把雪白的岳弄怀孕了

That settles it then!

Visiting the Endossa Empire will be the last on my bucket list.

As for the first, 'Get my ship repaired'.

About to be checked.

The second is, 'Filter out the pests from my crew'.

Still working on that.

The third is, 'Become a verified ascendant and grow stronger'.

I have already secured Annab…..

"Hahhh!" I breathed out, tiredly.

I was supposed to meet her this morning, right? Maybe she came to look for me, but since she didn't follow us in, she couldn't locate which rooms we were in.

I halted my steps and turned back to look at the bustling street behind me. I was already far away to suddenly trek back to the brothel and ask if anyone came looking for me.

With a frustrating grunt, I turned around and strolled forward.

"AIYAAAAA!!" A sharp feminine voice sounded from the alley in front of me. I paused.

Apart from the fourth list on my bucket list which was to create a harem for myself, the sixth involved saving a damsel in distress and making her fall in love with you.

Difficult?

Yes.

Was I looking forward to the challenge?

Yes.

Did the woman in distress matter?

Yes, of course, she does. 'Damsel' is there for a reason.

Was I currently running towards the alley to see whether I should bid my time and appear from the shadows at a perfect time or not?

Yes. Yes, I was.

.....

No one trusts a Trickster. Those words have never been truer- coming from a Trickster herself.

From the moment she did the ritual and called upon the blessings of the 'Goddess Of Treachery' and the 'God Of Pact and Bargain', she knew this. From the moment she first ascended and mimicked the appearance of one of her friends and tricked them, she had experienced it.

Though it was nothing but a friend game she had finagled as she wanted to test and get used to her abilities, but, the varied expressions on her friend's face when they had found out it was her, showed her what it meant to be an ascendant of the trickster path.

Yet, she never understood.

What was the use of discriminating against a path since they were like every other path whose main purpose was to give humans -mortals the might do the impossible?

Nonetheless, she found it hilarious. Ranger? Assassin? It mattered little. As long you didn't choose a path whose main abilities are created just to mislead, lie and cheat then you are safe from becoming a scourge, a bane of prejudice and stigma, because…

No one trusts a Trickter.

A laugh escaped her lips. Wasn't that the reason ascendants of the trickster path were rare because people were so afraid of the social stigma and discrimination that came with it?

Of course, like other paths, it had the potential to be insanely powerful, unlike the Assassin path that grants its user the ability to travel through shadows and one more chance at life, and the Ranger path that grants its user the ability to see the future, communicate with the forest and the instinctive knowledge of all weapons, the Trickster path also has such a potential, and it was that potential that made them frightening.

Another chuckle escaped her lips.

Maybe when she became strong enough, then she could mimic the appearance and abilities of the Miracle Queen and set things in other, or even worst, she could trick her into forming a contract and force the so-called Queen to become her slave while she pulled the strings and enjoyed the multilayer flavours of being royalty from behind the scenes.

A third, further unsettling chuckle came.

That was the reason! The very reason why they distaste Tricksters so much is because they all understood the vile heart of human nature, and how destructive such powers could do to a person.

And even through the lenses of her naivety, she saw it too.

"Why are you still laughing?" A group of men and women, each in thick clothes to protect themselves from the horrible phenomenon surrounded her and blocked off any route of escape.

"Do you think that your cries for help will save you?" Segal, a man who she once helped to provide food for because he like the rest of the other people around her, was called the invaders, termed as such by the citizens of the Vrymath Kingdom as unwanted pests encroaching on a territory that isn't their own.

With an irritating grunt, he raised the vial in his hands and positioned it at the centre of my vision.

"The portion we gave you before was meant to paralysis you, but this one….. is meant to kill" He added. His teeth gritted in anger as he stared at her.

Another laugh, a fourth one escaped her lips.

"I helped you" She responded.

However, he spat at the snow close to her and replied "You were using us. You used us to obtain the information you wanted. Don't you get it? Because of you, brock is dead!! You tricked him into making a contract with you and then used him to get into our circle!".

Her eyes widened as she stared stand at the man's angry visage motionlessly in disbelief.

"He!! But!…"

"But what?" He interrupted her, before continuing "You made a contract with him not to reveal who you are, if not he would die right?".

She didn't respond.

"But making one contract wasn't enough for you, right? You had to make another contract with him to tell you whatever secrets we had, right?"

She remained silent.

The man shook his head and gripped the vial tightly in his hands "But that wasn't enough for you..… You had to balls to trick Stella, a mother of two children who wanted nothing more but to make sure her children makes it through this hell alive and well. But you - you had the balls to turn her into one of your informants! Don't you have a conscience?!"

She does have a conscience, and that was why she never asked for anything more than the pieces of information she needed so that she could write it down in the book that she was currently writing.

Her only purpose was to write down the events happening right now, from an unbiased point of view, and to do that she needed to the truth. And she needed to hear it from all sides before she leaves after her self-given task was completed.

To use and kill them was never part of the plan.

"You know what! Don't respond! We should kill you right here before you reveal our intentions and expose us" Without warning, he grabbed her mouth and forced her jaws to open.

Her eyes widened and flickered restlessly from side to side.

In response, he snarled "Since you tricked us into believing that you were different than the others, then I guess dying in the hands of the one the invaders is something that very much fits a scum like you".

She closed her eyes shut and waited for her impending doom with her mouth yanked wide open.

Two seconds.....

Three seconds....

She waited. Murmurs and whispers surrounded her, but she was too busy dealing with her nerve-wracking emotion to even bother listening.

Another five seconds elapse.

She began to doubt…. and then - -then…..

She felt it!

There was something in the air. Something dangerous… Something…

"Magical energy" She muttered. Her eyes snapped open before she abruptly shut them close because in front of her, was a figure with flames raging all around him, almost blinding her with the bright rays of light that shined like the sun.

She felt the heat. Preparing herself this time, she opened her eyes and stared at the figure who now turned his head to face her and stared directly at her.

"A damsel" She heard the voice of a man. She watched as his head turned towards her assailants "But why is she in distress?" He added.

The words flowed out of his mouth without skipping a beat. She swallowed whatever saliva was in her mouth as she stared at the raging flames around him.

And then, it vanished.

The flames that fumed around him, that stopped her assailants from killing her and stopped her from clearly seeing his visage vanished.

And then, from it, a man - a ruggedly handsome man, with short black hair and an unkempt beard emerged.

He placed his hands casually in his thick trenchcoat pockets, still standing in front of her, and blocking her assailants from reaching her while she watched as the winds blew his thick coat backwards.

"W-Who are you?" A person from the group stammered out his words.

"A pirate" His words sent them into confusion.

"Are you joking wi--"

"Shut up!" He responded. His stern voice echoed through the barren frozen alley.

No one spoke. No one moved…. And it was obvious that as mortals without abilities they were all afraid of the man after his raw display of power.

"You see, as an understanding man, I will give all of you two choices" The man said, He raised two fingers and explained "Run…. Run far from here and don't look back.

"OR WHAT!!" Segal screamed at the man furiously, and impulsively.

Boom!

The raging torrent of flames appeared once more around him, with an explosive force of magical energy that pushed away the snow surrounding him.

"Or I roast you to death".