The silence in the room was suffocating. For Choi Han. His whole body was surrounded by a bloody aura and his fists were clenched under the table. Is he getting angry that the dragon is getting abused since he's a good person? Adara wondered. Or is he thinking about the time when he had to survive alone in the Forest of Darkness? We did make some parallels, but now I am uncertain which one it is.
Choi Han, somewhat according to Adara's hypothesis, was recalling the tens of years he had to survive on his own in the Forest of Darkness. He was thinking about how he had suddenly been dropped in this world, away from his family and friends, with only his school uniform on. How he had needed to starve himself and hide until he was strong enough to be in the open. It took a couple years.
The silence continued for a while, both Adara and Cale were trying to figure out what Choi Han was thinking about. Finally, Choi Han looked up and made eye contact with both of them, before asking, "Will you save it and try to tame it?"
Their jaws dropped, a shocked expression on their face. "Are you crazy?"
Choi Han blinked. "Excuse me?" He was shocked at the fact they were questioning his sanity.
Both Adara and Cale waved their hand, dismissing the thought. "Why would we try to tame it?" they asked.
Adara shook her head. "That's stupid, trying to tame a dragon? We're going to die if we even try."
Cale agreed. "Yes, we would not survive."
The dragon who had been abused by humans would in no way be willing to serve a human. It was probably full of hate and disgust for anything remotely human. Even if humans had saved it. While Adara had said to the old man that there were no lesser beings between humans, that did not apply to other creatures. Elves, Beast People, Dwarves, they all believed they were above humans, especially Dragons. They believed they were above every being, it was a natural instinct for a dragon to be powerful and arrogant, so this Dragon would find its way soon.
But that was also why it was hard to 'tame' a dragon. The attitude of being above everyone else made it hard for Dragons to be domesticated and trained without using torture and abuse to remove their rationality.
But if they were to even try, if they were to somehow survive trying to raise a dragon, they would be wrapped up in some annoying incidents. Dragons were rare, there were less than twenty in the Eastern and Western Continents combined, if they were to raise one of those dragons? It would be like announcing their existence to the Heavens and begging for all the problematic things to be thrown their way.
She did not want the Dragon to come with them, it would probably not lead that nice of a life with them. It would be better for it to go off on its own, enjoying its life and living somewhere far from humanity. It would be able to do that once the Mana Restriction Chains were off.
"Then?" Choi Han asked, he wanted to know what they would do once freeing the dragon. He had a hunch, based on what he had observed from them the past few days.
Cale was smiling. "Why are you asking such an obvious question?"
Adara was also smiling. "We'll let it go so it can live a peaceful life away from the world. A dragon should live like a dragon, shouldn't it?"
"I see." Choi Han's clenched fists started to relax until his hands were spread out on his knees. "Then will we be saving that dragon?"
Cale nodded. "Yes. So we need your help."
"Anything," Choi Han said in an instant. "I really will do anything to help."
Adara caught his intonations and quickly clarified something. "We don't need to kill anyone." He's not here. "We want to do it as quietly as possible. Though major injuries are allowed."
"Adara-nim, Cale-nim, you really—." His voice was full of admiration, but Cale looked at the clock and cut him off.
"Go tell Ron to prepare some alcohol on the first floor."
"Are diff— what?"
On the first floor, a little while later, Adara and Cale were drinking freely. It was peaceful, a change to the usual atmosphere while one of them was drinking. They were on the couch, Adara was leaning on Cale's shoulder and Cale had an arm wrapped around her. They were both flushed, drinking bottle after bottle.
Everyone knew how pretty and other-worldly Adara and Cale looked normally, but now that their faces were a strikingly warm red, Cale's cheeks being a bright scarlet and Adara's a dark carmine, and their eyes seemingly unfocused, everyone couldn't help but think they looked prettier drunk.
And they weren't as loud as they normally were, well, Cale was usually the louder one, but today the two of them were just silently talking with each other, mostly drinking. The kittens occasionally came to them, but Hans had taken them away as an extra precaution.
"It is okay to let them drink so much?" Choi Han asked Hans, who was next to him. He was feeding On and Hong food, while trying to make sure they wouldn't go too close to the two Trash.
Hans nodded. "Yes! There is nothing in their hands, thus, it is safe! They both promised they wouldn't throw any bottles!"
Except, Choi Han was talking about their safety, while Hans was referring to themselves. Choi Han didn't continue talking once he saw the conversation take an odd turn. He quietly scooted away from Hans, and instead looked at Cale and Adara to make sure they were safe. He had seen a slightly-healing wound on Adara's hand when they first met, he remembered asking Hans what happened. He said that she broke a bottle, and one of the shards hit her hand, creating a wound, but he got quiet when he asked why she broke the bottle. Now, the wound was barely there, not even a scar could be seen. He wondered why that wound had healed, but the others hadn't. Hans said that Ron said it was a deep cut. Was Ron lying?
