“I’ll help you stand. I’m gonna have to stab you if you try to run, though. Don’t make this harder on yourself and just walk.”
The man reluctantly obeyed. Zaharo escorted him to the other two and dumped him on the ground. He waited until the guards arrived, then finally asked, “What did these guys do?”
“They were chasing two women. I’ll go fetch them,” I said.
“No, I can do it!” Nonna said, volunteering. She brought the women over.
The entire group fell silent in shock.
The blond woman who had stumbled while she was running had been severely battered. It was clear she’d endured a horrific beating. Her nose was broken, her lips were split, her cheeks were swollen and bruised, and one of her eyes was nearly swollen shut.
Despite it all, the woman was composed.
Under normal circumstances, someone beaten this badly would have fainted or had a breakdown. Her broken nose and bruised cheeks had to be causing her excruciating pain, but she remained calm.
The guards immediately rushed to the woman’s side.
“How terrible! These men assaulted you, right? We can treat your wounds, so please come with us.”
“Thank you so much.”
“Were you the one who stopped these men?” the guards asked Zaharo, who quickly glanced at me. I hesitated for a moment, unsure of how to answer, but Nonna beat me to the punch.
“It was me.”
“You did, young lady?”
“Yes. I’m trained in martial arts,” she said.
“Is your daughter telling the truth, ma’am?” the guard asked skeptically.
“Yes, it’s true,” I admitted reluctantly. As a result, the guard declared their intent to take Nonna along with the others to the station for questioning.
“I’ll come get you later, Nonna. I need to take Lady Yolana home first.”
“Okay,” she said.
The guards escorted Nonna, the perpetrators, and the victims away while a crowd of curious onlookers watched.
Lady Yolana emerged from the bookstore and asked me quietly, “Victoria, are you all right?”
“Oh, Lady Yolana! I’m so sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Don’t worry about that, dear. Where’s Nonna, and what happened? Why was that woman so badly injured?”
It was better to tell the truth than to risk getting caught up in a lie. And if I made up a story, Nonna would have to remember it, too. Would Nonna be able to keep my false story straight if someone asked her about it later? Honestly, I had no idea.
“I saw those women running past the window earlier…”
I gave Lady Yolana an honest account of what happened. What shocked her the most about my tale was how Nonna had taken down three men with her martial arts skills. And who could blame her? It was astonishing.
“Jeff and I were so busy in Shen that Nonna spent those five years immersing herself in learning martial arts.”
“But defeating three grown men alone? Are you sure she’ll be all right?” Lady Yolana asked.
I’m not sure I know the answer to that, Lady Yolana…
Browsing through old books was now the last thing on our minds, so I took Lady Yolana home before heading to the guards’ station.
Nonna was there waiting for me, sitting on a bench in the hallway just past the entrance.
“You must be exhausted, Nonna,” I said.
“Not at all. It’s been a while since I’ve been here, you know, but nothing’s changed.”
“Come to think of it, we came here the day we first met, didn’t we?” I said.
“That’s right.”
The day I first arrived in Ashbury and brought Nonna here felt like only the previous day and also a lifetime ago at the same time. I couldn’t believe six years had already gone by since then.
“Do you know what happened to the injured lady?”
“I don’t know. They took her to another room right away.”
“I’m sure she’s receiving treatment, what with those injuries,” I mused.
“I can’t believe someone would beat a woman so badly.” Anger flashed across Nonna’s face.
When we returned home and stepped out of the carriage, Nonna said, “Riding in a carriage for such a short distance seems like a waste, don’t you think?”
It struck me how much she’d grown. She even had a wry smile on her face.
Jeffrey greeted us the moment we opened the door.
“Welcome back. You two went to the farm today, didn’t you?”
“Yes, we took Lady Yolana with us. But…”
“What? Did something happen?” he asked.
I told Jeffrey everything that had happened outside the bookstore. I had nothing to hide, after all. A look of concern came to his face after he heard my story.
“So Nonna was very helpful again. But this is a dangerous time for Nonna. She must be feeling overconfident in her skills now that she’s subdued grown men in combat twice now. That’s a recipe for getting sloppy. We need to make extra sure she’s being careful,” he said.
“You’re right.”
Just then, Nonna walked into the room.
“Mom, can I go to Master Clark’s house? I told him I’d come over to borrow a book.”
“That’s fine, but be sure to take the carriage.”
“I can walk there, you know.”
But despite her protests, Nonna took the carriage.
Right as she left, another carriage arrived at our house. At first, I thought Jeffrey was expecting a guest, but his puzzled expression as he looked out the window told me otherwise.
