Mercenaries (Cinny+Riohorse+TwistedFate)

Ace was fully concentrated on winning the game of poker…not that he was worried. As a card mage he could simply change his cards to win. He only faintly noticed some little girl talking to him and looked at his opponent without a single facial expression. This is going waaaaaaaay to easy he thought as he changed everything to its rightful suit. No one has ever beaten him at cards and how could they! The money the two bet with was surely his, but he feigned a few losses so that it wouldn’t be noticed. Again a girl’s voice sounded beside him, but this time there was one set of words that got his attention “10 k Jewels”. His eyes widened and he looked to the girl. She was short and seemed very young…too young for him…scrunching his eyebrows he steadily looked into the girls eyes whilst light a cigarette he had been chewing on “10 k Jewels you say? Well I’m in!” turning to his opponent he showed his cards and said in his strong southern accent “By the way: Royal Straight Flush…” That much money was twice the money he had gotten for the D-Rank job he had taken on earlier and it brought him ever so closer to his dream. He finished his smoke and tossed the bud to some corner. “Well what are you waitin for loser? Get up your lazy ass and get goin! Money and a smile of a content customer awaits us! Now move it!”

Freya frowned and stuck her tongue out concentrating on the card game, squinting at the cards in front her looking up and watching the little Rune Knight curiously and she scuttled around before placing a C-rank job request on the table, she laughed quiet and smiled at the girl "sure why not, it's not like I'm going to win this game of cards anyway, beside I want to see a fellow Rune Knight and family to the earth, let alone a dragon slayer in action" she said smiling at the girl glad to finally get to see her us her magic, wondering how similar it was to her own. She dropped her cards on the table frowning as she pushed her lost bet over to Ace and standing up following Aiiko out the door humming softly to herself, excited about the prospect of going on another job. Freya wondered what magic Ace used being relatively new to the Rune Knights and the fact hat she didn't some much time in their headquarters she didn't know too much about her fellow membs and what magic they used, she had heard a conversation about the little dragonslayer and only paid attention because she was the earth dragonslayer "So were are we headed I didn't see where we are supposed to go on the job request" she said hoping someone else had so they knew where they were going. she walked along the path they were following her boots clacking comfortingly looking around wonderingif either her companions would strike up some conversation.

As the three Rune Knights walked the streets toward the target location, the small girl asked for introductions. Ace tried not to talk with his southern accent but to no avail “The name’s Ace, Ace Cards the card card master. Pleasure to meet y’all!” He took of his hat and held it over his heart as he took a light bow to the two women. “And you two perty ladies would be?”
The little girl seemed to be awestruck when they arrived at the castle, gazing at the large structure as though it was some new planet. A cloaked man bumped into her, apologized quickly then hastily went about the rest of his business. There was something off about that man…Ace could feel his instincts from the streets acting up once more, sensing imminent danger. This sense triggered his protective fatherly instinct in the presence of such a young girl. The mage was determined to keep her out of harm’s way no matter who she was or how powerful…it was his unspoken duty in his mind.
Soon enough they finally reached the castle gates and the girl in all her awe walked straight into a wall. Ace chuckled quietly at the sight but said no more. A quick glance to the side showed that his other companion shared his opinion. The guards on the other hand kept their strained, plain cold face and denied them entry before the three had shown their marks.
Past the gate was a large square decorated with rose bushes, flower beds and distinct trees that bloomed flowers unknown to him. “B-E-A-utiful! This place looks fuckloads better than my place! How much you think this place cost?” he asked his mages as they tread through the square towards a small terrace. On that terrace sat a lady in an extravagant dress, sipping tea whilst reading a book. It took all his might NOT to flirt with the client…

Freya smiled at the girls antics, suprised at how she could have so much happy bubbly energy, she was glad the girl knew where they were going. She turned to the girl introducing herself as Freya and the small snake coiled around her hair as Orochi "I'm Freya and this is Orochi, nice to meet you" . Freya smiled at the southern accent, the cowboy hat made sense now she thought. Freya looked up at the Royal castle her mouth dropping in slightly at the massive structure, it really was a site to behold, it made the Rune Knight headquaters look dismall in comparison "It's much larger than I expected" she said trying to hide her awe, glad to see the little girl felt the same, but didn't hide it.