Neither Cale nor Adara was aware of his gaze since he did not have any bad intentions. They were too busy praising the alcohol. "Old man, your alcohol tastes great! Much better than I expected," Cale admitted.
Most of the envoy were drinking, there were some who weren't but that was to make sure nothing happened. In the first hour, they were all nervous. When they all gathered because they were going to drink, some of the soldiers showed up with their helmets on. They had to reassure everyone that they would not throw any bottles. Repeatedly.
"This village may be small," the old man started saying, "but there are a lot of mountains around it. The alcohol is a special alcohol I made with fruit and herbs from the mountain. That is why it is a bit expensive," he explained.
Adara turned to look at the old man. "How many do you have?"
"Quite a bit, Young Mistress."
Cale motioned to everyone in the room. "Then get some more and send it around to everybody here."
Vice Captain, Hilsman, who had his eyes on the bottle in Cale's hand, shouted out, "Young Master and Mistress, you don't need to—," but he was cut off by Adara.
"Just drink," she said, as sternly as you could while drunk. "We're telling you to drink. Drink to your heart's content, or don't, we don't really care."
The soldiers all started to look at them with sparkles in their eyes despite her crude words. It was one of the first times they were excited to see a bottle in the two Trash's hands.
They watched all of this with a sharp gaze. They did not truly have 'an unfocused gaze', everyone only expected them to have which resulted in none of them seeing the steely look in their eyes.
Cale Henituse. Adara Thornwin. These humans both had a strong alcohol tolerance. Everybody thought they had low tolerance because their faces flushed easily and they always acted drunk while causing a ruckus, but the truth was that it took a lot of alcohol to get them drunk. They weren't even tipsy at the moment.
They drank for another thirty minutes, before suddenly standing— stumbling— up. Adara looked at Choi Han, her eyes were more half-lidded than normal. "Can you help two drunk people up some stairs at the same time?" she asked, straightforward as always.
Choi Han nodded, immediately standing up and supporting the two stumbling nobles.
"Young Master and Mistress, I can help," he started, taking a step towards the two.
But Cale refused. It would become more complicated if the Vice Captain or the others came with them. "It's okay. Vice Captain, rest a bit today. The rest of the soldiers as well. Didn't you fight in a battle yesterday? This is not a dangerous area, and I feel bad for the soldiers on guard duty, but the rest of you can relax and enjoy yourselves."
Hilsman blinked. He was not used to this. He had heard from one of the Knights on duty when the stranger, Choi Han, came in that the Young Master and the Young Mistress were acting charitable and gave him a place to stay and some food, but he did not wholly believe it. But now he couldn't help but believe it. "Young Master and Mistress—."
They turned around, annoyed the conversation was stretching out longer than they wanted. They did not know that the Vice Captain wanted to thank them. "We're tired. Bye."
No one followed them after that. They did not have to worry for their Young Master and Mistress when the strongest person, and the one who did not drink at all, were guarding the two.
Somehow, Adara wasn't sure how he was exactly doing it, but Choi Han managed to support both of them up the stairs at the same time.
Now we need to get rid of Ron. It was going to be easy to avoid the guards at the gate and around the inn, but Ron still existed. Both Ron and Hans knew not to go into their room without a reason, except while Hans would not be able to know if they were in the room, Ron was skilled enough that it would be easy to tell if they snuck out or not. It's not like he'll care, Adara thought. He didn't care about all the other times they snuck out, and always welcomed them back with a gentle smile on his face. However, they always told him beforehand.
Ron was following behind them, walking up the stairs his movements were quiet. Adara found it annoying that she could not hear his footsteps, so during the period she's been staying she's grown accustomed to listening to the ground caving in when someone put their weight on it.
Once at the top of the stairs, they saw Hans also starting to come up the stairs with the kittens in front of him, so Cale quickly spoke to Ron, lowering his voice. "Ron, we're going to go out to play. It's a secret. Got it?"
Adara knew that Ron liked to drink. But he did not drink at all, he didn't even look at a drink. Instead, he was just staring at the two. He had no bad intentions, as far as she could tell, but it was still weird. Scary old bastard, she thought, inspecting his face. He was gently smiling, though it looked scary in the light. "I understand. I will be waiting for you."
Cale shook his head. "Don't."
Ron only smiled. Adara knew he would probably be waiting for them anyway. Hans was next to Ron by now. Cale acted as if he had never said anything to Ron. "We're going to be resting. Hans, Ron, don't come in to wake us up unless it is an emergency. You know how I get when someone messes with my sleep, right?" he threatened.
A few years ago, or months Adara doesn't really remember, a servant woke up Cale instead of Ron. That servant received a flurry of swearing. Although nothing occurred except for screaming, the servant started to go around the Estate and told them it was like getting hit by a barrage of swear-punches. Adara only heard about it a day later and howled with laughter.
Hans sweat-dropped. "Of course, I do, Young Master. Please rest well, Young Master and Mistress."
Ron smiled again. "Young Master and Mistress, this Ron will be standing right outside your room."
