"What!?  You... you're dead!  I... killed you and got... paid.  That's how it's supposed to... work!"<br/><br/>Oscar's sight was fixed on Ysena moving up, and the forces to the south barely registered as even remotely dangerous.  All he saw was an almost naked girl and a dandy of a footslogger leading the charge, what threat could they possibly pose to a seasoned veteran like him?  But in an instant the favor of the goddess turned against him.  His forward guard took some arrows in the cracks of his poor armor and fell to a little girl that dared to reveal herself to him, something which hardly bothered or likely threatened him, but the distant silhouette of a dragon rising from the town ahead drew his attention.  A turncoat's lance in the gut later and he was standing on his last bit of strength.  How humiliating was it that the girls he dismissed, the dancer and the flower on the pegasus, ended up charging forward and finished him off together?  And he was so close to giving that damned Ysena her comeuppance.  At least no one else was alive to see his shameful death...<br/><br/><div align="center"><strong>Chapter 1 End</strong></div><br/>----<br/><br/>Aurich was concerned when he saw a flash of white dash forward ahead of him.  The wyvern knight he wasn't too concerned about - a heavily armed soldier on a beast of war was more than able to care for himself - but the Lady of Laplace was no lady of war.  What spirit she had was enough to knock a few arrows and punish her foes from afar, but she was still a frail girl on a frail creature better placed at the head of a parade than the front line.  And if this exposure unnerved him a little, the dancer's disregard for her own safety put him entirely off balance.  She was exposing herself in more ways than one already.  He had no choice but to rush to her side once more and putting himself between them and the remaining soldiers to the north.<br/><br/>If it was proper to congratulate the two for working together and killing two armed soldiers against all odds, the situation at hand demanded otherwise.  On the road ahead a cloud of dust had been kicked up, and another armed band of soldiers was headed their way.  The axes that had been hacking at their mutual enemy now turned in their direction while several arrows were threateningly aimed their way.  They were cordial enough to at least hold fire, but what truly confused him was the figure they all seemed to take their cues from.  Yet another woman.  If he had trouble trying to keep the mostly-naked dancer and frail princess out of harm's way, he had an even greater trial in getting over the sight of a girl no older than the others brandishing a menacing axe in their direction.  They weren't with the men occupying the manor at the very least, but they didn't seem to be friendly with their show of force.<br/><br/>"You threaten the lady of the estate, sellsword!" he shouted past the end of his lance leveled at the woman in the yellow cloak.  "I pray you to be better... men... than the ones we just fought together!"