Despite the chaos of her life, Natsumi was not without her moments of levity. "Hard work," as fulfilling as it was for a birth Nisshokian, was not an end all fascination for the young woman now two years after her escape. That became especially true once she began making silver, because, regardless of the means she used to acquire that wealth, the mentality of work to live was gradually overtaking the prior one of live to work. She now had disposable income to spend on luxuries, and she used that currency to take sporadic vacations whenever and wherever she pleased.
 
Her favorite spots often lingered in the southern half of Canelux, in the centers of civilization where economies of agglomeration could best flourish. Goods were high quality in such places, especially when it came to the imported teas that Natsumi had developed a taste for in recent months. Great allure, as a result, possessed these areas, a fact that often caused the druid to take frequent, spontaneous jaunts into the city under cover of cloak.
 
It was a sunny but cold, Pacem day during one such adventure that the young woman was trying out a Parvpora tea at one of the Kaffekuća's located in Adeluna. Seated just outside the elaborate, foreign looking, shop front, a cloaked Natsumi could be seen blowing on a piping hot cup of Haza Savannah Spice. Its rich, exotic scent billowed out into the street as she watched the passing citizens, taking care not to expose her tail that was swishing contentedly underneath her outer clothing.
 
Glaciem was now in full swing by that point, causing an uptick in the demand for hot drinks. Kaffekuća's were enjoying a spike in business, as a result, and customers were flooding them from dawn till dusk. Natsumi had been lucky enough to find one such establishment able to provide her with an unoccupied table. Even if it was not in the store proper, it provided a view of the city that the young woman was partial toward and ready access to whatever "opportunities" might pass her by. Only time would tell if today's break would end in a hot spring bath on Apoy, or something more lucrative.

The streets of Adeluna were busy with many different people all of which had their own interesting story. There were those who were content to spend their coin with whatever trader took their fancy, those who were going about their daily business, those just out for a stroll and those who prayed on the pockets of all of them.

It was the very last of that list that took Amé's interest that day. She had not originally planned it. She had been on the street in front of that little tea shop just casually walking then all at once a massive ruckus started to erupt around her and suddenly she found herself involved in something a little outside her normal daily job.

A young man, perhaps no older than 15 brushed passed her and then did the same with the woman in front. 

The woman in front had made a mistake Amé hadn't though. She'd worn her bright purple belt pouch for all the people to see and on top of that, had decked herself out in gold and jewels that barely anyone in this part of the town could afford. She must have known that a thief would not be able to resist such a thing?

As the boy snatched up the purse, the woman let out a delayed scream once she realized what had happened. That didn't matter, Amé was already on the boy. With one quick dash she knocked the boy to the ground and snatched the purse from his hands. Not really caring if she'd injured him or not.

"I believe this is yours."

She told the woman who gave her thanks with only words.

It didn't matter to Amé whether the woman thanked her or not. The boy was a thief and needed to be stopped. She'd stopped him. Job done.

Her gaze moved to the tea shop as she began to walk away. Now that was something she could do with after that little bit of excitement. A nice cup of green tea and a sit down in the warm sun.

She chose a seat at a table not that far away from Natsumi. Not that Amé even noticed. Her mind was on the tea and her own thoughts. This was not her world. And yet, yes it was.

Levity gave way to commotion as the theft took place on open road. Natsumi's senses, like Ame's, were already on the thief before the noblewoman noticed her coin purse had been stolen, but arcane energies uncharacteristically paused following that intense observation. The ice queen could have intervened without even leaving her table, could have stopped the thief, but she did not. She saw fit to allow the already pursuing mercenary a chance, and, sure enough, was rewarded for her patience.
 
Although the thief did manage to pocket some of the silver – a fact that Natsumi had only been able to discern because of her visor briefly materializing – the majority was returned to the owner. Theft, as a result, had been minimized, even if the noblewoman was less than humble in her gratitude toward the mercenary's retrieval method.
 
"Thank you, kind citizen," she had said with the same kind of back-handed thankfulness the ice queen remembered of foreign dignitaries her father had entertained in the past. "Your good deed has been noted." You could tell it in her eyes: she had wanted Ame to kill the thief rather than simply stop him. Unfortunately for her, the young man had already escaped from view. The guard would have to track him down now if the woman was still out for blood, and that could take days.
 
Obviously, the mercenary didn't care either way. She simply approached the same kaffekuća as Natsumi, and sat down at a nearby table to order green tea.
 
