Hook, Line, And Sinker

With raven black hair and a red gown, the woman held the beer bottle as if it were a toy to spite the man standing before her.

"This what you looking for," Sarah said with a cheeky smirk as she drank the last of the contents from the bottle before throwing it on the ground and rolling it towards his feet.

"Oops, guess there ain't any left."

"The hell's your problem," Michael asked as he stared at the empty bottle with a cold look. Not even giving the woman the time of day since he didn't want to look at her.

"Nothing really. I'm just minding my own business. It's not my fault you were standing there when I drank my beer," Sarah said before she turned around and started walking away.

'Not my problem my ass. You were clearly trying to provoke me,' Michael thought as he saw Sarah walk away, swinging her hips side to side.

'Well, at least she's got a nice ass,' He thought before suddenly, he saw the woman turn around and look at him with a questioning gaze.

"You know, if you really wanted some beer you could've just gotten some from the canteen. Why are you looking around here for?" Sarah asked as she looked at Michael with suspicion.

Of course, she already knew the reason why. After all, she was the one who made the problem in the first place so Michael would come here. Especially after she made that horrible-tasting potion and sneakily put it inside his food. This was all part of her plan. She had laid the bait called 'beer', and soon she was going to use the hook!

"They don't have any at the canteen. Apparently, some woman took the last bottle before I came," Michael said as he looked at Sarah with narrowed eyes. Fully knowing who this mystery woman was after seeing the last bottle of beer in her hand.

'Hook, line, and sinker,' Sarah thought to herself with an inward smile, all the while showing a look of fake realisation and giving a guilty stare at the man before her.

"Guess that was probably me, huh? Well, how about this, come over to my tent, I've got some spare beer for you since I usually stash mine away. What do you say, wanna come over?" Sarah asked as she pointed toward her back in the direction of where her spare tent would be.

She didn't want to be caught fucking in her own tent with a different appearance. It would bring up questions she wasn't ready to answer. It would be best if she took him to somebody else's tent instead.

"Well..." Michael said as he suddenly went into thought.

'I'm going over to a stranger's tent, and she's also inviting me so willingly, is this a trap? Could be. But who would want anything from me? I got no money on me or weapons. But who would want to hurt another soldier in a military camp? If this was really a trap, then wouldn't they be caught if they tried to do any funny business? This is a small encampment after all.'

But even though Michael was having all of these high-speed thoughts and simulations of different scenarios, he just couldn't ignore the horrid, acrid taste in his mouth. And that was the damning decision he had to make. Which he eventually did.

Michael finally decided as he thought 'To hell with it all! I need to get this shitty taste out of my mouth.' With gusto as he looked at Sarah with a raised eyebrow and raised his hand to get her moving.

"...Fine, let's go. But I'm only coming over for a small drink, that's all," Michael said as he especially insisted on the part about only having a small drink.

Sarah chuckled as she said, "Alright, bad boy. Just a small drink then."

After she stopped laughing at Michael's insistence on coming over for only a drink, she turned around and called him over with a finger, "Follow me."

_______________

As Sarah walked down the streets, with Michael in hand, she pondered over the personality of Michael.

What made a man mature before his age? What made anyone mature for that matter? Why would people want to be mature?

Why was Michael mature?

And to those answers, Sarah ticked every sentence off her list as she already knew the answer to all of them.

What made a person mature before their age? Well, it was so they could have control over their life.

Sarah already knew what maturity was. In fact, every adult sometime in their life would know what being mature was.

It was to take life into your own hands.

In simple terms, it was to have control over yourself and in relation, to fate itself.

Everyone eventually learns sometime in life that to have control over fate is an impossible and foolish task. Thinking you can upend fate and change it all by just existing is the very height of naivety and foolishness.

In fact, being mature is knowing that you won't have control over your fate. It is knowing that whatever happens to you, you can't change it. But you can change how you interpret it.

You can only have control over yourself. And only yourself. That is what being mature was.

And Sarah knew that to be mature was to be free.

But not the freedom you would quite expect.

Even if a man was free in body, but a slave to his desires, then he would never truly be free.

