”Meow.”

Venus woke up to her companion licking the tip of her nose and nicked its wet nose against hers when she finally fluttered her eyes open. Right that instead, she felt the jolt of pain that went through her head from the tens of bottles of wine that she’d drunk alone last night and had gotten drunk so much that she’d passed out at one point. ”Ugggh, fuck,” she cursed in dismay, squeezing the bridge of her nose as though it would help her head to stop throbbing. Now she understands at once why they call it a hangover, for it feels as if the blackest of clouds are over her head with no intention of clearing until late afternoon.

The female groaned, scooping up Blair in her arms as she staggered towards the bathroom, in hope that a warm bath would freshen her up and it did – well, at least it reduced her hangover. With almost every Daeva Eye member in Magnolia, Venus decided to rent a small villa sharing with a few of them and her neighbouring housemate happened to be Raquel, a vampire with pleasant breasts to fondle with.

With the massive hangover she had, Venus could have simply retreated back under the duvet and embraced Blair to sleep but she had work to do and figured that she might take Raquel along with her once again. Although Venus has always been an army of one and preferred to do her assignments solo, having a company wasn’t always so bad either. And so, after she’d gotten dressed in her usual attire for work and equipped herself, she decided to pay a visit to the room next door – a rather friendly visit, in fact.

”Good afternoon, sunshine!” she roared loud enough for the entire floor to hear her. Her mere strength would’ve broken the locked door knob as she swung it open, so it would be no use for Raquel to keep her out. ”We have another shopping crisis and you’re tagging along with me.”

Wink.

Before Venus could even open the door, her housemate had already known of her presence and unlocked the door causing her to stumble inside where Raquel wrapped her with a blanket and left her looking like a ghost who’d just wandered into the town. ”You sly woman!” she yelled, fumbling about with the drapes until she finally got it off her and turned to face Raquel. She hadn’t expected that her partner would already know about their new assignment, nor that she was anticipating to see Venus to trick her.

”Oh, did the noises keep you up last night?” The woman chuckled before laughing heartily as she wondered how Raquel would react if Venus were to bring a man to her home. ”Hey, why not? It was to celebrate the completion of our mission. You should’ve just joined me if you knew. It would’ve been much more fun.” She shook her head in disapproval as they walked towards their villa’s door, slightly pouting in a teasing manner. ”I was lonely last night without you.” And, a wicked grin would follow unto her lips. Since Raquel had been on a similar quest before with her, she figured she wouldn’t need to explain the details to her once again.

”I’m really not in the mood to cook for lunch, do you want to do some food hunting?”

They had plenty of hours before their scheduled time with their clients so, they might as well fill their stomachs and gather some energy to prepare for their upcoming mission. Besides, Magnolia streets were always flooded with food stalls so it would keep them busy for a good amount of time for the day.

The woman snickered when Raquel mocked of her addiction to alcohol. Just like how humans needed water in their system, it was the same for Venus as well, except that it was booze – the elixir of her life. As a social butterfly, Venus never found it difficult to communicate with people and on Raquel’s case, they bonded rather faster than she’d anticipated. Venus had always been a person who liked expressing herself without boundaries, and it seemed that Raquel usually went along with whatever she did, even if it meant touching her breasts. It was almost as though she had an older sister or perhaps younger, who would simply just tolerate with the other sibling did.

”I don’t know much about vampires. So, you don’t need food but only blood? Even if you can eat food, do you actually enjoy eating it? What’s the difference between humans’ food and blood for you?”

The redhead continued to ponder to herself as she shared some of her curiosity with her partner and bombarded Raquel with a series of ridiculous questions. Vampires were night creatures after all, she wondered if they ever needed sleep. Recalling how Raquel mentioned about having a good night’s sleep, it seemed that the vampires do actually sleep after all. Those were the thoughts that crossed her mind as they weaved through the swirls and eddies of people that crowded the streets.

”Oooh, I don’t mind some ramen.” She cooed, following Raquel’s lead to the restaurant. Perhaps some dessert or street food might do afterwards, she thought. When her partner turned right, she would do the same, not remembering any of the roads or the turns they made before that. Venus had always been terrible with directions and navigating herself through places, and it doesn’t seem that she would master those skills any time soon. And so, they were finally at the small shop, which looked more like a place for a quick dine-in with those high stools placed by the counter while you watched the chefs do the work behind it.

It was in an open area, with only a few drapes over their heads to shield themselves from the sunlight while their backs were exposed to the street. ”Ojamashimasu,” she’d say politely as she took a vacant seat by the high stools and beside her partner. Having a Joyan beau, Venus had gone out of her way to familiarize herself with some Joyan language and despite still being a beginner, she did pick up some words that were easy to remember and widely used.

As the saying goes, ‘You learn something new everyday’, Venus did gain some knowledge about vampires from Raquel today. The perks of having vampires as your comrade, she thought. She was curious as to how Raquel became a vampire, but then, Venus was curious about a lot of things regarding her quest partner. Her inquisitive nature questioned a lot of things in general albeit, she decided that she would bring that topic into discussion at a later time.

”Joyan, apparently. Sounds pretty cool, isn’t it?” said the female, as she separated the pieces of chopsticks. She’d recently picked up a new hobby for herself; learning new languages, in the hope of keeping herself occupied so that she doesn’t get bored to death and it seemed that her decision has paid off really well. Not only did she enjoyed having lessons learning a different language, but she would also even go out of her way to communicate with Joyan travelers and would often listen to their tales of adventures from their country. Now, the only question was how long would it take for her to forget everything she learnt.

