Princess Kiara was possibly the first woman of "proper upbringing" that didn't balk to Ostus's words. Intrigued, he actually listened to what she had to say, and took a better look at her in the process.

He decided she wasn't bad-looking for a princess. Pretty, actually, especially considering her plain attire. He had a certain weakness for redheads, and the direct, no-nonsense way she responded to him only reaffirmed his appreciation for them. However, he knew his place and hers. He was a guard hired to protect her, and she was a person who couldn't possibly understand or even accept his way of life. He couldn't simply seduce her, bone her, and move on to more conquests, as was the norm for this very single individual. Though, if his friends thought he did, what a story that would be...

As though reading his thoughts, Kiara rolled into a joke about pleasure. He raised an eyebrow, slowly releasing a smooth, bemused smirk. Was she flirting with him? There was nothing wrong with a little harmless verbal exchange with the princess, right? "I wonder what kind of pleasure is conducted in the pleasure room?" he commented in a velvety tone, relaxing his stance a bit. "Surely it involves more than a bit of heavy...reading? Or penetrating... politics?" He mirrored her mischievous smirk with one of his own, throwing in a wink for good measure.

The more Kiara talked, the more appealing she seemed. Ostus couldn't believe his luck on his latest assignment. Either Princess Kiara was putting one hell of a show, or she was not at all the mold of a typical princess. Could she drink, and if so, how much? Was she hiding any tattoos under that tunic of hers? Did she know any raunchy jokes? What other sort of exciting secrets did she harbor?

That curiosity instantly turned into a chilly indifference as soon as she questioned his skill and intentions. His easy smirk morphed into a hardened scowl and he narrowed his eyes at her. "Pretend?" he snapped, straightening his posture once more. "You think I'm some sort of bumbling idiot, like every other guard you probably had the displeasure of knowing?" 

Gently but firmly, he took Kiara's bow from her, plucking an arrow from her quiver. In a quick, fluid motion he knocked the arrow on the bow as he shifted into proper position, raised the bow towards the target, and released the arrow. As it shot through the air, he felt, for a split second, that old, familiar sensation of the terrible anticipation for the kill. How tough this war had been, turning him from someone that dreaded every kill to a person that prayed for every strike of his fists, swing of his sword, and release of an arrow to fatally hit its mark. It was that bloodlust that had saved him from a life on the streets, but at what cost?

The arrow sank into the target. Satisfied, Ostus held the bow back out to Kiara, his expression grim. It had taken him a second to realize that he wasn't on a battlefield strewn with the dead or struggling bodies of Astorians and Berinikens but in the peaceful archery grounds of the Astoria royal family. "I have fought continuously in your war for almost ten years," he said. "In that time, I have saved countless Astorian lives and killed many, many Berenikens in the name of our king and queen. I was hired to protect you because I am one of the best there is. Of course I have a fucking plan."

He crossed his arms, sniffed, but seemed to relax, calming down. "Because no one is to know who you are, I will be your only escort," he remarked, slipping into a more business-like tone. "A cluster of bumbling idiots surrounding you will draw too much attention. We will slip away in the evening as the market caravans leave the city gates, just like anyone else. We'll stay with them for a while, hopefully blending in to the trade traffic. Bandits watch those roads, though, so after a while we will take a mountain path that I have scaled before. Not many know about it. Before you know it, we'll be in Berenike with enough time to spare to make you look like the pretentious doll the prince probably expects you to be. That is why we're doing this, right, so you can marry a prince and restore peace to these lands?" He shook his head, smirking a little. It still astounded him how important this mission was. If he could get this princess safely married off to the prince of Berenike, he would have had a direct hand in finally establishing some sort of peace across the lands. He could only imagine how the princess must feel... "If I could establish a truce just by fucking someone, you bet your ass I'll be all over that one a hundred times over."