"You expect that to work? Nothing good comes from petty thoughts like those. You're acting half your age if you honestly think that way," Julian stated bluntly once he was done with the thing she'd attempted to use as a weapon against him. The longsword returned to its scabbard and the wakizashi came to bear as he calmly closed the distance between them, neither rushing nor ambling.

"Now, if you're wanting any help from me, you're about five minutes too late for that," he continued. It was uncharacteristic of him to be even half as blunt, but he'd been growing more and more fed up to this point. "Even people that aren't actually on the sane side of things have been more capable of politely asking questions and being more or less civil in this mess of a town than you. You're the first to cause a commotion as irritatingly pointless as this one and hopefully the last. When people say that they think you're power-drunk, they usually mean it. When a man says he's not the toughest guy in town, you pay attention because that's something you'll only hear once in a blue moon. And yet you did not."

To say he was disgruntled would be to speak lightly. If his legs were not mere flesh and bone, the young man would have placed himself in her face and backhanded her off the tree already. With his off hand (which was not bionic). Alas, they were not – and thus, he did not.