A/ing Sophia some new clothes~

  -x-X-x-

  Shopping doesn’t take long, but that’s because this isn’t Twenty-First tury Earth. There’s ment stores with their own dressing rooms for the Minoddess he’s currently guarding to slip in and out of as she tries on multiple outfits. Thankfully.

  The er of Oren’s mouth curls up slightly at that errant thought and he shakes his head in amusement even as he waits patiently for Sophia to finish getting dressed. Just because there were no dressing rooms didn’t mean a goddess of all people was going to be willing to ge in some back alley or out in the woods.

  Luckily, they’d won more than enough off of ‘the Gentleman’ to be able to purchase a single room at airely different tavern oher side of Amberwell, even if they probably wouldn’t be staying the night. Indeed, by pying things close to his chest, Oren had been able to ultimately sweep that card game, just as he knew he would.

  Should he have told Sophia the pn ahead of time? Perhaps. It wasn’t like he took any pleasure in makihink he was risking her freedom on a single hand of cards. That was why he’d tried to bet his own services to begin with, after all. Oren had certainly noticed the way Grays was looking at Sophia and reized the lust iher man’s eyes… but he was never going to let anything happen to her. Not while he still drew breath.

  Truthfully, the real reason Oren hadn’t told her just how much of a sure thing it all was… was because he didn’t wao get attached. She already had some level of affe towards him for saving her life, but it was tempered by the knowledge that he was an Otherworlder, something of a boogeyman in the eyes of a goddess like her.

  It would be even worse if she found out he wasn’t just an Otherworlder, but the God Killer who killed her father and everyone she’d ever known and loved. Obviously, Oren wasn’t intending on her finding out, but it heless made him feel rather scummy to keep such a secret from her. Esc her to safety art of his penance… but making sure she had little reason to like him just felt like good sense.

  After all, he wasn’t going to stick around ohey made it to the refuge. Once he was certain she was safe and nobody was going to find her, he would make his excuses a… likely after finding a way to turn down any rewards she wao give him. And that would be the end of it.

  Until then, Oren would do everything in his power to prevent Sophia from developing any further affe towards him. He would-

  The door he’s standing guard in front of suddenly creaks open, disrupting Oren from his thoughts. Blinking, he turns to see one of the Minoddesses’ unnaturally brilliant blue eyes peeking out at him.

  “Ah… I’m done ging.”

  Oren raises an eyebrow, causing Sophia to blink and then blush lightly before pulling the door open further. He steps inside of the room as her close it behind him before turning tard her.

  “Well? W-What do you think?”

  He thinks… this will have to do. Gone is the tiara and jewelry of course. Those are still in their bag of winnings with his supplies. In pce of the tiara, Sophia’s previously flowing blonde locks have been pulled up into a bun and hidden under a somewhat unattractive bro with ear fps to protect from the cold. This is good because Sophia’s shade of blonde is not a natural mortal hair color, not ba Earth and not here in this world either.

  Going further down, the white sleeveless dress she’d had on with its low cut and plenty of cleavage has been repced by brown as well. Wearing a leather brow over a leather tunic, Sophia’s somerodigal bust has been hidden away, though the size of her chest is still obvious to anyone who sees her from the side or spends a few moments staring at her. It is what it is.

  Likewise, down below the goddess has switched to brown trousers too, and brown boots instead of those high heels she was wearing previously.

  It’s… a lot of brown. But then, that’s sort of the point. Before, Sophia was so obviously a goddess it was holy painful. Not just because she naturally exuded an unnatural diviy, but because her garments and jewelry were clearly out of this world in terms of quality.

  Now though… well, the unnatural beauty is still there. Sophia’s face is still perfect, her eyes still inhumanly bright, and her body sculpted in a way that’s meant to draw the eye like nothing else. But without the uhly garments, she’s mostly just very, very pretty instead of unnaturally geous.

  “I think you go out in public without the cloak like this.”

  Sophia brightens, puffing up in pride as if she’s pulled off some grand disguise… instead of simply exging divine clothes for mortal ones and hiding a couple of her more promi deific features. Oren holds back the urge to snort derisively at her pleased expression, even as he moves to gather up her shimmering white dress and heels and tuck them away in his satchel.

  His charge watches him do so in silence for a moment, but once he’s done she starts to speak.

  “So what-?”

  But before she get the word ‘now’ out, Oren stiffens up and twitches, his head turning to the side as his hearing picks up voices oreet outside of the tavern. Sophia picks up on his shift in attention immediately of course and falls quiet even as Oren frowns and makes his way over to the nearby window.

