Faye did not just assume things about people. She was not that kind of person. She observed and learned, but did not just judge a person. But this situation in front of her was severely throwing Faye’s coolheaded evaluations off track. This man was famous all across Orchidia. No town folk didn’t know about him. He was the head guard of the noble family and was famous for his strength. Valiant stories of his deeds were sung up in tales all around the small town. No one could miss him once he headed out, scouting around the town with his spear and loud voice. Although Faye saw through him the first time she noticed him, she did not guess that he would one day stand in front of her asking for such a shameless favor.

“So, like I said, you just need to manipulate some stuff. Change some stuff around and give me an advantage. There is nothing wrong with that, now is there?” The man blinked, the scar across his right eye, a mark that evoked respect within the townspeople of Orch, looked like nothing but a joke to Faye’s red pools. He was practically begging her to help him cheat his way through a supposedly fair match with some outlaw.

Here is the full situation. Jelies Sov is famous. He is famous for all the right reasons. As the head guard of the royal family, he carries and leads a number of soldiers behind his back. This man has previously been awarded and rewarded for his bravery, courage, and strength. People of Orchidia look up at him, children of Orchidia idolize him. Oh, the problem with him? He is a big fat liar.
Not only is Jelies weak, but he is also pitiful. Even his lieutenants are stronger than him but this shameless man had no problem bluffing his way to the top. Within the needles of her moral compass, this guy was absolute shit. However, earlier this morning, Faye had noticed the tall man put something up on the request board. Curious as she was –which is a frequent thing and something she should fix lest she ends up in situations like this again- she followed the man and thoughtlessly picked it up after seeing the number of zeroes it offered.

She didn’t –she really did not- think that she would end up in this kind of predicament.
“So, you are telling me to help you…cheat?” Her voice was feeble, conscious to keep it as slow as she can since the other concerned party was intensely staring down at her. Sure enough, as soon as the word cheat was uttered, the man hurriedly pushed a thick hand against her lips and almost crushed her head on the concrete wall behind.

“Shh! Don’t utter that word out again!” He admonished while looking all around them. She seriously did not get him. They were in an abandoned alleyway. No one ever came that way. It was famous for shady business and subsequently as a place to avoid if you did not want to get into something regretful. This man was obviously being too cautious, however.

Displeased, she pushed against his hands and forced him to let go of her. Then she just listened to him complain about how much trouble he goes through to keep his bluffs up. Not only does he have to bribe people, but he has to risk others judging and outing him. Which apparently, he explained in a hurry, is why he asks whoever he contracts to not disclose any information they should not. Faye, of course, had no problems whatsoever with that kind of arrangement. She was not even interested in him.

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She only had to have one look at this person before she figured out how much of a crook he was. All he had was that big, muscular body and height. Aside from that, neither did he have magic nor any great strength. Though if she was to rate his luck, it would probably go off the charts. She desperately wanted to put the mission back where she found it and just forget everything as soon as possible. But here she was held against a concrete wall, getting scolded by a shameless man for having the guts to openly call him out for what he was doing.

“Look, this is for a good cause anyway. I’m fighting an outlaw, an outlaw! He is dangerous. As a responsible member of a legal guild like Blue Pegasus, should you not be helping me?” He raged, throwing out empty words of honor, and simultaneously causing a huge headache to grow on Faye. She would actually consider helping him if he did not keep yelling down at her. He was almost spitting at her face with the way he was articulating every word. His words of honor soon turned into threats, then begging again, and then to mostly hysterical whining and wails. A big baby…

In the end, he finally noticed that she was quiet and stopped. Faye told him she would help him as soon as she saw an opening, then quickly left him behind in the alleyway with a hand against her forehead. If she was going to pull a con, she wanted to pull a perfect one. Luckily, she was good with her hands due to being a puppeteer. If she could just gather a few items, she would easily be able to manipulate the stage and give Jelies an advantage in his battle against that outlaw. Of course, no situation whatsoever can ever reverse Faye’s thoughts on Jelies anymore. She knew she repeated this word in her head a ton of times already, but this man so shameless. It would have been honorable if he admitted his non-existing capability and send someone better to fight against the outlaw, but that person was too selfish and mindful of his fame. He was an idiot, though. Completely weak in both the physical and mental department.

