Chapter 653: The Blooming Flower.

‎"Nie? That’s your name?" Anastasha tilted her head and stared at the woman.

‎The woman nodded and her eyes couldn’t stop stealing a glance at Ruen. Everyone knew who Ruen was, a mysterious and beautiful lady that emerged out of nowhere and defeated renowned martial artists. She didn’t expect that Ruen was one of Anastasha’s people, and it answered the question of why Ruen was so powerful and a master in martial arts.

‎"Stop staring at her like that or you’ll become her plaything," Anastasha moved her head to the side to block Nie’s eyes from looking at Ruen. "If there’s a starving tiger and her, I suggest you to let yourself be eaten by the tiger and let it shred your body into pieces than be her plaything," she said with a straight face that was devoid of lies and deceptions.

Nie leaned her head back when she saw Anastasha’s face right in front of her. Even after the warning, Nie couldn’t help but steal a final glance at Ruen, but that was when Ruen stared back at her with the eyes that seemed to see through her masks that gave her chills down her spine. Nie immediately averted her gaze, and her whole life, she had never averted her gaze toward anyone.

"You’re quite a stubborn girl. Whatever that happens to you later, that’s on you because I have warned you," Anastasha chuckled mischievously.

Nie stared into Anastasha’s eyes, and this time she saw lies in them. She then glanced at the man that was sitting with Ruen earlier, and noticed he was sitting with two beautiful women that seemed like foreigners. She didn’t know who that man was, and compared to everyone in the inn, he was the most mysterious of all.

"That one is mine," Anastasha pointed out with a cold smile. "Keep your eyes on me, young lady," she pointed at Nie with her folded hand fan.

Nie glanced outside the inn, and she was worried about the people that were chasing her. She didn’t want to make a scene, especially showed her martial arts unnecessarily.

"Can you guarantee my safety?" Nie asked, her voice soft and gentle, almost fragile and delicate.

"From whom?" Anastasha tilted her head as she rested her elbows on the table and let her chin rest on her stacked hand. "Of course, it doesn’t matter. But, I would love to know how much your safety worth," she raised her brows lazily.

"I said that I would give you information related to the corrupt officials, was that not enough?" Nie frowned.

Before Anastasha could answer the question, she heard a lot of footsteps outside the inn. When she glanced at the entrance, she saw a few martial artists from different righteous clans, standing side by side and stared at Nie. They didn’t dare to walk into the inn when there was a carriage parked outside the inn with the Asghar family banner flowing on the top. On top of that, Anastasha was sitting at the same table as the person that they pursued.

"Yes?" Anastasha slowly rose from her chair and stared at the group of men that were thinking of walking into the inn. "Do you want to come in?" She tilted her head with an empty smile. "Go head, come in," she beckoned at them.

One of the men in the group didn’t seem to see that as a warning and decided to push through the crowd. He took a step into the inn, and the first thing he did was stare at Anastasha. Anastasha stared back at him and raised her brows, wondering why he wanted to see her reaction.

Seeing that nothing happened to the man, one by one, the rest of the group walked into the inn. Nie, who thought that she would be safe, she felt betrayed by Anastasha because she thought that Anastasha would protect her like what she was promised.

Ruen ignored her surroundings and kept eating her food. However, she was curious about what was about to happen.

"(What is she trying to do?)" Ruen telepathically asked Rasmus.

"(Who knows)" Rasmus took a sip of his tea.

Anastasha slowly walked away from the table where Nie sat. At the same time, the group approached the table and surrounded Nie with their hands ready on their sheathed swords. They were aware of the other guests, including the famous Ruen, but their objective was more important than their surroundings.

"You have nowhere to run," the leader of the group stared down at Nie. "You’ll pay for what you did and you won’t be coming out of this place with your limbs attached," he stated.

Nie was thinking of a way to get out of the situation, assessing her surroundings and what would be the most efficient moves to survive. However, that was when her thoughts and the atmosphere in the inn began to disarray the moment they all heard the doors closed shut. Everyone looked back and saw Anastasha closing the door in front of her, separating the inn from the outside world.

"You want safety?" Anastasha asked as she slowly turned around.

The group arched their brows when they heard Anastasha’s weird question. That question wasn’t meant for them, it was meant for Nie.

"I’m giving you one," Anastasha pointed out as she unfolded her fan and hid her lower face with it. "Safety from consequences," she stared right into Nie’s eyes.

Nie, who heard that and saw the group getting distracted by Anastasha, she immediately lifted her skirt and pulled out two blades. She spun and swung her blades around without making a noise and slit the throats of the five men behind her. When they heard the sound of blood and gargle, they turned around toward Nie, but it was already too late for some of them because they had just lost their heads before they fully turned around. The remaining ones panicked, and even those who weren’t, their hands weren’t fast enough to unsheath their swords to defend themselves.

Nie threw her blades and stabbed two men right in between their eyes, leaving only three men left. She flicked her fingers and the blades flew back to her hands. There was no string attached to the blades, she used Mana to control her blades. Rasmus glanced over his shoulder when he saw that move, the move that only a single person he knew could do it, the Second Swordmaster, Uriel Goldmane, the Queen of Swords.

The remaining three men unsheathed their swords, but before they could form a stance, Nie was already behind them and in the middle of sheathing her blade under her skirt. The three men wanted to look around, but their necks didn’t want to move. Slowly but surely, they felt like the world was tilting until their consciousness faded away as their heads slid off their necks and fell to the ground.

Anastasha watched the whole thing, and not even once did Nie change her expression. A person who was born as a man, raised and altered into a delicate and fragile woman, a living doll with a skill that could massacre everyone around her without making a single sound.

"Wow, you killed all of them," Anastasha pretended to be shocked. "However, I don’t remember telling you to kill them nor I say or suggest anything about harming them," she folded her hand fan, revealing a mischievous smile. "You know that I could report this incident to the authority," she chuckled.

At that moment, Nie realized why the Asghar family was hated, feared, or respected by everyone from East Neva. She realized that the moment she got involved with an Asghar, her fate was no longer hers to tread. In that moment, a flash of thought came into her mind, and it was to get away from Anastasha. However, that was when she glanced at Ruen, who was still enjoying her food, showing no reaction to what had happened. She then glanced over her shoulder and saw Rasmus reading his notebook while the two women were casually enjoying their drinks. She realized that she wasn’t even seen as a threat to them, and her instinct told her that she had no chance of leaving no matter what she did.

"I’m joking," Anastasha chuckled as she hit the hand fan onto her palm. "You’re one of us now. However, I did say that you’re safe from consequences, but walking away from me? There will be no place that you can call... safe," she warned with a cold smile painted on her face.