  What he sees outside… well, he wishes he could say it was surprising, but it’s not.

  “What is it?”

  “The Gentleman’s men have beeed to our presence here. They seem to be setting up a perimeter.”

  Sophia gasps in shock, even as Oren siders their options for a moment before nodding decisively.

  “e here.”

  “What… what are you going to do?”

  To her credit, Sophia does as he says aantly walks over to him even as she asks that question. Once again, Oren siders tellihe pn… and once agaiosses that idea aside in favor of maintaining the slight disdain he’s been trying to foster in her sihey began this journey.

  Instead of words, Oren answers with as, reag over and snatg Sophia by the waist even as he makes sure their things are hooked over his shoulder securely. The Minoddess yelps but falls silent as he proceeds to open the window in front of them… and thehrough it with his hand c Sophia’s mouth.

  The jump does cause an abortive scream to erupt from the goddess’ lips, but its mostly muffled thanks to his forethought and a momehe two of them nd on the roof of the building across the street from the tavern. Ore stop there, keeping them moving so nobody down below has a ce to see them (hopefully) as he proceeds to jump from roof to roof.

  Amberwell really is a det town in spite of its ck of a fighting pit. The buildings aren’t tightly packed together or anything like that… but for someone as strong as Oren, it doesn’t matter. He’s like a fug superhero… a genocidal maniac of a superhero.

  After a couple minutes of roof hopping, Oren finally reaches his destination… the edge of town. Specifically, the edge of town that has a stables sitting on it. Leaping down behind a building out of view of anyone, Oren finally removes his hand from Sophia’s mouth as go of her, tilting his head to the side.

  “Sorry.”

  He really is sorry, though he makes sure his tone is just a little off… just a little fake. He’s expeg the goddess to be mad at him and is ready for her to either unto a tirade or decide to give him the silent treatment. What he’s NOT expeg is for her to look back the way they came with a ptive expression on her face.

  “… You could have killed those men without breaking a sweat both back at the card game and then now again at the tavern. A both times you avoided flict as best as possible… this sed time far more fervently than the first.”

  Oren raises an eyebrow, feeling like he should be a little insulted.

  “I don’t necessarily want to engage in wanton sughter if I help it, Goddess.”

  Of course, even as he delivers those words in as dry a tone as he manage, he internally winces. Given his past… well, saying something like that was rather hypocritical, wasn’t it? A, Sophia eats it up. She even looks guilty and goes so far as to bow her head in his dire.

  “O-Of course… apologies, I’m beginning to realize my biases towards Otherworlders are unfairly c my perception of you, Oren. I will strive to do better going forward.”

  Oh for fuck’s sake. On the one hand, he supposed he was stupid for expeg anything less from a Minoddess of Wisdom. Introspe and self-awareness were kind of her bread and butter, weren’t they? But oher hand he ’t help but be ahat his pn to make her hate him is somehow backfiring on him. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

  Not sure what to say at this point, Oren just grunts instead and turns his attention to their objective… namely, acquiring mounts so they get out of town and ba the road.

  “e o’s get some horses a out of here before the Gentleman’s men find us and force the issue.”

  Sophia blinks at that and looks over at the stables they’re within spitting distance of as if she’s just now realizing why they’re here. Blushing, the goddess bites her lower lip and fiddles with the bottom of her leather vest.

  “Um… I’ve never ridden a horse before, I’m afraid. We didn’t have mueed for them up in the Heavens.”

  Oh for the love of…

  “Fine. One horse. You’ll have to ride with me.”

  Better that than risking the nigh-powerless divinity somehow falling off her own horse aing trampled us hooves. Good lord, who krying to keep a single deity alive after killing so many of them would be so fug hard?!

  -x-X-x-

  Gentleman Grays was not a man who was used to being told ‘no’. Nor was he a man who did not ofte his way. He wasn’t the mayor of Amberwell… but that was only because the position was eoo much work and he much preferred to be the power behind the ‘throne’ so to speak.

  That was all to say, it had been a long, long time since he’d been disrespected in his own ‘house’. Somehow, that man must have cheated. You didn’t just win it big like that right at the end with everything on the lihis wasn’t a damn storybook, somehow he’d pulled a fast one on Grays. Normally, Grays would be impressed by someone pulling off such a high stakes … but sihe victim in this case had been HIM, he was just infuriated.

