Finishing with a Crush

As someone who had been raised in a modest village, that was Nona’s first time meeting nobles of such high status.

And she was struggling not to grimace with disappointment while witnessing the heated conversation between father and son, with Rigobert still having a tantrum about the missing monkey, and his father promising him that he would find another ‘pet’ soon.

“...and you,” the governor pointed at Captain Ania with an accusing finger, “why are you still sitting there? Stand up at once, you useless woman!”

“My apologies, my Lord,” the captain said with an obliging tone, standing up. “I’m really sorry for having been unable to prevent this outcome. I accept full responsibility so please, take it easy on my men–”

The Governor suddenly slapped the captain across the face. She gritted her teeth and Nona’s mouth opened wide in stupor.

“Of course you are taking full responsibility, woman,” the Governor said with disdain before delivering another slap. “I should have known the risks of accepting a street rat in my army.” Another slap. “You better prepare to beg for forgiveness if you don’t want me to go after your sister–”

“HEY!” Nona’s angry shout caused the Governor and the knights surrounding her to jump startled. “A man should never treat a woman that way, but on top of that you are a ruler. You are supposed to be someone who inspires and takes care of his people, not someone who abuses his authority like this. So don’t touch her again. Or I’ll report you to the authorities for having clearly abusive behavior towards your subordinates!”

Nona took a deep breath after the deafening silence that followed her angry words. A silence that was just interrupted by an impressive whistle of appreciation that only Nona could hear.

“Wow. It was such a badass speech and you totally ruined it at the end.” Thorny mimicked Nona’s voice. “‘I’ll report you to the authorities’. Seriously, what kind of half-assed thread is that?”

“Knights,” by then the Governor, whose face was almost as red as the royal robe he was wearing on the top of his silky pajamas, had recovered from the shock, and was trembling in rage pointing an accusing finger at Nona, “execute that insolent peasant at once.”

“Hehehe, well said, dad!” Rigobert sniggered, playing with his goatee while sticking his tongue at Nona mockingly, “teach that peasant who is the boss–”

Nona had been so focused on the nobles that she had momentarily forgotten about her group until new spikes appeared in the ground, capturing the Governor and his son. Both exhaled rather ridiculous high-pitched cries that were rapidly muffled by some tendrils that enclosed around their mouth, gagging them.

Immediately, Vesper attacked the Knights surrounding Nona with frenetic agility and powerful scratches. The Knights struggled to catch the badger trying to avoid her attacks, as Horace had boosted the druid’s abilities.

Also, it seemed that Thorny had also recovered his magic, because the imp started throwing fire bolts towards the knights while flinging insults at them.

Nona gulped with frustration clenching her fists. She really wanted to join his friends in battle, but aside from the several knights that Vesper was fighting against, there were still four that never averted their eyes from her.

Probably she could still emerge victorious against two of them. Three would be a stretch. But the wound in her thigh and the previous fight against Captain Ania were taking their toll, so four was practically impossible to handle in her current condition.

She was still trying to think about any other options when Captain Ania approached.

“Focus your efforts in capturing that badger and the imp. I’ll watch her,” she said towards the guards.

“B-But Captain, this seems to be the leader of the group. Shouldn’t it be more critical to watch her so–”

“Are you questioning my orders?” Captain Ania hissed while looming over the knight, one of her eyebrows twitching in a way that made the knight sweat.

“N-No, of course not, my Captain!”

While Captain Ania went behind Nona and placed her heavy sword under her chin, the Knight rapidly gestured to his companions so that they joined the chase after Vesper and Thorny, who, by then, were just running around in circles, tiring the Knights.

“Don’t turn around. Just keep looking ahead.” Despite her confusion, Nona obeyed the captain’s demand. “You didn’t answer before. Why did you save me?”

Nona’s answer was immediate. “Because I could.”

“And now that you are under arrest, don’t you regret having done so instead of running away?”

This time Nona thought for a few seconds.

“I mean, I regret having been caught. But I don’t regret saving you.”

