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“Plan B?” Rigetta muttered in repeat with confusion touching her gaze. “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with this jargon.”

Amyra snorted with a brief chuckle but not loud enough for them to be heard by the guards roaming around them, searching for their presence with looks of desperation. “His lordship is indeed a bad influence on you, m’lady.”

Erin rolled her eyes. “It means a contingency plan, an alternative.”

Rigetta nodded. “I see. This lord of yours certainly has a way with words, Amyra.”

“That’s not even half of it.” Amyra tittered. “Anyway, what is your contingency plan, m’lady?”

“Not something I’m very proud of,” Erin said and closed her eyes. A strange scent began emanating from her as a thin purplish glowing veil began to spread from her. The veil grew like a rising tidal wave, gradually sweeping all over the ruins and the guards were none the wiser about it. Only those who were sensitive to Mana could feel it and only the adept could see the veil.

“Lady Erynthea… what is this?” Rigetta asked. She shook her head to dispel the encroaching muddled feeling.

“You’re better off not knowing.” Erin retorted without opening her eyes.

“Mind magic?”

“Close but no.”

“Then I won’t pry further, Lady Erin.”

Amyra was feeling the effects as she began to wobble while standing upright. “I feel… good. I’m feeling warm and… a tad excited. M’lady, is this—”

Erin nodded and put a finger on her lips.

“I-I understand, m-m’lady.” Amyra was even slurring her words.

“Is it just me or is anyone also starting to feel faint?” muttered a guard in passing as he scoured the ruins in earnest as he was ordered.

“Shut up and keep searching!” shouted the guard who was the only one wearing a maskless helmet, presumably the captain of the group.

One by one, all of the guards in the vicinity were tottering in their steps, their visions blurring, and their bodies heating up.

“Damn it,” a guard cursed under his breath. “I should be in Dancing Dolls fucking Charlene by now…”

“Quiet,” rebuked another guard. “Don’t let the captain hear you say that, not while I’m just beside you. And what are you complaining about? We’re getting paid more for this.”

“Yes, we’re getting paid more but what’s the good of it if we don’t have the time to spend any of it?”

“You can spend them all when you retire. Now, shut up.”

“And when will that be? In twenty years? Or thirty? When we’re infirmed, old men crippled by wounds from our job’s hazard?”

“I’m not talking to you anymore. If the captain hears you, I don’t know you.”

The guard tutted. “You know I speak the truth. How many guards do you know we're able to retire in one piece?”

“What the hell are you two babbling about there!?” roared the captain.

“N-nothing, sir!”

“It better be nothing or I’ll give the two of you something blab about in the pit later!”

“Yes, sir!”

The captain snorted and went back to his search. “What a bunch of halfwits,” the captain groaned. “Why am I stuck with these fools? I should be at home by now… with my wife… and her mouth around my cock…”

It wasn’t just the two guards and the captain but everyone within the thin purplish veil of mist that was having doubts and second guesses about their orders and mission. The increase in their wages was certainly a huge factor in their willingness and obedience but their thoughts couldn’t help but veer to the dark and bleak implications.

However, there was no falsehood in these dismal thoughts of theirs. Guards and soldiers who were able to live till their golden age and retire in peace could be counted with two hands and their fortune was returned to the kingdom after their passing. In this world, people die young and that was a fact. It was only natural that the guards started to harbour these thoughts, especially when their minds were being influenced by Erin’s Lust.

Their sexual desire continued to grow as they kept bathing in the unseen mist that was the aura of Erin’s Lust. Their urges to let loose their desires swell. Their blooming primal longing addled their minds. To sate their carnal hunger, they even began considering insubordination and desertion.

“M’lady, this is a terrible plan…” Amyra said. Her breath was quickening and her breaths were turning warm. “We’ll lose our minds before they lose theirs.”

“I agree with Amyra, Lady Erin. I don’t know what kind of spell this is but I’m sure we’ll fall before the guards will.”

“You won’t,” Erin assured them and rested her hands on their shoulders. “I don’t have perfect control over it but I can at least make sure the aura will be light on the two of you.”

As Erin softened the effects of Lust on Amyra and Rigetta, to the best of her abilities, the guards’ state was only worsening and it wasn’t long before one of the guards eventually snapped.

“Fuck this shit!” cried the guard as he took off his helmet and threw it to the ground.

“What is it now?” demanded the captain with an exasperated sigh.

“You know what it is, captain!” the disgruntled guard shouted. “Why are we even here?! We’re supposed to be off-duty for today. We haven't had a single day of rest for nearly a month and on the eventual day of our rest, we are suddenly called to arms and it’s not even for licit purposes!”

“Are you defying your captain right now, soldier?”

“Oh, now we’re soldiers? A few minutes ago when we’re marching here, we’re all maggots and trash.”

“Have you lost your mind, soldier?” the captain asked with a calm voice but his rage was apparent in both his voice and expression.

“Well, captain, we haven’t been able to get a good night's sleep lately and we have not shag any girls for a month now. If I had a mind, I have long lost it.”