  Unfortunately, he’d been so shocked by his loss that he hadn’t reacted until the man and his woman were already out of the room. Aher had any of his meher, the idiotic lot of them. They’d just… let those two go, like it erfectly fine for a strao walk into HIS tavern and sit down at HIS table and win that much of HIS money.

  Fortunately, all was not lost. Grays had eyes all over Amberwell, and his men had been able to locate the pair in no time. First, they’d tracked their trail down to a store that sold all manner of goods, where the shopkeeper had informed them that the strangers had bought clothes for the woman of all things.

  Then, from there, they’d mao follow the trail all the way to aavern oher side of the town, where the tavernkeeper had assured his men that both the man and woman were still upstairs. As soon as he’d received word of that, Grays had sent orders for them to be taken and brought before him.

  Sure, maybe he should have waited until it was nighttime to at least keep up appearances… but these were strangers. Nobody in Amberwell khem and nobody would miss them if they… disappeared. Besides, Grays wanted his money back. Immediately.

  Any moment now, his men would walk through that door with the man and woman in tow. Any moment now, he would have his back… ao decide what to do with such a pretty woman to boot. Yes, any moment-

  The doors to his tavern open up and Grays’ lips curl up into a wide smile… before immediately dropping back down when his men troop in with heads down and nothing to show for their troubles. Snarling, Grays smashes a meaty fist into a nearby wooden pilr before stomping over.

  “What the fuck is this?! Where are the two I sent you to get?”

  “They… t-they weren’t there, boss.”

  What? Grays zeroes in on the one foolish enough to speak, moving to tower over him.

  “Excuse me? I gave you orders to subdue them immediately. What the fuck do you mean they weren’t there?”

  Swallowing nervously, the man looks around for help… but nobody meets his eyes.

  “ent up to the room as soon as you told us too, boss! Promise! But by the time we got up there… it was empty! The windoen too!”

  Ahug pipes up.

  “I’m tellin’ ya, I think they climbed up out of the window and up onto the roof!”

  “We CHECKED the roof, numbskull! There was nobody hiding up there! And we had our perimeter up as well, so there’s no way they climbed down in the bad ran off that way… we would have seen them!”

  “Yeah I ain’t saying they did! After they got up onto the roof, they leapt to another roof, obviously!”

  “The jump to the roof was thirty fug feet away! That’s not possible!”

  “Well then you tell me how they got away!”

  “I don’t fug know, I-!”

  “ENOUGH!”

  Gentleman Grays’ bellowing voice stops the building argument in its tracks. He glowers at his men, more than ready to dole out some punishments for their sheer inpete this point. Especially si sounded like his actual prey was well and truly in the wind. However… before he speak, an unfamiliar voice suddenly cuts through the silence like a bde.

  “Iing…”

  Everyourns towards the man dumb enough to speak after the Gentleman has called for silence, including Grays himself. What he sees is someone cloaked all in bck, covered in it from head to toe. The hooded figure tilts his head to the side.

  “The trail leads here. A man and a woman came through here, didn’t they? From the sound of things, they left quite the impression. Tell me about them.”

  Tch, Grays didn’t know who this fucker thought he was, but he wasn’t about to be disrespected in his own damablishment twi one day. Still, from the sound of things, maybe he could make use of this. Stepping forward, he spreads his arms wide in a friendly greeting.

  “Wele, friend! Sounds to me like to we might have business with the same people. Perhaps-urk!”

  It happens so fast that Grays ’t even track it. One moment the hooded figure is a dozen paces away… the he’s in Grays’ personal spad all the Gentleman knows is pain. Looking down, he sees the end of a dagger thiough to almost be a shortsword before him… the rest of it buried in his throat.

  The newer yanks his bde bad Gentleman Grays falls back, choking on his own blood and holding a hand to his o try stave off death.

  “Tell me about them.”

  This time the question is directed at everyone else iavern… and much to Grays’ impotent anger, rather than rush to his defense or to avenge him, his men fall all over themselves telling the stranger everything they remember, every detail they think of, including the man and woman’s description.

  … Not that it saves them. The st thing Grays sees before he dies is this ranger cutting through his men like a scythe through wheat, sughtering them all. As the Gentleman’s vision fades and so does his life, he feels some small amount of satisfa that at least those ungrateful, unfaithful idiots got their just desserts…

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: "Someone else trying to take my position of minor antagonist? I don't think so!" - Shadowy Figure, presumably.

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