“You heard me,” Ash said once she was sure she had the full focus of the Clydemar scion. And she did finally remember who he was, now. She remembered having been introduced to him, years ago, before the relationship with their families had soured. He was only a couple of years older than her, but as he stalked closer, eyes narrowed, he towered over her.

  [?]

  Just like her, he had his own anti-appraisal gear, but from the twitch of his features, she knew he’d detected her attempt and he scoffed while behind him, one of his family sentries went inside. Likely to call for help.

  “Maybe you should have thought of who you were being impertinent to before you opened your mouth,” he said, teeth bared as he approached. His gaze flicked to the city guards for a contemptuous second before he gazed down at her. “Do you think being in the crew of a Privateer gives you the right to mouth off to whomever you feel like? Huh?”

  He was now only a dozen feet away from her, and she could sense mana pick up around them. Ash’s fingers twitched, eager to be wrapped around her dagger, and as she saw him whirl at the guards, she almost capitalized on the opening. She even caught herself shifting her balance in preparation.

  Months of relentless training were bearing fruit, and this man did not strike her as an A-rank. Not with that temperament. He was shouting at the guards now. “Are you two going to do anything? What do we pay you for?”

  The patrolling guardsmen shuffled uncomfortably, though one of them did not like the tone the scion was using. “Nothing… criminal is taking place, sir. Just a heated argument between citizens.”

  “And the city pays us,” mumbled the other one. Whether he intended on being heard or not, she couldn’t tell. But both Ash and the Clydemar heard him, and the latter didn’t take the comment well.

  One second he had been glaring, attempting to force the city guards to do his dirty work, and the next he lunged, hand reaching for the muttering man. Probably to grab him by the collar or the edge of the chest plate. Ash couldn’t tell for sure, because she had her own hand around the Clydemar’s wrist, and she was pressing.

  “I’m pretty sure attempting to assault a city guardsman is a crime, don’t you think?” she simply said, and she had the pleasure of seeing the scion wince as something cracked under her grip, while the muttering man was still attempting to understand what had happened, recoiling from the movements he hadn’t even been able to perceive.

  The scion looked up at her, his air of confidence only flickering for a moment before it was replaced by barely restrained anger, while the second guardsman—a man with a neatly trimmed mustache—reached for his baton and backed away, eyes wide as the colors drained from his face. The surprise turned to calculations as the noble attempted to wrench his hands away, and after a second, the guardsman’s eyes swiveled to her. “Release him or we’ll be forced to act.”

  Ash blinked at the guardsmen and watched as his companion finally recovered and raised a whistle to his lips, while the mustachioed man proceeded to ignore the noble who’d actually started the hostility. First the verbal insults, then the physical attempt at intimidation. But somehow, the public-funded enforcers were focused on her?

  Then it dawned on her. She was just a sailor on a famous ship that they’d only see once in a while. He lived here, and he could make their lives miserable if they didn’t do as he asked.

  “You heard him, filth. Let go of me,” he said, pulling his hand back, and considering the flames that had begun licking up his skin, she opted to let go and looked around as the sound of boots hitting pavement grew louder. A thrill of anxiety twisted in her stomach as she realized her situation was a little precarious, and while she could run, her appearance and affiliation were unmistakable.

  Shit, she cursed as the personal guards of the Clydemar came running out of the property and began surrounding her. They were all mostly D-ranks, with a couple in C-rank, but at any time, someone stronger might show up. She did get herself into a little bit of trouble, she realized as she took a reflexive step back and considered her retreat. But before she could commit, two blurs to her left and right made her leap up and away, just in time to dodge the grasp of two B-ranks who had tried to pin her down.

  Ash landed nimbly on the side of the high wall that faced the Clydemar’s residence, and broke into a sprint. Ever since she’d upgraded Spider Climb, she had no issues running on vertical walls and so she sprinted away, shouts echoing behind her, but she only managed a couple of seconds before she had to jump back to the ground as a chain of glowing mana whipped around where she’d just been, nearly ensnaring her.

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  “Capture her! She injured me!”

  This really had gotten out of hand. How did a noble attacking a guard ended up with her being pursued?