Though none of the guards made any remarks or showed any hint of concord on their faces, they were all silently agreeing with and inwardly nodding at the words of the bold and deranged guard.

“You truly have lost your mind, soldier,” the captain growled, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

“Of course, we have!” another soldier cried out, stepping forward with his helmet taken off and thrown to the ground. “We’re sacrificing our rest day for something that is in all likelihood unwarranted and illicit. We could be hanged for this! Or our heads would roll! And for what? A single piece of gold coin or two?!”

“Yeah, that’s right!”

“This ain’t worth it!”

“I rather be fucking whores right now!”

The surrounding guards gave in to their grievances and they all began to clamour about the unjust conditions that beset them.

“Stand down, soldiers,” the captain said with a soft yet clear and firm voice.

The clamour and uproar immediately died down.

Erin resisted the urge to appraise the captain out of curiosity about the extent of the captain’s prowess. Her Sixth Sense blared in her mind the moment she was about to appraise the captain. She was then reminded of the countless warnings from her acquaintances of the dangers in appraising anyone in Sephrodia Valley.

“I’m warning you, all of you, right now.” The captain unclasped his sword from its sheath but he did not draw it out. “If I hear another word of dissent or defiance, your heads would roll.”

Terror wrought the guards. Their displeasure was replaced by the fear for their lives. Each of their gazes spelt the understanding of their captain’s prowess and the credibility of his words. They knew he meant what he said. They all knew, except for one.

“I would not stand by this injustice any longer!” a guard yawped. He was younger than his peers. “Captain or not, I did not become a guard to become a celibate! I’m resigning right this—”

The last word of the brazen soldier was hanging by the tip of his tongue when a sudden streak of lightning flashed across his neck. In the next second, the guard’s head went rolling off of his neck and his headless body collapsed to the ground along with the head.

No one saw the captain draw his sword. When they realised what had transpired, the sword was already drawn, the blade crackling with lightning, and their colleague was already decapitated.

“Resignation accepted, soldier,” the captain scoffed as he looked at the headless corpse with utter disdain.

“Rick!!” cried the guard who seemed to be friends with the one that was just cut down. The guard brandished his sword and charged at the captain with a spirited cry.

But he too was swiftly cut down by the captain and all that anyone could see was a brief flash of lightning and the guard’s head was rolling off his neck in the next second.

“Anyone else?” the captain inquired as he looked each of the guards in the eyes.

A few of the guards shook their heads while the rest just stood idly as they waited for the storm to pass.

“Truly maggots and trash, the lot of you are. Complete idiots.”

None of the guards said anything in return.

“You have all already taken the gold and this isn’t the first time that you did. Yes, this is unwarranted and illicit. If we’re caught, we will all be hanged at the decree of the court. However, if we back out now, we will suffer a fate so much worse than death that you would rather risk seeing the rope. Do we understand each other now?”

The guards nodded. After that display, no one dared to be defiant any longer. Their instincts of self-preservation overshadowed their lust and longing for carnal gratification.

“Damn it…” Erin murmured gratingly.

“M’lady, I know you are trying to avoid this but I’m afraid it has come to this. We will have to resort to killing,” Amyra said. “We can’t just stay here and wait forever.”

“I know…”

“Are you perhaps averse to taking lives, Lady Erin?” Rigetta asked.

“It’s not a matter of aversion, not exactly. If they are a threat or an enemy, I won’t hesitate to cut them down and it feels great to do that but… it feels like the line gets blurrier with every life I take. What happens then if the line just disappears after a certain kill, what will I become then?”

Rigetta smiled. “You’re a good person, Erin, from what I know and have read about you. I’m sure you’ll become nothing less than what and who you already are.”

“I concur, m’lady.”

“I hope so,” Erin muttered. “Well, in the end, it is as you say, Amyra. It has come to this. Using lethal force is unavoidable, not when the opposing force is so eager to plunge themselves into peril.”

“Right you are, m’lady. No need to feel bad about killing these scums. They have probably done worse things for less. I heard even some of them were willing to commit sodomy to earn a few coins.”

Erin looked at Amyra with a frown. “Where did you hear these things?”

“In the taverns? In such a large city, you'll hear all sorts of bizarre rumours and stories alike. And that story just now is actually on the mild side.”

“I can attest to that,” said Rigetta with a small laugh. “Nothing a little bit of alcohol couldn’t help. Sometimes a few swigs are all it took for someone to blab about their darkest secrets, even the illicit ones. You have no idea how many adventurers have outed themselves on their misconducts while they were drunk.”

“Thank the Spirits that I don’t drink. Anyway, are you all ready?”

“Always,” Amyra answered.

Rigetta nodded. “I am, Lady Erynthea.”

“What’s your flair?”

“I’m quite efficient with this blade here.” Rigetta took out a strange-looking blade with a deep curve from the back of her waist. At a glance, it resembled the letter “L”.

“What kind of blade is that?” Amyra asked. “How do you fight with that?”

“This is called a Karak and as for its performance, you need not ask, Amyra. You are about to witness it for yourself.”