Assassin's Chronicle

When the supervision group of mercenaries took the people back to their station, Suzanna, Alice and few others had received the news and come over. They saw over 50 people arrested, including some elf dancers. Those elf dancers did not even have the chance to change their clothes. Their bodies shivered in the chilly spring.

"Anfey, what happened? What made you so mad?" Alice smiled.

"Mad? Not really." Anfey said in a low pitch. He gave Ye a look. Ye understood what it meant immediately. He turned around and walked to those "criminals".

"All of you follow me. I have something to say." Anfey walked into the room first.

Alice and Suzanna looked at each other before they followed Anfey in. Everyone took a seat, but Ozzic and Riska did not dare to sit. They just stood in the center of the room.

"Can you guys tell us what is going on with you and that bar?" Anfey said with a serious look. "Riska, you go first."

"Commander Ozzic invited me there. He said..." Riska looked like he did not know if he should continue.

"What? Too embarrassed to say? Ozzic, do you want Riska to continue?" Anfey asked.

"You can say it. Things have already gone sour. I do not want you to be blamed for nothing you have done." Ozzic muttered.

Riska smiled bitterly. "Ozzic said he likes a woman and asked me to help him to check if she is good."

"Is that it?" Anfey was shocked.

"Yes. Today is the first time I went to that bar. I did not think..." Riska said.

Anfey went quiet for a while and said, "Riska, I am sorry. I made a mistake today, but I hope you can understand that I could not ask you anything in that situation. I have to ask you when we are back." This was the strength of Anfey. When he realized he was wrong, he would admit it right away without giving excuses.

"Does it mean I am ok now?" Riska shrugged. He patted hard on Ozzic and said with a suggestive tone. "Ozzic, now it’s your turn. Good luck."

The complicated and dangerous situations had helped these rookies grow so much and so fast. Even though they matured in different speeds, but it was undeniable that they all changed a lot. How Riska reacted showed his intelligence. After Anfey apologized, he neither said "it’s alright.", nor acted like he was wronged. Both reactions seemed inappropriate. If he said "it’s alright", he seemed to agree that Anfey made a mistake on him. It would be even worse if he acted he was wronged. Ozzic actually was forgiving otherwise he could have argued with Anfey back in the bar. He chose to dodge away from Anfey’s apology.

Riska did not complain about Ozzic even though he was dragged down in this situation. He was half serious and half joking when he patted Ozzic’s shoulders. He tried to help Ozzic by reminding everyone in the room with his action and words that they were friends and fellows who went through thick and thin together.

"It’s your turn, Ozzic. What is your relationship with the bar?" Anfey could not help giving Riska a long look before he laid his eyes back on Ozzic.

"Master." Ozzic said in a low pitch with a sad look. "Ye, you know me. I was an orphan. I was forced to become a mercenary when I was fourteen since I did not have any other ways to make living. I was only a swordsman apprentice. I could not join any mercenary groups. For the sake of my own safety, I could not join any of them either. That was why I was by myself." Ozzic had been thinking about what to tell Anfey on the way back to the station. When Anfey asked him to talk, he was able to vividly tell his stories.

"Why?" Suzanna asked in surprise. "Wouldn’t it give you safety if you joined the mercenary group?" In fact, Suzanna asked on purpose. It was obvious that Anfey was interrogating Ozzic. Suzanna wanted to light up the atmosphere a little bit. She felt bad for Ozzic since he had been very respectful to her. Every time when Ozzic saw her, he always greeted her Madam. He was very helpful and royal to Anfey as well. She wanted to help him.

"Madam, when you went out to for your internship, you were already a senior swordswoman. That is why you did not know the nasty things for the lower level swordsmen." Ozzic said sadly. "A decent amount of people registered to be mercenaries every year, but what happened to them later on? How many of them survived? If I were a swordsman, I could be very helpful for a mercenary group. They would respect me. I was only a swordsman apprentice back then. No one cared about if I was alive or dead. I could be humiliated by others as entertainments, or be used as a bait for magic beasts. In fact, I have done the same thing to lower level swordsmen after I built my own mercenary group."

Anfey rolled his eyes. He did not think this had anything to do with the bar, but he did not care about interrupting Ozzic.

"I have done many things and suffered a lot since I was fourteen. I started to try to build my own mercenary group after I became a swordsman. I have worked very hard for the past 20 years. I am over 30 years old now. I want to have my own family now. I hope to have a woman who can take care of me and care about me." Ozzic said with a sad face. "If I waited few more years, I probably could not even see my child growing up."

