Arcane arms rippled and danced behind him, undulating like the limbs of an unearthly ghost while Henry stood there, hands behind his back as he smiled to the little crowd like some herald of the deep, daring them to make a move. He could see the fear in the pale faces of the personal guards of the noble, in their shaky grip on their weapons. He could even sense it through his telepathic abilities. But while Henry was cutting a striking, intimidating figure, he wasn’t the only one who was having an effect on the hostile entourage.
Maurice was floating off of the ground, hands mimicking the movements of his normal claws. The sight of him doing that with his human hand would have looked somewhat cute, in any other context. Unfortunately, the gestures were matching two, massive blue arcane claws that threatened to bisect anyone they’d catch in half, or just reduce them to pulp if they decided to swing down.
Most of the guards were already taking steps back, leaving only the three B-ranks and the noble. As for the city guards… well, one of them was running, using a whistle that made no sound, while the other was grim-faced as he backed away. Henry thought that was fair. The man was severely under-leveled for any clash that might take place here.
Henry glanced to the hovering Maurice while Ash nervously peered around, and he spoke to the crab.
“[We’re not actually trying to kill anyone here,]” Henry mentally whispered. “[We want to defuse this for now. But if anyone tries anything, we stomp them down without any permanent damage. Not yet, at least.]”
The giant arcane claws stopped moving for a second, and there was a barely visible nod before the crab’s voice reached his ears. “[Okay! Also… sorry. About the Ash thing.]”
Henry chuckled, looking through the eyes of his many clones. One was watching from above, while a couple kept an eye on their surroundings, and one was in the restroom of the tavern in which they’d been speaking to the recruiter who wanted them to join their guild. “[You almost tipped her off that we’d be watching over her, though once she calms down, she might realize it anyway,]” Henry said. Then including the girl in the telepathic network, he asked her. “[Not sure what this is about, but I’m assuming we don’t want things to escalate too badly, right?]”
Ash froze up for half a second, then nodded. “[Yeah. I—I don’t want to cause trouble for the crew. Or for you guys. This… this is my business to solve. I was just here to take a look but… I guess things escalated,]” she said through the connection Henry was maintaining, then she winced. “[I guess it’s already an incident that might have some fallout…]”
Henry hummed. While he believed her words and could certainly feel the shame and anxiety wafting off of her from causing trouble, he could tell that this was far from over. Because Ash was practically smoldering under that layer of politeness she was addressing him with. A dark, deep fury was burning below the surface. This wasn’t just an altercation gone wrong. This was a vendetta. An old grudge. And now that he thought of it, it began to make sense why she’d been so off ever since they said they were coming to this island.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that the noble scion had any intent of backing off, though he did raise to stop his people from attacking. It seemed he did have a modicum of self-preservation, but that didn’t mean he’d refrain from looking down on them. Teeth bared into a disgusted sneer, he glared up at Maurice and Henry before swiveling back to Ash. “Do you think any of you are going to get away with this, brigands? Injuring me and threatening to invade my home?”
A small vial appeared into his hand and with a quick gesture, he downed the liquid and through his mana sight, Henry watched the green nimbus of healing magic float down his arm while the hateful glare mellowed down into a vindictive smile. “You are done. Your captain is done. I have witnesses. All three of you will pay for this, and your captain will be lucky to find a beggar that accepts her coin. Mark my words, you will regret this.”
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Maurice blinked, then glanced questioningly back to Henry who was a little taken aback by the threat. No matter how little the noble thought of them, it seemed he did not want to push things, not when the fight didn’t look to be going in his favor. He had no compunction about attacking Ash when she’d been alone, but now, with how easy Henry had rebuffed the earlier assault, the man had switched gears. But still…
“Economic… sanctions? That’s your threat?” Henry asked, a little dumbfounded. He wasn’t asking that to egg the noble on. He was just confused. And honestly, how bad a threat could that be?
That might depend on the nobility’s reach, Henry thought and frankly, he didn’t think that extended that much. Velistraine and her crew were powerful, and it wasn’t as if islands could just stop doing business with them. A-ranks and what they could bring to the table were too important for any of that, and the more he thought of the threat, the less it made sense how it could be carried out but while he didn’t want to aggravate the situation, Ash had no such compunction, and the derisive snort that escaped her told everyone around what she thought of the threat.
The man had been about to turn when the sound made him pause, and he slowly turned back, eyes cold and face almost slack, aside from a few twitches near his brow. “Got something to say, sea rat?”
“Coward,” she simply said, and Maurice giggled, his voice echoing gratingly on the ears of the little crowd while Henry just sighed as he turned to her. Red-eared, Ash refused to look his way, while Maurice continued to laugh and point at the fuming noble.
Why did he think de-escalation was on the table with Maurice around?
“[Maurice, stop laughing. And I thought you didn’t want to escalate things?]” he said over their channel while the noble took a step toward them, face twitching up a storm.
“[Sorry,]” Ash said, but he was pretty sure she wasn’t that sorry.
“Duel,” the man simply gritted out, and there was a glitter of something dark behind the eyes that made Henry frown as the air seemed to crackle between them. He wasn’t sure what were the rules of duels out here when compared to Thalis, but it felt like there was some wiggle room for something to happen, which was what Henry thought the noble was planning. It barely took him half a second to come to that conclusion, but before he could even share it with the target of the challenge, Ash had beaten him to the punch and accepted.
“Tomorrow at noon,” Ash spat back. “Let’s see what you’re capable of when your hired help isn’t around to bail you out.”
The noble glared down at her, and the girl matched the rage-filled look tenfold until finally, without any other word, the man turned and walked away and with a move of his hand, his guards and the three B-ranks began backing away, weapons still drawn as they retreated into the manor.
“[Aw man. I thought we were gonna fight,]” Maurice grumbled, his large arcane claws deflating as he lowered himself down to the ground.
“That’s still on the table,” Henry grumbled as a new group entered the scene. He could see them from above, running far faster than any human had any right to be, thanks to their C-rank strength and merely a moment later, a group of ten black-shelled and armored watch guards came barreling toward them from around the corner. It took them less than a couple of seconds to arrive at the scene and without a word, they encircled the trio, hands on their weapons as they shouted at them to stay still while Henry considered teleporting himself, Ash, and Maurice away. One of them stayed back and spoke to the watch guard that had stayed away from the altercation, then when he was caught up, he approached them.
He was a middle-aged man with a deep tan and sharp gaze. His shell-armor was scuffed but well polished, and unlike the rest of his squad, this individual was B-rank.
“Greetings, crew of Red Reaver,” he said with a nod, tone almost pleasant, though the hardness of his eyes never waned. “For disturbing the peace and assaulting a citizen of the Emerald Isles, you are hereby requested to follow us to the station. Failure to comply will result in fines and banishment from the territory. If you are violent, A-grade measures will be deployed. Understood?”
Henry just sighed. He had just wanted to explore the city. Maybe hear out a recruiter while Velistraine handled the matter with the orb. How did he end up in trouble with the fuzz?
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