in this manner before.

On the other hand, Kris was having the thoughts of his own too. All this time, he had been looking at her like a criminal; a thief and nothing else.

She didn’t even appear human to him.

She appeared to him like an ill-natured monster, obsessed with greed.

However, now…I see her…

I see her differently.

She is smiling, like she did moments ago.

She is giggling, like how all women do.

She’s a person; a human, capable of emotions.

…she is a woman.

At that time, an image of him hugging her appeared in his mind and it also formed in her mind too.

Emi felt the same heat she felt from that time coming back, flooding up to her face, her heart skipping a beat. Whereas, Kris’ breathing hitched and his eyes widened at the memory, both of them hurriedly looking away from each other at the same time.

That night, both of them returned to the room, mystified by their reactions and feelings as they laid on their bed, struggling to fall asleep.

*******************************************

Emi stretched herself, walking languidly to her opened window, a serene expression on her face as she closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of the sun on her face, along with the gentle breeze that blew by occasionally.

“Pfft.” Emi snickered, looking down and seeing almost everyone sprawled out on the floor, snoring away or curling up adorably. One of them even hugged their empty bottle to themselves, which was amusing since they were like giants compared to the small pathetic bottle.

One of them scratched their face, turning around and his hand flew, smacking the person beside him in the face. She realised it was the same men who were arguing about the arrow incident and she bit her lip, seeing that the one who was smacked in the face turned out to be the same victim.

Oh crap.

This is so funny.

“What the hell…” The man groaned out in pain, turning around and narrowed his eyes when he realised who hit him. Sitting up groggily, he kicked his attacker in the side and the attacker choked on his snore, yelping out in shock.

“You bastard! What was that for?”

“You woke me up first idiot! You hit me in the face!”

“That doesn’t give you the right to kick me!”

The both of them broke out into an argument, eventually waking everyone up. They groaned and moaned, looking around drowsily, some of them held a irked look on their face.

Emi was trying to hold in her laughter at this point of time. She was too absorbed by the events to hear the trapdoor opening behind her as Yun entered the room.

“Funny bunch, aren’t they?” Yun remarked and Emi was started by his presence, relaxing when she recognized him. She spun back around, looking out the window as all of them started to argue among one another, while others were hissing at them to keep quiet and some were just continuing to sleep.

“They certainly are.” Emi nodded her head, letting herself go for once as she broke out into a wide grin.

“…you should smile more often, it suits you.” Yun recovered from her captivating grin, smiling softly at her.

Emi’s grin faltered and she gave him an uncomfortable look, unsure of how to respond back.

“Thank you?” Emi said, only to for it to sound like a question.

“You must not get complimented often, huh?” Yun stated.

“Not really.” Emi shook her head, looking out to the window when she heard a familiar voice barking out some orders.

“Oh, looks like it’s time for them to start the routine.”

“Routine?”

“Whenever we hold a celebration, the next day, we are ordered to run around the forest.”

Emi widened her eyes, spinning around to glance at Yun. “Running around in the forest? Isn’t that a little too risky? What if you expose yourselves?”

“Oh no, it isn’t what you are thinking of. Come on, follow me.” Yun gestured to Emi and she frowned, following him hesitantly.

************************************

Arriving at the backyard, Yun pointed to the forest with his finger and Emi tilted her head to one side.

“There’s a path here that leads to a hill and Kris tells us to run around that area.”

Emi almost choked on her saliva at their arduous routine and she imagined the whole group running up and down the hill.

“…a hill? Oh my god, that is insane.”

“You’ll get used to it overtime.” Yun shrugged and Emi widened her eyes further.

“Me? What does this have to do with me?”

“You are part of our group now, aren’t you?”

Emi started shaking her head, taking a few steps back as she blanched, horror evident in her eyes.

“That means you’ll start training with us now.” Yun grinned at her, grabbing onto her wrist and dragging her forward.

“Wait, no, I’m not part of this team. I’m only here temporarily—wait, this isn’t—you can’t—wait!”

********************************************

Panting heavily for air, Emi placed her palms on her knees and she felt sweat rolling down her cheeks and the stickiness around her body. She lifted her head up, seeing everyone still jogging or sprinting ahead of her, while the others who were behind her patted encouragingly on her shoulder or urged her to go on.

Oh, god.

I’m quite an agile runner but this…?

This is impossible.

“Come on, Emi.” Yun jogged past her, patting her on her shoulder and she glared at his back.

“You brought me here, when I clearly didn’t want to.” Emi muttered, propelling herself forward and starting her jog again. Within a minute, she felt the urge to stop and rest again, nevertheless, being momentarily distracted; she tripped over a stray rock.

Feeling herself dip backwards, she flailed her arms around to balance herself until she felt two pair of callous hands on her arms catching her and she felt the person’s breath blowing near her ear.

She squeaked softly, quickly balancing herself as she cupped her ear. Twisting around, she opened to speak, only to shut it close when she noticed who it was.

Kris.

Kris stood there, panting slightly as he stared intently at her and she felt her heart skipping a beat.

“Th-thank you.” She sputtered out and the both of them recalled the hug again, immediately starting to fidget and Emi felt her face heating up again. Whereas, Kris rubbed his hand against the back of his neck, an embarrassed expression on his face.

Everyone who jogged or sprinted past them gave them baffled glances and they finally snapped out of their embarrassment.

“I should—go…”

“Oh, right, go ahead.”

“Uh.” Emi tried to step out of the way and so did Kris.

“Erm.” The both of them mimicked each other’s movements again and both of them heard Yun’s amused chuckle.

“Are you guys dancing with one another?” Yun remarked cheekily, his eyes glinting in mirth.

“No.”

“No, we are not.” Both of them answered at the same time and Yun raised his eyebrows, heading past them.

Yet again, they both blocked each other’s way by stepping aside at the same time and Emi heaved out a frustrated sigh.

“You know what, I’ll stay still and you move.” Emi growled out, standing still in her spot.

“Oh, of course, I’ll—uh, go now…you can head back down and rest, if you want to.” Kris gestured awkwardly, along with his words. Emi just silently nodded, staying still until he headed past her.

“…oh right, Winters, one more thing.” Kris stopped abruptly, standing behind her and scratching his head, his hand lingering inches above her shoulder.

“What is it, Kris?” Emi asked, tensing up when she felt his callous hands pressing gently onto her shoulder. She widened her eyes, blinking rapidly.

“Welcome to the family.” Kris leaned in, muttering into her ear and she held in her squeak, cupping her sensitive ears. She turned around, realising that he had already jogged away from her.

She felt the heat travelling up to her cheeks as she hurried back down, rubbing at her ear, trying to shake off the warm feeling.

While jogging, Kris remained impassive and suddenly, a smile tugged at his lips. Remembering what happened a few moments ago, he quickly wiped off his smile and shook his head.

What the hell am I doing?

*****************************************

Sergi was sitting alone at the old wooden table, the chair creaking under his weight as he shifted. He gulped down his drink a few times, slamming the cup back onto the table.

His henchmen was startled by his presence, wondering what he was doing down here, since he would be in his bedroom most of the time.

“I’m trying to figure out who is the one lying here.” Sergi simply answered, brooding silently on his own as his henchmen walked away, a bewildered look on his face.

Upstairs in the bedroom, the mysterious letter was laid on the table, which was in the middle of the bedroom. The bottom of the candlestick was clamping onto it and the light from the candle showed the words written on the letter.

The Timeless Necklace in exchange for the Shadow Rogue.

Twenty-four days for you to decide starting from now.

I’ll notify you of the rendezvous.

Woo! This was another fun chapter to write and as always, I hope you like it ^^!