Cover of the story was painted/made by Hayashidraws (Twitter).
Author's notes:
As always, thanks for everything, I hope you'll enjoy the /
I'm still trying to figure out what is the best way for me to write to change the way I write, so if you want to comment, point out mistakes or something else, feel free to do so :)
The chapter is finished (2020.08.26), enjoy :)
I have reached more than 17k reads across ao3 and ff, so I'll try to write something special for that occasion. If you want me to write something specific, feel free to write it in comments :D
The young woman could only have a glimpse of hope that the deal she agreed upon would not turn out as one big lie. Part of Ionian assassin wanted to believe in it, but doubt was still creeping its way deep inside her mind.
Akali has not been tied down again, Noxians allowed her to walk free. At least for that convenience, the assassin knew whom to thank for. The giant-like figure of Darius was towering over all of his subordinates. After Akali agreed to travel to Noxus, he gave a few quick orders to his men, and then the man went silent. The general could be overwhelmed by the thoughts that were cradling inside his mind.
The young assassin could not do anything than just allow to be led to the flagship of the armada. The ninja did not like the smiles that were being flashed by the crew members of the boat. They were imbued with primal desires such as lust. She would lie if she said that she was not scared. The black-haired woman was surrounded by at least a couple of dozens of men, she did not have any weapon in hand's reach. Even with her abilities, she would be overwhelmed quite easily. Thankfully, the Noxians did not do anything more than just staring at her with desires filling their eyes.
Darius must have noticed that the raven-haired got confounded. With a low growl, the giant man brought the attention of all toward himself.
"Have you already forgotten the rules?" he asked a rhetorical question in a really low tone as if it was just a threat.
"Ay … General, you said that we need to bring her back, you ain't say that we couldn't …," one of the sailors started.
"If you had anything between those ears of yours, I'd strongly recommend reconsidering what you're about to say," the giant growled. "She's the property of Du Couteau's house. Let it be known that anyone who tries to put a hand on her will be put to grave immediately by my own hands. Do you understand that?"
"Can't we make a slight adjustment to this arrangement, boss?" another soldier asked. "She must be delivered to Du Couteau's senior, but nobody needs to know that she slightly used during the delivering period. What do you think about that, boss? We weren't on land for a quite few days by now … some of us could use a bit womanish warmth to relax. How does it sound?" the man explained his proposition.
If Akali was scared before, she was utterly terrified now. With every ounce of courage, she could muster at that moment, she tried to remain calm, to appear as not affected by the words of the man. But … she failed to do so … she failed because her eyes focused on the Noxian general as if pleading him to stop that madness.
Darius noticed that minor change, but he was not the only one. The soldier who made the proposition was eyed her carefully.
"We all know that there is a hierarchy and all of us are placed somewhere in it," the man said. "You're our boss, so it's only fair for you to have her as the very first."
The words of the soldier surprised the assassin to some extent, but she did not allow herself to show that emotion on top of her face. It was so obvious that he tried to encourage the Noxian hero to deliberately disobey an order. If he succeeded, the fate of the young woman was sealed, she would be raped over and over again. But, there was a second side of the medal in that decision. If Darius disobeyed, the bold soldier would use it against the giant, maybe to secure a rank, or maybe for some other reason.
Akali could not do anything but pray that the Noxian hero would make a good decision.
For a couple of prolonged moments, the silence fell upon the ship. The hand of Noxus was as still as he could be. His face was expressionless, plain. It seemed as if he was fighting a battle deep inside his mind.
After a few additional seconds he turned around. Now, the giant was facing the unarmed woman, but the raven-haired still could not read anything off of his face.
"As you heard, you're the property of one of the greatest houses Noxus has to offer, it means your life means as much as their senior values it. Do you understand it?" the axeman used probably his most formal tone asking the question.
"I do," the assassin answered in a plain tone. "It is something I agreed upon to save my homeland," she added.
"Exactly," Darius commented. "What would you do if we as Noxus broke the deal?"
"I would not rest until I would kill you all, up to the very last of you," the woman calmly responded.
