"w-what will it be?"

the hostess was a little intimidated when she saw the face of the figure, his face was bandaged leaving only a thin line that exposed a pair of blue vertical split eyes, the figure put down 10 cel on the counter without asking for the price

"one room for the night"

the hostess quickly took the money

"sure right this way"

the figure followed after the hostess and arrived at a small-very-too-cramped room with a single bed, the room smelled of mold but the figure just gave a nod

"this will do, leave"

"s-sure at once, have a good night"

the figure sat down on the bed and gave a sigh

"this sure is tiring... Victoria you can come out now"

Victoria jumped out of Mars' shadow and began purring as her horns flashed

"I... miss... Chloe..."

"yeah me too... I miss the other girls too of cause"

it had been about a month since the Kel tournament and Mars was slowly moving towards the capital of the empire where he would perform his master plan kill the emperor and hope his bounty disappears in the chaos after the a.s.sa.s.sination, to make sure he was not hara.s.sed by bounty hunters on the way he had disguised himself as a shadow magician and even changed the way he was speaking, there was only one problem he had run out of travel founds after he had given a big portion of his a.s.sets to the girls for them to mange in Green river

'what was it called again... something heads, was it 8 heads?'

Mars briefly thought back to the name of the name of the organization he had 'borrowed' his cel from

'maybe I can find another of their lairs..? nah I doubt it.... which means there's only one way to make some money working'

temporally dreading doing actual work Mars laid down on the moldy bed and closed his eyes and patted his stomach, right after Victoria jumped up and laid down on top of him and closed her eyes as the night grew longer...

The next morning Mars' eyes snapped open before he grabbed his staff and pointed it towards the door, Victoria jumped down from his stomach and into his shadow, soon the door opened and the hostess walked in with a bowl of water she was a little surprised Mars was awake much less pointing his staff at her, but being the hostess of a inn she had seen a bit of everything and didn't take his hostility to heart

"I brought you a bowl of hot water"

she simply placed the bowl on the small table and walked back out the room, Mars lowered his staff and Victoria poked her head out of the shadow at Mars' feet as her horns flashed

"she... seems though"

"yeah...."

"well you know the deal, stay in my shadow"

"okay..."

Mars briefly washed up before he left the inn and headed towards the local guild building, the inside was made of the usual suspects 7 parts tough looking men and 3 parts petty receptionists, Mars walked up to the request board but was stopped by a group of tough looking men

"you look shady, too shady to be a proper merc"

Mars gave a mental sigh and raised his staff as he pulled out his silver merc tag and showed it off

"move or you will be moved"

the stare off continued for a few moments until a receptionist walked over and gave one of the tough looking men a kick to the s.h.i.+n

"ouch!"

"Jimmy what have I told you about scaring unfamiliar people!?"

"but baby---"

Jimmy was about to protest but received yet another kick to the s.h.i.+n and swallowed down his words, the receptionist that was a female lesser bunny beastman or in simpler terms a real bunny girl turned to Mars and gave a frown

"you sure are shady looking, what's your story?"

Mars thought for a moment before he spoke

"I'm disfigured, I keep my face banged so people don't lose their lunch"

"....if you say so, so what can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for work"

the bunny girl narrowed her eyes slightly

"what kind of work?"

"any kind that pays and sends me towards the capital"

"hmm.... there was that one request..."

the bunny girl turned around and looked at the request board, eventually pulling down a request

"here look it over"

"sure..."

Mars looked over the request, it was for a caravan said to arrive in a few days that was heading towards the capital, the only weird thing was that the pay was way to good, sitting at 10.000 cel, Mars looked up from the request and looked at the bunny girl and asked

"what's the catch?"

the bunny girl that was a head shorter than Mars gave a evil grin and asked

"why do you think they are picking up new escorts?"

Mars narrowed his eyes slightly behind the bandages

"because the escorts died off?"

"ding dong! right because they died off, you see the cargo is one mean former merc bandit that lead a crew of over 100.000 bandits that was scattered by the imperial army a few weeks ago, now they are carrying him to the capital were his is to be executed"

Mars gave a wide smile under the bandages

"sounds like fun, where do I sign up?"

the bunny girl narrowed her eyes slightly

"you do see the part where it says gold ranks and up right?"

"yeah I do, don't worry I fight with the power of 5 men"

the bunny girl gave a sigh and looked over at Jimmy

"then let's have a test right now, beat Jimmy and his friends and I'll let you take this request, what do you say Jimmy up for it?"

"sure thing baby!"

the bunny girl gave a sigh and kicked Jimmy in the s.h.i.+n again

"ouch! why baby?"

"I told you not to call me baby when I'm working!"

a few minutes later Mars was out back of the guild building in a makes.h.i.+ft arena, in front of him stood Jimmy and his 5 friends with their weapons drawn, the bunny girl walked in and stood in the middle of them and asked Mars

"are you ready?"

"one sec"

Mars tapped the bottom of his staff against the ground and instantly the magic beast core shone and over a dozen shadow soldiers appeared form his shadow, the smile on Jimmy's face stiffened slightly

"now I'm ready"

"o-okay, then begin!"

as soon as the match started Mars' shadow soldiers kicked off the ground and quickly entered a formation around him, then moving as one with the shadow soldiers Mars moved towards Jimmy and his friends while the magic beast core embedded on his staff relashed a dark light

"get him!"

Jimmy and his 5 friends also entered a formation and ran at Mars, on the first clash more then a few shadow soldiers was defeated and turned into black smoke, Jimmy gave a smug smile and yelled

"is that all you got!?"

Mars gave a slight smile under the bandages and quickly tapped his staff against the ground twice and 2 dozen shadow soldiers appeared from his shadow and quickly surrounded Jimmy and his friends meanwhile Mars pulled back leaving his shadow soldiers to tie them down and began circling the encirclement, replacing his shadow soldiers as soon as they fell, this kept up for about 10 minutes before Jimmy yelled out

"give, we give up!"

Mars stopped his shadow soldiers that walked back to him and got absorbed back into his shadow and looked at the slightly stunned bunny girl before he asked

"I won right?"

"y-yes that you did... that reminds me I don't know your name"

'well I'm not slim but...'

"just call me Shady"

the bunny girl gave a nod

"well then mister Shady, come back in a day for the information on the caravan"

"sure"

Mars turned and walked out to arena

'now let's find a place that does not smell of mold to sleep tonight...'

the next day Mars showed up at the guild and quickly found the bunny girl

"h.e.l.lo, I trust you have something for me"

"ah mister Shady, give me one minute..."

the bunny girl ran into the back area and soon returned with a middle aged man and pointed at him

"this is the one I was talking about yesterday boss"

"hmm I see he sure does look shady"

Mars gave a nod, then the middle aged man proceed to look him over once more before he spoke again

"so you want to join that caravan?"

Mars gave another nod

"yes that was the plan"

the middle aged man crossed his arms and gave a nod

"I don't see why not, besides if you really did beat Jimmy and the boys you're more than qualified... sure I'll bend the rules for you this once"

"thanks"