Skeletal Dragon Avatar

The guardsmen of Kel

Matt walked back to the bar but showed a frown when he arrived, the front door was wide open and someone was shouting inside

“Hey! Bring me some ale!”

Matt sighed before he walked up to the open door and took a look, inside the bar was 3 people wearing matching but poorly maintained metal armor, they were sitting around a table while shouting at Lilly, Matt sighed before he knocked on the open door as he spoke up with a fake smile on his face

“Oh, we got customers?”

Naturally, the guards didn’t take kindly to being interrupted

“Who the fuck are you!?”

Matt’s smile widened as he walked in and placed the paper bag with bread on the table before he turned to the 3 guards and spoke

“Lilly told me that you 3 have quite the tap running… We would like you to pay up or get the fuck out of here”

The guards looked at each other before they all broke out in mocking laughter, then one of them stood up and placed a hand on the hilt of his sword before he asked

“Yeah, we have quite the tap running, we protect the citizens, so isn’t it natural that they should pay us back a bit?”

Matt laughed out loud too before he asked

“So, you guys aren’t getting paid? Your beer guts and flabby checks are a result of what exactly?”

The guards paused before one of them spoke

“Be careful what you say, you brat”

“What? Hit a little too close to home?”

The guard standing closest to Matt exchanged glances with the other 3 before he walked over and patted Matt on the shoulder before he attempted to force Matt down on his knees, Matt naturally didn’t bend to such little strength and showed a smile to the guard before he brushed his hand off his shoulder and spoke

“Level 2? Is that all you got?”

Then he mimicked the guard and placed his hand on his shoulder before he applied pressure and with a slam the guard was forced to his knees, the other guards stood up at once and glared at Matt, though a slight fear was visible in their eyes, Matt’s smile widened before he asked

“So… Do you want to pay your tap in coin… Or your cores?”

The guards were in terror for a bit before one of them let out a nervous laugh and spoke in a slightly shaking voice

“W-We’re part of the city guard, y-y-you don’t dare kill us!”

Matt showed a smile before he used both his hands to slowly, carefully and almost gently twist the neck of the guardsman that was on his knees in front of him, the guardsman called out in horror and fear, though a loud snap soon made his body limp and interrupted his speech, then Matt let go of his corpse and watched it fall to the floor before he turned to the other 2 and asked

“You were saying?”

Lilly that had been so far an onlooker to this whole episode suddenly began speaking

“What? Are you surprised?”

The guards and Matt looked over at Lilly that continued

“No? How could you be surprised, you merely spilled a little blood while you have been sucking the lifeblood out of me for the best part of a year now! I’ll echo Matt’s question, are you paying your tap with coin or your cores!?”

Lilly heaved her breath for a few moments before she continued

“How many times have you humiliated me!? How many times have you scared off real customers!? Did you take me for a slave that only followed orders!? Did you not think that I would get even at some point!?”

-

After a while, the 2 guards were seen running out of the bar, feeling in terror from Matt and Lilly, Lilly had a satisfied looked on her face as she weighed the coin purse in her hand as she spoke

“Who could have guessed that they had so much coin on them… I’ll go ahead and count this, Matt, could you take out the trash?”

Matt showed a smile and grabbed the neck of the dead guardsman and brought it back into an inner courtyard where he stripped the corpse of its armor, weapon and core before he carried it through a side ally and threw it on the street in front of the bar before he walked in from the front entrance and spoke out to Lilly

“I am back”

Lilly raised her head and quickly called out to Matt

“Ah, welcome back Matt, come you have to see this!”

Matt walked over to the counter and saw 4 neat stacks of coin, he didn’t see the interesting part in it, so he asked Lilly

“This is?”

“They must have shaken down some big merchant right before they came here, look at the coin, this is not a Republic of Kel coin, this is a coin from the Yil empire!”

“Yil Empire?”

“Yeah, it’s worth 3 times as much as a regular gold coin! They must not have known the difference, else they would never have parted with it…”

Matt was about to ask how Lilly knew the difference but decided against it, he had his secrets too, so instead he asked

“So what do we do now?”

“Hmm…”

Lily brushed her black bangs out of her face as she started hard at the coin on the table, then she took one of the gold coins up from the top and stuffed it in her pocket as she spoke

“This one goes to my pocket, while these two…”

Lilly picked up another two Yil empire coins and handed them to Matt

“They go to you, and then these 4 should be enough to restock the bar… Then what about the rest?”

The two of them looked at the 8 coins that were left on the counter, Matt could take them and ditch Lilly, but he still had some of his morals so he wouldn’t do that, instead he suggested

“We don’t have to spend them right away… Let’s hide them away upstairs?”

Lilly let out a few unladylike sounds before she finally agreed

“...Yeah, that’s properly for the best…”

Matt showed a smile and tried to further convince Lilly

“It’s not like we can’t spend the coin at a later date”

“...Fine, let’s save it for a later date then”

Lilly sighed as she looked at the coin on the table, that amount was less than what she would spend on a day of shopping before that incident, then she let out a sigh and looked over at Matt which made a small smile creep up on her face as she thought

‘Humph, Matt’s better than any suitor father could ever find for me’

With that thought, Lilly cheered up somewhat and decided to keep a firm hold on Matt, literally and figuratively as she took his hand and spoke to him

“Come Matt, let’s go stock up on goods before we have to open later”

Matt nodded and followed after her out of the bar, after Lilly locked the door the two of them walked out towards the walls a good while before they arrived at a warehouse district, there Lilly bartered with a merchant for the best part of an hour before Matt got the honor of lifting the crate with goods back to the bar, Matt let out a sigh and lifted the crate that were 1 by 1 meter big up on his shoulder with ease before he walked back to the bar with Lilly that started to complain about the spirits merchant as soon as they were a few buildings away, Matt gave a few off-hand remarks that she wanted to hear as they made their way back to the bar… Where a group of guardsmen stood outside and waited for them, one of which pointed to Matt and spoke

“There, that’s him captain”

Matt showed a smile as one of the guardsmen walked forwards towards him, his armor was decorated with engravings, and he looked more like a young noble than a guardsman, he sized up Matt for a moment before he showed a friendly smile and spoke

“You must be Matt”

Matt put down the crate before he nodded, then the guard's captain continued speaking

“I am here to apologize for the rude behavior of my men, I’ll have you know that they have been punished for their behavior… I am here with a friendly offer for you, Matt”

Matt’s smile widened slightly as he asked

“The kind I can’t refuse?”

The guard’s captain shook his head

“No, you are free to refuse… It’s just you might want to leave the city if you do… You know, for your own safety”

Matt didn’t look intimidated at all and simply asked

“What’s this offer, then?”

The guard’s captain showed a friendly smile and spoke

“I won’t ask you to join the guardsmen, if that’s what you are thinking… I would like to invite you to join the slum patrol team”