You hurried back toward the guild house, ignoring the urges that were threatening to overwhelm you as you told yourself you should raid the kitchens. You should try and make a meal that was appealing with what they had on hand, instead of submitting to the urge to go out hunting for food. You wondered just what they'd have, if it would be little more than stale bread and week old vegetables or if you'd find that they had a lot of variety and that they were just simply too inept to cook for themselves.
You were getting a lot of attention.
You could feel peoples attention on you as you self-consciously checked yourself to make sure there was no trace of blood on the clothing. You couldn't find any, that had you wonder why heads were turning, why so many men were looking your way. You moved your hands to your hair, checking that it wasn't all over the place, yet you found no hint that it was out of order. You couldn't figure it out, though as long as it wasn't going to get you into trouble you'd ignore it for the time being.
As you walked onwards you noticed a number of uniformed men on patrol with a mechanical man behind them, men that you almost failed to recognise as being police officers. Your heart started to race as you became paranoid, though you quickly relaxed as you told yourself that they couldn't possibly have been called out over what you had done. They simply didn't have that kind of response time.
Even so, you felt a little nervous as they headed your way, waving to you to get your attention, to get you to stop for them.
"Evenin' miss, just a standard check and all. Do you mind passing over the weapon you're carryin' so we can check it falls within legal boundries?" The officer asked, waiting patiently as he watched you unstrap it, passing the sheathed weapon over as he pulled out a tape measure. He almost disinterestedly measured the weapon as he spent more time looking at you than what he was doing.
"Is there a problem, officer?" you asked, as you watched him go to draw the weapon, bringing his attention back to you as he seemed to lose interest in it. Passing the weapon back your way he watched as you secured it on your back again.
"No, no problem here miss, though it is unusual to see a woman such as yourself carrying a weapon that straddles the boundries of permissable civilian weaponry. Do you know how to defend yourself adequately with that weapon?"
"I... Um..." You faltered, caught offguard by this question.
"I didn't think so. As appealing as a weapon of that size is, it might be an idea to trade it in for a smaller blade or a firearm. A smaller weapon is easier to handle with basic training, that would do more towards keeping you safe if you are accosted at night. Keep that in mind miss."
The officer was returning towards the patrol group, who had stopped multiple people for spot checks, while the mechanical man behind them turned in your direction, gears grinding as it raised its arm, its hand splitting in two, a long barrel sliding from it with a clunk.
"Enlightened Sighted, Initiating Engagement."
The mechanical man's unnatural voice boomed as it lowered its gun-arm, standing with its feet spread for stability as it loosed off round after round, the echoing boom of that weapon filling your ears as you stood frozen to the spot. Large casings were ejected from that gun-arm as the mechanical man fired it, the burning sensation of the rounds zipping past you in rapid succession making you shudder fearfully.
There was a thud behind you.
Then another.
"Miss, please do not turn around!" called one of the police officers as they hurried towards you, yet it was too late. That mechanical man hadn't hit you, that made you wonder if it had been aiming for you at not. You let out a scream for effect as you saw the damage caused by that mechanical man's weapon, though you were secretly delighted by this turn of events. There lay what remained of one of the Enlightened, his lower body writhing as his upper body lay there twitching. He had been blown in half by that things massive weapon, one of his arms was missing entirely, as was his head.
You turned back, shivering as you looked at the mechanical man carefully, watching as the gun retracted, as its hand swung back into place.
"Target Neutralised, Resuming Patrol."
Several of the officers were visibly shaken by this too, clearly having never seen a mechanical man do anything quite like this before. You could hear the murmers of unease, snatches of it betraying that this was a new model that they had been given to replace their old ones.
New model...
Was this the result of Eurochkoles gun development?
You feigned a cry of horror as you started to run, hurrying towards the guild house, running up the steps before you finally stopped at the door, catching your breath and composing yourself as you walked inside. The man at the reception desk stared at you as you walked in, prompting you to huff as you noticed this.
"Okay, everyone's staring at me today, what is wrong with my appearance?" You asked, while the man looked at you sheepishly.
"There's nothing wrong with it, you look very, well, pretty," the man stated as he almost stammered nervously. You shot him a dirty look.
"Are you saying that I do not normally?"
The man had more sense than Eurochkoles at least. He knew better than to open his mouth after saying such a thing. You knew he would take any chance to escape from this awkward moment that he could. "Do you know if they have anything fresh in the kitchens?" You asked, tilting your head slightly as you did so. "I'm hungry and i'm tired of eating preserved food that you people have cooked poorly," you added for clarity, while the man quickly checked the papers before him on the desk.
"Well, we got some fresh fish in this morning-"
That was all you needed to hear, they had fresh food in.
As you hurried towards the kitchens you wondered briefly if there was something specific you should look out for, or if you should even cook it. For what matter, what were you going to do once your immediate needs were tended to?