The Price of Generosity

“Next person who moves is gonna lose their head.”

The mercenaries stiffened, the fear in their eyes almost palpable in the cavern’s darkened interior. The only source of light was the lantern that Viviane carried, its warm yellow flame almost alien in contrast to her cold and rocky surroundings.

Medrauta calmly rested her sword on her shoulder, the blade gleaming in the dark as she stepped toward the mercenaries. Slowly and deliberately, she scanned each of their faces until her gaze settled on the person she was looking for. “One-Eyed Jack, yeah? I was told that you saw two foreigners pass by this tunnel.”

“Y-Yeah, that’s me...”

Around an hour prior to their encounter with this ragtag group of mercenaries in the tunnels under Orinth, Viviane and Medrauta had busied themselves with picking their way through the debris that littered Orinth’s streets.

Thoroughly unkempt and abandoned, Orinth was a ghost town. Of course, there were a few destitute occupants in the otherwise empty buildings that they passed by, but their journey had mostly been silent.

“It’s honestly kinda depressing...” Viviane had said, turning to Medrauta.

“Hm? What is?”

“This. Everything.” Viviane said, gesturing at their surroundings. A few of the buildings had collapsed long ago, and the structures still standing next to them looked like they were about to do the same, preparing to spill their stone and wood innards across the ground. “Even just by looking, I can tell that Orinth used to be a town full of life, but now it’s... this.”

Medrauta pursed her lips. “Yeah... Guess it is kinda depressing, huh? There used to be a bit more life aboveground when I was a kid, but looking at it now, Orinth is pretty much dead, huh? Well, above ground, that is.”

The knight had no doubt that the underground tunnels were rife with life, especially the unsavory kind. Rats, criminals, fugitives, and just about everything else an upstanding citizen wanted to avoid. Despite that, Medrauta and Viviane didn’t have the luxury of steering clear from the place.

Viviane nodded glumly as the two of them continued their journey through the streets. While it looked as if they were simply meandering around in the streets, Medrauta swept her gaze around, looking for an entrance to the underground.

Serving as the home for those who wished to avoid scrutiny, the tunnel network’s various entrances weren’t exactly public knowledge. In fact, they were rather well-hidden, allowing those who dwelt in its innards to survive and thrive for over a decade. True to the network’s clandestine nature, even Medrauta’s keen vision failed to uncover any secret entrances.

“We’re gonna need to speed this up before it gets dark,” Medrauta murmured.

“...Maybe we could ask around?” Viviane suggested.

“Ask around where?”

Viviane gestured wordlessly to a man sitting in the shadow of a nearby building. The worn-down structure was already half-collapsed, leaving its interior wide open to the elements. The rotting surface of its wooden support beams made it obvious that the still-standing portion of the building was well on its way to join the rest of its corpse, but it still hung on desperately for now.

“...I wouldn’t recommend randomly approaching people in Orinth, Viviane.” Medrauta warned. Although she was sure that she could protect Viviane in case anything actually happened, she still wanted to avoid any potential risks. Due to being the festering cesspool of criminal activity in Revelo duchy, the nature of Orinth’s inhabitants were largely unpredictable.

While most of them were simple criminals, fugitives, or even vagrants, the danger that one of them may be a rogue or exiled knight still existed. Should Medrauta encounter such an adversary, they would prove much more dangerous than just a regular bandit, meaning she was forced to approach every encounter with the utmost caution.

Despite her knight’s warnings, Viviane continued to approach the man. “Aw, come on, Medrauta! You’re gonna be right there with me!”

“Still, I don’t—”

“Are ya lookin’ fer somethin’, lassie?” The man’s head perked up as he heard Viviane’s approach, an appraising gleam in his eyes. Even from afar, it was pretty obvious to Medrauta that the man was attempting to determine how much coin he could squeeze from Viviane.

“Something like that!” Viviane smiled at the man, presenting herself in the most friendly way she could. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to tell us where we could access the underground tunnels of the city!”

“Strange. I actually had two o’ th’ weirdest lookin’ people ask me the same thing a while ago, but... Underground tunnels?” The man attempted to feign ignorance, but his acting skills were unfortunately abysmal. “I’m afraid I’ve never heard of such a place... But perhaps my memory might be jogged if I saw somethin’ bright and shiny... Ya get me?”

“Hm...” Viviane reached for her purse, retrieving a piece of gold. Despite Medrauta’s worried gaze, she flashed her knight a reassuring smile and stepped toward the man, handing him the gold piece.

It would have been more than enough for the man to live comfortably and possibly even start a business with the leftovers once he cleaned himself up and bought a piece of property, but alas, he chose a different fate.

Blinded by greed, his hand shot forward, grabbing Viviane’s wrist instead of the gold piece that she had offered. Viviane squealed as the man pulled her close and revealed that he’d been holding a piece of broken glass in his other hand, pressing it against her neck now.

Ah! N-No...! Viviane panicked as she quickly found her attempts to resist fruitless. I used too much ki helping Medrauta yesterday...!

