Woman with scar.

A few days had passed and Hidar managed to find and annihilate the purple band bandits. He came back with the head of the leader of the bandits but Khazad seemed not satisfied with just the head of the leader. Khazad then ordered the Knight of Valtris to exterminate the bandits around the archdukedom so something like that won't happen again in the future.

Ares went to the capital city and took a day off because he had to get the answer from Soviar related to the job he had asked him. He went to the pub where he went last time, and the bartender was a bit surprised when he saw a customer.

"Sorry, we are still close right now," The bartender said but then he look at Ares and immediately raised his eyebrows. "Oh, please have a seat, Sir," he continued as he pointed his hand on the chair in front of the counter.

"Since you enjoyed your last wine, Sir knight, I got a new brand that might interest you," The bartender said.

Ares smiled and nodded. "Alright, let me have a taste then,"

The bartender nodded and grabbed a bottle from under the counter, he poured the wine into the glass and it was a white wine and that meant Soviar had his job done and it went smoothly. The bartender then offered the glass of wine with a smile on his face. "Here you go, it's on the house,"

Ares raised the glass. "Thank you,"

As he drank the wine he looked at the bottles on the wall and Soviar wasn't there so that meant he wasn't in his office. He emptied the glass and thank the bartender once more then left the pub and went to meet her.

Ares looked at the old building and it was a tavern where usually the knights would spend their evening. He entered the tavern and looked around, and since it was still in the morning, the place was empty.

"Can I help you?" A woman asked from behind the counter.

Ares walked toward the counter and looked at the woman. "I have some business with the owner," he answered as he sat down at the counter.

The woman looked at Ares and the crest on his attire. "Oh, you must be the guy who Soviar mentioned," she said and then Ares nodded in agreement. "Wait here, I will call her," the woman said then left to the back room.

Ares waited for half an hour then the woman came back, she looked at Ares and raised her eyebrows. "Wow, you're still here? I thought you gave up already and left the tavern," the woman said. Ares looked at the woman he just smirked and chuckled softly, the woman looked confused. "What's so funny about it?" the woman asked.

"You are, it's been a while, Gwayne," Ares answered as he gently smiled at the woman.

The woman stared at Ares and she tilted her head with disbelief. "How? How do you know it's me?" she asked with a different tone.

"I know you long enough to tell that it's you, so can you show me your usual self? I won't judge the scar on your face," Ares said as he rested his head on his fist.

The woman smirked and tore the fake face on her face then the long red-haired came out as soon as the fake face was removed. Gwayne, the leader of the mercenary in the empire, was the only organization in the empire that would do any kind of dirty job.

Gwayne stared at Ares with her right eye. "Now I understand why Soviar is so interested in you, Ares Trasven," she said and then leaned her body forward while she was resting her arms on the counter. "So? What do you want from me? Are you going to talk about the job?" she asked as she stared at Ares closely.

"Yes, but it's quite the opposite of what you're thinking right now," Ares answered. "I don't need your specialty anymore, Gwayne, because someone already did the job for you," he continued.

"What?! What do you mean someone already did the job? Did you ask someone else to do it for you?" Gwayne asked as she slammed her hand on the counter.

"No, the purple band bandits ambushed us and I took the opportunity on that. Now that it happened, I don't need you anymore," Ares answered.

Gwayne sighed as she rubbed her face. "I see, no wonder they were hunted like crazy for the past few days. So it was all because of that," she said. "But, I hate to say that the gold that you gave to me, you can't take it back," she continued as she stared at Ares in between her fingers.

"I know and I'm here not to take the gold away from you," Ares said. "Then what about we do something else since you got your payment already?" he asked.

"Something else? Like what?" Gwayne replied.

"Just stay here and have a talk, I want to build a friendship with you as well," Ares answered.

"Seriously?" Gwayne asked with disinterest written all over her face. "If you want to have yourself company, why don't you to the brothel?" she continued as she started to walk away.

"I paid you quite a lot of gold, don't you think that should be more than enough, for you?" Ares asked.

"What did you just say to me?" Gwayne asked as she glared at Ares from the corner of her eyes. She looked at the knife and immediately grabbed it and jumped over the counter then pointed the knife at Ares.

Ares grabbed her hand and then slammed her to the ground, he put himself on top of Gwayne with both of his knees and held Gwayne's arms. Ares could see the left side of Gwayne's face, and her cheek up to forehead had burned skin. Gwayne was insecure about her scar and she used both of her legs to push Ares to the front then immediately covered half of her face with her bang.

Gwayne immediately charged at Ares and swung the knife without hesitation but Ares dodged them all like he was reading a book. She looked surprised that he could so easily dodge all her attacks no matter how unpredictable her movements were.

"What's wrong, Gwayne? Never seen anyone be able to go up against you like this?" Ares asked with a smile on his face.

Gwayne kept swinging the knife and she increased her speed that which started to put Ares in a bit of trouble. He then grabbed the knife with his glove but Gwayne slashed his glove and cut Ares's palm. With that opportunity, Ares tackled her and slammed her down to the ground again but this time he locked all her limbs so she won't be able to free herself.

"Come on, Gwayne, I heard you were better than this," Ares said as he held her down on the floor.

Gwayne grunted as she tried to free herself but Ares outmatched her strength and she couldn't do anything in that kind of position. "Let me go," she said as she glared at Ares.

Ares nodded. "But don't attack me,"

Gwayne nodded and then Ares removed his hands from her and slowly moved away. She stood up as she massaged her wrists because Ares was holding her so tightly that it hurt a bit. She looked at Ares and immediately punched him in the face. "Now we are even," she said while Ares was shocked by it at first then he chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"You're strong, I'm surprised," Gwayne said as she caught her breath.

Ares smirked as he held his bleeding hand. "If I'm not strong, I won't become the knight of Valtris," he answered.

Gwayne looked at his hand. "Come here, let me treat you wound,"

Ares offered his hand and Gwayne immediately grabbed the whiskey on the wall and poured it on his palm. Ares didn't flinch nor groan as Gwayne treated the wound, she was shocked when she noticed there were so many scars on his hand.

"Battle scar?" Gwayne asked.

"Something like that, yes," Ares answered as he stared at the wound in his hand. "What about you, what about that scar on your face?" he asked as he glanced at Gwayne's face.

"No, this one is a disgrace for me and I would never let anyone see it. I wish that I can remove this so I don't have to feel ashamed about myself anymore," Gwayne said as she tried to cover her face with the bang.

"Well then," Ares said and lifted his right hand. "Please don't move," he continued as he slowly touched Gwayne's left cheek but she immediately leaned her head back.

"What are you trying to do?" Gwayne asked as she glared at him.

"Just trust me for this one," Ares said and slowly touched her left cheek.

Gwayne felt something cold and nice at the same time, she closed her eyes because of the coldness of his hand, but then the cold disappeared. "It's done," Ares said.

"What did you do?" Gwayne asked as she touched her left cheek and suddenly her eye was wide open and ran toward the glass. She grabbed the glass and pointed it at her face, she saw the wound on her face disappear and she had fully recovered.

"How?!" Gwayne said as she turned around and glared at Ares with disbelief.

Ares lifted his left hand and the open wound slowly closed. "Healing magic,"