"Greed is the reason far too many people die needlessly before their time." - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

"Yes, shīfù, I am willing to take on this challenge," said Ying Xiao with burning determination in her eyes.

That evening, after they had regathered at the guildhouse, and after they had their dinner, Cal had called the girls to meet up in their room. Once there, she had explained the plan to them, and then asked whether Ying Xiao was willing to do her role in it or not.

Cal also explained that originally she had hoped to have Ying Xiao experience what fighting against other people for real was like, but the dearth of bandits or other outlaws in Ptolodecca and the desert had so far made that impossible, so she figured some slavers nobody will miss would do instead.

The plan was simplicity itself. Tomorrow when they were out in town, the girls would simply split up, with Ying Xiao on her own. Her being a young, dainty, pretty girl and her copper tag should hopefully lure in the same sort of people responsible for missing travelers in the area, and if they didn't bite, they'd think of other ways.

If some slavers - hopefully connected to the merchants Kino is hunting, but Cal doesn't care either way - took the bait, their hope was that it'd lead them to wherever their base was. If it was someone else's? Sucks to be them. She has little sympathy for those in the flesh trade anyway.

As for how they would find her, that was where Kino's little gift came in handy. It was in the form of a pair of enchanted rings - she had more but lent Cal two for this sting's purpose - that were things she was not familiar with. They were apparently expensive little trinkets, enchanted with complex enchantments that had one specific purpose only.

The rings were enchanted so that when mana is coursed through them, they would resonate, and anyone wearing one of the other rings would feel it, and know the general direction and distance of where the resonance was. Cal naturally wore one, Kino wore another.

Ying Xiao was given the third, with the instruction to pulse her mana through it once every ten minutes if nothing happened, twice periodically should the plan succeed, and to do it rapidly should there be an emergency. To Cal's surprise, Ying Xiao didn't wear the ring she was given. Instead, she took a dagger and sliced open a small wound on her shoulder, stuffed the ring inside the wound, then wrapped it up with some bandages. She then told Cal respectfully that this way nobody would even know she had the ring with her.

Ying Xiao felt fulfillment when after a moment of surprise, Cal nodded and acknowledged her initiative. Ever since she had learned that she was to train under the Blood Demon herself, she had been nervous, worried that she would be found wanting, especially since she only saw Cal in the winters.

Not to say that the others who had tutored her during the rest of the year were lacking, of course, but the girl had always yearned for more acknowledgement from her shīfù, even for minor matters like this. She listened as Cal told her not to worry about the consequences, and that when the signal came, she was free to go wild.

"And remember, should they endanger you in any way, or cross any of your bottom lines, damn the plan, and just kill them. Is that understood?" Cal said to her in the end.

"Yes, shīfù!" Ying Xiao replied as she nodded firmly. The obvious hint of worry in Cal's voice touched the girl quite deeply, and contrary to Cal's intent, Ying Xiao resolved that she would do what she could to make sure everything went well.

She had a fitful sleep that night, in anticipation for the next day, and when the dawn arose, she was the first to wake.

The next day, they did as planned, and an hour or so after they went out, a fidgety Ying Xiao had separated from the group, acting like a child who wanted to look around on her own. Cal had also split off together with Leila, while Dan accompanied her nieces.

What followed came quite naturally to Ying Xiao. She was fifteen this year, but with how her growth had been stunted from malnutrition in her younger days, she was decisively short for her age, and slender like a reed. She could easily pass for twelve to most onlookers.

After all she had to do to look like a harmless girl was to simply look naive and excited. With her small build nobody would think of her as a threat at the first glance, while blood mages were rare amongst humans, especially so in her homeland and Ur-Teros both, which meant that people would unlikely think of her as one.

Hours had passed, and soon the sun started to go down. When it was approaching the evening, the time they agreed to reconvene on, Ying Xiao thought with disappointment that maybe they were all too optimistic with the plan after all.

