Meanwhile, Tessa kept stealing glances at Sabael, walking closer to him with her hands behind her back, a mischievous look in her eyes.

“So... You’re the first of Nana’s older brothers to become a Royal Guard instead of a fisherman?”

“Yes. I was the first in my family.”

Sabael was visibly avoiding her glances a bit and tried his best to keep a serious but polite tone.

“I see... Who trained you?”

“The Royal Guards all go through the same training at the Royal Academy. We learn to use the official weapons and can graduate as soon as three years later.”

“I bet you were one of the early ones.”

This time, Tessa’s confident response surprised him, enough that he dropped his serious look to finally stare at her in surprise.

“That... How did you know?”

“You have good, lean muscles. If you didn’t have any before your training, they would be much more shaped than that. I spent some time with my uncles’ warriors in the north, I know enough to recognize the changes someone’s body went through. Plus, your tribe’s people have a fish diet mostly, and you do a lot of physical tasks every day, from what we have seen so far. You probably already had the body for it, and just needed the training. With your kind of mindset, I’m sure you worked like crazy to prove even a fisherman’s son could make it as a Royal Guard.”

Sabael was left completely speechless. Everything in Tessa’s analysis was perfectly on point. After a second and realizing the idiotic expression he had on, he cleared his throat a little and averted his eyes. A bit too late though. The young woman had a smile on, her win written all over her face.

“So, uh... Is it common for women to fight in the Dragon Empire?”

“Not really,” shrugged Tessa. “It was my mom’s belief that women should know how to defend themselves, so she had my father teach me and my sister all we needed to know for self-defense, and I just liked it a lot. I wanted to learn more, so I went to the north to learn with my cousins. They are far better than me, though; I can’t measure up to them at all. They wouldn’t even fight me for fun... We have a very large camp in the north, it’s perfect for training. We do have more and more female soldiers now, though. The Empress has inspired many since she’s probably the second-best warrior in the Empire herself... Maybe Cessi’s brothers could beat her now since she’s stuck in the palace all day long.”

“What about the Princess?”

“Cessi? Oh, she hates fighting. She is just like her mom, though, she is good with plants, and a master healer already. While at the camp, she spent most of her time practicing on injured soldiers.”

Sabael nodded, his eyes going to Cessilia’s figure. The Princess looked very innocent in her gestures indeed, but she had a well-toned and defined body, although skinnier than her cousin. She definitely knew some rudiments of fighting as well, in Sabael’s opinion.

Next to him, Tessa frowned, a bit unhappy by the attention directed at her cousin instead of her. However, she didn’t have time to say anything. While between two buildings, men suddenly came out from streets ahead and behind them, swords in their hands, to block their paths. Immediately, the triplets moved, two of them in front of Cessilia and Nana, the last one at the rear. Sabael too drew his sword.

“What’s this?” scoffed Tessa, glancing at both sides. “An ambush?”

“Stay behind me, ladies,” said Sabael, very serious. “These felons are experts at trapping people like this and robbing them of their possessions.”

“You thought that gold wouldn’t catch some attention?!” scoffed one of them. “Leave your possessions and the Dragon girls here and perhaps we will let the rest of you leave.”

“Wait, what do you want us for?” exclaimed Tessa, putting a hand on her hip.

“The Dragon people have ravaged our Empire! We shall kill you and send your guts back to your wretched Empire!”

“...You do realize the two of us weren’t even born back then, right?” scoffed Tessa.

“We heard you call the other woman Princess! A member of the Imperial Family, here!”

Tessa glanced up at where the voices had come from. There were four more men on the roofs... She grimaced, annoyed that she had missed them. On the other side, Cessilia pushed Nana behind her, glaring at the men present.

“Cessilia, Nana, make sure you stay against the wall! Hey, handsome, how many of those do you think you can handle? Need my help?”

“I can fend for myself!” retorted Sabael, immediately outraged. “I don’t need a girl protecting me.”

“I’m a woman, love. You’d better remember that for later. What about you, triplets?” she asked, swirling her swords in her hands and moving to the front of their group.

“We can defend ourselves and the Princess, but we are not used to frontal battles...” admitted Nupia.

So those three were assassins more than fighters. As expected of the King’s spies, thought Tessa. Still, she swung her swords once more before getting into position.

“Cessi, stay right where you are, okay?”