Faye immediately set out for the department store right next to the shop selling magical items. Faye was not a big prankster and she wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to conveniently set the stage for Jelies’ win either but she knew there were some things in general that she should pick up. A toolbox was the first one followed up with some nails and other knickknacks that could help her with the setting. Right after that, she visited the magic shop, picking out a few exclusive items, mercilessly putting the bill on Jelies’ name, and taking advantage of the situation to get some stuff for herself as well.

Once that was done, Faye quickly made her way over to where the fight would take place. It was an open arena, much much smaller in size compared to the one in Crocus. It was mostly made of wood and other easily destructible things. Faye wondered just how much the town lost every other day just for repairs of this sorry excuse for a stage. Picking at the tools, Faye wasted no time in initiating the manipulation of the stage.

It was not that difficult. Like it was mentioned before, the arena stage was poorly built and was far too easy to disassemble. With silence and darkness surrounding her, Faye started wondering about what justice is. Here she was working for a man who had no trouble or guilt in getting praised for things he did not do. He is respected by a lot of people but he pulls the veil over their eyes by cheating and manipulating. He is holding a position he does not deserve, lying on a daily basis to survive and project an image of himself that he is not. Why? What justifies his actions against the ones that are considered ‘bad’ or ‘villainous’? What right does he have to preach honor when he had none?

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Faye was not a very valiant or just person. She always had an indifferent stand towards everything –law, politics, religion- but she still had herself to answer to. At the end of the day, she still wanted to keep her conscious clean. Manipulation of mind is tactics, but blatant cheating is just despicable. Faye did not mind the former but abhorred the latter. She would have tried to talk Jelies out of it, too, if it was not for the obvious insistence of the man to fight a battle he knew he would lose without outside help. He feared being found out but dared to do things that are unethical.

Hours into the night, Faye was the only person working on the stage. It was funny how despite being the so-called outlaw, that man –whoever he was- did not even once set foot on the place to plot or plan his win. Although he could be just confident, it still said more about his character than it did of the prestigious royal guard’s. At least he was planning to win with his own raw strength. So, again, what was justice? Injustice and cheating is ok as long as a ‘good’ guy does it?

She did not want to keep thinking about it. So she just pushed any other thoughts away and continued working into the night. She made sure to carefully place a bunch of magic traps all around that no ordinary person could sense. She was going to have to make a sort of map and let Jelies know about it lest he fell on the same trap he paid to set up.

In the end, the night was chilly and Faye was still working. She had a hard time doing some of the heavy work but alternating between rest and work, Faye managed to complete most of the objectives a few hours before sunrise. All that was left to do was set up a few more magic traps and give Jelies a rundown on what he should do and what he should avoid.

By the time the sunrays were beginning to greet her, Faye was just sitting tired and worn out on top of the arena stage, a variety of tools and items sprawled all around her. She looked almost out of it, staring at thin air. In fact, Faye continued to sit that way until Jelies himself decided to pay her a visit and wake her up from her reverie.

“Hey!” He shouted, the first thing he did after seeing her, and started a barrage of questions, mostly just trying to reinforce the fact that she has done her work and his victory is absolute. She ended up losing her cool and giving him a serious side-eye. Jelies was an instinctive man. He immediately guessed he had gotten her mad and attempted to smooth things over by going over and inspecting the stage. He kept poking and probing at stuff until he almost set a magical trap on himself. Faye had to grab his shirt and pull him back before he could. She then began to explain everything he had to keep in mind during the fight.

She gave him a rundown on where she had placed the traps and the different ways in which he could use them. She did, however, out of her conscious, told him to try and not to rely on them as much as he can. Although he was nodding and agreeing, she saw that he was in no way sincere about it. He was just trying to get her off his back and realizing that, Faye eventually just stopped trying to straighten him out. She had no responsibility whatsoever in whatever he was going to do anymore. As long as she was paid, it did not matter what happened to their fight. Even if Jelies fails, there was no way the Rune Knights were going to keep their word and not arrest the outlaw. That was just how ‘justice’ worked. This was all just one big lie. She sighed.