"Nothing like the old fashioned tackle for taking down a thief," remarked the young miss as her nearby patron quickly received her order. "I'm a fan of subtler tactics myself, but causing the man's shoes to work against him – as I had intended – seemed like overkill when he already had an obvious mercenary on his ass." She drank the last of her Haza Spice at this point, looking straight at Ame afterwards. "I say obvious, but I'm having a hard time placing you among the local mercenary guilds. Then again, I'm not one to talk, since I rarely ever find myself in need of their services and don't know them as well as I should."

The look of murder hadn't gone unnoticed to Amé but she'd chosen to ignore it. There was no use in killing a boy of that age even if he was a thief. Maybe he had a reason for it? She didn't know the whole story and since she wasn't on the job, she didn't have to ignore that and just get on with it. For all she knew, he could have a family to help feed. On the other side of the coin, it could have been a game among his peers. The point was, there was a bigger picture. She'd not ignore that unless she was paid to.

In Amé's eyes everyone got one freebee. That was the noblewoman's. Lately though, she'd find herself getting conflicting thoughts that perhaps that wasn't the nicest thought to have. She'd often bury that feeling away though. It had no business being there.

As Amé took a sip from her cup she heard the voice of another patron and turned her gaze to where the sound had come from. She flashed an almost embarrassed smile. "Hm, you saw that?" She hadn't anticipated that anyone would have taken notice. Perhaps she should have taken a seat somewhere away from the scene of the incident. "It was a reflex action if I'm honest. Had I thought about it I might have done something more subtle to avoid notice."

It wasn't as though 'notice' was a big problem. It was just something she wasn't used to so found it very far from her comfort zone. Her body language seemed to suggest this if you were inclined to notice. 

At the mention of the mercenary guilds Amé gave a small note of a chuckle "Ah, that's because I'm more…freelance. I have my own merry little band and have yet to join the guilds. They seem to have ideals I find myself struggling with. I'm not a fan of the ask questions after method. It's not a…moral way of thinking."

She watched the stranger at this point to gauge her reaction. People often had one of two reactions to meeting a mercenary with a sense of morals. They either found it ridiculous or they didn't. In Amé's eyes though, someone had to kill the people who deserved it. Getting paid on top of doing that just made the job all the better.

A hint of embarrassment was not unheard of in mundane heroes, especially whenever their deeds were recognized beyond their mediocrity. In mercenaries, on the other hand, the characteristic emotion was virtually unheard of. Mercenaries were almost universally synonymous with boasting and confidence. Revelry was their motto. In fact, for Natsumi, Ame's shyness was more a shock than the idea of a freelancer with morals, but that wasn't entirely obvious until it was her turn to speak again.
 
"A mercenary with morals?" the druid asked as she signaled a nearby employee to refill her mug. Service was rapid, and silver exchanged hands quickly enough that the conversation continued almost seamlessly. "Uncommon, but not unheard of. If you make a life out of hunting criminals anyway, why not do that and get paid at the same time? It makes sense, despite its apparent rarity." Taking a sip from her tea, Natsumi removed the hood of her winter coat to reveal her fox ears to Ame. The act caused some eyes to find her in the crowd, as her appearance was rather unique even among travelers, but most were still too concerned about the recent pickpocket attempt to concern themselves with anything other than the safety of their coin pouches. "To be honest, I'm a freelancer myself: a solo artist. It's hard to get hired by traditional companies when you look like this, and I prefer working on my own anyway. It helps eliminate conflicts of interest, especially when there's a lack of bureaucratic overhead. I've done well enough for myself with that setup, even developed an alias in this area that you might have heard. Most people call me Ice Queen. Mercenary guilds, on the other hand, call me a 'cheating bitch,' but that's just because they get sour when their clients double deal on them."
 
Natsumi chuckled as she leaned back in her ethnic chair. It was rather amusing to her that the guilds disliked her despite some of their members still coming to her for goods on the road. The love-hate relationship between the two entities created an interesting paradox, one that only rarely led to bloodshed and always led to entertainment.
 
"When I first started out," the amused fox continued without delay, "I would have split the rewards with them had they worked with me. But, since they were so intent on getting all the money for themselves and obstinately opposed to giving me a job so I could support my family, I decided to just complete the jobs myself and take all of the reward. Now I just tell them the same thing every time they complain. If they weren't prepared for competition to arise as a result of lack of opportunity, they should have stayed out of the game."