"As of you Mirrenth," the hand of Noxus started while turning around, "I'm pretty aware of your ambitions. I know how badly you want to rank up," the man laughed horrifyingly.
"Beg your pardon, boss?" the soldier tried to play the fool.
"I must get you that … to some extent, it was a really good try," Darius continued to laugh while slowly closing the distance between him and the man called Mirrenth. "I know how much all of you," the axeman pointed out at the entirety of the crew, "I know how much all of you think about yourself as true men who need to fuck every single woman on their way. I despise that, I despise everyone who thinks that way, even if she wasn't the property of the house, I wouldn't allow you to rape her," he said. "As of you Mirrenth, you're dead," the giant added swinging his battleaxe so swiftly that most of the people on the board could not see the strike.
Only a moment later, the loathsome sound of Mirrenth's head falling onto the deck could be heard. The rest of up to the recent lived soldier's body collapsed. His blood soon started to flood the deck. It was fresh, thick, red.
"I assume it's a sufficient example for all of you?" the general asked.
"Yes, general," the rest of the crew shouted immediately.
"Good … really good. Now, back to your posts, we have a long way home!" the dark-haired man ordered.
"And … as of you," the general referred to the dark-haired woman when the crew went back to their posts. "Till the end of this voyage, my cabin is yours. It'd be a wasted effort if some of these degenerated men forced you during the night," the giant added after a short pause.
"I assume they are not your men?" the assassin asked while looking straight into the eyes of the Noxus's hero.
"Is that so obvious?" the man chuckled.
"I guess … I heard the stories that you are one of a few who cares about the lives of the soldiers under your command. And … what you showed by now … does not exactly represent such an approach," Akali explained.
"Yeah … it seems that I'm that obvious," the man laughed for a moment. "But back to your question … no, they aren't my men. They're just fucking thieves, criminals that were put into invading forces recently. The idea was so fucking simple … no-one would be sad if all of them died. On the side note, it's helping with preserving the peace in the homeland," he added.
"Why do you tell me so much?" Akali wanted to know. "You have already mentioned who the invaders are, you spilt a bit of information about the situation in your country," the black-haired pointed out. "You could do it in only two scenarios," she added swallowing a gulp in her throat. "The first situation is when you are sure that that person will never leave your country. You are planning to kill that person or force it to stay in."
"Hmm … you're an observant, aren't you?" the general hummed. "What about the second scenario?" he asked while scratching his short beard.
"Eh …" Rogue sighed deeply. "You can accept the loss of vital information if you need someone to do with your internal problems. If you assured that the required person stays in your country for an extended period of time, you would pretty much neglect the loss of information. The basic idea is that if you need something to be done by an outsider, it is not vital to preserving data, because the flow can be changed just by the outsider's actions," the assassin explained as detailed as she could.
"You're clever, I must admit that," the mountain-like figure of the soldier started to laugh once again. "Which situation you're in right now, what do you think?"
The Ionian assassin took a couple of prolonged moment to think about the answer. She turned around to face the ocean. It was clear that she needed to gather her thoughts. Akali looked at the slowly receding cliffs of her homeland.
"Based on everything that happened already," the girl started to form an answer slowly, "I think I am in the second scenario …"
"And why do you think that?" Darius interrupted the Ionian woman.
"If you wanted me dead, you would kill me when you had an opportunity," the raven-haired started. "You have even defended me 2 times already. Not to mention that you made it clear that Du Couteau's house wants me alive and sound. For whichever reason, I don't know, but you repeated that exact phrase at least a couple of times by now," the Ionian provided her reasoning.
"Very detailed answer shall I mention," the man flashed a small smile. "Yeah … all that you said is true, we aren't going to kill you, of course, it can quickly change if you refuse to follow the orders," the general added in a stern voice.
"Pfff … as if it was any different from the rest of my life," the assassin shrug her arms. "Throughout my entire life, all I was taught was to obey, to follow orders. You can be sure that as long as you keep your part of the pact, I will follow mine," the raven-haired added in a venomous tone.
"You indeed have many aspects that the world doesn't know," the man nodded. "All I know about you is everything that I have learned during your time in the league," he added.
