The walk back to their inn was silent, Jael was thinking furiously about what they just learned. Kim was only too happy to tell them about his rival organization, he even gave them discounts.
"Do you find who you're looking for?" Cormac asked. Halfway through to the neutral block, he decided that they visited one of the outdoor food vendors and had breakfast.
Chairs and tables were arranged around by the side of the busy street; at least the different smell of food was enough to mask the smell of the street.
Temur tore into the chicken in his hand, and he swallowed before he began speaking. "Yes, we did."
"That's good then, even faster than I think. We should be back to Calan in three days."
"I don't think so," Jael said as he slowly bit into his roasted meat; he reminded himself mentally to remember to drink a health potion after food to avoid frequent visits to the toilet. "We still have to kidn...see him and take him with us if possible. It's getting complicated."
Cormac blinked and his face hardened. "So you still have to go and...see this person. How long will that take?"
"I have a question for you, Cormac. How much can I pay you to bring down the Black Axe?" Temur asked.
Cormac barked a surprised laughter. "Are you kidding me? I don't take jobs that will see my head roll. They have the largest amount of silver ranks among the gang members."
"Then what about us? What are the odds of us doing so?"
Cormac looked them over and gave it a serious thought. "Iron ranks? I'll say you might be able to take down a few of the Iron and Human Guards, but the silver? It's impossible. Your odds are so next to impossible."
"But don't the Black Axe go to patrols constantly? They'll take their forces with them. We saw them when we were coming...." Jael pointed out.
"Yes, but they still leave some forces behind." Cormac shrugged.
Temur nodded thoughtfully. "And how long do you think they will stay outside before they return?"
They hadn't spoken much for this past week, but that morning, Cormac came to their room to talk with them. As expected they were dressed and ready to go out. "Where are you going?" He asked as a form of greeting and his voice came out sharp.
Temur yawned, he's tired and needs sleep but he's pushing himself anyway. "I have work to do with the Black Axe, I've been working part-time for them as a laborer of sorts. We cut trees and stuff."
Cormac raised a suspicious brow. After the questions that day about fighting the gang, he didn't trust them one bit.
Jael shrugged. "There's an auction going on in the silent dagger, I'm going to check it out. If it's worth my money or not. Oh, and I have to visit the monster slaughterhouse."
Cormac shook his head. "Isn't this too contradictory? You, a laborer, and you, a rich kid, going to a VIP auction?"
Jael smiled and stood. This morning, his black clothes were more of a light military armor, but he covered it with a faced cloak. "Forget about all of that. Listen, I'll advise you to stay down or out of town for a few days."
"Why?" He asked as if he didn't have an idea.
Temur answered for him. "Because we are about to shake things up."
****
Kim was sitting on his chair in his office; he was going through his papers, when the door opened, and one of his assistants, the innkeeper, came in.
He bowed. "Master Kim, Jael just ordered the mana-eating poison we have. He took ten crates with him."
Kim laughed. Finally, this was the product of his days of carefully influencing the fool. Although mana-eating poison is good, the one the silent dagger has is of low quality, and it'll affect the Iron rank and below.
But it won't do shit for the Silver rank. But this is also good. Very good. "Get ready. We'll follow them if they manage to shake the black axe up that much, swoop in, and kill everyone. But if not then kill Jael and his allies and make them indebted to us." Enjoy new stories from m-v l'e|-novelhall.net
Kim's teeth gleamed. "Oh.. this is going to be good."