“Why?”

“Because I also have siblings. And I can’t imagine how painful it would be to lose one of them. So I’m happy that Enia doesn’t have to go through that.”

She could hear Captain Ania swallow after hearing her words. And then, she sighed.

“Damn, I’m going to regret this,” the captain muttered to herself. “The merfolks are in the port, in the biggest warehouse which is also closest to the main dock.”

Nona frowned, confused. “What?”

“There are no guards there, but there are alarms in the area. You better deactivate them if you don’t want to alert the Order of your presence.”

“Wait, why are you telling me all this–?”

“And now turn around and punch me.”

“W-What? But I don’t want to!”

“Sweet Goddess, I’m giving you a chance to escape! So before I have second thoughts about it, do as I say. And make it credible. I don’t need even more unnecessary problems, dammit.”

Nona exhaled a deep breath and smiled.

“Thank you, Captain. You are as nice as your sister.”

“Tsk, at least don’t insult me–”

Nona rapidly turned around and punched the captain hard in the face. Since she wasn’t wearing her helmet as protection anymore, the woman flew backwards a couple of meters.

“Damn, you didn’t hold yourself back. I think you broke my nose.”

“Oh, no! I’m so sorry!”

“Idiot, don’t apologize and go already!”

Nona nevertheless apologized once again and looked around. By then the knights were so tired after trying to uselessly catch the druid that they were all scattered around the ground, either groaning in pain or just trying to recover their breaths.

She was still trying to find Vesper when suddenly she pinpointed Thorny in the air, waving his arms at her. She approached. Her heart stopped for a moment when she saw Vesper’s small figure immobile on the ground.

“She’s fine,” Thorny rapidly said. “Just exhausted after all that running and jumping.”

Nona carefully took Vesper in her arms and hugged her against her chest. Then she stood up.

“Come on. We have to go to the port. The merfolks are there.”

“Hah? How do you know?”

“Captain Ania told me.”

Thorny blinked.

“Nevermind. You’ll fill me in later. Just one thing before we go.” Thorny approached the still captive nobles and set the Governor’s moustache and Rigobert’s goatee on fire, wringing ugly screams from them. He smiled with satisfaction. “All done. Let’s go!”

* * *

Boris had been waiting for them in the empty cages area, because one thing was avoiding unnecessary battles, and another to breach his contract that stipulated that he would help liberate the merfolks. And so was Horace, who was determined to discover if those merfolks were actually more handsome than him.

Thanks to Boris guiding them through the city underground shortcuts, they managed to reach the port in no time. Captain Ania’s information had been quite accurate, but with Vesper out of combat, it took Boris quite some time to detect and disarm all the alarms set around the warehouse.

The aquarium was waiting for them inside. The moment they entered, all the merfolk eyes focused warily on them.

“Don’t worry, we’ve come to save you,” Nona said reassuringly.

She left Vesper with Boris - while Horace kept sulking quite pettily while muttering childish ‘they are not that handsome' - and rapidly approached the cart of the aquarium.

She had barely placed her hands on the cart when a shrill whistle invaded the place.

“Shit, there was another trap attached to the aquarium,” Boris grumbled with frustration.

“And you didn’t think about checking it, you big oaf?!” Thorny snapped.

“But you said there were traps in the area, not inside the warehouse!”.

“S-Shut up! You are a failure as a thief!”

“This is not the time to fight each other!” Nona exclaimed starting to push the cart towards the exit. “We have to liberate the merfolks before the knights arrive–!”

But the knights were already outside.

And this time, there were dozens of them surrounding the entire warehouse.

“How the hell have they been so fast?!” Thorny exclaimed with irritation.

Nona gulped. The sea was just right there, so a single push should be enough to liberate the merfolks. But if she did so, those knights would attack. And with Vesper unconscious, the probabilities of someone from the team ending up injured - or worse - were too high to risk it.

No matter what she did, someone was going to pay the price. All because of her.

