It was at that point that Lewis learned a valuable lesson. One that he would forever hold dear to his heart and never forget…

Trying to be Cool


It was a trope that he had read. Of course, Lewis had no idea what a trope really was, but he saw that women liked it. That women melted when it happened to them. He wasn’t exactly sure why he wanted a woman to ‘melt’, but front he way that the trope read, they liked it.

A new romance novel had released that day, and Lewis had overheard the local seamstress gossiping about the scandalous actions of the mistress and her new lover. At first, Lewis scoffed at the concept of a book on ‘love’, but the way that the seamstress spoke of what happened in the book, barely able to continue on as her face flushed, he took notice.

He had seen Simone act that way when she read some of her books. Was that what women liked?

Lewis walked over to the seamstress. “What the hell are you going on about,” he demanded.

At once, the seamstress blushed, “Oh…I guess all types of people are into these novels. Well, you see….”

—

When Lewis returned to the tower, he stopped at the entrance. It seemed so stupidly simple. Would such a trick work? Would it do anything? Would she laugh? Or swoon?

Emotions are stupid… he decided finally as he walked in. Yet, the moment he saw her, something stirred in his heart. A feeling that controlled him before he could logically think the actions through. He took her arm, and pulled her, moving deftly out of the way so her back hit the door. In a swift motion, he slammed his hand against the wall.

‘The wall slam.’ An act of showing ‘dominance’ over a woman, impressing and exciting her. This action alone was what women craved…to be wanted and desired.

At least, that was what the romance novel said. What those women said.

“Hey…” he said in his awkward tone, trying to be smooth.

Lewis was always trying so many new things with her. Simone liked all of them but her fragile body under his muscular one always posed a rather unique challenge for the assassin. She was easily bruised and hurt, which for the most part didn’t even bother the two of them. However, people started to make a bad habit of asking her if she was alright and if Lewis was abusive again. Which caused her confusion and made her get flustered. So Lewis had taken to being more careful if only to save Simone from embarrassment. Simone had tried to protest but he had evidently taken offense to the questions and couldn’t kill everyone involved.

It became a daily routine of theirs for Simone to greet Lewis at the door. She hopped off the windowsill letting Snowball fly off her shoulder and onto the fireplace ledge. “You’re ho–” He had grabbed her and moved her putting her against the wall rather hard. However, Simone couldn’t even be bothered to notice just how hard.

That one set of motions had her squealing and blushing across her face, “Thatwashot.” It came out rather quickly from her lips before she slumped over. A quick inspection would show that she hit her head rather hard against the wall but was too enamored with Lewis to have actually cared she was bleeding.

The look on Simone’s face was priceless. The way that she lost her breath, the way that her eyes got wide, the small squeal she made as she whispered how hot it was… it was all perfect. So the books were right. The gossiping seamstress was right. It had worked.

Of course, none of that actually mattered in the end. Simone’s smile slowly faded as she slid down the wall, obviously dazed from the sudden blow to her head. The content ‘look’ on Lewis’ face disappeared, and was replaced with a slightly wider eyed look of surprise.

Of course, to anyone looking on the outside, Lewis merely just stared as Simone slid to the ground leaving a smeared trail of blood on the door. Snowball immediately came over, and started pecking Lewis’ head in irritation.

“I know! I know! I fucked up!” He quickly carried her over to the couch and placed her down gently. She was still conscious, going on about how sexy Lewis looked, but it was delirious and slurred as she spoke. Lewis cursed again, and ran out the door to find Jack for a tonic or something to help her.

It didn’t take long for the two to return, and Jack already had a potion in hand. “Here we go…just drink this slowly Simone…”

Gods he knew how to absolutely drive her mental and this time he broke her too! While she was delirious she had a fantastic and quick daydream of him doing it again! It was just as sexy as the first time he did it! So she began to mutter how hot it was out loud.

Simone drank the potion the best she could and as she regained most of her consciousness she was looking at Lewis with a bright red blush across her face. “Do it again.”

“…Wait… What?” Jack looked at the blood on the wall and then at her. “Has he made you mental?”

“If he keeps doing that I’ll let him make me whatever he wants,” Simone squeaked out. Snowball looked less than thrilled but gave a series of angry tweets at Lewis.

“…I’m leaving… If she needs more tonic let me know… I think you rattled something when you smacked her head onto the wall.” Jack looked back at them before shaking his head and closing the door.

