Chp.36: The thugs

The next day Glausar went out to buy some things. As she walked through the crowd, however, she noticed someone following her. Among the people there were some guys who, no matter how they tried not to get noticed, were clearly following her. 'Humans are really bad predators' she thought annoyed. 'Surely they are here to give a message. Well, I don't see why I shouldn't help them'

She kept walking and headed down an alley that she knew wasn't very busy. The perfect place for an ambush. And in fact after a few moments she heard a voice: "Hey, girl. Do you feel alone? We can keep you company"

"Announcing yourself to your prey instead of assaulting it while it is unaware of your presence? What mediocre hunters. You wouldn't be able to catch a lizard" Glausar said in a bored voice. She turned around and saw three rather tall, muscular men blocking her way, and looking at her with rather unreassuring eyes. After a few moments she heard some footsteps, and from the other side of the alley two other men arrived, blocking her completely.

"Eh, eh. You definitely have a sticky tongue, girl. I like you" one of them said. "You shouldn't have to walk the streets of this city all by yourself, you know that? You might find some bad guys. Why don't you stay with us for a while?"

'These are clearly small fishes, there's no way they could lead me to a the heads of their organization. They probably know one of the hangouts for organized crime, but certainly not the main hideout. I'm wasting my time here' Glausar thought. "I'd love it. I wasn't looking for trouble, but since trouble found me… I don't see why I shouldn't have some fun" she said as she began to strip off her dress, revealing a much lighter and more fitted robe beneath it.

The men laughed. "Look, look! I expected to have at least some foreplay, but you already know what we want! You really are a smart girl!" the guy who had spoken earlier, who was probably the boss of the thugs, said. "Tell me, who do you want to fuck first?"

"Oh, no, you misunderstood. I haven't taken off my dress because I intend to mate with you" Glausar replied, placing the dress in a corner of the alley. "I just wanted to put it away to keep it from ripping. This dress costs more than the five of you could earn in an entire year. I don't want it to get ruined". At that point she got into a defensive position. "So, who's first? Come all together if you want, you'll only save me time"

The men laughed even more. It was clear they didn't take her seriously and were thinking she was just acting to scare them. "You like to play tough, huh? Too bad, I'll have to ruin such a beautiful flower" the boss of the thugs said stepping forward. "I'll come first. Forgive me if I leave you some bruises!"

The man lunged at her, and Glausar raised her arms and threw them in front of her face in defense. The thug punched her; though he didn't use all of his strength, he still put in quite a lot. He was sure he would see the frail girl roll away at least three meters with both arms broken. But to his surprise, Glausar didn't move an inch and when his fist hit his arms it felt like hitting a marble wall. "What... are you a warrior!?" he exclaimed, quickly dropping his smile and putting on a tense expression upon realizing that the woman in front of him knew how to use mana.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Glausar wasn't using mana to defend himself at all. She could have done that, since her heart obviously contained a mana core, but at the moment she preferred to use the occasion to test if the changes she and her sisters had made to their avatars were working. In fact, during the two months they had been preparing, she and the others had studied how to improve the abilities of their bodies beyond belief, and Rhaegal had helped them by personally testing themselves against the bandits. Since it was possible to swap the hearts of avatars, it was also possible to swap other body parts as long as the brain remained intact. And in doing so they had built avatars far more efficient than a simple reanimated body.

'Rhaegal was right. I haven't used the mana yet, but since my bones are reinforced with small plates of great basilisk, they can withstand shocks without problems' Glausar thought with satisfaction. 'Also, since my legs have ogre muscles, they can take the force of that blow without much effort. And since my feet are replaced by two baheko tiger's paws, which have a large support base and shock absorbing pads, the force is discharged to the ground, cushioning the blow even more. However, this guy clearly didn't use his full strength. Let's see what happens if he does…'

She lowered her arms slightly. As she did so, a light flashed in the man's eyes. "I see it! Your defenses are down!" he exclaimed, then swung his hand like a blade and struck the right side of Glausar's neck. This time he used his full strength, which was that of a level gold. Normally, such a blow would have severed a person's head off. But though Glausar was forced to tilt her head far, it remained attached to her body. "But... but how..."

