As much as Asher wanted to rush over to the fourth ring and put an end to this, day was nearly upon them. Disposing of the bodies in his Personal Rift, meeting with Draken, setting a trap for the inky assassin and capturing him, and then dealing with the truthseekers had taken up his entire night. The sun was just about to come up, and Asher didn't like his odds of sneaking into the fourth ring and trying to assassinate someone hiding within the estate of arguably the most powerful noble family of Whikoga without the cover of darkness to hide him.

Rather than make a beeline for the fourth ring, Asher instead focused on the Eternal Mark on Samantha and Recalled home, nodding his thanks toward Bordan one final time before the world shifted and the truthseekers' sanctum was replaced with trees and the smell of dirt and moss once more. A large part of him still couldn't believe he was actually receiving help from truthseekers of all people, and he couldn't wait to hear what Samantha had to say about the unexpected arrangement.

Speaking of…

The world finished shifting, and Asher found himself crouching in a large tent. For once, his sudden appearance hadn't woken the hunter, and he smiled as he took in her sleeping form.

Most of Samantha was covered under a blanket, but her long hair was strewn about all over the place. Her breaths came long and slow, and despite the fact that she'd been living in a wild forest the past few days, she looked utterly at peace.

Yawning, Asher stripped off most of his dirty clothes that were covered in ink and blood before he slipped under the covers beside her. That was enough motion to have the hunter stir, and she rolled over, giving him a tired smile that seemed to wash away all the tension and fatigue he'd built up in his muscles from the long night.

"Isn't it a bit late to be getting into bed?" she teased, glancing at the light starting to illuminate the tent. "I was going to get up soon."

"Great. I'll take your spot," he yawned, pretending not to hear her giggling protest as he wiggled over and tried to bump her out from under the blanket. Rather than let herself be bullied out of her own tent, Samantha wrapped her arms around him, giving him a quick kiss before laying her head on his chest. The loose strands of her hair tickled his nose, but he couldn't exactly reach up to do anything about it with her pinning his arms down by his side.

"Long night?" she whispered, reaching up and fixing her hair when she felt the faces he was making as he tried to blow the strands away from his nose.

"You have no idea," he nodded, thanking her for the help. "Did some cleaning… Took down another one of the senior assassins… Met up with the truthseekers…"

"You're hilarious," she giggled, waiting for him to laugh as well before realizing he was being serious. "Wait, what? Why in the realms would you meet up with the truthseekers?!"

"I don't exactly have the skills needed to get information out of someone, and I'm not really all that into torturing people," Asher shrugged. "Bordan made it clear he wants to take down the Guild just as much as I want to deal with Eight, so I figured we could make some sort of shaky alliance."

"Alright… How did it go?"

"Well, he tried to cut my head off," Asher admitted, chuckling as Samantha pushed herself up onto her elbow and frowned down at him. "But once he realized he couldn't kill me, we did in fact come to something of an understanding. I needed his help to get the information out of the senior assassin I brought him, and he needs my help to actually take down Eight."

"Not that I don't think you're capable, but why exactly would a truthseeker need your help specifically?" Samantha asked, looking confused. "I always thought truthseekers were the highest authority in the kingdom after the High Prince himself. Capable of defeating just about anyone and able to go anywhere they needed."

"Apparently, it's a little more complicated than that," Asher said. "Long story short, we were able to track the ink Eight uses in his orders to the fourth ring of Whikoga. That's where the nobility live. And the ink didn't come from just anywhere within that ring, it came from the Frent family estate. They're the ones in charge of the whole city."

"Even I know that," Samantha said, frowning. "Technically, the Frent family are the ones in charge of this region. I'm pretty certain the taxes we pay go to them."

"Well apparently, because they're so important, not even the truthseekers can just waltz in there and start looking around. Bordan made it sound like they could get access within a few days, but obviously, Eight would be long gone by then."

"And I suppose that's where you come in," Samantha concluded, nodding slowly. "Not even going into how crazy it is that the truthseekers of all people are willing to work with you, I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of the thought of you launching an assault on arguably the most highly defended area in the entire city. Fighting one member of the Assassin's Guild at a time already sounded dangerous enough, but don't you think the Frent family is going to have protections in place? Defensive artifacts? Highly trained guards?"

"Most likely," Asher shrugged. "Though I can't exactly not go after Eight now that I finally have a lead on his possible location. Not after what he did. Hell, it's because of him you guys are hiding out here in a forest."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I've already told you, don't worry about us," Samantha said, leaning down and giving him a quick kiss. "Brian and I are doing just fine out here."

To Asher's shock, the faint buzzing in his ears that he'd already gotten used to suddenly increased to a far louder roar for a fraction of a second, before immediately quieting back down. Rubbing a finger against his ear, he frowned.

"Sorry… Samantha, could you say that again?"

"Hmm? I said not to worry, Brian and I are doing fine," she repeated, giving him a strange look. Sure enough, just like the first time she'd said it, Asher's new skill he was borrowing triggered, and he sighed as he realized what that meant. He briefly entertained the idea of keeping the ring hidden, before abandoning that in an instant. The two of them had already agreed there wouldn't be any secrets between them, and he certainly wasn't about to start now.

