171 Slap!

Macha glanced down at Jóhanna's round innocent face. The child did not understand the full meaning of her father being in a fight. While holding the girl by her shoulders, she asked Nitra, "Could you watch her for a little while? I want to check on my brother."

The woman nodded furiously, "Of course." Her expression was tense from the worry she felt for Lord Swat. He had been extremely kind to her family and had been a frequent patron to their restaurant over the years. He introduced many of his friends to their eatery and had given them a chance to open their place when other people rejected them. When they first started out, they tried giving their business proposal to multiple landowners. They were continually denied because many people in Marseille were racist against non-humans.

As Macha rushed outside, she held her hand up to Jóhanna, "Stay put okay? I'll get your Papa." She did not want her niece running into a fight. It would be dangerous and that sort of violence was not something a child should witness.

The cold winter air nipped at Tai Shan's nose, making the tip sting. To the side of the street, he noticed that someone wrote the name 'Felix' in the snow. He threw Magni into the yellow writing and turned to look at the cronies who began surrounding him.

His pride was somewhat hurt that these cronies did not know who he was. After becoming a Captain, he hoped to bring honor and renown to his family, but these men did not even recognize him. He flipped the stray lock of hair that came loose earlier back into position. It continually fell out of place, annoying him throughout the day.

As he took out a silver adamantine billfold from his breast pocket, he clicked his tongue. Since he did not have a weapon on him, he decided this would have to do. "The pig's pride really isn't worth getting beat up over. Just go back inside. I'll pay for your drinks today if you walk away right now."

He did not want to hurt these men unless he had to. It would be troublesome stifling his power with the anger he felt and his daughter was around. This was not the sort of example he wanted to set for her, but he also could not let Magni's behavior continue unpunished.

One man, who had a star tattoo over his left eye, ran at him with a stool that he took from the restaurant. He had the legs pointed at Tai Shan's chest in an effort to pin him against a signpost.

Tai Shan swiftly kicked the stool into the air and did a backflip to stop another man from closing in on him. Using the metal billfold, he parried a bottle that swung toward his face. The green glass shattered and he turned his head, to avoid having any of the shards get in his eyes. He kicked the man away and into the signpost that was behind him.

A pudgy man who had a red turtleneck ran at him, "Aaaaaarrrghhh," he screamed as he put all his energy into his fist. The man's hands glowed, then a burning red flame engulfed the man's fist.

The threat of the fiery hand was lost on Tai Shan because he was too busy smirking at how this fellow looked like a tomato. He effortlessly parried away the fist with his billfold, then slapped the man across the face twice. The cold metal left dark red marks across the man's face. He used the edge to hit the man in the throat, causing him to bowl over and cough.

"Too slow," he thought, as he watched the tomato clutching his neck.

Macha stood in front of the restaurant, she did not remember ever seeing her brother fight before. His guild did not participate in the tournament this year because people had been challenging his position for Captain. When he left for the war he was still a fresh Captain. This caused many guild members to believe they were stronger than him because he had been away for the past three years.

Seeing him face the opponents with ease, made Macha relax. She had worried that he would have trouble, but she should have had faith in his abilities. She realized that he did not bring his sword with him, and fighting without one's preferred weapon was always troublesome.

Her eyes fell on Magni, who stood, dusting some snow off of himself. Somehow she knew whatever was happening was probably because of this thorn. Her jaw clenched, but she made no move to confront the orange haired jerk.

The man who originally wielded the stool tried to grapple Tai Shan. He opened his arms and wrapped them around Tai Shan's wide shoulders.

The stench of the tattooed man caused Tai Shan to wrinkle his nose. It was an attack in its own right. He stomped the heel of his shoe down on the man's foot, causing a wail of pain to escape the man's throat. He grabbed the man's wrist and pulled him over his shoulder.

The fresh snow became a grey slush from their scuffles and it clung to the tattooed man's back as he was tossed to the ground. Tai Shan then kicked the man into the signpost. He crashed into his friend, who had tried to use a bottle to attack Tai Shan earlier. The impact caused both men to groan.

Not giving the tomato time to recover, he spun around and kicked the man. The pudgy body flew in Magni's direction and they both hit a brick wall. He realized he put a little more force than he meant to, but it was difficult gauging how hard he needed to kick the overweight opponent.