To my surprise, the person who disembarked was Mike.
“Forgive me for coming over unannounced. But I have an urgent matter to discuss,” he said.
“Is it about Victoria?” Jeff asked.
“Yes. The truth is, the woman who Nonna rescued today is one of our employees. Thank you so much for your assistance with that matter.”
“Mike, there must be a reason why you’re telling us she works for you.”
“That’s right. Victoria, do you know about the Saint Floren Festival that’s coming up?” he asked.
“Yes, the whole town is bustling with excitement over it. What about it?”
“Well, the lady those men were chasing was supposed to serve as the body double for Princess Delphine at the Saint Floren Festival. There are still two months left before the event, so I was hopeful her injuries would heal by then, but now we’ve discovered she’s having vision problems in her injured eye. We’re unsure whether she’ll recover in time for—”
“Wait a minute,” Jeffrey suddenly interrupted.
“Jeff, Mike’s trying to explain the situation,” I said.
“No, Mike’s trying to drag you into this. He’s going to say Princess Delphine is in such danger that she needs a body double. It doesn’t make sense to involve an outsider like you.”
“Lord Asher, could you at least hear me out?” Mike asked.
“This isn’t right, Mike. Are you saying the kingdom sent us to Shen just for us to be dragged into danger again? My wife and I worked tirelessly during our stay there to prevent this exact sort of thing from happening!”
“Jeff, please calm down,” I urged.
“Don’t tell me you’re willing to go along with this, Anna?”
I couldn’t answer that.
He probably wouldn’t object if I said yes. And even if he didn’t really want to, I had a feeling he’d give me permission. But I couldn’t take this on without getting a full overview of what was going on.
I also wanted to know why Mike was choosing to rely on an outsider like me and why that woman had been so badly beaten.
“I’m not saying yes, but I want to hear the whole story before I decide. The woman we helped today seemed to have suffered a brutal attack. I want to know the mission your organization assigned to her, and what led to her grievous wounds. After I hear the whole story, I’ll make up my mind. Or is there something about her injuries that would make it impossible for me to refuse your request, Mike?”
“I can share the general situation, but I can’t give you specific names.”
“Then tell me, please. I want to know how a professional like her was hurt so badly.”
Jeffrey didn’t say anything. I could tell he was upset with Mike and really didn’t want me to get involved.
But I couldn’t just pretend like I didn’t care. With Jeffrey silent and seemingly resigned to listening, the conversation played out only between Mike and me.
“At present, our female operatives are all out on assignment. It’s not that we don’t have enough women in the organization, but things simply happened to end up this way. The woman you helped today is one of our best operatives. I had the opportunity to speak with her earlier, and she told me how she got hurt. She was on an undercover mission, posing as a servant, when a childhood friend of hers unexpectedly joined her workplace.”
“I see…”
“The childhood friend didn’t know our operative was using an alias, so she called the woman by her real name in front of their employer. To make matters worse, the friend asked, ‘I heard you got married! Are you working here now?!’ This led our operative’s employer—who was also her target—to suspect she was using a false identity.”
“The woman’s hometown is far away, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Both women are from western Ashbury. But our operative was working in a domain on the eastern edge, a great distance from her hometown. A coincidence of this magnitude should have never happened.”
A light veil of sweat covered Mike’s forehead, which was an unusual sight.
“Our operative’s employer grew suspicious of her and brought her to the capital. She was planning on slipping away once she got here, since we’d asked her to be the princess’s double, but her childhood friend went missing, and she couldn’t leave her behind. Her employer’s men captured her, so she prioritized protecting her friend, which is how she ended up getting beaten.”
“She let her emotions get the best of her, despite being on an undercover mission,” I remarked.
“Yes. This has never happened with her before.”
But I knew all too well what it was like to be swayed by your feelings.
When an operative on a special mission gives in to their emotions, they end up taking on burdens they shouldn’t have to bear. Carrying too much at once can drive them to the edge. Basically, if an operative gets in this situation, it suggests they aren’t suited for this line of work.
“What’s wrong, Anna?” Jeffrey asked.
“I’m thinking. Can I please have some more time?”
“Yes, take as much as you need,” he replied.
Mike was visibly tense as he watched the exchange between me and Jeffrey.
A woman who was easily swayed by her emotions had been severely injured. There was no one else to take her place, which was why the Third Order had turned to an outsider like me. But what was the right thing to do here?
Memories from the past flashed through my mind.
A younger operative dying on his first job because he didn’t have a good leader.
The boss I trusted, hiding my family’s death just so he could keep using me.