Before the third man could finish his sentence, a dark shape shot forward and delivered a kick to his gut that sent him flying five meters down the street.
“Wh-Wh-Wha...?”
The others couldn’t immediately process what had happened.
“The moon sees all of your misdeeds.”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself, Tien!” Emily said. “It’s always just when things are starting to go well that some obstacle crops up. Like, in this sort of situation, the standard twist is that things get violent. So predictable.”
“Y-You little—!”
“Spirits of earth.” Emily held out a hand, and the ground beneath the man who’d run at her surged up, sending him toppling forward.
“I’ve been drinking, so I might accidentally kill you if I use tacit casting,” she said. “But short casting should do the trick.”
“Sh-She’s a mage?!”
“The hell if I know! Run!”
“We’re obviously not going to let you go,” Emily said, but not before Tien launched into action. Two of the thugs turned away and tried to flee, but she tripped them both and sent them sprawling. The third came at her with a knife, slashing wildly. There was a CRUNCH of breaking bones as her kick made contact with his hand.
As he wailed in agony, windows opened around them as locals peered out curiously. When they saw Emily and Tien and realized what had happened, they came out to help tie up the thugs.
“Unbelievable... What kinda lowlife tries to destroy a stall where a bunch of kids are tryin’ their best?”
“Hey, these are the goons that hang around with the folk workin’ at that eyesore of a hotel.”
There was no doubt about it—these men had been hired by the Golden Sunrise Resort.
“Want us to hand ’em over to the town guard, Emily?” said one local.
“Would you? That’d be great.”
“Only thing is, the hotel folk will try to play dumb and brush it off.”
“Yeah, and on top of that, the guard... Well, they don’t like to rock the boat.”
By the sounds of it, the local government was even more in the pocket of the hotels than Emily had guessed.
“Well, it is what it is,” she said. “We can’t just leave our garbage in the street, so you’d better take them to the guard. Can I leave it to you? I think the guards are more likely to listen to you locals than us.”
“Aye, that’s no trouble. We’ll see they never set foot in our town again.”
The other locals nodded in agreement. The community seemed to have grown more tightly knit over the past few days—about ten locals volunteered to escort the thugs to the guard house.
Emily watched them go, then stretched her arms up and sighed.
“Talk about fizzling out...”
“What do you mean?” Tien asked. “The stalls are safe. This is good.”
“Well yeah, but I was all ready to unleash some magic at them when you stole all the glory!”
Tien just stared at her, baffled.
“Ah, forget it. Okay, we’ve taken care of the thugs—time to get back to drinking!”
“No.”
“Hey, you didn’t even think about it!”
“You smell bad when you are drunk.”
“That’s mean!” Emily exclaimed. She even squeezed out a few fake tears, but Tien was unmoved.
“You understand how this works, Emily. What we just did is nothing to them.”
“Yeah... I know.”
“So what is our next move?”
Emily glanced over at Tien and saw a gleam in the lupalune girl’s eyes—a gleam full of mischief. It said, We are not stopping here, are we? How are we going to catch them off guard next?
I’m not actually that brutal and ruthless a person, you know... Emily thought to herself. But a grin spread across her face as she said, “Don’t worry. I’ve got it all planned out.”
That night was a night for scheming.
The employees of the Golden Sunrise Resort had come from the capital and now lived on-site, working under contracts that granted them leave to go home and see their families only a few times a year. Their employer was the merchant who owned the hotel, and his word was law. In order to keep themselves safe, those same employees often got together to share rumors—in fact, they did it every day.
This day was no different. In the resort’s break room, two women sat like they always did, exchanging gossip.
“Did you hear? Apparently, the boss went ballistic at the executives again.”
“Oh? What was it this time? Did he want them to go spy on other hotels again? If that stuff gets exposed, it’s going to be so bad.”
“No, no. That’s not what’s got him worked up. He’s on the warpath about that ‘downtown street.’”
“Seriously...? But those aren’t even our customers—it’s nothing to do with us. If anything, it’s been a lifesaver being able to pop over there on my lunch break.”
“Same here!”
“I’d hate to see it go...”
“He’s probably just on edge because that tax inspector’s in town. And guess who’s coming after that? A count from the capital!”
“Ooh! Is he going to stay in the premier suite?”
“I’m sure he will, yes. I’m told he’s to be shown the very highest level of hospitality.”
“But he’s a noble, right? So if anything displeases him, us commoners will get fired, won’t we?”
“Forget our jobs, our lives might be on the line.”
“How terrifying!”
Just then, the two women noticed a third person approaching and rose to their feet.
“Oh, if it isn’t the inventor! Did your work go well today?”
“Yes, it’s all wrapped up. I just went to see the general manager to have them sign off on it.”
The newcomer held up a commission from the inventors’ society.
Resort towns like Côte Sud used magical devices just like everywhere else, so there was naturally demand for inventors. But skilled inventors rarely came to visit, and even fewer were willing to take on work. Therefore, there was a backlog of unfulfilled requests from the society.
The Golden Sunrise Resort usually called in inventors from the capital when problems arose. This time, however, the urgency of the situation had necessitated reaching out to the local inventors’ society as well, and this newcomer was who they had sent.
He wore a hat over his short blond hair and was slender of build, with delicate hands and intelligent eyes. He had the kind of handsome charm that was rare in these parts, causing quite the stir among the female hotel staff.