Nona felt a lump forming in her throat. But when the first tears of disappointment were about to slide down her cheeks, a bright circle was summoned right under the knight's feet.

“Hah?” Nona heard the closest knight say with confusion, “what the hell is–”

A familiar voice shouted a spell in a foreign language.

All the knights in the circle were lifted in the air for a few seconds before they were forcibly slammed against the ground. They all ended up unconscious after having been knocked down with a force that made the entire dock shake, scaring the few people that were nosing around in the area.

Nona was still assimilating what had just happened when a hooded figure appeared from behind one of the several barrels and boxes scattered around the area. The stranger drank something from a bottle, and after yucking, approached her rapidly, removing his hood in the process.

“I knew you were plotting something. I knew it.”

“Adish?!” The mage’s exasperation was evident in his expression despite his swelling face. “What are you doing here?!”

“Obviously saving you all from your stupidity! You promised you wouldn’t do anything risky for my sake!”

“W-Wait, I promised that I wouldn’t go on my own to play the heroine, and I fulfilled it! I didn’t go alone!”

Adish opened and closed his mouth several times before closing his eyes and exhaling a defeated sigh.

“That imp is being a terrible influence on you.”

“Hehe, thanks for the compliment, four-eyes! And I have to admit that you may not be as useless as I thought.” Adish didn’t even react when Thorny ruffled his hair. Apparently he was already in his ‘I give up’ mood. “Although wait a minute. We have four companions in the team now, so that would mean–”

A beam of light suddenly struck right next to them, hitting Horace, still sulking while glaring at the merfolks.

“...OK, we can confirm that there are consequences if we break the conditions. Noted,” Thorny said with a conversational tone while everyone stared at the collapsed bard - who hopefully was still alive, though rather injured after receiving such an impact.

At that moment Nona heard a couple of knocks from above. One of the merfolks was pointing at the sea with his head, an amused expression on his face.

“Ah! Sorry to keep you waiting!”

Without wasting any more time, Boris handed the sleeping Vesper to Adish and unlocked the aquarium. Then he helped Nona to tip it over, allowing the merfolks to finally return to the sea where they belonged.

“Tsk, how ungrateful,” Thorny said, crossing his arms as Nona observed with a happy smile on her face the merfolks disappear in the water. “They could at least say ‘thanks’ after all the trouble–wait, one of them is waving at you.”

Thorny was right. The same merman that had called her attention hadn’t dived in yet, and was prompting Nona to come closer to the dock.

Nona approached the edge and knelt down. The motion made her grimace. With all the adrenaline, she had completely forgotten about her wound, but now it was hurting again.

However, she soon forgot about it when the merman swam to the edge of the dock, stopping right in front of her. Nona felt her heart pounding fast as her cheeks heated up. Now that she saw him up close, that white-haired merman with rebel hair framing his face, bluish skin and ocean-eyes was really handsome.

The merman smiled at her before raising one of his webbed hands to keep it right over her injured thigh, as if asking for consent. She swallowed and nodded, giving the merman permission to place his hand on the top of it. A faint, white light appeared between her thigh and the merman’s hand for a couple of seconds.

When he pulled his hand away, the injury was gone, and so was the pain.

“Thank you,” Nona said in awe. The merman’s smile widened before he winked at her playfully.

“Hey, keep the flirting for another time, leader. We need to go.”

Nona blushed even harder, turning towards Thorny, whose comment provoked chuckles between Adish and Boris.

“W-What? I’m not flirting! I don’t even know how to do that!”

By the time she looked at the sea again, the merman was gone. So they followed Boris to Enia’s headquarters, with Adish and Nona carrying Vesper and Horace respectively.

Nona felt a tiny bit regretful for not having had the chance of telling that merman her name, and neither asking for his. She also had some conflicted feelings regarding how the mission had gone, especially the end of it.

However, it was already late. And she was rather tired. So, for the time being, she chose to focus on the positive aspects of it, which was that they had successfully completed their first mission as a team.

And that was enough to keep a smile on her face for the rest of the night.