'As I imagined. Not even the power of a level gold can break bones reinforced with great basilisk plates, and the ogre's muscles and tendons are strong enough to keep flesh from ripping' Glausar thought with satisfaction. "Well, I'd say I've experimented enough now, so let's stop. I'll spare your lives as thanks for your contributions. Now go away, or I'll have to become bad"

The boss of the thugs gritted his teeth and began to sweat slightly, but he didn't get upset. "Fool! You're clearly strong, but there are five of us here, and we're all level gold! You may be able to beat me, but not all of us combined!"

"Oh, really?" Glausar laughed, then she finally activated her mana core. Mana flowed through her body and she leapt in front of the two thugs blocking her from behind and punched them in the stomach sending them to the ground. Then she made a second jump and hit the two behind the boss. Then she came before him; the boss tried to defend himself by erecting a mana barrier, but Glausar's punch broke it without problems. "Level diamond? How..." he whispered before falling to the ground in a faint.

"Mph. Luckily we had foreseen this, and I changed my heart before I left the shop. Otherwise it would have been difficult to finish the battle so quickly and without attracting anyone's attention" Glausar commented looking at the unconscious bodies. "Normally I would kill you, but after all you are used to deliver messages, right? When you'll recover you will warn someone, and so they will understand that they cannot go easy on us"

Having said that, she left and returned to the shop, where she immediately informed Sisna of what had happened. Her sister burst out laughing several times as she told her about the startled faces the thugs had made. After that, they prepared themselves for consequences that they were sure would soon follow.

In fact, that afternoon the five thugs showed up in front of the shop, but they weren't alone. With them came a couple of guards, a lavishly dressed fellow, and what, judging by his clothes, must have been an officer. When they entered, Sisna knew immediately that they weren't ordinary customers. "What's going on, sir?" she asked the officer.

"You really are a shameless woman to ask that, bitch!" the richly dressed man snarled.

The officer sighed and turned to her more politely. "Forgive the intrusion, Miss Darchia. I am Simon, the head of the guards who guard this neighborhood. This is Mr. Lambrant, he is a merchant who works in a shop not far from here, and he claims that some of his men were attacked by one of the employees of this place"

'So it's really true that organized crime has connections everywhere… and thanks to that, they can pretend that a self-defense situation was actually an assault' Sisna thought, then she pretended to find that ridiculous. "One of my shop employees? There must be a mistake. Only my sisters work here, and none of them would be capable of hurting a child, let alone five such muscular men"

"Don't lie, you snake!" one of the thugs exclaimed. "She was definitely one of those working here! The one with the blonde hair and brown eyes!"

"Are you talking about Glausar? Come on, that's ridiculous! She's just sixteen and she's never hit a person in her life!" Sisna replied feigning indignation.

Simon raised his hands to restore calm. "We'll check it right away. Could you bring your sister here, please?"

"Certainly. So you will see for yourself that all this is nonsense" Sisna said, and then called out to her sister. After a few moments, Glausar appeared from behind the shelves. "What's up, sister?"

Before Sisna could answer, Simon spoke first: "Miss, do you know these men?"

Glausar looked incredibly stunned. "Never seen in my life. I don't think they are our customers"

"Don't try to lie!" Lambart cried. "You are the one who attacked my men! Mister officer, don't believe her. She looks like a fragile flower but in reality she is a dangerous beast! My men told me that she is a level diamond!"

"What? Assault? Level diamond? What are you talking about?" Glausar exclaimed, and she acted she really didn't seem to know anything about what was going on.

"We'll check that right away. Please, miss, touch this" Simon said as he handed her a large ingot. Both Sisna and Glausar knew from Rhaegal's description that it was a detector that could measure a person's strength level. Glausar touched it, and the ingot barely turned reddish. "Level copper" Simon said. "That means this person doesn't know how to use mana. Therefore it's impossible that she attacked your men, Mr. Lambart"

The merchant looked amazed and confused. He looked at the thugs with wide eyes, but they seemed to understand the situation even less than he did. "It isn't possible!" he exclaimed.

