Anna woke up just before dawn. She didn't like waking up early but she liked it more than waking up later than sunrise. Sven, her large German Shepherd, was laying at the foot of her bed and he looked up at her with his ears back as he rose, stretching his body across the bed. Her eyes were glazed over and hands aching from yesterday's work in the forest helping an old farmer who had not had time to collect firewood before the coming winter. The farmer tried paying her, but Anna didn't accept it, so she bid the farmer good luck and went on her way home. The only thing I get paid for is to kill. Nothing is worth more than a life. Her thought paused a moment. Even the bad ones. After getting out of bed and doing her usual morning hygiene, she went down to a flowing creek and filled a bucket with water and then went back inside. The fire pit she had burning the night before still had red embers glowing so she picked some dry grass along the edges of the pit and threw them onto the ashes and embers, blowing on it to keep the embers going until it started smoking.

She grabbed two pieces of firewood off of the stack by her house and put them on top of that with some more grass and tended to it until it was going steadily again. Getting her armor, chainmail, and blades from out of her chest inside, she put the bucket on top of the fire on a small wire rack she had made above it for cooking. When the water was boiling she took the bucket off and put the tip of her two swords into it along with her smaller wrist blades. After about ten minutes of letting them soak, she pulled them out and used an old piece of cloth to wipe the dried blood away, occasionally dipping it back into the bucket to get it wet again. After she was done she placed her chainmail into the still hot water and scrubbed it with a rough brush until she couldn't see the red tint on it anymore. Another day out here… Is this really all life has? The soldier shook her head a moment and sighed, refocusing on cleaning her armor. She then placed that on a blanket that she had brought out next to her blades and grabbed the wet cloth and wiped down her pieces of armor. The blood and grime from her latest job was now gone and in its place shiny steel and iron with small, thick leather straps in places and her mark that she had attached on the right of her waist piece.

Her mark was a torn banner she had ripped from several flags whose holders she had fought against throughout her career sewn together. Now it is several red, blue, and green diamond shapes in the center outlined with a longer white piece going down to her shin. She took pride in her winnings and sported them gracefully in this single patchworked cloth. Lying her armor on the blanket to dry with her other battle gear, she went inside and opened a small wood panel in her wall next to her bed. Stashed inside was the necklaces, jewelry, and other pieces she had gotten as rewards both in combat over opponents and from her hirers. Yet, she didn't really want to wear any of them today. She stared at them each in deep thought with a blank expression on her face, going through every second of how she had gotten all of the garments in her small stash. She didn't feel right about taking them, and yet the moment she had, she had not cared. The Wolf hated her emotions at times and forced her self-empathy down in her gut.

Her morning bath and shave went by in a blur, as they usually did, and she put on a long pair of black trousers and a dark blue long-sleeved shirt on and, after making sure her fiery red hair were up in double pigtails, she moved to put on the now dry armor and blades on herself with little struggle thanks to the tempered leather. Sven came out and watched her as she loaded her dark brown and white paint horse with some food and jars of water for her trip into the kingdom of Hardreach. Her contracter was none other than the King himself, Titanis. In the letter given to her by a royal courier a week ago, there was little detail of what the intended objectives of Titanis were but the payout caught her attention. One hundred thousand in gold and several mentions of another prize that was unknown, but it had drawn Anna's attention nonetheless. Pudgy bastard probably is just too lazy to do this with his small army. She was told to meet the King at the Garne River near the Kingdom to work out the details and her payment would arrive at her house as she was sent on her way to her objective.

Sven didn't like it when Anna left, she knew that. So to keep him comfortable, she laid out several velvet-textured blankets in his little area of the house and deer meat that was already cooked outside in his feeding bowl. Sven wouldn't leave his house. He had been raised there and had lived there all his life. He was occasionally brought along with her to meet contractors who Anna felt might be a problem and other times to meet royalty and show him off, but Sven was loyal and would defend his home until he couldn't fight anymore, just as his master would do if it ever came to that.

Anna finished packing and got on the saddle and headed Northwest to meet the King at the mentioned spot. She came to a large oak tree and waited until a small group of several small dots approached. The portion of her red hair that was loose flowed into the wind, giving her the peace that she wished for during this meeting. The king, a medium height, plump man with a bushy white beard and polished-what looks like silver-armor, road on a white horse with his royal guard following close behind.

Both him and Anna dismounted their horses and Titanis made sure his guards were far enough away not to hear the ensuing conversation.

"Beautiful day, isn't it." The king stood by the oak admiring the rising sun, his old gruff voice sounding tired on the wind. Anna regarded him from the corner of her eye, her sight flicking over his jeweled sword and then at his large disgusting form.

"We both know I'm not here to gape at the dawn, Your Majesty." She said coldly over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off the now golden sky.

Titanis shot her a glare, but she couldn't have cared less. Instead, she continued staring out at the horizon. She wasn't afraid of social status, and she probably never would be.

Titanis stood silent for a moment, wondering if this *sellsword* knew who she was talking to. Nevertheless… "Straight forward.. I like that." He paused, taking a moment and looking at Anna, who by now stared back. They both seemed to be sizing the other up, looking for weaknesses. "There is a Nahti family that just moved in the outskirts of Alliance borders. They are supposedly members of the royal family of the Emperor himself. I want them gone by any means necessary. Quick and painless, drawn out and bloody, I don't give a damn. I want them dead."

"Any description of the targets?" she questioned.

"They are living in a small mansion just outside our border, too close i say, in no man's land. But I only know their names and how many. There are three girls, women or children I don't know-" Anna winced at the mention of children- "and two boys. I've sent a scout there and he will fill you in. As promised, the gold is being delivered to your homestead-" he turned and points to three wagons in the distance slowly moving farther away with what looked like several chests,"-and after you return, you will have your prize I mentioned in my letter. I'm sure you will quite like it." He reached into his saddlebag and retrieved a document and handed it to Anna with a quill. She read it and made sure she wasn't signing away her life and when she was satisfied with the terms, she signed it and handed it back.

"Pleasure."

"The pleasure is mine." The king said, sneering as he got back on his horse.

Anna nodded and got back on her own. As the two parted, the king turned around and said,"Oh, and Milady?" Anna turned halfway around, only enough to acknowledge she was listening. 'Milady?' Quite the promotion from 'The Soulless.'

"When you do kill them, make sure there are no witnesses, hmm?"

Anna considered it and nodded to the king as she turned back forward, bound for the Alliance-Nahti border. The word "children" never left her mind.


A/N As I said in the previous chapter, i'm really not confident with this story right now since it was written so long ago and I've definitely improved since then, but if you guys like it, I'll definitely start working on it! anywho, this was kind of a boring chapter, i guess. Next one should pick it up a little. As always, fav if you liked it, follow if you wanna get notified when I update, and leave a review! I could always use a good review telling me you guys actually want more of this and i'm not just pushing content out there. Thank you!