Their expressions stiffened. They waited patiently until the two servants left before Adara stealthily leaned into Choi Han and whispered, "Come through the window to come into our room, be quiet."
Choi Han nodded his head and left as the two Trash opened the door and stepped into the room.
The kittens, who had followed them into their room, started to meow. "Is it time now?" Hong asked. They had been waiting in anticipation for the whole day until they'd be able to rescue the 'poor soul', and now they wanted in.
Cale was busy opening the box, but he nodded to Hong's question along with Adara. The magic box opened with a click, and Cale removed three outfits from the box. He gave one to Adara while putting one on for himself. Their hoods were big, since no one was allowed to see Cale's hair or too much of Adara's southern-looking face. There was only one person with the skin of a southerner, and she was supposed to be black-out drunk. She also had to wear wore gloves, and while the mask would hide most of her face from under her eyes, most people would not be able to see clearly in the dark, or that's what they hoped.
Choi Han entered through the window at that point, his eyes opening in shock as he saw the two Nobles he was set to protect. "Cale-nim, Adara-nim?"
Adara was putting on her mask, while Cale threw the remaining black outfit toward Choi Han. He caught it with ease, staring at the outfit with shock.
"You wear it too," Adara commanded.
Choi Han could not take his eyes off the outfit. While the black orb from yesterday should temporarily stop any Magic Recording Devices, they did not think it was enough. The Knights and Soldiers around might still recognize something. So they prepared these outfits.
"What is this?" Choi Han questioned them, still intently staring at the black outfit. The black outfit had a single white star and five smaller red stars surrounding it on the chest area. It was the outfit that 'The Birth of a Hero' described multiple times belonging to the Secret Organization. They had specially ordered the outfits, but also made separate outfits and personally added the stars.
It was a bit crude up close, but that did not matter. The only people who will see the outfit would not be fully conscious, and the one thing they would remember the most is 'one white star and five red stars on a black outfit'. Venion, who had not personally met the Secret Organization like his father did, would hear the report from his subordinates who remembered the details, and he would be stuck, wondering who had stolen the dragon while facing a significant headache and anger. But once he reports it, the Marquis would have a theory about who had stolen it.
Choi Han saw their lack of an answer, and wondered, "Are we doing something bad?"
Cale looked at Choi Han, before answering without hesitation. "Yes. We are doing something bad."
Both Cale and Adara started to smile underneath their masks. "We're doing something bad to Venion," Adara confirmed.
"Ah." Choi Han finally seemed to understand. He pointed to the mask in Cale's hand. "Please give it to me."
Adara smiled wider. It seems even good people will have someone they don't like and want to screw over. She paused. Does that mean you can be a revengeful person, yet still be good? She decided not to contemplate it too much. I am Trash. No matter what I do I will be Trash. I kill people regularly, I do not have a problem with that. I help people on a whim, without really wanting to help them but just to prove to myself that I can also save a few lives while taking a bunch. She shook off her thoughts. This could not be healthy for her.
Cale, seeing the look in Adara's eyes, gently bumped their shoulders. She looked at him, surprised, but smiled when she noticed that he was only worried for her. What did I do now to deserve his concern? she wondered. Cale didn't say anything, even when he noticed that her smile did not reach her eyes. He turned to the two kittens on the bed. "And these kids are from the Cat Tribe. They are beast people," Cale introduced them casually. The Fog Cat Tribe children, who were sensitive to aura and people's true personality's, already had a pretty good idea about him when they were near him at the Wall when they saw Adara and Cale leave with him. And Choi Han had noticed that they were not your average cats while on their travels.
"This is On," Adara introduced, pointing to the respective cat. "This is Hong. That's Choi Han," Adara said to the kittens. "That's it. We need to go soon. Choi Han, go get dressed, there's a restroom in the back." She jabbed a thumb in the direction of the restroom.
Choi Han came out a few seconds later, wearing the same black outfit and black mask as the rest of them. They stood in front of the second-story window, looking down. Cale turned to Choi Han. "You need to carry me when we go out the window. I can't jump so far down without getting hurt."
Choi Han let out a sigh as he looked at Adara. She shook her head. "No, I'm fine. I can jump down on my own just fine."
Choi Han held in another sigh. He turned to Cale and without another second of hesitation, hooked his arms behind his knees while holding a hand on his back. Cale was momentarily surprised by the sudden change of ground beneath his feet but was still calm as he urged them. "Let's hurry."
Adara, without another thought, jumped from the second-story floor.
~~~
[F̶u̶n̶ Fact]: She does, contrary to what she says, have trouble with taking lives so carelessly (Again, unreliable narrator). Though after years of doing it, she's kind of grown numb to it. Though, of course, she is only killing them for her own self-preservation and while she believes it is the right thing to do to survive, she still antagonises herself, subconsciously, by making the people she's killed appear in her nightmares. But dear god, this child is angsty as hell, I really wish I could just pull her into this world to get therapy. I swear, I don't try to have an abusive writer complex, it just sorta happens.