22 Warhounds

"Ruby Merchant Group is gone!" he yelled. Every single soul inside the inn was bewildered. It was them who took care of several small gangs and even one of the member of Big Six, they were destroyed overnight?

"How? Tell me the whole story!" Jeanne said as she approached the boy, skipping along the way excitedly. If Big Six was busy fighting each other then there would be no problems for her gang. Although she was wondering about the sudden downfall of Ruby Merchant Group for sure.

Connor wanted to cry, Another source of reputation points was gone just like that. Kate brought the young kid some water, after gulping down the kid started to speak.

"After Ruby Merchant Group conquered Steelcrushers' territory, Jack's Mercenaries and Council of Nobles became enraged and attacked them together. In just a few hours, they managed to completely wipe Ruby Merchant Group out. I have heard that Council of Nobles' lost almost all of their power though. Rumour on the streets is that Rogue Guild are vying for their territory now." he said, These three were the original members of Big SIx. Jack's Mercenaries was a mercenary group founded in Astragon and was sent to Carcer to maintain order when the city was first built. The leader, Jack decided to stay in the city after the construction was complete and they grew up to be the garrison of Carcer, most of the city guards and soldiers were their members. Council of Nobles were originally nobles of the kingdoms for several reasons such as treason, bribery or maybe insulting a senior noble they were stripped off their noble titles and were sent to Carcer to rot. Most of these nobles ended up coming together with the goal of turning Carcer and the Exiled Isles into their own kingdoms and manage it. The one that not many knew about, however, was the Rogue Guild. Not many saw them and survived to tell the tale. Of course, they had their own ways of operating. All thievery and smuggling in and out the city belonged to them. Any merchant who brought goods to Carcer was already used to some of their products going missing. The last faction was called Commoner's Plight. They had attempted to rebel against the Big Five in the past but have failed, as a surprise for most citizens in Carcer, they had somehow managed to ally with the remaining factions after their failure and they managed to grow over time. Members of this faction were usually farmers who were the backbone of Carcer.

Jeanne rolled her eyes, she was contemplating. Now that Ruby Merchant Group and Steelcrusher were gone there would be a great gap in maintaining order in Carcer. If she could take the initiative and ensure Goldburn's position. They could help a lot more people than they were able to right now.

Connor observed Jeanne, the greed in her eyes was obvious to him. He shook his head. He had to take action somehow to reap the reputation points from all this mess but for his plans, he must change his approach, he thought.

"Jeanne, why do you, as Goldburns, take care of kids? And what do people think of you?" Connor asked, it was a very random question for Kate and Jeanne but it was very crucial for Connor. If the citizens support Goldburn, he could assist them and use their names to ensure his plan succeeding.

Jeanne was taken aback, she did not really expect this kind of question out of the blue. "I don't know, good I guess?" Some citizens of Carcer had good opinions about them, but some thought they were abducting children to be sold as slaves and thought they were treated badly.

Connor nodded and looked around the inn, the children were running happily just as before, they did not care about anything that was going on in the world around them. People would definitely know of this.

"Alright, Miles, time to go." Connor said as he turned his head to Miles.

Miles nodded and looked at Frost and Irene. "Frost, get Evan." Miles said. After that, Frost immediately ran up the stairs to wake up Evan.

"Wait, you can't go! It is not safe!" Jeanne spoke loudly towards Connor. Connor rolled his eyes.

'Not this again.' he sighed.

"Please, stop commanding me and stop telling me what to do." shouted Connor.

Jeanne was surprised, Connor had never raised his voice since she knew him. She wondered if she had bothered him before turning slightly red. They stood silent for a while as Connor gazed at Jeanne.

"Reporting for duty, sir!" Evan quickly walked from the stairs, stood in front of Connor and saluted him. Embarrassed because he woke up late.

"Good, time to go." Connor said as he turned towards the door, rest of the group following him.

"We are going to scout around." Connor said in a soft voice. Aimed at both his members and Jeanne. He was looking at her.

Jeanne looked up right into Connor's eyes and nodded.

The group left the inn and started walking in the city. Their goal was to scout the city and see if anything was different.

….

The streets were silent, the group saw citizens occasionally but it was nowhere near the number of people they saw yesterday.

Suddenly, one of the citizens started to run towards them.

"Sirs, I know that you are strong, hell I even saw two of you take Talon gang by themselves. Please, help us. Warhounds took our children, we can pay you with whatever we can. Just return our children to us." the old man said. Bowing towards Connor while speaking.

Connor contemplated about this request.

'Should I help them? Helping them would certainly improve my standing with citizens of Carcer and let me execute my plan sooner I guess. Not to mention the possibility of reputation points.' Connor decided.

"We will help you, could you tell us where they are located at?"

"I can do better sir, I can show you where they are."

The man led them through some alleyways that were filled with filth, these were the poorest parts of Carcer. Filth and sickness were visible everywhere. After a twenty minute walk, the man stopped.

"We are here, they are inside that building." the man pointed at a two-storey building that looked better than most buildings here. The street was filled with a putrid smell with cries of women, children and screams of men echoing from time to time.

Connor frowned, it was easy to understand the reason for the cries as the sounds of laughter of men was mixed among the cries of young women.

Without saying a word, Connor unslung his M4 and pulled the bolt handle, the rest of the team following him.

Connor sighed. Since he appeared in Allunia, Connor constantly came across battles and was killing people left and right. He stopped and started to contemplate. For some reason, he was not feeling any remorse even after taking away many lives. Was he right because they were bad people? Was it because they were gang members? Or did he enjoy killing people? He could not find the reason for his phenomenon.

In the end, he wanted to live a normal life, but something inside him was bursting with joy. He felt like there was another Connor inside him who wanted to conquer, just like the books he had read back on Earth… Just like the games, he played back on Earth… That Connor wanted to rule. He wanted to be stronger.

Connor exhaled a long breath. He wanted to settle his thoughts. He did not want to be pushed around, he wanted to live his own life with his ways. The world he was currently living in was unknown to him, just as he was unknown to the residents.

He wanted to change it.

The group started walking towards one of the buildings.