Malice in Motion

In a room somewhere in Luido.

Several men sat in chairs surrounded by lavish furnishings.

One kept raising his wine glass to his lips. Another tapped his heel against the floor in agitation.

What they all shared was a distinct lack of composure.

"All we had to do was secure the church ruin where those grubby brats were living!"

The man seated at the far end of the table spoke first.

Every other pair of eyes in the room turned toward him.

"We spent years making sure no information leaked, and we were one step away from collection. How did it come to this?"

"Because the assassins we hired botched the job, obviously."

A large, heavyset man stroked his elongated mustache as he answered.

Another man reacted to that.

"There was no need to send assassins in the first place. They were just children we'd been using. A little strong-arming to push them out, and it would've been over."

"Are you saying it was unnecessary?"

The first man shot back.

This kind of fruitless bickering had been going around and around.

"Is it confirmed that the men we sent after them were captured?"

"Yes. I verified through my contacts. They demanded a premium and still failed… this is why you can't trust underworld types. Worse, information leaked from where they were caught, and it sounds like Kingdom soldiers are now preparing to strike at Partilgar itself."

"Hey, hey, they haven't traced anything back to us, have they?"

The man who'd been drinking his wine demanded an answer in a panic.

"Relax. All dealings with them were verbal. That said, we can't go near them anymore. And once the military has its eye on them, they'll be useless to us anyway."

"Hmm. Perhaps we should just let the whole thing go? It's just two children and a girl who seems to be their friend. Maybe the brats found the poppy pods under the floorboards, thought they were food, and took a single bag. That's all."

"That's precisely the problem. Whether they know what they have or not, if that quantity gets out, the Kingdom will go into an uproar. Our heads would be on the line. And any girl who can fend off trained assassins is no ordinary child."

"I suppose, but…"

Each of these men held a position of influence in Luido, but they were that and nothing more.

From the Kingdom's inner circle, they were small fish.

If their taboo were discovered, every last one of them could be executed.

They had partnered with assassins and spent years quietly cultivating poppy pods, drying them, and storing the harvest in uninhabited buildings.

Everything had been going smoothly, but cracks appeared before they could fully secure the land, and now those cracks were widening.

"We never should have done this."

"It's too late for that! Luido is nothing but the Kingdom's breadbasket. That means no new funding ever comes our way. I'm sick of just having enough to eat. Have you seen how Alsarm has developed? That city used to be no different from ours!"

"We've only cultivated so far. We can still resolve this quietly."

"He's right. Poppy pods destroy people. We don't need wealth badly enough to resort to that."

After round upon round of debate, the men's consensus was tilting toward giving up.

Dealing in drugs had been beyond them from the start.

"Do you have any idea how much money I've sunk into this?"

"I understand how you feel, but it's time to cut our losses. Anything more and…"

Before the man could finish his sentence, the door swung wide open.

"Who's there?! I gave orders that no one was to—"

Standing in the doorway were a man and a girl.

The man wore a worn black coat, a lit cigarette pinched between the fingers of his right hand.

The girl had long, copper-colored hair.

In her right hand, she gripped the scabbard of a sword, an incongruous sight for a child.

"Well, well, gentlemen. You see, it'd really be a problem if you stopped now. Just when things were getting interesting."

"How did you get in here…? Who are you? What happened to the guards?"

"Oops, where are my manners? The name's Iefuda. Iefuda of Iscariot, if you please."

With that, Iefuda bowed deeply from the waist.

The girl beside him simply stared straight ahead.

Not a flicker of emotion registered on her face.

Still bowing, Iefuda addressed her.

"Come on, Jill. At times like these, you bow along with me."

"Understood."

Jill dipped her head as instructed, then immediately straightened.

"Sorry about that. Still in training."

"We didn't ask."

"Right, the guards. Gua-ards, gua-ards…"

"Killed."

"Aw, you just had to say it right away."

Iefuda clapped a hand over his right eye in an exaggerated reaction to Jill's blunt answer.

"Are you a Kingdom agent of some kind?"

"Not at all. Does the Kingdom even have spies? Anyway, I want you gentlemen to keep at it. This looks like fun. Way more profitable than scamming kids. By the way, quitting is no longer an option."

Iefuda snapped his fingers, and Jill drew her sword from its scabbard.

The sight of a girl holding a blade was jarring, but her stance was poised and assured.

Subduing a room full of unarmed men would be child's play.

"I'll help, of course. All I ask is a little cut of the profits. You get the fortune you've been after, and I get to watch people lose their minds. Everybody wins. Fun times ahead."

"You're threatening us…!"

"I'm paying you respect by doing it this way. I could've just killed everyone and taken over, you know?"

Every man in the room fell silent.

With no way to stop the girl, they had no choice but to comply. That much was painfully clear.

"Yeah, that was easy. You all keep the operation moving. I'll handle the little headache on your behalf."

Jill sheathed her sword.

Iefuda turned his back on the men and began to leave.

"Oh, right, one thing I forgot to ask. The one who drove off your assassins. What are they like?"