Kapitel 46: Chapter 46. Digging Their Own Grave
Seeing that Kara was convinced the two noblemen's sons would try to capture them while they were inside the clothing store, Ophelia suggested that, for now, they should just select the clothes they liked and start trying them on once the situation with the two young men was resolved, as it was a bit stressful for her to change clothes while someone was on their trail.
Kara didn't share Ophelia's concern, as the two noblemen's sons and their guards had no chance of approaching the fitting room while they were inside because she was constantly monitoring them and would immobilize them immediately if they barged into the store while they were changing. In fact, Kara could immobilize them even in that moment. But why waste the efforts of those trailing them, trying to ensure as few witnesses as possible at their confrontation? Wouldn't it be better to take advantage of the situation and eliminate them as discreetly as possible? Besides, crushing someone who is sure they have all the advantages was far more thrilling.
In any case, since Kara had no reason not to indulge Ophelia, and even if she had a reason, she likely still would have indulged her, as there was nothing in the entire world that could stop her from making Ophelia happy, she didn't contradict her. So, both started gathering in their arms the clothes that caught their attention, a sight that left the shopkeeper unsure of what to think because, usually, taking an armful of clothes into the fitting room was a practice of very picky customers who, out of ten items tried on, would buy one at most, and he would be left to arrange the rest back in place.
'As long as they're happy, they can try on everything in the store...', the shopkeeper thought to himself, not daring to approach Kara and Ophelia to stop them from rummaging through his clothes under the pretext of helping them choose the right ones, as he usually did with other customers, fearing he might give Kara a reason to get angry with him.
But the fact that the shopkeeper wasn't actively seeking trouble didn't mean trouble couldn't come to him. Soon enough, the abrupt and flamboyant entrance of two young men, who looked very wealthy and were accompanied by four guards, sent a cold sweat down his back, his intuition telling him they weren't there for shopping. Glancing in the direction the six people were looking, and spotting Kara and Ophelia, the shopkeeper was already planning to grab his sleeping granddaughter and leave as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately for him, it was already too late to avoid being caught in the conflict, as the two young men began walking toward the counter where he stood, accompanied by two guards, while the other two remained to guard the door, ensuring no one else entered and that Kara and Ophelia had no way to escape.
"You're the shopkeeper, right? Please close the store early today and ask all the customers to leave, except for the two ladies..." said the shorter of the two young men, the duke's son, as he reached the counter, nodding towards Kara and Ophelia, who were on the other side of the store.
Hearing that the two young men intended to involve him in their plan against the young woman he found extremely dangerous, the shopkeeper began to panic even more.
"Gentlemen, I don't know what your intentions are, but I beg you not to involve us, simple people just trying to make an honest living. If you have an issue with the two ladies, you can ask them to step outside..."
"Do you want to make me insist?", interrupted the duke's son, and at that moment, both guards beside him placed their hands on the hilts of their swords.
However, the threat the shopkeeper felt from the two guards, even as they seemed ready to attack him, paled in comparison to the fear that gripped him when Kara had stared him down a few minutes earlier. As his intuition had never failed him, neither in his years as an adventurer nor since he had opened his shop with his own savings, he was certain that the four guards of the two young men, whose strength he estimated to be on par with B-rank adventurers, stood no chance against the young woman, whose presence he found more suffocating than that of an S-rank adventurer. Given the circumstances, he had no intention of following the duke's son's orders. If he had to pick a side, the shopkeeper was determined to choose the winning one.
'But if I keep refusing, will that demonic woman consider me on her side and step in to save me? No... that's unlikely. Judging by the menacing look she gave me earlier, she might actually enjoy seeing me with a sword through my chest...', the shopkeeper began racing through his thoughts, desperately searching for a solution to his predicament.
Ultimately, the only solution he could come up with before the duke's son lost all patience was to use a skill to exponentially increase his speed for a brief moment, grab his still-sleeping granddaughter, and rush toward Kara to prove his loyalty by warning her of the new visitors' plans. He was well aware that Kara didn't need such a favor and was convinced she would see through his trick, but it was better to be seen as a fool by her than as an enemy or to die at the hands of the two young men's guards.
However, this plan was highly risky. Even with the element of surprise on his side, if one of the guards had a passive skill that enhanced their reflexes, they could easily catch him with their sword before he could escape. Moreover, his body was no longer in the same condition as when he was still an adventurer, so there was a good chance he might injure himself, perhaps breaking a bone in his leg.
But to his relief, he no longer needed to put his plan into action, because, when he looked toward where Kara and Ophelia were to figure out the quickest route to them, he noticed that Kara had nodded discreetly when she made eye contact with him, a sign that she didn't mind if he followed the young man's instructions.