Freya narrowed her eyes at the cloaked man who bumped into Aiko, wanting to go after knowing how ignoring a suspicious figure often led to tricky situations as she found out when she help Aldous to divert the flood. She started to step towards the figure but he had already disappeared behind some buildings, Freya grumbled to herself but turned back to the castle. She automatically tensed up as she saw the number of guards lurking around, telling herslef she had every right to be here but they still put her on edge. As they walked through the gates into a court yard Freya gasped suprised her eye lighting up as she looked around at the all the amazing flowers and trees she sighed this place sure would be amazing to live in, she didn't dare imagine what the inside of the castle looked like. Freya finally notice a women sitting on a chair in the garden guessing she must be the person who put of the job, she walked over to the women and smiled "You must be our client, I'm Freya, this is Ace and Aiko" she said gesturing to her companions.

Ace gave Aiiko a slight nudge to snap her out of her apparent awe. The client’s language was a surprising contrast to his own; a refined, polite British accent on her side and a vulgar southern accent on his part. Not wanting to offend the polite woman he kept silent through the whole conversation, leaving his partners to deal with all arrangements.
The decision was made to split up and take different parts of the house. As his partner headed in different directions he simply made his way towards a man who looked like the supervisor in his swallow-tailcoat suit. Keeping himself hidden was something Ace was a master of and he knew just how: get a job as a butler. Of course this was only a guise to keep a close watch on the client’s husband.
“Hey there!”
“How may I help you, Sir?” the man politely replied.
“Well you see…you know about the hits on your master right?”
“Yes…”
“Well, his wife hired me as a secret guard. My idea was for you to get me one of those fancy-shmancy suits and get me as close as possible to him. We think there might be another hit on him today!”
Wide eyed the supervisor looked at the mage “Dear god! Follow me Sir! I shall get you outfitted right away!” As he led Ace down a maze of corridors and rooms they finally arrived at a room that seemed to be the employee quarters. Hastily the supervisor picked out a suit from a large wall closet and urged Ace to put it on. In addition he groomed the mage’s hair and bound it in a ponytail. Next was Ace’s beard…as the man approached Ace with a razor the mage could do nothing but shed a few meager tears for his beard. At the end of the process Ace was almost unrecognizable, only his accent could give him away. It was great that he had this great opportunity and with his con-artist skills Ace was sure to fool the man...and he hoped for success as he sacrified his beard for the job!

Freya smiled to herself at Aikos amazement at her posh british accent, well Mrs Strauss was royalty after all it wasn't much of a suprise. Freya sat down next to Aiko leaning forward expectantly bouncing slightly on the couches soft cushions. She politely declined the offer of tea or coffee not wanting to waste anytime when her husband was in danger. She nodded so all they needed to do was protect her husband without getting caught, it seemed easy enough but not getting caught could be a problem especially if she ran in one of the assisions which could be rather noisy. She stood up and smiled at Mrs Strauss "Don't worry Mrs Strauss we'll keep your husband safe" she said smiling comfortingly as she walked off looking as Ace walked over to what looked like one of the castle butlers, well he definetly had the right idea. She decided she might see if she could land a position as a maid or the gardener she thought eying the garden appreciativly wondering if that's what Aiko wanted seeing as they were both earth type mages, she decided she better go for the maid job seeing as Aiko was the youngest out of the three and she didn't want her having to slave away.

Freya walked up to a door to what looked like the kitchen knockning on the door and grinning at the cook who answered it "Hi I'm here for the maid position" she said the cook gave her a suspicious look "Don' kno bout no maid position" the cook said, Freya smiled "I'm a Rune Knight hired to protect Mrs Strauss' husband under cover, the maid position is how I'm going to do it" she said a hard edge in her tone as she looked at the cook. The plump women frowned but called out to a girl around Freyas age who came trotting over "Get this girl into a maids outfit and tidied up" the cook said briskly, Freya smiled sweetly and followed the girl who gave her a maids outfit to wear and started to plait her hair down her back. The maid girl screamed in suprise as she grabbed the snake entwined in Freya's hair, gasping and running back into the kitchen. Freya sighed and stroked her snakes head "Some people huh Orochi?" she said sighing as she grabbed a duster lying around and started to work her way up the corrider dusting the elaborate paintings as she went humming softly to herself, wondering if she would see Ace doing his butler duties.