Simone was still staring at Lewis with a blush, “…Make sure to do it more… Just don’t knock my head too hard into the wall. Even if I don’t mind it.” She looked away shyly. “And don’t do it to other girls.” She said the last bit so quietly. “I don’t want to have to fight them.” He really did rattle her brain.

The New Acolytes

“All right,” Darren said as he read down the list of new names. It was orientation day for the new acolytes in the temple, and there were quite a few rules to go over. There were three new men and two new women who were joining Lord Raith today. The first man seemed like a smart one. He kept his mouth shut and was ready to learn. The second one seemed like a mistake, but he would either shape up and learn, or die trying. The last one, though, seemed in utter awe of the whole area.

“Rule one,” Darren said as he tapped the paper. He spouted off the first set of rules…basics, really. Lord Raith was their lord. Common courtesy, tithes, and other general rules were covered. And then, it came to the last set of rules.

The…unique rules.

“There’s a girl here. Her name is Simone,” Darren started. At this time, the doors opened and a few acolytes and servants game bustling out into the main halls. “Ah, speak of the devil…well, she’s off limits. You can say hi…but it is highly recommended that you steer clear of her. Don’t stare at her. Don’t comment on her. Hell…if at all possible, don’t even think about her…”

The one acolyte looked up at Simone and noticed how adorable she was. Her long black hair to her waist with part of it pulled back in a blue ribbon. She was wearing a cute light blue beach dress and holding a basket full of fruit. “…but why? She looks so innocent.” The guy spoke up and Darren looked over at him with a scared expression.

“It’s… not her you have—” Darren stopped as Simone saw him and came over. “Good morning Simone!” Snowball was sitting on Simone’s shoulder. “And good morning Snowball.” Snowball chirped at him. The bird seemed to be in a good mood today.

“Good morning Darren! I decided to go down to the little wooded area and gather the fruit there with Dala.” She held up the basket and smiled at him. “I picked some for you and Jack.”

“Oh! That was really thoughtful of you.” Simone gave him a tiny bag of them before waving to the new acolytes and being on her way. She needed to deliver Jack’s fruit to him. Luckily, Lewis had known she was going to go berry picking and only agreed if Snowball was with her.

“…But she’s so nice. Why can’t we talk to her? And she’s cute.” The color was slowly draining from Darren’s face.

One of the acolytes with a hood walked up to the group, and put his hand on the new man’s shoulder. “Well you see,” he started in an odd tone, “That girl there has a psychotic boyfriend.” There was an awkward pause as the information sank in.

“”P-psychotic? How so?” The new acolyte seemed a little unnerved. “She seems so delicate. I doubt she could stand anyone like that…”

“Well, here’s the thing. Her boyfriend saw the last batch of new acolytes here, standing just like you all…and one of them made a comment about her butt. It’s a nice butt, don’t you think?” He was fishing for an answer.

“I mean…yeah, it…it is?”

“Yeah, he answered just like that when his buddy asked,” the hooded acolyte asked. “Her boyfriend gouged his eyes out for noticing.” Dead stop.

“He what!?” the new start asked, suddenly panicking.

“The other guy? The one who made the comment? He was dismembered piece by piece. Started with the toes. Then the fingers…so on and so on.” It was alarming how much this hooded man knew of the psycho boyfriend. Was this some sort of hazing ritual?

“Darren, sir…is he=”

Darren was pale, “Nope. He definitely did that…why do you think we have rules about it now?”

The new guy swallowed hard. “Well…I mean, thanks for telling me all of this. Can…can I ask one more question?”

The hooded man nodded, “Sure. Go for it..”

“Do you know who this psycho bastard is?” The new guy seemed a little emboldened. “Maybe we can ban together…do something about him. If he’s like that with us, then there’s no telling what he does to Simone! She’s far too pretty to be left to a nutcase like that.”

“Oh…the psychotic boyfriend is me,” Lewis said, taking the hood off. “And believe me…she gets taken care of better than anyone in this place.”

The color was draining from the acolyte's face. “Yo-you?”

“Lewis Dusk!” Simone stood there with her hand on her hip and the other holding her basket. “Are you hazing the new acolytes again?” She came up to Lewis and the assassin put his arm around her waist. Simone giggled at him. “You shouldn’t do that…”

“But it’s fun…” Lewis looked down at her with a ghost of a smirk.

