Hi guys! I was grounded for a while plus I was sick.

You know how that is

Without further crap, we continue.

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Arno woke up, went downstairs, and began to make his breakfast.

Then he remembered his uninvited guest.

He gazed out the window, looking for her in the oak tree. Sure enough, there she was. Still asleep. At 5 in the morning? Arno chuckled.

He went outside, taking care to not make any noise. She was but an initiate, but he was still determined not to underestimate her after the last messenger… The one who put a gunshot in his table.

He climbed the tree, until he was behind her. He always enjoyed giving the new initiates a scare. He extended his hidden blade in front of her throat. It made a clicking noise that gave him away.

"THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, INITIATE?"

"I… Please don't kill me!"

"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION, MISSY!"

"I want to speak to Arno Dorian!"

"Old bastard's been dead for years. Us Templars killed him… And now, we're going to kill you!"

Harper screamed and fell out of the tree. Arno laughed. "Good morning initiate! Give me the message and be on your way."

Harper got up, dusting her robes off. "Rude!" The ignorant man was still laughing his arse off as well…

"I don't have a message! Are you the groundskeeper?"

"…Why would a groundskeeper have a hidden blade?"

"Tom told me! He said there was a groundskeeper who he saw burying alive a lady out here! And he had a hidden blade! And"-

"Tom wears blue robes, does he?"

"…Yes…"

"Always seemed like the lying type. I remember him. He carried the message about the retirement protection of the assassins."

Harper narrowed her eyes. She would say she didn't give a damn and get on with business, but that would be rude. "I need to be trained by Arno Dorian."

Arno smiled.

It turned into a toothy grin. He laughed.

"But…" Harper was now pissed off.

She marched up to Arno and tried to grab him by the collar, but he swatted her hand off, still laughing.

There was a silence as Arno took a breath.

"Oh. You're not kidding?"

Harper screamed in frustration and kicked the dirt.

Arno now looked a bit confused. "Why'd you want to learn from an old codger like me?"

Harper's expression was neutral. In other words rage cannot be expressed.

"Because I was banned from the damn Boston brotherhood back in America and now I'm OUT OF A JOB AND I NEED. MY. REVENGE!"

"Calm down. Come inside, we can have tea." The girl had come all the way from America to see him.

"I don't want your damn tea."

"…Really?"

"…Fine. I'll drink your da"-

"Stop saying damn, dammit, it's getting annoying."

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Harper gazed deep into her tea. It was probably poisoned. A creepy old man had lured her in and poisoned her. Sounds pretty adequate. Not a story she'd want on the gravestone, though.

"Are you trying to read the tea leaves? I think you have to drink it all first."

"I'm analyzing it for poison."

"Sounds fun. I want you focus. Really hard."

Harper looked up at him like he was some kind of idiot. Which he is, of course. She reminded herself.

She did what he said anyway. Not like she would actually see- OH GOD, SHE SAW THE BULLET HOLE IN THE TABLE THROUGH THE TEA.

Arno laughed at her expression. "I do that whenever I get bored. Pretty fun, huh?"

"I'm done. Kill me right now."

"Are you saying the American assassins didn't teach you that?"

"No! What the… No one even mentioned it!"

"People are losing their eagle vision… Shame. I'm glad you have the gift."

Arno finished his tea, and excused himself to check on his plants in the garden.

"Consider that your first lesson, kid."

"Does this mean you'll mentor me?"

Arno stood in the doorway, thinking about what he just said.

Harper couldn't see how old he was when the sun silhouetted him.

"I'll consider."

――――――――――—――

I'll consider meant no, but always left you in suspense, waiting for the no to finally arrive.

Harper hated 'I'll consider'.

Not even a day spent with Arno and she already hated him. And his laugh more than anything.

He'd sent her to go pick up some groceries from the stores. Regular stuff, food, wine.

She pulled her hold closer to her face while she passed the pub, but there were still wolf whistles.*

"If I had a gun…"

There was a hand on her shoulder, and she was jerked around. "Hey… You're pretty…"

"Classic drunk pickup line. Now get away from me before I shoot you through the forehead."

She walked forward, but another drunk stepped in front of her.

"Wanna get a ride with a real man?"

"I'm not one of your prostitutes. Go away."

"Oh, c'mon. It'll be fun…"

She was on the verge of killing this man. Her extremely short and violent temper was her worst problem.

"Try it…"

"I can make your first time amazing." *

Harper stabbed the man with her pocketknife in the gut.

Civilians scattered, screaming bloody murder.

One of the drunks tried to take a swing but she tripped him up and sent him through a barrel.

Arno showed up out of nowhere, his robes an almost blackish blue.*2

"What are you doing here?"

"This was a test."

"A test on the first day?"

"I don't think you could say it's the first, kid, because you've only been here 14 hours."

Harper looked down at the cracked cobblestones in the road.

"I failed, didn't I? This was where I had to stay my blade from the innocents."

"Nope, I just wanted to see how well you could fight. Those are the local revolutionaries. Of course, they're not here for the revolution anymore, they're just a gang. Bit of a history lesson there."

Harper looked up at him with her "neutral" expression. "You sic'd the local drunks on me."

"Yes, but"-

Harper gave a cry of frustration and kicked one of the drunks.

"Also, when you stabbed the first one in the gut, you should've broke off the handle."

Harper was too tired to give a frustrated scream and kick a drunk again.

Arno picked up a wine bottle out of the broken barrel, and moved the drunk out of the way. He left five Francs at the stall and they walked home in silence.

――――――――――――――

The day had gone by fast, Harper thought as the sun went down.

"I'm assuming you know how to do parkour?"

"Yeah, but I'm a bit rusty. I don't think someone like you could… I mean…"

"You don't think an old codger like me can scale a building?" Arno chuckled to himself.

"When are you going to teach me to kick ass?"

"There's much more to being an assassin than kicking ass. And from what you did to those poor drunks, I would say you already know how to kick ass."

"I mean with swords n' stuff."

"What do they teach you at the American brotherhood?"

"Parkour. We go on reconnaissance missions. The only brotherhood that still teaches initiates everything is the Carolina brotherhood. I was going to get transferred when I got… Banned."

"So how did you get banned?"

Harper was silent. She stared down at the table. He thought he could see a single tear break through the dirt on her face.

"Can we change the subject?"

"Sure."

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*I'm not actually sure if the dialogue in this chapter is rated T!

*2 Arno's robes are the MacFarlane robes. You get these with a DLC, either dead kings or the revolutionary pack, both of which are free now.

It was really good to get this chapter out after writing it. I feel character development going on. May or may not be another chapter out today. If you want to have like, a cameo or something, I can do that. Just pm me.

Cheers,

TorrentOfIrony