"Anfey, what Ozzic said is a big issue." Alice looked like she thought of something. "I have collected data. It showed that less than one third of the mercenaries married in the League of Mercenaries. This is so strange. Everybody knows that mercenaries are a dangerous profession. The male and female ratio is really imbalanced. In the White Mountain City, the number of females is twice as much as males. I do not understand why those mercenaries are not married?"

"Master Alice, there are many factors contributed to it." Ye smiled bitterly. As a mercenary, he knew the limitations for being mercenaries.

"Tell me about it", Alice said.

"It could not be explained with a few minutes. It is pretty complicated." Ye said in a low pitch. "It is not a good time to talk about right now."

"Ok, can you write a report and give it to me whenever you have time", Alice said.

Ye was shocked for a second about Alice’s request. He wanted to slap himself for talking too much.

"Anfey, this issue needs to be resolved." Alice said seriously. "Only if we could give mercenaries a family, they would feel settled. Our welfare system needs to be better as well. For example, if a mercenary died, we should give money to his family to help with their life. In addition, we could build magic and swordsmen academies to give mercenaries’ kids chance to learn."

Everybody started to chat. Anfey could not help himself slamming on the table to get everyone’s attention. "We should be talking about the bar. We are off topics now."

Everyone laid their eyes back to Ozzic. Ozzic said with a bitter smile. "Blavi and I went to that bar often. I got drunk twice there. Julie took care of me and..."

"Which one is Julie?" Anfey interrupted Ozzic’s talk.

"That one, that one", Ozzic said.

"The one calling you bro?" Anfey asked.

"Yes." Ozzic lowered his head and said, "She has been very nice to me. One time, she took care of me the whole night. When I woke up the next morning, I saw her nodding off at the bed. Master, you have no idea how I felt at that moment. I ..."

"That is why you are willing to be her watch dog?" Anfey said coldly.

After noticing Anfey sounded cold again, Ozzic lowered his head even more. He did not dare to continue his story.

Anfey looked at Ozzic for a while and heaved a slight sigh at the end. His anger towards Ozzic had gone. Anfey had Suzanna and got his own personal happiness. He cannot just allow himself to have a partner and stop his followers to have their own. It was not wrong for Ozzic to date that woman or guard the bar for her. Anfey has said in the bar that he would treat others as he wanted to be treated. If Suzanna ran a bar and someone went over to mess her up, Anfey would definitely fight for her. He should not blame Ozzic for this reason. The mistake Ozzic made was he could not tell the real purpose in that woman. In fact, anyone, no matter men or women, once they fell in love, their intelligence seemed to go down. It was not fair to blame Ozzic for that. Ozzic was Anfey’s big helper. Now he started to talk about "having a family" on the table. Anfey felt bad for him and could not punish him for that reason.

"Ozzic, do you really want to get married?" Anfey said slowly.

"Yes." It was hard to believe that Ozzic blushed after he said yes.

"There are girls in the League of Mercenaries. Why do you have to look for girls outside the league." Anfey sounded calmer than before. "This time you are wrong about that woman. Break up with her. It would not do you any good if you keep seeing her."

"Master, I know she is not the right woman for me", Ozzic said.

"Do you really know?" What Ozzic said made Anfey angry again.

"Master, that woman is so bad. She tried to sabotage my relationship with Ye in front of my face." Ozzic yelled. "What did she mean when she said Commander Ye did not want to do me a favor? I am not stupid. Not mentioning she is in trouble, even she is ok now, I would not see her."

"Good, at least you still care about your friendship with Ye." Anfey smiled.

"Anfey, I think Ozzic already knew he made a mistake. We should forgive him." Suzanna tried to convince Anfey to let it go after seeing Anfey smiling again.

"No, I cannot just let it go." Anfey said slowly. "Ozzic, it is lucky that we found it early. What would have happened if we did not find it early enough? You would have made a huge mistake. To make you learn, I will punish you with 10 whips. Ye, you will give him the 10 whips. Do you agree, Ozzic?"

"Yes,yes." Ozzic knew the issue was finally resolved, at least became a history for him.

"Alice, I arrested a group of customers. Later, can you go and bluff them first and then release them?" Anfey asked.

"Why did you take the customers?" Alice asked.

"I did not only take them, but also killed one." Anfey said in a low pitch. "They did not show any respects to the supervision group and dared to stir up in the bar. I think they must have a special relationship with the bar."

"Then why are you asking me to release them?" Alice asked.

"We can arrest them again after I release them now." Anfey smiled. "Ye, do you know what I meant?"