"I assume you are curious," the ninja whispered.
"I'd need to lie if I said otherwise," the general admitted. "Would you spill a bean?"
"Sorry axeman, I like to keep my secrets to myself," the woman smirked. "You know, there is a saying that knowing the true name of something or someone gives you control over it, you can say the same about secrets," assassin winked. "If you wanted me so badly to work for you that you organise this invasion, I can not afford to say much about myself. After all, it is what you are going to pay for."
"Hmmm … it's a bizarre way to sum it up, but fine, I got the point," the Hand of Noxus laughed. "Let me show you where you'll be sleeping, we have a long voyage ahead," he added after a moment.
"Sure, it is not like I can do anything better than to way till you bring me to Noxus and present me to your supervisor," Akali replied in a plain tone, not caring much for an answer.
"Understandable," the man whispered under his breath and started to lead the Ionian to up-to-recent his cabin.
Many days later:
Akali woke up early – as she was used to for the entirety of her life – every single additional day she had to spend on the flagship was like a horror that was repeating itself over and over again. Truth be told, maybe it was not a horror, maybe more like a trap. She could do very little things on the ship. Every time she left the safety of a given cabin, there was a slight probability that some of those degenerates would try to force her. To make matters worse, Darius did not trust her enough to offer her any kind of weapon, to be fair, Akali did not trust the Hand of Noxus neither.
This morning felt a bit different, to be frank. She could have sworn that she was woken up by the squawks of the seagulls. They were trapped on the open sea for at least a couple of days, so the sound of seagulls was something new to the assassin.
The question was whether should Akali risk to sneak into the deck or should she stay inside the cabin. As you might already know, the young woman was not an idle type of person, so as soon as the opportunity for her to leave her so-called safe place, she just left. To be frank, the cabin was more like a prison cell for her, it limited her options, but beggars could not be choosers, she agreed for the bargain, she needed to live with its consequences.
A couple of prolonged moment took the raven-haired girl to sneak onto the ship's deck. It was still a young morning, so most of the crew was asleep, only a couple of them who were assigned to the specific posts were on foot.
The soft breeze hit Akali's face as soon as she exited the underdeck.
"Wait, what … breeze?" she suddenly gasped.
As fast as she could, the young woman turned around. A moment later, she saw what she wanted to see. There was a small city nearby with a small haven. Based on the banners that were flying with the wind, it was Noxus. The banners were nearly everywhere. They were like a sign for all foreigners that says "We are Noxus, and we will fight you no matter what."
The raven-haired ninja was slightly taken aback. It was so long since she was allowed to put a step on the solid ground freely. And … to be perfectly honest, it was quite some time since she could take a normal bath, to wash up the dirt and the smell out of her skin.
The Ionian nearly jumped when someone loudly cleared the throat behind her.
"Hello, morning bird," Darius said in a hoarse voice. "Before you ask that mass of questions that are currently in your mind, let me interrupt you," he added, taking a big sip from the mug in his hand. "We're going to dock here, we're extremely close to of many Du Couteau's villas. I was informed to bring you there, so I'm going to do so."
"Finally," Akali sighed. "It felt like ages if I might add," she added.
"Yeah, it did, but after all, we're finally there. I need another drink, and you … you need to take a bath," the man laughed.
"Pardon, I might not smell good, but I am not even close to how smelly most of you are," the assassin giggled.
"Yeah, but still you're a woman, and you should be presented nicely to the senior of the house," Darius responded.
"I guess so," the raven-haired agreed. "By the way, what is this settlement?"
"It's called 'Hope', or should I rather say that if you translate that word from my language, it'd mean 'Hope'. Someone had a pretty bad sense of humour while naming it as such. In that settlement, there are only brothels, barracks, and some trading posts. It's basically the place where you're going to get laid, arm yourself and then go to war," the Hand of Noxus added with a grim facial expression.
"I … I understand," Akali murmured. "So, where can I refresh myself there?"
"We'll have to either go to any brothel or see if there is any tavern in there," the man replied while scratching his nape.
"Ahh … beggers can not be choosers, I guess?" the masked woman sighed.
"Yeah, pretty much so."