Lil' Miss Malachite


The sound of laughter and the clinking of glasses was always a good sign. It meant that business was good and good business led to better profits. If there was one thing that Lil' Miss Malachite had learned over the years, it was that money was power. Everyone had a price, she just needed to find out what.

She took a drink from her glass as she lazily watched over the patrons of her tavern from her seat on the second floor.

The wooden doors of the Spider's Tavern suddenly slid open and she could hear the clanging of heavy metal greaves bearing down against her wooden floors. A huntsman that fancied himself as some kind of knight? Now she had seen it all. Definitely not from Mistral, that was for sure. If she had to bet money on it, she'd say Atlas. He had a fashion sense that only those snobby nobles at Atlas could have.

The boy looked around the tavern, scanning around the room until their eyes met.

He gave her a cheery grin before he headed towards the stairs and made his way up. Lil' Miss didn't usually just see anyone, but she'd make an exception this time. Just from looking at his equipment, she could tell that the boy had money, and she always made time to meet with money.

As he made his way towards her table, she held a hand up.

"That's far enough."

Her bodyguards, Lyn and Jack, stepped forward as well, making their presence known. The boy stopped and just shrugged in response.

"You Lil' Miss Malachite?"

"I am." She casually answered. "Something you want from me?"

"I'm looking for someone."

"You came to the right person for that." She replied with a smirk. "It'll cost you though."

"Not willing to help me out of the goodness of your heart?"

Lil' Miss just laughed in response.

"Hah! That's a good one, kid. Hate to break it to you, but we're not a charity here."

"That's a shame. I don't have any money though."

Lil' Miss narrowed her eyes.

Was the kid suicidal or just an idiot?

"I don't like when people waste my time. Don't think that just because you're a kid that I won't have you gutted."

"Well, that's too bad then." The boy flashed her a cocky grin. "Because I'm not leaving until I get what I want."

Or maybe he was both. Pity, it was a waste to ruin a pretty face like that.

She gave Lyn and Jack the go ahead. Jack rushed him first, only to get sent flying off the railing, falling down onto a table on the first floor. Wood splintered and glasses shattered as people scrambled. All the conversation in the building died out as every single Spider in the area pulled out their weapons in response. Guns were drawn from their holsters and swords were pulled from their sheathes.

Lyn seemed surprised for a brief moment, before she regathered herself and pulled out her own pair of knives. She charged him with a roar and went for his throat, but the boy moved so quickly that Lil' Miss could only see a blur. In a flash, the boy had Lyn pinned to the ground by her arm as her knives lay helplessly on the floor next to her.

"You give up?" The boy playfully asked.

"Fuck you!" Lyn growled as she tried to shake free. "Let go of me!"

The boy just shrugged his shoulders in response. "Don't say I didn't ask."

Snap.

"Agh!" Lyn cried out.

The boy let go of her arm as it fell lifeless to the ground. Lil' Miss had been around the game long enough to recognize the sound of a dislocated shoulder. Lyn was out for the rest of the fight and probably wouldn't be working for a while too.

Damn it, as if finding good help wasn't already hard enough.

"Do you have any idea who you're messing with here, boy?" Lil' Miss asked, her voice dangerously low. "Do you realize where you are right now?"

The boy in question just stood up and casually walked over towards her table, taking a seat in front of her. As if he didn't notice or care that all the Spider members in the area had him surrounded with their weapons pointed at his head.

Arrogant little shit.

"Look, Lil' Miss." The boy casually began. "I've never been good at this negotiation stuff, so I'll just get straight to the point. You give me what I want? I step out of this tavern and you'll never have to see my face again."

"How about I just have you killed right now instead?"

He just shook his head.

"You can try, but I'm warning you." The boy's fingers tapped against the pommel of his sword. "If you make me draw my sword, no one's getting out of here alive."

It was a bluff.

There was no way this punk kid could take on every single Spider in this tavern. But then, why was he so confident then? What kind of ace did he have up his sleeve? Lil' Miss had always made her decisions based on logic rather than emotion. Did she want to gut this punk kid for daring to brazenly challenge her like this in her own territory? Of course she did, but what if it wasn't a bluff? He had taken down two of her best men in an instant.

It just wasn't worth the risk.

Lil' Miss was petty, but not petty enough to risk everything just to get back at some punk kid. She held her hand up and signaled for everyone to put their weapons down. The sooner she got this crazy kid out of her hair, the better.

"... Who are you looking for, kid?"

"I'm glad that we could come to an agreement." She really wanted to knock that cocky grin off his face. "I'm looking for Raven Branwen."

The bandit leader?

The Spiders had a nonaggression pact with the Branwen tribe, but this wasn't technically breaking anything in their agreement. If the kid had a bone to pick with Raven, then it had nothing to do with her. She had nothing against the woman personally, but better Raven than herself after all.

"The Branwen Tribe never stay in one place for long." Lil' Miss explained. "You'd be better off waiting for them at their next raiding target."

The boy raised an eyebrow at that.

"I assume that you have an of idea where they plan to attack next then?"

Lil' Miss ripped out a page from her notebook and scribbled down a list of villages that the Branwen tribe were most likely to hit in the coming weeks. She handed over the piece of paper to the boy and gave him a smile that promised ill intentions.

"Now get the fuck out of my bar."


Author's Notes- Figured I'd answer a few questions here that wouldn't spoil anything. The SI has all of the skills that Charlemagne would normally have (No nerfs here, Charlie's going to be OP). The story is going to be from the perspective of everyone else except for the SI himself. Why? I just think it would be fun to write. Most of the time SI's do all types of crazy shit in stories so it seemed like it would be fun to see the chaos from the perspective of everyone else, lol.