The woods showed signs of spring, trees starting to grow leaves and a few brave flowers poking out. Requiem smoothed her hands over her new jacket as she watched the birds fly pasy. Like her usual clothes, it was a neutral grey body with lavender sleeves and a sun motif sewn on it. The new addition though was a flower under the sun. She liked the gift from one of the citizens she had helped during her post.
Unfortunately, her pants hadn't been tailored to allow a tail, meaning she had to wear a skirt which annoyed the assassin raised part of her. Skirts were loose cloth that could be grabbed in a fight. The other part of her liked it and wondered if it would really be so bad to wear more feminine clothing more often.
As the day wore on, Requiem would stop from time to time simply to look at things, thanks to her newly enhanced vision, she could see things that normally would've escaped her notice, like a raccoon nest hidden in a shadow of an overturned tree. She stopped for a moment, her cat ears flicking about. She had heard a voice. Male, possibly twenties maybe older. Another one, also male, definitely younger, "I'm telling ya, she would sell for a decent price."
"And you're a thrice damned fool! The new king outlawed slavery."
"Not if she's in amother kingdom. Besides, he's from Grimoire Heart. Give it a few months and things will be good for our trade once more."
Requiem stalked towards the source and noticed two men standing next to a freeholder woman. She was young and looked like what one would expect when being held captive by two people openly plotting to sell them into slavery. The Rune Knight frowned and folded her ears back as she slipped closer. This wasn't going to end well unless something was done.
Fortunately the day had almost ended and the slavers had simply chained the young woman to a tree and lay on the ground to sleep. Requiem's mind went into assassin mode and she clicked her tongue out of annoyed embarrassment. They hadn't even pretended to exercise basic security. To be fair though, it's not like she had been hunting them down, Illumin truly did work in mysterious ways. Slipping from tree to tree, Requiem reached the captive and delicately unlocked the bonds hold the poor woman, "Be very quiet." She whispered into the former captive's ear. The woman nodded and they slowly made their way to the nearest village, "I need you to pretend I was never here." Requiem wasn't sure why she had left those instructions to someone she might never meet again, but the idea seemed reasonable, and also it might help avoid her killing someone regardless of who they were.
Having traveled all through the day and night, she finally reached another inn along the road that she could spend the next day resting. She left late the next day, being very close to the Holy Capitol of Crocus. She could start to see in the distance signs of fighting, a haze of smoke from the horizon and people fleeing. Most of the people she saw were those who had flourished under the previous king. The orders she had received said nothing concerning these people who had turned a blind eye to the suffering of those beneath them. She finally reached the gates of the city and had to show identification before entering. Now she had to go to the commander of the Rune Knights stationed in Crocus for further orders.
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