  Ash grit her teeth, eying the large man ahead of her. The chains were wrapped around his wrists, undulating and coiling on the ground like snakes and considering he was keeping up with her, she assumed he was B-rank as well.

  [?]

  Everyone’s got these damn rings, she grumbled as she stole a glance back to see the woman who’d almost caught her cutting her off from behind. The wall, then.

  Shadows coiled around her, covering her features for a moment before four identical completely black clones burst in four directions while she ran up the wall again. One of the others ran around the man with chains, the other at the woman, and the third tried to go up the fence of the Clydemar residence.

  Ash put the first foot on the stone and then another, from the corner of her eyes, she saw the chains surge toward her fake shadow, while the woman kept her eyes on the real copy.

  Maybe that distraction was why she didn’t see the punch that cracked her in the chest and slammed her back to the ground, cracking the pavement under her.

  Ash saw stars for a second as she tried to breathe, but the pressure still felt heavy in her chest, restricting her airways, creeping up her throat.

  Aspects, she realized, and as she opened her eyes and scrambled up to her feet to see a third shadowy figure next to the other two, she used her own conceptual essence to push back against the influence.

  The arcane chains surged forward, and Ash wondered how was she going to explain this whole mess to Velistraine, and a question came unbidden to her in that fraction of a second.

  Would she even come check on me?

  Her back hit the wall as she took a step away from the oncoming chain, and just as they were about to make contact, a glowing tentacle slapped them to the ground, right before a pulse of something that made her soul shudder broke the rest of the arcane chains into motes of harmless blue mana.

  She already knew who she was about to see when she turned her head, but the voice that reached her ears next only confirmed her hunch, and her lips quirked up.

  “Hi Ash! Do you need any help?” Maurice cheerfully asked. “We were just passing by, by the way.”

  Ash blinked at the red-haired youth and at the exasperated, yellow-eyed Henry as her mind tried to parse what Maurice had said. That last bit was an odd detail to provide unprompted.

  Henry shot the crab a look and he sighed before his yellow eyes swiveled to her. “Hey Ash,” the kraken said with a smile, not even sparing a glance at the wary trio and the small army of private and public guards coming their way. His posture was completely relaxed and as he finally turned toward the crowd of onlookers and enforcers, a patronizing smile pulled on his lips, as if he was looking down at a rowdy children.

  Ash shuddered. While both of them had managed the B+ upgrade, she still felt so far behind these two it wasn’t even funny.

  “Er. Yeah. Sorry. Some noble prick was about to assault a city guardsman. Somehow that became my fault,” she said, voice low. “And um… I might have broken his wrist when I stopped him. That probably isn’t helping,” she added, eyes following Maurice as the red-haired teen craned his neck left and right to see past their opponents.

  “Henry! Look at how pretty that building is! Can we just go check it real quick before we fight? I don’t want it to break before I see what’s inside.”

  “Those are private homes, Maurice. We can’t go inside if we’re not invited.”

  “That’s the Clydmar residence,” offered Ash. She wouldn’t mind seeing it ground to dust, but that would attract way more repercussions than this. “That one is one of the owners. The one I injured,” she added, nodding toward the approaching scion as he shouted his way through his own people.

  “Oh. That complicates things, then,” said Henry, scratching the back of his hand as the wall of pointed weapons and spears closed in on them.

  “What if we’re invisible?” chimed in Maurice, poking one of the spear tips pointed at him, which made the guard shout at him in a panic.

  “That’s… probably illegal,” Henry said, shaking his head. “It’s not something we should do to nice people. But this guy’s an asshole, right Ash?”

  She nodded, and Henry’s smile widened. Behind him, arcane tentacles coiled and twisted, eight of them outshining every other magic being brandished toward them and all of them were slowly growing larger and thicker, making the crowd fall silent as they twisted threateningly. “Well, Maurice. Visiting’s fine then. We just need to not get caught. But maybe not right now?”

  “Okay!” said Maurice as a nimbus of purple lifted him off the ground and finally, he addressed the people in front of them. “So? You guys want to fight or what?”

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