The rose maiden dipped her spoon to enjoy the very first taste of the broth and instantly, she was blown away by how rich it tasted and found herself slurping at the noodles and the soup as though she had been starving for weeks. No wonder the shop was famous despite its minute size and the not-so-fancy environment. Once she had her fill, she sank back in her seat and rubbed her stomach as she released a long, content sigh. ”I’m so full, I can’t even move.” But, she’d still have room for dessert – always.

The red beauty groaned inwardly when Raquel suggested that they should get going to the appointed location. Venus wondered if she would even be able to perform combat with all that food inside her stomach. Perhaps their walk to the destination might end up being a little exercise, she thought, but that her expectations would soon fail when her eyebrows perked up in excitement upon the mention of ‘sweet’. She did like to enjoy her desserts after meals, after all. However, hardly did she get to react as Raquel dragged her away without bothering to wait for her response after they paid their meals.

Along the way, they’d drop by an ice-cream vendor and her choice would be vanilla and matcha in a cone. She would easily go for the chocolate flavour, but wanting to try something new, she decided to go for a change. By the time they arrived at the destination, dusk had already fallen. The last vestiges of the setting sun disappeared over the horizon, the copper hues giving way to a dusty purple scattered with the occasional glitter of a faraway star.

This time, instead of meeting one or two clients, the two mages would instead come to face a group of men instead, waiting for them fidgeting about as if they were nervous for what was about to come.

”I’m assuming you’re the Daeva Eye wizards. You’re just on time.”

Although the duo had shown up earlier than the scheduled time, the concerned looked on the men’s faces almost made it seemed as though they showed up a day late. Before she could begin saying anything, Raquel beat her to it only for the men to reply that the bandits had arrived and had already begun their rampage. As a result, these men with the inability to fight whatsoever had no other choice but to sit and watch until the two ladies came to their rescue. An exasperated sigh escaped her lips; it could’ve been that their plan backfired from their previous mission, though it wasn’t as if it was something they couldn’t handle.

”Alright, don’t worry. We’ll take care of it.”

Venus was a person who hardly cared about things that weren’t related to her – let alone consoling others – but she’d do her best to relieve these men from their worries, even if it was just a little bit before she hurried off into the direction they directed her towards. It seemed that these bandits tonight are going complete berserk, she wondered if they’d pissed off the nobleman due to the mages successfully fending them off from the shops and from the looks of it, the bandits didn’t look like they were stopping their rampage anytime soon; they might even ransack all the shops along the streets in this way.

Their numbers were larger this time around as well, that would prove difficult for them to defeat the bandits. But, she wouldn’t worry so far as much, she had a few tricks up her sleeve after all and she was arrogantly confident in her abilities not only as a Daeva Eye mage but a hunter-assassin of her own.

Venus extracted her sword from its scabbard, the flames burning to life so passionately; flames that described the entire being of herself – wild and fiery like her own personality. She held her sword horizontally even to her chest and a glimpse of the bright flames reflected in her crimson hues. The Siren disliked fighting in enclosed areas not only because she hardly has enough space to move but also because she could end up destroying things that she didn’t intend to with her massive blade, such as the entire building of the shop. Despite the midst of the battle, one of the bandits had the audacity to comment about how the previous batch of bandits lost against merely two girls.

”Funny how you brought a baseball bat to a sword fight,” mocked the female in return.

Thankfully, the bandits came outside to deal with them, which only meant that she would have more room for herself to go on a rampage without worrying about whether or not the shops would be burnt to crisp or frozen to ice. Whilst she distracted her enemies with a short conversation, Venus already had one of her weaker spells ready with the help of the ability of the scarf that allows her to cast spells in her stead. Spikes of ice shot forward upon her command and with a quick motion of her scarf, they would halt right in front of the man’s face, barely a few centimeters away.

”Say that again. Like you’d ever get to share a few drinks with us, you lowly heathen.”

The man gulped, but he was too prideful to admit that he feared for his life. Being the gang leader of the bandits, he certainly didn’t want to seem vulnerable or weak to his lackeys.

”H-Ha-Hah. Am I supposed to be scared because you threatened me?”

The fiery redhead chose to remain silent and instead of retorting back to an idiot like him, she plunged her right foot forward and broke into a lunge so fast that it would have been a mere blur to the naked eye. In less than a second, she would already be to the side of the bandits and by the time they noticed, she’d already have swung her sword mid-way slashing a few them from waist down.

A single swing of her sword would’ve taken down almost half of their numbers, due to her sheer strength and the force that she’d exerted behind her weapon. Either they were sliced up in half, or the flames would have set their asses on fire, causing a few of them to run away with their pants lit up on flames. She have to add that having her cloak was extremely useful in these situations, especially when she was unable to one-hand her weapon due to her lack of strength but with the ability of her robes, Venus could still go ham with her sword and also still cast her spells at the same time.

She lunged once again, closing the distance between herself and the remaining bandits, almost putting herself in the middle amongst all of them as her scarf touched the surface of the ground. The activation would cause the a magic glyph to be summoned, and a small ice patch would emerge on the ground, slowly spreading over the area around her in hardly just a second. Her enemies would barely have any time to react to the spell casted and even if they did, her sword was just right behind them to finish it up.

There were one or two who managed to escape the range of her spell and without even looking back once, they fled the scene while the rest would either be frozen to the core, defeated by her sword or drowned by Raquel’s water spells. Despite the overwhelming numbers, the two mages handled it much faster than she’d hoped. She’d leave the defeated ones into the hands of her clients to wrap it up. Whether they decide to toss them into prison or cook them alive would be none of her business. Approaching the men who watched the scene unfold in a group, she extended her open palm.

”Our money.”

Their job has done, after all, there was no need to beat around the bush and as a straightforward person, Venus always found it useful to be blunt about things. With a large back of jewels in her hands, she’d split the share with her partner and departed home to celebrate another successful day.