It was shortly after she turned and started to walk back towards the guildhouse, while she was walking through a more remote part of the town, that someone draped a sack cloth over her head.

Ying Xiao pretended to resist, feebly like a young inexperienced girl would, before she felt something solid hit the back of her head. That sort of hit would normally render a person dizzy if not unconscious, though it barely affected her. She pretended to be unconscious nonetheless, while she pulsed her mana twice through the ring embedded in her shoulder with satisfaction

She felt her assailants gag her mouth with some cloth, and they also tied her arms behind her back with some chains. The chains might be thin, but it was definitely more than what most untrained people could break. Much less a "little girl" like her.

She could feel them stuff her into a large sack and one of the burly men carried her over his shoulder. She didn't know where they were taking her, but she kept a steady signal pulsing through the ring embedded in her shoulder as instructed, trusting the item to do its work.

Around an hour or so passed before she heard what sounded like a metal gate opening and closing. She also heard a difference in the footsteps soon after, the shoes stepping not over soil, but over tiled floor. She pretended to regain consciousness, mumble, and squirm on her assailant's shoulder.

"Quiet, or I'll let you meet the cudgel again," hissed the man with a rough voice. Ying Xiao pretended to be scared and trembled slightly, then kept quiet, which seemed to satisfy the man.

She noticed how they seemed to walk down stairs, at least two stories of it, before the sack she was in was opened, and she was dumped out, feet first. She found herself in a dark dungeon, lighted up only by torches on the walls, not even enchanted lighting.

The man who had dumped her - she noticed that there were two of them behind her, and another ten or so thuggy types playing cards around a wooden table to the side - pushed her, and she pretended to stumble as they went deeper into the dungeon.

She looked to her sides as she walked haltingly while the man behind her pushed her. The cells to the sides were filled with men and women dressed in rags, their eyes looking down in despair, without any spark to be seen.

Her captors brought Ying Xiao further inside, before they finally arrived at a larger, well-lit cell.

"Lord Kozeff, we brought a new one," said the rough man behind her, smirking at how Ying Xiao turned stiff. The gate of the cell was opened wide, and he pushed Ying Xiao in. "I think she's your type."

"Oh?" Said the man inside as he turned her head and looked at Ying Xiao. His eyes widened, then he leered at her with lust before he gave the man behind her a dirty smile. "Well done! I'll toss you a bonus for this one!"

Ying Xiao was quiet. Unbeknownst to her captors, nor the man inside, she was not quiet because she was stunned by the sight before her, although it did surprise her at first. She was quiet because she struggled to contain her seething rage.

Inside the large cell were many women, most of which looked like they were not from the region. Some were barely covered with rags and gagged, while others were completely uncovered yet their dead eyes showed that they no longer cared.

When she was brought in, the corpulent, middle aged man in the room was in the midst of forcing himself on a crying, gagged girl who didn't seem older than twenty, and was so engrossed in the act that he had not noticed her being shoved in.

Unknown to everyone else, in her agitation she had unconsciously pulsed her mana rapidly through her body, which included the embedded ring on her shoulder. When the corpulent man eyed her with lust, it was the last straw of her self-control, and she snapped.

Blood affinity magic coursed through her, and before anyone could react, she stretched her arms and snapped the chains around her wrist. In the same motion, her legs launched her forward, and her halberd appeared in her hands - she had worn a smaller storage ring for show, while her real one was embedded in her other shoulder - and she thrust it forth with rage, skewering the surprised corpulent man through the gut and pinning him against the wall like an insect on display.

One of the men behind shouted in alarm, but she did not care. Even as the thug that had brought her into the cell charged at her, she spun around, pulled her blade out of storage, grabbed it with both hands and cleaved the man into two pieces, from shoulder to waist, in the same motion.

Then she walked towards the other man outside the cell, who was frantically backing away while calling for help, with only murder promised in her eyes.