A Smile

Kicking the Rat in the gut, aiming near where the glass shard was inserted, Ava commanded, "Quiet."

Grunting, the Rat lowered his head again, "Neva thought I'd go down in the hands of a brat like you…" After a moment of pause, the Rat added, "My offer still stands, I'll give you whatever, and I'll leave overnight, it'll be like I was never here. I just wanna live."

Ava stared coldly at the Rat, "I want the permit to the town you originally promised me, and a bag of silver."

Letting out a soft cough, the Rat tried slowly lifted his left hand, keeping his right hand on the wound and roughly pointed, "Over there, third drawer from the top for the silver." Coughing, the Rat continued, "I don't have the permits here. They're over at my operating house, if you let me go…"

Letting out another loud cough, the Rat couldn't help but gasp in air as Ava kicked against the glass shard again. In the darkness, Ava's eyes glimmered with a hint of ferocity.

Slouching further back against the door, the Rat gasped for air, and after a few seconds started speaking again, "Heh, can't blame me for trying, eh? I, I don't have any normal permits on me, I swear, they're all in the operating house." Seeing Ava's eyes turn cold, the Rat quickly added, "But, I have mine on me."

Seeing this Ava took a step back, giving the Rat some breathing room.

Once again lifting his fingers slightly, the Rat pointed towards his chest, "Ya might not believe it, but I was from the town. Shitty place I tell yah. I still got my papers though, and if you slip a couple of silver to the guards, they'll let you in."

Thinking for a moment, Ava nodded, this was acceptable. From what she knew, the town guards took on the common practice of asking for a few coppers from everyone who entered the city, but that was under the premise they were legal residents, or had a permit. If you didn't have a permit, even if the guards wanted to let you in, they weren't willing to risk it as it would be their jobs on the line. But under the premise that you had a permit that wasn't yours, or got papers forged, a few extra silver could insensitive them to not check very thoroughly.

Staring at the Rat, Ava urged him to tell her where the papers were with her eyes.

Letting out a soft chuckle the Rat said, "They're in my innah pocket, notha pouch of silver in there too. I'd pass em over but." Softly lifting his left arm again and watching it tremble before dropping it, the Rat let out a slight shrug, "Can't quite find the strength. You're quite vicious for someone so young, lil' brat."

Seeing this, Ava stared at the Rat for a couple of seconds, gauging his intentions before stepping forward and kneeling down to reach towards the Rat's neck to rip off the shirt.

Suddenly, as Ava was no more than a foot away from the Rat, he erupted with force and thrust out with his left arm, in which he had at some point found a knife and aimed for Ava's heart. Many people might not know it, but the Rat's dominant arm was actually his left arm, although he typically worked with his right arm, leaving the impression that he, like most people was right handed.

Throughout the conversation, he had kept his right arm on his abdomen, holding his wound, while revealing weakness in his left arm, using slow gestures and revealing his trembling to lead Ava into believing that he was helpless. On top of being fully cooperative, the Rat believed that he could easily dupe Ava into thinking that he had competently given up before landing a lethal blow to turn the situation around.

Of course, he had tried to trick Ava once, but as far as the Rat was concerned, that was being completely cooperative, after all, anyone would feel some doubt if a figure like him completely folded over at the first sign of danger, and having seen through his tricks once, they would feel mentally superior and be more likely to slip up.

Had it been a group of people, or even just a single ferocious looking strong man, the Rat might have resigned to his fate and been willing to give up everything for a chance to live, but seeing that it was just Ava, the Rat couldn't help but have other thoughts. It was just one street urchin, even if they had stabbed him, they hadn't hit a vital point, and with some care, he would be able to recover in a week or two.

Besides, Ava was just a skinny little girl, with any luck he could easily overpower her even in his injured state as long as he could get his hands on her, and once she was dead, he could turn in the corpse for a reward from Bosbody, while also keeping his life and his business, wasn't that such a great deal?

But unfortunately, all of the Rat's thoughts were for naught, as his knife stopped after piercing no more then half a centimeter into Ava's chest, barely leaving a soft red mark before the Rat's eyes dulled and his arms lost strength and dropped to his side.

In front of him, Ava stared at his dead body with cold eyes, her left arm grabbing onto the Rat's shirt collar, while her right arm pierced the other shard of glass she had kept into his neck, bloody droplets painting her hand and the cloth red.

Frowning, Ava retracted the makeshift blade, placing it on the ground by the Rat's corpse, and unraveling the piece of cloth that was wrapped around it, before using the cloth to quickly wipe off the blood dripping down the Rat's neck before making a makeshift tie around the wound. Retracting her bloody hand, she placed it on the floor and continued to use her left hand to search the Rat's shirt, looking for the identity papers he had mentioned, finding them a moment later in an inside pocket just as the Rat had said. It seemed like the Rat, although he had ulterior motives, had indeed been honest.

But after all, this made sense, if he failed, the fact that he had assets would be his only life saving string. If he won, he could simply take them back, and if he lost, it would be better to hand everything over honestly before making his way into the night and disappearing.

Taking the papers out of the pocket, Ava heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that they hadn't gotten any blood on them, and carefully got up and placed the identity papers on the top of the drawer behind her before returning to the Rat's corpse and pulling out the sack of coin he had mentioned, and untying the bag to reveal a pouch full of shiny silver pieces.

Finally, for the first time this night, she let out a smile.