"Alright…," the shopkeeper finally gave the duke's son the answer he had been waiting for, then hurriedly left the counter to inform the other two customers, who had no connection to the upcoming confrontation, that the shop was closing.
However, in his rush, he accidentally kicked a chair with great force as he left the counter, causing him to limp while he followed the two customers, trying to convince them to leave the store. This created a somewhat comedic image, as he resembled the crippled henchman often seen in stories about evil wizards. On top of that, the loud noise woke up his granddaughter, who quickly tried to appear as serious as possible after lifting her head from the counter, hoping her grandfather hadn't noticed that she had fallen asleep while supposedly supervising the shop.
When the shopkeeper's granddaughter laid eyes on the duke's son, standing between two guards, she wasn't particularly impressed by him, despite his appearance of wealth, because she found his haughty expression rather annoying. Besides, she wasn't particularly attracted to short men. However, when she noticed the duke's companion behind one of the guards, a tall young man with blond hair, looking like a storybook prince and wearing a stoic expression that gave him the air of a scholar, her mood changed dramatically. She immediately got up from her chair, eager to help them find suitable clothing.
"No, thank you. We're here on other business...", replied the duke's son, slightly irritated by the shopkeeper's granddaughter's obvious preference for Theodore. Although he had no interest in the shopkeeper's granddaughter, losing out to his friend, who could barely string two words together when talking to a woman, was as difficult to swallow then as it had always been. The only consolation was that Theodore's charm only worked on women who weren't too bright and didn't excel in looks either. By comparison, when facing the young women they were about to capture, Theodore hadn't managed to make a better impression than he had, both receiving the same treatment from them.
But the shopkeeper's granddaughter wasn't affected by the duke's son's cold attitude, as almost all her attention was focused on Theodore. Even though he hadn't even glanced in her direction, she didn't feel offended or discouraged, believing that his indifference suited him, seeing him as an ascetic who didn't like to get involved in worldly matters.
"May I help you with anything, sir?", she asked Theodore after stepping out from behind the counter, trying to put on the most innocent expression possible, hoping it would be hard for him to refuse her help. Who doesn't like an honest girl doing her best at work? Unfortunately for her, the makeup on her face had been smudged from sleeping with her face on the table, preventing her from achieving the desired effect, making her look more like a courtesan caught in a wealthy man's bed early in the morning.
However, whether by bad luck or perhaps good fortune for her, as it allowed her to keep dreaming a little longer, Theodore continued to ignore her, staring calmly into the distance as if he hadn't heard her at all.
"Dear customer, are you alright? My good sir..." the shopkeeper's granddaughter continued trying to get Theodore's attention, wondering if he might have a hearing problem since her words didn't seem to affect him any more than a fly buzzing would. But even if he were deaf, she still wanted to get closer to him and didn't feel discouraged, convinced that she would eventually find a way to make her feelings reach him. Besides, she thought it might even be a good thing if this handsome and wealthy young man couldn't hear, as her chances of getting close to him wouldn't be very high if he had no flaws.
With these thoughts in mind, the shopkeeper's granddaughter continued to hover around Theodore, trying all sorts of ways to grab his attention. This went on for nearly two minutes until she accidentally looked in the same direction Theodore was staring and realized that the reason he wasn't paying attention to her was that he was too busy admiring two young women, which made her feel as though a bucket of cold water had just been poured over her head, especially because though the girls were turned away from them, it was obvious from their figures that they were extremely attractive,
At that moment, the shopkeeper's granddaughter didn't know who she was more upset with, the young man who couldn't care less about her attention or the two young women who had seduced the one she was interested in. On top of that, she didn't find the duke's son or the guards beside him any more agreeable, as they were snickering at her expense.
In the end, she decided not to settle for half-measures and got angry at everyone, intending to throw them all out of the store. But before she could open her mouth and start berating everyone, beginning with Theodore, who was closest to her, she felt a flick on the top of her head, the culprit being none other than her grandfather, who had returned, panting, from the door after escorting out the last customer who shouldn't be a witness to what was about to happen inside the shop.
"Madeline, how much longer are you going to pester the customers? If you're bored, go to the back and finish the inventory of the new products we just received...", the shopkeeper started scolding his granddaughter. He was certain, without needing any special intuition, that she was about to pick a fight with someone, her angry expression being proof enough. But he wasn't sending her to the storeroom just to avoid trouble with the customers; he also didn't want her to witness the confrontation that was about to take place in the shop, which he was sure would involve extreme violence, unsuitable for a girl who only talked big and wasn't capable of killing even a fly.
