Dawn- An age of Darkness

"And so, you want our help in rescuing your friend?" Jori said as he brushed off the sweat from his forehead.

We were back at the guildhall and I finished explaining things to Jori. Not much changed in this place. There were fewer people than before and that was about it.

We were in a corner of the guildhall and judging from the bandages, a lot of the adventurers were out of commission.

"Don\'t you mean our friend? Surely you haven\'t forgotten the time we\'ve spent together. Surely you haven\'t forgotten the tears and sweat we went through. Surely you haven\'t…" I went on: and I took extra efforts to dramatize everything.

A lot of the adventurers peeked. I could tell they were grinning. Battle-hardened lots always liked adrenaline-driven things after all. Even the injured ones were looking good to go.

After coming to this guild I\'d learned a lot of things about what happened. The country\'s soldiers secured the corpse of the grand monster and also escorted me to the castle. The people that were evacuated returned and reconstruction works were well underway. A lot of people died and almost half of the city was destroyed. But their families were going strong and trying their best to make this city great again. 

The destruction was pretty devastating, but the king hadn\'t yet made any efforts in aiding construction. And judging from everything else, it didn\'t seem like he was about to do anything anytime soon. 

The most shocking discovery was that only three days had passed since then. I kind of felt good after hearing that though. At least I didn\'t sleep for an entire month. 

According to the girl with me: Dick, Servesta, Alisa, and Biteria were out of town. So we were on our own. 

"Besides, don\'t you owe me from that quest thing you issued that night?" I had no intentions of not using every little thing I had to my advantage. I wasn\'t going to let him off the hook. I had him right where I wanted.

He groaned and fell back on his chair. "I suppose I do owe you, yes. But you really expect the guild to help you raid the castle?" His face was always pale thanks to the excessive makeup, but maybe just this once his makeup didn\'t really help. He was paler.

"I\'ll be blunt with you. This country has no future with that king. But the guild isn\'t raiding the castle. Daarc green the slayer of gods and his friends are. You guys just have to wear masks. And it\'s not like we\'re dethroning the king or anything. We\'re just going there, taking my things, and coming out. All the while rescuing Lianne. I\'m sure you know what that means." 

Daarc Green, the slayer of gods, huh? 

It kind of made me want to crawl into a hole when I said something weird like that out loud. "Besides, I don\'t think they\'d know it\'s me." After all I was currently a beautiful woman with no affiliation with anything violent.

Jori moaned, a hand still on his head. 

An adventurer walked up to us. "She\'s right boss. I never liked this damn king. He makes us pay too much taxes and don\'t give shit about the people. It\'s time he\'s taught a lesson." Some more adventurers chimed in.

Were these morons really adventurers? Weren\'t they being a bit too easy?

Royalty were all the same to me. So I didn\'t really care who sat on the throne. Dethrone one and another one just like him would line up to take his place. It wasn\'t worth the effort. So I opted for getting my friend and things back and that was it.

One more push.

Jori had been quiet and was thinking things through. 

"And don\'t you think the guild\'s influence would grow if you were to rescue the people from an evil tyrant?" The way I grinned, might have actually made me the evil one though. But I couldn\'t stop now. I needed my things and a way to get Lianne out of there, and I needed the help of these guys in doing so. 

Jori stood up. He grinned. "Boys, tonight we\'re going huntin!" 

Looks like he\'s taken the bait.

Cheers ran through the crowd. But I didn\'t trust them one bit. 

And more importantly, why the hell were they accepting this easily? I thought they\'d drag this one for another hour or two.

"Never knew you had so much charisma," the girl beside me whispered. I never asked her name. 

And I never knew either. 

"Let\'s hope it doesn\'t get us killed." I wasn\'t too optimistic without my things anyway.

With all the cheers and all, it really felt out of place for us to be here. It wasn\'t really that late. So the streets were pretty lively. I wondered what passersby\'s thought of us.

Or maybe people didn\'t care all that much about what went through the guild. Most of the people were busy rebuilding the city anyway. 

"The plan was to sneak in the castle in the middle of the night. But apparently, since I escaped, the castle\'s probably in crisis and high alert. It would be very difficult tonight." Maybe it would have been better to think of a more detailed plan.

"That\'s precisely why we should do this tonight. They won\'t expect us," the girl beside me said.

"I agree." Jori nodded along. But things were going good, too good. It felt a little odd. I decided to not notice and go on. If they ended up betraying me, I\'d destroy their entire association. I didn\'t take backstabbers kindly.

I grinned and blurted out the plan. "Alright then, one of us would be the decoy and one of us would be the infiltrator. The rest of you would be backup for either situation. To be more precise this whole plan weighs on your shoulders." I smiled. "No pressure."