“D-don’t k-kill them, T-Tessa,” said Cessilia, visibly worried. “We c-can’t k-kill people here...”

“I know,” said her cousin with a smile. “After all, it’s our first day here, it wouldn’t be very... courteous.”

Just like that, Tessa didn’t wait one more second and jumped on the men ahead, incredibly fast.

Naptunie was worried but before she could panic even more, a hand appeared to cover her eyes.

“It will b-be over soon,” gently muttered Cessilia’s voice.

Nana grabbed her hand for comfort but didn’t push it away. She couldn’t see, but she could hear some of what was going on. Indeed, things were going extremely fast in that little alley. Following Cessi’s instruction, Tessa was careful not to kill those men, although she knew those ruffians wouldn’t have this much restraint toward her. Still, this was an easy fight for her. Using the flat part of Darsan’s blades, she quickly made sure to knock the men out, or send them flying toward the wall opposite her cousin. She grimaced when the second man’s skull made a sickening sound.

“I forgot their walls are made of harder stones...” she grimaced.

She didn’t have time to check if he was alive or dead. The four men on the roof jumped down and Tessa moved to be ready to welcome them, glancing to the side to check the rest of her surroundings. As promised, the triplets were doing a decent job of protecting Cessilia, Nana, and the cart. At the rear of their group, Sabael was just as impressive. His style was definitely a bit stiffer, and following some precise movements, Tessa could have learned just from observing him, but he was doing a great job against those inexperienced men. She smiled, a bit enticed by the sweat on his biceps, his serious expression, and his sharp attacks.

Sadly, she didn’t have much time to gaze at Sabael’s superb figure during this fight; a fraction of a second later, another sword was thrown at her, and she had to focus to block it.

“You guys are ruining our first date,” she hissed at them.

Pissed, she was even more dangerous and faster too. Tessa perfectly balanced her fighting style between the two swords of her cousin, while keeping a feminine elegance to her moves, flying and spinning around as if it was a deadly dance. In fact, Cessilia noted with amusement what her cousin missed: the couple of times Sabael glanced her way, probably more impressed than he’d be willing to admit. More enemies had appeared in front, and since he was supported by one of the triplets, his fights were over before Tessa’s. That allowed him a few seconds to observe her perfect twin-swords fighting skills before she finished, not a graze on her, and all her enemies knocked out on the ground. Tessa slowly caught her breath and removed some of her hair from her cheeks, where they were stuck by sweat. She glanced back up, watching out for more thieves on the roof, but everything seemed quiet.

“I think it’s over,” she said to Nana and Cessilia. “Those idiots... To think they’d be able to attack us. If one of my cousins had been here, they’d be dead!”

Cessilia lowered her hand and Naptunie dared to look around, still a bit afraid. She wasn’t used to violence at all; in fact, it scared her a lot just watching her older brother train. She was thankful Cessilia had covered her eyes in time. She took several deep breaths while the Princess walked over to the men, looking at their unconscious bodies.

“T-Tessa, you used a lot of s-strength,” she noted, glancing at the one knocked out against the wall.

“It’s Darsan’s swords,” grimaced Tessa. “They are heavier than I’m used to, I need to use more strength to wield them, and without thinking I... Oh, well. At least we managed not to kill them... I think. What do you want to do, handsome? Shall we tie them up and bring them to your post or whatever?”

“No need,” Sabael shook his head. “We don’t arrest people here, we just... try to stop them like this.”

“...Excuse me, they tried to rob us,” protested Tessa. “Isn’t there some sort of judgment that’s supposed to happen? Are all your prisons full or something? If it was the Dragon Empire, they would not just get to walk away like that! ...When they wake up that is. Cessi, can you check if that guy is alive? I’m freaking out a little...”

Cessillia chuckled, but walked to the man to check if he was still breathing. He would have a very serious headache at the very least... Sabael sighed.

“We’re in the Outer Capital, there isn’t much we can do here. If we had been on the other side of the wall, sure, but... there are just too many criminals here. We don’t arrest them anymore, since we discovered some people got arrested on purpose to get to the other side. Normally, we kill them right on the spot if they really are dangerous and citizens are encouraged to... defend themselves by any means too. Since we knocked them out, though, I don’t think we should kill them now... I think they are mere thieves, lured by the Princess’ gold.”