"Grandpa, can't you see that everyone is laughing at me... and I've never done any inventory before..." Madeline began to complain, upset that she had to swallow her frustration and also start a task she knew nothing about. Maybe if her grandfather had only wronged her in one way, she could have let it go, but being wronged twice at the same time was something she couldn't accept, even if there was a chance he might make good on his past threats and send her to the countryside to take care of the pigs.
Seeing that his granddaughter had no intention of leaving, the shop owner thought to change his strategy. Since his granddaughter had been living with him for over two years, he knew exactly what mattered most to her.
"Madeline, have you looked in the mirror? Your makeup is completely ruined. What will people say when they see you like this?"
Hearing her grandfather's words, Madeline quickly ran behind the counter to grab the mirror she kept in a drawer to check if her makeup was truly a mess.
"Ahh!", Madeline gasped in panic when she saw her reflection in the mirror because, up close, her makeup looked even more messed up than others could notice. She thought this was probably why no one was taking her seriously.
"Grandpa, I'm taking a half-hour break...", she said, trying not to show her face, then quickly rushed to her room to wash up and reapply her makeup.
Seeing his granddaughter leave, the shop owner sighed in relief, knowing she was now safe from being involved in the conflict that was about to unfold between the two young men and the two young women, and also spared from witnessing any violent scenes that might lead to nightmares.
"Well, I've done as you asked...", the shop owner said, turning his attention back to the two young men. He wasn't sure if his granddaughter had managed to offend either of them before he returned, but he wasn't too worried about it, as he was sure neither of them would make it out of his shop alive.
"Good. Now, regarding what you're about to see, I believe you know what you can and cannot talk about...", the duke's son said, handing the shop owner a bag containing 100 gold coins.
"Of course..." the shop owner replied, taking the bag without feeling any guilt about being paid by those who were likely to die soon. After all, he had done everything they had asked, right? Besides, he wasn't responsible for whether their plan succeeded or not.
With everything settled, the two young men left, accompanied by the two guards who had been with them the whole time and two others who joined them after the shop owner had locked the door, heading toward Kara and Ophelia, who were at the far end of the clothing store, about 50 meters from the counter, seemingly absorbed in looking at clothes and unaware of their presence.
"Ahem! Ladies, do you remember us?", the duke's son announced his presence when he was about five meters from Kara and Ophelia.
Hearing the duke's son's words, Kara turned toward him with a confused expression, as if unsure whether the question was directed at her.
"No, I don't think I do...", Kara finally said after confirming there was no one else around them and taking a good look at the two young men. "What about you, Ophelia? Do you know who these gentlemen are?", Kara asked, winking at Ophelia to play along.
"No, they must have mistaken us for someone else...", Ophelia also denied knowing them. Though she didn't share Kara's pleasure in toying with their prey, she was willing to go along, thinking that a good girlfriend should support her partner's hobbies.
"We... you met us at the restaurant...", Theodore chimed in, thinking it wasn't right to leave all the talking to his friend since the two young women might get the impression that he wasn't as important.
"...", both Kara and Ophelia, as well as the duke's son and the four guards stared at Theodore as if he were the biggest fool.
'Has Theodore always been this dense, or is his thinking clouded by the headache? Can he not tell that they're mocking us by treating us as people too insignificant to remember?', the duke's son fumed internally, regretting bringing Theodore along to capture Kara and Ophelia. He was sure there was now no chance that Kara or Ophelia would take him seriously.
"Oh, I think I remember. You're the ones I helped reach the place with the best view of the city... So, are you here to thank me? Or do you want me to help you get there again?" Kara continued, determined to keep the act going, even if one of the six before her didn't seem sharp enough to appreciate her acting talent.
"Are you done with your jokes? Do you not realize the situation you're in? If not, let me explain it to you. Either you sit still and let us place these slave collars around your necks, or we'll do it by force. Frankly, I prefer the first option, as I wouldn't want your pretty faces to be bruised tonight...", the duke's son said, pulling two black collars from his storage ring, collars typically reserved for prisoners of war or those who had committed heinous crimes, because enslaving innocent citizens was considered a serious crime in that kingdom.
"So, you intend to make us your lifelong slaves? Well, I have to admit, you're bold. Considering how I treated you just for trying to hit on my girlfriend, the fact that you aren't afraid of what I'll do when I hear you want to make her your slave is truly impressive...", said Kara, whose anger was starting to affect her performance, her menacing gaze sending a cold shiver down the spines of the six men standing in front of her.
***Author's Thoughts:
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