Taking the little time left for the tournament to start, Faye went and got herself something to eat. She got pancakes with a hell lot of syrup, barely keeping herself awake while eating. She ate it up with a full glass of milk and finally felt alive again. While there, she also overheard some women talking about the fight that would soon take place. Apparently, they were sure that their powerful Jelies would win. They kept gushing about his strength and position, at one point even making Faye loudly scoff at their brainless deductions.

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It was not just those women. When she went out, Faye realized that almost the whole town was talking about the same thing. She was elated, occasionally, when a few here and there smartly wondered whether Jelies was all that he was making himself out to be while a good majority of the people believed in their so-called beloved head royal guard and trusted that he would surely arrest the outlaw today. And then there were those folks that aimed to turn this into a gamble, betting on whether the outlaw or Jelies would win. How free these men were…they did not even once wonder if they were gambling with other people’s lives.

Shaking all the wandering useless thoughts away, Faye made her way towards the arena and took a place farthest from the stage. She just stayed under a nice, cool shade and watched Jelies goad the other man opposite the arena into charging at him…and the battle had not even begun yet. They were both just staring each other down until the clock rang ten. It was finally time for their brawl, and Faye quietly gazed over the spots she knew where the magic traps laid.

As soon as the fight took off, the outlaw, a short, rugged man with a long beard, quickly lunged towards Jelies, whom, under Faye’s careful watch, visibly flinched but made a big show of being a brave man. He blocked the viewer’s line of sight with his big bulky body and cleverly manipulated the man over a trap. It wordlessly and invisibly got set off, burning the sole of the other man’s feet and taking him stumbling down the arena. And then the crowd was up in a roar of applause and encouragement for Jelies while Faye’s lips thinned into a straight line, knowing exactly what had actually happened.

Jelies must have felt her gaze because he briefly turned to her with a sheepish grin and continued the fight. There was not much to say for the rest of the fight. The outlaw kept falling into the traps Faye had carefully set up, and also had taken a considerable amount of damage. Some of them were hurtful while some of them were purely strategic but every time something happened, Faye just closed her eyes and looked away, feeling some shame in Jelies’ stead.

In just half an hour, Jelies’ victory was ensured. There was nothing more to say. It was obvious that the outlaw was far too tired to continue while on the other hand, Jelies looked just as energetic as he first started out. To keep up the pretense, he had intentionally let the other hurt him a couple of times. But other than a few scratches here and there, the man was as fit as a bull. He dragged the rest of the fight away by circling the rogue and also leading him over more traps. Soon, the battle came to an end with Jelies standing over the half-unconscious outlaw. Again, the crowd was cheering and throwing words of praise at the head royal guard. Even the other soldiers were proud of their captain. All the while, Faye just looked on with indifference. She felt nothing for the festive atmosphere around her.

What a wretched man this was. All throughout the battle, Faye was just wondering what made it ok for Jelies to cheat and feel so proud of his bogus achievements. So it was that close, the difference between justice and injustice. If this was justice, then was it not fine for Faye to just do whatever she wanted, too? Looking at the groaning and struggling body of the outlaw, Faye had many more thoughts going across her head until Jelies snuck over to her and gestured her over to the alleyway they met the last time.

Wordlessly, she followed after him and met him standing happily over at a dark corner. He was obviously feeling proud of his achievements. What a brainless man. Upon seeing her, he immediately gave her the money and then uttered a few words that Faye did not really care to hear, but could easily guess was more instructions about how she should never let another person know of what he set her up to do. They were also followed up with other words of honor and how she had contributed to a great cause.

Faye had just about had it with him. Just as he was blowing up with hot air, Faye silently turned away and walked off, leaving him there. She consciously closed off any other words he may or may not have uttered after that. Instead, she just busied herself with counting the amount of money she received. At least this was a thing that did not lie.

Outside, everyone was still hung up on the victory, amazingly wondering how their captain can be so strong that they could not even clearly see how he took his opponent down. Some theorized that the Gods of Illumin were looking after him and others dubbed him as an extremely powerful soldier. Faye knew the truth…perhaps a few others knew too. Some were smart enough to guess that their moves earlier did not look very natural. And then there were also those knowing glances, all belonging to mages of some sort that could cleverly deduce the kinds of tricks played. In the end, Jelies won but he also lost. He can’t pull the veil over everyone’s eyes, after all.

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