Tai Shan approached Magni, who now scowled at him. He used his billfold to slap the red-faced cretin across the cheeks.

SLAP SLAP SLAP

The loud sound of the metal hitting Magni's tender flesh cut through the air.

Tai Shan looked down his nose at the youngest Lord Rosenkrantz. In a cold voice, he demanded, "Apologize for your slander." This was not something he would yield on. The man's comments were crude and unbefitting of a gentleman.

"Against who? The only bitch I talked about was Tyr's woman." The whole situation pissed him off. He did not understand why some low noble would get so upset to the point of making Magni lose face in front of his friends. He pushed his chubby friend off of him and staggered up.

While Tai Shan was a patient man, hearing Magni refer to Macha as a bitch further inflamed his anger. Punching the drunkard in the face, he warned, "Macha is my sister. I will not have you slander her any further. Apologize."

Blood oozed from Magni's nose and his lip was split. He spat some blood into the snow. His face hurt and it felt like a demon was splitting his head open.

This was the first time he heard that Macha was a Swat. She looked nothing like this bastard who decided to pick a fight with the big boys. Originally, when this whole thing started, he planned to get his brother, Ullr, to ruin Tai Shan's family. His plan for revenge was now shattered because Ullr would never do that if Macha belonged to the Swat family.

Magni's teeth clenched as he sneered at how for some reason, the head of the Valois family chose that bitch as his girlfriend. Both his father and older brother would not want to anger Tyr over the hatred he felt for her. "Fine! I'm fucking sorry. But you better watch it. Just remember who you are and how low your family is. When Lord Valois gets bored of her, your household will be fucking ruined."

After delivering his forced apology, he spat at Tai Shan's feet. He hated this man and wished he possessed the strength to put him in his place. The world was unfair. The first sons like Ullr and Tyr had easy lives. No one would challenge them. Whereas he, the son of Thor, was even bossed around by a noble who barely had any status.

Tai Shan watched as Magni and his cronies left. They shouted remarks and taunts, but he had already given them a good beating. He tucked away his billfold and picked up the bar stool to take it back inside. The green glass shards littered the ground and he kicked it them to the side, where they would not hurt anyone.

As he cleaned up, Macha approached to help. "Why were you fighting Magni? Was he the one spreading rumors?" She began to assist him with kicking the broken glass out of the main street.

"Yeah. He made up some things about you. While we aren't as strong as some other families, I still won't have lies like that circulate. I also think Tyr would have wanted me to stop him. If you end up being a Valois, rumors like that could be harmful." He still did not know how committed Macha and Tyr were, but they seemed extremely close. He would not want the rumors to get out of hand and ruin any chances she had at a happy life.

Macha nodded her head. She looked up at her brother and asked, "What did he say? What were the rumors?" Magni barely knew her, so she could not even imagine what he would talk about. She hoped it was not anything that would reflect poorly onto Tyr.

The words Magni uttered were not fit for his sister's ears. They had been lies and not worth even repeating, "Don't worry about it. Knowing what lies that filth uttered would do no good. He won't be saying them again."

When they got back to the table Jóhanna had her small hands around a yam. Her little nibbles barely made a dent in the large vegetable. "Papa, you aren't washing your hands right."

He raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?" The girl's train of thought often confused him. Sometimes the connections she made were too random for him to follow.

She put the yam down and beamed with pride. Her father did not understand how to wash his hands and she could teach him. "You aren't washing your hands right!"

It was easier to just go along with whatever his daughter was thinking about, "Oh? I always thought I did it correctly. How am I supposed to wash them?"

Jóhanna rubbed her hands together, "Like this, but you need to sing the song Aunty Mama taught me." She picked her yam back up and added, "Don't worry. I'll teach you."

As his daughter ate, Tai Shan thought back to what Magni said. He worried that Thor would seek revenge on his small family. There was nothing he could do if the Rosenkrantz family wanted to crush the Swats.

His family would be little more than a minor annoyance for a large family to get rid of. As much as he hated it, the survival of his family now rested on Macha maintaining a good relationship with Tyr. As long as they had Lord Valois's protection, he knew the Rosenkrantz family would leave them alone.