"Why? As far as I know, you can't fool a detector!" Sisna said crossing her arms. "Do you still dare to deny?"

Lambart gritted his teeth so hard that he nearly frothed from his mouth. "Don't try to talk to me like that! I don't know how she did it, but I know she was the one who attacked my men today! I don't..."

"Wait a minute" Sisna stopped him. "Did the attack happen today?"

"Are you pretending not to know? Of course it happened today!" Lambart screamed.

"Then this conversation has no reason to exist. I have proof that this man is speaking falsehoods" Sisna said, then she walked over to the desk and pulled out a bundle of paper which she handed to Simon. "This is a list of all the sales made today, so it also lists everyone who came in here. Glausar worked in the store today and she never left; you can ask anyone on this list, they will all confirm that"

Simon took the list and read it. There were the names of many guards and well-known adventurers. "Mr. Lambrant" he said, looking at the man with a disapproving look. "Before I mobilize all the guards in this neighborhood and interrogate the people on this list one by one, surely causing the discontent of many of them, are you sure you want to continue supporting your story?"

Lambrant was so red he looked about to explode, but despite his rage he was still able to think. There were too many nonsensical things going on, and if Sisna had given that list to the officer then surely she knew those people would confirm Glausar's innocence. He didn't know how that was possible, but at the moment he had no chance of winning. "No, I don't want to continue"

"Then get out of my shop immediately, and be thankful that I don't denounce you for misrepresentation" Sisna said in an angry voice. Lambart seemed tempted to slap her, but then turned and stormed out followed by the five thugs.

Simon bowed his head slightly. "Forgive us for the commotion. I was sure you were innocent, but..."

"You were just doing your duty. I have no reason to hold a grudge against you" Sisna replied. Simon looked relieved and waved politely, then walked out of the shop.

As the door closed behind him, Sisna and Glausar burst out laughing. On hearing this, their sisters immediately ran to them. "So, did it work?"

"Of course! You should have seen their faces!" Glausar said between laughs. "When Sisna showed him that list I was about to explode for fun!"

Obviously, the dragons had foreseen this situation well in advance, and they had planned everything. Just to start, Glausar had once again replaced her heart with one without a strong mana core as soon as she returned to the shop. Besides, they had arranged for her to have an alibi. Since their current appearance was due to the illusions created by the invisibility rune, they could change it as they wanted. Therefore, when Glausar had gone out that morning, Finiar had transformed into her and replaced her. Therefore, all the customers had thought they were seeing Glausar, when in fact the one in front of them was another person. Therefore, even if Simon had gone to question them, they would have confirmed her innocence. Sure, there were also people on the street who had seen Glausar... but it was one thing to have a list of people who had surely seen her in the shop, it was another thing to go and track down someone who was walking down the street and probably hadn't even noticed the woman. There was practically nothing to prove Glausar's guilt.

"I hope a big shot will come next time. I'm tired of these insects" Glausar said as soon as she had finished laughing. "Even if they are fun to tease, they are of no use to us"

"Don't worry. Next time will surely be the right one" Sisna said. "When the other merchants tried to stand up to us and we defeated them, we proved that we don't fear being attacked financially. Today, you also proved that we don't fear being attacked physically. And now we also proved that we don't fear being attacked legally. If I were the organized crime, the only solution I would come up with would be to send a really strong person to catch one of us and force us to deal with them. And since they now know that at least one of us is a level diamond, they won't be able to send someone weaker than that level. But since the limit of strength allowed for the people that aren't part of the military is the level gold, this level diamond (or maybe even higher) will surely be a rare criminal, a professional assassin, someone who sells his services at great cost, and then clearly he will know the bosses of the organization he works for. When he will come here, we will capture him and force him to tell us where to find them. And then we will teach them how to truly strike terror into people's hearts!"