“I’ll make you a pie out of these if you let it go… This time.” Simone was bargaining with her lover as she held up the basket. “I won’t even let the others have it. Just you.”

“I guess I can forgive someone for staring at my Simone’s butt,” Lewis said it lazily as he leaned into her. Darren could tell that he didn’t want to let it go but hoarding Simone’s full attention was at stake.

As the two walked away the one acolyte fell down, “She’s a fucking angel.” He almost pissed himself.

“Just… Don’t let Lewis catch you next time,” Darren laughed nervously. “Sometimes Simone can’t reign him in… That’s when we take bets, WHICH LEADS ME TO MY NEXT THING! We have daily bets on if someone will piss Lewis off and you can make a good bit of silver off of it!”

–

His Imagination Runs Wild

Darren was holding a catalog in his hands, “Boys…” He came over to Jack and Lewis putting his arms around them. “You guys… This tailor is a fucking genius. Now before you kill me, Lewis… Just… Just look at this.” He showed both Jack and Lewis a whole bunch of very short dresses on women. “They call them… a sundress. A dress for summer… My dear men… We live on a summer island.”

Jack looked at him, “What… do you want to try and make them popular around the temple?”

“…Who wouldn’t want to see a cute ass in a short dress? For Lewis… This is massively beneficial.” Darren took Lewis’s head and turned to where Simone was chatting with a few of the temple girls. She bent over to pick something up and Darren immediately looked away.

“Oh my god you’re a god damn genius,” Jack took the book from him. “… I need to spread this to the other assistants in my work center so I can watch them.”

Lewis wasn’t really in the mood for Jack and Darren’s machinations, but the moment sundresses were mentioned, he gave pause. The idea of them was more or less useless to him. What point would it be for the women here to wear them? And then Simone’s name was mentioned.

His mind wandered for the briefest of moments to Simone wearing a sundress. And then he imagined her bending over. And then the access that it allowed…

“Fine,” Lewis said as he grabbed the catalog. “I’ll…be back.”

Darren and Jack high fived as Lewis walked away.

—

The tailor was, as usual, busy working on a variety of different outfits. It was an art form for him, and he never felt as though he were truly finished with any of his outfits.

“I have a request,” Lewis demanded as he walked in, ignoring whatever the tailor was doing.

“I’m busy,” he replied with a bored tone. “I’m far too invested in-”

“I need you to make something for Simone,” the assassin interrupted. “Now.”

“Fine, let me see it,” the tailor replied. It was obvious he wasn’t going to get anywhere with the stubborn asshole.

Lewis presented the catalog to the tailor, who flipped through the pages. “Dull. Boring. Oh but…the concept…” There was a spark in his eyes. “And this is for Simone…” There was a hint of amusement in his voice. “I see…”

“Oh…and Darren and Jack want it to spread to the whole place. Don’t really care about that, bu-”

“MY DEAR BOY!” The tailor exploded suddenly. “I will make a dazzling dress for her…one that will be the envy of ALL the women here, and they will flock to me for their needs and desires. This…this will be a new wave of fashion! Something delightful! Lewis, you have given me SUCH a fantastic idea!”

Lewis was just staring at him. “Okay…but I really just want to see Simone in one.”

“Yes, yes…give me a day.” The tailor sighed. “You have no sense for fashion…”

Once Lewis had gotten hold of the dress he presented it to Simone in a gift box. “For me?” The girl was blushing as she opened it and pulled out the dress. “A new dress?”

“They call it a sundress. They are popular on the mainland,” Lewis knew how modest Simone was and how easily embarrassed she was. “It’s hot out now.”

Simone was blushing as she looked at the short dress with the exposed back, “I’ll try it on…” She was shy as she went over to his weapon’s room and closed the door. “Don’t peek.” She closed it. After a good fifteen minutes, she came out and she was fidgeting with the bottom of the floral dress he got her. It was perfect for her small bust. It had thin straps that went around like a halter. It was a tiered short white gown with floral print. A thin strap of almost see-through lace was around her waist. “How… Does it look?”

As usual, the tailor was a god damn genius when it came to how Simone was built.

She did a little spin for Lewis. "It is really airy… and feels nice in this heat I will admit. Is it okay for me to wear this?"