Might as well do this now, anyway, he thought, crossing his fingers and focusing on Permanence. Seeing as he had his bracelet back from Crush, there was no longer a need to have the Awareness skill locked in with Permanence any longer, and he dismissed it. In its place, he triggered Permanence once more and claimed the Honest Ears skill as his own. The moment Bordan had told him the ring would only last twenty four hours, Asher knew he'd found the second item effect to use his skill on.

Slipping the ring off his finger, he perked up as that bloated feeling in his soul faded immediately. Thankfully, it seemed his own Permanence skill functioned separately from whatever strange limiter the soul had on foreign magic from artifacts.

Permanence - Lvl 11

"So it wasn't my intention to trick you or anything, and I'm sorry I hadn't mentioned it yet… But Bordan lent me this ring to help me make sure I took out the right person," Asher said, showing her the shining ring and placing it in her hand. "It gives the wearer the Honest Ears skill, which lets you tell when someone is lying."

"Ah…" Samantha said, immediately understanding as she took the ring from him and turned it over in her fingers. Rather than looking upset, she just looked embarrassed. "Sorry. I know we agreed to be entirely honest with each other, but I didn't want you to feel bad about our current situation, or feel pressured to hurry things along and put yourself in danger. Or more danger, I guess."

"I get it," he said, wrapping her up in a big hug and pulling her close. She snuggled up against him, still fingering the ring as if lost in thought. "So is it Brian or you that's not doing so hot?"

"It's Brian," she admitted, letting out a weary sigh. "I know he can act goofy at times, but he's a smart kid. I'm pretty certain by now he knows there's something wrong, and he knows you're trying to help us, which is why he does his best to put on a brave face and act like everything's fine whenever you show up. But I can tell he's not exactly enjoying this 'training camp' any longer."

"I'm not surprised. He probably misses his friends and sleeping in his own bed. Honestly, I'm impressed he's managed to hold out this long."

"He's got a few more days in him before he starts getting really grumpy, but yeah, I think this training camp has helped him realize that he in fact doesn't want to follow in my footsteps," Samantha laughed. "He really does love archery, and he's a big fan of hunting because he gets to use his bow, but he'll never love the forest like I do. Part of me wonders if that's because I wasn't able to show the wonders of the forest to him like my parents were able to do with me growing up. If he missed out on that because of me…"

"Don't do that to yourself," Asher said, squeezing her tighter and causing her to laugh all the harder as he shook her gently from side to side in an attempt to break her out of her funk. "Brian's his own person. Knowing how much he loves you, I'm sure he loved every minute the two of you spent wandering the forest together growing up. Otherwise, he would have told you to pound sand when you tried to drag him back into the forest for this training camp."

"Pound sand?" Samantha giggled, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him. "That's an interesting expression."

"I'm chock-full of them," he grinned, happy to see she looked less pensive. "I promise, I'll do my best to get this entire situation resolved as soon as I can, as safely as I can, and then the two of you can go back to your cabin without being at risk of someone sending another parcel full of death-powder your way."

"Thank you, Asher, I know how hard you're trying to protect the two of us," Samanatha said, giving him a tentative kiss before pressing her forehead against his and growing silent for a moment. Each word she spoke after that was softer than the last, to the point where the final three were barely louder than a whisper in the wind. "It really means the world to me. All that you've done, and all that you're continuing to do. For both Brian and myself. I just want to let you know… I love you."

Asher blinked at the sudden admission, his heart racing as he tried to figure out what to say. A part of him briefly contemplated activating the second tier of Comprehend to buy himself time to think, but he stomped that idea down as he realized that wouldn't be fair to Samantha. She'd mustered up the courage to speak from her heart and put herself out there, and it wouldn't be fair of him to rely on skills to do the same.

Even so, that didn't mean he couldn't use any magic to help him.

Samantha stared at him, her worried eyes watching his every movement, waiting for his response. Rather than say anything, however, Asher slowly closed his fingers over her own, and gently slid the ring Bordan had given him that she'd been fiddling with all this time onto her finger. Seeing her eyes cloud over for a moment as she read the skill that she'd just gained, he took a deep breath and waited for her attention to come back to him before he finally spoke. There was a lot about this world and himself that he was still figuring out, but after arriving in this new world and experiencing so many new things he never would have gotten the chance to back on Earth, there was at least one thing he knew for certain.

"I love you too, Samantha."

The hunter looked pensive, hesitating for just the briefest of moments despite everything as though waiting to hear the roaring in her ears. When the skill didn't activate, her eyes welled up with tears and she sniffed as a massive smile broke out over her face.

"I didn't need magic to believe you, idiot," she sniffed, pressing her face into the side of his neck as she hugged him tight.

"Maybe not," he laughed, rubbing her back and struggling to breath a little as she continued squeezing him. "But it certainly is nice, right?"

"Yeah," she said, sniffling one more time before letting out a content sigh. "Yeah, it is."

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