But if a man had control over his desires and his mind, then no matter what prison he was kept in, he would always be free to walk out.

Being mature is knowing to be free. Not from your circumstances, but from yourself. Being free from what holds you back is what you call the maturity of the mind.

Taking life by its throat and beating it into submission is the mature action, compared to just lying down and letting it pass by in a blur.

Passiveness is naivety, assertiveness is maturity.

A child can only lie down for so long before it would crawl for itself.

This was wisdom that Sarah knew. What she had learned from the many hardships in her life.

Michael was called a mature person by others, and that could only mean one thing.

He knew that life won't come to him passively.

So he needs to be in control of himself all the time.

Taking life by the reins was probably his motto.

But at the same time, having control over yourself is tiring. Extremely tiring. Some might even call it burnout.

Only a loved one could take the need for self-control out of his hands and lay it by his side as she comforted him in bed.

A loved one Sarah was aiming to become.

As she led them along the streets, she soon saw a tent in the distance that she had set up as the rendezvous point.

And soon, they reached it.

Sarah turned around with her back facing the door as she told Michael to come in, "Alright, here it is. Come inside and make yourself comfortable." She said as she gave a small seductive smile and a wink at him.

"Huh, you don't say," Michael said as he squinted his eyes to see what was inside of the tent, only to see Sarah walk in and light up a lamp that brightened up the whole place.

And as soon as the light touched the first piece of cloth, he saw the small tent that fit a single bed and a small bedside table with a lamp beside it. The tent was made out of red cloth, and as far as he could see, most of the colours were only either red or black. It was definitely a stylistic choice that was for sure.

'This reminds me of those gothic styles that I've heard so much about,' Michael thought as he looked at the surroundings of the tent with a neutral gaze.

'Well, whatever, I was here for my beer in the first place.' He thought before Sarah sat down on her bed and opened up a small cabinet inside her bedside table.

And all he could do was look at the cabinet with shock as he saw what was inside.

In the small cavity behind the door, he saw five shining bottles with yellow fizzling liquid inside.

There it was... Beer!

[Seductress's Aroma has been used!]

[-300 MP!]

[This skill shall last for twelve seconds.]

[80/380 MP]

As soon as Michael had his focus on the beer bottles, Sarah used her Seductress's Aroma and brought a beer bottle out of the cabinet and threw it in Michael's hand before getting another one and opening another one for herself.

"Here's the beer. Now you can leave if you want, but I don't mind if you wanna stay here and drink as buddies," Sarah said before she took a big sip of her bottle and downed a solid quarter of the beer before slamming it down with exasperation.

"Ahhh~ that's the good stuff," Sarah said as she laid down in her bed in a very cozy position and began drinking like a lady at a tea party.

The dichotomy between a drunkard and a noble all in one package. One of the few personas Sarah had made for this situation.

And Michael just... sat down beside her. He seemed to have decided to stay with Sarah and enjoy his drink as he talked with her.

And she began her mission by asking the first glaring question.

"Why're you drinking your beer like a thirsty man who hasn't had water for nine days? What the hell happened to you? Cuz to me, you seem like a massive drunkard that just wants to wipe his meal off his palette." She said as she took a small sip of her beer before laying it bottle down on the side table and looking at Michael with hopeful intrigue in her eyes.

Michael cringed when he heard the question and momentarily relived the horrible taste in his mouth before he answered, "Please, don't ask. I don't want to think about it."

He held his mouth right after answering Sarah's question as if he was going to vomit. Only to swallow down whatever filth would have come out with a relieved sigh.

Sarah only looked at Michael's contorting expressions with understanding, "Yeesh, guess you tasted that horrible grub as well huh?"

'Cuz I was the one who made it,' She thought with an inward snicker all the while smiling on the outside and even laughing slightly.

"You know, you seem kind of nice to me. How about you stay for a little while and talk." Sarah said as he grabbed Michael's hand and brought her face close to his.

And that was when Michael felt his heart beating out of his chest, with his little brother beating along with it.

[Seductress's Aroma Lvl 2]

[Duration: 3/12 Seconds Remaining]

'Guess I caught the fish.'