"Now, Georgina Esta De L'Orion, mind telling me what someone like you is doing all the way out here, in the Plains of the Green, far away from Ando City, hm?" Darius asked her playfully.
The moment her full name was mentioned, the young lass shivered even more as her fears were further reinforced. Gazing at the calm Darius, she took a deep breath and removed her hood.
Darius noted that Georgina was not bad looking, definitely much better than Portia. With golden-red short-cropped hair that was bound by a black headband, sapphire blue eyes, and a small nose, Georgina would have definitely attracted unwanted attention from her own compatriots had she ever shown her true visage.
Interestingly, she seemed to be around 16 or 17 years old and with her soft chin as well as reddish lips, she did seem a bit mature for her age. Darius noticed all this in passing, but he was more interested in her answer.
"I was sent here by my family to observe and report on the activities of the Poleria Homestead. I only chose to work with the Diato Bandits because they were the weakest and least professional bandit group of the lot."
"Oh? But why send out such a beautiful young lady like you to this wretched place when you are clearly meant for greater things?" Darius asked with his hand on his chin, multiple theories forming in his mind.
Georgina's face displayed an expression of grievance and anger before she quickly tried to hide it, but the opposite party did not miss it. Chuckling internally, he listened to her reply patiently.
"That's… well, I was sent here because of… personal reasons." She answered, struggling to find the right words.
"Please, don't insult my intelligence. To be foolish enough to send such an intelligent and skilled woman like you out here, your family must either be incompetent - which is unlikely - or there must have been foul play involved - which is typical in our circles - on your freedoms. So, Georgina, which is it?" Darius questioned gently.
The young lass reacted to Darius' soothing praise and nodded almost subconsciously. "It was... my elder sisters." She sighed deeply, as if a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "As the youngest and prettiest of us three, they were jealous of me and pushed for me to be given this 'simple' task."
"On paper, the reward appears quite lucrative and the work should be simple enough. But the struggle I went through to gain a footing in this wretched place could have seen me dead many times over, my body used by mere brutes to pleasure themselves!"
"Unfortunately, I couldn't reject due to their posturing and pandering to my family elders, I had to accept! I simply had no choice! Now, here I am, about to die in some unnamed forest."
Georgina vented out her pent up frustration due to a mixture of the circumstances, her boiling stress, and Darius' simple prodding. His eyes flashed as he put two and two of her story together and he recognized this as an interesting opportunity.
Darius leaped over to Georgina's branch slowly and non-threateningly, shaking his head as he did so. "While we all will have to die eventually, you will not die here today, Georgina, not unless I say so."
Jorge gazed at Darius with a mixture of relief, wariness, and confusion. Relief due to having verbal confirmation that she would live, wariness because she was smart enough to know that verbal confirmation could be rescinded at any time, and confused because of Darius' final words.
"What I mean is simple. I need you, Georgina. Your skills in stealth and espionage, your ability to deduce and rationalize as well as your connections, I need them all. I want you to join me." Darius elaborated.
Georgina's hunched shoulders and slightly raised hackles subsided as she heard his words, and curiosity began to rise in her, as well as some positive interest. "What exactly for?"
Darius smiled genially. "I wish for a person of your caliber to act as my shadow. As you've probably deduced yourself, my plan was to create a situation which would see me become a hero and use that to rub in with the Equality Faction."
Darius's eyes narrowed and their hazel glow intimidated Jorge easily once more. "However, now that I know your circumstance, I can make use of you to gain connections with the Superiority Faction."
Jorge trembled, but sighed after a second or two. In her mind, if Darius could cook up such a devious scheme, he had to have enough deductive abilities to ascertain that she and her family worked for the opposite faction.
It was obvious enough if one thought about it deeply. There was no reason for a noble lass like her to be out here in the wilderness, spying on a mere homestead unless there was a conflict of interests going on in the background.
Since Shanks represented the Equality Faction, it stood to reason that Georgina - dressed as Jorge - would represent the Superiority Faction who wanted to mimic Fraterina and turn the Andrato Kingdom into a sexist, matriarchal state.
Darius patted Georgina on the shoulder and gestured to the ground. "Let's head down and talk a bit more. There are some things I need to inform you and teach you."
Jorge hesitated for a split second before nodding. She had already come this far, so there was no use pretending to be tough or spunky. She wasn't the hot-headed type anyway.
Both parties landed on the ground and Darius took the lead as he spoke to Jorge calmly. "First things first, we need to make the Equality Faction think you've disappeared. That's why I chased after you in particular, because you'll need my help with this."
Jorge froze and question with incredulity: "They know of my existence?"
Darius nodded with an amused smile. "Of course. Probably for a long time at that."
Jorge shook her head, only partly believing Darius at best. "How? How do you know this?"
Darius chuckled playfully. "Oh Georgina, just think about it. They've sent one of their agents to this frontier to form a homestead and see if there is anything of interest they can develop. Not to mention that we are close to the Plains of Death too."
"But at the end of the day, Shanks is merely an agent and his main goal in coming here was to live out his retirement with his family. They can't force him to fulfill their objectives, but they also can't leave him to his own devices."
"So Georgina, what would you do if you were the Equality Faction?"
She answered with eyes glazed over in realization. "I would send spies to monitor his activities and use them against him."
