A few days later Rikimaru was standing over the corpse of the thief he had been out to kill. It had been too easy. He cleaned his blades on the clothes of the man. Job done.
He activated his Hearth Stone and appeared in an inn, in which he always had a room reserved to stay. From here he would send a message that he had finished his job. He would get the remaining money in a packet. He almost never talked to the ones he took jobs from. Everyone knew how to contact him and they also knew not to cheat on him.
Then the Stealth Assassin could choose which jobs he wanted to do and which were worth the offered money. He would begin as soon as he got the first half of the payment and there had never been a job he hadn't been able to finish. Sometimes it took more time than he liked, as with the last one, but he never failed. He chose his jobs well, not taking any risks. Because though having lots of money was extremely nice, it wasn't worth dying for.
He stayed in the inn for the night, going through the requests he had gotten. He sent his message and put a copy of it to the documents. He kept all information of every job he did and he always made copies of his own messages. It was a lot of paperwork sometimes but he had learned to keep records of everything and after years of doing it during his education it had become a habit he didn't even think of braking. He wasn't as neat as his brothers had been but it was enough, especially for an assassin.
He wrote more messages, asking for more information or confirming a job request.
Then the Assassin used the luxury of staying in an inn to full capacity and took a bath before eating something he didn't have to kill first and sleeping in a real bed.
On the next morning the payment for another job had already arrived and so he checked his weapons before he headed out immediately. No use in wasting time with nothing to do in an inn.
Half a year passed like that. Not that it had been any different for the last century or so. Sometimes the Stealth Assassin would take a break of a few days and do something for fun, maybe participate in a war where he couldn't die or visit some friends or just stroll through the world. Of course he loved all the feasts that were held in the big cities. He never missed one of those.
One day he woke to the sound of someone singing. For a second he thought the girl from the woods was there but the woman in front of his door just sang the same song. When she didn't hit the right tunes, Rikimaru cringed.
Not wanting to listen to that, he climbed out of the window and headed into town. His movements were sure as he walked through the crowed, while most of them weren't able to see him. He went into a few shops but didn't buy anything. He wasn't out to buy something.
Until he stepped into a flower shop. He didn't even know why he had entered it because: what would he need flowers for? But now that he was here he thought about the girl, her song dancing through his head. He hadn't thought about her for a while now but the flower in front of him had caught his eyes while he could almost hear the melody of her song as she had sung in the orchard, shielded from his eyes. The flower was in a pot, which was good since Rikimaru didn't think the girl would appreciate some dead plant, no matter how beautiful it might look. He didn't know why he thought that about her but it seemed to fit. He also didn't know why he thought about giving some girl in some woods flowers. He wanted to leave the shop but instead he turned towards the owner and asked him if this flower would keep growing when planted in the land the girl was living in.
The owner was too professional to show astonishment about an assassin asking him about flowers. Maybe he had unusual costumers from time to time. And assassins had boy and girlfriends as well, so why shouldn't they buy flowers? He confirmed that the flower would grow extremely well as long as it was given a sunny place with enough water.
Rikimaru nodded and bought the plant. He left the shop with a knife in one hand (one could never be careful enough and it might take a second too long to draw a blade) and a pot with a flower in the other. He was unbelievably glad that he was invisible.
Getting to the forest was no problem and since the Assassin had memorized where the house of the girl was, it took him only two days to get there.
He could hear her singing before he saw the girl. The day wasn't as bright as the last time but it was warm enough and it wasn't raining. The Stealth Assassin carried the flower carefully in his hand. He hadn't dared put it in his backpack in fear of crushing it.
He was a little unsure of himself as he neared the clearing. What would he do with the flower? He didn't want to give it to the girl because how would he explain it? It seemed too weird in his opinion. And somehow irrational to even buy her something like that. He had almost thrown the flower away a few times and gone back to the inn but in the end he hadn't been able to. So here he was, a little confused about his own behaviour and somehow restless.
The melody today was sad, not wanting-to-cry sad but today-is-not-the-best-of-days sad. It made Rikimaru stop thinking about himself and the flower in his hands. Instead he wondered what had happened to make the girl sing such a song today. He would have liked to know so maybe he could make it better but of course he wouldn't ask. Even if she wouldn't be afraid of him, why should she tell him, a complete stranger?
He took the same place as the last time, the flower in his hands. The girl was putting clothes on a cord she had tied between some trees to dry. She was wearing a light brown dress today, tied up in the same way she had done the last time, with her feet bare underneath the hem. This one covered her arms to her elbows and had a higher neck than the green one. It seemed to be too big, hanging loose around her slim body. Her hair wasn't plaited and it was a little wet. Her feet were clean so she had to have taken a bath.
Though the song was sad, it had the same effect on him as the happy ones had had, making him relax as he watched her. The restlessness and confusion was gone within minutes, leaving him with the feeling that it was absolutely right to give this gorgeous little girl the flower he had bought. Maybe it made him wonder why he had stayed away for so long. This place, with the girl singing one song after the other, was a place where he could forget the world around him. And it was wonderful. He stayed the whole day.
The girl did the laundry, then she went into the house but left the doors open so the Assassin could still hear her. She got water from the lake, near enough to the stone Rikimaru was sitting on that he could see the colour of her eyes. They were grey, framed by dark brown lashed that made them look extremely pale. And they were sad today. The girl didn't smile as much as the last time as well.
Maybe the flower would cheer her up. He would leave it in front of her door when it was night. Then he would watch her on the morning. It was the only thing he could do.
While she worked in the garden, only humming then, the fox and the cat came from the forest. The girl petted them both a little before resuming her work. With the setting sun she went into her house, locking the door behind her and the two animals.
The Stealth Assassin waited until it was completely dark and he couldn't hear any sounds from inside of the building. Then he crept to the door and placed the flower on the ground in front of it, far enough away that the door wouldn't hit it. He went deeper into the forest to sleep, finding a place that wasn't too uncomfortable.
He woke ahead of the sun and was already sitting on the stone by the lake again when the door of the house was opened. The girl saw the flower immediately and stared at it with wide eyes. She was completely silent as she looked around the clearing, her eyes scanning the trees, trying to see whoever had put the flower in front of her door. When she found no hint of someone being there, she knelt beside the pot and tentatively reached for the pedals of the blossom. She stroked them, one after the other while a small smile appeared on her face. Her eyes shone as if she would cry any moment but she only blinked a few times before she took the pot and walked to the garden. The rest of the morning she was occupied with creating a place for the flower inside the fenced area.
She smiled every time she looked at it and when she was finished, her hands dirty and a streak of mud over her face, she sang the song Rikimaru had heard her singing in the orchard the first day. The one the woman at the inn had so poorly failed at. And now the Assassin smiled, his heart light. With one last look at the girl and the melody of her song following him, he walked deeper into the forest before heading back to the inn with the Hearth Stone.
He was hungry and tired, but happy. The girl had clearly been excited about the flower and Rikimaru was pleased with himself. He had been extremely unsure if it was a good idea to make her a gift but she hadn't seemed too disturbed by its appearance in front of her door. Still smiling and with the melody of her song in his mind he slept.