“Viviane!” Medrauta shouted, her eyes wild with a mixture of fury and worry. The glass shard hadn’t drawn blood yet, but Medrauta swore she would condemn the man to the most painful death imaginable if even a single drop of Viviane’s blood was spilled.

“Stay back!” The man spat as Medrauta’s sword practically flew out of its scabbard. “I’ll cut her open!”

“Remove your hand from my lady’s neck.” Medrauta spoke in a barely controlled voice that seethed with rage. “I won’t ask again.”

“Heh... Hahaha! You’re really threatenin’ me while your fancy lil’ miss is about to die? That’s rich!” The man sneered. “Fuck off ten paces ‘fore I—”

The man didn’t even see Medrauta move. His severed arm fell to the ground, bouncing twice before finally laying still. He stepped backward, confused as to why his arm was now on the ground despite it being attached to his body a mere second ago.

He’d felt a cold, pinching sensation around his shoulder and then... nothing. He turned his head to look now, staring at the stump of his shoulder. Blood squirted from the gaping wound with every pump of his heart, and as the shock and adrenaline left him, he collapsed on the ground, writhing in pain.

Likewise, Viviane hadn’t seen her knight move either. In fact, Medrauta’s sword was in the same position as it had been when she drew it, not even a single drop of blood staining its blade.

In truth, even Medrauta was surprised at the speed of her own cut. While she originally intended to cut with such speed that not even a drop of blood could sully Viviane’s clothing or skin, she hadn’t expected to move so quickly that not even blood had time to adhere against the steel of her sword.

“I warned you.” Medrauta stared down at the man as she raised her arm, ready to bury her sword into the man’s chest. “I wasn’t going to ask again.”

“W-Wait, Medrauta! I’m fine, so just calm down for a second!” Viviane exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her knight in a desperate attempt to stop Medrauta before she killed the man.

“Calm down!? Viviane, he was threatening to—”

“I know! But he said there were two people asking him the same question, remember!? What if they were Sakura and Riku!?”

Medrauta frowned as she considered her lady’s words. What Viviane said was definitely possible, and the man wouldn’t be able to hurt them in any capacity for now. She sighed, sheathing her sword.

“Fine. Stand back while I treat this fool’s wounds.”

“Okay!” Viviane grinned, stepping back to watch her knight’s neat handiwork. This was the Medrauta that she knew and loved. Though there was no doubt in Viviane’s mind that Medrauta was furious at the man for daring to threaten her, her knight was still willing to suppress that rage and tend to the man’s wounds, preventing him from suffering needless agony as Viviane interrogated him.

Medrauta’s honorable and gallant attitude was the thing that made Viviane’s heart skip a beat the most.

“You will answer my lady’s questions truthfully and honestly,” Medrauta said as she sat the man against the wall after sanitizing and bandaging his dismembered shoulder. “Don’t try to lie, because I’ll know. For every lie that you speak, I will cut off a—”

“I-I understand! P-Please have mercy! I d-didn’t know you were a Knight!”

Medrauta glared at him for a few more seconds just to instill an unforgettable fear into the man’s soul before finally backing off and allowing Viviane to take over the conversation.

“It’s unfortunate that it came to this, but I’m afraid my knight doesn’t take kindly to people who threaten me,” Viviane began. “That aside, you said there were two ‘weird looking’ people who asked you an identical question. Could they have been foreigners?”

“P-Probably... They were pretty rich...”

“I see. Do you remember how they looked?”

“Yeah... A woman an’ a man. Wore weird outfits. Kinda loose an’ big. Both had black hair, an’ the woman had this fancy flower pattern on her clothes. Might’ve sold fer a lot.”

It’s Sakura and Riku! Viviane’s voice took on a renewed sense of urgency. “Do you remember where they went!?”

For a moment, the man was tempted to feign ignorance and demand coin in exchange for an answer. However, the sharp throbbing pain in his shoulder and the death glare that Medrauta fixed him with made him think better of it. “N-No... They left with someone else. One-Eyed Jack, they call ‘im. He’s a real smart ‘un, knows the tunnels like the back o’ his hand.”

“...I see.” Viviane bit her lip, appearing pensive. “Do you know where we might find this ‘One-Eyed Jack’?”

“Aye, everyone ‘round these parts does... Behind this buildin’, there’s an entrance to the tunnels... If you head down there an’ turn right, you’ll reach his lair eventually. He’s got a bunch o’ boys, but I don’t think that’ll be a problem for yer knight.”

“I see. Thank you,” Viviane smiled, walking back to Medrauta. She considered giving the man a coin, but then remembered how he’d held a makeshift weapon to her throat and reconsidered.

Viviane thought it sad, really. The man could’ve been on his way to a more prosperous town by now and started a new life for himself, but his choices had left him here and without an arm.

“He told me where we can find them,” Viviane said.

“How do you know we aren’t walking into a trap?”

The man laughed as he overheard Medrauta’s question. “A trap? Ma’am, I couldn’t even see ya move. What makes ya think that a trap’ll have any effect on you?”

“...He makes a fair point,” Viviane remarked.

“...Fine.” Medrauta sighed. “What are we waiting for then? Let’s go.”