If you wanna read ahead of my stories, you can check out the advanced chapters on my subcribestar, at the same username - 0Jordinio0
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Lili was in such a good mood, that on the way to the place where her gnome deposit box was, she actually found herself humming.
Her good mood did not last long.
As she turned out of the main streets and made her way deeper into the city a foot came from behind her and crashed into her small back.
The force of it sent her rolling forward with a yelp of surprise, pain and shock, her huge supporter bag sliding off her shoulders during the fall as her face hit the dirt.
"Ugh…" she moaned, dazed for a moment before she realised what happened and quickly pushed herself up on her hands and knees and looked over her shoulder with a glare.
A glare that immediately fizzled out when she saw who it was exactly that struck her from behind.
"Well hello there Arde," Canoe Belway, one of the strongest level one adventurers in the Soma Familia, and one of the most violent and malicious grinned down at her, "Saw you made a new friend in nice shiny armour."
"Mr…Canoe…" Lili swallowed heavily, a sense of defeat already beginning to emanate from her core.
He ignored her and walked over to her bag, reaching in to the side pocket and pulling out two very familiar pouches filled with valis, "Woah now, look at this," he whistled, "This'll make my quota for this month twice over!" he laughed.
She grit her teeth, forcing herself not to reach into her cloak. The temptation was there to use her magic sword, but she couldn't just use it willy nilly.
It was her last resort for inside the dungeon, her last line of defence if things went incredibly wrong.
So instead, she did what she always did. She kept her mouth shut and her head bowed.
Enduring was all she could do.
"Seems you've got a good thing going on Arde," Canoe turned to her after admiring her money, his eyes glinting with malicious greed, "How 'bout you let me in on it? It's only fair, we're from the same Familia after all. And he looks like an easy mark, walking around with that shiny armour of his, looks like he came right from some noble family. "
Lili grit her teeth to stop herself from responding venomously. Was he an idiot? What part of Caelan made him look at all like an easy mark? This was why adventurers were stupid, Caelan might have been young but he towered over not only her, but Canoe as well. Just his presence alone when she saw him yesterday with Ged, before Ged even started a fight with him, was enough for her to feel that he was strong.
That he was someone that shouldn't be messed with. Entirely the reason why she'd forgone pocketing any of the magic stones he wanted from the trip in the dungeon.
"He's probably sitting on a ton of valis come to think about it, I mean that armour, looks like something straight from the Hephaestus Familia, probably cost a few million!" Canoe continued on, near drooling at the thought of the wealth Caelan Odhar possessed, "Think about it Arde, if we can get that off him and whatever else he has this will be like pocket change!" he jingled the sacks of valis at her.
He was flashing her own money at her, after robbing her…as a reason to help him rob someone who could kill her with a single blow.
But beyond that, someone who was fair to her.
…What should she do here? No matter how she thought, there was no way out of this situation without her losing something.
"…No." her mouth moved before her brain decided.
Her resentment was getting the better of her.
She cursed herself. But even still, her hand drifted towards her chest, towards where her magic sword was waiting.
It was hardly the strongest magic sword and it wouldn't do anything to the likes of a Minotaur.
But it was well enough to end Canoe.
"No?" Canoe frowned at her.
"No!" she repeated louder, plunging her hand into her cloak and wrapping her fingers around the cool metal of a hilt, "I won't help you." Lili snarled, standing up and facing the older chienthrope.
"Well that's too bad then Arde," Canoe frowned deeply at her, shaking his head, "Here I was gonna be nice and give you a cut, but now I'll just have to cut you instead." his hand drifted towards his belt, where a sheathed sabre lay waiting.
"Is that right?" a voice cut him off.
Both of their heads twisted to look towards the voice on instinct and Lili's heart caught in her throat as she saw who it was.
Caelan, outside of his armour and dressed in casual clothing, a sleeveless top and black pants with his hands in his pockets stared directly at Canoe, eyes cold.
Mr. Caelan…" Lili gasped, eyes wide and panic rushing through her veins. When did he get here? What if he thought she was actually with Canoe?
Even if he didn't, he'd find out she was with the Soma Familia, or probably already knew now! After this, he wouldn't want anything to do with her.
No…no…no, this was bad, seriously bad! Why, why did things always go wrong for her just as they were looking up?
It wasn't fair!
She grit her teeth to force tears not to bud and her nails dug ineffectively into the stone ground beneath her as she slumped to her knees. With just two weeks of supporting Caelan she would be able to buy her freedom from the Soma Familia…and now….!
"Yes, it is right boy," Canoe completely ignored her, his frown turning into a wide grin as he looked at Caelan, "And look at you, completely saved me the trouble having to set you up and came to me out of your armour and everything." he grasped his sabre and pulled it free with the hand not holding the sacks of valis and pointed it at Caelan threateningly.
Caelan didn't pay it attention, instead his eyes were on the sacks of valis, "I don't remember giving those to you fat ass." he bit out.
"And what of it? I wanted them so I took them from this useless supporter," Canoe scoffed and lashed out with a kick that caught the kneeling Lili in the face, drawing a cry of more surprise than pain from her, "What are you going to do ab-"
As he turned his attention back to Caelan, he never got the chance to finish. In that split moment he'd taken his attention off of the younger boy, he moved.
Something rippled along his feet that Lili couldn't make out and he accelerated into a blur.
The sole of his boot crashed into Canoe's face, bodily lifting the shorter, yet heavily muscled chienthrope up into the air before slamming him down into the ground hard enough to create spider web cracks in the stone pavement, his hands going limp and the sacks of valis and his weapon clattering to the ground.
"Sorry I couldn't hear you," Caelan glared down at the man beneath his foot, "Want to run that by me again?"