Hello! Arhani here! This is my first Assassin's Creed fanfic, and I do hope you like it! I decided to draw inspiration from all the "Scumbag Assassin" memes from the Internet, regarding the peculiar ways our dearly beloved Assassins operate through the eyes of the citizens they so bravely serve ^.^ Do enjoy!

Anetta Moretti

Apprentice Baker

Rome, 1500 Anno Domini.

Anetta was one of the many young women in Rome sent from the countryside to earn money so that her family would not starve. As of yet, she was privileged enough to find a job as a baker's apprentice, and her master, a kindly middle-aged woman who was of the gentry, but refused to remain idle like the rest of her counterparts, was kind enough to give her a generous wage, as well as food and board, so long as she did what she needed and was asked to. Naturally, Anetta would do everything she could to please Madonna Benardi, including sweet-talking the guards that usually came and went with their rounds to buy their wares. Too bad that they were the bakery's only customers, as other people usually could not even afford to feed themselves, with the heavy taxes that the Borgia imposes on the city.

"If only I could think of a way to lower the cost of our breads so that more people could afford them," Madonna Benardi sighed one sleepy afternoon in the height of summer. The first half of the first year of the 16th Century was already gone, and still, the plight of Rome still showed no signs of improvement. In fact, the general populace seemed to be poorer and poorer, with the new laws and taxes, as well was limitations to what the citizens of Rome could or could not do. It was for the "good of Rome, and all man-kind" the heralds shouted from street to street, regarding the new increases in taxes to be paid to the Church, and the number of men fighting underneath the banner of the House of Borgia, to either repay their debts to the city, or out of pure choice due to a steady flow of income in those tough times ever-increased.

"The only way is to use cats for meat-pies," Anetta concluded, dusting off the flour on her hands by patting them onto the sides of her apron. "I'm sure the guards wouldn't notice it, as dull as they are…"

Madonna Benardi allowed herself to chuckle with her apprentice at her comment, but silenced her a few seconds after. Saying things like that could get them killed those days, particularly when their shop was smack in the middle of the city of Rome. "We must be careful, child, now, even the walls grow ever-thin," she warned Anetta, who suddenly seemed to be looking out of the nearby window, staring at something outside. "Are you listening to me, girl?"

Clearly, Anetta was not. However, before Madonna Benardi was able to give the girl a well-deserved cuff on her ear, Anetta pointed towards the window, showing her the strangest sight ever. It was a man, clothed in red and white, ascending the walls of the shops right opposite theirs with little or no effort at all. He climbed from ledge to ledge, be it in the form of window-panes, the gratings of balconies, and perhaps even holes where bricks used to be. It was nothing like they had ever seen before!

"Why, he's like a lizard!" Anetta exclaimed in utter fascination. The man had his hood down, so they could not see his face, but they knew that he would not be a simple man, seeing that he was rather heavily armed with more than just swords. That, and the fact that there were a good ten guards chasing after him. "Look at him go!"

Madonna Benardi could not give a better analogy than Anetta, despite her higher level of education. However, something puzzled her as they watched the strange person climb up to the very tops of the roofs. It did not seem right at all. "There was a ladder two feet away from him, why didn't he use it at all?"