"Looks like you already have an idea of who\'s the decoy and-"

"I\'m the best decoy we\'ve got. And can I trust you with finding my things and her?" I looked at the girl beside me.

Of course, I had more reasons for this too. 

"I won\'t let you down."

"SO there you have it. Why don\'t you use your wonderful connections and get me a date with the king or whatever."  When I said that, all of them stared at me with utter silence. I felt my cheeks twitching. 

Don\'t look at me that way.

The girl beside me sighed. "I suppose I shouldn\'t have expected much anyway."

Excuse me! That\'s the best damn thing we\'ve got!

"It\'s not a bad plan but you do realize you\'d end up in his bed, right?" Jori said. 

Bed? Sex? "We\'ll cross the bridge when we get there." If push comes to shove I\'ll just knock him out.

"Please don\'t beat him up too much," the girl whispered. 

How the hell did you know?

She wasn\'t a mind reader, was she?

And so we began to prepare. 

***

The dress I was already wearing was elegant but not seductive. So I had to change. But the stuff they gave me was a little too showy. It was a white and blue one-piece dress which was a little short and tight for my preference and showed too much skin. More than half of my back was exposed and my thighs were on full display. If the hem of my skirt was slightly shorter, anybody would have been able to peek at what\'s underneath. 

"Don\'t you think this is a bit too much?" I said, trying my best not to run away.

I really didn\'t want to wear this. 

Who even thought of me being the decoy!

Oh wait, I did.                           

Sigh!

"Ow, you look amazing. Back when I was your age I looked even prettier but you really look good."  Jori cupped his cheeks and blushed.

I didn\'t even want to imagine it. 

"Anyway, I\'ve already contacted an acquaintance of mine at the castle. The king\'s in a very bad mood today. SO he\'s throwing a small tea party with the girls. And whoever woes him-" Jori paused and smiled.

"Gets in his bed. "I finished Jori\'s sentence. I didn\'t want to though. 

"And pleasure as well." He continued with a smirk. 

"Oh don\'t worry about it. He won\'t forget about tonight. Not one bit." I grinned too hard. I couldn\'t contain my laughter. If he tried anything, I\'d beat him senseless. So yeah, this really was a night to remember. 

The adventurers grinned as well. They got my drift.

Jori led me and the girl beside me toward the castle. I still had plenty of bandages around my body but they were properly hidden behind the clothes. The few that were visible were kind of decorated. Jori told me that this was a fashion style in a faraway country. I wondered what sort of country had bandages as fashion objects. But oh well.

And so we moved out.

***

"If you betray us, things won\'t be all that good for you." We were walking down the road. I was getting more stares than necessary. Some daring few even gathered to propose before me. But Jori\'s face came in handy for once. They all ran away upon witnessing true terror.

"I wouldn\'t dream of it. And how rude! After what we\'ve been through…" He faked a sob. He used my cards against me.

"Whatever. Just thought you should know."

"I\'m not dumb enough to get on your bad side. Not after what I\'ve seen." For just a second Jori\'s voice was full of seriousness. It was ruined by the smile on his face though. If you could call that a smile at all.

The awkward silence was growing on me. The castle was still about five minutes away. "How come you\'re so strong?" I asked.

The girl beside me glanced back and forth between me and Jori. She organized her thoughts. "I use science to power up and make everything easy. When you break down a simple fire for example. Don\'t you think you can increase the output a lot if you could get the oxygen just right?" She didn\'t mind sharing her secrets. Maybe she was actually nicer than I thought?

"Science? Oxygen?" Jori seemed dumbfounded. I ignored him.

"Isn\'t that how you formed that plasma Dick told me about?" she continued.

"I suppose that should have been obvious. After all, science is universal. But never thought it would have so much affinity with magic." Actually, I never really thought all that much about science. Mostly because this world had things that traditional laws of science couldn\'t really explain.

"Magic is just another form of science after all. But, it\'s just the base of my magic. My magic requires a sacrifice you see." She didn\'t look at me and just walked on.

I didn\'t disagree but I didn\'t agree either. 

"With that strength, think you\'ll be able to take him on?"

"Who exactly?" She looked puzzled.

We were right in front of the castle gates.

"The emp-"

"Welcome everyone. " A guard in his mid-forties greeted us.  I didn\'t like the looks in his eyes. He was glancing too much at my chest and thighs.

"This is lady Daphne. And that is Susan, her aide. She hails from a merchant family up north," Jori introduced us. I was supposed to be Daphne. I wasn\'t against the name but it still kind of felt weird not to know the real name of the girl with me. 

"She\'s a beauty indeed. My lord will definitely be pleased. Right, this way." It took all my might to contain myself when he looked at me like that. 

He led us to the castle. I balled my fist but didn\'t act up in any way. This is where we parted from Jori and the phase of two of our plan begun.