It seemed Soulgros wouldn’t be allowed to walk out after all. No, there was one person who was either brave or idiotic enough to cut off her retreat, and they had finally made themselves known.
“Wouldst thou care to take a more roundabout path back to the boy’s guild?” Soulgros asked me offhandedly, eye blissfully aimed at me as she walked. “I would gladly follow thee anywhere.”
I was hit with a moment’s confusion, as I was sure the interloper was referring to her, but clearly not. I shrugged, replying that I was in no particular rush to return myself.
“Wait!” came the thundering voice again, and a massive man stepped forth to bar the doorway.
Every man in the guild was muscular and used to fighting, but this man was in a whole different league, a true master of violence. He was nearly twice the size of the other men as well, and his muscles rippled with a hardness that seemed as though they could best steel. The criminals around us erupted into hoots and hollers.
“There he is!”
“I knew she couldn’t just walk out!”
Soulgros rolled her eyes beside me and sighed. From the look of it, the man was infamous.
“Hey, Soulgros,” the mountain rumbled. “First you turn me down, and now you’re walkin’ out on me? What gives?”
“I shall refuse or accept thee as I please, and I hath no interest in any man save my lord,” the ninja snapped. “And am I not yet a provisional member? Am I not free to leave should the fancy strike me?”
“Don’t you give me that shit, you little bitch. I’m a Rank B adventurer!”
“It matters not. Master far surpasses thee by all measures.”
From the sound of it, he’d been bothering Soulgros for some time now, and had yet to understand she wasn’t interested in whatever he was offering.
“His name is Liel,” Soulgros explained quietly. “A true fool who hath propositioned me no small number of times. He is appreciably famous, and regrettably, the chance to kill him hath eluded me until now.”
That made some sense. Rank B was decently high, and because gray guilds tended to collect people especially suited to violence and interhuman combat, their members had a higher average strength than legal guilds did despite their smaller numbers. While that difference was not significant enough to allow gray guilds to openly defy their more legal counterparts, this Liel man in particular was evidently a force to be reckoned with. More troubling, however, was Soulgros’s admission that she’d killed her fellow guildsmen in the past.
“Damn, you’re boring.” He scowled. “So, who is this asshat you keep simping over?”
“None other than the beautiful man before thee!” Soulgros boasted. “Kneel before his glory!”
Something about their interaction struck me as familiar—Laladie and Maho. Laladie had a lion’s share of compliments for the mage, but I’d never known her to be so open with anyone outside the guild before. Perhaps Soulgros had a similar kind of kinship with Liel.
“Cretin.” The ninja’s eyes narrowed at him. “Dost thou see how he looketh at me now, with such warmth? ’Tis not my place to be perceived!”
“The fuck should I care?”
A shiver ran down my spine. Raw malice was coming off Soulgros’s slender body now, but oddly enough, nobody in the room so much as batted an eye. Not even Liel seemed to notice the imminent danger he was in, and I began to doubt that any of these so-called professionals were worth their salt.
Liel turned to look at me for the first time. “So, you’re the guy Soulgros is always mutterin’ about?”
His eyes had been firmly fixed on Soulgros until now, to the point that I doubted he recognized I existed. After a long moment of sizing me up, he shook his head with a filthy smirk, his eyes going from my face to Soulgros’s and back. I had a bad feeling about it. I could see the thoughts forming in his head—This is Soulgros’s Master guy, huh? What a weak little piece of shit.
“Soulgros!” he suddenly bellowed. “You really not gonna take me up on my offer?!”
She sighed in irritation. “Do not make me repeat myself. I have no intention of tolerating thee any longer.”
The smirk on Liel’s face only grew wider. “Figured as much. Why don’t we settle this as adventurers? We fight, and if you win, I’ll never lay a hand on you. If I win, you’re mine, and I get to do whatever the hell I want to you—all night long.”
“What?!”
Soulgros bristled with rage as the guild erupted into cheers.
“Yeah, pin ’er and beat ’er!”
“Liel! When you’re done with Soulgros-chan, you’d better give me a turn!”
It was in-character for a gray guild, but that didn’t make it any less unpleasant.
“Even should he lose, I would rather perish than acquiesce to thy whims. What merit, pray tell, would be gained through our victory?”
She was right, of course. The result was either a miserable forced relationship, or a flimsy promise with no means of backing it. Nobody in their right mind would agree to such terms. There were plenty of emotional girls in the guild that would leap on the opportunity and kill him where he stood, but luckily Soulgros was cool and collected. Even now, she was maintaining a level head.
“Figured you’d say that,” he scoffed. “Let’s make things more interestin’, then.”
Liel glanced behind me. I got a bad feeling about it, but I was too late to react. A pair of burly hands grabbed me from behind, twisting my arms at an unpleasant angle and yanking me back.
“Gotcha!”
“You’re with us, twink!”
My premonition was right. The one saving grace was that the men weren’t strong enough for their attack to hurt much.
“Gahaha!” Liel guffawed. “Whatcha gonna do with your little boytoy in a bind? You gotta fight now! Nah… forget that. If you want him to keep his arms, you’d better roll over and spread your fucking thighs! Those men’ve got enough raw muscle to tear him in half!”
While I seriously doubted the strength of these goons, this was an interesting development. I didn’t know how Soulgros would react to my being taken hostage in such a manner. I couldn’t allow her to give in—as her guildmaster and parent of sorts, she could’ve sacrificed herself for me. Getting my arms ripped off would be a hundred times less painful, and I could ask Anat for healing later if it came to that.
Just as I was about to cast a spell to sever my arms, however, Soulgros finally reacted.
“… Ough.”
“Louder!” Liel bellowed. “Tell me you’re my bitch!”
There wasn’t a shred of doubt of his coming victory in his mind, but it would never come to him. I’d shed my arms for her freedom. I would—
“Enough, I said.” Soulgros intoned darkly. “Thou shall not lay a hand on Master, miserable worm!”
She whipped about to look at me—no, the men holding me hostage. There was something dark in her eyes that I’d never seen before, a color that defied any human explanation. I could never be scared of her, but the men behind me possessed no such immunity. They squealed and lessened their grip, enabling me to break free with no effort. A blink of an eye later, the heads of the men behind me leapt from their shoulders.
“Huh?”
Liel was the only one to react, but the sentiment was echoed through the dank hall. None of them had registered what happened to the pair, no doubt. Even I could only barely catch her leg warp and extend like a whip, severing both heads in a sonic kick.
“Master! Master!”
Soulgros leapt forward and cradled me in her arms with the same blinding speed, sparing me from the great fountains of gore the men’s empty necks had become. While I was grateful for the consideration, my face was pressed tightly into her chest, making it hard to breathe. The single saving grace was that she lacked the sheer smothering power of Anat’s bosom, as the priestess had nearly killed me on several prior occasions. While she was not as conscious of her bust as Laladie, I decided not to mention the difference.
“Rats, all of thee! What gall to lay hands on Master, in light of the grace I’ve shown thee in permitting thee to live! Enough slaying thee one by one—every one of thee deserves death!”
I had no way of telling what was on her face through her face scarf—and yet, in that moment, a current of primal fear ran through every man in the guild. Her face was that of a true demon, no doubt.