Reunited with Jaina

"Actually, it's too early to talk about peace. Take Dalaran, for example. It isn't nearly as united as you imagine, and there's no shortage of dirty dealings behind the scenes."

"Oh?" When Liam suddenly brought up Dalaran with such seriousness, Jaina sensed something was off, though she couldn't quite figure out what.

The reason Liam had stopped beating around the bush and abruptly steered the conversation here was that he'd already decided to leave. Before going, he wanted to test the waters and see whether playing the prophet for once would make some Bronze Dragon suddenly appear and kill him.

He'd chosen Jaina because of her special status. After all, her every action would have a huge impact on the future of Azeroth.

"It's getting late. I should head back. Before I go, here's some advice: tell your teacher to keep a close eye on Kel'Thuzad. If possible, you'd be better off throwing that bastard straight into your Violet Hold. It'd save you trouble, and I'd have less to deal with, too."

With that, Liam turned and left. But he wasn't heading back toward the Lordaeron Internment Camp. Instead, he walked east, toward the hills.

"You know who my teacher is? You... know me?"

If Jaina still couldn't tell something was wrong after hearing that, she'd have been a disgrace to her education. At last, she understood why Liam had seemed suspicious to her all along.

How could an ordinary guard know so much about all sorts of things? He knew more about many matters than she did, even though she was a princess. And when he'd been spouting nonsense, he'd carried himself nothing like an ordinary foot soldier meeting a mage. What's more, even as an apprentice mage, she hadn't noticed when he'd come up behind her. Luckily, he hadn't meant her any harm. Otherwise... well, that would've been fine, too. She still had plenty of protective charms on her.

But judging by what he'd just said, he'd known her identity from the start. So...

Jaina's thoughts were in a tangle, and she still hadn't figured out what he was after. When she came to her senses, Liam was already far away.

The girl tried to chase after him, only to realize that she'd taken off her shoes earlier because of that liar's coaxing. She bent down to look for them, but the shoes that had been lying quietly nearby had vanished! In their place was a blooming rose, its petals dotted with dewdrops, as if it had just been picked at dawn.

"Liar! Scoundrel! Stop right there!" The furious girl wanted nothing more than to hit that annoying man with an Ice Lance. For an apprentice mage who'd never seen real combat, even thinking of such a thing was almost unimaginable—unless she was truly angry.

Liam ran fast. Before long, he disappeared into the empty fields, leaving only the girl's indignant, angry cries to drift through the endless night. His retreating figure, fleeing awkwardly into the darkness, was etched deep into her memory.

The girl had always had an easy life. After the first truly heartfelt conversation of her life, she'd thought she'd made a decent friend. Then came the first "betrayal" she'd ever experienced. How could she possibly forget Liam's infuriating face? Especially when he'd stolen her favorite pair of shoes, the ones she'd brought from home. The flower he'd left behind had been pretty... but that was no excuse for stealing!

So even though she hadn't seen him in over a year, a casual glance in Lordaeron that day was enough for Jaina to recognize her "enemy." She called out without thinking, and Liam's immediate reaction confirmed who he was. Furious, Jaina jumped out of her carriage and strode toward him.

"What's the matter? Are you going to tell me this time that you got promoted and became a guard in Lordaeron City?"

Liam was still gnawing on an apple, his words slightly muffled. He smiled at Jaina as she approached and offered her the apple in his other hand.

"Want some? It's pretty sweet." Liam's eyes darted around as he made light of things, hoping to find a chance to run before his identity was exposed.

He was starting to regret what he'd done. After three years of thief training, he'd still let a little girl identify him with a single sentence. It seemed he'd never make a good spy. He'd leave that promising line of work to Wilton.

"Like I'd want anything from you!" Jaina snapped. Thinking of the rose she'd picked up, she felt her cheeks grow a little warm. She could only reassure herself, Kul Tiras doesn't have flowers this pretty. I was just curious at the time.

Jaina had few friends growing up, and she couldn't quite sort out how she really felt about this boy who'd once again appeared in her life. But there was one thing she needed to do.

"Give me my shoes back." The little liar was a good storyteller, and she'd enjoyed talking with him last time. But a lady's shoes couldn't be left in the hands of a strange man. Jaina was going to get back what belonged to her.

As for his pretending to be a guard at the internment camp, Jaina hadn't really cared about that at all.

If Jaina hadn't mentioned it, Liam might have forgotten all about it. His prank last time had been a spur-of-the-moment idea. He hadn't known how Jaina would react to him posing as someone else; if she'd mistaken him for a spy and attacked, things could've gone badly.

Since Jaina had brought it up, Liam simply took the shoes he'd long since forgotten about out of his storage space.

Jaina's eyes lit up at the sight. She was curious about how Liam had done it. This world had no such thing as storage items. What Liam had just done looked much like spatial magic, a field that only intermediate mages could touch.

Even with Jaina's talent, it would take at least five years for her to become an intermediate mage. How had this "ordinary person" in front of her, who showed no trace of magical energy, managed it?

"And he... he's been carrying them around with him!" At the thought, Jaina was both embarrassed and furious. Liam had earned a new name to go with "liar" and "scoundrel": "pervert."

With the shoes in his hands, Liam was still trying to decide whether to give them back or toss them aside to distract Jaina before making a quick getaway, when the sound of hooves rang in his ears.

Before Liam could turn around to look, a voice came from behind him.

"Give the lady her things back, and I can make sure you spend a few fewer days in prison."

Liam turned around and recognized the speaker at a glance. That shoulder-length blond hair was simply too conspicuous...